Yellowknife

After another night of little sleep thanks to a 5:20 a.m. shuttle ride to the Edmonton airport, we once again hopped onto a plane bound for Yellowknife. It was still pitch dark when we took off at 7:00 and from the plane window we witnessed the sunrise at around 7:30, which was quite spectacular.

Under daylight, we were able to see that the cloud cover was once again quite thick, and we worried this would be another flight to nowhere. Like yesterday, as we approached Yellowknife and descended into a thick fog bank, our altitude dropped to below 1000 meters and there was still no ground in sight. Finally, at 300 meters, land appeared and our second descent into Yellowknife ended successfully.

After checking into our hotel (surprisingly, a very nice, fully equipped suite) we bundled up to brave the chilly mist and set out to explore the town. It's a fairly typical Northern Canadian town, with just under 20,000 inhabitants and most of the amenities of home. There are, of course, LOTS of pickup trucks, big, burly, bearded men and a Tim Horton's. But there is also an astonishing number of new Canadians from all over Asia, Africa and the Middle East, who, if the local restaurant scene is any indication, have brought their culture here with them. We saw several Vietnamese restaurants, a couple of Chinese eateries, some Middle Eastern places serving falafel and shawarmas, an Ethiopian diner as well as a sushi place, a German restaurant and several pizzerias. Oh yeah, and more pubs than you can shake a stick at.

Today we wandered around downtown Yellowknife, stopped for a falafel wrap for lunch, picked up some groceries for the next couple of days, had a lengthy afternoon nap, and dined at The Black Knight Scottish pub. Not our most exciting anniversary trip, so far, but kinda what the doctor ordered after a rather busy and hectic summer.

Tonight the sky is too overcast for nature's light show, but it's forecast to clear tomorrow and Friday when we're booked to go Aurora hunting.

Maybe tomorrow's post will include some photos.Read more