The Yukon: Yukon Wildlife Refuge and Giorgio's (8.23.24)

We ate dinner at Giorgio's Cuccina during our first stay in Whitehorse.  Eleanor and I were determined to have another dinner there before we left, and we did, on August 23, 2024.  We traveled from Haines Junction to Whitehorse on the morning of August 23, and we prepared to fly back home early Saturday morning, August 24.  Dave's and my flight left at 5 in the morning!

Eleanor tasted Arctic char on a trip to Germany, and I tasted it on a trip to Iceland.  We both agreed it was delicious, and Giorgio's cooked it better than anyone.

One major Whitehorse attraction we missed during our first days in Whitehorse was the Yukon Wildlife Preserve.  We spent a couple of hours there after arriving from Haines Junction.

The Preserve raises Yukon mammals which have been injured or abandoned, as well as breeding some animals themselves.  They release into the wild any animals that can survive there.  Our guide was a young woman majoring in animal rehabilitation at the University of Ontario.

We stopped by a caged area with a young moose.

Our guide told us about moose horns--how to tell males from females, and how and when they are shed.

Our guide carried with her a bag of visual aids--horns, wads of musk ox hair--for us to feel and pass around.

This local rodent is enjoying eating out of the goat's trough!

Caribou are a major member of the deer family in the Yukon.

This mountain goat was a curious about me as I was about him.  He was still shedding in August, when it was nearly fall!

He got right up to the fence and peered at me through it.

Dave and I shopped for artistic gifts at North End Gallery in Whitehorse.  I bought three of these shawls, with Yukon scenes, to use as table runners for my Yukon dinner party this Sunday.

I bought my paralegal, Cate, a charcuterie board made from native wood.

Dave noticed a statue of Robert Service, the Gold Rush poet.  We have learned a lot about Yukon history, geography, and even Yukon literature during our trip.

I want to serve nanaimo bars for dessert for my Yukon dinner this Sunday.  The recipe calls for custard powder, which is a British product.  I also want to make poutine, a Canadian specialty, and I need cheese curds.  Dave and I went to a Canadian grocery store, searching for cheese curds and custard powder. 

And we found them--cheese curds hidden among the other cheeses, and Bird's custard powder on a shelf near the jello.  This is how I like to end a vacation--filled with ideas for remembering the trip through my ethnic dinners, my blog postings, and my journal.