First Cruise Ship of 2006 in Skagway
The cruise ship season starts today in Skagway – it’ll be another month before the harbor will look like the May 2005 picture below, though. I’m watching the Norwegian Wind arrive as I write this, on the WP&YR webcam. It’s not a very attractive morning in Skagway – 44...
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Error in Branding? “Yukon – Larger Than Life”
The folks at Yukon Tourism are in trouble again – this time, it’s about the new Yukon logo and slogan seen to the right. Over the past year or so I’ve filled out 2 long surveys supposedly about what direction our identity branding should go, but the last one,...
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Selling Water or…?
Bottled water is a tough market to break into, with the big box stores selling it for what appears to be about the cost of the bottle. Barry Enders in Whitehorse has just begun serious marketing of his bottled water at several times the cost of the big-box water...
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A new format and server
I’ve just moved the blog to my own server because it’s faster than the WordPress one I was using at http://explorenorth.wordpress.com/. There’s no way to move the previous posts, so we’ll just have to start over again. I’m still playing with designs, backgrounds and plugins, so you may see...
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I’ve Moved the Blog
Sorry to be a nuisance, but I’ve moved the blog to my own server, as this WordPress one slows down too much in the morning when traffic gets heavy, making both posting and reading frustrating. The old URL was http://explorenorth.wordpress.com, the new one is http://www.explorenorth.com/wordpress/...
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Winter Flashback
The garage sale on Saturday was a success. We have lots more room in the house and garage, and had a few hundred bucks in my pocket. “Had” because we spent it all on Sunday (and a lot more), on a new bike for Cathy, a bike rack for...
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Spring – or just Getting Ready for Summer?
We have funny seasons in the southern Yukon. Spring and Fall are so brief and indistinct that it’s easy to just say that we have 2 seasons, Summer and Winter. It’s late Winter now, but it feels like Summer will be here shortly. Scattered pussy-willows can be seen along...
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Tourism Scams
For visitors, know who you’re booking with. For lodging owners, be aware of how the booking transaction is being handled – if it looks odd in any way, proceed only with caution. A Yukon B&B owner was targetted by this scam in recent days: http://www.pillowsandpancakes.com/scam-warning.htm...
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Gas Boycotts
You’ve probably all received at least one of these in recent weeks – another brilliant idea about how to force the oil companies to their knees so they lower gas prices. Here’s the most recent to land in my Inbox: GAS WAR – an idea that WILL work This was...
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Dictionary Additions
It looks like a gorgeous day coming – a good day to lighten up. Here are some essential vocabulary additions for the modern workplace (some of them made me cringe when I remembered working for the Yukon government a few years ago 😦 ):1.     BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group,...
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