Category: Canada

The Easternmost Point in the US!

The Easternmost Point in the US!

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We only spent one weekend in Lubec, Maine, but we wish we’d spent a couple of weeks.

Lubec was founded in 1811 and was once the home of fishing fleets and smugglers, but is now known for being the easternmost point in the US. The area has 20 foot tides and has 96 miles of coastline…so it should come as no surprise that there were quite a few lighthouses.

Right across the International Bridge is Campobello Island, New Brunswick where you can spend time exploring Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up spending summers on Campobello Island and later when he had a family of his own, he took them to spend summers there. You can wander through the 34 room Roosevelt summer home. There are interpreters there to answer any questions. The boys were curious about the huge megaphone you can see in the photo on the right. When the Roosevelt’s were staying at the cottage, the megaphone would be hanging up on the porch right outside the door in the photo on the left. Eleanor would use it to call the children home. We were told her voice could be heard over a mile away.

The first thing we did when we got to Lubec was find a place to eat. We ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was fantastic! The food was amazing and the service was spot on! They talked us into trying some periwinkles. We tried them and guess what…we liked them! Except Nicholas. He stalwartly refused to try one. In his defense, they do look gross.

You can’t come to Maine and not get some lobster…or lobstah!

The RV park we stayed at told us where we could go get some lobstah right from the boat! We drove half an hour to get to Little River Lobster Co in Cutler, ME and let me tell you…it was soooo worth it! We walked right out onto the dock and had our pick of lobsters that had just come in that morning. Talk about fresh seafood! We loaded our cooler up with almost 15 pounds of lobster and then put some seaweed on top of them to get them home. Did you know you can pack lobsters in seaweed? It worked beautifully! And because I know you’re curious…we got all of that lobster for around $80. Lobstah for days!!! Remember that lobster roll in one of the pics above? That one lobster roll cost around $16. We found that price to be pretty consistent throughout the area.

The lobsters were all alive and well when we made it back home and were talking to each other when we opened the cooler. Magnus was not amused. He didn’t like the noises they were making and he wasn’t fond of the smell either. He sat guarding the cooler until we took it outside. Magnus is always certain that his death is imminent. He’s also afraid of his own shadow.

Sunset RV Park has lobster gear to loan out to anyone who stays there. For free. They even came down and told us how long the lobsters needed to cook! We cooked our lobster in sea water. Jerl braved the cold weather and cold water to wade out and fill the pot. He made a few hoops and hollers while doing it. I might have had a good laugh at his expense… The day we did this it was a balmy 57° outside so you know the water was cold.

Let’s talk lobstah. Did you know that lobster used to be so plentiful that they would wash up on the shores of Maine? They could be plucked up right of the shores. In the mid-1800s lobster was selling for 8¢ apiece. The big boy you see in the photo above is on a 16 inch tray. He’s what they call a Select. He was hard shelled while the rest of the ones we got were called Chixs and they were all soft shell.

Vocabulary time!

A Chix lobster is the yougest and weigh 1 pound.

A Quarter lobster weighs 1¼ pounds.

A Select lobster is a choice lobster and weighs at least 1½ pounds.

The one we got was close to 4 pounds! What’s the difference between hard shell and soft shell? A lobster will molt about 14 times before it reaches maturity. Every time it molts it sheds its hard shell and is left with a softer shell until the shell has time to harden.

While lobster was a definite highlight of our time spent in Lubec, we also did a couple of awesome hikes!

Thanks to an Instagram friend we found out about the Bold Coast Trail. I highly recommend it! The trail wasn’t difficult and it spits you out with the view in the left photo above. We had the place to ourselves so we spent quite a bit of time taking in the scenery.

On the way to Eastport, Maine we made a little side trip to a place called Reversing Falls. There’s not a waterfall. It’s called that because you can stand there and watch the current reverse its direction with the tide. Remember those 20 foot tides I told you about? We didn’t get to see it reverse, but we did enjoy another small hike and had the place to ourselves!

