Hi Everyone – just wanted to let you know, I hope to get a post up soon that will have an update about Guy’s visit and lots of photos. We’re currently traveling south through Canada again, heading for Vancouver. Once we reach Vancouver we’re going to decide where to go from there. We may spend some time in the Washington/Oregon area, depending on weather and fires affecting the area. Otherwise, we may spend time in Idaho and maybe Montana if we can catch our friends Don and Patty there before they head back east too. These are the big decisions we face these days….not a bad life!! 🙂
We just stayed in Stewart, BC, which is on the Canadian boarder with Hyder, Alaska. Hyder is in the Alaskan panhandle, in the southeast of the state. We drove over to Hyder yesterday to do some sightseeing. This area is known for bears, and we have seen several black bears in the last couple of days, including one in the RV park yesterday morning, about 50 yards away from our RV! And kids out riding bikes right by it!!!
All is well, it is still raining a lot and internet and cell is very spotty and weak when we do get it.
Hi everyone! I can’t tell you how thankful we are that Samantha and her friends, Josh and Ryan were able to come visit us. Coming to Alaska takes a good amount of effort and time, and we are so thankful for our visitors. I miss Samantha so much, I have never been away from her for this long, and knowing I am so far away from her in time and miles is a little frightening sometimes too. So having her and her friends here for a week was truly wonderful.
And then there’s the weather…..they say this is one of the wettest and coolest summers in recent memory around here. It has pretty much rained almost every day for weeks now. Every once in a while we get a day or two of no rain. We’re not looking for sunshine – even a day of overcast is nice as long as it’s dry! You may remember from my last post that Steve and Bill set up a tent site for Samantha and her friends at the RV park in Portage. We thought they would enjoy a space of their own and having a campfire. Never quit raining long enough to have a campfire! No smores!
We didn’t let the rain stop us from having fun. I took them out for a day of kayaking in Prince William Sound, in Whittier (wet, cold, beautiful, fun!), while Steve stayed home with Gerry. We got in a couple of really nice hikes, too. We did about 4 miles total at Crow Pass and about 3 miles at Byron Glacier. Samantha was determined to do everything in spite of her leg and constant pain and she did fantastic.
There’s something about being up in the mountains, away from everything but the big sky, clouds and nature that just is inspiring. And, on our way to Crow Pass, where the trailhead is at the end of a several mile long dirt road, we saw a bear! This is how you want to see a bear – from the car, but still up close enough to really see him. Gerry started barking when he realized the bear was there – I was afraid the bear would charge the car, but he was too busy eating berries.
We took the kids to Seward for a day, hoping we may drive out of the rain, but alas, the rain followed us. But they visited the Sea Life Center there, we did some tourist shopping for gifts and had lunch. The Blueberry Festival was in Girdwood while the kids were here and we actually got several hours of no rain that day so the kids could go enjoy the festival.
The RV was cozy with all 5 of us and Gerry, but it actually is very comfortable. Having 1 1/2 baths really helps when we have company, and the kids didn’t seem to mind the sofa bed and air mattress. We ate lots of seafood, and everyone got to try crab legs for the first time (yes, even Samantha took a bite, with Josh’s help!)
We didn’t have the “big” camera out during Samantha’s visit, too much rain. So I just have cell phone pictures to share with you below, plus a couple of videos.
Experiencing the mountains, glaciers and the vastness of Alaska is an experience all in itself, and I think they were pretty amazed. Josh and Ryan, thank you for being such good friends to Samantha and for coming to visit us!
Samantha, you are beautiful and an incredibly special young lady. We love you with all our hearts and are so glad you were here to share a little of this amazing journey with us! 🙂
Howdy everyone! I know I’ve been slow in providing updates, I’m sorry. It’s been a whirlwind of visitors which is great. We dropped my sister Laura off at the airport and literally drove around the airport to the arriving level and picked up our friend Bill. We coordinated the departure and arrival flights to make the driving back and forth to Anchorage as efficient as possible. Timing worked out great.
We moved back to the Portage Valley area on Laura’s last day, and we stayed there all during Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit (post on Samantha’s visit coming soon!) We really enjoy the Portage area, it’s beautiful and there’s lots of good hiking near by, not to mention the great Alpine Bakery and the ice cream store in Girdwood I told you about before! Girdwood is only about 12 miles from the Portage Valley RV park we stayed in.
