Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver

So we made it to our last long trek, the Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver.  We had a choice of taking the regular highway, or this very scenic route, which of course we chose.  The difference in mileage actually said about 15 miles shorter on the Sea to Sky, and showed about the same time to drive.  I had heard that there were a lot of twists and turns, but again, Google maps said they were basically the same, time and mileage wise....heh heh heh!

We started off quite well, and it was a beautiful drive, but about 50 miles in we did hit some "twists and turns", make that hairpin twists and turns!  Oh, and did I mention the 14% grades???  Yeah, that's pretty steep in a 33 foot motorhome.  Up AND down, again and again, this time 11%, the next 13%...for about 50 miles.  Those 50 miles to us 3 hours by themselves!  Well, again, at least the scenery was spectacular!  Here's a sampling:

It was well worth it, and I would do it again, but probably not all in one day.  It took us about 9 hours to drive.  We were quite tired (Mario especially) when we got into Vancouver that night.  So now we've completed about 8,000 of the 14,000 total miles we expect to log on this trip.  In less than three months!  So I guess we're going to be taking it much more slowly for then next 7 months!  The park in Vancouver has an indoor pool, so we've taken advantage of it.  Here are some photos of Mario playing around with the kids:

Tomorrow I'm taking Genny, Jason, and Michael to the Science museum here, should be a lot of fun.  Mario and Ryan will be going out to hotels.  On Saturday we're all going downtown to explore, so I should have some more photos by then.  Sunday we leave for Portland, Oregon, our first stop back in the US!

Down the Cassiar Highway

So, from Anchorage on Sept 15th, we drove to the Yukon border, and after a quick stop through customs (our easiest one so far), we stopped at a provincial park for the night. On Sunday we continued on to Whitehorse, and stayed at the same park we had on the way up. Nothing special, but at least it was open! Many of the parks had begun to close for the season, and we had to keep checking each day to see if they were going to turn off the water. Thankfully the weather cooperated, and they didn't have to turn it off at all. One evening we got a beautiful shot of the sunset...

 

 

The following Friday we left on our 1,000 mile weekend, stopping first just near the start of the Cassiar Highway.  Here are some maps to show where we are...

 

We had been told that the Cassiar had some magnificent views, and they didn't disappoint.  I took a LOT of photos, but I didn't want to post too many.  Here are a few...

 



We stopped for lunch, and a chance for the kids to run around and burn off a bit of energy!!  1,000 miles over three days can be really boring, even if the scenery is beautiful! 

 

 

On Saturday we stopped at Miziadin Lake Provincial Park, it was the last night they would be open for the season, and we were told we would have to "vacate the premises" by 8am!  Good thing Mario's an early riser - we were gone by 6:30 that morning!  It  was another beautiful park, one we'd like to come back to when we can spend a bit more time.  I love the way the water mirrors the trees and sky!

 

 

So, by leaving at 6:30am, we were able to make it to Vanderhoof, BC by 2pm, and that's where we are now.  We'll be here another couple of days, and then go to Williams Lake on Saturday, continuing to Vancouver this Sunday.  We're getting closer and closer to being back in the US for the rest of the trip.

 

Now I have you all up to date!  I'll try to give you a recap of Vanderhoof tomorrow, before we head off!

 

Catching up to British Columbia

Okay, so I've missed a few blogs, again I'm sorry.  The kids being in school takes up a good bit of my time coupled with more work on the Skyware front, so by the evening I'm tired of looking at the computer...But I really want to keep this up to date.  So here's a brief recap from the last time I wrote.  We were in Anchorage at the beginning of September, and had a lovely dinner out for Jason's birthday at a place called the Moose's Tooth.  Apparently one of the mountains in the Central Alaska Range.


Moose's Tooth

From there we went down the Kenai Peninsula to Homer, a "quiet little drinking town with a fishing problem!"  Where we saw our first wildlife of Alaska, a bald eagle, perched on top of a large pole.  To be honest, I thought it looked very staged!

The best part was the drive up and down the Kenai coast where we got some beautiful photos of Mount Iliamna and Mount Redoubt. Mount Redoubt is a volcano which was last active in 2009, but has been quiet lately.



Mount Iliamna

Mount Redoubt

From Homer we drove up to Seward, which was another sleepy town, it had a great little park close to Waterfront Park, which is where we stayed. The day we arrived, a cruise ship was just leaving.

One night the kids (Mario included!) had a great time playing at the park.  Atfer a few days in Homer, we went back to Anchorage, and from there started our way back down to the lower forty-eight.  We had seen that there was a chance of snow in the mountains on the way down, so we were a bit eager to be on our way.  I'll continue with our trek down the Cassiar in the next blog.

  

Anchorage

So, the rainy weather we found in Denali followed us to Anchorage.  Thankfully it was just showery, so the days weren't a wash out.  Coming in to Anchorage gave us some magnificent views, here's the one I liked best:

 

 

We arrived in Anchorage just in time to catch the last day of the Alaska State Fair.  As you can see, the weather was still not cooperating, but at least the rain held off till we left.  The kids had a great time, playing games, going on the rides, getting the largest bag of popcorn we could find!  We did leave a bit earlier than we had planned, so as to stay ahead of the rain.

 Michael wanted to bring this one home with us, but we convinced him that we couldn't trade it for the CR-V, or they would have even less space to sit in!

