Trip's Over - Summer Continues

What a great month+ on the road! We did and saw so much and my hope is that the kids remember it as the years go by.

I must say that out of the 18.5K km that we drove, the most frustrating part was in Ontario from the Manitoba border to Parry Sound. Seriously - a two-lane highway with a 90km speed limit?????  SO ANNOYING!!  Also, we got stuck behind a caravan of 40 trucks in a travelling carnival so it took 3.5 hours to pass all of them.

Am now sitting on the deck at the cottage watching the sunset, listening to the waves and to U2 with a fire going and a perfect Cabernet Sauvignon after a stellar jambalaya I made for dinner and considering the fact that no matter how far you travel to expand your experiences, the best are always at home....

Brent

The last leg of the journey..

Today is the beginning of our long drive home. We have no more plans to stop until West Edmonton Mall! Dustin has been asking about going there since we started discussing the possibility of going to Alaska : )
It's hard to describe the scenery in Alaska. The mountains are majestic and I want to say quiet. I can't explain how small they make you feel and how permanent and long lasting they appear. We drove through all sorts of mountains; hilly, craggy, sharp edged, some with the sudden stop of a tree line and some with snow but mostly very rocky.

We decided to drive for as long as we could now that we are heading home. We drove from Fairbanks to Watson Lake (got there at 10:30 at night) but alas, no vacancy. But as it was still light we didn't mind continuing on until about 12:30 at night. Driving at night rewarded us with some animal sights; 2 foxes and a herd of Buffalo standing in the highway. A truck was pulled over with it's flashers on but we didn't know why they were stopped so we drove by them. As soon as we got by we saw the herd. So discussing the possibility of charging bison (the size of the van) we decided to try going through, of course letting the truck go first : ) No problems, I think the buffalo must be used to traffic as they slowly moved over. 

By this time exhaustion took it's toll and we pulled over in a wayside with some campers and tried to sleep in the car. This was not a very successful venture! Therefore, by 4:30 am I was awake (to tell you the truth I think I was awake all night)  so away we went again. We were not fortunate enough to see Elk or Caribou on the way up the Alaskan highway but now because it was very early morning we did get a chance to see a few herds. 

 Elk

Caribou

I guess I shouldn't forget to mention the construction. It's almost as bad as Ontario roads in the summer. Here the roads are always under construction because of the permafrost. We got used to the bumping around and the waiting (sometimes up to 20 minutes) for one lane construction zones. Fortunately, after seeing how many Alaskan vehicles have cracked windshields we did not suffer the same fate.... until Alberta! On all our rough road driving we managed to get a stone chip on a smooth highway near Edmonton!! Oh well, apparently most of the windshield cracks in Alaska are from the extreme cold, not stone chips.

Edmonton Mall was enormous! The boys were able to do a lot of the rides on their own and the water park with Brent, seeing as how I'm not much one for the water. This freed me up to do some shopping! As Alberta only has 5% sales tax I did some shopping for clothes for the boys to go back to school. 

The rope course, 3 stories high!

As we left Edmonton we stopped in to visit cousins Melinda, Paul and family. Melinda let the boys have a horse ride, we enjoyed a nice lunch together and Melinda and I reconnected! It was great to see them again. 

   

On the way home we drove through Saskatchewan under a huge rainstorm with an unbelievable display of lightning. You will have to ask Brent about the "black lightning." Let's just say that we were quite tired at the time and it LOOKED like black lightning :) Anyway, we could see the end of the storm for a long time (it being the Prairies) and it felt like we we re driving under a blanket and out from underneath.

The colour of the canola fields was stunning as well.

Well, all in all it was a long trip home but we had an incredible time and have many memories to keep and to share. I know the boys loved it and hope they remember it well.

See you soon,
Linda

On the way home...

Regina, SK

Crashing for sleep after driving from Edmonton this morning. Home in a couple days probably and at that time we'll post all the pix and details from Fairbanks to back east.

Cheers!

Fairbanks, AK

August 1, 2011

Dylan: We went to the Gold Dredge and Creamer’s Field. At Creamer’s Field there were a lot of  Sandhill Cranes. 

Dredge #8: Fairbanks

Update of birds!! New birds I’ve seen are: Black-Billed Magpie, Bald Eagle, Bonaparte’s Gull, Gray Jay, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Stellar’s Jay, Sandhill Crane. In Barrow I saw: Dunlin, Black Turnstone, Red Throated Loon (but it was dead), Longtailed Jaeger, Glaucous Gull, Red Phalarope, King Eider, and wait for it… Lapland Longspur!!!!!!

Sandhill Crane

Brent: In our travels today we stopped and checked out the Alaskan Pipeline. 

At our northernmost point that we are sleeping in on the trip - Fairbanks with the sky at midnight!

Barrow, AK: Northernmost Community in USA

Yesterday we rose bright an early and got to the airport in Fairbanks at 6:30am for our flight to Barrow, AK. Our flight was fairly non-descript until our aborted first attempt to land in Prudhoe Bay. It was so foggy that as we were about to land the pilot gunned the thrusters and climbed again. We had no idea what was going on at the time. We tried again and he landed. Kinda cool, but also a little unsettling.

We continued on to Barrow and were surprised at how large the community was. Now, that said, I am not going to say there was much to do as we spent 10 hours there and it was MORE than enough.

Everything was muddy and in disrepair. Like many northern communities, the land was strewn with broken snowmobiles, trucks, cars, sleds, and buildings. We saw about 4 burned out houses in our walks. We were the only "tourists" wandering the streets and as it was Sunday, most of the minimal number of businesses were closed. We walked down to the ocean and were amazed at the rolling surf of the Arctic ocean coming in from who knows where :-) We placed our hands in the water and felt the coldness of the Arctic Ocean. We could see the ice far out off the coast, and we actually got to see some whales go by (probably Bow Whales). We came across a slaughtered beluga whale on the beach that we found out later was shot by locals two days ago and harvested.

It was raining and eerie - no one was anywhere... We found Pepe's restaurant for brunch and after experiencing the staff there I was concerned that being this far north affected intelligence.  In our walking, we asked four people for directions to certain landmarks and NO ONE could identify on the town map where we were to go. It was surreal!! People who lived there could not tell us where things where - or even where they were located on this map.

Dylan: King Eider at Arctic Ocean

We saw a few stores, the schools, the old archeological sites and then decided to grab a cab and head to the one end of the community to see some birds. Saw some birds, then got back to to Arctic Pizza for a quick snack. Then walked around some more and grabbed another cab to go to "the point" - the end of the road in Barrow and the northernmost point in the continental US.

 Arctic Ocean in Barrow, AK

Northernmost point in the US

We caught our flight back to Fairbanks and landed at 9:10pm. A busy day indeed!