And now, the end is here . . .

Hello, Everyone!

Well, we have officially made it.  After approx. 5500 miles of driving, we arrived in Anchorage late this afternoon.  Unbelievably, we managed to make it the entire trip without a single car problem . . . until we were about a mile outside of Anchorage and had a rock jump up from the highway and chip our windshield.  Nonetheless, the problem is being taken care of tomorrow, and we are safely in the city we'll call home for the next year.

To give y'all a quick update on the past 24 hours: we spent the night in Tok, AK, and then drove along part of the Alaska Highway to get to Palmer, AK.  Tammy took some awesome pictures as we drove through the Yukon Territory to get to Tok from Haines yesterday afternoon:

As Tammy's fun fact,we have now found out that there is one area code for the entire state of Alaska.  It is 907.  The only exception is the small town of Hyder, which uses the British Columbia code of 250.  907 is the largest area code (in physical size) in the US.  It is also the farthest east and the farthest west code (for an explanation, see the first post in this blog on how Alaska is both the farthest west and farthest east US state).

This afternoon, we arrived in Palmer.  Palmer is where the Alaska State Fair is located, and we, of course, needed to go.  Being only an hour outside of Anchorage, we thought it would be a good way to celebrate making it to our destination.

The fair was a ton of fun.  We started the afternoon by watching a lumberjack demonstration.

It was awesome.  This guy carved a chair (originally pretending he was going to carve a rabbit) using just this saw.   Other competitions included log rolling and climbing up a 50 foot post as fast as possible (pole climbing).

We then went and viewed the farm exhibits, including a live goat milking demonstration.

Of course, Steve felt the need to step into the farmers' shoes for the afternoon.  He was a bit scared by the idea of "driving" a tractor.

Then we got to see all of the vegetables.  These things are amazing.  People grow them as long or heavy as they possibly can, and they look so weird.  The long, snakelike vegetable you see below is a gourd, and it set the Alaska world record this year for length.

This was the first place pumpkin this year.  You read that correctly.  It weighs 902 lbs.

Finally, after leaving the State Fair, we headed into Anchorage, the city that is now our home.  We'll update a bit more sporadically over the next few months as we head out on weekend adventures to exciting towns around Alaska.  Until then, keep us posted on how all of you are doing, and we look forward to having you as visitors in Anchorage!  Until then . . .

HAPPY TRAILS!

Northern Exposed.

Hi, Everyone:

Today, we officially had the Alaskan experience.  But, more on that to come in a bit.  To start with, yesterday evening we took the ferry again from Juneau to Haines.  Some readers were interested in what this ferry we keep talking about looks like, so we took a picture of another one in port.  

As you can see, it is basically a stripped down mini-cruise ship.  The cars go in the bottom, and then the decks (painted white) are composed of lounges, a cafeteria, restrooms, etc.  So, we drove the car onto the ferry and then went onto the deck for the 4.5 hours it took to sail from Juneau to Haines. 

Once again, the ferry provided amazing views of the surrounding mountains as we sailed by.  Below you can see the mountains, and the little white buildings that compose the town of Haines.

After getting off the ferry, we headed into downtown to find a hotel for the evening.  We ended up staying in the Ft. Seward Lodge, which is amazing.  Ft. Seward was actually the first fort built in Alaska, and it was built due to conflicts between the United States and Canada over where the border lie (Tammy Fact!).  The conflict has since been settled, and we are now about 45 miles from the next crossing.  (For those keeping track, we'll actually cross the border twice tomorrow as we head into Tok . . . once right outside of Haines, then we'll drive through BC and the Yukon Territory, and then we'll cross again outside of Tok).

This morning we woke up, and were simply amazed at the "downtown" of Haines.  Simply put, this is the quintessential Alaska town.  The town has a population of 2,400, and unlike its counterpart Skagway, the cruise ship industry has not overtaken the town.   If you want to imagine what it looks like, think of the 1980s TV show "Northern Exposure" and you've got it.  Seriously.  They even have a radio station that people can call into and get on the air pretty easily.  

As a side note, if you've never watched the show "Northern Exposure," do it.  It is an awesome show.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKHzIXZBF74

So, that was how we had our first Alaska experience, take one.  

Then, after walking around downtown, we decided to do the bike ride we missed out on in Vancouver.  So, we rented some bikes, and did a 20 mile ride along the Pacific coast to Chilkoot Lake State Park.