We had rain for the first 3 days of Bill’s visit…we drove to Seward one day and found sunshine! We hiked Mt. Marathon again that day, we really enjoyed doing that hike again, it is so beautiful there. We then had a couple of nicer days in Portage and hiked Portage Pass again. These two hikes are some of our favorites anywhere so far. It was so nice to be able to share them with Bill – I think we have become a little immune to the beauty that surrounds us, until we share it with someone like Bill who is experiencing it for the first time. It helps us remember how spectacular our surroundings are and to not take this experience for granted!
Steve and Bill found a gym in Anchorage and went to work out a couple of times. I know Steve was glad to have his work out buddy again! We ate tons of great seafood and the guys took advantage of the sauna at the RV park too. It’s a really cool sauna, rustic and heated by a wood fired stove. It smells great inside and feels fantastic after a long hike.
We rented a tent campsite right by our RV for Samantha and her friends – Bill helped Steve set up the tent which was a much longer process than expected – they said something about the instructions not being very good….but I suspect it may have been the blind leading the blind…. 🙂
Good friend, good food and good hiking….what more can we ask for? Thanks Bill for making the time and effort to come out to visit – we loved having you!
Lunch on the trail at Mt. MarathonPortage Pass hike
Hi again! Sorry for the delay in posting – we’ve been busy with a visit from my sister, Laura, and still dealing with spotty internet. I am writing this post sitting in a parking lot in Anchorage while Steve and Bill work out at a gym.
We moved from Seward over to the other side of the Kenai Penninsula, to the Kasilof area. Kasilof is about 1 hour north of Homer. Homer is at the southern tip of the Kenai Penninsula, and is known for fishing – some of the popular TV shows about Alaska fishing are based on boats that go out of Homer. We (I) thought it would be a nice place to hang out for a couple of weeks while we had some visitors in August. I was wrong. We were pretty unimpressed with the general area. Not nearly as pretty as the other areas we’ve been in, very flat and coastal plains. In Kasilof, only very distant mountains were visible – there are 2 rivers, the Kenai and the Kasilof that run through this area and are huge Salmon fishing rivers. So lots of fishing charters around. And in Homer, which is boardered by Cooks Inlet with mountains across the bay in Kachemak State Park (that was pretty), the town was not very attractive, at least compared to what we have seen elsewhere.
I was very, very distraught as we drove from Seward (beautiful) to Kasilof where we had a 2 week reservation at an RV park. It got less and less pretty as we drove, and Laura was coming in 2 days! I had been sending her all kinds of pictures of the beautiful scenery and wonderful hiking in the mountains and now we were parked in the middle of flat land and no mountains!!! Crap! We talked about moving, but we had booked this bear viewing trip for Wednesday, Laura’s last day in Alaska, and the tour went out of Homer, which was still an hour south of us. If we moved anywhere, it would be even further away, and we had to report in for the tour at 6:30 am and drop Gerry off at doggy day care even earlier. I called the bear viewing tour place and our tickets were non-refundable since it was within 30 days 🙁 So we stayed in Kasilof and made the most of it, looking forward to the bear tour, which was a boat ride out to Lake Clark National Park, which is only accessible by boat or plane, then go to bear viewing area to watch them catch salmon in the rivers, which would be fun to see. A great day on the water and wildlife viewing – how Alaskan! I’m going to jump to the end of this part of the story – THE BEAR VIEWING TRIP GOT CANCELLED 2 DAYS AHEAD DUE TO EXPECTED HIGH WINDS!!! AND THEN THERE WERE NO WINDS!!! BUT STILL CANCELLED!!!! 🙁
We moved back to the Portage RV park we liked so much before on Laura’s last day, and are staying there for Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit. Sorry Laura, we tried!!! We did have a great visit and did lots of fun things. And really, we are lucky and grateful to be on this journey, I am not complaining!
We took a small plane (very small, 5 seats) taxi to Seldovia, a cute small town across the bay from Homer. We did a nice hike there and had lunch in town. The flight back and forth was absolutely beautiful and we saw 2 Orca whales on the flight back. Gerry did great on the flight, didn’t bother him at all. Lots of pictures in the attached link from this trip.
