We Climbed a Freakin' Mountain!

Today was a "relax" day as we were at the resort and not driving anywhere. Linda and Dylan ventured off in the van to Potter's Marsh for some birdwatching and Dustin and I climbed a mountain! Not too many birds seen, but they did see three bald eagles (two adults and a juvenile).

The North Face Trail here at the mountain is a 2.2 mile trail marked "strenuous" in the guide. Its elevation change is +2300 feet. We made it in 2 hours and 5 minutes. What the #$% was I thinking? :-) Our reward for making it up without getting attacked by a bear, falling off the perilously steep and narrow trail, or having a heart attack was to enjoy spectacular views and ride the tram back to the base. As I explained to Dustin: you just climbed 500 feet higher than the CN tower!

View from the top to the resort below

After we all met back up and hit the pool and hot tub for a recovery swim, we rode the tram back up to have dinner at the restaurant at the top of the mountain. It was really good. After dinner the boys decided to climb another crazy path up to what we thought was a small sign at the end of the trail. It was actually a 12 foot ski sign! The picture below is of the two of them (the extremely small specks in the lower middle left) heading along the trail out to the sign (out of view to the right).

On the Way to Alyeska: July 28

Linda: Drove to Alyeska Resort, just past Anchorage. Dustin has been wanting to see a moose and he was lucky enough to see five of them. One alone and two sets of a female with her calf.

We stopped along the way to see the Matanuska Glacier. It's a 4 mile wide glacier coming down through the mountains that is visible from the road. It looks like a river of ice but up close it actually towers over the trees, it's enormous!

We also wandered around downtown Anchorage, it is the first 'normal' sized town that we have seen since we left... uh... Washington I guess! Now we are staying at the resort for a few days to take a break and do some sightseeing.

Whitehorse to Tok

I didn't even know that there WAS a continental time zone past Pacific Time! We are now on Alaskan Daylight Time (AKDT) and are 4 hours behind those of you reading in Ontario.

Fairly long drive today from Whitehorse to Tok, AK. Animals spotted today were a female moose crossing the road in front of us and a meandering black bear that was lumbering along on the shoulder of the highway. We were literally 6 feet  from it and my insane family members were sitting with their windows open taking pictures! I had one foot on the gas pedal ready to gun it and a hand on both front and back power window buttons. And they think I was nuts for jumping out of a plane years ago.... Sheesh.

The Tok School here is a K-12 school with about 11-15 kids per grade. Nice class sizes, but could you imagine going through 13 years of schooling with the SAME classmates? No thanks...

Off to Alyeska Ski Resort tomorrow for a couple of apparently rainy days - so much for the outdoor activities we had planned! I am hoping for the best though... We are looking forward to taking the tram up to the top and hope that the clouds don't ruin the view.

Alaska!

We made it to Alaska yesterday (although it was just a brief sojourn into the panhandle so it doesn't really count...).

Skagway is a cruise ship port town so it was a bit of a circus here downtown - too many jewellery stores!  Stopped for lunch at the Red Onion Saloon (an old saloon and ex-brothel where you could tour upstairs: "$5 for 15 minutes - just like it was in 1898"). We escaped out Dyea Road to end up at the head of the Chilkoot Trail at the Chilkoot Trail Outpost. Linda and the boys went to look for bears last night and this morning. Today we are off to Whitehorse.

Dylan: We looked for the bear spot for an hour then we went a totally different direction and found the place. It was so cool there were salmon right there like 3 feet away. We came back at night and started waiting for bears. Then 10 people came and started fishing right where we were watching. We drove down the road a bit because we thought no bears would go there and then 30 minutes later I see them with cameras so we went over there and of course there's a grizzly. We got out of the car and stood on the little bridge and watched it for 20 minutes. Then it came on the bank. There was no water in between us so mom, Dustin, and I went back in the car.

 Showtime, guys!

It's here somewhere... 

