Canada/Alaska/USA Tour0Packing03-MAY-2008 13:37:06Every holiday starts somewhere, and ours can start with the packing. We packed up everything today into our new luggage, two very big bags. Just need to load up our carry on stuff now and we are ready to roll.
We will be picked up by the happy cabby at 1:30pm tomorrow to take us to Sydney airport, we fly out of Sydney at 7:45pm and arrive in Honolulu at 9:30am the same day (crazy time zones). We then waste the morning till our 2:00pm flight to Vancouver, we will be on the ground in Canada at 10:40pm.
So we will be posting again after a long time in the air and most likely fighting the jet lag.0Up Up and Away... Eventually04-MAY-2008 08:25:34So it begins, We rise at 9:00 to do some last minute gathering, I finish packing my carry on back only to have the zip break. So a last minute dash to Garden City to change my bag for the second time in two days (we noticed the lining in the first one was torn), third times a charm.
Packing complete now it's time to wait, and do the few things that spring to mind. The "Happy Cabby" arrives to pick us up about 20 minutes early at 1:20pm. Our driver Mike sure was "Happy", but I don't think the same could be said for his little bus, I'm quite sure the speedo would have had some k's on it. But despite Caz's concerns about some of the strange noises it emitted we made it safe and sound. Arriving at the airport at around 4:20pm we had time to work out which gate we needed to go to for check-in to here the loud speaker say our flight was open for boarding.
We stocked up on some duty free for our trip and Sat down to a quick feed of pizza, Caz's uncle Geoff and Stan came to the airport to see us off and buy us one last drink on Australian soil.
We decided not to leave our run through customs to late in case of any delays or strip searches, our concerns turned out to be unfounded as we flew through customs and security.
We got our GST back for our new camera and had a quick cruise through even more duty free stores then at and waited to board our flight.
We had a seat up the rear of the plane 5 rows from the back, everyone was quiet, but that didn't help us get any sleep. We ate some terrible excuse for food, the dinner was like hospital food and the breakfast was like space food (hint: don’t EVER get the hot breakfast), listen to some bad Qantas audio channels, half watched some average movies and tried in vain to get some sleep. After 9:30 long hours we arrived at Honolulu.
Note: The time is manually set on these photos to allow for ground hog day effect, it's not reflective of actual time photos were taken.0Gound Hog Day04-MAY-2008 08:31:04So it begins, again. We arrive in Honolulu and it’s just past 9:30 on Sunday morning, again. So are we caught in some strange time loop, gone through a rip in the space time continuum or is there a glitch in the matrix? Either way we are both halfway through the longed Sunday we have ever experienced.
We drag our tired and sore bones from the plane and enter a rather aging Honolulu airport, we seem to have arrived in the far end of the airport and have to be loaded on to several airport shuttles over to the main terminal and arrivals. Time to go through US customs, and the lines were huge. After a very long wait we reached the end of the line. I expected the worst, interrogation, torture, anal probe or rendition? But apart from losing some of our civil liberties but being electronically finger printed and photographed it was a relatively pain free experience. A very friendly Hawaiian customs officer picked us as honeymooners with easy, he claims it was the fact we were still smiling. When the next customs offer at the baggage checking picked us for honeymooners we started to think it must be stamped on our passport somewhere, we got waived straight through baggage check without an interrogation.
So we arrive first the first time on US soil, and go from arrivals to departures, we head up a lift with a couple of people from our flight who are also catching the same connecting flight to Vancouver, and as it turns out later are also catching the Rocky Mountainer on the same day we are although their destination is Calgary not Banff. The WestJet check-in is yet to open, it’s hot and humid so I head to the toilets and don some shorts so as not to overheat during our 5 hour layover. The only thing on this side of the terminal is a Starbucks so we grab an expensive sandwich and bottle of water to share.
After eating our first “meal” on US soil we head back and go through check-in, they remove our US Visa waiver and we have just completed a flying visit of the US of A. We play the airport game with a little more wandering through duty free stores and some lazing around above a very nice garden area in the middle of the departure area. Eventually it’s 2:00pm and time to board our flight to Vancouver.
Aboard our plane which look very similar to a Jetstar plane we take our seats near the front and strap in for the 5 hour plus flight, we have another sandwich and plenty of water, we manage to grab a couple of hours sleep this time round and set down in Vancouver at around 10:30pm, this time loosing time instead of gaining it.