 

Here's the prize-winning largest cabbage - nearly 70 pounds, I think it would take me forever to roll that many stuffed cabbage rolls up!!

 

The end of the day brought with it the revelation that this was "Yes Day."  It was amazing to me that after asking us almost daily if "today was yes day", they didn't ask even once that day.  When we told Genny she could have the leather purse that she didn't have enough allowance for, they didn't ask.  When Mario bought a mashmallow shooter for Michael, they didn't ask.  When we let them play the arcade games and go on every ride they wanted to , they still didn't ask.  Even when we told Michael that he could have donut pizza (that's a slice of pizza sandwiched inside a donut! - I REALLY thought the jig was up at that point!), they STILL didn't ask.

 

So, here's the picture, not of the shocked faces, but of the glory (resignation??) they felt once they realized that we hadn't said no to them all day!  For those of you who haven't heard, we have one day each year that is "Yes Day."  Where we will say Yes to any reasonable request...sorry, no jetting off to Paris, no purchase of a car, but we really do try to give the kids anything they ask for.

 

Next stop the Kenai peninsula, Homer, and Seward, before we come back to Anchorage.

I'm back! Here's Denali...

Okay, sorry to everyone for the silence.  I've really been meaning to post, and time has just gotten away from me.  So, now I'll just set the clock back to last week when we were in Denali...

We had a great time in Fairbanks, and stayed there for over a week.  It was a very nice change from the shorter stays we had been having.  During the week we received quite a few packages from home - all the kids schoolbooks, laptops, and materials for the year.  The think we added a few hundred pounds to the weight of the RV, and yes, I managed to find a place to put everything!  I didn't realize I had overlooked so much packing space, but now I'm glad I did!!

We left Fairbanks Thursday afternoon (Aug 30), for Denali, and stayed just inside the park. It was beautiful, but no hookups, no cable, just time together. Fall had come, and the colors were changing, it was really a great time to be there. Unfortunately we are still part of the 70%, apparently on 30% of those who visit Denali ever see Mt. McKinley. I still have hope, though, maybe the weather will clear when we go back to Anchorage.


While we were in Denali we went to see a dogsled demonstration. Genny really enjoyed seeing all the dogs, and wanted to know if we could adopt one!  I thought the demonstration was really cool, but I don't think I want to be around quite that much snow!

 On Saturday we celebrated our anniversary, and Jason's birthday a bit early with a chocolate cake made by Mario and Jason.  Chocolate icing with crunchy peanut butter filling, it was delicious!  Sorry, no photos because we were too busy eating!  :-)  Sunday we drove to Anchorage, and I'll tell you more about that in the next blog...I promise it won't take me so long to write it!

 

 

Rainy days...

So I guess sooner or later it was inevitable, we've had some gorgeous weather, but now the rain has caught up to us. It rained on and off on Saturday, most of the day yesterday, and it's been showery today as well. Tomorrow and Wednesday look a bit better, but then rain is in the forecast again for the end of the week, through the weekend.  We took advantage of the rainy weather to watch some movies, Men in Black II, and the Hunger Games.

Saturday we also went to North Pole, Alaska, which even the kids were saying was just named that to get people to come to the town and spend money!  We went into a store called Santa's Workshop, which of course was filled with ornaments of all kinds.  They had a Santa there for photo ops and for kids to tell him their lists.  Michael wanted to sit on his lap and ask for a Lamborghini and a menorah!  They also had a 2x3 foot case of Hanukkah items, but it just screamed "political correctness!" to me.  Mind you, I didn't see anything for Kwanzaa...

The best part about Fairbanks is how bike friendly it is.  There's a bike path from the campground that goes right down both sides of the main road close to us.  The kids have been going to the store, and to mini-golf.  I had thought they could go to the movies today, but since school's already in session up here, the theater doesn't open till 4pm.  Yesterday morning Michael and Jason biked 4+ miles to the local hobby shop, to find out that it's closed both Sundays and Mondays!

We'll probably leave for Denali on Thursday, but don't worry, Mario won't be backpacking there.  Also keep in mind that the guy who was just killed had photos on his cell phone that progressively got CLOSER to the bear, to within a range of about 50 feet!!  The national park service recommends staying at least 1/4 mile away from grizzlies..so, yeah, I think we're too smart for grizzly bear close ups!

On to Fairbanks...

Well, we've made it to Fairbanks, the northern most spot we'll reach.  The sun doesn't set until nearly 10pm, which kind of makes it a bit challenging to get the kids to bed, since it's still light out till around 11!  I think they're starting to get used to going to sleep without darkness.

On the way up to Fairbanks, we stopped in Delta Junction, at the end of the Alaska Highway, 1,422 miles from Dawson Creek. They had a nice Visitor's Center there, and since it's getting towards the end of the season everything was half price! We also had some fun with the large sculptures at the visitor's center. Really, the mosquitos aren't quite that large here (but almost!)

 

Here's our campsite, that's the Chena River on the right, and Ryan's "room" behind the picnic table!  It's a nice site, we'll probably stay till the middle of next week or so, then on to Denali.  One of the book's we've picked up on this trip is called "The Milepost," which is a mile by mile accounting of the major highways that lead to and around Alaska.  It's a bible to anyone taking this trip.  There's actually one of the editors staying here as she gathers more information!