We took a water taxi one day to Kachemak State Park across the bay from Homer and did a great hike to Glacier Lake – beautiful glacier and lake, with huge chunks of ice that had fallen off the glacier in the lake. Had lunch by the lake and while we were on the water taxi back across the bay, Steve helped our boat guy stop and pick up some kayaks. We also did a couple of hikes closer to Kasilof which were pretty flat but pretty through the woods – we saw salmon in the rivers swimming up stream and trying to jump the rapids. Amazing how they do that.
We also spent a fantastic day in Kenai Fjords National Park over by Seward. It was a 2 hour drive each way, and we took Gerry back to the doggy day care he had been to before there, which he loved. We spent the whole day hiking the Harding Icefields trail which was amazing. A very challenging hike but worth it. We also got to see mountain goats up close while on the trail.
We cooked seafood almost every night during Laura’s visit – crab legs (twice!), scallops, shrimp, salmon, halibut. It all has been delicious and so fresh. Much better than what we get at home.
We were on the lookout for wildlife, but didn’t manage to see any bears (tour would have taken care of this!), and only the backend of one moose in the woods. But we did see eagles, the whales, and swans. We did see a lot of bear scat on one of the hikes, but didn’t run into a bear which is a good thing!
Having Laura visit meant so much to me. It has been hard being away from her, we’ve always lived in the same place. And this is the longest I’ve gone without seeing her. This adventure has been great and I’m so happy we are doing this, but I do miss family and friends back home so much. So even though the location wasn’t the best, the time spent together is what counts and my heart is happy 🙂
We had dinner with Michael and July in Anchorage when we took Laura in to the airport. Michael is Steve H’s son, and lives in the Anchorage area. So nice to catch up with them and we’re hoping to be able to get together at least once more when we’re making the trips back and forth to the airport.
So that’s my update for now – Bill is here now (has rained since the minute he got here 2 days ago….hoping for a break in the weather soon), and Samantha, Josh and Ryan get here on the 16th. Then Guy comes in on the 25th. Family and friends to share this great adventure with – life is good!
Hello again! We have been in Seward, Alaska for 3 days now – Seward is a waterfront town; a lot of fishing charters and tour boats go out of the port here. There was a cruise ship in port one of the days we were here. We’ve had a little sunshine also which is always nice. Our first day here we saw Sea Otters – they were so cute – swimming right in front of a park area right in town. Pictures are in the link below. We also saw an Eagle as we pulled into the RV park. Didn’t manage to get a picture of him, sorry!
We went on a great hike yesterday to Mt. Marathon, I have several pictures and a few videos in the attached link from the hike. We also went kayaking today. We took Gerry to doggy day care so we could go kayaking, he seemed to have a great time and fell asleep as soon as he got into the truck.
We really enjoyed the hike on Mt. Marathon – it was about 6 or so miles, and it took us 5 hours. It was pretty challenging, but worth it. I know we post a lot of pictures from hikes – it’s one of our favorite things to do. I imagine a lot of the pictures are starting to look the same and you may be wondering why we keep doing it??? There’s something about the challenge of the hike, getting out into nature and reaching the top of the mountain (small mountains) that is exhilarating and energizing. At the beginning we are always saying (or sometimes thinking to ourselves) – is this trail too hard for me? Is it going to be this steep all the way??? What’s around that bend? If Steve can do it I’m not going to give up! 🙂 Are we too old for this stuff??? Then you settle into the hike, enjoy the scenery and fresh air, get to the top or the end of the trail and think “wow – life is good”. The perspective you get when looking out onto a valley below or the next mountain range is amazing. We find it inspiring and hopefully you are enjoying sharing it with us too.
Kayaking was fun and we enjoyed seeing the landscape from a different point of view. They took us by a small boat out to a nice cove where the water was also smoother than in the bay (Resurrection Bay). Then we kayaked for about 1.5 hours. We were in double kayaks, Steve did most of the hard work of paddling, I was in back and in charge of steering with these peddals that are in the floor of the kayak.