Another LONG line for customs but at least this one is moving fast. Another painless passage through customs and baggage checks and we are on Canadian Soil.0Made it at last05-MAY-2008 00:14:24We take a long taxi ride from the airport to downtown Vancouver, we are both blown away by the size of the city, we both expected something a lot smaller. We arrive at the Moda Hotel a little after midnight, we check in and ask where we might be able to get some food at such a late hour. Up to our room, it’s a very chic looking room with minimalistic modern decor but everything we need and a bit more.
We are welcomed with a free bottle of champagne, I mentioned it was the first night of our honeymoon when checking on the booking before we left. We order in a pizza as it’s about our best option, so Pizza and Bubbly for the first night of our honeymoon.
After contacting the Folks back home to let them know we had landed and having a quick shower to refresh it was off to bed at around 1:30am.0Downtown Vancouver05-MAY-2008 08:00:17The first real day of holidays after all the travel time to get here, as I mentioned before we are amazed by the sheer size of Vancouver, it’s an interesting town which reminds us of a mixture of Sydney and Melbourne as far as the city scape but with a much nicer backdrop, to be in such a large city and have snow capped mountains domination the surrounds is quite majestic. The ethnic diversity to my surprise is very similar to home, Asians running grocery stores, Indians and Pakistanis driving taxis at excessive speeds. But that’s enough fuelling of stereo types.
We started today by walking from our hotel to Stanley Park, a massive park on the edge of downtown. We stopped for a juice to fuel our walk, a little confusion with ingredients and price, god only knows why they don’t include taxes on the price of everything. At Stanley Park we ask at the information booth about bike hire and are sent back in the direction we came to find some hire shops.
We hire a couple of 7 Speed “Cruisers”, for the next three hours we ride half way around and then through Stanley Park, it’s a beautiful park and it’s quite amazing to see such a concentration of wild life so close to such a big city. We were excited by our first sighting of a couple of squirrels, little did we know at the time that it’s hard to go more than a few hundred meters through the park without seeing a squirrel. We did have a couple put on a nice show for us, came nice and close and had a little bit of a biff. Stopped for lunch in the park, can someone explain to me the strange bottle sizes? The normal 600ml bottle at home is 591ml here. We continued our ride and came across a racoon near a little pond, which was soon being fed by one of the locals and is joined by a second when the food comes out, not that the first wanted to share.
We return the bikes and take a long walk along the water front to the city information centre and then up the Harbour Centre tower for 360 degree views of the city. We then walk down and around Gastown, the oldest part of Vancouver in search of some dinner. We find a pub called “Steamworks” and grab a beer and some burgers. We want to go back up the tower after sunset to see the city at night but it’s still light so we ask at the tower about sunset time and the location of a local grocery store, with about an hour to kill till sunset we head towards the hotel and stop at the local Seven-Eleven which is our best grocery option.
Sunset was around 8:30 so we head to back to the Harbour Centre just after 9 for a view of the city by night and get some nice night shots, then it’s back to the hotel, we book a taxi to get us to the Rocky Mountaineer in the morning, get the bags ready, and get to bed around 11.0Rocky Mountaineer – Vancouver to Kamloops06-MAY-2008 06:00:10An early start this morning, as suggested by our Concierge we get up at 5am to get ready for a taxi to get us to the Rocky Mountaineer at 6. As it turns out the suggested time was very much on the early side, we are the first to arrive at the terminal, we check-in our baggage, get our tickets and find some comfy chairs to relax in. I decided to boot up the computer and type up some journals to waste some time, to my surprise there is free wireless in the Train terminal. Some updating and a couple of emails and then we wait a little longer before boarding around 7:30am.
It’s a great train ride, we are in “Red Leaf” section of the train, economy class, but the seats are big and comfy and the food is generous. It’s a long and scenic day and we snap around 400 shots along the way, we arrive in Kamloops a little later than schedule at around 7pm. A bus takes us to our modest accommodation for the night, “The Executive Inn”. We are befriended by a couple from our Carriage Sharron and Shane from Melbourne and we all head over to the “Fog and Suds” across the road for dinner. We all order some food and a local honey larger. To everyone’s amusement and to Sharron’s surprise her dish is half a lamb and a mountain of salad.
