Whitehorse Adventure

Our Valentine weekend getaway took us to a 'new-to-us' Canadian Territory - the Yukon! It was a fun little winter wonderland getaway. Of course we had in mind that travelling so far 'up north' in winter might give us a glimpse of the Northern Lights....as yet elusive to us both (after travelling in search of them a few years back to Iceland without success)...this was it - round 2 in the Aurora battle....*

Whitehorse is a pretty small town of around 37,000. It's the main city in the Yukon with over 75% of the population living there! Whilst it started off it's life caught up in the craziness of the Klondike Gold Rush, it's settled into it's current role as a main stop-off on the Alaska Highway. The highway was built in 1942-43 by the US Army after the Pearl Harbour attacks. It was handed over to the Canadians following the war and now it a major tourist route between northern BC and Alaska where thousands travel each year. Obviously not many of them travel the road in winter....and so Whitehorse is quite a sleepy little place in the off-season! But that's not to say we didn't have plenty to fill our time on our 3.5 day break!

Downtown Whitehorse - the museum and main street

We used Airbnb to book our accommodation. (and if you use this link to sign up for Airbnb you'll get a $30 credit on your first stay!) We spent our first 2 nights in the city and the second 2 nights at an incredible Mongolian Yurt about 1/2 hour out of town overlooking a frozen Cowley Lake. The Yurt wasn't just our bed for the night but ended up being a really memorable part of our trip! We arrived after dark and had a brief 1/4km walk through the trees and along a ridge line to get to the yurt on a well trodden snowy path. It was a clear night so we got a hint of what the view would bring us come morning - it was so exciting! Our host had the wood burning stove roaring away and the yurt was amazingly cozy and we immediately felt right at home. Come morning we stepped out onto the little deck perched right on the edge of a high ridge to a stunning view of the snowy mountains in the distance and an expansive view out over a frozen Cowley Lake.

Views from our cozy Yurt! Overlooking a frozen Cowley Lake where we snowshoed on our final morning!

We spent some time exploring Whitehorse itself - the city is quite compact and easy to walk around...we got lucky with the weather and had quite mild temperatures during our stay. We found some awesome little shops to explore - the Aroma Borealis was a lovely shop full of scents, potions and crystals - we brought home one of their unique essential oil blends. The Collective Good was another favourite - it was a beautifully curated design store of unusual and modern home decor, clothing, accessories and gift items with a great selection of local items but full of many others from all around the world - we'd been looking for some coat hooks for our mud room for the longest time and I was happy to find something a little different here! And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get our 'outdoor store' fix! - we both could spend forever in a great outdoor & sports clothing and equipment store - Coast Mountain Sports was Whitehorse's answer to REI and MEC! Obviously it's a great outdoor adventure area and they have a fabulous store to service it! And of course we couldn't pass up the local brew - Yukon Brewing, where you can sample all their beers on tap!

It may be small but Whitehorse serves up some top-notch eats! We loved pastries at Baked Cafe, Brunch at Burnt Toast, hot chocolate and snacks at Bean North. We dined at Antoinette's on our first night - a friendly and busy spot serving incredible Jamaican food with some wicked flavour and flare. We took our time over dinner, enjoying the house created cocktails and even managed to save room for dessert - squeezing in as much of the awesome food as possible! We picnicked in the yurt on our second night and on our final night hit up the Dirty Northern bar. We'd heard great things about their pizza and it didn't disappoint.

We lounged in the thermal waters at Takhini Hot Springs, visited the small but awesome MacBride Museum - I loved exploring the exhibits on 'ye old life' and socio-economic growth of the town - lots of stuff on the gold rush and rural outpost type life!  We took a 2 hour drive south to pop into Skagway, Alaska (where it was a totally different climate and not a snowflake in sight!). The drive south was stunning and we had gorgeous weather for it - blue skies and the crisp white snowy mountains as far as the eye could see, stopping at Carcross briefly en route!

Views around Carcross on our day trip to Alaska!

Our final morning before our flight home we squeezed in a snowshoe hike across Cowley Lake - the snow was crazy deep so it was a healthy workout! Just as well as our journey home ended up being rather long and frustrating. Having flown via Vancouver all the way back to Kelowna, we were on finals with the wheels down before deciding the fog was too bad and they routed us back to Vancouver with a night in a hotel! Oh well, bonus day on vacation!! And a great vacation it was too!

*And whilst we caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights it was a little faint and shimmery pale blues - not the wild dancing greens you see in photos, and so for now I'm not quite 'satisfied' enough to check it off my bucket list and the aurora battle continues!

Guest Wifi Print download

This is perfect for our guest room, one of those added little touches to help our guests feel at home and settled in quickly. It's been particularly ideal for our Airbnb guests!