Tomorrow we leave here for Kasilof, which is on the west side of the Kenai Penninsula (we’re on the east side on the Penninsula now). We’ll have about a 3 hour drive tomorrow. We have a reservation at the Kasilof RV Park for 2 straight weeks – the longest we will have stayed any one place – hope it’s nice! We’ve learned not to expect much when it comes to RV parks, at least in the places we’ve been so far. The spots are very close together, are mostly large gravel parking lots with hook ups. But, we have great views many times, including where we are here in Seward. I’ve included a couple of pictures below of our current set up and the view out one of our windows. Not complaining!
My sister comes in this Friday for a visit – can’t wait!!!
Hi again! We have been in the Portage, Alaska area for several days now. Beautiful area – mountains and lots of glaciers, right off the Cook Inlet. We’re about an hour south of Anchorage. We got lucky on the campground site – we got an end site, with great views right out our door. It’s windy here much of the time, something about the 2 mountain passes we are between and the weather patterns. It’s also cloudy and gray most of the time, but we’ve had a sunny day here and there. Not complaining!
We delt with the flat tire while here as you’ve read about in the last post. That took up a couple of days but was necessary. Otherwise we’ve been on 2 great hikes in the area, gone on an hour long boat tour to Portage glacier (Gerry was allowed onboard!) and gone over to Whittier twice. Whittier is a small village (too small to call a town) right on the waterfront of Prince William Sound. Cruise ships stop here, and one was in the first day we went there. There’s a handful of small gift shops and coffee shops, but more than anything this is where adventure tours go out of. Sea kayaking, boat tours, helicopter tours, etc. And the Alaska Marine Ferry system has a port here too. I didn’t realize until we got here how much of the state’s transportation system is by ferry. Many places, including Janeau, the capital, are only accessible by boat or plane. Very few roads in this big state. We (briefly) considered using the ferry for part of our trip later in the summer, as they hold large RVs as well as trucks and cars. BUT…dogs have to stay in the vehicle and cannot come up on deck. Even the shortest route we considered, which was to Valdez, was 6 hours. Gerry would never make that so we’ll stick to driving! 🙂
Anyhow, back to Whittier – you can only access it via a one lane tunnel, which is about 2.5 miles long through a mountain. The tunnel is shared by the Alaska Railroad also. So, there’s a schedule of when the tunnel is available for car traffic, depending on the direction you are heading – into or out of Whittier. You can get in or out once an hour. The first day we went over it was very cloudy and foggy, couldn’t see much. I included some of these pictures in the link. We decided to wait until a better day to do the hike we wanted to do over there, which we did the following day.
Also in the area is Portage Glacier. It is about 5 minutes from our campground, but you can’t see the full glacier from the road. So we did a boat tour that took us right up next to the glacier which was really cool. And literally cool also – it was cold and windy and Gerry was freezing on the boat! Fortunately I had his blanket with us and could wrap him up in it.
We got another view of Portage Glacier when we went back to Whittier and did the Portage Pass hike. It’s about 6 miles altogether – up to the top of the pass, then down the other side to the Portage Lake, with the glacier on the far side of the lake. So we hiked to the lake, and had lunch looking out at the glacier then hiked back. Since this was an up to the top, down and then back up to the top and down again hike it was truly uphill both ways – we were all tired by the end. We saw 2 eagles sitting together in a tree at the beginning of the hike. Got some pictures, they are included in the link.
Another hike we did was in Alyeska – a small (very) village with a nice ski resort and hotel. The hike was Winner Creek, about 5.5 miles and an easy hike. Very little elevation change, but the trail ran along Winner Creek, through the forest. There was a hand tram you could use to cross the creek and continue to another trail, but we didn’t think taking Gerry on the rope and bucket type tram that you pulled yourself over the creek (way high up above the creek) with was a good idea. (Did I mention Steve is afraid of heights and hates cliff edges???) So we turned around and went back. A very nice day hike.
We have been regular visitors to the Alpine Bakery I mentioned in the last post. I can honestly report everything we have had from there is delicious! We also discovered a local ice cream shop in the same center – we are currently enjoying Black Cherry and Alaskan Berry ice cream at home in the to go containers we got yesterday.