After eating, drinking and a whole lot of talking we head back for bed around 10. Quick check of email on yet more free wireless internet, makes you realise how far behind Australia is when you can get free broadband in the most basic of hotels and in small country towns, then it’s finally time to get into bed after a very long day at around 10:30.0Rocky Mountaineer – Kamloops to Banff07-MAY-2008 06:30:13Another early start to the day, we get up at 5:45am to have a quick shower and get ready for our pick up at 6:30, on the bus and back to the train for an even longer day. We are heading over the Rockies so today should be even more scenic than yesterday, but with a fully charged camera we are ready for what is to come.
As expected the day was full of some beautiful scenery, we take a similar amount of photos today but it dawns on me as I stare out of the train window at snow covered mountains as far as the eye can see that you just can’t capture the some things on film, for anyone that ever considers visiting British Columbia in Canada, put the Rocky Mountaineer high up on your list of things to do. I don’t think there is a better way to see the Rockies.
Wildlife is much more active on day two, we see about either bears and a bunch of elk, I did manage to get a photo of a couple of the bears and some of the elk, but they always seemed to appear on the other side of the train and were gone before you could blink, so a quick glimpse was all you got before they were gone, no time to react with a camera.
The train ride is a long one, ending at 6:30pm Banff local time making it an 11 hours, but it seemed to end all too fast. We get off the train and after collecting our bags we grab a taxi to our home for the next couple of night, Tunnel Mountain Resort.
At check-in the guy behind the desk ends up coming from Kotara, we both marvel at the small world factor of it all. We come face to face with an elk on the way to the room, we pass by without scaring it off, and it continues to graze on the grass out the front of our balcony. The room is huge, with a nice cushy king size bed, heated tiles, steam shower, spa bath and once again free wireless broadband.
After browsing through the local restaurants we decide on some Chinese, but to our dismay they don’t seem to want to answer the phone, so it’s pizza for dinner, again. We have a late dinner then some catching up on travel logs, downloading the last two days of photos, watched some TV and then crashed.0Banff, it’s a winter wonderland. Even in spring08-MAY-2008 08:05:04We were told to expect snow today, but we were very surprised, and excited, to wake up to a huge dump of snow. 23cm had fallen overnight and it was still falling. It snowed all day, and it varied from like to very heavy, one of the shots shows the amount of snow on the car after just 30min or so. We were told it’s very rare for it to snow in May, so looks Banff really turned it on for us.
We went and picked up the first hire car today, it’s one thing to be driving a car from the passenger side on the wrong side of the road, but doing it for the first time in snowy conditions is even harder. Besides all the craziness we lasted the whole day without crashing into anything.
After wandering around time for a bit we payed a visit to the information centre to find a local place to find something nice to eat, while we were there we asked about things to do, we were planning on doing the Cabin & Basin and the Gondola but we were told the Gondola would be a waste of time as the visibility was zero, she brought up a webcam and it was nothing but white. She told us a couple of places to see and a few scenic drives.
We had some brunch at “Wildflour” cafe, and then we started with a visit to the Cabin & Basin which is the original site of the sulphur hot spring, and was the start of the Natural Parks in Canada. Nice site, covered in snow, we took some time to make some snow angels, man the sulphur smell gets up your nose, neither of us could spend long in the caves. Next we went up to a lookout of the magic “Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel” which is where we had to pick up the car earlier, got some nice shots. Then we took a drive around the area, then stopped down town and hunted around for a Visa ATM to get some cash out, stopped into the local Safeway and got some food and drinks for our travels.
We then made a stop at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel again, this time checking out the inside, we had a hot chocolate and chocolate desert, we then wandered around the hotel taking a few photos. Then Caroline ran into some customers in the lobby, seems she can’t go anywhere without running into one. With little left to do with the day so it’s back to the hotel, some extra time to update the logs and dry out our clothes.0From Mountain Tops to Frozen Lakes09-MAY-2008 07:33:03After losing power a little before midnight last night, still no power in the morning, we pack and get ready with lighting through the veranda doors. We find out that there was a major problem and that all of Banff, Canmore and Lake Louise are all without power. Even more snow overnight, but it’s stopped falling and is a clearer day. We decide to drive up to the Gondola and see if it’s clear enough at the top, the live camera is clear so we head on up. It was extremely cold at the top and still snowing, They have had a heaps of snow at the top, I walked down one of the paths they hadn’t cleared for a couple of days and it can up above my knew. We went to the top observation deck to take some photos. While we were up their Caroline decided to graffiti in the snow (see pictures) when then went back down to the lower deck and wandered around outside taking some more photos.
