On to Fairbanks

It's been raining here for days.  So we've been trying to stick to indoor activities as much as possible.

On Thursday, we went to Kenai  and Soldotna to watch some netting.  The locals use large nets, 4-5 feet across, to net salmon as they swim upstream.  We watched fishermen doing this both from the bank and in boats.  Though interesting to watch, we agreed it seemed a rather boring way to fish. 

On the way back to Seward, we stopped at the salmon weir again and Mickey took a pretty good photo of a Redd salmon jumping towards the weir.



We left Seward Friday morning and traveled back to Anchorage to stay at the FAM camp at Elmendorf AFB.  It's a 2 1/2 hour drive from Seward to Anchorage, so we decided to come back in to Anchorage to save on some travel time.



We spent Saturday visiting area museums.  In the morning we went to the Alaska Museum of Natural History  (http://www.alaskamuseum.org/).  The girls enjoyed learning more about the area and it's wildlife.
We spent the afternoon at the Anchorage Museum (http://www.anchoragemuseum.org/).  The girls especially liked the Imaginarium.  It's the interactive portion of the museum with numerous science experiments geared towards young people.  I enjoyed the native Alaskan exhibits.



We played catch up on Sunday afternoon by doing some shopping, laundry, and cleaning the rig.

We left Anchorage Monday morning, opting to leave our rig behind and travel in the jeep for a few days.
On the way to Fairbanks, we visited with the Harrisons just outside of Denali National Park.  They are the family we met early this year while they were traveling through Clifton.  They left Kentucky August 1, 2009 and are traveling to Fairbanks by bicycle (a bicycle built for 5).  They are traveling with their 3 children and we've been following them on their blog (http://www.pedouins.org/).  We just happened to drive past them on the highway outside Denali and stopped to visit with them for a few minutes.  What an incredible adventure they are on.  And what an inspiration to those striving to follow their dreams. Their website is a really interesting read, and Bill Harrison told us today that they hope to have a book out in the next few months.

We'll be staying the next few days on base at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks while we explore this area of Alaska. It's the first time we've stayed as a family anywhere other than in the rig since February.  We have a suite at the Northern Lights Inn and we all agree it sure is nice to spread out a little.

Know that we are thinking about and missing all our family and friends back home.  We are all well and having a great time while seeing this beautiful country.
                    Amanda

Sled Dog Tour and Much More

http://ididaride.com/

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

We spent the day taking a "Real Alaska Tour".   It's a full day tour in the Seward area which began with a program and tour at Mitch Seavey's sled dog kennel.  He was the 2004 Iditarod Champion and has a fabulous kennel operation here.  We were able to see how the dogs are housed and cared for as well as hear from real mushers who've raced the Iditarod.   The picture above is our group on a sled dog ride. Mickey got to stand in the back and help the musher.  This is one of the ways they exercise and train the dogs.  The musher on our sled was a young woman who had just received her undergraduate degree and is spending the summer working at the kennel.  She has been mushing since she was 13.  Now that she's graduated from college, she plans to start her own kennel and hopes to race the Iditarod in 2014.

Part of the kennel program included a very interesting talk by a musher who has completed the Iditarod four times.  He told us about all the work that goes into caring for the dogs during the race.  He also explained that sleep deprivation is a huge factor during the race, with mushers often getting only 1-2 hours of sleep for days at a time.  The entire kennel experience was really interesting and educational.  What a lot of work goes into an operation like this.

Click this link to see the view from the front seat of the dog sled.  (Katy did a great job shooting this one!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGFVevtKqZc

Holding the puppies was a big hit too!

Exit Glacier

After a nice lunch at a local road house, we headed to Kenai Fjords National Park where we took a short hike to the base of Exit Glacier (http://www.nps.gov/kefj/index.htm).   All along the road leading to the park and along the trail to the glacier were signs with dates showing us how big the glacier had been at that time. The earliest posted date I saw was in the 1890s.  It's amazing to see how much of the glacier has melted (even just in the last 20 years).  Seeing it is so much more meaningful than just reading about it.  I hope the girls felt that way too.