Eastport, Maine is the easternmost town in the United States. We spent an afternoon there where we found another lobster roll to try. I mean…we were in Maine…we had to eat lobster, right?

We stopped by Raye’s Mustard Mill. You could try all 20 or so flavors of mustard. I think we tried them all. And then we bought more mustard than one family really needs. Looks like we’re set for a while!

The only thing we didn’t love about the Lubec, Maine area was the road getting there. It was sooo bad. It might have bumped the ALCAN out of our worst road ever spot. It was that bad! Now, having said that…we made it there fine. And we would travel that road again to go back.

There were a few flowers. The wild roses were everywhere and smelled so good! And Guys….we found fireweed!! In Maine! It’s official…Maine is a mini-Alaska!!!

We loved the Lubec area so much we’ve decided that once we’re done with the fifty state tour we could easily spend one or two months there…someday!

#easterloop2016

Pizza Roundup Pendelis Pizzeria

Pizza Roundup Pendelis Pizzeria

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For my fellow pizza lovers I bring to you a post for Pendelis Pizzeria in Montreal Canada!


Pendelis is a very good pizza place with a pepperoni cut like you have never seen! They cut the pepperoni long ways instead of the usual rounds. The pepperoni is so tasty too!

When you go to Pendelis make sure to check out their pasta, because it looks excellent. My brother had the pasta and he loved it! Pendelis has more than just pizza and pasta, they also have poutine and burgers.

The staff is really nice and the food is really good. For all of that I give Pendelis Pizza a 5 star review

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Montreal, Quebec

Montreal, Quebec

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While we are on our eastern state loop this year, we are taking the opportunity to explore a little bit of Canada. We took a day trip to Montreal. We’ve been in and out of Canada for the last year as we made our way to and from Alaska. This time we were nervous because we don’t speak French. Not even a little bit. Charles is taking French and he can recognize some of the words, but overall, he’s still pretty useless as a translator. We armed ourselves with a map (the only one we could find was in…French) and we programmed our car’s GPS for all of our destinations (in order) the night before. We rely on our phones for information and directions more than we probably should so it was definitely a learning experience heading to a place where we wouldn’t have our security blanket.

Our goal was to find and visit seven places. We managed to see them all! And we only got lost once…well, not really lost. We knew where we were, we just had to find our way through the maze of one way streets.

Our first stop was the Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral. I’m not going to be able to tell you much about these places…again, the info we found was mostly in French. I can tell you that this cathedral was inspired by the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral was built at the end of the 19th century.

Since we’re talking about churches…I have a confession…my camera isn’t the quietest camera. The shutter is annoyingly loud. I could have happily shot tons of pictures in this cathedral, but it’s a working cathedral. There were people actively praying and I didn’t want to intrude. So, I got a few OK shots and just walked around soaking in the beauty. I did get a dome shot. Y’all know my love of domes.

Our second stop was Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. The sun was not my friend here. So, you’ll have to suffer with a shoddy picture.

We almost skipped going inside because you have to pay to get in. We walked in and our mouths dropped open. Pictures don’t even begin to do it justice. There are guided tours here. We didn’t do one since we were on a schedule. We overheard a tour guide tell her group that there are so many churches in Montreal that one closes almost weekly so the churches are now run like a business to stay open. Which is why we had to pay just to go inside. Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal was built between 1824 and 1829.

Our next stop was the Old Montreal neighborhood where the streets are still cobblestone and some the buildings date back to the 17th through 19th centuries. We had a good time wandering around and people watching.

Right next to Old Montreal is Old Port. I also have a thing for harbors. I don’t get to see as many, but I always snap a few pictures when I find one.

Stop four was the Square Saint Louis. The whole neighborhood is in this same style of Victorian row houses.

Stop five was the Montreal Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden was founded in 1931 and today is known as one of the largest in the world. It’s huge! There are around thirty thematic gardens. We walked through several of them. It took longer than I thought it would…probably because I kept stopping to take pictures of the flowers.  There were flowers of every color, shape, and size imaginable! I could have spent the entire day exploring the gardens. The day we went was a wonderfully warm, sunny day. And guys…it smelled soooo good here! I walked around just sniffing everything. I’m sure I had a stupidly ridiculous grin on my face…but how can you be anything but happy when you’re surrounded by flowers?!

