We headed off in the mornings in the bright sunshine. Gloriously sunny. We went up to the Denali national park and visited the information centre and walked around a bit. Had a coffee on the patio! The tours were in buses and pretty long so we decided to just head down to Anchorage. I still want to purchase a heated vest so we planned to get to Barb's Leathers first.
At Barb’s Leathers we ran into Mark(AKDuc). I had met him in Dawson and he told us a great place to go for dinner, so Brian and I took him out for dinner. The three of us ended up hanging out together and then we stayed at Marks place. He gave us a great tour of Anchorage and we were glad to have a place to stay. Thanks Mark!! So far the weather hasn’t been that great for camping…..not that I have minded staying in hotels any!! Of course the next day was bright and sunny and I didn’t even need the heated vest. We drove on to Seward, AK. Great ride. The road was curvy and fun. Not too much traffic(motorhomes aka landbarges) to manouver around either. Seward is a cute little fishing town right on the water. I was bound and determned that we were going to take a boat tour of the Kenai Peninsula so we headed to the docks to find a charter. We found one that was leaving the next day at 1130 so we decided to get on board even tho they warned us there was a weather warning in effect. I am such a moron!! I didn’t listen to my inner voice(do I ever?) I know that I get motion sickness pretty easy but I boarded any ways. I didn t even think about taking some gravol. Well the harbour was great, smooth nonwavy. Nice scenery, saw a whale and some porpoises. Then all hell broke loose. We headed out to open water where the swells were huge. I knew it wasn’t going to get better and the captain came on said we had about 35-45 mins of this. Crap. I stared at the horizon trying to maintain some composure and keep my guts in check. Brian seemed to be making out allright so I should be able too. I grew up by the ocean I should do better than a prairie boy! After awhile I headed to the most level spot on the boat , the lower deck back part. I stayed there for the rest of the trip. At one point I borrowed a ladies barf bag(already 1/3 full) who was sitting next to me so I could honk my guts out into it. Thank god the deckhands came around with more barf bags because I used 4. I even heaved over the edge at one point. Did I mention it was freezing out too?! Ocean spray shooting everywhere. I was huddled on the back bench with a bunch of teenage missionaries from Georgia. I managed to have a nap before the boat made it back to the wharf and Brian helped me crawl back to our hotel where I slept for a couple hours. I am just thankful that we had a good driver because I think the ride could have been way worse than it was. I told Brian to kick my ass if I ever want to get into another boat again. $300us to puke my guts out for 6 hours. Nice. So we decided after that to drive to Valdez instead of taking the ferry. haha 2 days later and I am still queezy. The Glenn Hwy was really nice and curvy but I had to keep stopping because I felt like I was going to barf again! Gross, in a helmet wouldn’t be too cool. We made it t Glennallen where we have a room at the Caribou hotel in the annex. Kind of like a bunkhouse. Cheap and clean. We are getting a bit short on time so we may not go to Valdez but continue on back to Tok, AK and then to Haines Junction, YK. Back into Canada, or Cehnehdeh, as some of my American friends think we say it!!! We don’t all say eh, you know.
Some things I have seen on the way so far that have been strange: since we have been in Alaska, I have noticed these kiosks everywhere that sells coffee and espresso. We could be on the highway in the middle of freakin nowhere and there is an espresso kiosk. People here must be totally addicted to their coffee. Even in Anchorage every block ihas at least one maybe 2 kiosks for espresso. Another weird thing is since we got on the Alaska Hwy, I have seen 5 cars with the windows all smashed in and pretty beat up on the side of the road, just hanging out. 3 in Canada and then 2 in Alaska. On the highway in the middle of nowhere will be this car in the ditch all beat to crap. Looked really odd.
Well…we are off to breakfast and then back on the road. The heated vest is awesome!!! Roasty toasty. All of our gear has been great so far. My odometer is now 9924.