When we rented the bikes, the manager of the store told us that the salmon were currently in full swing in a river near the lake, and as a result the bears were out fishing for the upcoming winter.  We figured we would ride out there, and there would be a ranger of some sort guiding traffic and we could take pictures from a distance.

This is where Alaska experience number 2 comes in.  We got to the lake, and saw 4 or 5 vehicles lining the street with people standing on the road with their cameras.  We looked into the river, and saw the following walking onto the road:

Yes, folks.  That is a sow and her cub (there were actually 2 cubs).  They were literally 50 feet from us.  We, of course, were extremely nervous and kept hiding behind cars.  The locals, on the other hand, were willing to get a bit closer and snap some shots.  Nonetheless, 50 feet was close enough for us to provide some amazing pictures.

The bears continued to walk along the river until they got to the fishing weir that had been set up.  For more info on what a weir is, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_weir

Essentially, the weir is being used by the area to help count the number of sockeye salmon in the river.  The bears, on the other hand, view it as an easy opportunity to catch fish because the salmon get caught as they hit the weir.  Thus, the cubs went onto the top of the weir, while mama bear stood in the river catching fish and throwing them to the cubs.

The eating party continued for a good 20 minutes, until the fish-counting guy got annoyed because he couldn't do his job.  So, like any good Alaskan, he fearlessly made a lot of noise and commotion from 10 feet away to make the bears move on.  

So, we now feel initiated to Alaska.  We've walked, biked, and slept in a quintessential Alaskan town, and we've had the socks scared off of us as we biked near bears.

Tok tomorrow, and then Anchorage on Monday!  We're almost there!

Juneau the capital of Alaska? Juneau.

Hi, Everyone:

A quick update before we head back on the ferry towards Haines.  We spent the day exploring Juneau yesterday.  We started by hiking in the Mendenhall glacier area.

This is definitely the highlight of Juneau, and where most of the cruise ship passengers go to explore.  Unfortunately, you can't climb on the glacier itself (without a tour company), nor get close to it, because of the dangers involved with glaciers.  As moving objects, glaciers frequently break apart or bump into things and create crevasses, and thus they aren't very secure.  Hiking on them could actually result in you falling into a 10-story crevasse that is hidden by snow.

However, there was a nice 3.5 mile hike along the side of the glacier through the woods, so we did that and got some awesome views.

We also got to see some wildlife along the way.

This type of bird is actually a nuisance.  We were once in a campground cleaning up, and this bird flew down and started pecking at Tammy's cereal.  Needless to say, we were not thrilled to see it on the path, especially because it makes loud, obnoxious, threatening noises.  But, we did snap a picture . . . and then scared it away.

After the hike, we went to the visitor center where Tammy learned all about glaciers.  Her fact of the day comes from this visit.  It is that while Mendenhall glacier is receding, it actually moves forward about a foot and a half a day.  How is this possible?  The face of the glacier is actually melting at a rate greater than the advance of the glacier down the valley.  Interesting!

While in the visitor center, Steve also met up with Evan, a friend from law school who is on a cruise of Alaska for his bar trip.  It was great getting to see HLS people out in Alaska, and we look forward to many more coming to visit us in Anchorage this year!

We then went into downtown Juneau for dinner.

This is cruise ship tourist central.  We had a great Italian dinner and then went to the infamous Red Dog Saloon for a drink.

                            

This bar has been around Juneau since the 1890s and contains a lot of fun memorabilia inside, including a gun allegedly left by Wyatt Earp as he was heading out of Juneau to Nome.  You can learn more about this gun, and other treasures on the wall, simply by visiting their website: http://www.reddogsaloon.com/

We also got to try our first sip of Alaskan Brewery in the Red Dog Saloon.  We are REALLY looking forward to more of this awesome beer over the next year.

Finally, we drove back from town toward our campsite, where we got another beautiful sunset.

Now that we'll be living on the Pacific, we're looking forward to many more of these over the next few months.

That's all for now.  Off to Haines, back into Canada, Tok, and then Anchorage!  Almost there!

We (were) On A Boat!

Good morning!

Before getting into the actual details of the post, we felt this appropriate:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8F3UE9qFsg&ob=av3e  (note: this is the edited version for the youngins who may read this blog).

As we mentioned yesterday, we have now officially arrived in Alaska.  We got in off the ferry last night and spent the night in Juneau.  However, we'd be getting ahead of ourselves if we didn't spend some time detailing our awesome trip to, and on, the Alaska Marine Highway.

