ALASKA!!

The drive to Alaska wasn't bad at all. It took us 4 days. The worst part about the drive was that it was "off season" up here (meaning the tourist groups weren't here yet) and not very many of the gas stations were open. We were driving an SUV and pulling a trailer so we got 9 miles to the gallon. It made me really nervous because even if there was a gas staition posted on the signs, it didn't necessarily mean they were open and it could be another 100 miles before the next one. So we gassed up any chance we got. Most of our driving time was through Canada and things are different there. It is much less convenient. A lot of the pumps you had to pay the cashier inside rather than swiping your card outside. Also most of the gas staions close at 7 PM. There roads are awful. It was like a rollercoaster which made it hard with a trailer. We had to go really slow in some spots because our trailer was bouncing so bad. At one point in our drive we had to turn around because we realized that we weren't going to make it to the next gas staiton. We unhitched our trailer on the side of the road and drove 40 miles out of the way. We got to Stewart around 7:30PM and this is when we first realized that everything closes at 7 PM. So we were stuck there for the night. The next morning we woke up at 6:30 am to make up for time we lost and headed out without breakfast thinking we would stop somewhere along the way. We got back to our trailer and luckily everything was still locked up and in place. We hitched up and kept driving. We didn't see anything to eat until 6:30 that night! Luckily we had crackers and fruit to snack on. We ate at a little diner that seemed mostly clean other than the floor. The floor had a thin layer of carpet on it but it was basically dirt. We didn't care, we were starving. And I even let Brynli crawl all over. She had been stuck in her car seat all day and it was freezing cold outside (several feet of snow and ice). I just washed her black hands before we left (gross). There came a point on this trip when I just couldn't care about some stuff. This was the only way I could keep my sanity. It was kind of nice :) Oh and my BLT (one of the cheapest things on the menu that wasn't that good) was $14. And gas was $1.20-$1.30/Liter, not Gallon. I'm pretty sure that's robbery. Canada got the best of us.

Unfortunately I didn't have my Camara where I could reach it for most of Canada but the view was amazing. Beyond words. We were driving high up in the mountains and still had more mountains towering over us. We saw tons of Caribou. A couple times we had two caribou running right in front of us on the road in the same direction. So we just followed slowly until they got spooked. We saw some white dall sheep too.
Here are some pictures I got once we crossed the border back into the U.S.


I went into a store in the middle of nowhere to get hot dogs for all of us and this fox was waiting outside the door for me. He followed be to my car. It scared me to death. I wasn't sure if foxes were mean but apparently not. He was just hungry.


"Two treats mom" because one is not enough.

Madi loving that she can watch her Mickey show all day.

Relaxing

Holding Dad's hand

Brynli talking on her "phone" which is actually a key remote :)


These pictures were taken around midnight. It is really cool that it is light outside all the time. especially when we are traveling late.


Some of the many caribou we have seen


The DVD players were a life saver!


John was so proud of this picture (football in hand). Brynli stayed happy as long as she had ahold of it.



We had to stop and change diapers and we thought this was a pretty cool view.


Alaska is amazing! I really love it here. This is by far my favorite place we've lived, and we've lived a lot of places. I love that there is wildlife all around us. I love the view and all of the fun/touristy things there are to do here. I even love where we live. We live in an apt. that was probably built in the 70's or 80's. It reminds me a lot of the house I grew up in with the brown baseboards and the bay window. It's in a good location too which is really nice because I ride my bike everywhere (with the bike trailer for the girls). We live 2 miles from Pioneer Park (the best park ever) which I will tell you about later. There are also many many playgrounds here. So we would go to a new one every time.
Here is our apartment. It is so spacious.




The only cons are that there is not a washer and dryer in the apt. or air conditioning. There is a laundry room on the first floor of each building though. This is very common here. Oh and laundry was $4 a load. Yikes.

This was our transportation. The girls were worn out from playing at the park and fell asleep.

Some pictures on the playground