We met some fellow Texans from Austin that took this picture.  Thanks guys.

Last we went to see salmon swimming upstream to spawn.   If you look closely at the picture you can see red salmon in the stream.  They work really hard swimming upstream from the ocean to their home stream to spawn.  Click the link to see a video of some we watched.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNr7nECnQdw

Alaska SeaLife Center

Today we visited the Alaska SeaLife Center here in Seward.  The girls really enjoyed the interactive center and learning about the many different marine animals in the area.  They especially liked watching the Steller sea lion.  The center is currently studying Steller sea lions in their natural habitat and you can access a live feed from their research site by clicking here:  http://www.alaskasealife.org/New/research/index.php?page=firstpage.php

Please keep my grandmother in your prayers.  She underwent surgery today to repair a fractured. 
                        Amanda

Fishing at Seward, Alaska

Seward, Alaska Marina

Mickey's friend Artie took us fishing this morning.  The weather wasn't very good.  It was cold, rainy, and foggy.  But, we caught a couple of silver salmon and saw some marine life.  We saw a sea otter, lots of puffin,and a humpback whale and calf.

Click this link to watch the video we shot of the humpback whale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tlR_U5uCyw

If the weather is better tomorrow, we're going to try again.

We had a nice dinner this evening with Artie at the Oriental Garden here in Seward.  The waiter, Q, is quite the entertainer.  He spins plates and does magic tricks.

Time for Some Catching Up!

We have good Internet now, so it's time for some catching up.

On July 8th we traveled  about 300 miles from Fort Nelson, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory.  We had traveled only about 50 miles before the "Nutella Incident".  Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut butter that you can put on toast, etc.  That day the girls decided we were going to have Nutella and Ritz crackers for our afternoon snack, so they packed it in the truck.  Katy took the seal off the Nutella before she put it in the truck to make it easier when snack time came around.  She then put the Nutella on the back seat console.  About 50 miles down the road, Katy discovered some Nutella on her hand and thought she must have gotten it on herself when she had removed the seal.  No one thought any more about it until a very quiet Sophie was discovered sitting in a puddle of Nutella.  Apparently the lid wasn't on well and Sophie had started snacking on it as it leaked from the jar.  By the time we figured out what was going on, Sophie was sitting in a pretty large, sticky puddle.  She must have though it was her fault, she looked quite embarrassed.  After a roadside clean up of both the truck and the dog, we were back on the road again.

The rest of the day went well, we saw a number of big horn sheep, a moose, some buffalo, and a black bear along the road.

http://signpostforest.com/

At the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, the girls put up the sign Katy had made.  The collection was started in 1942 and by 2002 over 49,000 signs had been placed by people traveling through the area.  It was fun looking for signs from Texas. We even found one placed by some fellow Texans, Billy & Mona Nelson, we had met at the campground in Cochrane, Alberta. 

On July 9th, we traveled from Watson Lake to Whitehorse.  As you can see from the photo, all did not go well that day.  We pulled off the road as best we could, onto the soft shoulder. You can't see from the picture, but there was a drop off of about 8 feet just beyond the shoulder.  Some nice folks from Mississippi, Vic & Faye Ellis, stopped to help us.  How thankful we were for their assistance. 
We hope they're having a safe trip.

We spent a day in Whitehorse stocking up and getting tires. We also visited the Whitehorse Fishway/Fish Ladder. ( http://www.yukonenergy.ca/services/facilities/fishway/)  The fish ladder was built so that Chinook salmon could make their way up the Yukon River to spawn.