I'd seen a few variations of this idea online but decided to create my own. And I'm happy to share!

You can download a PDF file - in either gray or cream (with the network details left blank so you can either write in or print your details) or a PSD file which is fully editable in Photoshop - if you use this version you can get fancy and add your own background papers!

Enjoy! and please share and leave me some love in the comments if you like!

Linking to Marvellous in my Monday! #MIMM

Love Bomb!

Nothing like getting Love Bombed!

We 'found' this in our house a little while ago. We concluded one of our lovely Airbnb guests left it. It had been discreetly placed in our gym area in among the hand weights. Chris discovered it a couple of days later...and then he left it on the kitchen counter-top so when I got home from work I 'found' it too! 

The idea is delightful! "Anonymous art in the name of love [and fun]" I 'found' our love bomb at the end of a day, at the end of tough working week...and the sentiment was just what I needed - a little boost of love! 

This is the description of the Guerrilla Art Love Bombs from their Facebook page;

Who: We are an anonymous, ever growing inter-generational group of local folks dedicated to having fun and sharing artful messages of love, hope and opportunity in our community. Anyone who shares this view is welcome join us.

What: Our definition of Guerrilla Art is earth friendly, non-violent, non-destructive, dedicated to sharing positive messages. We create art by using found natural objects or recycled materials. Performance art will also be a part of our repertoire.

Why: We believe that getting folks of all ages together to have fun, create art, share food and music is the best way to change the world, inspire hope and build a community based on creativity and love.

Much as I'd love to hold onto this Love Bomb forever it seemed more in the spirit of things to pass it along. I got the boost of love and human kindness in that moment and that was enough - now it's time to do the same for someone else.

And I want to add to the movement by creating a couple of my own 'Love Bombs' - this is such a fun idea - who wants to join me? Let's spread the love!

Linking up today to Marvelous in my Monday #MIMM

Our AirBnB 'Hosting' experience

I first heard about Airbnb several months ago - from people who had travelled and used the service as a way to find accommodation. I was intrigued but I had no cause to book any accommodation at the time. 
(if you want to sign up and book through Airbnb check out my code to save you $27 at the bottom of the post)

According to their website;

Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone.

Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions.

Then Chris and I got to thinking. We have a beautiful house which is generously sized for 2 people and a basement with 2 spare bedrooms that are rarely ever used. It seemed the perfect idea to sign up to Host on Airbnb.

A couple more months went by and procrastination was our houseguest so nothing happened. Then in June we eventually jiggled some furniture around to make the main room a little more attractive (read: photo-genic!) and functional for guests and then pulled out the wide angle lens for the camera and snapped some photos. I spent a couple of hours creating our profile online and writing a full and detailed description of the space we had available to rent. Details about the room, the space and amenities guests have access to, the neighbourhood & surrounding area, public transit options, house rules, and the level of interaction hosts have with guests.

Within 2 hours of listing our space we had our first booking! Then the next day another one for that very evening! It was an exciting start!

It's been an awesome way to maximise space in our home that was sadly under-utilized and meet new people. Meli has been in her element as chief guest-greeter and is making BFF's every time someone new shows up! We've had guests from Alberta, Hungary, France and of course BC. Airbnb seems like a no-brainer option compared to staying in a grotty motel - it's more personal and usually a lot nicer accommodations plus typically cheaper. For us it's great to be able to offer travellers that option and we make some cash to boot!

Guests make a booking through the Airbnb system either on the website or the Airbnb phone app. The booking comes through to us as hosts to accept or decline....although there is a calendar visible which we keep up-to-date as best we can it still gives us an opportunity to make the final decision. Once accepted the guest then pays Airbnb straight away (with a small admin fee added). As hosts we get the confirmation of booking and then sit tight waiting for the guest to arrive. We receive payment (minus a small admin fee) 24 hours after the guest checks-in and we have chosen to receive our payouts via Paypal which are pretty much instantaneous. After a stay is completed there is a review process for both guest and host - so right now we're working at building a good review base.

I now want to be on the 'other end of things' so to speak - I'm excited to stay in some of these beautiful listings - I'll have to plan a trip just so I can book through Airbnb!! Just browse the website listings - there are so many funky places to stay - in retro trailers, castles, igloos, a shipping container, a teepee, a lighthouse or a treehouse. Our listing is a bit 'plain-jane' compared to those but we've had great feedback from our guests and we don't want all out funky all the time, right?!?! It's just a nice comfortable guest suite....

If you'd like to try Airbnb for yourself then I can save you $27 off your first stay....use this referral link to sign up...if you're on a phone and it prompts you for a code then use hmills3
(I also get referral credit if you sign up and make a stay or sign up to host!)... Happy Travels!