Must Update Now

I haven't updated in the past few days because we have been so busy.  I had a two options.....blog OR sleep!  Those of you who know me, know how much I love to sleep, so my lack of sleep hasn't been so great but I will admit, it's been totally worth all that we have seen and done.  I'm playing catchup in this blog so I will have a few posts about the last few days.  


Tok to Fairbanks

Our morning started early as usual.  I don't even remember what time we had to be ready but I know it was early.  The bus rides aren't really that bad.  They take breaks and show DVD's about "Alaskan" things.  Anyways, this was the day that we stopped at Rika's Roadhouse.  It was a cute little place.  We had only about 30 minutes there to try a bear claw and visit the gift shop.  Then later on the drive to Fairbanks, we stopped at North Pole, AK.  I had asked Mom if we could go there during our free time but we figured out that we probably wouldn't have enough free time to do much.  So when I heard that we were going to be making the stop, I was so excited!  I was hoping that Santa would be there.  I really wanted to sit in his lap so that I could have it to show my students each year.  Well I lucked out, because he was there and I sat in his lap.  He acted like he knew who I was.  I guess he remembers all the "good girls and boys."  We had to rush to look around and I didn't have as much time as I would have liked but I'm glad I got to sit in his lap and snap the picture.  

After we left there we headed for lunch.  We stopped at some place that I have no idea what the name is...we've done too much for me to remember.  We had miners stew, biscuits, and crumb cake.  It was good but not very filling.  We had a little bit of time to tour the place.  After that we went to a gold place.  We watched them demonstrate how to pan for gold.  I was not actually looking forward to panning for gold.  I've done it before and I feel like I'm going to pour out all the gold.  Mom and I both ended up getting the people there to help us do the panning and finishing it out for us.  I ended up getting about $17 worth of gold.  I guess I can save it and when times are tough, I can sell it.  Lucky for me though, we were sitting in the hotel yesterday afternoon and I looked down and their was a canister of gold.  Well it wasn't mine or Mom's.  So I opened it and it it was someones gold that they had put in a charm at the Eldorado Gold Mine place.  

Once we got into Fairbanks, we had a tour to Chena Hot Springs.  It was a resort about 1.5 hours away.  It started with a tasty and filling dinner.  We had prime rib and halibut.  Then we went over to the ice museum.  It was pretty cold so we didn't stay in there long.  We then went over to the hot springs.  It was very relaxing but we couldn't stay in more than 20 minutes because we were burning up.  We had to be back at our bus by 11pm and then we arrived back at the hotel at 12:30am.  I didn't get into bed until 1:30am ish.  It was a late night but in the grand scheme of things, it was totally worth the late night and early morning the next day.  

Day in Fairbanks

Paddle Boat Ride on Chena River

This morning we had to be ready for our tour that was included with our land tour portion of the trip.  We went on a paddle boat discovery tour.  We saw some interesting things on the Chena river.  We went to a little indian village that they had little presentations about things that the indians would do and their heritage.  I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  When we were getting off the coach bus at the paddle boat tour, our awesome tour guide said that if it was him, he would sit on the port side.  So, that's exactly what we did.  I'm glad we followed his recommendation because we really had a great view on everything.  The boat would pull up beside little places and different people would be hooked up to a microphone that was hooked up to our boat so we could hear them talking about the things they were doing. Even though I was tired, I enjoyed it.  

Looking For Gold!

There were tons of mosquitoes in Wiseman.  

After we arrived back at the hotel, we had the afternoon and evening free, so that we could do our own thing.  We went to eat and then came back and rested.  We had to eat dinner right when they opened that evening because we had our Arctic Circle Air Adventure tour.  I really enjoyed the tour.  It was incredible all we got to see from the air.  We saw incredible rainbows, the Alaska pipeline and probably some wildlife, but we were so far from it, it looked like little dots.  Once we landed we road to a neat little village called Wiseman.  Only 13 people live there year round.  I think they said it goes up to 17 in the summer.  I'm not sure that I could live like that for the year when the weather gets as cold as it does.  It's tough enough if it manages to get into the low teens in Texas, which we all know can happen and sometimes does.  

Alaska Pipeline

Our flight was delayed leaving Coldfoot so we got to go check out Coldfoot Truck Stop.  I purchased my arctic cycle tshirt and we hung out for a little while until our flight was ready to leave.  Once again, it was a late night/early morning.  We got back in at about 2am.  The inconvenience of a delay was completely worth it all.

The Midnight Sun

Early Morning and Train to Denali

This morning we had to have our luggage out at 6am which meant we had to be dressed and ready to go at that time.  Considering the fact that I went to be at about 2:45am, it was tough to get up at 5:15am.  I'm not usually able to function on 2.5 hours of sleep.  It was an exhausting day.....not because of all that we did but because I was so tired.  

Train Ride to Denali

Our transfer to the train was at 7am ish.  Once we got to the train, we found our seats and I was ready to go to sleep but I stayed up a while.  I did, however, remember to download some "quiet music" as I like to call it in my class with my students.  It was very relaxing but I could still hear everyone talking.  The ride was pretty uneventful for the most part.  We did stop at once and no one knew why.  We realized later that it was because they had an earthquake near Anchorage and whenever their is an earthquake, they stop all the trains, or something like that.  About 1.5 hours before the train got to Denali I went downstairs to the outside platform.  I got some great pictures!  I forgot to mention that our train was one of those domed cars that was 2 stories and we were on the top level and the dining level is the first level.  The whole dome on the top was windows.  The views were great but on the platform they were even better.  

Once we got Denali, and found our room, we were on our way to the Safari Jet Boat Tour.  It was only 3.5 hours and it was pretty interesting.  The only thing that I did not like was the panning for gold part.  We didn't know we were going to have to do that, but we did, so we were good sports and participated.  Mom ended up having me finish hers up for her because she was not enjoying it.  Who knows how much gold we got, but once again, I guess I'll save it for when times get tough and I can sell it for some extra money :)  We didn't see any wild life, but it was still a lot of fun.  Oh wait, actually on our bus ride back to the hotel, we did see a few moose by the side of the road.  

We went to bed early last night because we were tired and we knew we were going to have to get up super early this morning.  

Tundra Wilderness Tour to Denali and ANOTHER Early Morning 

This morning we had to be ready for our tour at 6:10am.  I was excited but at the same time I was dreading it.  I was dreading the early morning that we were going to have, BUT I knew that we would probably have a better chance of seeing more wildlife and an amazing view of the mountain.  

We left on "modified school buses."  That's what they like to call them.  I wasn't looking forward to that after being on all those nice coach buses, but it wasn't too bad.  The seats were decently comfortable and it wasn't as bad as a school bus.  We saw a ton of caribou and dall sheep.  We got lucky enough to see 4 different grizzly bears as well as some little squirrels, one moose, maybe a fox or wolf, and a few golden eagles.  The view of the mountain was INCREDIBLE!  We could see the mountain in it's entirety and I can't even describe it to you.  You have to see if yourself to know what I am talking about.  The tour was 7-8 hours long but I'm pretty sure we got back around 2:30pm which is definitely a good thing because it meant that we kept stopping to see the wildlife.  

I would say the highlight of the trip was the first bear that we saw.  The first time we saw it, it was on the other side of the bus and kinda far so I couldn't even get a decent picture of it.  Then when we turned around and came back about 30-45 minutes later, it was right by the road, ONE MY SIDE!!!  I got some wonderful pictures of the bear thanks to my rockin' awesome camera that I am so glad that I bought.  

Now we are relaxing a bit before our tour tonight.  Well it's not really a tour.  It's just a self drive jeep tour.  That basically means it's a jeep rental to go into Denali by ourselves.  I'm not sure where we are planning to go on our little self drive adventure.  We actually tried to cancel it because we had so much other stuff planned that we didn't realize that we needed some chill time.  

Tomorrow I am going river rafting at 7:30 in the morning which means I'll have another early morning that wouldn't be early if I didn't have that.  We don't have to have our luggage out until 9am but in my case I'll have to have it out more like 7am because of my tour.  Oh well....when will I get a chance to raft down the Nenana River again.  

I'm so ready to get on the ship and just relax.  I am dreading going back to the Texas heat......I just can't stand it, or my heating bill.  Oh well.

I'll try to do better about posting but I can't promise anything.  It looks like I'm caught up to this point, but I'll have more to blog soon.  Stay tuned for more!


***I apologize for the font on this post.  I can't figure out how to get it like the other font in my previous posts.  I wanted it to look cute, but oh well :)

Day on the Top of the World Highway....Or Something Like That

1.  Woke up early too early!
2.  Ate breakfast and loaded up at 8:15am.
3.  Went on a river cruise down the Yukon River.
4.  Then after 3 hours, transferred back to the coach and began our journey from Dawson City to Tok, AK.
5.  Stopped for border patrol at the US/Canadian border.
6.  Stopped for tour group picture near the Welcome to Alaska sign.
7.  Continued on towards Tok and stopped in Chicken for a "coffee" break.  I bought a shirt while I was there.
8.  Fell asleep a few times.
9.  Finally arrived in Tok, AK.
10.  Ate dinner.....we had some really good mexican food.
11.  Ready to crash!  I didn't sleep too good last night.

*Tomorrow we leave at 7:45am which is earlier than expected so that we can stop at North Pole, AK.

Day in Dawson City

Thankfully we got to sleep in this morning.  If I had to get up for an excursion, I'm not sure I'd be able to make it the rest of the trip....ok, not really, but I needed time to rest.  We slept until about 8am.  After we got ready and had breakfast, it was almost 11am.  We didn't do much today, just walked around town and walked down to the river.  We went in the little gift shops and checked things out in there.  We both took a nice nap, mine was longer and I probably could have napped even longer.

Tonight we are just trying to keep up with the Mavs game and hanging out.  I'm thinking about joining the Sour Toe Club.  You can't join until after 9pm.

Tomorrow we are going on a river cruise on the Yukon River that is supposed to last about 3 hours.  It's round trip from Dawson City.  When we get back, we are getting in the bus and then going to Tok for the evening.  That's like our midway point between here and Fairbanks.  There aren't any excursions in Tok because it's just a stop over point.  I'm sure we will have to be up early the next day to head towards Fairbanks.  Once we get to Fairbanks we have some late night excursions.  Seeing as how the daylight hours last longer, that will help me to not be so tired I'm sure.

I'm adding a few pictures of our moose sighting and the Yukon River.  Enjoy and I'll be in Alaska the next time I write!

Klondike Highway to Dawson City

Enormous Cinnamon Roll

Five Finger Rapids Photo Stop

Our morning started too early.  Luggage had to be outside our doors by 6:45am.  We had to be ready to leave by 8:15am.  Our drive was about 9 hours which included all of our stops.  I was dreading the drive because of how long it was going to be.  Thankfully it went pretty fast.  We stopped at Braeburn Lodge (I think that was the name of it) for a "coffee" break.  We didn't get any coffee.  They are known for their enormous cinnamon rolls so we had to get one.  They are apparently baked in a 9x9 inch pan.  It was pretty good but of course we could not finish it.  We made another stop before lunch to take pictures.  Then we had a few other stops after lunch and a few videos they showed also.  I was so tired I fell asleep during the last video.

The views were amazing on our long bus ride.  The only wildlife we saw was a moose but I was able to quickly snap a pretty decent picture of him.

We finally arrived in Dawson City around 5pm.  It's such a cute town.  They have boardwalk type sidewalks.  We went to Diamond Tooth Gertie's tonight which is a little casino and they had a show as well.  Some people sang and danced and we watched and laughed.

It's almost 10pm and it's still light outside.  It feels like it's about 6pm instead of 10pm.  The weather is beautiful.  It's chilly enough to need a sweater but not too cold!

I will say that everything so far has been pretty planned out and very hassle free.  We haven't really had to worry about anything as far as not knowing where to go at what time, etc.  Whoever has done the HAL scheduling on these cruise tours did a very nice job.

Tomorrow we are planning to rest and take it easy.  We are both very tired and we need to rest up a bit before traveling to our next location.  We are in Dawson city tomorrow for the day and then staying the night.  Then we are moving on to Tok, AK the next day.  They changed up our itinerary a bit due to some construction or unsafe highways or something.  So, I'm still hoping we get to stop in Chicken, AK like originally planned.

Only a few more days in the Yukon Territory, then we move on to Alaska....wooohoooo!!!

Day at Kluane National Park

It's almost 11pm and way past my bedtime.  Today was a busy day.  We had to be ready for our excursion at 6:45am.  Our excursion was an all day one that last for 9 hours.  I guess we knew that when we booked it, but I had forgotten that it was that long and started that early.  But, you only get to explore the Yukon Territory once in your life, or more than once if you are lucky.

After breakfast it was time to meet our tour in the lobby.  I'm used to large groups on excursions. They told us that there were only going to be 9 people on our big bus and then we all would break off once we got to our destination to do our different excursions.  Our excursion was a boat trip on Kathleen Lake at Kluane National Park (pronounced clue-on-ee).  There was another couple on our boat from England.  They were really nice and prepared with binoculars, video camera, and a camera.  While we were on our 2 hour boat ride, we saw a big brown bear on the side of a mountain.  We were pretty close to it, but far enough away that we were very safe, seeing as how we were on a boat in the water.  I did get a few great pictures of it.  Anyways, moving on.....we were in the boat for 2 hours before it was time for lunch.  Oh, I forgot to mention that it took us 2 hours to get to our destination of Kluane National Park.  Actually it was probably more like 2.5 hours plus the 2 hour boat ride.  Moving on again.  After our boat ride, it was time for lunch.  While we ate lunch the guides brought out bear skins of a black bear and grizzly bear for us to feel.  Of course when they mentioned that some people try them on and take pictures, I wanted to do that.  I'm trying to get fun Christmas card pictures.  After excursion time, we had 1 hour to spent at some visitor center and another 2 hour bus ride back.  The buses are nice, but I just wanted to be back to the room to take a nap!  I was tiyurd!!!

After dinner we had to wait around until 8:30 for our Frantic Follies that was included as part of the tour.  It was a really cheesy show that they put on.  I did get some good pictures though. One of our New Zealander friends sat next time me.  Frantic Follies is why I am up way past my bedtime.

We have to have luggage out at 6:45am and be ready to go by 8:00ish am.  I'm gonna be exhausted, but I guess it's worth it.  Tomorrow we are headed to Dawson City.  It is supposed to be smaller than Whitehorse.  We don't have any excursions planned that take the whole day.  Maybe we can spend a little time getting some rest.  In the meantime, I guess I should get some rest now.

Whitehorse

This morning we had to have luggage ready for the bellboys to pick up at 8am.  So that meant an early morning.  After breakfast and checking out of the Fairmont, we went downstairs to retrieve our luggage so that we could check in for our Air North flight from Vancouver to Whitehorse.  I had never heard of Air North but I will say now that they now have a new fan.....actually, 2 new fans.  The seats were comfy, they were very friendly, and they served us food, like A MEAL!  No, not snacks, but a turkey wrap with pretzels and a warm cookie.  I know that's not a huge meal, but considering the prices that we have to pay on airlines in the US to get a simple snack pack and check one bag of luggage, this airline far exceeds the ones that I have been on lately as far as customer service and pleasing ALL of their customers.

Moving on.....once our flight landed, we realized that we were in a small airport.  It reminded me of Peoria's airport.  It was small!  We met our tour concierge here as we entered baggage claim.  Our tour guides name is Tom.  He seems like he is going to be a good tour guide.  When we got on our tour bus, we met our driver.  She is the same driver who brought a Holland America bus to a travel show.  I didn't remember her at first but Mom did.

When we got our room keys at our hotel, we went to our room a little disappointed to find one king bed instead of two beds.  I love my mom and all but I like my own bed :)  We were going to make due with the one bed.  We decided to mention it to Tom when we went back downstairs to ask a few questions.  The gave us a new room.  The upgraded us to a suite.  It's about twice the size of the other room we were in AND we have 2 beds.

After we explored around town a little bit, it was almost time for our welcome dinner.  We were some of the first people to pick a table.  Then a group of 3 came and joined us.  They were from New Zealand.  Then two more people joined us.  They were also from New Zealand.  They were all very nice.  Let me see if I can remember their names.....Owen, Alison, Neville, Beverly, and Tom.  I'll see tomorrow if I was right.   We had a little mixer to get us up so we could meet our tour group.  There are 33 of us that will be traveling together for the next 10 days and of course me and Mom are the youngest....I'm not surprised.

Tomorrow our tour starts early.  We have to be downstairs at 6:45am.  Beforehand we have to eat breakfast because we will be gone for a good 8 hours.  Tomorrow night we are also going to see Frantic Follies.  Should be fun!  Now if only the Mavs would win tonight.

Vancouver

Our morning yesterday started pretty early.  I was instructed to be ready to leave for the airport at 5:45am.  I woke up around 3:45am just to make sure I had plenty of time to get every last minute thing packed.  We arrived in Vancouver yesterday around 3pm and got to our hotel around 4pm.  Our flights were pretty uneventful.  From Dallas to Phoenix we were in first class.  We were in an exit row from Phoenix to Vancouver.  By the time we made it to our room, I was tired and hungry.  After all I had been up for awhile and I hadn't eaten a real meal....we had half a sandwich, snack mix, and some really tasty Newton's Fruit Crisps which were really good.  After we rested a little bit we went downstairs to the hotel lounge/bar area to eat.  We were too tired to venture out too far from the hotel.  Most of the time hotel food is overpriced and not very good.  Well, yes, it was overpriced, but it was really good.  I would eat there again.  We did nothing else adventurous last time, but rested and I slept!  The Mavs game was on in the background and I could hear Mom getting into it and talking to the Mavs.  I heard that they were down a few points and then back in the lead.  I heard when they won but my eyes were too tired to watch.

Today, we took the train from our hotel into downtown Vancouver and walked around and did a trolley tour.  I would highly recommend a trolley tour.  There were 2 lines (red and blue) that went to different places.  We started halfway through the blue line and got off at the waterfront to check out the cruise ships.  Then we walked some and finally ended up getting back on the red line and toured Stanley Park.  We got off at one point to go see Granville Island.  It reminded me of a small Pike's Place Market....lots of fresh produce/meat/fish.  After we spent a little bit of time on the island, we took the trolley back to Gastown and ate dinner right by the clock tower.  The environment was quite nice.

Tomorrow we have to have luggage ready by 8:00am.  Then our flight leaves at 11:30am flying to Whitehorse where we will spend the next 2 days.  I can already tell that we are going to be so tired by the end of this trip, but it will totally be worth it!