 There! Impressed?

Show's over. I am outta here...

It's a zoo out there...

Watson Lake, YT

Very eventful drive today! I'll leave it to the true "outdoorsy" members of the family to describe the sights!

Dustin: Today we left on our 21st day. We saw lots of buffalo. It was so cool because the first buffalo was walking right beside us and I was shaking! Later, we saw another buffalo and bears. We saw a mother bear with two cubs. It was funny because when dad honked the horn their two heads popped up out of the grass. We arrived at Watson Lake and stayed at Big Horn Lodge.

Dylan: Today we were on the Alaska Highway the whole way for 507km. On the way we saw Stone Sheep, Caribou, Wood Buffalo, 2 Black Bears and 2 cubs. The first stop we stopped at was a little trailer park with homemade cinnamon buns. They were soooo good. The next stop was the hot springs, it was around 110 degrees. We arrived in Watson Lake.

Linda: What can I say, the boys mentioned all the phenomenal wildlife we saw! The Wood Buffalo was so huge, it was the size of the van. It was right up on the road and we were wondering who would win if he decided that we were too close! We also got caught up in the middle of a herd, half was on each side of the road. They seemed to be quite comfortable with cars. We did stop for lunch at the Liard Hot Springs, ate outside and basked in the relaxing waters of the springs. It was very hot, you had to ease in and get used to it. The closer you got to the spring, the hotter the water was.

The scenery continues to amaze me! The mountains were so high the tops rose above the treeline. We tend to follow rivers through the mountains so there are many breath-taking views! I really enjoyed today. Yay! We made it to the Yukon!

When we got to Watson Lake we stayed at The Big Horn Lodge. There isn't really much here even though it appears to be a big town on the map. We had two choices for dinner. This was the better choice. The auto repair shop/diner!

That Ain't No Smokey!

Dylan: Today we had to get up early again to start our 10-hour drive to Fort Nelson. The drive started off boring but then we got into the mountains. We saw a black bear cross the road at around 11:00 and then we saw another black bear eating something on the side of the road so I got some pictures. I also saw a Northern Goshawk, about 4 deer, and a dead moose on the side of the road.

Dustin: Today was our 20th day. I was so excited because when we were on the road I saw my first bear. The first one was a small one and I saw him run across the road behind the car. Then we saw a bigger bear right on the side of the road which is this bear in the pictures below. We are in Fort Nelson and had dinner at Boston Pizza. Then we watched a movie and now it is time for bed.

Dylan's shot at side of road

Linda's close up

Northward Ho!

Brent: Friday night in Prince George, BC and it looks like an episode from The Walking Dead with all the staggering residents on the streets. Liquor stores must have made a killing today... Was it payday?

In BC it's pronounced "Kwezznull"

Linda: We started out in the Cascade Mountains, which were high enough to have snow on the peaks. As the day progressed the mountains got smaller and we followed along the twists and turns of the Fraser River through rolling hills until we were mid mountain range (between the Coastal and Rocky Mountain ranges). It was a full day of driving en route to Alaska. We made it as far as Prince George, passing through Quesnel (Bill, I think we saw a plaque of your great great grandfather :)) Again, the boys are playing in the pool to wear off their day-contained energy! I, myself am enjoying a glass of wine and reading the last book of my 5 book series (I don't know what I am going to do when I am done.. I thought 5 books would last our trip!!) Another big day in the car tomorrow.

They named a rock band after THIS town?