On Monday, we left Prince George for the 7.5 hour drive across BC to Prince Rupert.  For the past week or so, we've been using a book called "The Milepost," which was given to Tammy by her sister for the holidays this year.  This book is amazing.  It details stops along EVERY mile of the drive between Seattle and Alaska, including where to stop for gas, camping, bathrooms, etc.  Tammy planned out an amazing drive to Alaska using this book, and it's been exceptionally useful thus far.

However, we began to get a bit concerned in Barkerville about the planned route because we had heard that some of the highways in BC were closed due to extreme forest fires.  We asked about it in Prince George, and were (thankfully) told that the highway we planned on using was still open.  However, we were told that if we traveled south we would either get "fined or dead."  The biggest forest fire, located close to the highway we needed, was only 20% contained.  Needless to say, we did the drive as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, we missed the wildfires.  However, the smoke created from the fires was extreme and overwhelming.  There were periods where it was hard to breathe in the car because of the surrounding smoke.

That is not fog obstructing our vision; all of the haze you see is smoke from the wildfires.

Nonetheless, we made it to Prince Rupert perfectly safe.  Then we boarded the ferry to Juneau!

The ferry works just like a regular car ferry.  Basically, you drive the car onto the ship and then go up on the decks, where there are cabins, lounges, and places to pitch a tent if you choose not to get a cabin.  We chose to get a cabin.

The 30-hour ride was amazing.  We saw such cool stuff, including:

Other fishing boats

Beautiful lighthouses

Small Alaskan towns (only accessible by boat, and with no roads within them such that the residents have to use boats to get from one place to another)

                                     

Wildlife, like sea lions (above)  and whales (below, you can see the blow coming out of the water by the end of the rainbow)

and glaciers!

                       

There was also a forest ranger on the ship giving information about wildlife and the towns we stopped in.  Tammy learned some really interesting facts, including that the capital of Alaska used to be Sitka (of "The Proposal" fame).  But, one day the governor woke up and realized that no one was in Sitka except for him.  So, pretty much over night, he packed his bags and moved to Juneau, thereby moving the capital with him.  Since that time, there have been many attempts to move the capital out of Juneau and into another Alaskan city (he didn't mention which, but presumably Anchorage), but none have been successful thus far.  The legislature approved moving once, but then decided not to when they realized how much it would cost.

Today we're exploring Juneau and the glaciers surrounding.  Then tomorrow we're back on the ferry heading to Haines on our final stretch of the trip!

We Made It . . . Kind Of . . .

It is 12:15a Alaska time (4:15am EST) and we have officially set foot in Juneau, Alaska.  We got off the ferry about an hour ago and then drove into town to our motel.  We'll try to do a full, formal update tomorrow morning with pictures of the ferry . . . but we just wanted to say we are officially here.  We drove on an Alaska highway.  And we saw the Alaska highway signs.  This state will be our home for the next year.  We are home.  Kind of . . .  (750 more miles of driving to go between Haines and Anchorage).

Anchorage on Monday!  Then we're officially settled :)

Ahoy hoy!

Good morning/afternoon!

After a long drive yesterday, we finally made it to Prince Rupert.  This morning, we're spending a few hours re-organizing the car/our packing, and then we drive onto the car ferry for 40 hours.  By the next time we write, we'll be in Alaska!

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday, so we're posting a comparative chart today instead.  As you may (or likely don't know), Steve's witty and awesome brother left a comment a few days back saying: "Managed to cross [the US] faster than Lewis and Clark!  Good for you!"

Naturally, we started thinking of reasons we were able to cross the US so much faster than Lewis & Clark or the people riding covered wagons across the Oregon trail.  We came up with this list while hiking through Whistler, and it seemed a lot funnier then than it did when actually putting it together.  With that said, here is our take on why we were able to cross the trails so much faster:

So, there it is.  For those still keeping track, we've driven about 4500 miles at this point.  Tonight we'll take the ferry from Prince Rupert, arriving in Juneau late tomorrow night.  We'll spend Wed night and Thurs night in Juneau, and then hop back on the ferry to Haines, AK.  We'll then get back in the car and drive from Haines to Haines Junction (back in Canada!  The Yukon territory!) and then to Tok and Anchorage.  

That means a total of 4 border crossings, 3 subway sandwich stops, a ton of "moose xing signs" (no joke.  these litter the road between Prince George and Prince Rupert like deer crossing signs in MI), 2 bears, 2 moose, and a very wet tent!

