Day 10: The Glacier

Sarah and I must have really been tired yesterday; we ended up sleeping in until almost 10 am! Aunt Tami had a yummy breakfast of danishes, fresh fruit, coffee and soy milk waiting for us when we finally stumbled out of the bedroom.

After breakfast, Aunt Tami dropped Sarah and I off at the Mendenhall Glacier, which was absolutely beautiful. I wish we could have gotten closer and walked on the ice, but I guess that will have to wait for a winter visit. We walked the Moraine Ecology Trail and took lots of pictures. In the parking lot, we ran into another HSU student, which just goes to show what a small world it really is.

The rest of the day we hung out at the house with the family. It was nice just being settled in one place. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a nomad after all....

Day 9: Juneau

Sarah and I got into Juneau yesterday around 9:30 am or so and followed Aunt Tami, Alex, and Ivan to the house. We're sleeping in the boys' room, and I feel a little bad about kicking them out, but the beds are really comfy. After we got our stuff settled in, all of us and Maggie piled in the car to see Uncle Mike at work, picked up a map downtown, and headed out to the Treadwell Mine. It was really neat, and I'd like to go there again some time to take pictures. I couldn't believe that there was still pieces of the dishes and bowls on the beach, and that they hadn't all been taken by people. Aunt Tami found a good piece with writing on the bottom, and I have to admit, I was tempted to take it back with me, but it's still on the beach somewhere.

Once Uncle Mike got home from work, Sarah, Uncle Mike, Alex, Ivan, and I went to see Kung Fu Panda in the theaters. It was a lot cuter than I thought it would be. Afterwards we came home to a very yummy dinner and then headed across the street to meet everyone. I felt a little bad, since everyone was doing the "It's been so long since we've seen you!" and I'm thinking "I was in the 4th grade, and don't really remember you...." It's still nice to be 'home' again with family after a week of traveling.

Back across the street and Uncle Mike's and Aunt Tami's, the boys (including Uncle Mike) went to bed and us girls watched The Illusionist. It was a long day, but a very good one, and Sarah and I were grateful for the black-out curtains and beds.

Day 8: The Ferry

We broke camp in the rain this morning at 4 (yuck) and headed down to the ferry terminal. It was pretty much hurry to get in line, then wait around. Once we were on the ship and underway, everything was good. Sarah and I ate (decent) hot meals for the first time in several days, and spent most of our time out on deck or under the solarium with its heat lamps. We have our sleeping bags under heat lamps now to dry out, and we'll spend the night out here. We've seen one pod of orcas, and several humpbacks, which has been neat. They need to get closer to the boat though, and come farther out of the water. It's been really nice not to be the one in charge of getting us to our destination.

Day 7: Prince Rupert

Canada has definitely not been good to us. It rained most of today and when we got into camp the lady at the desk warned us that they were expecting a lot more rain and gale force winds, so we had to put a tarp under and over the tent to try to keep the rain out. We went into Prince Rupert to get something warm to eat since we still can’t get the camp stove to stop leaking when we turn the propane on. We ate at La Villa, and weren’t really impressed. I think we would have been better off eating trail mix, especially with the heartache that followed....

Day 6: Making Up Time

Today was driving from 8 am to 8 pm pretty much non-stop. We finally ended up in Smithers, BC. Our cigarette lighter broke at some point during the day, so we’re without a charger for our cell phones, laptop, and camera batteries. We’re also without Lee, which hasn’t been so bad, but I’m hoping to get it fixed so we can have him again.

Day 5: Oh Boy

The morning started out bad. We couldn’t get Lee to figure out where we wanted to go, then he couldn’t accept that the road he wanted us to take was closed. But we finally made it on the road. Then we hit Seattle traffic, and crawled along. Finally we were free and cruising along to Sumas to cross the border. I don't like Canadian Customs very much. Just because I'm not currently working, Lady, doesn't mean I've never had a job! Eventually we got through and drove to Cache Creek, BC and took a nice warm shower. It's weird going to bed at 10:30 and having it still be light out.

Day 4: Seattle

Morning dawned and we'd made it through the night raccoon-free. We broke out the camp stove to make pancakes for breakfast. We put on a pot of water to boil for hot drinks and set about getting things ready for massive pancake making. WHOMPH. Gee, the camp stove is on fire. We got everything put out and tried it again, but I started smelling propane so everything got turned off and I dumped soapy water over the hose and pipes. Sure enough, we have bubbles. No hot breakfast for us, it’s another day of cold cereal.

We decided to take the ferry from Bremerton (where we're staying) to Seattle since it was free and we wouldn’t need to worry about the car in the city. This really turned out to be the best plan. After an hour, the ferry dropped us off at the city center and we stopped into a little place called Thai 65 for lunch. We had veggie tempura (green beans, kombucha squash, eggplant, sweet potato) with a sweet chili sauce, I had the Rama Garden with Tofu (steamed veggies, tofu, and rice with a peanut sauce) and Sarah had the Ba Mee Hang (rice noodles, tofu, steamed veggies and some sort of broth). We were stuffed and ended up having to leave food, which was disappointing, but we couldn’t really carry take-out boxes in our backpacks all day either.