We were in line waiting for our turn on a returning gondola when we heard someone call out to us. It is Shane that we met on the Rocky Mountaineer, we had forgotten to exchange details at the end of our train ride. They just happened to be there on the same day and when opening the door at the top of the observation deck Sharron had spotted Caroline’s graffiti and sent Shane down to find us, which he did just in time. After a bit of a catch up and exchanging some details we shared a gondola back down.
We checked out the dodgy gift shop before parting ways, Shane and Sharron gave us vouchers for the a bunch of things that they were not going to get to, one of which was the nearby Banff Hot Springs. We headed to the hot springs only to find out there were not open due to “mechanical” problems and would not open for another hour to hour and a half. So we headed back down the hill to town to grab something to eat. After a quick bit to eat it’s back to the hot springs, we arrive just before a bus load of teenagers who make a heap of noise, as teenagers do. The hot springs are nice and hot, as the name would suggest. After soaking for about 15 minutes and doing to obligatory thing of standing in the snow and getting back into the hot springs we get dressed and leave, just before another bus load of teenagers arrive.
On our way back to the car we spot what we thought was a chipmunk to add to our list of spotted wildlife, we later find out that it is a “golden-mantled ground squirrel” when we find one pictured on a board at Lake Louise.
With most of the things we wanted to do in Banff done we head to Lake Louise, taking the scenic route and stopping off for pictures along the way. After taking a little detour due to the fact that TomTom wanted us to pull a stunt manoeuvre and turn right from an underpass to and overpass, the Canadian/US maps don’t seem as accurate as the Australian Maps, trying to make us jump off overpasses, etc. So after a detour down the road and a long u-turn we get to Lake Louise and check into the Deer Lodge. A fairly cosy or in Caroline’s words “claustrophobic” room, but it does the trick. With a little light still left we head down to the lake for a look around, we then decide to try and find somewhere local to eat, despite Caroline reading about some local eateries we are not able to find anything of note. We head back to the hotel and book dinner in the in house eatery. Before dinner we have some issues with a backed up toilet and shower, after a failed attempt to repair it we are moved to another room across the hall. After dinner we test out the outdoor Hot Tub on the roof for 20 min before calling it a day.0ICE, Snow and more ICE10-MAY-2008 09:03:47After breakfast in the hotel we pack the car and head down to the Lake for a bit more of an exploration and some more pictures, we check out the Fairmont Chateau while we are there, it’s not nearly as regal as we thought it would be or as nice as the Banff Fairmont. Lake Louise has limited things to do, winter offers skiing and summer offers hiking. We head to the information centre to get an idea of sights to see on the 200 odd kilometres towards Jasper.
It’s a pleasant drive and we stop of at several lookouts on the way, one we have been told to check out is called Bows Lookout, the road to the top is covered in snow with a small path of compact snow from all the travellers, one wrong step to the side will have your leg buried in the snow. Judging from some berried speed and parking signs we guessed the snow would be about chest height.
We see another bear on the way, we pull up and with a bunch of other cars, and a bus to take some photos but it’s half hidden behind some trees so no great shots. We finally make it to our main destination for the day, the Columbian Icefields.
We get our tickets and have a 25 minute wait till the next bus departure, we share a quick sandwich for a late lunch and then it off in the bus, you ride a standard couch up to a halfway station and then swap to the “ICE Explorer” and it’s down a steep hill before heading up onto the icefield. Very impressive and BLOODY cold, its -10 degrees Celsius with wind chill factor, and the wind is howling and it’s close to a snow storm. We do our best to stay outside the bus for the full allotted 15 minutes, but after flocking in the snow and some photos we are forced back on the bus with about 3 minutes left.
