'Toon town

We've driven past Saskatoon at least three times before we decided to stop off and spend some time there.  It was a nice weekend. 

Friday night we ate dinner at Saskatoon Station Place, a classy Victorian themed restaurant that served good food in large portions.  We ate the leftovers for lunch on Sunday.

On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market and then watched the dragon boat races on the Saskatoon river.

In the afternoon we drove to Wanuskewin (http://www.wanuskewin.com/) Heritage Park devoted to the history and culture of the Cree First Nations people of Canada.  We helped raise a tipi and walked out to see the northernmost medicine circle in North America.  Archeologists still don't know the purpose of medicine circles but think they may have some relation to the seasons and the movement of the stars - maybe similar to Chimney Rock out in Chaco Canyon, CO.

The restaurant served First Nations cooking.  We had a bison wrap, honeyed chicken and three sisters soup made with beans, corn and squash -the three sisters.

The Aluminum revealed

Since we are officially heading home and are off the Alaska Hwy  and in Edmonton heading to Saskatoon Mark decided to remove the coverings of the camper that made it look like an aluminum armadillo.  First off, take a look at how badly the coverings were messed up by the bad roads...

All those pockmarks are stones that slapped into us.  Anyhow, Mark gently undid all the gorilla and 100 mph tape to reveal mainly dirt that could easily be washed and buffed away.

It worked!

Heading back on the Alaska Highway

We're officially on our way home now, heading south and east.  We should be off the actual highway itself in a day or two.

Around Muncho Lake we saw large groups of bison of many ages - whole family groups I imagine.  Aren't the babies cute - for a buffalo -

Skagway, Haines and a few other things...

Yesterday we drove from the cold air but bright sun of Whitehorse into the cloudy, windy drizzly  and even colder air of Skagway, AK.  Undaunted, I donned a long sleeved shirt, a fleece shirt, a down vest and a hooded jacket, packed my ear warmers and gloves and embarked, with Mark of course, for the FastFerry between Skagway and Haines.

After almost getting blown away while taking photos on the ferry, we landed at Haines.

The main attraction there, for us at least, was the Hammer Museum - yes, really, thousands of hammers on display.  It was very disappointing that the real Hammers of NY did not get a discount of admission.

Today I left off the fleece shirt was went went on a lovely drive and hike to Dyea, a ghost town that is - currently a Nationall Park Historic site but was once a thriving gold rush community.

It was one of the first times I remember seeing large open meadows.

Dinner was at the 'Northern Lights Pizzaria, specializing in Mexican and Chinese food' in town.  Actually, good pizza.  We also visited several shops specializing in Alaskan art and a store that was selling a quivit stole in georgeous purple for $800+

And what's really great is that we don't know where we'll be tomorrow!

More quviuq

Today we went to the Knit Now yarn store in Whitehorse and I got some more quviut - that's the musk ox yarn. I got some in a blue colorway( a blend with wool and silk) and a natural brown color that is 100% quviuq.

I had also read that this store had yarn spun from dog fur.  Unfortunately they had none at the time, but there were certain spinners that did it for them.  Most come from long haired breeds because the undercoat hairs had to be at least one inch long for spinning.  I think Belle is safe:)

Horrible road to Kluane Lake

Yesterday we went from Tok, AK across the border into the Yukon and over the worst part of the Alaska Hwy.  It truly is bad with frost heaves, large portions of loose gravel and TONS of dust all over.

After braving that we pulled into the lovely Cottonwood RV park right on Kluane Lake.  It would have been great to sit outside and look at the lake but the wind was wild with whitecaps all over the lake, and it was definitely cold.  Mark clocked the wind at 27 mph

Nonetheless I did take some pictures -

See the mist coming up from the water?

We saw the mountains!

As we drove down the Alaska Highway from Fairbanks we were greeted by several wonderful views of the mountains of the Alaska range.   One is called Deborah.  We figure that this is a good omen and bodes well for our trip home.

Denali - the Great One.