Life of Dave

Life of Dave

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Charms of Yellowknife

Shoreline houses along Back Bay of Great Slave Lake. 
Probably the best perk of this job is the travel. Although I suppose, given enough time, I'll grow weary of it. Or not. Who knows? At this point at least it's still novel.

They sent me to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories for a couple of days last week. If it'd been a closer destination it would only have been a (long) day trip, but considering the available flights it turned into an overnighter. And a longer overnighter than planned as it turned out because on the return flight the plane had to return from the runway to the terminal because of a faulty part. A new one had to be flown in from Edmonton in the early afternoon. So, after setting the alarm for 4 a.m. planning for a 6 a.m. flight, I found myself sitting in the Yellowknife terminal at 8 a.m. wondering what I was going to do to occupy the next 8 hours.

I briefly considered commandeering a cab to take me back to the city, but the city's pretty spread out. And I didn't remember having seen any suitable restaurants in which to have breakfast (I'd skipped it save for a bit of leftover fruit I'd bought the day before). All I could remember seeing in my travels the previous afternoon and evening were fast food joints.

Surprisingly, the cost of the rental car had been quite reasonable for such a remote place. Conversely in St. John's, Newfoundland a few years ago we found rental vehicles relatively expensive and scarce. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and just pay for a rental car out of my own pocket to do some exploring in a place I may never get to again. Turns out they just gave me the same car I'd turned in and continued the contract.

The airfare is pricey to get to Yellowknife (at least it was for this spur-of-the-moment business trip) and driving there takes about three 8-hour days; the same as driving from Vancouver to Winnipeg. What a great idea it turned out to be to explore while I had the chance. Yellowknife is small, but it proved to be quite interesting, especially Old Town, Ragged Ass Road and the Wildcat Cafe.

Interior of the Wildcat Cafe. It was built in 1937.
View from the top of Pilot's Monument.
These signs get stolen so often that now they're bolted in place. And yes, Tom Cochrane did name his album after this road.
This was a very strange sight to see upon leaving the airport and taking the turn towards Yellowknife. It's a 50s or 60s WardAir cargo plane set up on pedestals for permanent display.
This shot was taken at 10:30 p.m. I was going to wait until full sunset at close to 11, but there was a narrow band of clouds on the horizon that would have obscured the actual sunset, so I cut my visit short to Fred Henne Park.
How many towns can boast of their dumpster art?

And as a bonus, when I returned the rental car I was just under the 24 hour rental period so I didn't even have to pay for another day!



Sunday, July 12, 2015

Tofino 2015

I ran out of time last weekend to post photos from our recent trip to Tofino. But I did find time to create a collage. I had originally set out to combine 4 selfies I took of myself and Tannah. But somehow I couldn't find a template that would arrange 4 portrait oriented photos in line.
Tofino 2015

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Mirth-mobile

Wayne's World, Wayne's World! Excellent, excellent!
I mean really! When was the last time you saw a Pacer, the original "Fishbowl on wheels"?

This one looks like it just shot out of a time machine. It's immaculate.