Back on the road as we head to our hotel for the night “Sunwapta Falls Resort Hotel”, first looks are deceiving with this place, after checking into our generous size room we head just down the road to check out the falls, then we go for an early dinner at the hotel. The food is just amazing, we are both blown away by the quality of the meal in this place, by far the best food we have eaten so far and not what you would expect at first glance. If anyone is passing through this area, take the time and stay at Sunwapta Falls for the night and eat the fine dining.0Water Falls, Bears, and a whole lot of road11-MAY-2008 08:53:17My inane ramblings seem to be getting longer and longer and I am getting further and further behind, is in the interest of keeping up I am going to attempt to shorten my journal entries. This just happens to coincide with a say with little to talk about, in relative terms.
We set out from Sunwapta today towards our next destination of Sun Peaks, we started with a hearty breakfast at the Hotel before we left as we had allot of road to cover today. We stopped first at Athabasca Falls, bigger than Sunwapta and quite impressive. A quick stop is Jasper, we skipped the Gondola as visibility was poor, we attempted to get some information about places to stop on the way but the information centre only had information on the Alberta side of the trip, so we headed towards British Columbia and the first information centre on that side of the boarder, the only stop on the way was the half frozen Moose Lake. The lady at the BC information centre had a heap of books to keep us busy till Whistler in a few days.
We drove through some very small towns and made a 100k return detour, the last 20ks was quite an average track of road, to visit Helmcken Falls which is taller than Niagara Falls, not the same volume but very impressive indeed, I managed to find the bottom of the battery in our new Canon SLR, we can’t remember exactly but it has to be about four days, and over a 1000 shots. And in usual Murphy’s Law we saw a mother bear with two cubs on the track back from the falls, luckily we had the IXUS as a backup and still got a few shots.
After that is was back on the road and a windy and hilly road to Sun Peaks. I definitely got the short end of the stick with driving stints, together we covered over 600 kilometres today. Sun Peaks is a ski resort in winter and a hiking destination in summer, in spring it’s a ghost town, it’s quite eerie driving through a deserted ski resort with the snow half melted, we are not sure how empty the hotel was but we only saw one pair of other guests during our stay and we were the only people to visit the restaurant and got there just before they closed.
Well so much for keeping it short.0Up, down and around the mountains, and through the valley we go.12-MAY-2008 10:39:47We don’t waste any time leaving the ghost town of Sun Peaks, “move along people, nothing to see here”. We do the unthinkable and stop for McDonalds for brunch and Kamloops, it was Caroline’s idea. Not many stops on the list today we know we have less than 400ks to cover today so Caroline drives the first 170 odd which is relatively flat highways, I take over not knowing that the next 170 odd will be much, MUCH, windier and slower. We go up and down and around more mountain tops than we can count, with several steep climbs and declines. Then we travel through a valley, the road is no less straight as it is constantly weaving and crossing the stream we are following.
We stop and dip our feet into the freezing cold water, later down the river we find the reason that it’s so cold, it’s being fed from a half frozen lake. Then it’s back into the hills and more up, down and around. After a considerably longer time behind the wheel we finally arrive at Whistler at around 4pm. That’s two days in a row I have got the raw end of the driving deal, Caroline must have a sixth sense.
We check in to the Delta Whistler Village Suites, we manage to score and upgrade because it’s our honeymoon, I mentioned this in my emails to most hotels when confirming bookings. The room is huge, it has a bed room with a king bed, a lounge room/dining/kitchen area, bathroom and toilet area with a door separating. The kitchen is fully stocked with oven, microwave, full size fridge and dishwasher, we even have our own washer and dryer in a cupboard. The only thing this place is missing is free internet, for the first time on our trip the hotel doesn’t include it free, and I am not about to start paying.
We go and check out the cost of hiring ski/boarding gear and lift tickets for the next day, we need everything as we didn’t pack for it. We search for somewhere out of the huge number of places to eat, but we find the one we decide on is closed after walking down the road. We can’t decide on anything else so we order in our room from the attached restaurant, which ends up being very nice.
We veg in front of the TV before calling it a day relatively early by the recent standards at around 10:30.0A Day on the Snow at Whistler13-MAY-2008 13:32:37I get up early to receive the “Cook your own breakfast” pack that we had requested from room service, we cook up some bacon and eggs and bagels, then head off to find out the price for off season tickets and organise our hire stuff. By the time we are moving and get our hire gear sorted we decide to wait till after 12 to go up the mountain and get half day passes.
