Celebrating 20

Best of the Trip Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Diana of Diana Rambles) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:09:00 +0000

We finally got the best pics from the trip uploaded to Shutterfly. Enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Bye Bye BAMH

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:15:00 +0000

Last year when we started planning our 20th anniversary trip to Alaska, we looked over our options for travel. We knew that RV travel was the way to go. We researched RV rentals and found out that it was going to cost a minimum of $8000 to rent. (125/day, 49 cents a mile over 100 miles a day, cleaning fee, household goods rental, 11% tax for a Class C) We'd still be paying for gas and we can not tow with a rental. So we started researching how much it costs to purchase. When we looked at a few RVs we decided we'd like to travel in a Class A (rental would have been $4K more) instead of a Class C. We figured if we purchased an RV and then sold it after the trip the difference would be FAR less than $8000. So we purchased BAMH and enjoyed our trip.

I put the RV up on CraigsList around 4:30pm yesterday. Calls and emails started flooding in by 5:15. We priced it a little more than we bought it for...and it was sold (asking price) by noon today! WOW~ how easy was that?!! We did put some work and repairs into it, but if you add up all those costs and subtract our selling price, we only paid around $1000. And I can tell you that we spent a little less than $7000 on entire trip costs. I did NOT count the price of groceries I bought in that. We carried ALL our non-perishables with us, I precooked and froze meat that lasted nearly the whole trip, so we only had to buy milk, produce, and bread. I only shopped in bigger stores in bigger towns/cities, so those costs weren't too bad. We still have LOTS of cereal and can goods left, which means my grocery costs over the next month or so will be lower.

So for people wondering how you can afford a 5 week trip to Alaska...do what we did!! Plan well, stick to your plan, and enjoy your trip of a lifetime!!
I guess this signals the end of the purpose of this blog. We will keep it open and continue to post about our trip and reviews of places we went and stayed.

Our last look at BAMH as the new owner is driving off with it!

HOME

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:31:00 +0000

8488 miles
36.5 days or 1/10 of a year
11 states & 3 provinces
???? dollars
139 loonies & toonies
1561 liters of diesel
3 repair bills
2 cracked windshields
1 bicycle ditched
1 spare tire fell off
0 accidents/incidents
0 sick/illness
1 minor injury (cut thumb)
1 arctic adventure
42 animal sightings
100s of bald eagles
1 amazing mountain
28 glaciers
18 days w/o a shower
5 days w/o rain
28 days w/ ice cream
5 pounds gained
18 loads of laundry in our rv
8 blogger meet-ups
0 major arguments or fights
3000+ photos taken
A LIFETIME OF MEMORIES

Meeting More Bloggers & A Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:00:00 +0000

On Tuesday we arrived in Ellensburg, WA around 9:30pm and our online blogging friends, Cora & Jim, were waiting to meet us. They met us on the edge of town and we followed them to the Fred Meyer parking lot. We were ready to park and relax. It was our 2nd night in a row where we were driving in the dark. Not big fans of that. We want to hightail it home, but I am guessing we will stop before darkness.

