The Rush is Over!

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Hey,
My time up in Whitehorse has come to an end. I had five amazing weeks of great working, amazing travels and meeting awesome people. I have actually being back in Toronto now for a few days, already started back at the big Hospital Downtown. Thought i would write a concluding entry regarding my great trip up to the beautiful North.
My last three weeks were very busy i worked a lot and whenever i was not working i was travelling, mostly to Alaska. Work was just getting to the point where i was beginning to get the flow and learn how they do things. I had my fair share of jumping out of bed, withdrawing patients and even a few really sick ones. I am definitely not going to miss the crazy agitated withdrawing patient’s haha. I worked out on the floor twice which was nice, good refresher since i have not had 6 patients at the same time in quite a while; definitely a different kind of nursing that is for sure!
Whenever i was not working i was most likely in a car heading to a mountain to climb or going across the border into Alaska. I explored Haines, Juneau and Skagway Alaska in those last 3 weeks. Haines was for the amazing Beer Festival that was held on the set of the 90's movie White Fang. I had so much fun here very idealic and drank lots of amazing beers from all around the States, Canada and northern Europe. At night we camped out at a near-by campsite in a 10 person tent!!! Biggest tent ever especially since there was only 3 of us in it! Definitely had no sleep that night, with the bar hopping, random campsite dance parties and then the annoying banjo/drumming till 6 am. My friend and i had to get up early the next morning and head out on a day trip to Juneau the capital of Alaska.
Juneau can only be reached by plane or water, we took the cheaper but i say way better route haha. The passage to Juneau from Haines was amazing; both sides were completely covered in massive mountain ranges, even a few glaciers peaked out. Whales were surrounding us, we had humpback's breaching, orca's mating, sea lions, seals, dall's porpoise, hundreds of bald eagles and Grizzly Bears all around!! This was one of the greatest wild life experiences i have had, besides doing a safari in the Serengeti. The town of Juneau itself is very small, and extremely touristy, lots of cruise ships come here. The town is mostly built on the sides of a few huge mountains which is bad since no one can get insurance on their houses due to rock slides and avalanches. Just outside of the town was the Mendenhall Glacier, which was gorgeous. Glad i was able to see this before it started to really melt away.
In my last week up in the Yukon a few friends and I headed out to Skagway, Alaska. This is another pretty small town, population 2000 but extremely touristy, another big cruise port. This town was nice though, lots of beautiful saloon's and shop's. I enjoyed the shopping here a lot more than in Juneau. We ate at one of the best Thai food restaurants called Starfrite and then drank for a few hours at one of their historical Brothel Saloon's called the Red Onion. Good times were definitely had, live folk bands, good beer and for some weird reason lots of entertainment from the bed pans that lined the walls...still not sure why they were there haha.
The last few weeks in Whitehorse i went out for dinner a lot more, had some pretty good food. My favourite place was called the Burnt Toast on 2nd Street, it was not local food but the food was great! Lots of Asian inspired dishes and Mexican. I did a bunch more day hikes with people or on my own in the local rolling mountains. The grass got a lot greener and the sun stopped setting. When i left there was no darkness anymore. From midnight to 4 in the morning it was like permanent sunset/sunrise mood. The Solstice is only a few days away, which is a pretty big party up there haha wish i could have stayed for that!
As you can probably tell I have left Whitehorse very happy and have every intention of heading back there next year for a few months. I met some amazing people and i am hoping they will still be there when i come back!!! Next trip out there i plan to climb King's Throne and possible complete the Chilkoot trail through the White Pass and head into Dawson city. I highly suggest for people to visit both the Yukon and Alaska i was greatly impressed by both of these places and there raw beauty.
Until the next trip (2 months from now) I bid you goodbye and have fun exploring everyone!
Leash

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Comments

[Chris and Nikki]

Wow. This picture is amazing.