Final Itinerary

Final Alaska Trip Itinerary:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Auprin6pdbU6dDhUNzBlUmFLYzIzZnNwbGUwYmtrNXc&hl=en_US&authkey=CIqPuJsF#gid=0

Our Final Post from the Alaska Trip

It is hard to believe that our trip is coming to an end; but since it will be a total of 8 weeks on the road, it is time to come home.

We made a decision to stay on I-94 coming back across the country.  We did that for two reasons:  1) we came through customs in MT vs. ND because of flooding and campground closures and 2) we heard about the high, hot temperatures throughout the heartland, and that sounded miserable.  We came across some interstate lanes down to one lane with cones and water close to the edge, but we did alright.  We drove through MT, ND, MN, WIS, and MI using interstates, back roads, and Route 2.

We decided to stay for 2 nights at St. Ignace and visit Mackinaw Island.  We toured the Grand Hotel, lunched in the dining room, and rocked on the front porch.  We took a carriage ride around the island and bought fudge--the usual touristy things!  We actually wore shorts, which was a first on this trip!

We then drove to Frankenmuth and stayed one night, eating chicken dinners at Zehnder's (where else?)  We visited the Cheese Haus and Bronner's Christmas Store, of course!

We drove back into Ohio (where are the mountains?) and stopped in at Jane's parents to pick up our dog, Maggie, who barely recognized us!  It was the first time in 8 weeks that we slept in a bedroom that wasn't on wheels!

All in all, this was a great trip and one that we will always remember.  Brad calculated that we drove over 12,000 miles by the time we were home.  Diesel fuel was definitely our largest expense.  We already know the places we would like to return to and hope that is in the cards!  Our 1500 pictures will remind us of the places we want to go.

Thanks to all of you who faithfully read the blog!  I hope you enjoyed it! 

Jane and Brad

On the Lighter Side

Some of these are brought to you by The Alaska Joke Book for Kids! by Jeff Brown

An old miner comes up to a group of people sitting around the fire in Tok.  He said to the group, "Did you know there isn't a single mosquito in Alaska?"  The people replied, "Are you crazy?"  He said, "No, didn't you know that they are all married with big, big families."

When is a salmon your best friend?

When it's a chum!  (A chum salmon is also called a dog salmon.)

How do you get down from a reindeer?

You don't get down from a reindeer; you get down from a duck.  (Reindeer are domesticated caribou.)

How do they clean the Trans-Alaska Pipeline?

With pipeline cleaners.  (The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is 800 miles long and 4 feet wide.)

How do you attach one ig to another?

With ig-glue.  (Igloos were not built in Alaska so much as Canada.)

Why were early prospectors always in a hurry?

They were in a Gold Rush.  (Gold was discovered in Anvil Creek [Nome] in 1902.

Why is Alaska a good place to save money?

It's the only place you'll find fair banks.  (With just about 83,000 people, Fairbanks is the second biggest city in Alaska.)

What is the hottest plant in Alaska?

Fireweed.  (Fireweed is the best known wildflower in Alaska.)

Jasper and Banff

Two Canadian Favorites: 
Jasper (including Ice Fields Parkway) and Banff National Parks (including Lake Louise)

To begin where I left off on my previous post, we arrived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, by ferry from Juneau, AK, around 1:30 a.m.  The Alaska Marine Highway system is a great ride and paying for a berth/room on the ship makes sense when compared to sleeping in reclining lounge chairs (I have done both and the second is not pretty.)  It didn't seem to make sense to pay for a few hours at a campground, so we decided to drive a short distance and sleep for the night at a pull-off.  We then continued to Prince George, staying at the Bee Lazee RV Park for one night, bought groceries, and headed for dry camping at Jasper National Park with our fresh water tank full.  (In retrospect, we could have driven to Smithers, BC and stayed there, eliminating the Prince George, BC stop as the town looked a little more inviting than the pull-off outside of Prince Rupert.)