Cora & Jim are a hoot! I connected with them online (via Kim) because they are waiting to adopt from Burundi & China. We adopted from China a few years ago and I am still plugged into the online adoption community. When we started planning our trip to AK we figured we might get a chance to meet Cora & Jim in WA. When we turned south due to RV issues, the plan to meet was on. They were troopers to stay up late (Jim gets up for work early!) to meet us and we had a lot of laughs. Jim is a great artist and he brought some pictures he created for us and they gave us a BUNCH of WA cherries. I was so excited because we had spent several hours traveling past fruit stands and we didn’t take the time to stop at any of them. Anyway, we spent about 90 mins with Jim & Cora and everyone had a good time. Cora & Dori bonded and the boys enjoyed Jim. Jim just got a new camera (named Precious) and he actually let Jake touch it. WOW! We had fun trying to take jumping photos in the parking lot. I will go pilfer the pics of Jim to post. LOL!While they are waiting to adopt, Jim & Cora are holding a few fundraisers to support their adoptions. Cora sews adorable outfits and blankets and sells them on her Little Misses Blankets & Stuff blog and together they have created Color Me Home books. These coloring books are awesome! We have ALL of them! Jim draws the pictures and Cora compiles the books. These are NOT your typical coloring book. They’ve done a Under the Sea, Transportation, Dragons, and Animals. Take a look at some of the pages we’ve colored and you will see that each page is detailed but not cluttered with extras that take away from the design. They are perfect for all ages! Eric loves to color them too! We got a sneak peak of the upcoming Princess book which is going to be a story of sorts.Cora recently started making crayon rolls that can be used with the coloring books. I got one for each of my kid and they love them! Dori got crayons and the boys each got the colored pencil rolls. Dori has done a lot of coloring on the trip and it’s been nice to NOT have crayons all over the place. We also like how there is a cord with a cord stop on it. Dori can roll them up and secure them herself. Cora is in the process of making up a bunch of these to sell at a local festival in August, but I am sure she’d be happy to make any you want to order. The crayon rolls are $10 for 16 crayons, $12 for 24 crayons, and the colored pencil rolls are $15.I know that several of our readers have younger kids or grandkids who would LOVE these coloring books. I have made a donation to Cora & Jim so that they can send one of these great books to one of our readers. To enter you just need to leave a comment in this post saying why you’d like to win the free book. The winner will get their choice of books (Under the Sea, Transportation, Dragons, Animals, or maybe even the Princess if it’s done!) and it will be mailed straight from WA to the US post address of your choice. If you don’t win, don’t fret! These books can be purchased for a donation of $5 + a shipping charge. Order several and save on shipping. Great to have on hand for gifts. See the Color Me Home blog for more info.

The giveaway will go through Friday, July 30th. I will announce the winner on July 31st. If you are entering the giveaway and you don’t have your email linked to your blogger account you can check back when the giveaway is over and contact me then or just leave your email address in your comment now.

Jim sent this to us before the trip. Eric colored it and
I laminated it and put it up in the window of the rig.

Still Trucking...

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:11:00 +0000

We had good wifi last night, but we swam, ate ice cream, and socialized.

Right now we are about 40% across SD. If we push it we can be home tomorrow night. We'll see how the next few hours go and decide. It's really HOT out so we really don't want to stop til it's cooler. We see rain just to the north, but we this we might miss it. Bummer! We have quite the bug collection that we want washed off.

At this point I might just update after we get home. I will post about meeting our friends before that!

Diana
- Sent from my Palm Pre

WiFi?

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:26:00 +0000

Last night we stayed in the Fred Meyer parking lot in Ellensburg, WA so no wifi. Tonight we are at an RV park in Garrison, MT and the wifi is iffy. I need a better connection to be able to do a decent post with pics. Overall we are putting in longer days so we can get home, which means there really isn't much excitement...but I do want to post about some online buddies we met last night. That post will include a cute little giveaway.

Would like to make it to SD tomorrow, but it is more likely to be WY.

Diana
- Sent from my Palm Pre

We're in the states, eh!

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:38:00 +0000

We crossed back into the US about an hour ago. RV got fixed quickly and is running well. So nice to be able to run the A/C as it's getting warmer & warmer as we go south.

We really LOVED British Columbia!! We will vacation in BC again! Bummed we missed Jasper & Banff, but our safety is more important. Good thing we turned south yesterday! The Intertional Truck service dealer in Kamloops was professional and went over the RV with a fine tooth comb. The problem was the ignition switch relay was going bad. One side was all corroded. I wish the place in Fairbanks would have figured out that both the ignition switch and ignition switch relay were bad, but this is just how it turned out. We are confident that we will arrive home safely.

3 nights ago at the RV park in Hyder we met a family from Illinois...similar ages to us with kids around the same ages. They only live an hour from us and left for their trip a day earlier. They just drove by us when we were getting fuel and then we just passed them as they pulled into a Walmart. How funny that we crossed paths like that.

We plan on getting down to I90 before stopping for the night and then we head east tomorrow. Depending on how far we drive each day...we might make it home by Saturday night or early in the day on Sunday!!

Diana
- Sent from my Palm Pre

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:22:00 +0000

It's now July 20 and we haven't had internet in several days so I am behind on blogging. I think I will just review the past several days in one post.