We finally get up the mountain, all I can say is Whistlers ski area is HUGE, it takes us about 15 min to get up the first couple of chair lifts, that’s without lines and that’s not even to the top. Only Blackcomb mountain was open, Whistler was closed, and only around 1/3 of Blackcomb was open. But it was still bigger than most Australian Ski fields in this limited state.
We did a couple of runs, both Caroline and I are very rusty with our skills, visibility was average and we had no idea where we were going, so we took it relatively easy. A break for lunch and a couple of runs before Caroline’s legs have had enough and we are close enough to the last lift time so we call it a day. I would really like to come back during ski season and experience all of whistler, I think you would need a month to covers all of the runs on offer.
So having “skied” whistler we returned all the hire gear and went for a drink at one of the local watering holes. We wander up to the upper Village and then relaxed the muscles for awhile back in our room before returning to the same place to enjoy a rather generous dinner. We ordered the cheese fondue to share as an Appetiser as suggested in the menu, there was enough to feed four to six, they eat big over here, but we did our best. Then squeezed as much of our mains in as we could and finished our drinks, and that’s a day at Whistler.0Off to the Island, eventually14-MAY-2008 12:33:12Well, I’m a long way behind on Journal entries so I am going to once again attempt to keep them brief, aided by the fact I won’t remember everything from a week ago that shouldn’t be hard. We left whistler today, I took the early shift for the drive and once again got stuck with the short end of the stick, out of the 125kms from Whistler to Vancouver I think about 110 where being worked on, so the speed limit was down, the roads where narrow and the cars backed up.
We did manage to make it to Vancouver and decided to check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge, impressive piece of workmanship for the era, and the surrounding rainforest is very pretty. We took our time, did all the walks and took pics, very well maintained area.
We were planning on heading up Grouse mountain but the foggy conditions all morning did make things look promising, we went up to the ticket booth just to make sure and even though the gondola disappeared a few hundred meters up the hill we asked anyway. As suspected the visibility was poor, so we decided to skip it today and try and do it after we return from Vancouver Island.
We headed off to catch a ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, they have massive 4 lane roads leading down to the ferry, we purchased the ticket for ourselves and the car, after about 30min in line we got moving and were about the fourth last car put on the boat. These ferries are huge, our car was parked on deck 4, deck 5 was seating with food, coffee bar, gift shop, kids play area and an arcade room (no I didn’t play any machines). We sat around for awhile before finding some sandwiches to eat and wandering around a little, we then headed up to desk 6 which was some outdoor seating and viewing platforms. After about an hour and a half we docked on the other side.
We then had to drive about another hour and a half to Victoria and check-in to our accommodation, after getting settled we decided to try and find somewhere to eat, Caroline range the from desk and was directed to a local place that was just down the block. After unsuccessfully walking around the surrounding blocks for about 20min we returned to the hotel reception to ask again for a dinning location, we were this time successfully directed to a little Tapas eatery a few block away down a little alley way.0Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere finished with a Mountain View15-MAY-2008 10:41:52I woke up this morning with the worst pain in my shoulder blade, I had somehow managed to sleep in such a way that I had pinched something in my back that was causing me considerable pain like someone was stabbing me in the shoulder blade and then sending pain down my arm. A warm soak in the tub didn’t fix it so I popped some drugs that simple managed to dull the pain to a bearable level.
I was unable to drive so Caroline drove us to the main reason for our visit to Vancouver Island, Butchart Gardens, I am not a big garden person, nor a flower person, but man that place is impressive. The colours, the smell and the sheer size are amazing. The Colours made for some fantastic photos, we spent about 2 and a half hours then had some lunch just before 1pm. After a delicious lunch we had a gelato to share before spending some more time in the gardens before leaving around 3:30pm.
From there we drove to Swartz Bay to catch and even bigger Ferry, this one had an extra deck of seating and two arcade rooms (still didn’t play anything), that took us to Tsawwassen, where we drove to Richmond. Thanks to an error our booking information we wasted half an hour driving to Third Ave instead or No 3 Road. After a very swift check-in we headed for Grouse Mountain.