Then as the song goes…."Over the river and through the woods, to the Canadian Rockies we go!" (went or something similar to that).  For the past week, we have been exploring the Canadian Rockies from Alberta and enjoying every minute, really.  This is a must stop if you are in Western Canada.  Keep in mind as you plan your trip that each Canadian National Park has a park entrance fee per day of $19.60 CAN, which typically runs from the time you enter until 4 p.m. the following day.

Highlights from Jasper National Park (quieter, northern park):

·       Whistler Campground (one of several in Jasper National Park) has 781 sites, most with no hookups; I suggest booking your sites WAY in advance if you want to stay in the park with any hookup as sites were all full when we were there.

·         Beautiful treed sites; in-park roads need work (lots of potholes)

·         Bear warnings everywhere, but overall great animal watching

·         Whistler Campground was close to town of Jasper (street of restaurants, shopping)

·         Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge - excellent stop - horseback riding, golf, sitting on deck

·         Main attraction:  Malign Canyon, Medicine Lake, and Malign Lake activities (all best when sunny and easy to reach by car)

·         Second Main attraction:  Ice Fields Parkway with glacier trip onto Athabasca Glacier (reminder that this is located in Jasper National Park although at the south end, about 50-60 km)

·         Lots of trails, scenic drives, tramway, mountain views

We left Jasper early after staying two days and drove the Ice Fields Parkway toward Lake Louise and Banff National Park.  We stopped for pictures but made sure we were ready for the first shuttle to the Athabasca Glacier (Note:  If you wait too long to do various tours, the tour busses will get there first and then it plays havoc with your schedules).  This is one place where a special buggy will take you onto the glacier; you can walk on it, drink the glacial waters, and take lots of pictures. There is a 30+ degree hill, but you are assured the buggy can make it!  (I closed my eyes of course, while Brad would have driven the buggy if given the chance!)

After our ride, we continued to a Bow Riversedge Campground outside of Banff National Park (all sites were taken at the national park) in Cochrane, AB near Calgary.  We were about 1 hour from Banff and would have liked to be in the Banff Tunnel Mountain campgrounds (I, II, or III), but they were full.  We like the Bow Riversedge Campground with clean services and nice sites as we stayed there on our way north to Alaska.  It is a beautiful campground, very scenic, and has a walkway along the Bow River, which comes from the mountains.  The next day, we drove to the Lake Louise area, stopping to take pictures of Castle Mountain and another day to the Banff area, taking pictures of the Three Sisters.  It seems all the cute mountains are named!  I'm not sure what they do with the ugly ones…hmmm.  We had sunny weather one day for Lake Louise while sun and rain were constantly changing as you'll see in our pictures from Banff.

Highlights from Lake Louise (in the middle of Jasper and Banff, more crowded):

·         Drove around one of the top places for scenery, I think, in all of the Canadian Rockies

·         Visited Beautiful Fairmont Lake Louise chateau-style hotel overlooking beautiful Lake Louise

·         Paid for Afternoon High Tea overlooking lake

·         Walked the Lake Shore trail for about 2-3 miles for gorgeous views

·         Found a musical dinner theatre program called "Canada-Eh?" in Canmore south of Banff  and enjoyed meeting local Canadians who reminded us that the debt-ceiling had better pass as what happens to the U.S. affects them!  No kidding!  It was fun to talk with Canadians.  The show had lots of Canadian humor and music plus a wonderful dinner meal--lots of fun! 

Highlights from Banff (lower park and much more crowded): 

·         Note to self:  try to avoid coming to Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel when the Telsus Golf Tournament is just coming in or going out--crowded, crowded!

·         Visited Banff Springs Hotel (Next time:  take the tour of the hotel @ 3 p.m.)