On Saturday (7/17) we left the campground and I drove for the first time. I was helping move the rig up so that Eric could pick up some blocks we put down and I just kept driving. The Cassiar was the perfect road for me. It's remote and not crowded. I drove about 160 miles and I think I did pretty good. The kids said it was a smoother ride than when dad drives, but I think they were just trying to push his buttons.

The Cassiar is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and we highly recommend it to anyone traveling north. It gets a bad rap of being a hard road to drive. The top part is in the Yukon and has some issues, but it's far better than parts of the Alaska Hwy. There was a horse in the road at one point that would not move. I had to inch forward and keep honking the (regular) horn to get it to move. We saw lots of bear scat on the road as we approached the junction to Stewart-Hyder, but only saw one small black bear. Stewart-Hyder is very interesting. It's at the top of the Portland Canal which is the most northern ice-free port in Canada. There are several glaciers in the area. Hyder is a funky little town on Alaska. The US does not maintain a customs station but Canada does. It didn't make sense to me but someone explained that booze and cigarettes are tax free and a lot cheaper so it's truly about customs and not immigration. When we left Hyder the custom's officer got into our RV and asked us lots of questions.

We stayed at a cute little RV park called Camp Run-A-Muck. They have WiFi, but the connections were SUPER slow so all I managed was to update my FB status. I did do a few loads of laundry since we have full hook-ups. On Sunday morning we got up and went up to the Fish Creek bear viewing platform. Thd salmon have not started running yet so the bears were not out. We were a little bummed that the salmon are late this year, but it was still a neat place to visit. Parker said he wants to work there someday. We also drove up to the massive Salmon Glacier, which is the largest glacier accessible by car. It was an amazing site. Dori & Park has some fun playing in some snow.

We got a late start out of Hyder and drove 200 miles to Smithers, BC. What a cute town! We stayed at the municipal campground. We were SOOO tired and all headed to bed a little earlier. For the 2nd night in a row, it actually got dark.

Yesterday we got an early start out of Smithers and our plan was to drive east to Prince George and then head toward Japser and Banff. We were traveling up a hill (using the passing lane to pass a logging truck) and the RV lost power. It was a super tense moment but Eric was able to get it started before we started rolling backward or someone hit us. We immediately made the decision that we needed to turn south toward the US at Prince George and avoid the mountains. We stopped in the visitor center parking lot for lunch and I went in and asked about our driving options. They agreed that with potential issues with the RV that we should not go through the mountains as there are very few towns.

We headed south out of Prince George and decided to go as far as possible. When we stopped in Williams Lake to make dinner we decided to push it to Kamloops. We knew it would be about 10pm before we got there. We had more issues with the RV the last hour before we stopped. It was hilly, curvey, and dark and it got quite scarey when the RV died and wouldn't start right away. We managed to make it to Kamloops and parked in the Costco lot for the night. We did talk to another RVer who gave us some advice about our rig and the best route to the US. We had planned on taking the freeway south, but the man said that it cuts straight up through the mountains and we should avoid it.

Eric didn't sleep well and was up right away this morning, which woke me up. We decided that we needed to find a shop to take a look at the RV (maybe bad fuel or need an oil change?) so we headed out right away. There were several truck shops about 1/4 a mile from Costco, but the RV died trying to get there. We parked it in a lot, unhooked the Jeep, and Eric went around to several shops in the area. We found a place that thought they could take a look at the rig around 9:30, which is actually right now. With the wait it cut out this morning and we couldn't get it to start again for about 5 mins (3 times!) we realize we won't be back in the US by lunch as we hoped. We were really hoping to make it to the US and have someone take a look at it there, but we can barely make it 2 blocks without it dying. It seems to be some kind of electrical issue. We think it could be related to the ignition switch, but we aren't sure. We called Eric's dad this morning and he wasn't quite sure what the issue is. We kept the call short since we have to pay roaming in Canada.

Right now I am about a mile away from the truck shop at a McDonalds with the kids. There is no WiFi here so we are about to head to Starbucks to see if they have WiFi. Hopefully the RV is a quick and cheap fix (I won't hold my breath) and we can be to the US by the evening.