This time the weather was clear so we headed up, it was late so we got a night time viewing of the city and decided to grab a quick bite to eat while we were up there, we did try and check out the grizzly’s they have in a habitat up there but they had gone to bed. We were surprised by the amount of snow still on the mountain. From there it was back to the hotel to get some sleep before our flight to Alaska in the morning.0Goodbye Canada, Hello Alaska16-MAY-2008 21:14:06Well, that’s it for the West coast of Canada, now time to check out Alaska. We gave ourselves extra time because we had to return the hire car, lucky we did. The return of the car was quicker than expected, but it took us about an hour and a half just to get our bags checked in and through security, and that was using the express self check-in line.
Finally we were through, but the time we thought we were going to have to find somewhere to have breakfast and do a little looking around was gone, we grabbed a quick bagel for breakfast and sat in our area waiting to board. They had a coin operated massage chair which I decided to give a try because my shoulder was still killing me, it did little to nothing to help.
After being told there are some short delays I decided to see if I could pick up any free wireless, to my surprise I could, it’s amazing how many free hotspots there are over here, apart from Whistler I have found free wireless at every stop, and most of it hasn’t been slow. So I did some quick uploading of photos and sending of emails. We where then told that there are delays with our departure, we spotted a nearby place offering in chair massages (not the mechanical kind) and decided this was a good way to waste the extra time and may actually help my shoulder.
After a 20min chair massage, that appeared to help my shoulder immensely, we headed back to our boarding gate to find it empty, they had boarded early but we didn’t hear anything on the speaker system despite listening. Oh well, we waited for them they can wait a couple of minutes for us.
So after about three and a half hours fly time, which was passed quickly by the best in flight system we have come across to date, I watched Cloverfield while Caroline watched 27 Dresses. Once we landed in Anchorage we had a short wait till our bags came through, no security on this end of the flight, which I guess is why we had to go through customs etc in Vancouver.
We went and picked up our second Hire Car for the trip, this time it was a Dodge Calibre and it only had 5000 odd miles on the clock, and this began our conversion process of miles to kilometres. We went to our hotel and checked in at around 3pm then went to find the local information centre. We are both a little shocked with Anchorage, it’s not at all the Alaska we were expecting, it’s just another town, I guess you would call it a big country town, it’s big but you get the feeling it’s still filled with country folk. After checking out the information centre and finding a local coffee shop we really didn’t have allot we wanted to see around town, so we decided to try the American movie going experience and went to the local “Cinema 16” and watched “Iron Man”
We both enjoyed the movie and got out around 9:30pm, the sun was still high in the sky and it felt like 5:30pm. We soon experienced the first of many late sunsets, with the sun setting around 11:30pm and being well up with our early start of around 5:00am.0Cruising the Alaska we were looking for17-MAY-2008 08:07:22This morning was an early start, we got up around 4:00am after going to be late because of the off putting amount of light coming under the curtains, we grab a bagel for the road that the hotel was kind enough to put out early for us then it was a 2 hour plus trip to Seward, I drove all the way with Caroline dozing most of it.
We arrived with time to spare and after checking in and finding our parking lot we grabbed a Coffee and a Hot Chocolate from a hole in the wall little coffee shop run by a very friendly man, great beverages and he had a sticker we found very appropriate considering the number of Starbucks in America/Canada, it read “Friends don’t let Friends drink Starbucks”.
After waiting around drinking or beverages we were greeted by Captain Joe around 8pm and taken down to our boat, we had chosen the “Captains Cruise” which I am so glad we did, we were on a small vessel with under 20 people instead of some of the larger cruises with up to 250 people.
We had a great day, and as you can see in the photo’s we saw a multitude of Wildlife, the advantage of the Captains cruise is that he can customise it to what is around and what people want to see. Some of the animals on show were;
Comorants
Bald Eagles
Horned and Tufted Puffins
Lots of other Birds
Humpback Whales
Orcas (Killer Whales)
Steller Sea Lions
Sea Otters
Harbour Seals
Mountain Goats
Black Bear (yes another one)
We also got to have lunch parked near a Glacier, with seals swimming around checking us out. The glacier was creaking and breaking off and the noise of the ice breaking and falling in the water was tremendous, I think we will be hard pressed to find a better place to eat lunch.
