30 June 2007 - Portland
We slept in. I woke up at about 8:30, which is extremely late for me. I shuffled to the lobby for coffee, and then played on the computer while everyone else kept sleeping. At about 9, is started roustin’ the young-ums. They wanted no part of it.
Eventually everyone got up. Steve led the boys in Hotel Room Physical Training (HRPT – because everything must have an acronym). They did burpees (don’t ask), sit-ups, push-ups and they also did a torture position where they laid on their backs and held their legs about 6” off the ground. This is why I hate pilates. The boys counted to 100 very…slowly… for Steve, then Nate did it for a count of 50 and again for about 30. It’s crazy, the kid has a little mini 6-pack on his tummy.
We were going to spend the next night at our friends’ house so we started getting cleaned up and packed up. Somehow we managed to miss the free continental breakfast, so we had bagels in the room then headed to Camas, WA, just north of Portland.
Steve went to CGA with Chris, so we’ve known him basically forever. He has a civilian big-wig job now. Beth and I hit it off right away when we met about 4 years ago, she’s like a friend I’ve had for a long time, but just didn’t get the chance to meet until a few years ago. Last time we saw them, we all lived in Connecticut and they hosted a big party for us as we were moving to Alaska. We all remember most of that night…
Anyway, Chris and Beth both very bright people and have super-duper jobs that keep them working very hard. As a result, they also have a beautiful home and are just about the only people I know who move more than we do.
We arrived at their house at about noon and since it was such a beautiful day, we hung out on their back deck for a while. Malley was confined to the back yard because they have 2 cats & we weren’t exactly sure how that would work. Drew & Steve played catch for a while.
We had talked about going to the zoo, but after about an hour of sitting on the deck and chatting, we decided to just keep doing what we were doing. Chris made it better by opening a bottle of pinot noir from an Oregon winery. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Good friends, good weather, good wine. This is the life.
Our quiet afternoon was interrupted by Nate screaming like I have never heard him scream before, and that is saying a lot. Nate is our screamer. All we heard was “Malley No!” “No Malley No!” followed by a blood curdling scream. Yes, Malley had followed Nate into the house and was making friends with Pumpkin and Snowball the cats. I got to the door in time to see Pumpkin, not a svelte kitty, flying through the air about 4 feet off the ground and 43 lbs. of Nate holding on for dear life to a leash attached to 41 lbs. of Malley. Nate was winning, but not for long.
We got Malley out of the house, convinced Beth that our dog had merely traumatized, not eaten, her kitties and carried on with our lovely afternoon.
When we started planning the trip, we knew we wanted to swing by Portland to visit our friends, and when I e-mailed Beth, she said they were free Friday night and during the day on Saturday, but they have tickets to a Norah Jones concert Saturday night. My response was that I was jealous since I like Norah Jones and it has been a long time since we have been to any concert. Think about it, when was the last time you saw “Anchorage, AK” on the back of a tour t-shirt?
In the meantime Steve and Chris had talked and they started hunting for concert tickets so we could join them. Of course the concert was sold out, but have no fear, this is Chris and Beth! They found some tickets for us and our seats were even a bit better than theirs. What about the kids, you ask? Well, again, this is Chris and Beth. They found a babysitter for us (Chris’s brother’s girlfriend’s sister – just in case you cared).
We had a wonderful dinner at Jake’s Grill in downtown Portland. The restaurant is beautiful and the food was even better. We started with a bottle of wine and an enormous chilled seafood platter. Baby shrimp, huge prawns, lump crabmeat, oysters, crawfish, lox with onions and capers, all served with a spicy cocktail sauce and red pepper aioli on a big tray in the middle of our table. Steve had the blue cheese crusted NY Strip. It was a great steak. I had Yukon River wild salmon stuffed with crab and brie. I’ve made crab stuffed salmon, but I never thought to add brie, and I’ve never seen it on a menu before. It was amazing! I also knew that this would be my last chance to have fresh wild salmon for a long time. Atlantic salmon really shouldn’t be called salmon, it is so different from what we have in Alaska.
A quick drive later, were we at the concert hall. It was a decent size theater with classic theater architecture. It was a nice place. We had a glass of wine in the lobby, then headed in to watch the last few songs of the opening act (can’t remember his name, but he was good). Our seats weren’t together, so we met up with Chris & Beth after the opening act for another glass of wine in the lobby (nothing but water allowed in the seats). The wine wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible either, but it was a pretty generous pour and we didn’t realize that there wouldn’t be much time between sets. We didn’t exactly chug, but we did have to drink it quickly. I was reminded that the last time Beth and I drank wine out of plastic cups it didn’t end well.
Norah Jones sounded great, her banter with the band and a few random audience members was good, but when she was singing, she didn’t really perform. She is really lost in her own world. It was interesting to watch. She wore a very pretty white print sundress. This was the last stop on the American leg of her tour and I wonder why no one has told her that the audience can see through her dress with the way the lighting is during the first song…nothing vulgar, but like that picture of Lady Di with the little kids when the paparzzi first started stalking her. It seemed odd to me.
Anyway, the concert was great. Steve didn’t especially enjoy the song “Election Day” about her disappointment in Nov. 2004. But, this is Portland and he was outnumbered.
We had a lovely evening.
Good friends, good wine, good food, good music. Life is good.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
There is no place like home. (click click click) (CLICK CLICK CLICK)
29 June 2007 - Bellingham-Seattle-Portland
The ferry docked at 0800 Seattle time, but since the ferry flies the Alaskan flag, it keeps Alaskan time. Alaskans are like that. Eight stars of gold and whatnot.
So it was really only 0700 Alaska Time, which meant that we got up at about 0600 – by far the earliest we’ve needed to be moving in a while. We made oatmeal in the room by heating water in the coffeepot, packed up our last minute stuff and headed to the barrier across the steps to the car deck.
But wait! Steve started to do something totally unexpected…he shaved! Yes, he shaved! Last time he shaved was June 12 for the Change of Command. Since then, I bet Troy has been shaving every day. Steve notsomuch. Now, I knew that Steve was going to stop into the Coast Guard station in Bellingham for a few hours to use their computers to finish up some work. I even commented the day before that I knew he would shave before walking into a CG building – in uniform or not, on leave or not - I just knew that LCDR Scruffy wouldn’t walk into that building. He said he didn’t really care when I asked him the day before. Well, as we were heading out the door he took one last glance at the mirror next to the door, stopped dead in his tracks and said…”IIIIIII can’t do it!” Poof! The beard was gone. I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture!
Funny thing on the way to the car deck, we ran into a woman who was totally lost. She had no idea how to get to the car deck. Now that isn’t all that unusual. If you don’t have a pet to take care of, you can go the whole trip without setting foot on the car deck. This lady was really freaking out that she couldn’t find the car deck. You know what was odd? SHE HAS A DOG! We saw her down there 3-4 times a day for the last 3 days. Weird.
So the ferry docked, and we made the made dash/obstacle course run to the car. As I mentioned before, they want us in our car IMMEDIATELY after docking so we can pull away. Problem is, they won’t let us into the car deck until the ship is docked. So the barrier drops and 40 or so car loads of people have to dash to their cars. It was crazy. And we didn’t even get to wake up Tinkerbell. (OK, you have to be a Disney World geek to get that one).
Here we are…Outside. That is how Alaskans refer to the lower-48 states. Hawaii, we just call Spring Break. Just about everyone goes to Hawaii in March. It keeps us from killing ourselves and/or each other.
I’ve probably spent more time in Bellingham, WA than any other place that I have not actually lived. Except maybe Disney World – I’d have to do the math on that one. When we were first married, Steve’s ship was in dry dock for 2-3 months. Since they couldn’t live on the ship, he had a hotel room, so I stayed with him in Bellingham for about a month. Ahh, young love. We’ve also spent a few days here during the comings and goings of each of our Alaska moves. We once camped about 50 feet from a train track in Bellingham. Of course, we couldn’t see the track and didn’t know it was there until about an hour after we went to bed (umm, sleeping bag). For a brief moment, we thought we were ON the tracks. So every hour a train came by, blowing its horn and shaking the ground. Not fun. This was during our first move together (Kodiak-San Diego). This was also the move when we spent a night in the car. At the Del Mar Polo Grounds. We decided if we were going to have to sleep in the car, we would do it in style. Anyway, after 14 years, we are getting better at this moving stuff. We’ve had practice.
