It's Cold Season

Okay, so after yesterday's talk of the weather not slowing me down, it's time to admit - I'm slowing down.  I've had a cold for a couple of days now, and it's starting to wear me down a bit.  I'm almost grateful for the fact that weather hasn't been great as at least it's an opportunity to do some low-energy activities and recuperate a little.  Unfortunately it seems like Finn has been getting too, which made him an unhappy little man today.  Happily he's young enough to bounce back from something like a cold a lot better than his old man, so he appears to be on the mend already by the end of today.

We knew that the forecast for today was going to be pretty gloomy, with plenty of rain, so we'd already planned to hit some museums to make sure we were maximising our indoor time.  We started off with the Yukon Transportation Museum... which immediately turned in to a drive to a different spot because that museum doesn't open until noon.  Probably should have checked that before I jumped in the car.  Fortunately it's in Whitehorse, and is therefore a pretty quick drive to, well, everything else in Whitehorse.

We went downtown to the MacBride Museum of Yukon History instead.  Euphy and I had visited this spot on our first trip here, but they've since made a huge new facility, so there was definitely a new look.  It's still in the same location, but they are building a modern structure around the old existing museum.  The old exhibits are still up, but some of them are under construction as they move things around.  There's still a lot of really interesting information available there, but if you're planning a trip to Whitehorse I'd check up on their progress before visiting because it was disappointing to have some of the exhibits in a state of disarray.  I'd highly recommend trying to hit the museum once they've got everything back in order.  They've got some incredible examples of local wildlife (inspiring to see even if you find taxidermy somewhat tragic and unsettling.)  There's also a ton of great information about the history of Whitehorse and some of the people who helped shape the town.

Displays like this always fill me with equal parts awe and sadness.

Old-school diving apparatus!  Very cool.

There's a whole room dedicated to the teams of US Army Engineers who built what is now the Alaska Highway during World War II.

Opportunities to look cool abound.

I was quite proud of my bar back home until this recreation reminded me that my bar doesn't have a wolverine, and is therefore second-rate.

We grabbed lunch after the MacBride Museum but it was becoming increasingly obvious that Finn wasn't feeling great.  He was far fussier than normal and barely ate, so instead of swinging back to the transportation museum we just headed back to the house.  The little man had a significant nap and was obviously in much better health and spirits when he woke up.

I opted to use that downtime to head out on a hike.  I've mentioned before that the house we're staying at has a remarkable network of trails behind it, so I went exploring and managed to get myself fairly lost.  Fortunately I had my phone with me, so with the help of Google Maps I got back on track with ease.  It's very liberating being able to just wander through the woodland trails and have confidence that even if you don't know where you are that you'll be able to get yourself back home.

I stumbled upon this particularly lovely view.

I had checked the hourly weather report before I left and it was predicting that we'd seen the last of the rain for the day, so I headed out with confidence and was caught thoroughly off guard when the rains started up again.  I ended up just sheltering under a tree for about ten minutes until it passed.  In the end I covered over 5 km and got my step count for the day.  I also felt like the effects of my cold were significantly reduced afterwards, so I'm hoping that I'm about to put that behind me.

Unfortunately the transportation museum was closed by the time Finn woke up (fairly narrow band of time that you can visit) so we opted to have dinner out and then relax at the house for the evening.  I'm sure we can find a time to hit that last museum in our last few days here.

Well, that's all I have for you today.  I hope you're all doing well, and I'll check in again soon.  Reporting delayed from Whitehorse, I'm Colin Young.  Back to you in the studio.