The campground has a nice sauna – it looks like a shed on the outside, has a wood stove inside and the walls are lined with a wood that smells really good (pine, I think). We enjoyed it one evening after the cold boat ride, and we enjoyed chatting with other folks who were enjoying the sauna as well.
We leave tomorrow (Saturday) to a new spot near Seward. We’ll be there 3 nights and then we’re off to Kasilof, where we’ll be for 2 weeks. Seward and Kasilof are in the Kenai Penninsula, which seems to be where much of the tourist type things like fishing charters happen. We have lots of visitors coming in August, starting with my sister August 4th. Can’t wait to see her and share some of this amazing place with her!
Lots of pictures in this link, and I also posted (I think, fingers crossed!) 4 short videos of our hike on Portage Pass.
Hello again! We moved to the Portage area on Saturday July 22nd. A beautiful area, on the Turnagain Arm, along Cooks Inlet. About 1 hour south of Anchorage. Had a great drive from the Denali area. I’m going to do a separate post on the Portage area with lots of pictures.
We woke up the next morning, planning to do a glacier boat tour and found one of our front tires completely flat on the truck! There was a nail in the tire. The nice guy who owns the campground filled the tire with air and also put some fix-a-flat into the tire so we could make it up the road about 10 miles to a little strip center were we can get cell and internet at. It was Sunday, we found out everthing was closed and we had to wait until Monday to get it repaired.
So we came back to the campground, and Kathleen, a nice 18 year old from California and traveling for the summer with her grandparents agreed to dog sit Gerry for us so we could go out to dinner. It was Steve’s birthday and we haven’t been out to dinner in a long time. So, we crossed our fingers on the truck tire holding, and drove to the Double Musky, about 12 miles away in Girdwood. It had been recommended to us by a few people.
A great place, very busy and no reservations are taken. But after about 45 minutes we got a table and had a great meal. Steve ordered crab legs…..2 full dinners of them! This is after we had an appetizer of these great cajun pepper steak bites, and he also had a bowl of Gumbo! I had the salmon. All was delicious and we took desserts to go – strawberry cream pie and some chocolate whipped cream layer thing. The tire held, we made it back to the RV with no issue and it was great to get out to dinner. Gerry had fun with Kathleen and their yellow lab Dozer.
We were bummed about the tire, but it could have been so much worse. It could have blown out while we were driving the day before, pulling the RV, which took us through Anchorage and more traffic than we’ve seen in a long time. Or we could have been stuck on the side of the road with the RV in tow. So we are not complaining. We found a Dodge Ram dealership in Anchorage and went there on Monday. At first they thought it could be repaired, then decided it had to be replaced. A 2 hour time estimate turned into a day and a half – yes, after waiting around all day, they decided right before they closed at 7:00 Monday evening they couldn’t get it finished and we should come back at 11:00 Tuesday morning. We had requested a few other things be done while we were having work done at the dealership – fuel filter change, oil change, front and rear differential (I still don’t know what that is), and since the tire couldn’t be repaired, 2 new front tires, balanced. We now have over 17,000 miles on the truck (which was just purchased new in November). So it was time to get a few things done.
We got a rental car and did some grocery shopping and a Target run while in Anchorage. Gerry was wiped out after a day in the big city as you’ll see in the photo below! When leaving for the night, we happened upon this great little restaraunt called the Lucky Wishbone. Been in business for 60 years and specialize in pan fried chicken. So we got to go orders and drove to a beautiful turn out along the Cooks Inlet on our way back to the campground and ate overlooking the water….life is good 🙂
The truck was ready the next day as promised and we got to spend some time with internet connection and catch up on banking, mail and phone calls. A few pictures below. Stay tuned for another post soon from this area with lots of pictures, I promise!
We spent several days enjoying the Denali National Park area. We stayed at 2 places, one about 30 miles north of the park, and one about 30 miles south of the park. We really liked the second place we stayed at, the first place not so much. In fact, we left the first place 2 days before we were supposed to. One evening we got back from a hike and found our extra fuel tank (It’s installed in the bed of the truck and we can carry about 45 extra gallons of diesel in it. It also has a switch in the truck cab that lets us turn it on so the fuel runs into the main tank when needed) was leaking. Turned out to be a minor problem, we had put too much fuel in both tanks and it was overflow, not a leak. But, the campground lady was not nice about it and charged us $200 for the small amount of diesel that went onto the ground….more than the fee, her unpleseant attitude ran us off. But, we found a really nice small campground that we liked better anyhow.