So here we are in Bellingham. We found a giant gravel parking lot and let Malley run around for about 45 minutes. Then Steve headed to the CG station to do his work and the boys and I headed to Target. YAY! TARGET! I love Target. We don’t have them in Alaska yet (Coming Soon, Fall 2007). We popped in to Target in Orlando on the way to our last Disney Cruise in March 2006, that was the last time I was actually in a Target.
I had a shopping list, but I was also excited to just roam around. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I hate to shop. Something got mixed up in my chromosomes. Love football – hate shopping. I can’t explain it. Anyway, Yay Target!
So the boys and I shopped. New shorts for them. Drew only had 3 pairs of shorts, which is OK for an Alaskan kid. It is even OK for a week vacation in Hawaii since we had a washer and dryer in the condo. It is NOT OK for a cross country trip in June. I also bought Nate a few pairs, because for some reason all the shorts he owns are khaki. I ‘m not sure how that happened, but I thought I would bring some color into the boy’s life.
Yes, Dad, Kevin & Keith, I bought Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. In our family it is not a road trip without Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. That’s what Mom always packed.
The boys were actually good during this adventure, so I bought them a Squishie - OK a slushy, but anyone who has ever watched The Simpson’s can’t help but refer to it as a Squishie.
Then came the fun part – getting all of my Target purchases into our already jam packed car. I stood in the parking lot and took everything out of boxes and wrappers, then shoved it into a semi-logical bag. We’ll sort it out later.
I still had about an hour to kill before meeting Steve, so we went to a sporting goods store to look at bike racks since ours was currently held together with duct tape and pixie dust.
WOW! I love Outside prices! I found a trailer hitch-mounted 4–bike rack for $139. When we looked in Alaska, the cheapest we could find was $400. SOLD! It’s a bit more than we need for this trip, but now we can take all four bikes camping and such. You know, when we actually have a home and going on a trip is a novelty.
I sprung for the $15 installation fee, so the boys road their bikes around a quiet area of the parking lot for about 45 minutes while the rack was installed.
By now LCDR Baby-Face was done working so we picked him up and headed to our favorite Bellingham eatery for lunch. We ate at the Colophon Café, home of the Mug o’Mocha Moo. It is a cute little place attached to the Village Bookstore, a great (and big) independent book store. The café has a really interesting menu with lots of soups, salads, sandwiches, 3 quiches daily and 2 pot pies daily. Steve has never been one to pass up a Chicken Pot Pie, the boys each had bagels with peanut butter and I had African peanut soup with a baguette and cheese. Definitely our best meal so far. We love this place and go at least once every time we are in Bellingham.
So now it is about 1:30 and we realize we’ve made a big mistake. We are heading to Portland tonight and we are going to hit Seattle at about 3 pm, on a Friday. We figured the traffic wouldn’t be too bad until about 4, so maybe we could make it to the city before it got crazy. We were wrong….
Three o’clock, about 30 miles north of Seattle, the world came to a screeching halt. Welcome to our first traffic jam in years! Ugh! So we crept along at about 10 mph for the next three hours… Can we go home now? Oh yeah, and it was hot. When I mentioned that it was hot, Steve looked at the temperature gage on the dash and informed me that it was a whopping 76 degrees. Knowing what we are in for in our new town both weather and traffic-wise, I quickly began calculating a budget to see how we would fare if we turned around, Steve joined the Alaska State Trooper, and I got my old job back. Unfortunately, it didn’t look good. So, we kept heading south.
Once we were finally through the city, we all needed to run around a scream for a few minutes, so we pulled off at an exit with a sign for a park. We all got out, ran the dog around for a bit and discovered a new game: Puppy Catch! Malley is about 7 months old and an extremely smart dog (which can be good and bad!) She is learning a lot, but is still 7 months old! We would like to some day have her under voice control so she can hang out without a leash, but we aren’t there yet. We decided to give it a try in a very controlled way. Steve and I stood about 20 yards apart, I called the dog, and Steve let go of the leash. She came right to me! So I turned her around, Steve called her and I let go. This is fun for all! Nate was watching this all unfold and pointed out that it looked like we were playing catch with the dog & Puppy Catch was born!
By now it is getting late. It doesn’t look like we are going to get to Portland anytime soon. We were going to see our friends Chris & Beth tonight, but we had to call and bail out on them. We felt bad, but it was getting late and we were all grumpy. We wouldn’t have been very good company even though they are our good friends, and they have wine.
We arrived at the Super 8 near the Portland airport at about 9:30 & we were starving! So we checked Malley into the hotel and headed out for food. Now for our first real dining challenge: lots of fast-food and sit-down national chain options…but no. We headed down the street away from the highway and found a sports bar/restaurant called Sidelines. Ick, apparently people can still smoke in restaurants in Oregon. Oh well. We had potato skins and a big pizza. Healthy, I know. We didn’t even pretend to have a vegetable. Like I said, it was late and we were grumpy. Steve and I each had an Alaskan Amber while we could still get it.
We headed to the motel and crashed.
Can we go home yet??
The ferry docked at 0800 Seattle time, but since the ferry flies the Alaskan flag, it keeps Alaskan time. Alaskans are like that. Eight stars of gold and whatnot.
So it was really only 0700 Alaska Time, which meant that we got up at about 0600 – by far the earliest we’ve needed to be moving in a while. We made oatmeal in the room by heating water in the coffeepot, packed up our last minute stuff and headed to the barrier across the steps to the car deck.
But wait! Steve started to do something totally unexpected…he shaved! Yes, he shaved! Last time he shaved was June 12 for the Change of Command. Since then, I bet Troy has been shaving every day. Steve notsomuch. Now, I knew that Steve was going to stop into the Coast Guard station in Bellingham for a few hours to use their computers to finish up some work. I even commented the day before that I knew he would shave before walking into a CG building – in uniform or not, on leave or not - I just knew that LCDR Scruffy wouldn’t walk into that building. He said he didn’t really care when I asked him the day before. Well, as we were heading out the door he took one last glance at the mirror next to the door, stopped dead in his tracks and said…”IIIIIII can’t do it!” Poof! The beard was gone. I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture!
Funny thing on the way to the car deck, we ran into a woman who was totally lost. She had no idea how to get to the car deck. Now that isn’t all that unusual. If you don’t have a pet to take care of, you can go the whole trip without setting foot on the car deck. This lady was really freaking out that she couldn’t find the car deck. You know what was odd? SHE HAS A DOG! We saw her down there 3-4 times a day for the last 3 days. Weird.
So the ferry docked, and we made the made dash/obstacle course run to the car. As I mentioned before, they want us in our car IMMEDIATELY after docking so we can pull away. Problem is, they won’t let us into the car deck until the ship is docked. So the barrier drops and 40 or so car loads of people have to dash to their cars. It was crazy. And we didn’t even get to wake up Tinkerbell. (OK, you have to be a Disney World geek to get that one).
Here we are…Outside. That is how Alaskans refer to the lower-48 states. Hawaii, we just call Spring Break. Just about everyone goes to Hawaii in March. It keeps us from killing ourselves and/or each other.
I’ve probably spent more time in Bellingham, WA than any other place that I have not actually lived. Except maybe Disney World – I’d have to do the math on that one. When we were first married, Steve’s ship was in dry dock for 2-3 months. Since they couldn’t live on the ship, he had a hotel room, so I stayed with him in Bellingham for about a month. Ahh, young love. We’ve also spent a few days here during the comings and goings of each of our Alaska moves. We once camped about 50 feet from a train track in Bellingham. Of course, we couldn’t see the track and didn’t know it was there until about an hour after we went to bed (umm, sleeping bag). For a brief moment, we thought we were ON the tracks. So every hour a train came by, blowing its horn and shaking the ground. Not fun. This was during our first move together (Kodiak-San Diego). This was also the move when we spent a night in the car. At the Del Mar Polo Grounds. We decided if we were going to have to sleep in the car, we would do it in style. Anyway, after 14 years, we are getting better at this moving stuff. We’ve had practice.
So here we are in Bellingham. We found a giant gravel parking lot and let Malley run around for about 45 minutes. Then Steve headed to the CG station to do his work and the boys and I headed to Target. YAY! TARGET! I love Target. We don’t have them in Alaska yet (Coming Soon, Fall 2007). We popped in to Target in Orlando on the way to our last Disney Cruise in March 2006, that was the last time I was actually in a Target.
I had a shopping list, but I was also excited to just roam around. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I hate to shop. Something got mixed up in my chromosomes. Love football – hate shopping. I can’t explain it. Anyway, Yay Target!