One of the thematic gardens was a Chinese garden. It was under construction so the only shot I got was the one above.

By this time, we had three boys that thought they were going to wither away if we didn’t feed them soon. So, we cut our garden visit short and went in search of food. I had already picked a place to eat. You won’t be surprised to learn it was a pizza place so Nicholas could check Montreal off of his pizza list. I’ll let him fill you in on where we ate. I will say this about it…the guys working there were the nicest! Seriously, they were super nice.

Our last stop of the day was Saint Joseph’s Oratory.

The crutches and canes hanging between the pillars were left by pilgrims near the shrine of Saint Joseph. I didn’t take too many pics here. It’s a huge place with so many different levels and rooms. Some of the rooms felt very sacred (like the votive room in the right picture above), but others felt more like a tourist trap. It was odd. They even had a guide book in English you could buy. We did. It was interesting, but a little confusing as it led us all over the place. We’d never seen escalators in a church before so that was new for us.

We were tired and ready to go home. We had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Montreal!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

The Niagara Falls Area

The Niagara Falls Area

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We spent a week in the Niagara Falls area of New York. The weather was hit and miss…a few days it was more like summer, but mostly it was cool, windy, and rainy.

Our RV park was only half an hour away from Buffalo…and since Jerl and the boys love Buffalo wings so much…we had to have some Buffalo Wings in Buffalo. We found Anchor Bar which claims to be the creator of the Buffalo chicken wings and we couldn’t pass up the chance to try the originals. I kind of wish we’d passed. The place was a dive and was super expensive. Our waitress…I’m pretty sure she was high on life (or something). My friend (hey Dawn!) suggested Duff’s Famous Wings. We gave them a try the next night. I didn’t get any photos…but it was a much better experience! The wings were great, the service was great and best of all…the place was clean!!

While we were in Buffalo, we took a small side trip to the Erie Basin Marina and Gardens so we could poke Erie Lake. We have to touch the water or I can’t put the sticker on our map. 

I’m conflicted about the Junior Ranger book here. It’s the Niagara State Park, but there’s a National Park Junior Ranger booklet…but it’s for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. This is the first time in almost fifty badges that we’ve encounter a Junior Ranger booklet that required us to travel so far from the park and pay admission to several different places in order to complete the booklet. Sure, they give you the nifty lanyard…and they’re supposed to give you the pins as you visit the places (not every place gave us one)…but, this was the hardest, most involved booklet the boys have done so far. Now, having said my piece about all of that…the booklet pointed us to a few places we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Hence, the conflicted feelings…

Old Fort Niagara is a place you could easily spend an entire day exploring. We got there right before a storm blew in across Lake Ontario and toward the end of the day so we rushed our visit. The building above is the French Castle built in 1726.

Old Fort Niagara has a history that spans more than 300 years. The area was originally used by Native Americans. Most of the buildings are open and you can freely explore the grounds. The site has been occupied by the French, British, and American forces through the years.

Old Fort Niagara was restored between 1926 and 1934. The rooms have been made to look like they might have during the time when Old Fort Niagara was in use. They fire off the canons and guns at certain times throughout the day. Unfortunately, because due to the downpours of rain and the timing we missed seeing all of the firing times. We did hear it though. The boys just about came unglued the first time. Ha! They’d been chattering and joking around and when the canon fired they stopped and looked around. We chuckled. They chuckled…but continued to look around for threats. I wish I’d gotten a shot of all of their faces that first time. Jerl and I will never forget it!

We made our way to Lockport where the Erie Canal Locks 34 & 35 are. We shimmied in to the Erie Canal Discovery Center about half an hour before they closed. There was a great little museum that explained the history, the building, and the local life of the Erie Canal. Right across the street from the Discovery Center is the actual Erie Canal. We were able to walk up and down some of the locks and really get a good look at them.