Linda: Contrary to what it sometimes sounds like, our trip is not all driving. We tend to drive hard and stay at a place for a few days. We just finished 4 days in San Fransisco and now have driven 3 days up the coast. We enjoyed the scenery of the rocky coastline in Northern California, enjoying the vistas, seeing Sea Lions, exploring caves and LOVING the Avenue of Giants (the 2000 year old Redwoods). We went to the Chandelier Tree to drive through it (yes drive right through it) but we were worried our mirrors would hit. Then an SUV went through and he made it. We just walked through it. After the first 2 days of more scenic driving, we spent today just driving quickly on the interstate to get through Washington to BC. Unfortunately, I realized after we drove through Kalama, that they used the high school there to film Twilight. Had I known that I would've gone in to see it (very small town, wouldn't have been much of a detour). Oh well. Made it to Chilliwack in time to enjoy the pool and relax for a while. And yes, the next 4 days will be long days in the car as we are heading to Alaska and not taking the time to 'see' anything along the way.

Driving Again...

If it's Wednesday, we must be in Washington...

Long day of driving and beaching up US101. Lots of stops in Northern California and Oregon to explore caves in the ocean, rocks on the beach and trails.

Made it through Portland and ended up in Kelso, WA.

We are back into Canada tomorrow!

It appears that there's a pier up here...

No Internet for 4 days!!!!

Special Note to Grampa from Dylan!! The birds I've seen on the trip so far are: Gambel's Quail, California Quail, Yellow Billed Magpie, Western Scrub Jay, Black Throated Sparrow, White Crowned Sparrow, Black Phoebe, White Tailed Kite, Marsh Wren, and some type of Gull you'll be able to identify.

July 14th-July 19th
Yes, we have been travelling for a few days with no blog posts. Couldn't get an internet connection to work...  So lots to update!

Las Vegas:

Fantasy

Played double deck a lot. Did well. Tried a few poker tournaments and never cashed. Frustrating = having 60% of chips three-handed when top 2 get paid and I lose 4 hands in a row to bad beats (i.e., I had the better hand when we got it all in and the other person "sucked out" and caught one of the few cards they needed to beat me). I finished 3rd. Saw Barry Greenstein play 300-600 mixed in Bobbly’s room. Linda had fun playing roulette for a few days.

Reality

The picture above is of the 95 one-dollar bills that we received as change in our 8 days in Vegas. Note to USA: start using coins!! Net result was even on gambling…. Gotta spend less on dining next time J

Kids Love Chuck!

How can you not love a waiter who introduces your kids to the ultimate fine dining experience in Vegas? “Ok guys, take your fries and pack them into your bowl of chile. All of them! Let’s go! Now the cheese. Do it! Perfect: now you have Chuck’s Guaranteed-Awesome Chile Fries…”

View from Mix at the top of theHotel

Thursday, July 14th
The boys and I went out to the Hoover Dam today. It was very exciting because we have been watching the building of the bridge for the past 4 years. It has been in the process of being built for the past 6 years and now it is done. We were able to drive over it and see the Hoover Dam in full. It is an amazing structure! (Linda)

Friday, July 15th

Brent was up until 5:00am so Linda enjoyed the experience of driving to San Luis Obispo.

Saturday, July 16th

We drove from San Luis Obispo to Larkspur via the Pacific Coast Highway. Beautiful drive! The highlight had to be the beach with the crazy Korean-child-swallowing waves. We actually saw little kids playing WAY to close to large breakers near rocks and then watched dad RUN AWAY when a huge wave hits and swamps his 4 year old daughter. The only thing that saved her from being dragged out to sea was her being pinned against a rock. Unreal...

We also got to see some Elephant Seals relaxing on a beach. They stink and make a lot of noise. 

We got to spend three days in the San Fran area staying at a gorgeous guest house in Larkspur. Thank you Chris and Deb!