So the boys and I shopped. New shorts for them. Drew only had 3 pairs of shorts, which is OK for an Alaskan kid. It is even OK for a week vacation in Hawaii since we had a washer and dryer in the condo. It is NOT OK for a cross country trip in June. I also bought Nate a few pairs, because for some reason all the shorts he owns are khaki. I ‘m not sure how that happened, but I thought I would bring some color into the boy’s life.
Yes, Dad, Kevin & Keith, I bought Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. In our family it is not a road trip without Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. That’s what Mom always packed.
The boys were actually good during this adventure, so I bought them a Squishie - OK a slushy, but anyone who has ever watched The Simpson’s can’t help but refer to it as a Squishie.
Then came the fun part – getting all of my Target purchases into our already jam packed car. I stood in the parking lot and took everything out of boxes and wrappers, then shoved it into a semi-logical bag. We’ll sort it out later.
I still had about an hour to kill before meeting Steve, so we went to a sporting goods store to look at bike racks since ours was currently held together with duct tape and pixie dust.
WOW! I love Outside prices! I found a trailer hitch-mounted 4–bike rack for $139. When we looked in Alaska, the cheapest we could find was $400. SOLD! It’s a bit more than we need for this trip, but now we can take all four bikes camping and such. You know, when we actually have a home and going on a trip is a novelty.
I sprung for the $15 installation fee, so the boys road their bikes around a quiet area of the parking lot for about 45 minutes while the rack was installed.
By now LCDR Baby-Face was done working so we picked him up and headed to our favorite Bellingham eatery for lunch. We ate at the Colophon Café, home of the Mug o’Mocha Moo. It is a cute little place attached to the Village Bookstore, a great (and big) independent book store. The café has a really interesting menu with lots of soups, salads, sandwiches, 3 quiches daily and 2 pot pies daily. Steve has never been one to pass up a Chicken Pot Pie, the boys each had bagels with peanut butter and I had African peanut soup with a baguette and cheese. Definitely our best meal so far. We love this place and go at least once every time we are in Bellingham.
So now it is about 1:30 and we realize we’ve made a big mistake. We are heading to Portland tonight and we are going to hit Seattle at about 3 pm, on a Friday. We figured the traffic wouldn’t be too bad until about 4, so maybe we could make it to the city before it got crazy. We were wrong….
Three o’clock, about 30 miles north of Seattle, the world came to a screeching halt. Welcome to our first traffic jam in years! Ugh! So we crept along at about 10 mph for the next three hours… Can we go home now? Oh yeah, and it was hot. When I mentioned that it was hot, Steve looked at the temperature gage on the dash and informed me that it was a whopping 76 degrees. Knowing what we are in for in our new town both weather and traffic-wise, I quickly began calculating a budget to see how we would fare if we turned around, Steve joined the Alaska State Trooper, and I got my old job back. Unfortunately, it didn’t look good. So, we kept heading south.
Once we were finally through the city, we all needed to run around a scream for a few minutes, so we pulled off at an exit with a sign for a park. We all got out, ran the dog around for a bit and discovered a new game: Puppy Catch! Malley is about 7 months old and an extremely smart dog (which can be good and bad!) She is learning a lot, but is still 7 months old! We would like to some day have her under voice control so she can hang out without a leash, but we aren’t there yet. We decided to give it a try in a very controlled way. Steve and I stood about 20 yards apart, I called the dog, and Steve let go of the leash. She came right to me! So I turned her around, Steve called her and I let go. This is fun for all! Nate was watching this all unfold and pointed out that it looked like we were playing catch with the dog & Puppy Catch was born!
By now it is getting late. It doesn’t look like we are going to get to Portland anytime soon. We were going to see our friends Chris & Beth tonight, but we had to call and bail out on them. We felt bad, but it was getting late and we were all grumpy. We wouldn’t have been very good company even though they are our good friends, and they have wine.
We arrived at the Super 8 near the Portland airport at about 9:30 & we were starving! So we checked Malley into the hotel and headed out for food. Now for our first real dining challenge: lots of fast-food and sit-down national chain options…but no. We headed down the street away from the highway and found a sports bar/restaurant called Sidelines. Ick, apparently people can still smoke in restaurants in Oregon. Oh well. We had potato skins and a big pizza. Healthy, I know. We didn’t even pretend to have a vegetable. Like I said, it was late and we were grumpy. Steve and I each had an Alaskan Amber while we could still get it.
We headed to the motel and crashed.
Can we go home yet??
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Groundhog Day at Sea
Groundhog Day at Sea
28 June 2007 – Ferry day 3
So by now you get it. Jog the dog, eat, sit in the lounge, read, sleep, play cards, sit on the deck, make up imaginary poker pals…
Day 3 on the ferry, more of the same.
Drew and I downloaded some of his photos for the first time and he discovered the wonders of cropping. It was fun and now every time he takes a picture, he tells me what he wants to do with it when we get it onto the computer.
The National Forest Service had a park ranger who rides on the ferry the entire trip and does 3 presentations a day about assorted wildlife and points of interest we will be passing. They also point out assorted wildlife. For those who haven’t been to a national park in a while, most of them have a Junior Ranger program. Kids get a booklet and have to do some exploring to answer questions. Once it is complete, the kids take it to a ranger who checks it, leads them in a Junior Ranger oath and gives them a patch or a pin (depending on the park). The boys did several on the last trip including the Yellowstone Junior Ranger which took 5-year-old Drew 3 days to complete. Since the ferry spends about 2 days in the Tongass National Forest which lines the Inside Passage, the kids can earn the Tongass Junior Ranger patch.
Unfortunately, the ranger was out of Junior Ranger booklets. So she gave the kids a few books about Alaskan plants and animals, they looked at them for a while and she gave them the Junior ranger patches.
Since people have been asking, here’s a bit about the ferry. Yes, we brought the car. All the cars are squished together about a foot apart front-to-back and about 3 feet apart side-to-side on the car deck. The car deck is closed during most of the trip except for 3-4 fifteen minute car deck calls during which all of us crazy dog owners walk our dogs and others can get things in and out of their cars. I didn’t take a picture of the car deck – it’s not much to see.
We had a 4-berth cabin with an attached bath:
Not everyone onboard has a cabin. Actually when the ferry is at capacity, only about 1/3 of the passengers have a cabin. There is a recliner lounge that is always kept pretty dark, so many people sleep there. They show movies in the recliner lounge. There is also a solarium at the top of the ship. It is open on the sides, but covered with a greenhouse-like roof, so it is warm. People pitch tents or just crash in sleeping bags in the solarium. There are public restrooms & showers for the folks who do not have a cabin.
We spent most of our time in the forward observation lounge:
For food, there is a snack bar ($7.50 for fast food cheeseburger) and a sit down restaurant at the back of the ship. The restaurant has the same menu of about 10 items for the entire trip. This ain’t no cruise. We had a few microwave meals (there is a micro in the snack bar) and lots of sandwiches during the trip.
The crowd on this trip was much different from last time. Three years ago, the ship was almost full and more than half of the passengers were either families on vacation or moving like we were. This time there were only a handful of kids onboard and not many people our age except 5-6 other military folks. The rest of the passengers were seniors. Lots and lots of older people on this trip. Also lots of old people with motorcycles.
It was a very different experience last time. The kids made friends with lots of other kids on the ferry and we hung out with the other military couples. We kept in touch with one family who moved to Anchorage at the same time we did. We hung out with Rich, Missy and their 4 – yes 4 kids, quite a bit during our first 2 years in Alaska. I loved introducing Rich, the Army-Major-JAG-lawyer, as my “ferry friend.”
We sprung for dinner at the sit-down restaurant tonight. It was OK, not great. Better than yet another sandwich in the room.
We all lugged stuff down to the car during the evening car deck call and dog jog. Debarking is interesting. The car deck is closed until the ferry pulls in to port, then they want you is your car immediately so people can begin driving off. That immediate part is difficult considering a few hundred people, all carrying stuff, are going down 2 narrow stairways and once you are on the car deck, you can’t pass any car is the owner has the door open to load it. It is a royal pain in the ummm deck.
I guess while I’m on that rant, I’ll mention that the staff was very rude this time. Except for Tony the bartender, we didn’t have a pleasant interaction with any crew member the entire trip. That surprised us, since it was very different last time. This time, they would just randomly change the car deck call times at 3 am, so when we drug ourselves out of bed to walk the dog. They only seated people at about half the restaurant tables because the wait staff didn’t want to serve more than 3 tables at a time (the mostly stood by the drink station and chatted. I won’t get into all of it, but the “customer service” was really bad this time around.