We got in 2 great hikes while in the area, one in Denali State Park, and one in Nancy Lake State Recreation area. We also visited a cute little town called Talkeetna. The hike we did at Denalie State Park, which was the Little Coal Creek trail, was very hard. It was a gray and drizzly day, so we only got a few pictures on Steve’s “big” camera because we didn’t want to get it wet. But I took a couple videos on my cell phone as we approached the top which I included in the link below. I hope the videos come out okay in the link, this is an experiment for me! It was a very steep trail and one of the hardest we’ve done so far. It was about 3 miles to the top, and gained 2,200 feet in elevation. So about 6 miles altogether. It was freezing at the top, we were literally inside of a cloud. Gerry started whimpering and didn’t like it at the top at all. We met a nice couple on the trail back down, they were from Iowa. Except she had just moved to New York, working as a doctor for the athletic program at Columbia University and also for the performing arts. She had just left a position on the medical staff for the Iowa Hawkeyes. We had a nice chat with them and then found a fairly protected area behind some rocks for our lunch.
The hike we did at Nancy Lake State Rec area was called Red Shirt Lake trail. By comparison it was easy, about 6 miles also. But very little elevation gain. We had a nice picinic by the lake there. We also came across 2 flocks of some type of ground birds, with babies. Grouse or Quail or something like that. I have a picture of one of them in the link.
We’ve seen a couple of Moose while driving, including a mommy and baby standing in a river. We’ve seen several eagles and those bears along the road I mentioned before. Otherwise, pretty uneventful so far on the animal sightings, which is probably for the best, especially regarding bears. We heard a story last night about a young man who was killed a few weeks ago near where we are staying while participating in a trail race. A grizzly had killed a moose, the runner went by the carcass and the bear attacked him. We’re especially careful with Gerry, and keep him on a leash most of the time.
Talkeetna was a cute tourist area that we enjoyed for an afternoon. Had some tea and cookies and a peach tart at a nice bakery there, they had a porch we could sit on with Gerry. We also drove into the National Park as far as they allow cars, which is 15 miles. After that, only park buses are allowed on the road. It was pretty, but no more so than the entire area around the park. Since they don’t allow dogs on any of the trails in the national park, we didn’t do anything else there.
On our last day in the area, the clouds finally went away, we woke up to a bright sunny morning and we jumped into the truck and drove to a viewing spot for Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinley is the largest mountain in North America, and is just under 21,000 feet. It is only visible about 30% of the time, since there are so many clouds and gray days here. Steve got some great pictures, and experimented with his large zoom lens (sorry John, I know the lens has some number associated with it but I don’t know what it is, it’s the big one). The mountain was visible all day, and we got shots of it as we drove along the road to our next destination also. It was great to see it, the pictures really don’t do it justice, it is huge! I should mention we also found a great bakery near the viewing spot that had freshly baked bread that I took home for dinner that night, and also freshly made strawberry scones and a great breakfast sandwhich made on their bread….yum!
You’ll notice in the pictures that Gerry got a new scarf with his name and picture on it! We were in a gift shot near Denali National Park and the guy there makes them from a picture on our phone. The picture of Gerry on the bandana is from the big hike we did at Little Coal Creek. I think it turned out great, and he loves to prance around in it and show off even more than normal!
We are moving south, towards the Kenai Penninsula. More updates to come soon!
Lots of pictures, plus 2 videos in the link below – hope the videos work, let me know. Thanks for all the comments! It’s great to hear from you all!!!
Hello! I’ve been a little slow getting updates out, sorry! We spent almost a week in the Fairbanks area, staying in North Pole, Alaska (just outside Fairbanks) and then another campground just north of Fairbanks. We did some tourist things, like visiting the Santa Claus House in North Pole, a museum on campus at University of Alaska Fairbanks and a river boat cruise. We also got a good hike in at Angel Rocks trail, in the Chena State Recreation area, about 1 hour from Fairbanks. Today we are in Cantwell, Alaska, near Denali National Park. I’ll do a separate update for this area soon.