·         Bring kilt next time for Brad (this hotel has Scottish roots)

·         Visited downtown with shops, restaurants and museums

·         Rented historic bathing suits and took 1-2 hours to soak in the Banff Hot Springs--everyone else does!  (Next time:  bring own suits and towels)

·         Took scenic drive into the wildlife area to Lake Minnewanka

As a side note:  Many people mentioned to us that we just had to see the Dinosaur Provincial Park near Patricia, AB.  We were able to get a camping site, so we drove there yesterday (about 3 hours from Cochrane), scheduled a two-hour bus tour to learn about the fossils everywhere, and then Brad took a two-hour photography shoot.  It was interesting but very different from the Rockies.  Brad's comments about the Dinosaur Provincial Park…worth a visit if you are in the area; it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site which lives up that designation; you can literally walk the preserve and find pieces of fossilized bone just from careful observation; one girl on our bus tour found a part of a dinosaur tooth (meat-eater) on just the public loop of the park; paleontologists continue researching there every day.

Leaving the Dinosaur Provincial Park, we decided to cross into the U.S.  Therefore, we had to make a stop at one of the few towns between the park and customs.  The previous night, I had to make strange dinner food such as fried rice with vegetables you have never seen in fried rice just to get the produce off the refrigerator shelves just in case for the border crossing.  We wanted to use up our Canadian money (heavy charges to exchange funds and VISA now charges for each transaction for the conversion), so we made sure our diesel tank was full and we bought some non-food items.  As you pull up, you need your vehicle registration information including license plate number and your passports.  You are asked to declare fruit, vegetables, meats, and any items purchased outside the U.S.  Coming into the U.S. at the borders has been tougher for us than going into Canada all three times. 

We continued to Helena, MT, where we took what we thought was a cut-off for I-90.  We found out that construction work was on that particular road, and we were held up over an hour.   We reserved a site at a beautiful KOA in Billings, Montana, arriving about 7 p.m. after starting earlier around 7 a.m.  So, for $69 (includes KOA discount), we have strong and free Wi-Fi, a pool, an onsite Pistol Pete's Restaurant (not bad food), trees, a concrete patio with picnic table, porch swing, and a fire pit.  (We have yet to make a fire as many places don't permit it for fear of fires and also the spreading of various tree diseases.  We have had the opportunity of making our own fire about ten times and a few of those times we could have purchased wood from the campgrounds.) 

We made the decision to come back to the U.S. earlier than we anticipated because of difficulty in finding places to stay.  We were going to cross and stay in Minot, ND, but all campgrounds were closed for flooding.  We know the high price of the campground is unusual, but we have found that in this area as well as southern Canada, many of the cheaper campgrounds and provincial parks are full of oil men, working for six months in a particular area and taking all the sites.  We talked with someone tonight, and he said many of the cheaper hotels are the same way.  You might pay $130 for a room that normally costs about $50 because the oil men are taking the rooms. 

Today we plan to travel to Jamestown, ND, and then head for Minnesota.  Someone just said tonight that because of budget cuts, all of their rest stops and state campgrounds are shut down.  Oh, great!  Well, I guess we'll be back in Ohio sometime.

Hope everyone is keeping cool!  We're coming home through Michigan!

Jane and Brad

Pictures for this post

Recipe for Tomato Veloute' Soup

--handwritten chef's recipe at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, AB
onions - white/yellow - small dice
garlic - minced
carrots, celery - small dice
tomatoes - canned or fresh - dice or rough chop
chicken stock

Directions:
Saute' onions + garlic + carrots + celery, until softened, in oil or butter.
Add Italian seasonings (thyme, basil, oregano), if desired.
Add tomatoes and cook a few minutes.
Add about 1-2 liters of chicken stock.
Simmer a few minutes and puree'.
Return to pot and add 1-2 cups of cream and let simmer till reduced.
Enjoy!

Alaska By Sea

Someone once told me that to really see Alaska, it is important to view it from the land and from the sea.  We planned to take advantage of the sea views while traveling on the Alaska Marine Highway System in segments:

Skagway, AK to Juneau, AK (us + car/trailer) - about six hours with slow ferry

Juneau, AK to Sitka, AK (just us) - about four and one-half hours (fast ferry)

Sitka, AK to Juneau, AK (just us) - same as above

Juneau, AK to Prince Rupert, BC (us + car/trailer) - one day, ten hours

During this time, we traveled on the Malispino car ferry, the Fairweather fast ferry, and a twin of the Malispino, the Taku car ferry.  It takes some planning (I made the ferry arrangements last December), but we still agree it was worth it--both for not having to drive the entire highway again, but also to provide us with a different view of Alaska.  Our only regret is not being able to get off at more of the islands like Haines or Petersburg to see more of the Inside Passage towns.  This type of vacation depends on the ferry schedules as you are at their mercy, but it can be done.

