Alaska Trip - Day 17

Today is our last day on the Mainland! From here-on-out we'll be living on an island!

The morning got off slow, as usual. We went to CostCo in Anchorage and picked up the 500+ pictures we uploaded online & ordered the night before. And after that we hit the road. The drive went pretty quick and before we knew it we were almost there and it was already 6pm! Our drive today took us through the Kenai Pennisula, which was beautiful!

We ate dinner along the Homer Spit and then lined up for the Ferry. We checked in to the Ferry Terminal at 7:30pm and didn't actually board the boat until after 10pm. It was a LONG process and we were both so nervous about actually arriving in Kodiak.

We had to unhitch the Jeep from the truck and drive them in seperately. Whouldn't you know it...the Jeep broke down on the ferry loading ramp! Heck...we made it this far!! We just hitched it back up to the truck and towed it on. Chris did an amazing job manuevering it onto the boat with the truck in reverse.

We got on the boat and into our "stateroom." The boat overall was like a nice version of the Catalina Flyer (which I'm sure you've all been on.) Our "stateroom" was a small closet-space with a bunkbed. It was easy to fall asleep on the boat with the slow rocking...but I was so sick when I woke up (because of the slow rocking & the nerves.)

Emily did well on the boat...gosh...if she only knew how far we've come to get where we are!

Alaska Trip - Day 16

We spent the day in Anchorage doing a little bit of shopping and running some errands in the "big city" before we head off to the island the following morning. So, nothing too eventful today. We stopped by REI and picked up some "base layers" which is just a nice way to say thermals...but they're not made from thermal. It's better.



Here's my 1 pic/video for the day.

Alaska Trip - Day 15

We hit Anchorage today. It was a long journey in the car...like 9 hours! It was a hard 9 hours because our "goal" was to drive to Alaska. So, technically, we arrived in Alaska yesterday...and we still had more driving to do?!?! (OMG!!)

We were not excited about today's drive...not to mention, that the road was pretty much horrible during most of the drive to Anchorage. We had one stretch of the road which had Road Construction & a one-way traffic zone with a Pilot Car. We waited for about 45 minutes in a LONG line of cars for the Pilot Car to come get us before we could continue through the road. Once the Car came and we started following him (along with about 40 other cars)...he took us through a 5 mile stretch of road construction where they were blasting away the mountains. It was the longest road construction we've come across thus far!!

I think, at this point, we all were over being stuck in the car. Chloe & Bryndall started to argue in the same way sisters would after being in close-quarters for too long. They were pissed at each other because one was touching the other...so Bryndall sat on my lap for a while until it blew over. Emily was a little bit of a pill today...I think she wanted to get out of the car as well. And, it was a LONG DRIVE today!! But, hey, we made it!!

Emily's 2 Top Teeth!

Like I mentioned before, we had been reading a guide book along our route and we have learned A LOT about the scenery and the history of all the towns along our route. We learned about a Moose Trap that Anchorage has devised along the freeway. Originally they made the freeway smack-dab in the middle of a moose migration pattern!! As a result they would get frequent car accidents involving moose along the highway. So, they created a fenced Moose Trap that is designed to lure the moose away from the highway and get him back into the forest...pretty interesting!

We got to our hotel around 7pm and settled in. We're staying in a suite-style hotel, so there's a good-sized kitchen, 1 bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, and a walk-in closet - it's nice to have a little more space than normal...we've been living cooped up together in a small hotel room for the past 2 weeks! So, this is nice. We went to dinner at Applebee's where we had a gift certificate (Mel, I think that was from you...thanks!)

So, that was our day & night today...boring...

(but I guess you've got to have a few of those every now & again.)

Alaska Trip - Day 14

We made it to Alaska!!!

Woop Woop!!!

Today we left Whitehorse, Yukon and headed for the town of Tok, Alaska. It was about a 10 hour drive and let me tell you...we felt all of the ten hours. Between being anxious about just getting to Alaska and being tired of being in the car, we just wanted to get there. It was a long day.

We left Whitehorse at about 10:30 in the morning and we got to Alaska at 8:30 at night (PST); we entered into the Alaska Time Zone, 1 hour behind Pacific, so it was actually 7:30pm. Most of the drive consisted of the Yukon, boring old Yukon!