The Santa Claus House was fun – Christmas galore! We went twice – the first day, we had a Facetime call scheduled with the grandkids, Greyson and Connor that fell during the time we were there. The 4 hour time difference makes it harder to connect back home at a time that works for the kids. I showed them the inside of the Santa Claus store, including Santa’s empty chair. Santa was not in, but it was fun to show them the Christmas things. We went back the next day to pick up a few more gifts, and Santa was in! When he finished with the kids on his lap, I was taking his picture when he asked me how I was – we started talking, and I told him about my Facetime call yesterday with the grandkids, showing his empty chair. He said, “that won’t do…let’s give them a real hello!”. A store helper came over and took a video of Santa talking to me and saying hello to Greyson and Connor. He also let them know he double checked his list, and they are both on the good list!!! I was able to send the video to Steph who reports it was a big hit.
We spent an afternoon at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, visiting the Museum of the North which was really nice, a lot of history of the area, native life, animals, etc. We found a nice food truck for lunch nearby and also a farmers market for some yummy almond cake and rhubarb jam. There were a lot of food vendors that seemed to be of eastern european decent, and the almond cake was from one lady that reminded me of a Russian grandma. It was kind of like a tart, kind of like a dense one layer cake….and very good. Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of it!
On another day, we went on a riverboat tour down the Chena river, a significant river that runs through Fairbanks. It was a warm and sunny day (which has been a rare thing for us so far). The tour was extremely well done. The narrator on the boat was excellent. The boat took us by the sled dog kennels and home of one of the famous Iditarod race champions, Susan Butcher. Susan died a few years ago from cancer, but her daughter and husband still run the kennels and her daughter will race for the first time next year. Susan won the race 4 times with her lead dog named Granite. There was quite a story behind Granite and Susan and the challenges they overcame. The boat stopped by the kennels and we saw a training session with the sled dogs, it was fun to watch them work – they love to pull!
The boat then stopped at a living museum that demonstrated native life and how they survived on the land for centuries. A “fish camp” was set up to recreate how native Alaskans caught and preserved salmon (by using a smoke house) each summer for winter food supply. We also saw native Alaskan clothing and household tools used for everyday life. We really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot.
Gerry had his own special outings too! We were able to get out and do these things while Gerry was at doggy day care. First he went to Chelseas Pet Resort – really nice place and perfect for a day of fun. He also got his very first bath while there. Then he went to visit Travis and Jenna at their house. We met Travis at a Petco store while buying dog food in Fairbanks. He was really nice, and after talking to us for a while offered to have Gerry come visit him and his 2 dogs at his house on his day off. We said yes and Gerry had a great time – they had 2 lab mix dogs, a nice house with about 1 acre and a big fenced in area for the dogs. Another super nice person we have met on our trip.
We got in 1 hike while in the Fairbanks area (I know, we are getting lazy….have to pick up the pace a bit!). We drove to the Chena State Recreation area and hiked Angel Rocks trail. It was just under 4 miles, and a very nice hike. There were a lot of people on the trail, it was a Saturday and a lot of locals were there in addition to tourists like us. So no animal spottings, but we had a great lunch on the trail and enjoyed the outing. So did Gerry – he’s becoming a good trail dog.
Hello everyone! We are currently parked in North Pole, Alaska. It’s a small town near Fairbanks. We crossed into Alaska on Sunday July 9, and reached the end of the Alcan Highway that day also. We spent one night in Tok, Alaska, then drove here to North Pole on Monday July 10. We are staying in the Fairbanks area until early next week, at 2 different RV parks.
I’m happy to report the boarder crossing was uneventful and easy. Before crossing into Alaska, we spent 3 nights at a fantastic RV park, called Yukon Discovery Lodging, located near Beaver Creek, Yukon. We had no cell or internet service there, but it was beautiful and peaceful. The RV park has a fully operational, grassy, airstrip on the property. The airstrip is used for fire fighters and medical emergencies in the area. They were happy to say it had not been used yet this summer. Our campsite was located right on the edge of the airstrip, so we had this very large green area right outside our door. Plus we had mountain views right out our windows. Many of the photos in the link below are from our stay at that RV park. Also, several of the photos taken there are at 11:00 at night…it is definately the land of the “midnight sun”!