We begin this leg of our journey in Skagway, AK.  We built in some buffer time in traveling from Valdez to Tok and then Tok to Skagway in case of road issues, but arrived in Skagway on July 12 on time.  Our RV park in Skagway, Garden City RV Park, was probably a rip-off at $36.50/night with GoodSam discount.  It did provide full hook-ups on mainly gravel sites (typical for AK and Northern CAN) and a laundry, but no cable, no Internet (both out of service), and a part-time person to oversee the campground.  There were at least one-half of the sites as rentals and seasonals in this park, but Skagway is mainly a seasonal type of town.  During the winter, it has about 250 people typically.  While we were there, it swelled to over 10,000 people because of the cruise ships (4 of them) in port at any given time.  In fact, the stores are provided with schedules of cruise ship dockings because of so many people coming into town.  We spent that particular "10,000 people in town" day with a park ranger, walking a nearby deserted town called Dyea, once a sister gold rush town to Skagway.  Our ranger saw recent bear activity, so that made for a fun walk in the woods--yippee!  Most cruise people try to complete a walking town tour, shop or see the sites in the short time they are in port, so the town can be crowded.  There are more fine jewelry stores per square inch than in any town we've seen yet--similar to St. Martin in the Caribbean, for example.  I enjoyed the quilt store with cross-stitch and the bookstore.  All three in-town museums are top-notch and worth the time.

Most of downtown Skagway is actually under federal park management and restoration except for one of the main attractions, the White Pass & Yukon Railway.  We did not take the train as we had driven over the same terrain through the White Summit Pass, but many people do.  Brad did a great job along the pass; I had no problem letting him get out of the car on his side for pictures from the summit.  There are so many adventure outfitters here that there were actually bikes taken to the summit for people to ride down the other side--unbelieveable as it was a high pass.  I can't believe that the miners had to transport one year's worth of food through the Klondike in order to be allowed to mine for gold.  So many died including thousands of horses that Dead Horse Gulch was named appropriately.  

Our activities while in Skagway included visiting all museums, shopping downtown, buying a gallon of milk for $6.09, and visiting nearby Dyea.  I thought Brad would have a heart attack about spending that much for a gallon of milk.  He obviously loves milk!  All in all a good visit to a touristy type of town with strong historical ties to the Klondike as a key entry point in the Gold Rush Days of 1898 and excellent tours from rangers (we took two of them) which explained much about the town and the Gold Rush.  They are still restoring buildings at this time, and it is a slow process.  One other interesting Skagway site was Jewell Gardens, once a farm in the valley which supplied produce and milk to the growing Skagway, now a garden and glass-blowing exhibition all created by a visionary owner and a nice respite from the crowded town.

After three days in Skagway, we were ready to see Alaska by sea.  We checked into the Alaska Marine Highway System at 5:30 a.m. to have our vehicle measurements verified.  We were aligned according to our point of departure, checked our tickets with the office, so we were lined up for Juneau.  Extra care was taken with our long vehicles to make sure we didn't drag on the ramp and that we were positioned to make turns inside the cardeck of the ferry.  Brad did a great job of maneuvering the truck and 30' Airstream with help from the ferry staff who were as concerned as he.  The trip from Skagway to Juneau with one stop at Haines took us from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  During that trip, we did spot whales doing something called "bubbling" where they blow air to trap the krill into the air bubbles, and then they scoop them up into their mouths.  There was a forest service ranger on-board who noted animal sightings and presented programs during the trip.  We did see seven humpback whales bubbling, which was very unusual.  You could count the spouts from from their blow holes and watch for seabirds hovering around them as well.  None did huge jumps out of the water, but we could see their whale tails.  We also saw lighthouses, a few eagles and a bear. 