So, anyway, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing, the kids went to “bed” and we headed to the bar to hang with Tony for a while. Early rock’n’roll was playing in the bar, so we dealt Benny into the poker game. The best part of the bar (besides the $2.50 Alaksan Amber) is the décor. The ship was built in 1974 and the bar has to be original. Several thousand red, orange, and brown naugas gave their lives for this bar.
There is even a velvet Elvis and golf flocked wallpaper.
All this on the flagship of the last frontier.
28 June 2007 – Ferry day 3
So by now you get it. Jog the dog, eat, sit in the lounge, read, sleep, play cards, sit on the deck, make up imaginary poker pals…
Day 3 on the ferry, more of the same.
Drew and I downloaded some of his photos for the first time and he discovered the wonders of cropping. It was fun and now every time he takes a picture, he tells me what he wants to do with it when we get it onto the computer.
The National Forest Service had a park ranger who rides on the ferry the entire trip and does 3 presentations a day about assorted wildlife and points of interest we will be passing. They also point out assorted wildlife. For those who haven’t been to a national park in a while, most of them have a Junior Ranger program. Kids get a booklet and have to do some exploring to answer questions. Once it is complete, the kids take it to a ranger who checks it, leads them in a Junior Ranger oath and gives them a patch or a pin (depending on the park). The boys did several on the last trip including the Yellowstone Junior Ranger which took 5-year-old Drew 3 days to complete. Since the ferry spends about 2 days in the Tongass National Forest which lines the Inside Passage, the kids can earn the Tongass Junior Ranger patch.
Unfortunately, the ranger was out of Junior Ranger booklets. So she gave the kids a few books about Alaskan plants and animals, they looked at them for a while and she gave them the Junior ranger patches.
Since people have been asking, here’s a bit about the ferry. Yes, we brought the car. All the cars are squished together about a foot apart front-to-back and about 3 feet apart side-to-side on the car deck. The car deck is closed during most of the trip except for 3-4 fifteen minute car deck calls during which all of us crazy dog owners walk our dogs and others can get things in and out of their cars. I didn’t take a picture of the car deck – it’s not much to see.
We had a 4-berth cabin with an attached bath:
Not everyone onboard has a cabin. Actually when the ferry is at capacity, only about 1/3 of the passengers have a cabin. There is a recliner lounge that is always kept pretty dark, so many people sleep there. They show movies in the recliner lounge. There is also a solarium at the top of the ship. It is open on the sides, but covered with a greenhouse-like roof, so it is warm. People pitch tents or just crash in sleeping bags in the solarium. There are public restrooms & showers for the folks who do not have a cabin.
We spent most of our time in the forward observation lounge:
For food, there is a snack bar ($7.50 for fast food cheeseburger) and a sit down restaurant at the back of the ship. The restaurant has the same menu of about 10 items for the entire trip. This ain’t no cruise. We had a few microwave meals (there is a micro in the snack bar) and lots of sandwiches during the trip.
The crowd on this trip was much different from last time. Three years ago, the ship was almost full and more than half of the passengers were either families on vacation or moving like we were. This time there were only a handful of kids onboard and not many people our age except 5-6 other military folks. The rest of the passengers were seniors. Lots and lots of older people on this trip. Also lots of old people with motorcycles.
It was a very different experience last time. The kids made friends with lots of other kids on the ferry and we hung out with the other military couples. We kept in touch with one family who moved to Anchorage at the same time we did. We hung out with Rich, Missy and their 4 – yes 4 kids, quite a bit during our first 2 years in Alaska. I loved introducing Rich, the Army-Major-JAG-lawyer, as my “ferry friend.”
We sprung for dinner at the sit-down restaurant tonight. It was OK, not great. Better than yet another sandwich in the room.
We all lugged stuff down to the car during the evening car deck call and dog jog. Debarking is interesting. The car deck is closed until the ferry pulls in to port, then they want you is your car immediately so people can begin driving off. That immediate part is difficult considering a few hundred people, all carrying stuff, are going down 2 narrow stairways and once you are on the car deck, you can’t pass any car is the owner has the door open to load it. It is a royal pain in the ummm deck.
I guess while I’m on that rant, I’ll mention that the staff was very rude this time. Except for Tony the bartender, we didn’t have a pleasant interaction with any crew member the entire trip. That surprised us, since it was very different last time. This time, they would just randomly change the car deck call times at 3 am, so when we drug ourselves out of bed to walk the dog. They only seated people at about half the restaurant tables because the wait staff didn’t want to serve more than 3 tables at a time (the mostly stood by the drink station and chatted. I won’t get into all of it, but the “customer service” was really bad this time around.
So, anyway, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing, the kids went to “bed” and we headed to the bar to hang with Tony for a while. Early rock’n’roll was playing in the bar, so we dealt Benny into the poker game. The best part of the bar (besides the $2.50 Alaksan Amber) is the décor. The ship was built in 1974 and the bar has to be original. Several thousand red, orange, and brown naugas gave their lives for this bar.
There is even a velvet Elvis and golf flocked wallpaper.
All this on the flagship of the last frontier.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
If you like fried clam strips, and gettin' caught in the rain . . .
27 June 2007 – Ferry Day 2
Today was Ketchikan day. We were going to be in port for about 6 hours so we could get out and explore. We docked about an hour late at 11 a.m., grabbed Malley and headed out. It was raining. This was not a shock. It is pretty much always raining in southeast Alaska.
Last time we were in Ketch, we took a cab into the center of town, had breakfast and walked around the shops. Of course, at that time, Alaska souvenirs were new and exciting. This time notsomuch. Also this time, we had a puppy to drag around with us so she could have as much time out of the box as possible. So we had our comfy shoes, some of us had our ponchos, and a 2.5 mile walk to town.
Who didn’t have a poncho, you ask? That would be Nate. We all have waterproof anorak jackets that zip into their own pouch. Actually we each have 2 – one for each car. Well, Nate’s wasn’t in either car when we were packing & he had no idea where they were. Yes, he’s seven. It was just misting as we walked towards town and he was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, so I made him tough it out. I’m not mother of the year, but it works for us.
Amongst other things, Ketchikan is a cruise ship port. Of course the cruise ships pull up right in town, not 2 ½ miles down the road. Three ships were in port that day, Princess, Norwegian and some Japanese line. We bopped into a few gift shops and I looked for a $1 stupid-tourist-poncho for Nate. At this point the more embarrassing the better. I finally found a slightly glorified white trash bag with a gift shop name printed all over the back, wrapped our youngest the plastic bag, and off we went. By now it was really raining and we were hungry. One (OK, one of the many) downsides of traveling with the pooch is the lack of dining options. Especially when it is raining.
We found a cute little diner called the Pioneer Café and the boys and I went in to order two seafood and chips combos to go while Steve stood under the awning with the dog. Steve scoped out an awning down the block, so we sat on the sidewalk in front of a closed business and had a picnic in the rain. Yup, we’re Alaskan. The cruise passengers enjoyed the show.
The food was really good. The platters were a combination of fried clams, shrimp, scallops, and cod with fries and garlic bread. We had cole slaw with one and macaroni salad with the other. Two platters were plenty for the four of us. It was a strange little picnic, but it was fun. Oh, and Malley liked the cod.
We continued our exploration of commercial Ketchikan; the guys formed a human totem pole
and we discovered a cute little shopping area called Creek Street.
I thought this was funny, and very Alaskan. The whole state seems to have a great sense of humor.
We stopped at an outdoor stand for mocha (hot chocolate for the boys) and began our 2.5 mile trek back to the ferry. Funny, it was much longer going this way.
Ketchikan is one of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” sites. The airport is on an island across from the town. Now, one of the criticisms of the whole situation coming from the lower 48 is “Why the heck did they build the airport on an island?” Well, it is the only place that is flat enough to actually put an airport. The mountains and cliffs basically come out of the sea. In fact most of the people in town live like this:
I’m sure there is some sort of inspection process, but I still don’t think I would want to live up this road.
Just in case you’ve been dying to know the lyrics of the Alaksa Flag Song:
Shout out to my pirate peeps:
We made it back to the ferry with about an hour to spare, hung out in the room for a while and headed to the observation lounge to hang out. The boys had a great time watching the float planes take off and land as we were pulling away from the dock.
At about 9, we got the boys ready for bed, left them in the cabin to “go to bed” (i.e. watch a movie). Steve and I went to the bar for a while. We found the best bargain of the trip! $2.50 pint Alaskan Amber. Yay! Tony the bartender hooked us up and we settled in with a deck of cards. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in the bar – I guess our fellow cruisers weren’t talented enough. The bar has several guitars and a piano in the corner for “people powered” music, as Tony put it. Basically, if you can play an instrument you are welcome to pick it up and entertain. On our last cruise, there was a guy who played piano every night, but not this time. I figured no one wanted to hear me play the high part of Heart and Soul, which is the only thing I can play on the piano.
