More visitors to the Yukon. In the early '70's, Bill, Bev and I worked together at the CP Air reservations office in downtown Toronto. That was at the time when working for an airline was fun, and I mean fun. We had free air travel all over the world whenever we wanted, hotels were deeply discounted to us and we were all young and full of spunk. Bev, now residing in YVR worked for the airlines for 31 years (!) and Bill, moved from Toronto to run the CP Air office in London England where he still resides. Well, after all this time, we finally reunited in the north (quite fitting for former CP Air employees as this is where Grant McConachie sold his Yukon Southern Air Transport to Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1941).
Quite fittingly, one of our first stops was to visit the largest weather vane in the world, at the Whitehorse airport. If you look closely, you can see Bill and Bev standing under the plane. This is an ex-Canadian Pacific DC-3 (CF-CPY) that has been converted into a weather vane. It only takes a 4 knot wind to move it on its pivot point. CP Air regularly ran this aircraft between Whitehorse, Dawson City and Inuvik in the old days.

We did a bit of touring, but being the middle of October, most of the attractions were closed. In fact, there was absolutely nothing opened in Carcross during our visit but the ride down and back was very pleasant, with of course stops at Emerald Lake and the Carcross Desert (the smallest desert in the world!). Above are the visitors at the SS Klondike Paddlewheeler which is one of the largest sternwheelers to ply the Yukon River and now has been restored and opened to the public (for tours during the summer only) as a National Historic Site by Parks Canada. Originally launched in 1937, it now sits along the Yukon River at the southern entrance to the city.

So we ate well (lots of salmon, thanks to Shaun) - (the candied smoked salmon was delicious as was the barbequed salmon), ate at local establishments, watched Coronation Street - (Bill, being from England and a year ahead in the story line didn't let too much slip , thank you for that Bill), shopped and caught up on about 30 years of separation.

It was so much fun having them visit and I hope they come again, perhaps in the summer months when most exhibits and buildings are not boarded up.