We stopped every few hours or so to let the dogs out and stretch our legs. Well, as we followed the road through a curve the valley opened up and there was this huge, extremely blue lake. It was a beautiful shade of this sea blue color...the same color we saw in Tahiti. it was a glacier lake created by the runoff of a nearby glacier. It was beautiful! We pulled over to get out and take a picture. The shores were a black sand...we haven't seen any sand along the shores of any waterway - so this was just amazing! As we all got out the dogs quickly ran across the shoreline. We took in the view and Tracy had to attempt to skip at least one rock along this perfectly blue, calm lake. Without even noticing, or paying attention, she geared up to throw the rock...and the minute she let it go toward the water...so went Chloe!!! Right into the Glacier Water!! Yep...she thought we were in San Diego again and playing catch with her in the ocean. Without even thinking twice, Chloe went dodging into the frigid water!! Instantly we started screaming at her, and cracking up at the same time...it was hysterically funny!! We dried her off the best we could and left the scenic beach with a wet dog...and a new wet dog smell.

We approached the last 100 miles or so of the trip (before the U.S. Border) and the Alaska Highway turned to crap! They obviously don't take care of that road! There were so many potholes and the road just kept going up and down, up and down (I call them woopdees). We finally got to the U.S. Border and as we pulled up we were nervous that they would give us a hard time...we had it so easy getting into Canada, we thought for sure we would get searched coming into the U.S....Nope! They asked us a few questions and sent us on our way! Damn! All that work for nothing! Oh well, we should be thankful that it was easy.


We had finally made it to Alaska, yet we still had another couple hours of driving to do before we got to Tok. The part of Alaska that borders the Yukon, no shock to anyone, looks just like the Yukon...crappy. So, we weren't impressed. As the drive went on, the views got much better and we were happy with its scenery...and the roads were much better too!


We finally drove into the city of Tok, quickly finding the cabins we were staying in. This place, Caribou Cabins, was amazing! We drove down this gravel road to a driveway, turned into it and nestled in the forest were 4 cabins. There was a large cabin in the back where the family that owns the place lives, it was also the office. We threw the dogs in the cabin, disconnected the Jeep and ran out to get some laundry done before they closed. We ended up using a laundromat at an RV park...how ghetto! Oh well, it worked. We went to get some food then went back to the cabin. Now, by this time, its already 11pm, our time. We didn't even get to enjoy this place!! We did a quick webcam with Grandma Lauri, Emily was tired so she wasn't in a good mood though. Then, and this is the funny part, I took Chloe outside to play ball for 15 mins or so. Yes, it was still light enough outside, it was almost midnight. Shortly after that we all went to bed and Em actually slept throughout the night in her crib! Welcome to Alaska!

Alaska Trip - Day 13

On our way to Whitehorse...the Capital of the Yukon Territory. We expected a BIG CITY! We drove further into the Yukon, only to discover that the Yukon Territory is really ugly. British Columbia is SO MUCH NICER! Most of the trees in the Yukon are dead or trying to regrow. We have been reading a book along the way Scenic Driving through Alaska and the Yukon. So, we've been getting a little history along the way.

Apparently the majority of the Yukon forest throughout our trip was flattened by fires, but this is good for the soil so it is not necessarily looked at as a bad thing; beetles also devastated the forest, killing A LOT of trees! Because of Global Warming the Spruce Beetles were able to have 3+ life cycles per season, whereas previous to this they would usually have only one. So, because of the change in climate the beetles were able to reproduce and do more damage (another reason to help stop global warming!)

Well, after 6+ hours we finally arrived in Whitehorse. It was a quaint town probably no bigger then half the size of our hometown back in California...without the neighboring cities! We checked into our hotel room and then went out to get a bite to eat. We ate at the Mexican Restaurant across the street that was nominated for "Best Patio 2007!" and it is advertised all over! ha-ha!