We would have completely missed the New York Power Vista if it hadn’t been in the Junior Ranger booklet. Which would have been a huge bummer…it was such a cool place! When you walk in they issue you a Power Portal ID. You have to register it in their computer and then you head to the museum to earn points by completing tasks. When you’re done with everything you can print out your avatar and the amount of points (watts) you earned (generated). Not everything earned you points. Some things were just for exploration and learning. We were geeking out hard here. We love experiments and places that let our inner nerd shine through.

 Some of the displays were more high tech. The one above really made the boys problem solve and think outside the box while they put together everything they’d learned about electricity and circuits. I want to point out the adult lady watching Charles in the left photo. This wasn’t an easy activity. Several of the adults couldn’t figure it out. The object of this exercise was to make a stable electrical grid. There were different pieces you could put on the digital table that would react with the other pieces as well as the environmental elements represented. Get it wrong and your grid blows up. Get it right and you get your points for this activity! We played with this one for a while. One of the coolest things about our nomadic lifestyle is the hands on learning. We don’t have to just read about things in books…and the boys learn so much better by seeing and doing these things.

 The New York Vista isn’t just a museum, it’s a working facility that produces clean energy.

On our first night in the Niagara Falls area we went to see the falls all lit up on the American side. It was our first time seeing the falls and we were all extremely underwhelmed by the view. There were a few hundred people there all trying to cram into the one small area where you could actually see anything of the falls.

On our last day in the area we crossed the border into Ontario. We, of course, had to find a burger place. And I wanted to try poutine. We found a place called The Works where we were able to get both burgers and poutine! We were able to walk there from the American side of Niagara. Guys, this place…it’s officially on our top ten. Everything we had was amazing. Everyone there was super nice. We’re already wanting to go back!!

I told you how underwhelmed we were with the view from the American side of Niagara…well, the view got incredibly better as we were walking across the bridge to the Canadian side of Niagara. The shot above is from the bridge.

All of my Canadian friends told me the view of the falls is better from the Canadian side. They were right. We’d walked over to Luna Island a few days before to try and get a better look at things. It was something altogether different seeing the falls from the other side of the river. There’s a wonderful park with nice walkways all along the river on the Canadian side of Niagara. This was our first good view of Horseshoe Falls. Each side of the river has their own touristy things. On the American side you’ve got The Maid of the Mist boats and while on the Canadian side you’ve got The Hornblower boats. In the bottom left pic above you can see one of the Hornblower boats as it got close to the falls. The Maid of the Mist boats stop giving rides by 5PM but the Hornblower boats continue to give rides well after dark. The rainbows changed shape, size, and number depending on where you were standing.

I know, I know…I usually save the flowers for the end…but I wanted to end with a surprise. These purple flowers were on both sides of the Niagara River. I couldn’t get enough of them! There were some wildflowers here and there too on both sides of Niagara.

On the Canadian side you can walk right up to the side of Horseshoe Falls. The American side was under construction so we couldn’t get close at all. We got a slight sense of vertigo as we stood and watched the water pour over the edge. It was trippy.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s while we waited for the sun to completely set. The temps dropped quickly outside so we welcomed the opportunity to get out of the cold breeze and mist from the falls.

When it got closer to 10PM we made our way back to the Rainbow Bridge to watch the fireworks. We wanted to get out of the press of people and wanted to be a little farther away from the show so we could get some better pics. There weren’t very many people on the bridge. We had our choice of places to stand…and the view was gorgeous! We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed along with everyone else on the bridge.

Because, who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Pizza Roundup Boston Pizza

Pizza Roundup Boston Pizza

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Boston pizza is a nice, tasty pizza place with a wide variety of pizza, calzones, hot wings, pizza burgers, and more.

This is the pizza burger. It’s a burger wrapped in pizza crust! What’s not to love?!

Boston pizza is not in Boston though, it is in Alberta, Canada.

You can see the pierogi pizza with mashed potatoes, onions, and sour cream on it in the picture above. My mom thought it was one of the best pizza’s she’s ever had.

bathrooms were clean, the décor was nice, and it had a good staff. All of this I would say equals up to a  5 star-review.

