The End of the Road

After boarding the ferry we had to pitch a tent on the top deck because we didn't get a cabin... so I spent three days freezing to death, but thoroughly enjoying camping on top of an Alaskan boat. The views were beautiful beyond anything I can describe, or capture with a camera for that matter... that is if I wouldn't have left my camera at my Grandma's house and had to resort to the cell camera the whole time (rolling my eyes...) The ferry pulled into several little ports through British Columbia Canada, and Alaska... all of which were completely adorable! The kids had a great time... and we even saw some killer whales and another, I think they said a humpback, but there was a little debate about that one. We discovered that jelly fish thrive in cold water, which was news to me... they were huge and billowing along the side of the boat for quite a ways. And of course we ate some really yummy food, mmmm halibut burgers!

We arrived in Haines, a charming little port town, and drove into Canada that afternoon, through British Columbia and into Yukon... the Yukon motto is "Larger than Life" and the territory remains true to it's motto. The mountains there made the Rockies look like hills. I, again, found myself blaring music and playing MarioKart with Kia, which was much more exciting this time as the roads are... rough, to say the least. I essentially played tag for 800 miles with all the pot holes, rivets, dips, and gravel patches. We laughed as the signs got progressively funnier... from "falling rocks" to "Moose" to "blasting area" and of course "Rough Road" lol... which we soon discovered (as all of the road is rough) when they go to the trouble to post a sign, its lightweight a free roller-coaster ride. We honestly caught air several times (with lots of squeals from the backseat) which was inevitably followed by several... uh, intense... words from the passenger seat. Lots of sections of the road should have had rails on the sides, some could fall in the "cliff" category... one false move and a lengthy plummet would have been the end of Kia and crew... anyway, that was the funnest highway I have ever traveled, rivaled only by the Galeana roads in Mexico two summers ago!!! It was gorgeous too, fall starting to sweep across the mountain-sides, turning everything golden and kissing the trees with red tones. The lakes are an amazing deep blue, some of them tucked into the sides of the mountains, some in the valleys. Streams and rivers rush down to the valleys, so cold they look silver-green instead of blue. I saw my first glacier ever, it was kind of cool, but really black. It ran up out of the ground, so looked more like funny-shaped frozen mud topped with snow peaks for a few miles. Not the glowing-blue glaciers that are supposed to be south of here. All in all, aside of the cold, this is the most beautiful part of the world I have seen and I am feeling blessed to be here afterall. Go figure.

We stayed in two adorable little cabins, one in Haines Junction, Yukon, and one in Tok, Alaska.

The first involved a trek across the gravel lot to the latrine, which was right in front of the woodline. A mangy wild dog we dubbed "Big Foot" prowled around, occasionally stopping to lick his chops at Mysteri... and kept us with full bladders the majority of the time. Finally around 4am I couldn't stand it anymore, psyched myself up with the whole "I am a Soldier, damnit" spiel and took myself across the way... sheesh.

The second, at the Burnt Paw Bed and Breakfast in Tok, was probably the most charming place I have stayed in, and when given the chance I will escape that way again. They had real sled dog puppies (it took all I had not to bring one along), genuine sleds and mushing teams (ha, youknowwho), native arts and furs, parkas, ulus, etc. etc. Breakfast was home-made waffles with home-made syrup and home-made jam. They had a little miner-fountain and porch wooden porch swings. The owners were warm and hospitable, and the cabins were cozy but modern.

Pulling into Anchorage the next day was interesting. Its a pretty little harbor city, mountains on one side, ocean on the other... suburban looking neighborhoods and a few blocks of "city" with smallish sky-scrapers. We literally reached the end of the road... drove all the way until it ran into ocean... with the end came the relief that we were FINALLY here! We celebrated with a Chinese restaurant which was named one of the top 10 places in the US to eat by USA Today a year or two ago... and it was amazing Chinese food! Mmmm!!!

And thus ended the 54 hour (plus a 3 day ferry ride) mammoth road trip. While I am more than thankful to be out of the car, and ready to get back to work, I am a little sad to be finished with it. Its not every day I get to see that much of our precious country...