Day three was a grand adventure full of visits to governments, fire halls, and cultural centres and then dinner and a show in the evening. I really enjoy seeing things like Legislatures and City Halls to compare them to my own. This was a great, fun, exhausting day!
This is one of the many beautiful pieces of art inside Whitehorse City Hall. It was cool because in the stairway each time you turned there were different art pieces with different styles- you never knew what you would see next.
We visited with Deputy Mayor Betty Irwin and we got to visit the council chamber. The girls could sit in the councillors seat and even call a meeting to order. We got special City of Whitehorse pins that you can only get by meeting a member of city council.
One of the things I really liked about our visit was the tour of the building because we got to hear a lot of the stories and history of what happens there. For example the oath of the young men of Athens is carved on the wall, and every councillor says that oath when they take their position.
One of the most popular field trips in my district is a trip to the fire hall so when we saw that the fire hall was right next to city hall and we had a spare hour before our next activity we couldn't resist. :)
The two firefighters who showed us around were very nice and we got to see all of the parts of the truck, the gear, and how the oxygen tanks work.
Our next stop was a trip to the Yukon Legislature where we got a tour of the chamber, saw some of the artifacts and the mace. One of the highlights of the legislature tour for Alberta Girl's Parliament is seeing the mace and hearing the story of the first Alberta mace. Basically the government was ready to start and they forgot they needed a mace so they asked someone to make one. Because of the short time frame he had to use his resources wisely and found things to make one including a toilet float, buttons, teacup handles, and velvet from a chair. The reason I am sharing this is because the clerk, our tour guide around the legislature told us too! I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing that I can't escape from AGP!
The chamber in the legislature is really cool! It is so bright and colourful, perfect for the long winter months.
I really liked being in there and I now have a new goal of visiting all of the legislatures around Canada.
The girls and the clerk with a Yukon coat of arms in front of the Speaker's chair.
Our next stop after completely bombarding a Subway was the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre where the girls got to make dream catchrs and the leaders made beaded purses.
This mural is of the moon and each of the smaller moons represent one First Nations woman who has gone missing or has been killed. It was really sad to see that many small moons, but it reminded me that some of the problems in Yukon are the same as in Alberta.
There was an authentic hollowed out canoe that was made in British Columbia a few years ago and then used to get to Whitehorse. It was beautiful and amazing to see the amount of work and craftsmanship it takes to create a canoe like that.
Our final event of the day was a show called Frantic Follies. It is a comedy show about the Yukon filled with singing, dancing, and crazy antics. It was a lot of fun! The played Pachabel's Canon on saws with violin bows with such straight faces it was hilarious/ amazing!
There were banjo serenades...
And showgirls singing to members of the audience...
The Cremation of Sam McGee...
And Can can dancers with very colourful skirts...
The show was very entertaining, family friendly, and had a lot of information and history about Whitehorse and area. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting the north.
The girls got autographs and pictures with the entire cast which was a perfect ending to a very busy, but fascinating day!
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