See you next time on Pizza Street!!

Canada…The Return Trip

Canada…The Return Trip

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We drove 2,049 miles in five days. We left Fairbanks on Monday morning and crossed the US border into Washington on Friday. We decided to go a different route back than what we took to get to Alaska. On the way to Alaska we took the ALCAN so on the way back we took the Cassiar. I’d heard different things about the Cassiar, but after driving the ALCAN…well, it couldn’t get worse than that. We did have to backtrack the first 846 miles to Junction 37 Services in the Yukon. The area around Destruction Bay is the worst section of road known to man. I believe it got it’s name because it does its best to destroy your rig.

We drove by a herd of mountain sheep (perhaps Dall Sheep). We’d seen loads of sheep in Alaska, but they all looked so tiny…perched on their rocks way up in the mountains. Honestly, they resembled fuzzy rocks more than sheep so it was neat to see some up close.

We got our daily quota of snowcapped mountains. And then the Yukon threw in this amazingly bright rainbow! It was the widest, brightest rainbow we’ve ever seen.

Once we got to Junction 37, where we stayed overnight, the road was better. Not great, but better. The next morning, we got up and headed down the Cassiar Highway.

 The Cassiar has only been paved for about five years now. It’s narrow, very serpentine, and has some gorgeous views!

I told you it was narrow…it wasn’t much wider than one lane in some places.

One morning we got up and headed off and it was so foggy! We got some beautiful views of the fog lifting from the valley. The fog was really dense in some places and slowed us down a little bit, but it luckily didn’t last long.

Once we turned off the ALCAN back at Junction 37, we followed rivers and lakes all day. The road snaked around and over rivers, ponds, lakes, and streams of all sizes. It made for some great views! Truly postcard worthy!

I wish we could have taken our time with this drive, there were a ton of photo opportunities that I didn’t really get to shoot because…well…it’s hard to get a decent shot from a bouncing, moving vehicle with bug splattered windows. There was an abundance of bugs. If fact, almost all of the photos in this post were taken as we bounced over frost heaves and swerved around potholes while we were driving down the road.

Once we got into southern British Colombia, the road improved immensely. It was a welcome change. We also went from wild wilderness with towns dotted along the highway to farmland…something we hadn’t seen all summer.

I should probably tell y’all about the logging. This highway is a logging route and there were tons of lumber mills, logging camps, and logging trucks. We didn’t have any incidents with them, but we did give them space. If you’ve watched Final Destination then you know…

We felt like we were driving into Fall. The colors changed almost as soon as we left Fairbanks.

As we made our way into Fraser Canyon, the lush green farmlands started changing into a landscape we didn’t expect to see in British Columbia…dry and very desert like, but with rolling hills. It reminded us a lot of Montana and even had the sage brush.

In the photos above you can see a set of the train tunnels. Train tunnels dotted the tracks the whole way through the canyon. It was fun to see the trains slithering their way through the tunnels along the open canyon wall.

We went through seven tunnels like the one above. The one in the photo is one of the longest tunnels in North America. The China Bar Tunnel was built in 1960 and is almost 2,300 feet long.

The only touristy thing we did on the way back, was the Hell’s Gate Airtram. The tram takes you 500 feet down and across the river to a small shopping center and a suspension bridge you can walk across. Here’s a shot of the bridge. It was cold, rainy, extremely windy and you could feel the bridge sway and bounce. It was awesome! In the bottom right photo above you can see a shot of the river from the middle of the bridge.

The stop was a nice way for us to stretch our legs before we made the final sprint to the border. It’s definitely a tourist trap, but it is neat.

They were selling fresh fudge…so, of course, we had to buy some. We ended up with just over a pound of fudge in three different flavors: Naniamo, Praline Chew, and Salted Caramel. They didn’t last long.

While we were leaving the Hell’s Gate Airtram the weather decided to start sleeting. We weren’t fond of driving our home-oh-wheels on increasingly slick roads. After we got out of Fraser Canyon, we got to an actual highway! It was…bliss! The weather was still gross but the quality of the highway made for a less stressful drive.