We settled in and played cards for a while. Eventually Steve started dealing Texas Hold ‘Em. I actually did pretty well during the first few hands, much to both of our amazement. Steve pointed out that the game changes when you add more people, so the next hand he dealt in an invisible third player who he named Fred. Since Santana & other Latin selections had been playing in the bar for a while, I decided that his name should really be Jorge. It is sad, but Jorge actually did pretty well with just blind hands. And Jorge never folds.
We head back to the room at about 11:30 and stopped on the deck to wave goodbye to Alaska and catch our last glimpse of the midnight sun.
Today was Ketchikan day. We were going to be in port for about 6 hours so we could get out and explore. We docked about an hour late at 11 a.m., grabbed Malley and headed out. It was raining. This was not a shock. It is pretty much always raining in southeast Alaska.
Last time we were in Ketch, we took a cab into the center of town, had breakfast and walked around the shops. Of course, at that time, Alaska souvenirs were new and exciting. This time notsomuch. Also this time, we had a puppy to drag around with us so she could have as much time out of the box as possible. So we had our comfy shoes, some of us had our ponchos, and a 2.5 mile walk to town.
Who didn’t have a poncho, you ask? That would be Nate. We all have waterproof anorak jackets that zip into their own pouch. Actually we each have 2 – one for each car. Well, Nate’s wasn’t in either car when we were packing & he had no idea where they were. Yes, he’s seven. It was just misting as we walked towards town and he was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, so I made him tough it out. I’m not mother of the year, but it works for us.
Amongst other things, Ketchikan is a cruise ship port. Of course the cruise ships pull up right in town, not 2 ½ miles down the road. Three ships were in port that day, Princess, Norwegian and some Japanese line. We bopped into a few gift shops and I looked for a $1 stupid-tourist-poncho for Nate. At this point the more embarrassing the better. I finally found a slightly glorified white trash bag with a gift shop name printed all over the back, wrapped our youngest the plastic bag, and off we went. By now it was really raining and we were hungry. One (OK, one of the many) downsides of traveling with the pooch is the lack of dining options. Especially when it is raining.
We found a cute little diner called the Pioneer Café and the boys and I went in to order two seafood and chips combos to go while Steve stood under the awning with the dog. Steve scoped out an awning down the block, so we sat on the sidewalk in front of a closed business and had a picnic in the rain. Yup, we’re Alaskan. The cruise passengers enjoyed the show.
The food was really good. The platters were a combination of fried clams, shrimp, scallops, and cod with fries and garlic bread. We had cole slaw with one and macaroni salad with the other. Two platters were plenty for the four of us. It was a strange little picnic, but it was fun. Oh, and Malley liked the cod.
We continued our exploration of commercial Ketchikan; the guys formed a human totem pole
and we discovered a cute little shopping area called Creek Street.I thought this was funny, and very Alaskan. The whole state seems to have a great sense of humor.
We stopped at an outdoor stand for mocha (hot chocolate for the boys) and began our 2.5 mile trek back to the ferry. Funny, it was much longer going this way.
Ketchikan is one of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” sites. The airport is on an island across from the town. Now, one of the criticisms of the whole situation coming from the lower 48 is “Why the heck did they build the airport on an island?” Well, it is the only place that is flat enough to actually put an airport. The mountains and cliffs basically come out of the sea. In fact most of the people in town live like this:
I’m sure there is some sort of inspection process, but I still don’t think I would want to live up this road.Just in case you’ve been dying to know the lyrics of the Alaksa Flag Song:
Shout out to my pirate peeps:
We made it back to the ferry with about an hour to spare, hung out in the room for a while and headed to the observation lounge to hang out. The boys had a great time watching the float planes take off and land as we were pulling away from the dock.
At about 9, we got the boys ready for bed, left them in the cabin to “go to bed” (i.e. watch a movie). Steve and I went to the bar for a while. We found the best bargain of the trip! $2.50 pint Alaskan Amber. Yay! Tony the bartender hooked us up and we settled in with a deck of cards. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in the bar – I guess our fellow cruisers weren’t talented enough. The bar has several guitars and a piano in the corner for “people powered” music, as Tony put it. Basically, if you can play an instrument you are welcome to pick it up and entertain. On our last cruise, there was a guy who played piano every night, but not this time. I figured no one wanted to hear me play the high part of Heart and Soul, which is the only thing I can play on the piano.
We settled in and played cards for a while. Eventually Steve started dealing Texas Hold ‘Em. I actually did pretty well during the first few hands, much to both of our amazement. Steve pointed out that the game changes when you add more people, so the next hand he dealt in an invisible third player who he named Fred. Since Santana & other Latin selections had been playing in the bar for a while, I decided that his name should really be Jorge. It is sad, but Jorge actually did pretty well with just blind hands. And Jorge never folds.
We head back to the room at about 11:30 and stopped on the deck to wave goodbye to Alaska and catch our last glimpse of the midnight sun.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Elephants, Moose & Dogs, Oh My!
26 June 2007 – Ferry Day 1
The nice thing about the ferry is that someone else is in charge of getting you from point A to point B. I woke up at about 6 a.m. in accordance with my pesky internal clock, then promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. Because I could. After the last few weeks of moving preparation, packing and getting to Haines, it was nice to finally relax for a few days.
I got up at about 8 a.m. and I could tell without even opening the blinds on our window that the sun was shining. During our ferry trip to Alaska three years ago, it was cloudy and rainy for 4 days, so I was excited about the prospect of sun. It was my turn to jog the dog. We weren’t in port, but every 6-8 hours or so they have a car deck call when we could go down to the car to walk the dog around the car deck for about 15 minutes. So I made some coffee in the little 4-cup coffeepot we brought with us and Drew came with me to visit Malley.
Interesting to note: the car deck of the M/V Columbia smells like the pachyderm building in the Cleveland Zoo. For those readers who aren’t from Cleveland, the pachyderm building has a smell all its own. It is even different from the elephant buildings in all of the other zoos I’ve been to. I don’t know if the Alaska Marine Highway System has been transporting Midwestern elephants or what, but that is the smell.
So Malley bounded out of her box in the car, we gave her breakfast and some water. Since several cars had been offloaded in Juneau, there was essentially a jogging track around the car deck. Her ears went back and we were off. We did about 9 laps of the car deck, played for a few minutes and it was time to put her back. And yes, when the ship is under way, we ‘walk’ the dog on the car deck. And then we clean up. The ferry charges $25 from a canine passenger that rides in the car the entire time. We gain some satisfaction by using $25 worth of paper towels and latex gloves supplied by the ferry.
By the time we got back to the room, Nate was awake so we all headed to the back deck of the ship about 15 feet from our door. It was a beautiful morning.
Nate and I did yoga on the deck for about 25 minutes (OK, Nate only lasted about 5 until he was on to something else), then I grabbed a few granola bars and some juice from the room and we had dined al fresco so Steve could continue to sleep off his 3 a.m. dog jog. Drew and I worked on some of his Cub Scout Bear badge requirements and Nate grumped in the corner for some unknown reason. He must have put on his grumpy pants when he got dressed this morning.
So much time, so little to do. It was nice.
We spent the rest of the morning just hanging out in the observation lounge at the front of the ship and made sandwiches in the room for lunch. The ferry has an overpriced snack bar and a vastly over priced sit-down restaurant, so we packed food to eat in the room.
We arrived in Sitka at around 1 p.m. and we had about two hours to get off the ship. We walked about half a mile to the state park and hung out for a while. Malley really wanted to run, so Steve took her slaloming through the other tourists and we eventually caught up with them. I also took my first ‘money shot’ of the trip. This is Sitka:
Here’s a shot of our home for 4 days docked in Sitka. M/V Columbia, the flagship of the Alaska Marine Highway.
On the way back to the ship we also discovered a little known fact. Apparently Sitka moose are the most civic minded undulates in North America:
Actually, Sitka is one of the few places in Alaska without moose, but the sign made me laugh anyway. I’m assuming the sign meant Moose Lodge. I hope.
I've have to add this one too, just because:
Not much happened the rest of the day. We read books, worked on Cub Scout requirements, played cards and napped. It was nice, if not very exciting to write about.