July 11th we drove from Whitehorse to Dawson City, near the Alaskan border.  This part of the journey was not on the Alaskan Highway but rather the Klondike Highway.  We chose this route in order to see Dawson City, the site of the world famous Klondike Gold Rush, and to cross over into Alaska via the Top of the World Highway which stretches from Dawson City, Yukon to Tok, Alaska.

  Another blow out today.  Getting good at changing tires is not a skill I was looking to develop. 

Dawson City (http://www.dawsoncity.ca/) was a boom town during the Klondike Gold Rush, then nearly dried up until the Canada Parks Department started restoring a lot of the historic building in town during the 1980s.  It has a very colorful history and lots to see in a little place.  Dawson City is also home of the sour toe cocktail (http://www.sourtoecocktailclub.com/sourtoe.html), which we did not try.  Just didn't sound good. 

We did visit the Jack London Museum in Dawson City and enjoyed Dawn's very educational program about Jack London's life and literature.(http://www.yukoninfo.com/dawson/info/jacklondon.htm)  Jack London, who wrote The Call of the Wild and White Fang, came to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897 to search for gold.  A replica of his cabin stands in Dawson City.

Mickey took this picture from outside our RV at midnight in Dawson City, Yukon.

July 13th.  The plan was to catch the ferry and go into Alaska along the Top of the World Highway.  However, the road near Chicken, Alaska washed out and we've been waiting to hear how long it will take to get fixed.  The word is "maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day."  With that in mind, we decided to not wait any longer.  So, we traveled back to Whitehorse.  There aren't exactly alternate routes in this part of the world.  If a road washes out, you either wait or go back the way you came in.

Kluane Lake

We spent the night of the 13th parked in a turnout along the highway with several other RVs on the shore of Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory.  Boondocking (dry camping for free) is really popular in Canada and Alaska.  There are so many pretty locations to just pull over and camp beside lakes, rivers, and mountains.

 

July 14th.  We made it to Alaska at last.  It's so nice to be back on American soil. 

Here are some of our first glimpses of Alaska:

The weather is cool, in the 40s - 50s at night and usually not warmer than 70 during the day.  Right now there is roughly 2 hours of dark, really it's more like twilight.

Something I haven't told you about is permafrost.  Permafrost is land or ground that remains frozen all year round.  It causes heaves in the ground which make for really rough road conditions.  The highway buckles and cracks forming large holes and crevasses.  It feels a lot like riding a roller coaster, except it can go on for miles and miles.  Not to mention being really hard on your rig.  This site has some good pics of permafrost and the problems it can cause ( http://www.alaskastock.com/resultsframe.asp?txtkeys1=permafrost ).

We spent one night in Anchorage at Elmendorf AFB then came to Seward where we'll be for a week.  We're staying at Seward Military Resort (http://www.sewardresort.com/).  The facilities are very nice and such a refreshing change from camping in Canada.

Mickey spent today doing some repairs to the rig, while I got caught up on household chores. The girls had some down time to watch TV and relax.  They don't get much time for that on the road. Tomorrow, provided the weather holds out, we're planning to fish and hopefully see some whales.

We love and miss you all.

Fort Nelson, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

We traveled roughly 300 miles again yesterday, from Fort Nelson, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. We have limited Internet service here, so I'll have to post pictures later.

We also have absolutely no cell phone service on either AT&T or Verizon.  We want all our family to know that we're thinking about you and we'll call as soon as we get service.

Our First Day on the Alaska Highway

Mickey and the girls at Mile Zero Marker in Dawson Creek, British Columbia

We began our first day on the Alaska Highway by visiting the Alaska Highway House in Dawson Creek. (http://www.tourismdawsoncreek.com/alaska_highway_house.php)  It's a relatively new museum dedicated to educating people about the construction of the Alaska Highway.  We learned the highway was constructed during World War II in order to help defend the far north west against Japan.  We also learned that Alaska's Aleutian Islands had been attacked by the Japanese during the war.  Mickey and I agreed that if either of us had ever learned about that, we had long forgotten it.  Here's a link to more information about the "Forgotten Battle".  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleutian_Islands_Campaign)   It's amazing that this highway was constructed in only 8 months and in such extreme conditions.  The movie shown at the museum had lots of actual footage of the construction efforts and talked about how the workers endured temperatures as low as 40-50 below zero.  We're really glad we took the time to learn about the highway before we began our trek.