Sunday, July 17th

Sunday was a day off from driving – so I went for a 200km drive through Napa Valley to visit Nickel & Nickel and eat brunch at ad hoc in Yountville, CA. Stunning chicken-fried flat iron with twice-roasted potatoes with peppers and scrambled eggs. Wow. Only thing better would be if Thomas Keller showed up and signed my menu… You know what’s coming don’t you? Don’t you? Sigh. Yes, I pulled a dweeb move and actually introduced myself to the man and asked him to sign my menu as he walked through the restaurant as unobtrusively as possible. Awesome!! Damn!! Now I have to frame another menu for the dining room…

Kids and Linda went to hike a mountain (Mt. Tam) so I am back frying pancetta and blanching mushrooms to go with a dinner I finally get to cook (withdrawal = 12 days): USDA Prime filet mignon, roasted bunch baby carrots and broccoli, angel hair pasta with trio of mushrooms in e.v.o.o. and butter, started off with a salad of red bibb lettuce, baby arugula, parmesan, pancetta and apples.

The “no bugs in California” thing is really doing it for me. Yes, in Canada I am the definitive “pigpen” – attractor of all things insectish. However, here I can freely keep screen doors, half-doors and actual doors themselves open without fear of swarming…. So fine….

Monday, July 18th

Dylan, Dustin and Dad drove into Sonoma to eat brunch at the Fremont Diner. This place is crazy-good! After we got back we trekked it into San Francisco and did the twisty road and Alcatraz. Alcatraz was very interesting. We learned a lot about the prisoners and how they were treated and some of the escape attempts. Dustin thought it was very intriguing.

Tuesday, July 19th

Drove the coast of Northern California and saw HUGE redwoods. 

Kids played in the waves at a beach-stop.

We ended up in Eureka, CA. Our Best Western has limo service to the restaurants so we hitched a ride to Gabriel's for a pasta-perfect ending to our long day of driving.

What day is it?

Well, we made it to Las Vegas a few days ago. I think...

Brent: The first thing I hear from Dustin as he gets into his room: "Cool!! FREE Pringles!" as he grabs the mini-container from the weight-sensitive snack tray.  [cue the slow motion voice and video shot] "Nooooooooo....." I yell in vain, reaching to put them back. I then explain the concept of "do not touch a THING in the fridge or on the snack tray perched tantalizingly right in front of the TV" and we laugh about it. Literally 30 seconds later there is a knock on the door and a service person is here to restock the minibar. I told him we had just got in the room 2 minutes ago and hadn't eaten anything and he said there were Pringles missing. Are you kidding me???? These guys are good..... He explained the system and Dustin was off the hook - but very impressed with how it all went down!

We have been down to the pool, lazy river and wave pool each day. We have already started to eat amazing food! Linda and I went up to the bar at the top of Mandalay Bay to see the amazing view of the strip at night.

We had a blast doing the rides at the Stratosphere (unfortunately Insanity was closed due to high winds). The X-Scream here launches you out and over at 850ft. and then tilts down.

Dustin and I went to see The Blue Man Group at the Venetian on Sunday and Dustin absolutely loved it ("I could watch this all night!"). We walked back to Mandalay Bay from the Palazzo after the show: 75 minutes!

My conference started today and I had some interesting sessions on - among other things - blogging in the classroom/school. Learned about the settings on Blogger and now I have activated the ability for anyone to post. I am now going to look for gadgets to track stuff, etc...

Restaurants we have been to so far:
Stripsteak @ Mandalay Bay: phenomenal butter-poached steaks as usual
L'Atelier de Joel Rubichon @ MGM Grand: stunningly mediocre for what it cost (and for its #14 world ranking, although I will have to compare the menu here to the French one)
Bartolotta @ The Wynn: this was a crazy-good Italian restaurant. Beautiful seafood and pasta.
Burger Bar @ Mandalay Bay: always the best burgers
Otto @ The Ventian: good pizza
Tender @ The Luxor: antelope osso bucco = one more animal checked off the list!

St. George, UT

Day 3: Arches are explored, deserted roads travelled, and a well-timed nap ensues.

Brent: Out of Colorado and almost through Utah. Stopped at some "Arch"-rock National Park and watched my three mountain goat family members risk their lives on ledges, etc... Same old, same old. It was really hot. Went into Moab for lunch (smoothies and salads) and then found out that our map is in miles, not kilometres as our drive to St. George took 4 hours, not 2.5. Pool and impending thunderstorms. Awesome!