Talk to you all in a few days!

The Cariboo Way

Welcome Back!

We've made it to Prince George, BC, en route to Prince Rupert.  In an interesting fact, we have now driven essentially as far north as we will drive.  The ferry will take the us the remaining amount of the way up north, and we will then continue west to Anchorage!

We've had an exciting few days.  As of our last post, we moved on to the town of Whistler.  You may have heard of it.  It was the site of the 2010 winter Olympics:

Given that it is summer now, and given that the town struggled enough in February to ensure there was enough snow, skiing and snowboarding were not options.  So, we opted to go for a short hike around the area.  The town of Whistler has actually done an amazing job converting its winter cross-country skiing trails into biking and hiking trails for the summer tourists.  This led to some awesome hikes with beautiful views around the lakes.

Along the hiking path, Tammy learned a new interesting fact.  As a special treat for our lack of posting recently, today we'll have a few.  So, for interesting fact number one, Whistler has a special type of toad that is really small.  In fact, because it is so small, the resort is forced to close some trails for 4 weeks every summer to allow the frog to migrate without humans stomping on it.

We also decided while in Whistler to do a hike around our campground.  We stayed a few kilometers north of Whistler, by Nairn Falls.  This also led to some incredible hikes with amazing views of the area:

The hike also led to an amazing waterfall that was exceptionally powerful.

Yesterday we left Whistler, and drove to Barkerville.  Barkerville is an old gold mining town about 2 hours from Prince George.  Tammy's friend, Wayne, recommended we stop there on our way to Prince Rupert.  Tammy fact number 2 is that, at its peak, Barkerville was the largest town west of Chicago and north of San Fransisco!

For those from Michigan, Barkerville has become a tourist destination very reminiscent of Greenfield Village.  There are tons of people walking around in costume and acting out the 1880s time period, the buildings all have little displays inside set to look like the time of the town's golden age (no pun intended), and there is a theater that does a musical revue show.

In Barkerville, we also went on a stage coach ride.  We got to sit on top, above the driver!

In fact, by sitting above the rider (or close to next to her) we were sitting "shotgun."  This is Tammy fact number 3, which is that the term "sitting shotgun" originally referred to the person who sat next to the driver of the stagecoach.  This person carried the shotgun rifle, ready to attack anyone or anything that may try to prevent the party from moving forward.

Now we're relaxing in Prince George with the long trip to Prince Rupert ahead.  Then we'll be hopping on the Alaska Marine Highway on Tuesday, taking the 40-hour ferry ride to Juneau!  As of Wed evening, we'll finally be in Alaska!

Hooray!

Coming Up!

Hi, Everyone:

A quick update from a coffee shop outside of Barkerville, BC.  We don't have a lot of internet right now, so we'll have to wait to do a full out post for a few more days.  However, be on the lookout for some awesome post ideas we've come up with while hiking, including:

(1) An explanation of how we beat Lewis & Clark across the US (courtesy of Steve's brother's comment)
(2) A detailed guide of what an evening in our campsite looks like
(3) Tours of Whistler and Barkerville!

Hopefully we'll have better wi-fi tomorrow!  Have a great evening until then!

Moving on Up

Hello!

We are northern bound as we travel along British Columbia on the way to Prince Rupert.  Today, we are a few kilometers outside of Whistler in the town of Pemberton.  Steve has to say, the more northern you get in Canada, the more the Canadian accent comes through.  It's awesome.

Also, for those who don't watch the Colbert Report, he did an amazing bit two nights ago about the United States being ranked number 11 by Newsweek in its recent ranking of countries.  We both got a really big laugh out of why he thinks Canada should  be ranked below the United States.  His comment: "Canada?!  Really?  Their national anthem begins with 'oh . . . Canada . . . .'"

(Watch it Here:  http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/350635/august-17-2010/newsweek-ranks-the-world-s-best-countries  NOTE:  Comedy Central does not allow Canadians to watch the videos on its website, so hopefully that link works . . .) 

This, of course, led to Steve's telling of the greatest Canada-based joke ever.  
Question: How did Canada get its name?
Answer:  They just started saying letters.  C, Eh?  N, Eh?  D, Eh?