So, we ordered a Top Shelf Margarita when we sat down...chips & salsa were $3.50 extra. The drinks came and they were GROSS!!! The WORST margarita I've ever had! It tasted like a concoction I made from left over alcohol while in college. After reading the menu which had the recipe for the Top Shelf Margarita, we discovered that they made it with Jim Bean, Cointreau, and Sweet & Sour. Who in the hell makes a margarita with Jim Bean?!?! Oh it was gross!! So, we sent them back...I think that might have been the first time I have ever sent anything back. It was just horrid...there was no way we were going to drink it. We ordered a regular margarita instead and that was much better (of course, still not as good as Margarita Monday at Acapulco!)
Anyway, we didn't take too many pictures today because we just weren't too impressed. So, here's what we got today.

Alaska Trip - Day 12

We left the interesting mountain town of Iskut at about 9:30am, we thought we had a super long drive that day and we wanted to get going earlier than usual. We didn't even bother with breakfast, we just packed up and bailed out of there. It was a decent place but for some reason we felt a little unsafe.

We were heading to Watson Lake, which is actually in the Yukon Territory, as opposed to British Columbia, which is where we had been travelling up to this point. If you look on a map, you can see the vast distance we've covered thus far...B.C. alone is gigantic! The drive to Watson Lake was uneventful...shorter than planned, we arrived at about 5 pm. We checked into our hotel, The Belvedere...reminded us of a convalescent home. This town has two things its known for and The Belvedere isn't one of them. Watson Lake is home to the world famous Sign Post Forest and the Northern Lights Center. The Northern Lights are visible from here but the cloud cover was too thick for us to see anything. We checked into the hotel, then we went to the Sign Post Forest to check it out. It was pretty cool, they have about 70,000 signs posted up from people from all over the world.

We ate dinner at the hotel's diner...it was mediocre. After dinner, we went to the Northern Lights Center, we caught the 8:30 pm show they had...it was somewhat informative, however kinda boring. Em was getting fussy so we split just before it finished. We went to bed at about 11 that night....it looked like dusk outside...Em wouldn't go to sleep...you know the story. So we woke up at about 6:30 to get ready to go...again we had a long drive ahead. We got ready, ate breakfast at the diner, loaded the car and then...we went to the local hardware store to get a piece of wood to make a sign for the forest! We couldn't leave this place without representing our family and where we came from! The visitors center at the Forest had paint for us to make the sign, we just needed the wood. We painted up a sign, fairly quickly, and hammered it into a post in the Forest...

The Moore Family Adventure has officially visited Canada!

Alaska Trip - Day 11

Once again we were sad to leave such a nice place (there are so few of them). We had a nice breakfast at their restaurant at Bell II (Meziadin Lake) before hitting the road...late again, as usual. We drove and drove. We hit some bad weather and it rained off-and-on for most of the drive.

We arrived in Iskut after only about 2 hours. Remember, this was the 150 miles that was "supposed" to take 10 hours according to Google Maps...well, it only took 2 hours. (I don't know what they're smok'n!) So, we ended up having a restful day in Iskut...yet, there is seriously NOTHING to do here!!

We checked into the cabins but they weren't ready for us yet...it was about 1pm. So we went into "town" to get gas & lunch. Their "town" is one small gas station/grocery store/cafe/post office -- yep, it's just ONE building!

So, since it was the only place in town for lunch we stopped at the "cafe" and had lunch. Their "cafe" was in the back corner aisle of the store, where they removed the shelves and put in a snack counter and served hot dogs, nachos, chili, and that's about it. We had hot dogs and nachos...let's just say that it wasn't that great. Um...in the aisle between the the toy aisle and the drink coolers!! HA-HA!!!

By the time we got done with lunch our cabin was ready. We went in and it looked like something that was built by hand as a class project. The cabin looked like it was in a scene from a scary movie starring "Jason." It was probably one of the most irry places we have stayed so far. There was an RV Park just below the cabins, as they were on a hill. And there were a few RV spaces where the tenets had taken up residency. All things considering, we were just fine.

Chris went fishing on the lake and actually caught a fish! While Emily and I prepared dinner in the cabin. (The "cafe" closed early so we picked up some stuff at the "store" which we could prepare in the microwave back at the cabin.) So, while Chris was fishing we were microwaving! It was fun!

After dinner we actually were able to speak to mom & dad via webcam and a skittish satellite Internet connection. I could NOT believe that we got a signal there...even though it was intermittent.