Here is a view from the highway about 40 miles outside of Dawson Creek.

The villages are few and far between along this route.  And you can drive for miles and miles without seeing any homes.  There are, however, lots of trucks on the highway.  And I guess that's the reason for the "lodges."  Below is a picture of the lodge at Wonowon.  It's pretty typical of the lodging in the area, mostly modular structures without any frills.  Most lodges also have simple fuel stations and a few basics.

Here's a view out our windshield.  Yes, it looked just like that FOREVER.  No wonder the girls are wanting to find Barnes & Nobel.

We traveled only 300 miles today, from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson.  The next real town is another 300 miles away, so we decided it was best to stop for the day.  Since we made camp early, around 5:00pm, we're enjoying a little down time by watching the Jaws marathon.  It doesn't matter how many times you see them, you hear the music, you know what's coming, and you're scared anyway!  Love it.

Mile 0 - Alaska Highway

We made great time today!  We traveled 500 miles from Cochrane, Alberta to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, arriving about 7:00pm.  It can be hard to estimate travel times up here because of road conditions and construction, but today was great. 

The photo shows the marker at the beginning of the Alaska Highway here in Dawson Creek.  The highway is roughly 1400 miles long and runs between Dawson Creek, British Columbia and Delta Junction, Alaska.  We're estimating it taking us 3-4 more days to arrive in Alaska. 

So far on our trek through Canada we've seen lots of warning signs for animals on the roadways, especially moose.  However, we have only seen deer so far.

We also noticed some mustard fields around Calgary.  But today, we saw miles and miles of beautiful yellow mustard fields.  After we made camp, we looked it up and learned that the Canadian prairies supply 85% of world's mustard.  The fields are quite a site and so pretty against the summer sky.

We're hoping for another productive day tomorrow. The girls are hoping for a Barnes & Nobel (or something close).  They've both been doing a lot of reading in the truck and are out of books as of this afternoon.  Sophie is also doing well.  She's recovered from her upset stomach (which was our fault for feeding her too much table food).  It's just so hard to tell her "no" when she looks so cute.

We're thinking about you all.  Be safe and keep in touch.

                              Amanda

Banff National Park - Lake Louise

Lake Louise, Banff National Park

We've spent the weekend exploring the Banff National Park area and Calgary.  Above is a picture of Lake Louise at Banff.  It you look closely you can see Victoria Glacier in the background.

While in Banff, we ate lunch at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise with Ron and Nancy.  The original chateau was built in the 1890s by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, but burned in a fire in 1924. The hotel as it stands today is an impressive resort with beautiful views of Lake Louise. (http://www.fairmont.com/lakelouise)

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

We also took a dip at the Upper Hot Springs.
(http://www.pc.gc.ca/regional/sourcesthermales-hotsprings/itm2-/banff_e.asp)

It's a restored 1930s bath house where you can even rent 1930s style bathing suites.  We thought the rented bathing suite idea was kind of strange, so we took our own.  The place is basically a large swimming pool fed by a natural hot springs.  The day we were there, it was raining softly and the outside temperature was 48.  The pool temp was a steamy 102.

Rainbow in the mountains, on the drive to Upper Hot Springs, Banff National Park

It's been rainy here, off and on.  We tried to visit the Calgary Zoo today, but were rained out within half an hour.  We were pleased to find that they have a refund policy if you're rained out.  That was really nice. Maybe we'll get back there again before we leave.  We're expecting a package from home tomorrow.  Provided it arrives on time, we'll be headed north again towards Alaska on Tuesday.