“Half a Lifetime” spent together sparks Celebratory Anniversary Trip

“Half a Lifetime” spent together sparks celebratory anniversary trip is the happy subject of my post today.

Dawson City, Yukon – home of the infamous Klondike Gold Rush of 1898

All of our lives are filled with memorable occasions to one degree or another, and my wife and I are no exception to that rule. This year marked a most auspicious occasion for my wife in particular in that it heralded the arrival of twenty-six years spent in the arms of our loving relationship together as husband and wife – quite literally one half of her entire lifetime!

Given the fact that life holds no guarantees for any of us to survive the throes of modern day relationships from even one day to the next, twenty six years together is a real accomplishment which actually deserves some recognition. That the arrival of this twenty sixth year should also mark a period of half of one partner’s lifetime only added to the sweetness of the occasion, so we decided to celebrate in our own unique northern fashion by taking a welcome holiday together in our own geographical “back yard”.

Tossing a couple of suitcases and our girl dog Seew into the car (well okay, we didn’t really toss Seew in – she came along quite voluntarily believe me, because there’s no way on earth she’d let us leave without her), we pointed our vehicle north and headed for Dawson City, Yukon and points beyond.

Having booked a room in advance with a friend and former client from my travel guide ad-selling days at the Bonanza Gold Motel in Dawson City, we arrived on a Thursday evening to encounter a wonderful and delightful surprise from my friend and business owner, Gail Henley. Upon discovering it was our anniversary weekend she promptly moved us from a perfectly good standard room, right up into one of their deluxe jacuzzi suites without any change in rate. What a grand gal she is, let me tell you, and one whose heart truly lives up to the name of her business “Bonanza Gold” – her heart is made up of 100 percent pure Gold and she shared some of that gold with us by her act of kind thoughtfulness and consideration in helping us celebrate our anniversary!

The Bonanza Gold Motel in Dawson City, Yukon where we were treated to such wonderful hospitality and goodness.

Although I had traveled to Dawson City many times in previous years for business purposes, this trip marked the first time my wife and I had come here together for the simple pleasure of reveling in each others company and enjoying the treats the town offered to us as local tourists. We took full advantage of those opportunities too – whether in finding unique places to eat our meals, stores to buy ‘neat stuff’ in, or locations and venues to go to for the sheer enjoyment of the experience.

Leaving all our local purchases and most of our unnecessary belongings in our room to avoid Custom’s complications, we even took an overnight trip across the U.S. border into Alaska over the Top of the World Highway into the gold mining town of Chicken, AK.

With only 17+ year round residents Chicken is an isolated northern Alaska community without electricity or central plumbing. Generators and outhouses are pretty much all you’ll find to take care of those often taken for granted requirements, but as northerners ourselves this posed zero hardship to us.

Three of the four Main Street businesses of Chicken, Alaska.

Famous for its four “Main Street” businesses consisting of a mercantile store, liquor store, saloon and cafe in one long side-by-side building, Chicken has also become infamous for the popularity of the numerous stickers, magnets and T-shirts proclaiming the phrase “We Got Laid in Chicken, Alaska”. Naturally there’s also a picture of a chicken and an egg accompanying that phrase to lend a sense of legitimacy to the obvious humor of the words themselves. We managed to buy the last two T-shirts left in town along with a handful of stickers to hand out to victims already chosen in our minds.

Returning to Dawson City for one more day and night of fun and festivities, we wrapped up our anniversary trip five days from its inception and returned home depleted of funds but gloriously happy in heart and spirit for the time spent together in its celebration.

Seew too was happy to recognize home turf and climb back into her favorite sleeping chair in our living room, where she promptly heaved a huge sigh and drifted off into private dreams of memorable things done and new sniffs encountered on her own first trip of this length or magnitude.

“Half a Lifetime” spent together sparks celebratory anniversary trip was a superb mutual experience we’ll always remember for the joys experienced in the journey taken together to mark those twenty six years.