Snow King
Visit www.snowking.ca to find out more information about the King’s castle and the annual festival housed in it.
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TJ’s Sweet and Spicy NUT HUT
Tony Procure is the Master Roaster at TJ’s Sweet and Spicy NUT HUT in Yellowknife, and we’re also pretty sure that he roasts the best nuts in North America. We spent a morning with Tony and his wife/manager Janet learning about, cracking, and tasting nuts… and by the end of the morning we were nuts about nuts.
This video showcases two things very well:
1) Alex can eat a lot of nuts.
2) Tony and Janet know a lot about nuts.
Another thing this video showcases is us felting our very own scarves! If you live in the Toronto area you may see us wearing them, and unfortunately they’re not for sale. Sorry!
We HIGHLY recommend including a visit to TJ’s Nut Hut on your next visit to Yellowknife.
The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre – featuring. The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories
Spending some time at The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre should be on your list of things to do in Yellowknife. There are exhibits there that you can only see in person such as the Inuvialuit artifact exhibit, a traditional Dene moose-skin boat, the Mackenzie Valley Air Mail exhibit, and other exhibits shown in the video above.
But, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre has made several of our favourite exhibits available online. At the top of our ‘must watch’ list is a video titled ‘The Land Up Here’. It’s a short video that showcases the geographical and cultural history of the Northwest Territories. You can, and should, view it by clicking here. You can also view the works of Henry Busse, Yellowknife’s first professional photographer, they’re spectacular in person and online. View this photographic exhibit of the North by clicking here. Lastly, The Legendary Sky Project will be at the centre until June of 2011 and it’s a great exhibition on what causes Aurora Borealis and Northern Sky Knowledge – it could be coming to a city near you later this year. Learn more by clicking here.
If you want a tour of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories whilst in Yellowknife they’re available (for free) Monday to Friday. Simply show up at the front desk at 10:30am, and a knowledgable tour guide will explain to you the symbolism behind Yellowknife’s coat of arms, why the Mace of the NWT rattles when you shake it, why the main chamber of the legislative assembly is round, and much more! And, after completing the tour you get a free postcard and pin.
We thoroughly recommend spending an afternoon exploring both the Prince of Wales Heritage Center and The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. If you’re not sure what to do afterwards, and we’re not around to answer your questions on Facebook or Twitter… our friends at the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre are on the way back to downtown, stop in and tell them Alex and Luke told you to stop by and they can definitely suggest some things to do.
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A guided hike with Strong Interpretations
We love getting outdoors and taking in the natural wonders that exist wherever we travel. We can never get over how magnificent this continent is, and how different it is from region to region. The area surrounding Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories is extra special. It is subarctic (almost desert-like in fact) and even though many trees are over 100 years old, they never grow very large. Between the wood buffalo, the ptarmigans (think round fluffy snowball shaped birds), and the snowshoe hare, the fauna is wildly different than what we find at home around Toronto.
Knowing very little about the Yellowknife climate and geography, we enlisted the help of Rosanna Strong from Strong Interpretations to take us out on a guided hike to Cameron Falls (just outside of the city). We learned so much from Rosanna, who also took us on a traditional snowshoe hike around Pontoon Lake! What a spectacular day in the woods – check out some of what we got up to on the trails!
To meet up with Rosanna and book a day out with Strong Interpretations on your trip to Yellowknife, go to the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre Website (click here!)
Snowmobiling with North Star Adventures
When you visit Yellowknife in the winter season, snowmobiling is a MUST-do activity, and Joe Bailey from North Star Adventures is the man to take you out on the trails. With modern machines, all the gear you could need, and “50 000 years of experience” his snowmobile tours are a great way to have some thrills while taking in Yellowknife’s beautiful natural surroundings.
Check out www.northstaradventure.ca for more information, and find them on Facebook and Twitter too!
Bottles to beauts
It’s almost the weekend, so why not roll up your sleeves and get to work on one of your many springtime crafty projects? Here’s some inspiration…
We paid a visit to the Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Cooperative, which is dedicated to finding new and beautiful uses for old glass bottles. The quirky studio, which is nestled between rock and neighbouring buildings in colourful Old Town, is the most innovative set-up we have ever seen. Using fish filters, coffee machines, paint rollers and lots of imagination, The Yellowknife Glass Recyclers Coop has established quite an impressive operation, turning out incredibly beautiful products for the community to enjoy. The best bit? They offer workshops so that anyone can join in.
We met up with Summer, who guided us through the process of making glasses out of old bottles…
To keep up with YGR Coop in the coming months as they prepare the relaunch of the brand, make sure to like them on their Facebook page here! We’ll see you there!
Jen Pilon Talks Yellowknife Diamonds
Yellowknife is the diamond capital of North America, and Yellowknife resident Jen Pilon was the first certified female diamond polisher in all of Canada!
If you’ve ever been curious about how diamonds are turned from rough stone to a round brilliant fit for an engagement ring then you should watch this video! If you want to impress your friends by knowing the different sections of a diamond you should watch this video! And, If you’re thinking about popping the question sometime soon you should watch this video!
a&l