On the larger ferries, the pace is smooth and slow.  Most people read, play cards, take pictures, walk around as there are outside decks around the ship, snack and watch movies if the ferry ride is long enough.  Brad and I also enjoy meeting people and learning about the area.  Many people who travel on the ferries are local, rather like traveling by COTA bus!  You can learn a great deal from the locals in Alaska.  We have decided they are the best tour guides.

We disembarked from the ferry in Juneau.  Even though it is Alaska's capital, it is not accessible by road over the icefields and mountains.  There are roads here, but they end at the mountain range.  Everyone comes by boat, seaplane, or Alaska air!  Juneau as a town isn't a big cruise draw like Skagway, but it has all of the typical capital buildings and is smaller than Columbus.  We found an RV park near the ferry terminal and Mendenhall Glacier called Spruce Grove RV Park.  At this park, they are willing to check on your RV in case you decide to travel to other Inside Passage towns, which we were doing.

Our first night in Juneau, we learned about a salmon and halibut bake on the other side of Juneau, so we set up camp and drove through Juneau to this out-of-the-way location.  We walked into a time-warp at the Thane Ore Mine and only two other people were there, but it was the best salmon and halibut we have had in Alaska.  This guy has been cooking there for close to 30 years, and it shows.  The locals all know about it, and they have some cruise ship diners, but we really enjoyed its location.  He also gave us a tip about seeing salmon run about 200 yards from the restaurant at Sheep Creek, so we took a look.  It was hard to see the water for all the salmon trying to run up Sheep Creek--amazing!  We found out that salmon are usually gone 1-5 years, depending upon the salmon type, and they return to spawn and die at the exact same place they entered the larger river/ocean.  They can travel from Alaska as far as the Baja and Japan, but they come back to die where they were hatched.  We also drove around Douglas Island across Gastineau Channel for nice views of Juneau.  The Mendenhall Glacier has a wonderful Visitor's Center and walking trail, so we took that in as well.  We had nice weather, so you do as much as possible when the weather is nice and sunny.

The next morning we headed to Sitka, Alaska, arriving at the ferry dock around 7 a.m., leaving our camper at Juneau at the campground and leaving our truck at the ferry terminal.  We boarded the fast ferry, Fairweather, as walk-ons and took an overnight bag to stay in a hotel near the city center.  We saw some beautiful lighthouses along the passage to Sitka.  What a neat little town!  We arrived around 12:30 p.m. and were about 5 miles from town at the ferry terminal.  For $12/each, we bought round-trip tickets on the Sitka bus, which took us (and everyone else) to downtown Sitka, bed-and-breakfasts, hotels, hostels, etc.  Since we didn't have a car, it was nice to have a downtown hotel room.  We booked one night at a Westmark, a typical Alaska hotel which is billed like an up-scale hotel, but in reality is more like a Holiday Inn, I suppose.  That is typical Alaska, and Sitka has an "old world" feel to it.  We had to come into town on a Saturday afternoon (many of Sitka's stores are closed on Sundays), so we hit the ground running after dropping luggage at the hotel.  The visitor center was hard to find, so we just started asking people where to go and what to see.  We started at one of the Sitka National Historic Park buildings--the Russian Bishop's House, which was really interesting.  The Russian Bishop's House is one of the few surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in North America. Imperial Russia was the dominant power in the North Pacific for over 125 years. Sitka (known as New Archangel at the time) was the Russian colonial capital. The Bishop's House was completed in 1842 and was the center of Russian Orthodox Church authority in a diocese that stretched from California to Siberian Kamchatka (Wikipedia).  The restoration of the building by the national park service was really beautiful--even the wallpaper was restored.  The extra $4/person to go on the narrated tour is definitely worth it, if you enjoy seeing old houses. 

We then walked about 6-7 blocks to the Totem Pole National Park, where we used our cell phones to learn about 11 totem poles in the park made by First Nation totem pole carvers.  With their striking designs and colors, totem poles are bold statements of the identities and stories of the people who carved them. A totem pole generally served one of four purposes.  

·         Crest poles give the ancestry of particular family.