We crossed the US/Canadian border six times during our Alaskan Summer. We heard horror stories from other campers…and they were bad…but we never had any problems getting through. It was all very straight forward and very quick.

We’re so glad to be back in the lower 48! We had the best summer we’ve ever had…we learned a lot and saw more than we could have ever hoped to see…but the whole trip was very stressful. Jerl and I didn’t realize how stressed we were until we were crossing back into the lower 48. We’re planning on doing an Alaskan Summer review post with all the sticky details we didn’t put in all of the destination posts so stay tuned!

See y’all down the road!

Oh, Canada…

Oh, Canada…

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We crossed into Canada on June 21 and spent five very long days exploring Canada on our way to the Alaskan border.

  We stayed two nights in Banff exploring Banff National Park and the surrounding area. The campground in Banff was different from what we’ve seen before. Instead of having a small driveway type of spot for each campsite, you just kind of pull up on the road and stop next to your table and hookups. It was unusual, but worked for us.

We tried to do a hike, but found a sign letting people know that a baby bear had been spotted not far down the trail only 20 minutes before we got there. So, we poked around at the trail head and decided not to take the chance since we’d so brilliantly left our bear spray back at the RV and we all know how mama bears get around their babies.

We did get to see the Continental Divide! It was pretty neat to go a few miles toward Banff and see the rivers flowing one way and go a few miles toward Kootenay and see the rivers flowing the other way.

Everywhere we looked it was like looking at a postcard or a movie set here! I think we all just walked around with our cameras in front of our faces snapping constant photos! There wasn’t a bad view anywhere to be found.

We celebrated our first night in Canada with s’mores and a campfire!

A good portion of the next day was spent at Moraine Lake. We had a great time hiking around the lake and up what felt like 200 stairs to the top of the path to get the top picture above. But with a view like that, it’s hard to complain…too much. The mountains in the top photo above area called the Seven Sisters. I guess people come from all over the world just to get that shot. I have to admit…it’s probably the most beautiful lake and mountain view I’ve ever seen! I mean, just look at the color of that water!!

All along the roads in Alberta we saw this flower. They grow in patches and clumps. I love the way they look like flames along the roadsides!

We crossed into British Columbia and started down the Columbia Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Parks. The views along the road were wonderful…more postcards…more movie sets!

We stopped at the Icefield Center toward the middle of the drive where you can hike up close to the Athabasca Glacier. It was our understanding you could hike up and touch it, but it was all roped off. You can take a guided tour up on the glacier, but we didn’t have time and to be honest, it’s a little pricey to just go stand out there on slipper ice in the freezing cold. You can’t walk around on it by yourself because you might fall into a hidden crevasse. The view of the glacier was better from the visitor center than right in front of it. From the visitor center you can really see the size of it!

We stopped to get a picture of Bridal Veil Falls (left photo). We found a “trail” down to another waterfall. So, of course, we had to climb out, stretch our legs and get a picture with it!

We made it to Jasper, but only had one afternoon to get all of our site seeing done. We stayed at the Whistler Campground which was right down the road from the Jasper Gondola.

The Jasper Gondola takes you about 2300 meters up onto Whistler Mountain where you can then hike another mile or so to the summit. The view was spectacular!!

The boys had to throw snowballs off of the mountain. They thought it was pretty cool that there was snow during the middle of summer!

We had to get a photo to prove we were actually there too! We’re still not over those views!

From the gondola center on top you can see the town of Jasper. I love the different colors of the lakes and river! Can you spot the rainbow in the picture above? A rain storm had just passed by.