**Will update photos & video when we can!!**

Goodbye Alaska Highway

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 06:16:00 +0000

We ended up sleeping in a little bit this morning. We didn't have the best night's sleep (that's what you get for FREE) and we were chilly. Eric aired up tires and I grabbed some baked goods at Starbucks (thanks P&P!) before getting back on the highway. I tried the ATM again and it would not let me get any money. It said my daily allotment was exceeded. Grrr!! I took our money before midnight CST, so there shouldn't be an issue. I am not sure what is up. I was able to take out money one night and then the next morning when we first got into Canada. So worse comes to worse, we will use the credit card.

Today's drive along the Alaska Hwy was very pleasant. The surface of the highway was good and rough areas were well marked. The fist 250 miles is a portion we covered on the way up. We stopped to make lunch at one of the Continental Divide rest areas that we stopped at before. We didn't want to go back all the way on the same road, so we decided to take the Cassiar Hwy back.
It turns south and travels through western British Columbia paralleling the inland passage of Alaska.

At first the Cassiar really stressed Eric out. It was like turning onto a small sideroad, even though it was paved. Overall it hasn't been bad. We aren't driving as fast as we were most of the day, but we still arrived at the Boya Lake Provencial Campground with plenty of day left. We actually stopped much earlier than we do many days. This lake is just so beautiful. It water is tourquoise blue and crystal clear. The trees and mountains reflect so well in the lake. It's just breath-taking! We are camped right by the swimming and boating dock so the kids wanted to go swimming right away. The glacial water is in the 40s. Parker jumped in and was out of the water super quick. The look on his face told how cold it was. After dinner, a walk, and some s'mores by the fire, Eric & Jake decided to have a man contest. They decided to jump into the lake and whomever was in longest was the manliest. They were crazy and lasted about 6 mins. You can check out the video below. Enjoy the gorgeous pics from the day too!

Goodbye Alaska

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:14:00 +0000

We set a 7am alarm to get on the road from Tok as we had nearly 400 miles to cover to get to Whitehorse (Yukon Territory, Canada). We topped off both vehicle with gas and got on the road. We had about 90 miles to the border. Canada customs is another 20 miles down the road. There is not a lot along this stretch of the road. We did see rivers, creeks, and lakes looking quite full along the way. There was major rain in Alaska several days ago which caused flooding in the area. In fact, the Taylor Hwy had many parts washed out. Several people were stranded along the road. We drove that road into Alaska a few weeks ago. Last night I called an RV park at Border City to see if they had any spaces and they said they were flooded. As we drove by we saw that the RV park was surrounded by water and several RVs were stranded there. We were thankful to not be a part of any of this flooding. We sailed through customs with no issues.

The stretch of the Alaska Highway today was bad. We were told that it was horrible from Beaver Creek all the way to Whitehorse, but that's not the case. Construction starts in Alaska about 15 miles before the border. It's rough going from the border to Beaver Creek. It's absolutely HORRIBLE from Beaver Creek until about Destruction Bay. Frost heaves and uneven pavement that really pushes you side to side on the road. We are taking the Cassiar Hwy tomorrow which is known to be bad, but many people say this portion of the Alaska Hwy is worse. We hope so. From Destruction Bay to Haines Jct there are rough spots, but most are well marked and if you slow down all is OK. The road was pleasant from Haines Jct to Whitehorse. A few heaves along the way, but pretty smooth the whole way. It took us over 11 hours to drive the 393 miles yesterday. The trade-offs for going slow was the Jeep bumper still being entact AND our gas mileage when up to 10.6 mpg.

We got into Whitehorse and planned to get gas, money, and then check into a campground. We had issues getting money as the ATM said we were over the daily limit. This was frustrating as I had used the same bank in the Edmonton area and gotten out $500 no problem. I tried different amounts and different banks and got the same result. I ended up being able to get $200 from the first bank. We stopped by the public library to use the WiFi and check our bank balance. Plenty of money in there, so I was confused by not being able to get more than $200 out. Since we are low on funds (we are avoiding using our credit card and getting 3% fees on each transaction) and it was after 9pm and we wanted to get another early stop we decided to just park at Walmart. I never thought we'd do this on the trip, but it was late and I was concerned about having enough cash. We are going to be more remote over the next few days and there are places where we will need cash. We plan on hitting the ATM in the morning before hitting the road. Hopefully it's not to loud in the parking lot overnight.

Wrapping it up in Alaska

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:46:00 +0000

Eric was up early this morning and had breakfast burritos and coffee prepared before the rest of us got up. We headed out around 9am and headed east to the Matanuska Glacier. We unhitched at a rest area and drove the Jeep into the park. We were no prepared for hiking on a glacier, so the visit was a little disappointing. We didn’t get to climb out as far as we’d like because it was so slippery! I highly recommend crampons, spikes, Yaktrax, or similar to anyone who is going to visit. Even a hiking pole or 2 would be beneficial. I fell on the way back to the car, but I didn’t get hurt at all~ maybe a little bruise on my knee. It was pretty cool being up next to the massive glacier. The ice is a wonderful turquoise blue color. The ice absorbs all colors except blue. Even rivers that flow from a glacier are that beautiful shade of blue. Anyway, I guess that doesn’t sound so disappointing, but I wish we had gotten our money worth. The entry fees were $55 for the 5 of us so it would have been nice to be able to explore more. We did have to sign a huge waiver form before going out to the glacier. If you are prepared with the proper footwear, then you should have a grand time!The glacier pretty much signaled the end of our time in Alaska. We are headed east and then southeast toward home. We are back in Tok, Alaska which is about 90 miles from the border. We will be in Canada tomorrow morning. We want to put on some big miles, but we will have some rough roads and changes in elevation to deal with over the next few days so my guess is we will cover around 300-400 miles each day. We hope to get to Whitehorse tomorrow which is nearly 400 miles. Tomorrow is also the roughest stretch of highway on the trip, so we are going to try to get an early start. Eric had to so some reinforcement in the Jeep bumper this evening so we hope it holds. We saw a sign that said trading post today and wondered if they would trade 5 one way first class airline tickets to Illinois + shipment of our stuff in exchange for a big ass RV and an old jeep! LOL!

Not sure anyone reading this is on their way to Alaska soon. We have only used a few coupons our of our 2010 Great Alaskan TourSaver book. We want to sell it so we can try to break even. Since our time in Alaska was fairly short compared to many traveler, we didn’t have the flexibility it takes to get the savings out of the book. Just leave a comment and we can work out the payment and shipping! **Update: I put the TourSaver on eBay.**

Sarah Sighting?

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:37:00 +0000

We woke up a little earlier today (8ish) and headed over to the airport area. I dropped the guys off at the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum and Dori & I went shopping. The guys really enjoyed the museum and got a lot of time on the flight simulator. Dori & I shopped at the Alaska Shop at the visitor’s center in downtown Anchorage and then went to Trapper Jack’s a few doors down. It’s good that we had a time limit or I would have spent 100s of dollars. That store is so stuffed with every souvenir there is.We headed out of Anchorage around noon and headed NE. Right after we passed through Palmer we stopped at a scenic overlook and our day was changed by Sarah Palin. OK…it wasn’t Sarah Palin, but the woman looked like her from behind. She had a bunch of girls out for a birthday party and they were putting out a geocache. I was first to sign the log and the woman asked where we were headed. She encouraged us to go visit the Independence Mine State Historical site. We were going to go down the road a little further, but we ended up backtracking 2 miles into Palmer and we are camped at a GREAT little public campground. It’s called Matanuska River Campground and it’s only $15 for a site with electric. It’s been the cheapest night of the trip. There are tons of sites open.After we got settled we headed up to the Independence Mine. The elevation up there is 3500 ft, so we miscalculated our time. Eric was very excited when he realized that this was a place he saw on Lonely Planet once and wanted to visit. Our visit there was short because Eric & Parker were scheduled for a 4pm white water raft trip.They had a great time on the rafting trip. It was just them and the guides. The one guide drove along the river with them and took several photos. They burned the photos to a CD and gave it to us at the end. They had a GREAT time! The rafting trip was with Matanuska Madwater Rafting Company. Scott, the owner, did a great job to giving instructions to Parker. They provided neoprene dry suits so that they stayed warm and dry. At the end they had the guys practice a rescue swim. Parker jumped right in and floated about 40 yards downstream and then grabbed the rope they threw. He loved every minute of it!

The campground doesn’t have WiFi and my phone reception isn’t strong enough to tether, so I am down in town long enough to post this and upload Eric’s vlog entry. I wanted to make sure I posted today as we are going to start hightailing it east tomorrow. We might even make it to Canada. If not tomorrow evening, then definitely the next day. We will only post when we have WiFi at a campground for the next week or so til we hit the US again. We plan on going down the Cassiar Hwy and might even go down into Washington to visit friends, but it will all depend on how the roads are and how many miles we cover each day. We just found out some other friends are in Seattle right now and would like to visit with them too…but that will probably really be pushing it. There are things we still want to stop and do along the way…so we will see. Our time here in Alaska has been wonderful. Outside of being wet and cold that first night in Seward, the state was VERY enjoyable. I could totally live here *IF* it was like this year around~ long days (ok…not any darkness) with coolish days. BUT~ we all know that winters have got to be pretty tough…so I will pass! Will we ever return to Alaska? Who knows?!! Maybe years from now when we are retired we can come up and be hosts at a nature center or similar. I can say that we won’t be driving up here anytime soon. It’s a LONG drive!!!! One that we are NOT looking forward to making home right now. Eric reminds me that our trip isn’t over. We are just vacationing toward home. Good thing to keep in mind!

Thanks for following along. We will be making trip recommendations and even add a list on the sidebar of places we loved. We hope that our suggestions will be helpful to others as they travel.

**I never did find any WiFi last night, so I posted this as soon as we had access in Tok.

Anchorage (EM ♥ WM)

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:49:00 +0000

Homer to Ninilchik to Anchorage

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:41:00 +0000

Texas may have Blue Bonnets, but Alaska has Lupine!

Yesterday when we left Homer if was perfect weather. Sunny with hardly any clouds in the sky. The wind was sill quite brisk so we were chilly, but we were happy to see the sun. We stopped by Anchor Point on the way north. Anchor Point is the western-most point accessible by road in North America. We had to get a pic by the sign.We traveled a whopping total of 41 miles today to the little old Russian fishing town of Ninilchik. We stayed at Deep Creek State Park because I had been following the blog of Gene & Joyce, who are camp hosts there this summer. Gene has made some interesting posts about the area and I wanted to check it out. Talking with Gene
We got a site facing the water and could see across Cook Inlet to the volcanoes in the Aleutian Range. As we looked up toward the bluffs we could see several bald eagles flying. It was amazing site.After dinner we drove up into the little town to see the Russian Orthodox church and check out the old village.This morning we got to see 2 very interesting things. First we saw fishing boats being launched by huge tractors. The tractor drags the boat on it’s trailer way out into the surf until it is deep enough to float away. It’s neat to watch.We also drove down the beach in the Jeep and watched people clamming for razor clams. It was one of the lowest tides of the summer today so there were 100s of people clamming. They have this metal tube (called a clamming gun) with a handle on the top. When they see a dimple in the sand they push the tube down over it, put their thumb over the hole by the handle, then pull up. A bunch of sand comes up and usually there is a razor clam in it. I found this website that explains the process. We watched our neighbor from the campground find many clams.We also saw a bunch of bald eagles along the bluffs as we drove down the beach. I am talking 100s of eagles. All the tourists are taking pics and the locals just ignore them. I think it’s like most of us seeing sparrows. They are just everywhere.
Around noon we headed out of Ninilchik, and off the Kenai Peninsula and arrived in Anchorage. We just drove through last week but we decided to stop this time.

A beautiful view along the way today!

First order of business was SHOWERS! It had been 6 days since the last RV park with a shower in it. We did get a shower one night in the RV, but an RV shower is as quick as possible. I was soooooo happy to wash the stink off. I had Dori with me so I didn’t get to just stand under the hot water like I wanted to, but I will go back for another shower before we check out tomorrow. After showers we headed out for dinner. We wanted to go to a place called the Moose’s Tooth, but the wait was over 30 mins and we were hungry. We ended up a few miles away at a place called the Arctic Roadrunner. It’s been voted favorite burger in Anchorage many times. The food was good and we sat outside (it’s a lot warmer here!) along a little river. We saw some guys kayak by, some ladies in canoes stop for dinner, and some half dressed (and maybe drunk?) guys float up on little blow up boats.More on Anchorage in Eric's video blog entry above.

Perfectly Lazy Day in Homer

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:19:00 +0000

After sleeping in again(yup...we've gotten used to it being light all the time...although we do stay up LATE!), we headed up to the Homer Farmer's Market. We ended up being there for a few hours as our friend (the family from KY that we've been hanging with) did laundry across the street. We enjoyed the environmental folk singer, the fun kid activities, and a very yummy thai wrap and some of the BEST ice cream we've even had. I had an ice cream sandwich on a stick, hand-dipped in chocolate, and then covered with Heath bar pieces. OMG~ it was so delish!! Here is Eric's ice cream~Then we headed to the Alaska Ocean & Islands, which is a visitor center for the wildlife refuge. It was very interesting and Dori earned her Junior Biologist badge.When we returned to the RV it seemed to have warmed up a bit so we went and sat our on the beach and enjoyed the view. I went and did a little shopping (I got a cute winter hat!) with our friend. Then we stayed out by the campfire for a few hours. The wind was so brisk and it felt so cold (51 degrees and I was dressed like it was about 15!) but it was nice up close to the fire! We spent time with our friends before saying our farewells. They are getting up early to head up to Anchorage. They have to return their rental RV and head back to Kentucky. It was sure nice to have someone to hang out with for the better part of a week. Here is Parker with Sam & Stuart.While we were out by the fire 3 bald eagles flew out to the load tide area. One then flew up fairly close to us. We snapped a few photos~

The Washboard

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:17:00 +0000

Seward to Homer

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:48:00 +0000

We slept in this morning and woke up to a clear and calm morning. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. We got some gorgeous pics of the views. We were camped right on the bay and could see for miles. Unfortunately it was time to move down the road. We saw some great views as we traveled today.

Mt. Redoubt, volcano in the Aleutian Range

We arrived in Homer and are camped out on the spit next to our friends that we met back in Talkeetna. It's been lots of fun hanging out with them.

Homer

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:37:00 +0000

I haven't felt well today so it is a little shorter than usual.

A Whale of a Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:19:00 +0000

We woke early this morning to head down to the harbor. We had an 8am departure on the Kenai Fjords Tour. Last night we were unsure if we were even going to go since they were issuing weather warnings. That’s that the seas are high and that the boat might not be able to make it around the cape to see everything. If it turns back early then we get a partial refund. We had the option to get a full refund if we decided not to go. Since it had stopped raining and it looked clearer out in the bay, we decided to go. The water was rough and the weather never cleared so we didn’t get to go all the way out to the glaciers, but we did see quite a bit of sealife. One of the first sightings was a California Humpback Whale. It was amazing! It even got pretty close to the boat at one point and Dori got a good view of it. Not long after that we saw 2 humpbacks swimming together. They seemed to be showing off for the boat and we got some incredible shots. We also saw seals, sea lions, otters, puffins, bald eagles and lots of interesting birds. There were some Dall Porpoises at one point, but we didn’t see them. One of the crew members said that sometimes there are not any whale sightings, so we felt pretty lucky. Maybe he was just saying that…IDK. We were thrilled with what we saw and were fine with the cruise getting done early. I took a (less-drowsy formula) Dramamine before starting out and I never felt sick. I always get motion sick and the boat was really rolling at times. I think being outside in the (brisk) wind was very helpful. Just before lunch time all the guys were filling ill, but they took a Dramamine and had lunch. They felt so much better after that.

After the tour we went up to see the Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park. Once again Dori earned a junior ranger badge. She should have had 3 by now, but we never went back to the ranger station in Talkeetna. We bought her a National Parks Passport book and she is enjoying getting her stamps from each park. We had about a 2 mile hike round trip (with some pretty steep parts) to the edge of the glacier. There are year markings along the way which show where the glacier used to be. It’s receded a lot!We had planned on going to the Alaska Sealife Center after we got back from the glacier, but we were so tired (from getting up early, Dramamine, and hiking) when we got back that we napped. We were SOOO cold and tired! It was around 50 degrees out, but we were COLD all day. Even with our winter jackets on. After dinner we walked around town for a few hours before crashing for the evening.

From Magnificent to Miserable

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:24:00 +0000

OK...maybe it's not that bad...but it's pouring rain in Seward. The day started out with magnificent views of the mountain. We drove about 230 miles south (through Wasilla and Anchorage) to Seward. It started really clouding up and misting around Anchorage. It was SUPER windy driving down the Seward Hwy. A few times the rig got blown over the center line. Eric was a super driver and we arrived safely.We are supposed to get up early for the Kenai Fjords boat tour tomorrow. If the weather is crappy then we are going to cancel and try again later in the day or on Friday. We joined up with our friends that we met in Talkeetna.

Soggy Seward

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:13:00 +0000

The MOST glorious day yet!!

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:53:00 +0000

After we slept in (again!) I ran up to Talkeetna Roadhouse and grabbed some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I got a raspberry roll instead and it was divine! Around 11 we went to the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum and the Denali Ranger Station. At the 1pm presentation we ran into the friends we met at the playground last night. Their sons are 8 & 12 and the kids really enjoyed playing with them. We went back to the playground with them this afternoon before they boarded the train south to Anchorage. We found out that they are renting an RV and then heading down to Kenai for a week. The kids got along so well that we decided to tag along with them. So tomorrow we are headed to Seward (about 230 miles) and will be staying at the same RV park they are at and then going on the wildlife/glacier tour with them on the next day. The plan is to just kind of wing it and figure out where we are going to go in Kenai together. Fun!As we were heading out to dinner tonight we noticed that quite a bit of sky was showing and the sun was actually out. We drove up the road about a mile to a high spot and saw the mountains. We were quite excited! Eric looked at Mt. Forracker and thought it was Denali (McKinley) but Denali was actually way higher up in some clouds. Those clouds started to clear and we were so excited! The kids were getting really hungry so we headed to dinner and decided to go down to the river to see the mountain after dinner.

We had a great dinner at West Rib & Pub. We sat outside and the sun was sooo warm! It felt good after it being cool and rainy for so many days! Eric & I had caribou burgers (which were pretty good) and Jake had a McKinley burger that was fabulous. For dessert they all picked up some ice cream and I had a big piece of carrot cake from the roadhouse. I am STILL full!After that we went down to the beach, which is actually riverside at the edge of the town and we got GREAT views of Denali. It is very impressive. We stayed down there for 90 mins or so and the kiddos played in the water and sand. We met several tourists and a few locals when we were down there. It was a lovely evening. We are so glad we waited out all these days of rain and saw the mountain!

Denali is out!

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:44:00 +0000

Talkeetna Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:35:00 +0000

After a 10+ hr night's sleep, we had a 63 mile drive south to Talkeetna today. Talkeetna is a cute little (tourist) town about 115 miles north of Anchorage. There is a busy airport nearby that taxi's climbers up to base camp for climbing Mt. McKinley (or as the locals prefer, Denali) and flies tourists over the peak. There are lots of cute shops and restaurant's on the main street in town. We spent at least 3 hours today at the community playground. It is the COOLEST playground I've ever seen. There is a xylophone that the boys really enjoyed playing. Here is Jake playing a song. (It's right by the airport!) Dori was talking about how Kathryn & Grahame would love this playground.Tomorrow we plan on laying low and doing some stuff around town. I am going to pick up cinnamon rolls from the famous Talkeetna Roadhouse for breakfast and then we are going to West Ribs Pub & Grill for dinner. Both have been featured on Man vs. Food on the travel channel.

It was most cloudy, but the sun did try to peek through today...still socked in toward the northwest...so no sighting of Denali!

Talkeetna

noreply@blogger.com (Diana, Eric, and kids) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 04:08:00 +0000

We will be stopped here for a few days.