Patrick Audley // Identity Collected

In all my travels Vancouver wins, hands down, as the best city to live in. It’s not cheap but you can’t beat the laid back people, abundant hedonistic pleasures, and breathtaking beauty.

<!--update PAUDLEY,20030227,| I've had these pictures kicking around for ages and haven't gotten around to putting them up. Someone saw my <a class="internal url" href="http://blackcat.ca/lifeline/NLIGHTS2002"> Northern Lights page and asked me where best to see them.. Unfortunately the best place is Whitehorse
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One fine summer day in Vancouver, Brian and I decided that we needed an adventure.. Where to go? Neither of us had seen the Midnight Sun up North so we picked Whitehorse. It was a long (6hrs) and rather expensive ($800CDN) flight there but we had a great time just loafing around for a week.

On the plane up we met one of our co-workers from GT, Scott, who had managed by pure chance to be up there visiting family at the same time we were. We hung out a little with Scott’s family and saw his father’s amateur railroad (not the little kind… the kind you can ride on..). I also had my first cigar at the Cigar and Cognac party before hand. *lol* Being from Vancouver and not being wise to the ways of cigars, I was inhaling it the way one smokes other popular things in Vancouver.. I was soooo sick! *lol* But it was fun anyways and the Cognac helped.

We met lost of great people up North and experienced a glimpse into what frontier life must have been like in early Canada. People in Whitehorse are not physically living on the frontier anymore but the ruggedness of their environment and the isolation changes the people there. They are hardier, generally happier and more centered. The people were definitely the highlight of the trip.

The Midnight Sun turned out to be a coffee bar (see below) which not only roasted their own superb coffee but had Internet! Both fixes at once. The real midnight sun was very bizarre.. You really don’t get tired for the first few days. Stumbling home after a night of partying really makes you realize why most people don’t drink at noon: The Sun is very evil when you’re drunk .

Believe it or not, I would actually consider retiring in Whitehorse..