We got half way up to the summit and this came over the top of the mountain. We pressed on thinking that it was just another shower… And then ten minutes from the summit (we were sooo close)…the storm really showed itself and it wasn’t just rain. It was a winter mix of sleet and snow and wind! We kept going since we were almost to the top…until the lightening started. The first zip of lightening had my hair standing up and a guy in front of us on the trail immediately turned around and started waving his metal hiking poles in the air as he ran as fast as he could back down the mountain. We all stood still for a minute processing what had just happened and then we all started hot-footing it back down the mountain to the safety of the gondola center. In all of my hiking wisdom, I had on the absolutely wrong pants. I’d decided to wear my skinny jeans. They look super cute, but when they get wet they shrink and cling…so I basically had to kind of waddle back down the mountain with my camera shoved into my rain jacket. Jerl sent the boys ahead and he kept trying to hurry me along as the storm picked up. By the time we got to the gondola center we were soaked and frozen, but we have a great story and memories that we’ll never forget! We were bummed to get so close to the summit and not make it.


Once we dried off back at our home-on-wheels…and the storm passed, we decided to head back out to find the Athabasca Falls. We passed by it earlier in the day and it was completely crowded, but when we got there about 9:30 pm we had the place to ourselves! It was wonderful!! The double rainbow was the icing on the cake! It’s faint, but it’s there!

The next few days were…well…a blur. We had very long days driving from one campsite to the next. We got to drive the ALCAN Highway, got some of the best cinnamon rolls ever (they were still warm from the oven), saw mountains, glaciers, rivers, and lakes…

And then there was the wildlife…Stone sheep, wild bison, and bears! We saw some moose, elk, and deer too, but I didn’t get any good pictures of them.

We entered the Yukon on the fourth day and made a short side trip to Carcross, YT.

The town was neat, but we really went to see the desert. Yup, you read that right…there’s a desert in the Yukon! The visitor center was closed…I think we got there too early. I love the totem poles and the designs on the buildings!

We strolled around the dunes and played in the sand for a few minutes, then hit the road again! We had another really long drive day as were trying to make it to Alaska.

The roads weren’t too terribly bad. We’ve actually seen worse. We had to drive down this dirt road between Haines Junction and the border into Alaska. Our poor RV is a mess!!

We’re still adding stickers to our map! This is what it looks like right now.

We spent five very long, very eventful days traveling through Canada and we loved every minute of it!

Oh, Canada…we’ll definitely be back to visit!

See y’all on the road!

 #alaskabound

Alaska Bound

Alaska Bound

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Today we cross the Canadian border and head to Alaska where we will spend the summer! We have been planning and preparing for this portion of our RV trip for the past year. I’m not sure how often we’ll be able to keep y’all updated on our trip. We’ve heard from several people that wifi throughout Canada and Alaska can be a bit dodgy and sometimes it’s just not there at all. We’ll post as often as possible though and do our best to keep y’all up to date with our adventures! It’s easier to do quick posts to Instagram  so that will be the best place to keep up with us. If you’re not following us there, head on over and follow us!! You can follow the link in this post or go to our blog and there will be a button to follow us on the right hand side.

We each have our own must see list when it comes to Alaska. Personally, the things I’m looking forward to are the mountains, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog stuff, and seeing glaciers.

Nicholas, of course, is looking for a pizza place, getting more Junior Ranger Badges, and seeing a bear…from a distance.

Alex is looking forward to fishing, looking for wildlife and getting another Junior Ranger badge.

Charlie is wanting to fish (so he can eat fresh salmon), trying reindeer sausage, and having Alaskan King Crab. Notice his are all about food. He’s fourteen. He’ll actually turn fifteen while we’re in Alaska!

Jerl is looking forward to the scenery, smoking some salmon, and the wildlife. We have a list of all of the wildlife we’ve seen.

Y’all know I’m a planner. I’ve been planning Alaska for over a year now. We’ve plotted our course to Alaska, in Alaska, and back from Alaska. Here’s what it looks like.

Our plan is to take one road up and take a different road back so we can see as many different areas of Canada as we can. The little blue squares indicate something to do or see, the tents indicate a place to stay, the fork and knife are places to eat we don’t want to miss, and the suns mean there’s a day trip there. While we have a list of what we want to do or see, it’s forever changing. We find new things or someone tells of a “must see” place and that’s awesome! We love insider’s tips so if y’all have one let us know!!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound