Long, Awesome Trip

Yesterday we went to Valdez-it was a pretty long trip: 6 hours down and 6 hours back! But it was really cool. Here are some of the things we saw:

The Trans-Alaska pipeline. In some places you can see it stretch as far as the eye can see.

Dad and Susanne with the Worthington Glacier int he background. It was pretty cool to be able to just drive right up to the glacier-well, almost right up to it. I've been curious about the temperature of the water all along, so I stuck my hand in just to see:

Boy, was it cold! You would NOT want to go swimming in there!!

Here's a close-up shot of the glacier ice. We saw a whole group of people walking out on the ice way up high. Pretty crazy, if you ask me!

We also stopped at a few neat waterfalls along the way. Here's me, Dad & Susanne at Bridal Veil falls:

And here's Horsetail Falls, too:

We stopped at a place right outside of Valdez where you could see salmon spawning in this little stream.

Then we went to Chitina to see if we could meet up with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Kathy and cousins Gracie and Robbie. We saw them in their car as they were coming around a bend in the road, all done dip-netting for salmon (which was a bummer because I would have liked to have seen that), but we followed them to their campsite and were able to visit for a little while:

My dad and my uncle talking. Then my aunt filleted up a fresh-caught salmon for us, which I'll get to try tomorrow night. (I've never really had salmon before, so I'll let you know how that goes).

Today we're off to Anchorage again, so I'll post all my Anchorage pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

Anchorage

So far I've seen a bit of Palmer and Wasilla, and today we went to Anchorage. They have these huge stores here called Fred Meyers-they're even bigger than Super Wal-Mart and they sell absolutely everything. So I've been there and we've had some nice lunches at local restaurants. Yesterday my dad bought fresh shelled peas from a farm, so we had a big old yummy bowl of those with dinner!

Today we went to Anchorage, where we saw the Native Heritage Center, which was pretty neat. They had replicas of traditional homes of all five of the native culture groups that are in Alaska. We saw some dancers performing Inupiaq dances and also some athletes who participate in the Native Olympic Games. Then we went to Anchorage where we had some yummy hot dogs from a street vendor and visited the Anchorage Museum, which was really neat. They had a great exhibit on Alaskan history and a bunch of neat art. My favorite piece was this amazing quilt that was a symbolic re-creation of the American flag in all these bright cheery colors!

Tomorrow we're going to Valdez, so I'll probably put up pictures on Saturday. Also, I bought a bunch of post cards today, so check your mailboxes next week! Miss you all!

A Much Needed Break From Driving

Sorry about the gobbledy-gook posts, everyone. I sent them from my phone, and I'm not sure why that happened. They were both letting you know that I am currently safe in Alaska!! I got to my dad's place yesterday evening. It is amazing beautiful here. I'm glad that I don't have to drive anywhere for a while, though!!

Here are few pictures from my travels along the Alaska Highway.

Here's the marker at the beginning of the Alaska Highway. There was no one around to take my picture, and it was to windy to do a self-timed shot..

A panoramic view of the Rockies. There are so many mountains around here; it's absolutely crazy!

Stone sheep licking minerals off the highway in Northern Rocky Mountains Provincal Park. I got tons of shots of these guys, especially the cute little one that's in the middle.

Liard River Hot Springs.....I've never been in a natural hot spring before. It was really cool (well, actually, really hot). Very relaxing apart from the voracious mosquitoes!

I saw a whole herd of bison on the road. This big guy seemed to be in charge, and he kept giving me the evil eye, like he didn't want me to move or go anywhere!

This was taken at Kluane Lake (I think-I saw so many lakes it's hard to remember) at about nine pm. Look how high the sun is in the sky!!!

At the US-Canadian border! It definitely was a feeling of accomplishment.

The Matanuska glacier. These are the Chugach Mountains, I think. There are so many mountain ranges around here, it's crazy. Every time you think that you've just seen the biggest mountain ever, you see a bigger one! The Wrangell-St. Elias mountains are huge-I don't have any pictures of those, but I'll get some on the way home. I can't wait to see Denali!!

Heart Attack at the Gas Pump

So you all know that I've been planning this trip for months. I have read so much stuff about camping, the Alaska Highway, bears, money, gas, etc....enough to keep you all informed of random trivia for years. So I was fully prepared for gas to be expensive. The last time I was driving in Canada, two years ago on PEI, I remember paying like 90 or 95 cents a liter. So far on this trip, I've paid like 108 cents a liter. Not terrible. But today I filled up from a quarter tank for 121!!!!!! I about passed out. But I'm already at historic mile 300 (which is like actual mile 280 or so), so hopefully I'll only need 4 more tanks.

Today was mostly long stretches of road with no one on them, not even any interesting wildlife. I'm currently in Fort Nelson, camping next to some very nice Swiss girls who helped me set up my tent. I'm assured that they never see bears in the campground, but I'm sleeping with my emergency whistle just in case (and slightly regretting my cheapskate-ness, which caused me to refuse to pay $40 bucks for bear pepper spray). But I'm sure I'll be fine!

Tomorrow I plan to go as far as Watson Lake, stopping along the way to see Muncho Lake & take a dip in Liard Hot Springs. (If I get really ambitious, I may try to make Teslin, but we'll see). Anyway, I'm eating some yummy chicken fingers in the saloon at the campground (which is decorated with saddle barstools) and then I'm going to peruse the Milepost before I fall asleep. It so weird that the sun isn't setting yet!

For those you have mentioned your geographical challenged-ness, here's a map of the Alaska Highway:

View Larger Map

I came from Seattle, up the Trans-Canada Highway to 97. I started this morning at Dawson Creek and will be following the red line to Tok, where I'll turn off to go towards Anchorage. Today's driving mostly was across the northern prairies, with tons of wind, but tomorrow I'll be going through the Northern Rockies.

Finally On the Way

I just couldn't resist the lure of my comfy (expensive) bed, so I didn't really get on the road until about noon today. I'm now in Fort St. John, where I got groceries and gas, and I'm hoping to make it to either Fort Nelson or Muncho Lake tonight. I may not check my e-mail again until Monday evening, just so you know. It is soooooooooooooooooo windy here, it's not even funny. I'm in a way glad I was in a motel last night, because I don't know  if poor Emerald would have made it through the night still standing, especially if I'd been lazy about the guy lines, which I won't be anymore, that's for sure!!

So my tentative itinerary is like this:

Saturday-to Fort Nelson, maybe as far as Muncho Lake
Sunday-to either Watson Lake or  Teslin
Monday-to Whitehorse
Tuesday-to Beaver Creek or maybe Tok
Wednesday-arrive in Wasilla by early afternoon!!!

Check you in a few days, hopefully with some amazing pictures.

A Hole in My Pocket and a Lost Filling at Mile 0

After a long day of driving, I have made it to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, where the Alaska Highway begins. For those of you who don't know, the Alaska Highway, or "Alcan" as it was called back then, was built during WWII to provide a land route to transports goods and troops to Alaska to help defend it against the Japanese. It begins in Dawson Creek, BC and travels for 1532 miles to Delta Junction, AK, just southeast of Fairbanks.

I'm sleeping in a (sort of expensive) Comfort Inn tonight because the campground did NOT have the grassy sites it promised, and I just didn't have it in me to pitch a tent on gravel at 10:30 p.m., even though it was still light out. So I may have to eat Oodles of Noodles until I get to Alaska, but at least I'll have one last comfy sleep before I have to spend then night with only a thin sheet of nylon between me and the grizzlies (can you tell I'm a little nervous about this?). And I get free breakfast, plus the chance to do some re-packing/organizing and laundry.

I was not in a picture taking mood today. I stopped in some towns along the way-Williams Lake, Quesnel, Prince George & Chetwynd, but mostly I just used the washrooms in the visitor's information centers, which are, as far as I'm concerned, Canada's best tourism invention. They have all the info and brochures you could want, plus friendly people who tell you things like how stupid it is to drive from Hell's Gate to Prince George in one go if you're starting at 5 pm, and best of all, clean bathrooms, free wi-fi and computers for you to check your e-mail. So unless you wanted to see the washrooms at the VICs or tons of lodgepole pines, there wasn't much to photograph.

I had gotten a tip from the fudge shop lady at Hell's Gate (Why do they sell fudge in all tourist attractions-I don't get it?). She told me the IGA in Chetwynd made THE best cinnamon buns. So I went in to have a look, but they didn't have icing, which in my book doesn't qualify them as proper cinnamon buns, so I bought some oatmeal peanut butter cookies instead. And as I was driving the last 50 or so kilometers to Dawson Creek, munching away on a cookie, a huge chunk of the filling from where I had a root canal (well, actually two root canals in the same spot) two years ago fell right out of my tooth. So far it doesn't hurt, so please pray it stays that way. Guess I shoulda gone with cinnamon buns after all, eh?

I feel weird not leaving with you a picture, so here's one from Yellowstone (which currently is winning the "My Favorite Place" award):

Have a good night, and I'll try to post again tomorrow. Comment, comment, comment-it makes me happy:-)!

On the Gold Rush Trail

Today I embarked on my less-than-well-planned portion of my journey. I know the route I'm going to take, and I know I want to end up in Alaska on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday, but I'm just taking the stops as they come. So tonight I'm at a campground/motel on the Yellowhead Highway in a little town called 100 Mile House. I spent the day driving along the Fraser Canyon, where I got to see an area they call Hell's Gate (so named because the Hudson Bay Company's scout tried to run it in his canoe and wrote in his journal that this part of the river was "surely at the very gates of hell", complete with a tram ride that literally made me nauseous...nothing like paying $20 to be scared out of your wits!!

So above is the touristy fake background shot (which you can tell is fake because trust me, I was no where near the window on the actual tram), but here's the real thing:

You see that bridge in the background? I bet it has an amazing view, but I couldn't tell you, because despite my best effort to muster all my courage, I just couldn't bring myself to walk out on the open grating. But I still got to see some amazing views of the Fraser Canyon and learn a lot about salmon and their life cycle:

Canada loves to give it's tourist routes names, so today I've been driving on the "Gold Rush Trail." This was one of the areas gold was found in the late 1800s. There is actually railroad tracks running on both sides of the canyon. This was taken from the spot where they laid the "golden spike" to connect the two parts of the railroad.

I'm going to try to make it to either Chetwynd or even maybe Dawson Creek (where the Alaska Highway begins) tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find wifi there and have more awesome pictures tomorrow!!! Don't forgot to leave me a comment.

North to Alaska

Well, I'm preparing to head over to the customs station and hopefully not get searched as I cross the border. I'll be out of phone contact for about a week, but I will try to be better about checking my e-mail.

Here's a few pictures from Seattle, which was absolutely awesome. If I ever get the urge to up and move somewhere new, this would be it. The weather is great, the mountains are beautiful, and it's a city, but on the small side, so it's pretty clean and not too crowded.

This was taken from a "duck" tour, which is one of those car things that can go on land or in the water. This is the city skyline from Lake Union.

The Space Needle.....touristy but definitely cool, although it was fogged in so no stunning views of Mt. Rainier. Bummer.

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Week One Summary

I am currently in a hotel just outside of Spokane, Washington, supremely excited to be sleeping in a real bed and not having to worry about mosquitoes (or grizzlies). And I have real internet access!!!!!!! So, without further ado, here are some highlight pictures!

This is my tent set up at a campsite in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota. I've affectionately nicknamed my tent Emerald. I have a lot of conversations with her over the course of a night, especially when it's windy and I  am encouraging her not to blow over.

                                                    Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So pretty.

The very flat prairie. The climate is so different. Very windy & dry. But beautiful in it's own way.

Badlands National Park. So strange and desolate, but also beautiful. I've never seen anything like it.

Mount Rushmore, which was pretty but sort of underwhelming. I kept thinking that it should look bigger than it does. But the Black Hills are very beautiful.