Steve had the 0315 dog jog in Wrangell the next morning, so he went to bed early and I hung out at the bar, editing photos and drinking beer until the midnight dog jog in Petersburg. We can’t tell you much about either place since it was the middle of the night and we were off the ship for about 20 minutes each time.
All in all, not a bad day on the ferry.
The nice thing about the ferry is that someone else is in charge of getting you from point A to point B. I woke up at about 6 a.m. in accordance with my pesky internal clock, then promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. Because I could. After the last few weeks of moving preparation, packing and getting to Haines, it was nice to finally relax for a few days.
I got up at about 8 a.m. and I could tell without even opening the blinds on our window that the sun was shining. During our ferry trip to Alaska three years ago, it was cloudy and rainy for 4 days, so I was excited about the prospect of sun. It was my turn to jog the dog. We weren’t in port, but every 6-8 hours or so they have a car deck call when we could go down to the car to walk the dog around the car deck for about 15 minutes. So I made some coffee in the little 4-cup coffeepot we brought with us and Drew came with me to visit Malley.
Interesting to note: the car deck of the M/V Columbia smells like the pachyderm building in the Cleveland Zoo. For those readers who aren’t from Cleveland, the pachyderm building has a smell all its own. It is even different from the elephant buildings in all of the other zoos I’ve been to. I don’t know if the Alaska Marine Highway System has been transporting Midwestern elephants or what, but that is the smell.
So Malley bounded out of her box in the car, we gave her breakfast and some water. Since several cars had been offloaded in Juneau, there was essentially a jogging track around the car deck. Her ears went back and we were off. We did about 9 laps of the car deck, played for a few minutes and it was time to put her back. And yes, when the ship is under way, we ‘walk’ the dog on the car deck. And then we clean up. The ferry charges $25 from a canine passenger that rides in the car the entire time. We gain some satisfaction by using $25 worth of paper towels and latex gloves supplied by the ferry.
By the time we got back to the room, Nate was awake so we all headed to the back deck of the ship about 15 feet from our door. It was a beautiful morning.
Nate and I did yoga on the deck for about 25 minutes (OK, Nate only lasted about 5 until he was on to something else), then I grabbed a few granola bars and some juice from the room and we had dined al fresco so Steve could continue to sleep off his 3 a.m. dog jog. Drew and I worked on some of his Cub Scout Bear badge requirements and Nate grumped in the corner for some unknown reason. He must have put on his grumpy pants when he got dressed this morning.So much time, so little to do. It was nice.
We spent the rest of the morning just hanging out in the observation lounge at the front of the ship and made sandwiches in the room for lunch. The ferry has an overpriced snack bar and a vastly over priced sit-down restaurant, so we packed food to eat in the room.
We arrived in Sitka at around 1 p.m. and we had about two hours to get off the ship. We walked about half a mile to the state park and hung out for a while. Malley really wanted to run, so Steve took her slaloming through the other tourists and we eventually caught up with them. I also took my first ‘money shot’ of the trip. This is Sitka:
Here’s a shot of our home for 4 days docked in Sitka. M/V Columbia, the flagship of the Alaska Marine Highway.
On the way back to the ship we also discovered a little known fact. Apparently Sitka moose are the most civic minded undulates in North America:
Actually, Sitka is one of the few places in Alaska without moose, but the sign made me laugh anyway. I’m assuming the sign meant Moose Lodge. I hope.
I've have to add this one too, just because:
Not much happened the rest of the day. We read books, worked on Cub Scout requirements, played cards and napped. It was nice, if not very exciting to write about.
Steve had the 0315 dog jog in Wrangell the next morning, so he went to bed early and I hung out at the bar, editing photos and drinking beer until the midnight dog jog in Petersburg. We can’t tell you much about either place since it was the middle of the night and we were off the ship for about 20 minutes each time.
All in all, not a bad day on the ferry.
If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name
25 June 2007 – Haines, Alaska
We didn’t have to get our car in line for the ferry until 6 p.m., so the day was ours in Haines, Alaska.
We got up and made breakfast in the room. The boys had an exciting new experience with a pop-up toaster. We have a toaster oven at home and they have both mastered bagels and frozen waffles in the toaster oven and at their ages, they feel like they are cooking. Our kitchenette came equipped with a pop-up toaster, which hung ‘em up. Nate squealed with delight when his bagel popped up. A good time was had by all.
We decided to take a drive to the river to see if any bears were out and about this morning. We drove a few miles out of town and…nothing.
Look kids, no bears:
We got back to the room at about 10:15 for an 11 a.m. check out. Yahoo. None of us had showered yet and it takes forever to get the car re-packed every time we stop. So we zulu-drilled showers, re-packed the car, and left the hotel at about 11:15.
Only 6 ¾ hours to kill in Haines, Alaska, population 1,175.
This is the first time in weeks I’ve had time to kill. Here is our Family Truckster:
Our last Alaska bugs:
I was actually excited to spend the day here. One of my favorite books about Alaska is: If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende. She is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, NPR contributor, and obituary writer for the local paper in Haines where she lives with her family. I love the glimpse into the people and the lives of small town Alaska, especially as a metaphor for life. If you have stayed in our guest room, chances are you have read the book. I spent part of the day looking for people from the book. I figured at least I knew their names.
Steve had some work to do, so we dropped him off at the library and the boys and I set off to explore the town. We managed to skip the Hammer Museum (1500 hammers under one roof) and went in and out of a few gift shops, stopped for coffee (OK just for me) and checked out the hardware store. Nifty thing about small-town Alaska – you can buy anything at the hardware store. I’m not ashamed to admit that for many years I had a pair of Kodiak True Value Hardware jeans. And an electric mixer. And a crystal plate.
I ran into IGA to get some lunch meat and some contact cleaning solution. I knew I would pay an arm and a leg for the contact juice. I’ve lived in Kodiak. Twelve years later, I still have a laundry basket with a $7.49 price sticker in the bottom, just to remind myself that at one point in my life I had to pay $7.49 for a $1.50 laundry basket. And yes, I bought it at True Value Hardware. So I thought I was prepared for the price but I wasn’t. The cleaner/saline solution was $15.75 a bottle. Forget it! I’ll just clean my contacts every other day until we get off the ferry.
We had explored town and it was only about 1:30, so we grabbed Malley from the car, ran around a field, then headed to the library. I figured I could write for a while and the boys could look at books. The library is beautiful and most likely the best library in Alaska except for the main branch in Anchorage and the U of Alaska system. The little community of barely 1000 people raised a ton of money and applied for several huge grants to build this great library in 2005. It was named the best small library in America the year it opened (by people who care about that sort of thing). The children’s section is nice, but I lost the battle of the books as soon as the kids saw the three computers tucked into the corner. At least they were educational computer games. Nate hung out for story time while Drew played games, then Nate read a few books to me in his quest to qualify prizes from the treasure box. Our hang out for the afternoon:
By now, Steve was done with his work and we headed to the Lighthouse Restaurant for halibut & chips and Alaskan Amber Ale (root beer for the kids). The fish was good, but not as good as Humpy’s Ale House in Anchorage. If you are ever in Anchorage, that is the place to go for halibut and chips. On the way back from the restaurant to the library, Drew’s beaded necklace broke. Of course we had no idea where. So Steve backtracked to find beads while the boys and I jogged the dog. Steve is great at finding things. He once found my contact lens in the woods. He managed to find about 2/3 of the beads so we can re-string the necklace later. We drove back to the motel from last night so I could pirate their WiFi in the parking lot for a few minutes then headed a few miles out of town to the ferry terminal.
The ferry was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. so we had to have the car in line by 6. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. Ferry line ups are a bit like tailgate parties, a bunch of people hanging our by their cars without much to do. The boys made friends with the kids in the VW pop up next door and Steve and I played with Malley. It has been warm in Alaska for about the last week and about 2 days ago the dog started to shed. And shed. We may have a bald husky by the time we reach St. Louis. So we brushed roughly a dog-worth of fur out of our dog and let her run around for a while. The boys played catch. I took a brief nap, read 2/3 of a book…and we waited. 8 p.m.no sign of the ferry. 9 p.m. nada. The ferry finally showed up at about 10. By now we’d been waiting for about 4 hours and we were tired. It took almost another hour to get our car loaded in and schlep about 4 tons of stuff up 4 flights of stairs to our cabin. We had to leave Malley in her kennel in the car, for the duration of the trip, but walking and feeding the dog will become a major theme of the next 3 days. We all basically fell into bed and Steve set his alarm for 3 a.m. so he could walk Malley in Juneau.
I think I’ll keep him, beard and all.