Yesterday, we took every Vancouver resident's recommendation and toured Stanley Park.  The day started out a bit cloudy, and the bridge we needed to cross was closed from 3:30-6:30p, so we decided to skip the 9k bike ride and just walk around the park instead.   It turned out to be quite the nice day.  We started by touring the totem poles in the park.

Tammy says her fun fact is that the totem poles were neither worshiped nor idolized.  Instead, the totem poles tell stories, both true and mythical.  We actually spent some time reading the plaques to find out what story and characters each of the totem poles contain.

We then decided to do a short walk along the sea wall.  It was a rather pleasant day, with lots of people fishing, and made for some really nice views of the city.

We then spent last night camping a few kilometers outside of Vancouver.

Today, we drove up to Whistler along the Sea to Sky Highway.  This is a somewhat detour route that provides incredible views of the mountains and lakes.

We did a few detour trips along the way to look at magnificent waterfalls and roaring rivers.

Now we're planning on hiking around the Provincial parks and visiting Whistler tomorrow.  Then we'll spend a few days driving up the coast, making stops in historic mining towns and looking at First Nation artifacts, and then we'll jump on the ferry on Tuesday evening.  Internet may be a bit spotty between now and then, so there will be some updates but probably not every day!

Until then, have a great rest of your week/weekend!

P.S. For those interested, we have hit approximately 4,000 miles, and so decided to take the car in for an oil change and inspection.  All is clear!  They say the car is doing great, the brakes have a lot left in them, and it will make it to Anchorage no problem!  Hooray!

Rod's girlfriend, named Alberta, lives in Vancouver

EDITOR'S NOTE: TAMMY INFORMS ME THAT THE THINGS CRABS ARE CAUGHT IN ARE CALLED "POTS," NOT "PODS" AS STEVE SUGGESTED YESTERDAY.  STEVE APOLOGIZES FOR THE ERROR.  Moving on . . .

Hello again!

Welcome back to another exciting blog update!  For those interested, if we could go straight to Anchorage from here, without concerns of water or roads, we would be 2130km away!

Today we had quite the full day touring Vancouver.  We started the morning by doing a 3-hour walking tour of the city, which was recommended to us by Steve's friend, Jamie.  It took us all around the city, which was quite a distance.  However, we got to see some really awesome parts of town, like the beach, the shopping district, the judicial building (Steve was pretty excited about that one), and some of the original Edwardian homes that still exist in the neighborhoods.

After walking around a bit, Tammy decided it was time for Olympic fever!  So, we started an Olympics tour. First, we saw the countdown clock the city installed in 2007 to let people know how close the city was to opening ceremonies.

Obviously, it has been turned off now that the whole shebang has ended.  BUT, this was also where we learned Tammy's fun fact of the day.  The clock is located right outside the art museum and next to a fountain.  The art museum, however, used to be the local government building.  Some allege that the government built the fountain as a way to stop people from protesting immediately outside the building.

We also went to the cauldron, which is the outdoor Olympic torch.

Unlike during the Olympics, it was no longer surrounded by fences or construction, so we could walk right up to it.

On our path to exploring the Olympic icons, we also got to see an awesome water-based airport.  There were tons of small water planes taking off and landing from here, and we spent some time just watching in amazement as these things went from being fully stopped to up in the air in such a short time, and with such force.  We were also really excited to see the floating Chevron gas station in the water, since our friend Jim had talked to us last summer about the company's efforts to get this thing into place in time for the Olympics.

After exploring the Olympic monuments, we headed to Granville Island.  Tammy previously earned the title of "Keeper of the Map" by our friend Rese while traveling South America together.  Thus, she took control of deciding the route we would take to get to Granville Island.  Unfortunately, although her navigation skills are awesome, the map was unclear and we ended up on what felt like a bridge to nowhere.  We spent a good mile walking along the highway crossing over the water (on a very narrow pedestrian walkway), until we finally ended up about a 1/2 mile from the actual market.  However, the walk was well worth it once we arrived.

Inside was an amazing collection of stands selling fruits, vegetables, pastas, cheeses, meats, dairies, and other assorted goodies.  We quickly put together a plan for dinner tomorrow (stir-fry!) and bought all of the necessary vegetables, rice, and sauces. 

Then we decided to leave the island (which, by the way, is not actually an island) for dinner.  For fear of having to walk so far again, we splurged and paid for the ferry across the small waterway.

Now we're back and getting ready for another exciting day exploring Stanley Park tomorrow (including a 9k bike ride!).  Then, we're off to Whistler tomorrow night!