Linda: It was a good drive today as we got to go more leisurely and see some things. On the scenic route we took, we got to see the birth of the Colorado River. It had a very little creek-like beginning and grew into a massive river winding through the canyons. After our Arches visit Brent decided to have a nap while I drove! Somehow he times these naps perfectly as I ended up driving through the mountains in a torrential downpour with lightning crashing all over. When he woke up 2 hours later at the gas station, I was white knuckled on the steering wheel! Of course when he took over, it didn't rain again. Just so you know, this kind of behaviour has happened before!

Dylan: Today we went sight seeing. There was an ant hill and the hole into the hill was 1 1/2 inches wide and the ants were over half an inch long. When I was taking a picture an ant bit me in between my toes. It really hurt. It turns out it was a fire ant!

Dustin: Today was my funnest day because we went to the Arches and there was a double arch and Dylan, Mom and I climbed up and there was a drop off edge.

Tomorrow: Vegas

Grand Junction, CO

Day 2:   During which our hearty travellers decide to keep.... on..... going.....

Approaching Denver

Dylan: Today we left at 5:30am Vegas time and drove until 12:00am Vegas time. I saw a New Mexico license plate and have seen all the american license plates this year. We drove through part of Illinois, all of Iowa, and all of Nebraska, and then stopped in the Colorado Mountains. You could step out of your car and go get a handful of snow.

Brent: Well... 1790km in one day must be close to a record for me driving. I am glad the van did not blow up. Speaking of explosions... Linda was glad that we made it out of the 4th of July celebrations in one piece. There about 3 different occasions when a cannon, or a cherry bomb or something went off just as we were driving by and it was pretty funny (except for the time I swear someone must have thrown one from the other lane of traffic and it went off under our car - at least that's what it sounded like!).  Coming down from the mountains DYLAN'S MOLAR EXPLODED from the pressure change! We heard this huge "POP!" in the back and Dylan's tooth (which had thankfully fallen out that afternoon) was in a bunch of pieces... The picture above is approaching Denver, where again we were hit with a deluge of epic proportions and wicked lightning.

Dustin: Today we left for Day 2 and we drove through a major thunderstorm with lots of lightning. Dylan and I watched 2 movies in the back seat. It was a boring driving day.

Linda: Loooonnngg Iowa! Ennndddlesss Nebraska! Then into the Colorado Mountains fraught with peril! We entered the mountainous region after the sun went down so we were driving around twisty, curvy, steep grade, runaway truck ramp worthy hills in the dark! We encountered rockslides, cliffsides, deer on the roadsides not to mention mile marker warnings: "Water pooling on the road at MM179" (firetrucks hosing something); "Stalled semi at MM127 stay in the left lane" warning. It was a very nerve wracking experience but we made it!

Brent's note: Oh yeah, this is a blog. Guess we had better put some links in tomorrow...

Almost 1000km....

First day with the whole family on the road. We are going to try a format that has everyone's input...

Brent: Decided to head out a little earlier than planned and hit the road at 1:15pm. Just arrived shy of the Iowa border at local time 10:00pm. Made it 980km with only one stop (not counting the 45 minute border wait!). Only wildlife we saw was a stiff deer on the side of the highway and the population of squashed insects on our windshield...

Dustin: We finally left to go to Las Vegas. When we were crossing the border it was a really long line up. We stopped on the bridge right on the border. We saw fireworks when we were heading to the hotel.

Linda: Not much news today. We realized it was July the 4th and there was much celebration going on in the U.S. when a canon went off for some civil re-enactment right as we were driving by!! Long day, time for bed.

Dylan: [Dylan is not typing tonight....] "I'm trying to sleep here...."

Leaving Tomorrow... we think.

Going to see how work goes Monday, then head out to beat the morning rush at the border.