We meandered around downtown, being tourists and looking at all the neat buildings, and headed to the monorail. In 90 seconds, we were a mile away at the Space Needle. Thirty-two bucks (!!) later we were at the top of the Needle, looking around down at Seattle. It was pretty neat (I don’t know about thirty-two dollars neat…). After a little while we jumped back on the monorail and went back downtown and headed to Pike Place.

Pike Place was really cool, but we got there about fifteen minutes to five, so a lot of people were closing up shop already. We didn’t see any flying fish, but we did buy some cherries and strawberries to eat while we walked. We almost ate vegan cookies at Cinnamon Works, a vegan/gluten free/ sugar free bakery right across from Pike Place, but we decided to come back after we had walked around the market, but when we came back they were closed.

Sarah finally admitted her feet hurt (I’m glad she said it first and not me!) and we headed back to the pier to catch the ferry back to Bremerton. A looooong hour later, we were back at camp and Sarah made a much better and injury free fire. We gave in to the need for something warm and heated water over the fire and enjoyed raccoon-free hot apple cider. Tomorrow we set out for Canada!

Day 3: The First Fire, and Consequentially the First Injury

Today was another day of driving, although not as long as the first day. We drove through Olympia, WA. and stopped at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. We were wimps and just did the one mile loop, but it was very nice and it was good to stop and stretch our legs. We got to watch a duck family swim around, then get out of the water and settle down for a nap (and do some duckie yoga).

After walking around we headed to Oskara Japanese Restaurant and ate vegan sushi; Sarah had a noodle dish and I had a rice bowl. Everything was really good and filling. From there we headed to Starbucks and finally got online. Yay! We watched the video of the newest Evers daughter (Josey? JoeZee?) and sent out a couple of e-mails.

We stopped by the University of Puget Sound, where I had originally planned on going to school, and walked around. It was really impressive. Brick buildings, ivy climbing the walls, very college looking. I’m not sure if I would have liked it more than Humboldt or not. I definitely wouldn’t be an oceanography major now, for better or worse.

Finally we set out for camp at Illahee State Park. Then the real fun started. We set up the tent, and got fire wood to make a fire. But to make a fire you need kindling. So as Sarah set up the bed rolls, I got the hatchet out and started splitting wood. For one reason or another (but definitely not user error, that’s for sure), the hatchet bounced off the wood and sliced into my finger. Guess it was time to break out that first aid kit. But finally we got the bleeding stopped and the wood chopped and a fire going and we were enjoying sitting there and tried to roast the left over hot dogs, which ended in sorrow. When suddenly, in the bushes, there’s a rustling. But it sounds like a small little rustling, a bird or squirrel or something. WRONG. A BIG FREAKING RACCOON comes out of the bushes. We shine the flashlight on it, shuffle our feet, shoo it off, but it keeps coming back. And it has us surrounded. We'll see if we make it through the night.

Day 2: Portland

What we failed to notice last night was that there were train tracks running pretty much right through camp. Every forty minutes or so, a train would come blaring through, horn blasting. We didn't get much sleep last night. But we got ourselves some breakfast and went on our way.

We went and viewed Multnomah Falls, the second tallest in the US, and Horsetail Falls, which was just pretty. We hiked around the trails for a while, and then it was time for a vegan donut at Sweetpea Bakery in Portland, Or.

Or that was the plan anyway. Lee (the GPS, which will from now on only be referred to as Lee), got us lost, and we ended up at Oaks Pioneer Park down by the river. Where apparently Portlanders can't read, because below the sign stating "No Fishing", there were five men sitting on the dock with poles in the water. We tried to get a good picture of it, but they just didn't turn out.

But by now we hungry, so it was back in the car and looking for one of the many places that had been recommended to me. Lee was still having trouble, so after driving for a half hour to try and find a parking spot, we set out on our own in search of food. We eventually ran into Paragon, which was on my list as a vegan friendly restaurant, so we went in. Well, it wasn't too vegan friendly, but we both had the Organic Quinoa Salad with asparagus, cherry tomatoes, peas, basil, and a balsamic sauce. It was really good, and very filling.

After lunch we wandered around until we came to a park with a weird elephant statue and a permanent doggy water fountain. We wandered around lost for a little longer before coming across The Blossuming Lotus (where we were trying to go when we ended up at Paragon). They didn't have any vegan soft serve ice cream left, so we went on our way and ended up at Whole Foods. We got a couple of donuts from Mighty-O, and a slushie.

Tired and disappointed from our lack of ability to find anything we had wanted to see, we headed back to camp, and stopped at the Bridge of the Gods, which is apparently just a bridge that they built where they think there was once a giant landslide that created a bridge for the Native Americans to walk across.

Tomorrow we drive to Seattle and explore Olympia and Tacoma along the way. Hopefully we'll get a better sleep than we did last night.

Day 1: Bon Voyage

Today was the start of Sarah's and my Great Alaskan Adventure. After struggling to pack everything in the car and to find the current registration (I knew I had it somewhere...), we were off! We drove from Arcata, CA to Cascade Locks, OR and are staying at the KOA here. Everything so far seems to be going great.