We didn’t have to get our car in line for the ferry until 6 p.m., so the day was ours in Haines, Alaska.
We got up and made breakfast in the room. The boys had an exciting new experience with a pop-up toaster. We have a toaster oven at home and they have both mastered bagels and frozen waffles in the toaster oven and at their ages, they feel like they are cooking. Our kitchenette came equipped with a pop-up toaster, which hung ‘em up. Nate squealed with delight when his bagel popped up. A good time was had by all.
We decided to take a drive to the river to see if any bears were out and about this morning. We drove a few miles out of town and…nothing.
Look kids, no bears:
We got back to the room at about 10:15 for an 11 a.m. check out. Yahoo. None of us had showered yet and it takes forever to get the car re-packed every time we stop. So we zulu-drilled showers, re-packed the car, and left the hotel at about 11:15.
Only 6 ¾ hours to kill in Haines, Alaska, population 1,175.
This is the first time in weeks I’ve had time to kill. Here is our Family Truckster:
Our last Alaska bugs:
I was actually excited to spend the day here. One of my favorite books about Alaska is: If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende. She is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, NPR contributor, and obituary writer for the local paper in Haines where she lives with her family. I love the glimpse into the people and the lives of small town Alaska, especially as a metaphor for life. If you have stayed in our guest room, chances are you have read the book. I spent part of the day looking for people from the book. I figured at least I knew their names.
Steve had some work to do, so we dropped him off at the library and the boys and I set off to explore the town. We managed to skip the Hammer Museum (1500 hammers under one roof) and went in and out of a few gift shops, stopped for coffee (OK just for me) and checked out the hardware store. Nifty thing about small-town Alaska – you can buy anything at the hardware store. I’m not ashamed to admit that for many years I had a pair of Kodiak True Value Hardware jeans. And an electric mixer. And a crystal plate.
I ran into IGA to get some lunch meat and some contact cleaning solution. I knew I would pay an arm and a leg for the contact juice. I’ve lived in Kodiak. Twelve years later, I still have a laundry basket with a $7.49 price sticker in the bottom, just to remind myself that at one point in my life I had to pay $7.49 for a $1.50 laundry basket. And yes, I bought it at True Value Hardware. So I thought I was prepared for the price but I wasn’t. The cleaner/saline solution was $15.75 a bottle. Forget it! I’ll just clean my contacts every other day until we get off the ferry.
We had explored town and it was only about 1:30, so we grabbed Malley from the car, ran around a field, then headed to the library. I figured I could write for a while and the boys could look at books. The library is beautiful and most likely the best library in Alaska except for the main branch in Anchorage and the U of Alaska system. The little community of barely 1000 people raised a ton of money and applied for several huge grants to build this great library in 2005. It was named the best small library in America the year it opened (by people who care about that sort of thing). The children’s section is nice, but I lost the battle of the books as soon as the kids saw the three computers tucked into the corner. At least they were educational computer games. Nate hung out for story time while Drew played games, then Nate read a few books to me in his quest to qualify prizes from the treasure box. Our hang out for the afternoon:
By now, Steve was done with his work and we headed to the Lighthouse Restaurant for halibut & chips and Alaskan Amber Ale (root beer for the kids). The fish was good, but not as good as Humpy’s Ale House in Anchorage. If you are ever in Anchorage, that is the place to go for halibut and chips. On the way back from the restaurant to the library, Drew’s beaded necklace broke. Of course we had no idea where. So Steve backtracked to find beads while the boys and I jogged the dog. Steve is great at finding things. He once found my contact lens in the woods. He managed to find about 2/3 of the beads so we can re-string the necklace later. We drove back to the motel from last night so I could pirate their WiFi in the parking lot for a few minutes then headed a few miles out of town to the ferry terminal.
The ferry was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. so we had to have the car in line by 6. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. Ferry line ups are a bit like tailgate parties, a bunch of people hanging our by their cars without much to do. The boys made friends with the kids in the VW pop up next door and Steve and I played with Malley. It has been warm in Alaska for about the last week and about 2 days ago the dog started to shed. And shed. We may have a bald husky by the time we reach St. Louis. So we brushed roughly a dog-worth of fur out of our dog and let her run around for a while. The boys played catch. I took a brief nap, read 2/3 of a book…and we waited. 8 p.m.no sign of the ferry. 9 p.m. nada. The ferry finally showed up at about 10. By now we’d been waiting for about 4 hours and we were tired. It took almost another hour to get our car loaded in and schlep about 4 tons of stuff up 4 flights of stairs to our cabin. We had to leave Malley in her kennel in the car, for the duration of the trip, but walking and feeding the dog will become a major theme of the next 3 days. We all basically fell into bed and Steve set his alarm for 3 a.m. so he could walk Malley in Juneau.
I think I’ll keep him, beard and all.
Mad Cow Souvenirs - June 24, 2007 - Part 2
So when you last heard from us we were somewhere in Yukon Territory, Canada with a broken bike rack and M. requesting a rest stop…
Finally, our current driver deemed it appropriate to stop at this rest stop. Now excuse the digression, but QUICK, everyone, stop what you are doing, run out to the travel toiletries section of your favorite big box store and pick up at least one roll of mini Charmin for each of your automobiles. I found it a few weeks ago and now we have one in the car and since my travel purse is much bigger than my everyday purse, I also have one in there. Steve thought I was crazy…or at least that was his current reason for thinking I was crazy for a while…but gosh am I glad I had the mini Charmin. And yes, I can spare a square.
So more driving…and driving…and did I mention 490 miles today. On less-than-interstate-highway roads. Eventually we reached Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, Canada. For the second time today we passed “Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church”, once just outside of Tok and once near Haines Junction. I thought it was worth a photo op.
After mass quantities of sourdough pancakes and road snacking our way through Canada we had pretty much skipped lunch, so we stopped for linner in Haines Junction at about 3:00. We ate at the Kluane Park Inn , which served an odd combination of Chinese and bar food. Steve sort of forgot we were in Canada and freaked out at the $20 Chinese entrees. Also, the menu contained absolutely no description of any of the meals, just the name. So to be safe (or so we thought – more on that later) we shared 3 cheeseburgers and potato salad. Then the next decision: regular or deluxe? The menu gave us no indication of what the difference was & the waitress seemed to be annoyed that we didn’t know. Maybe it’s a Canada thing, I don’t know.
Interesting fact: Molson and LaBatt are domestic beers in Canada. Yes, logically I knew that, but it was still nifty to see on a sign.
The cheeseburgers weren’t bad, but the potato salad was very bland. I’m sure the potato salad was just as bad for us as fries, but we felt better about it. Oh, and Deluxe means lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle relish, if you are ever in Haines Junction and have the hankerin’ for a cheeseburger.
Linner over, we walked for a few minutes so Malley could stretch her legs, then the boys and I walked to the general store so they could spend the $5 Canadian that their new friends Tory & Teag Vest had given to them. How cool is it that Canadian money has hockey players on it?! The queen on one side & a bunch of kids playing pond hockey on the other. We may consider moving to Canada just for the $5 bill. The boys wanted ball caps and stuffed animals and all sorts of stuff, but opted to spend the $5 on junk food. Despite only spending about 4 hours in Canada, I got to have my “Stupid American” moment. Drew’s total came to $5.17 and since I knew Nate’s would be less, he borrowed $.17 from Nate. So we got $4.83 back in change – really change, no bills. Nate’s purchases came to $3-something and when I went to pay the cashier, I couldn’t figure it out. I thought I had been given $1 coins and I didn’t have enough. Now I have never claimed to be good at math, but even I can figure out that if we walked in the store with $10 and bought $8-ish worth of stuff that we have more than enough to pay. As I am stumbling with the coins in my hand, the cashier reached over and took the right amount from my stupid American paw. Did you know that Canada has $2 coins? I didn’t either.
Back to the car. I mention this brief walk because Nate is wacko. Steve & I have pretty eclectic music tastes & I have had a grand ol’ time loading my iPod with roadtrip play lists since we have one of those nifty contraptions that allows us to play the iPod through the car stereo. We have playlists entitled A Very 70’s Childhood, Hair, Punk-ish, Sing-a-long, Grungy, RoadTrip, and A Pirate Looks at 30-Something, and more. Well, Johnny Cash is on the RoadTrip playlist – along with, among others, Grateful Dead and Phish. There is nothing like a 25 minute song to make a trip go by faster. Anyway, as we are walking back from the store, our Nate, who was voted the family’s Most Likely to Join a Musical Theater Company seven years running, started singing “I Walk the Line” – in the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. I just about fell over on the side of the road. “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine…” That’s our Nate.
