The Land of the
Sun at Midnight
Leo Bruseker and Sandra Fildes, Story and Photos
Neither of us had been north of 60° in Canada, so when the opportunity
to visit Yellowknife came up, we grabbed it. The flight from Edmonton to
Yellowknife went straight north taking exactly two hours and, interestingly,
flew directly over our St. Albert condo.
We landed at 11:05 p.m. on June 18, three days
before the summer solstice. The sun was not due
to set for another thirty minutes so we drove from
the airport to our hotel in daylight. In fact, while
the sun did set, it never really got dark. Looking
out of the window in the early morning hours you
could always see clearly. The light was not that of
the noon sun but rather the soft light of sunrise
and sunset.
After a hearty breakfast on our fi rst full day in
Yellowknife, we headed to the tourist information
centre at City Hall. The young lady behind
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the desk was pleased to hear that we would
be spending fi ve full days in her city, so she
presented an abundance of activities and sites, as
well as restaurants serving northern specialities —
and pizza and hamburgers.
Our fi rst stop was a visit to the Prince of Wales
Northern Heritage Centre. The four galleries
centred on life in the North. We were particularly
impressed with beautiful dioramas representing
the fl ora and fauna of the area. We followed this
with a visit to Old Town, the oldest settled area of
Yellowknife. We browsed through the many shops