·         History poles record the history of a clan.

·         Legend poles illustrate folklore or real life experiences.

·         Memorial poles commemorate a particular individual.

Totem poles did not stand along the park’s wooded trails until 1906.  Between 1901 and 1903, several Native leaders from villages in southeast Alaska agreed to donate poles to Alaska’s District Governor John G. Brady for the people of Alaska. After exhibiting the poles at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, Governor Brady sent the poles to Sitka where they were erected in the “government park”. Over the years, replicas of some of the original totem poles have been carved as the original poles deteriorated. Many of the poles now standing along the park’s wooded trails are replicas of the originals collected by Governor Brady. The original totem poles that have survived are now conserved and exhibited in Totem Hall at the park visitor center (Wikipedia).

Again, bear were sighted in the park, so we were on our toes.  Finally, we returned to downtown and tried to shop at as many places as possible (OK, I did and Brad watched).  I was able to go to Abby's, which was a quilt, cross-stitch and knitting shop across from the Russian Orthodox Church.  The Church is right in the middle of the street and the roads go around it.  It reminded me of Annapolis, MD, with the church in the center.  We ate more fish and chips on the dock (by the way, excellent fish and chips are all made with Halibut fish and a beer batter of some type).  We'll never order fish and chips again without checking from what type of fish they are made!  On Sunday morning, we walked around town and took pictures from the 30 plus historic buildings and sites and saw a sign inviting all into the Russian Orthodox Church.  That was very interesting.  The language of the service was English, and the priests and cantors were going full tilt.  It was very orthodox, so we felt a little out of place, but we stayed for about 20-30 minutes until their official service started.  The gold icons and pictures were everywhere.  Sitka as a town is really a blend of three heritages--Russian, First Nation (Alaskan Indian), and American and dates back to the early 1800s. 

We returned around noon on the fast ferry to Juneau.  While on board, we met up with another couple from California.  She is a nurse mid-wife who has a special license in palliative care and he was retired from the CA Highway Department.  She took on an assignment to do two weeks of teaching here in Alaska and brought her sixth husband!  They asked if we knew pinochle, and we said no, but we were willing to learn.  We spent the next five hours learning pinochle and spent about 1 hour teaching them euchre.  It made the trip go fast, and we got a basic idea of the game. 

Today we spent taking in some sights in Juneau.  It starting raining yesterday and continued throughout the day today.  We saw Mendenhall already and it wasn't a great day to be outdoors, so we drove downtown, parked the truck for 50 cents/30 minutes, and decided to shop and see a salmon hatchery.  Good downtown restaurant was called The Hanger in the Wharf Shopping

Mall.  We took a tour of the McCauley Fish Hatchery and enjoyed learning about the salmon runs, breeding, types of salmon, and how they return to spawn.  It is a huge business in Alaska and very interesting.  The hatcheries are business non-profits, designed to bolster the fishing industry--commercial, sport, and subsistence.  And at the last minute, I was able to secure a seat for tomorrow at Chez Alaska, a cooking school here in Juneau.  The focus is on how to incorporate Alaska seafood into your cooking of course.  I hope to pick up some good recipes.  Brad is going to get the oil changed in the truck!  We'll stop at Subway to get lunches for the ferry (options are somewhat limited and expensive).  We're leaving Juneau tomorrow afternoon on the ferry to Prince Rupert--back to Canada!

More later!

Jane and Brad   

Pictures for this post

Kenai Princess Lodge's Smoked Salmon Dip

Kenai Princess Lodge's Smoked Salmon Dip

2 lbs.	cream cheese, softened
1 lb.	goat cheese, softened
2 1/2 c.	heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
1/2 c.	red onion, fine dice
3/4 c.	minced parsley
1 T.	minced garlic
1 tsp.	Tabasco sauce
2 T.	fresh minced dill
2 T.	capers, drained, rinsed and chopped
2 T.	lemon juice
1 lb.	smoked salmon, crumbled
To taste	salt and pepper

Thoroughly mix ingredients in a large bowl, taste seasoning and adjust if necessary.