Back in the car, we noted that about 20 miles from Haines Junction was the last gas for 98 miles. We wanted to make sure to stop there to top off. One problem: we never saw that gas station. Yahoo, this is going to be close. After Haines Junction, the road goes up. Not a twisting mountain road, but a steady climb, for miles. And miles. As we go up we see lots of snow so we know we are getting pretty high up. The terrain changes to what looks to us like rolling, snow covered hills because we are now in the mountains and only seeing to top peaks.
Back to Alaska at the border crossing. They ask the usual questions and also ask if we were bringing any Canadian beef products with us. Ummm, no. As we pull away Steve wonders aloud about that question. It is then that I remember the Canadian mad cow scare a few years ago. Hmmm, sure wish I had remembered that before we ordered cheeseburgers for linner.
Almost immediately after re-entering Alaska the terrain changes. It looks very much like southeast Alaska, which looks very much like Kodiak. It is essentially a cold-weather rainforest with giant evergreens and lush green mountains and hillsides. It is beautiful, especially if you are only there for a few days and don’t have to put up with 350 days of rain a year.
As you may recall, we somehow missed the last gas for 98 miles about 90 miles ago and we are getting low! I hope Haines is open. We made it into town and the first gas station was closed. Great. I opted to find our motel rather than search for another gas station and run out of gas in the process. We found the Mountain View Motel and I had my first “Oh boy why did I just go by the ad” moment of the trip. It looked less than desirable on the outside. It was a small place of maybe 10 rooms with paint peeling all over the exterior. Now our boys have been on some wonderful vacations and we have stayed in some nice resorts, but for road trips we’re all about cheap and clean. Drew’s first reaction upon seeing the motel: “Umm, Mom, are we really going to stay here?” We were relieved to discover that the interior was in much better shape than the exterior. The room was a decent size with a kitchenette and very clean. The kitchenette had a nifty stove/fridge/sink. It was about the size or a typical range with the fridge where the oven would normally be, two burners, and a sink where the other two burners would typically be.
I jogged the dog while Steve unloaded the car & the boys had a chance to ride their bikes for a while. We ran out to the 24 hour gas station now that we had an exact location and I stopped into a liquor store to get ice. I love Alaska. The cashier looked at me with my bag of ice, asked if that was all I needed and when I said yes, she told me to just take it. I don’t know if it was Alaskan hospitality or a disgruntled employee, but I’ll take it.
Finally, our current driver deemed it appropriate to stop at this rest stop. Now excuse the digression, but QUICK, everyone, stop what you are doing, run out to the travel toiletries section of your favorite big box store and pick up at least one roll of mini Charmin for each of your automobiles. I found it a few weeks ago and now we have one in the car and since my travel purse is much bigger than my everyday purse, I also have one in there. Steve thought I was crazy…or at least that was his current reason for thinking I was crazy for a while…but gosh am I glad I had the mini Charmin. And yes, I can spare a square.
So more driving…and driving…and did I mention 490 miles today. On less-than-interstate-highway roads. Eventually we reached Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, Canada. For the second time today we passed “Our Lady of the Way Catholic Church”, once just outside of Tok and once near Haines Junction. I thought it was worth a photo op.
After mass quantities of sourdough pancakes and road snacking our way through Canada we had pretty much skipped lunch, so we stopped for linner in Haines Junction at about 3:00. We ate at the Kluane Park Inn , which served an odd combination of Chinese and bar food. Steve sort of forgot we were in Canada and freaked out at the $20 Chinese entrees. Also, the menu contained absolutely no description of any of the meals, just the name. So to be safe (or so we thought – more on that later) we shared 3 cheeseburgers and potato salad. Then the next decision: regular or deluxe? The menu gave us no indication of what the difference was & the waitress seemed to be annoyed that we didn’t know. Maybe it’s a Canada thing, I don’t know.
Interesting fact: Molson and LaBatt are domestic beers in Canada. Yes, logically I knew that, but it was still nifty to see on a sign.
The cheeseburgers weren’t bad, but the potato salad was very bland. I’m sure the potato salad was just as bad for us as fries, but we felt better about it. Oh, and Deluxe means lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle relish, if you are ever in Haines Junction and have the hankerin’ for a cheeseburger.
Linner over, we walked for a few minutes so Malley could stretch her legs, then the boys and I walked to the general store so they could spend the $5 Canadian that their new friends Tory & Teag Vest had given to them. How cool is it that Canadian money has hockey players on it?! The queen on one side & a bunch of kids playing pond hockey on the other. We may consider moving to Canada just for the $5 bill. The boys wanted ball caps and stuffed animals and all sorts of stuff, but opted to spend the $5 on junk food. Despite only spending about 4 hours in Canada, I got to have my “Stupid American” moment. Drew’s total came to $5.17 and since I knew Nate’s would be less, he borrowed $.17 from Nate. So we got $4.83 back in change – really change, no bills. Nate’s purchases came to $3-something and when I went to pay the cashier, I couldn’t figure it out. I thought I had been given $1 coins and I didn’t have enough. Now I have never claimed to be good at math, but even I can figure out that if we walked in the store with $10 and bought $8-ish worth of stuff that we have more than enough to pay. As I am stumbling with the coins in my hand, the cashier reached over and took the right amount from my stupid American paw. Did you know that Canada has $2 coins? I didn’t either.
Back to the car. I mention this brief walk because Nate is wacko. Steve & I have pretty eclectic music tastes & I have had a grand ol’ time loading my iPod with roadtrip play lists since we have one of those nifty contraptions that allows us to play the iPod through the car stereo. We have playlists entitled A Very 70’s Childhood, Hair, Punk-ish, Sing-a-long, Grungy, RoadTrip, and A Pirate Looks at 30-Something, and more. Well, Johnny Cash is on the RoadTrip playlist – along with, among others, Grateful Dead and Phish. There is nothing like a 25 minute song to make a trip go by faster. Anyway, as we are walking back from the store, our Nate, who was voted the family’s Most Likely to Join a Musical Theater Company seven years running, started singing “I Walk the Line” – in the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. I just about fell over on the side of the road. “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine…” That’s our Nate.
Back in the car, we noted that about 20 miles from Haines Junction was the last gas for 98 miles. We wanted to make sure to stop there to top off. One problem: we never saw that gas station. Yahoo, this is going to be close. After Haines Junction, the road goes up. Not a twisting mountain road, but a steady climb, for miles. And miles. As we go up we see lots of snow so we know we are getting pretty high up. The terrain changes to what looks to us like rolling, snow covered hills because we are now in the mountains and only seeing to top peaks.
Back to Alaska at the border crossing. They ask the usual questions and also ask if we were bringing any Canadian beef products with us. Ummm, no. As we pull away Steve wonders aloud about that question. It is then that I remember the Canadian mad cow scare a few years ago. Hmmm, sure wish I had remembered that before we ordered cheeseburgers for linner.
Almost immediately after re-entering Alaska the terrain changes. It looks very much like southeast Alaska, which looks very much like Kodiak. It is essentially a cold-weather rainforest with giant evergreens and lush green mountains and hillsides. It is beautiful, especially if you are only there for a few days and don’t have to put up with 350 days of rain a year.
As you may recall, we somehow missed the last gas for 98 miles about 90 miles ago and we are getting low! I hope Haines is open. We made it into town and the first gas station was closed. Great. I opted to find our motel rather than search for another gas station and run out of gas in the process. We found the Mountain View Motel and I had my first “Oh boy why did I just go by the ad” moment of the trip. It looked less than desirable on the outside. It was a small place of maybe 10 rooms with paint peeling all over the exterior. Now our boys have been on some wonderful vacations and we have stayed in some nice resorts, but for road trips we’re all about cheap and clean. Drew’s first reaction upon seeing the motel: “Umm, Mom, are we really going to stay here?” We were relieved to discover that the interior was in much better shape than the exterior. The room was a decent size with a kitchenette and very clean. The kitchenette had a nifty stove/fridge/sink. It was about the size or a typical range with the fridge where the oven would normally be, two burners, and a sink where the other two burners would typically be.
I jogged the dog while Steve unloaded the car & the boys had a chance to ride their bikes for a while. We ran out to the 24 hour gas station now that we had an exact location and I stopped into a liquor store to get ice. I love Alaska. The cashier looked at me with my bag of ice, asked if that was all I needed and when I said yes, she told me to just take it. I don’t know if it was Alaskan hospitality or a disgruntled employee, but I’ll take it.
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