A huge double rainbow I saw while driving in Wyoming.

Overlooking the plains on the way up into the Bighorn Mountains. The scariest drive ever for me, but also the coolest. I've never been so high (almost 9,000 feet) before. So amazing....it really has given the expression "jaw-dropping" a whole new meaning for me.

Bighorn Canyon....the reward for making it over those crazy mountain switchbacks.

Old Faithful, faithfully erupting. I have so many amazing Yellowstone pictures. I can't believe I only got to see such a small part of it. I didn't get there until later in the day, but that worked out in my favor because twilight is the best time to see wildlife.  I saw tons of animals, including bison, elk, a whole bunch of birds, and of course the best....

Yup, that's a grizzly. Which I observed safely from my car, unlike the other stupid tourists, who were getting out of their cars, with their small children and following the bear into the woods. With their three year old children in tow!!!! C-R-A-Z-Y people!!!!

And here's my parting shot for now, so I can take advantage of this comfy bed I've splurged on tonight-a sunset scene in Yellowstone, overlooking the Madison River....

More later, including an update to my Picasa gallery so you can see all my pictures. Leave me a comment!!!

Wide Awake in Wyoming

I have safely made it through 11 states so far! I am currently ensconced in my tent in Sheridan, Wyoming resisting the soothing sounds of the interstate as they attempt to lull me to sleep. I had a very long, very amazing day visiting the Badlands & Mt. Rushmore and then driving through the Black Hills and across most of Wyoming. Tomorrow, I will be paying a visit to Old Faithful as I continue my trek west. Pictures (amazing ones at that) ARE coming soon, I promise, and as long as the dollars in my bank account continue to out-number my mosquito bites, I'll keep having a great time. Leave me some comment lovin'!

The Mighty Mississippi

My first view of the Mississippi from Pike's Peak State Park near Marquette, Iowa, at the confluence with the Wisconsin River. Amazing!
This is just a quick phone update because the campground's iternet is down. But I'll find some wi-fi tomorrow and post more pictures & details then.

450 Miles, 4 States and 1 Long Day

I have safely arrived at a campground near Toledo, OH, where I managed to set up my tent, eat dinner and get ready for bed in only 90 minutes! Sure, there have been a few snafus (including a late start, bad weather, some scary-looking guys in the site next to mine, and an un-charged air pump that means I'll be sleeping on an un-inflated air mattress), but despite all that, I'm happy to be embarking on this adventure.

I don't have any pictures today, because I forgot to put my memory card in my camera and I don't have the cord handy to retrieve the few pics I took out of the internal memory of my camera. But I drove through 4 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (which takes FOREVER), and then most of the way across Ohio. Because I got a late start, I didn't make any of the stops I had planned for today, but that's okay, because none of it was really "must-see" stuff for me.

I'm going to sleep now, so I can get up early tomorrow and make a few stops for some sight-seeing on the way to Madison, WI. I can't wait!!!!

Home Again (For Two Days Only...)

We are home safely from the Caribbean, safe, slightly sun-burned, and in my case, sick with bronchitis, which gave me the wonderful privilege of being treated by the ship's doctor!!!


Anyway, I of course have tons of pictures, but also tons of things to do (laundry, re-packing clothes, more laundry, seam-sealing my tent, etc), so for now I will just post a link to my Picasaweb album of all the trip pics from both my mom's camera and mine. http://picasaweb.google.com/melissaalake/Cruise2010?authkey=
Gv1sRgCO7s9pe5s6uHdQ#

At some point I will go through and pick out the better pics and make real posts with some details, but for now, suffice it to say that we had a wonderful time and I can't wait for my next adventure, starting in less than 40 hours!!!

Bon Voyage To Me!

We're currently sitting in the Brooklyn Terminal waiting to board the Carribean Princess! This shot of our ship doesn't do justice to how big it really is.

We'll be visiting Bermuda, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Grand Turk, returning to New York on July 11. I'll be out-of-touch until then but will post pics and details when I get back. (If I have time before Ruby & I hit the road, that is).