Our second half of the Alcan highway drive was fairly uneventful, and very few animals. I think we saw 1 or 2 hawks, 1 eagle and that is about it. Hoping we see more wildlife while in Alaska. There are several pictures in the link from the second half of the drive.
At the risk of sounding like this is a food blog, I have to tell you about some of the food we’ve had recently. While driving from Whitehorse, Yukon to the Yukon Discovery Lodging, we stopped at a great little bakery along the road and purchased 2 fresh fruit tarts. The owners of the bakery were French and we also purchased a loaf of rustic multi-grain bread. Delicious! Then, our first night at the Yukon Discovery Lodging (I’m going to refer to it at YDL from now on), we noticed the owner was delivering freshly made fruit kuchen to the cottage occupants….we asked if we could purchase 2 pieces – it was great! Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the kuchen, we ate it before I thought of it! We let the owner know how much we enjoyed her kuchen the next morning.
To our surprise, the next afternoon we received a delivery of freshly made, still warm from the oven small round loaves of rustic bread….I had literally just said to Steve, “too bad we didn’t buy more of that rustic bread at the bakery, it would go great with the spaghetti I’m making for dinner”. The words had just left my mouth when Stephan, the cute young man from the Czech Republic working at the YDL knocked on our door with the warm bread! There’s a photo in the link, but only of 1 loaf…we devoured one before I thought to take a picture, sorry! We had a great meal of spaghetti, salad and bread that night.
Stephan was very nice and fun to talk to. He is 29 (and super cute), and has lived and worked in: London and Sydney, Australia and is heading to Ireland when done with his summer job in Beaver Creek, Yukon. He said he was enjoying travel and learning new cultures and not having the pressures of “normal” life.
The next evening, we grilled out beef steaks purchased from the YDL – she had a small quantity of frozen meat from a local farm available for sale. I made red skin potatoes sauteed with carrots and onions, a nice salad and a peach cobbler. We set up dinner right outside our door on the picinic table (photo in the link). We took a drive after dinner to look at the local scenery and returned to find a plate of german chocolate cake on our doorstep! The owner seemed to enjoy sharing her cooking with us as much as we enjoyed eating it! She really was very nice and we enjoyed talking with her.
We had a full day of rain also while staying at the YDL and took advantage of the DVD library. We watched several movies and enjoyed the clouds floating by the mountains right outside our window. This stop is our favorite in the journey so far.
But wait! The food story isn’t over! Today, Steve went to a local gym to workout. He’s been finding local gyms in most places we’ve been. I’m going to do a post with pictures he’s taking of the gyms at some point. Anyhow, while talking to the guy at the front desk at the gym today, Steve discovered he was a local hunting guide. He owns 3 planes and has 2 hunting cabins – one in the Brooks Range and one in the Kenai penninsula. He takes groups hunting and fishing. Most places in Alaska are only accessible by plane or boat. There are very few roads in this state compared to the amount of land. They got to talking about fish (Steve has been on the lookout for local seafood, his favorite food but has not had much luck so far). The guy asked Steve to wait a few minutes, and he left and returned with a bag full of local fish and meats!!! Halibut, salmon, ling, trout. Summer sausage, smoked salmon. Photo in the link. We’ve having Halibut tonight!
Our plan now is to enjoy the Fairbanks area for a few days, then meander our way towards Denali National Park. We cancelled our reservation we had for a campsite inside the park. We discovered Gerry can’t leave the campsite to explore the park or go on any of the hiking trails. So we’re going to stay outside the park and find hikes in the area. We’re also exploring doggy day care so we can do some long hikes inside the park. I’m sure I’ll have a post about all of that when the time comes. So for now, we are going to explore the Christmas shopping in North Pole, Alaska and other area attractions. It’s a rainy, dreary day (again) but that is not unusual for Alaska in July from what I hear.
Today (July 11) is our 30th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe – time goes by so fast. Many of you were there on the big day 30 years ago, and many of you have helped us along the way these many years through your friendship, advice and support. Life has many ups and downs, happy times and hard times. One thing I know for sure is the love and support you all have given us both through the years has made all the difference. Thank you.
