Day Seventeen - Teslin, Yukon Territory

I was looking forward to the drive today, and was not disappointed. The further north and west we travel, the more beautiful the scenery becomes. It seems that just as we pass one majestic mountain range, an even more majestic range looms directly ahead. We pass ice-blue mountain lakes, gently flowing rivers, and miles and miles of unbroken forest. We have marveled at the beauty of God's creation.

This morning's highlight was a bonanza of wildlife sightings. To make things more interesting, we decided this morning to make a game of seeing wild animals, assigning point values to each species. So, a black bear is 15 points, a deer 5 points, a caribou 10 points, etc. The jackpot would be to see Sasquatch, which we set at 1,000,000 points. At first, the animals were far and few between, so we started giving ourselves points for the more mundane species: 5 points for a rabbit and 3 for a squirrel. Then the animals started coming out in masse. We saw caribou, black bear, and a whole flock of mountain sheep. And, so as not to leave our wildlife "hunt" incomplete, a big moose made an appearance. At the end of the day, we racked up 435 points. Our goal was 500, but we did much better than I had really thought we would.

We had lunch at this interesting place. Somehow the idea caught on to pilfer the place signs of one's community and nail them to a post in a small outpost town in the Yukon. Now there are thousands of such signs from all over the world. The only sign I found of any place I lived was one for Amarillo, Texas.

This picture is from this "sign forest". It was taken literally moments before Maggie threw up. The cause was probably just too many miles and too much sugar. Thankfully, she's doing fine now. I read in the museum next to this park the incredible hardships the men who built the Alaska Highway had to endure: mosquitos and flies in the summer, sub-zero temps in the winter, and generally tough conditions all-year round. I thought, "Sure, but how many of them had to deal with a throwing-up 4-year-old, a panicky 6-year old, a stinky 2-year old, and a fussy newborn all at the same time?" Alright, it's not really comparable, but travelling long distances with young ones can be quite challenging at times.

For dinner, we treated ourselves to a meal in a restaurant. This is actually the first time we've eaten out in Canada; until now we've been eating hotel continental breakfasts and sandwhiches. We found a great restaurant up the road from our hotel that had a daily salmon bake. The bonus was a trip on a houseboat included with the price of the meal. When I asked the girls what their favorite part of the day was, both of them said the ride on the houseboat. Now if we could only get a car as big as that boat, this drive would be no problem!