We got back to dock around 5:30 to 6:00pm and after a little look around the gift shop it was time to travel the 2 hours plus back to the hotel, about 20min outside of town Caroline realises she is missing an ear ring, and quick check of shed clothing and then we drive back to town. We arrive just in time to spot our hostess from the boat out the back of the closed building, she kindly goes inside to see if it came off when Caroline went to the washrooms. I decide to go and check the boat to see if I can spot it, I find it under the chair on the back deck and Caroline is a happy girl again. So back on the road to Anchorage again, and after the return drive and a very long day we both went to bed early.0Fairbanks Bound18-MAY-2008 00:07:28So this morning we are departing for Fairbanks, we have a 6 hour drive in front of us today. Due to technical difficulties the GPS logs didn’t work today, but I guess that little blue line will be filled in on our return trip as we have to travel back on the same road.
I drove the first stint of a little over 200 miles, we made a few stops to check out the mountains etc, but all in all it’s a very boring road to drive, but I was thankful for a relatively straight stretch of road after all the windy road in Canada. We saw a Grizzly on the way up, the first for the trip (all the others were black bears). We pass through some interesting little townships along the way, much more country.
Once arrive in Fairbanks and check-in to our accommodation for the next three nights and then endeavour to find some local venues to find a decent feed, we decide on some drive around to check out a few places and decide on some Chinese takeout. Fairbanks is a little more the Alaska we came looking for although it’s a still a little more urbanised than we expected. The previous night we had noticed a rather large dot on some of the photos, I am sure you will see it in some of the cruise pics, I’ll edit it out later with Photoshop. First we suspected something on one of the lenses but turns out it is something on the sensor, I try my best to try and clear it without success so I looked up somewhere local that might be able to help us to call in the morning. Some catch up of photo posting and some bad TV and that’s another day.066° 33′ otherwise known as the Arctic Circle19-MAY-2008 12:54:50We start the morning with a continental breakfast and then I make some calls about getting the sensor on our camera cleaned, there is only one local place and luckily he does clean them, he said I would need to drop it off in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon. I explain to him that we are going on a Arctic Fly/Drive tour at 1pm and need to be at the airport at noon, he is kind enough to do a rush job on if for me if I get it to him straight away. I do a run to downtown and drop it off to him, he is an older gentleman in a small office with more camera gear sitting around than you could poke a stick at, really seems to know his stuff. I leave it with him and when I pick it up an hour and a half later it is 100% better.
So we head off to airport, park the car and wait to be boarded on our little 9 seater plan, it’s a bumpy hour and a quarter flight from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, then we load up on the bus that is going to take us on our journey for the next 9 plus hours. We stop at the local Coldfoot Cafe a truck stop/cafe/gift shop for any drinks and a pit stop. Then it’s off down the very bumpy Dalton Highway, a road made by the oil company when the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline was being built, it’s used mostly now for trucking stuff up to the oil fields with the occasional tourist.
We learn a lot of interesting facts from our Tour guide Candy, from information about the pipeline to permafrost and the local wildlife. There is not much to see along the highway, heaps stunted trees trying their best to grow on permafrost. We do see a few Moose for the first time, but they are passed so fast I am unable to get a photo, we also see a heap of snowshoe hares but they are also too quick to capture. Oh and Caroline thinks she spotted a Porcupine.
We make a few stops, one at “Gobblers Knob” the lowest point on the highway where the 24 hour sun can be seen, one at the obvious point of 66° 33′ to cross the Arctic Circle, we later take a walk on the tundra and stick our hand in to feel the permafrost, then again to get some facts and figures on the pipeline, a food stop at the Yukon River and finally a pit stop at the Arctic Circle Trading post. The pipeline travels from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez and caries oil almost 1,300km, it was impressively built in just 2 years and 2 months between 1974 and 77, around half of the pipeline is above ground in areas where permafrost exists so as not to melt the permafrost and effect the local habitat.
So after a long trip on the Bus we are finally returned to Fairbanks to retrieve our car, we also purchase our first souvenirs on the trip, a couple of shirts and some pins.
These longs days are getting to us now, it puts off your eating and everything else, we decided to get some washing done when we got back to the hotel close to 1am when we went to bed and it's still light outside. It doesn't really get dark, just darker, imagine dusk and dawn meeting and you get the idea, night is dead here people.0It’s as COLD as ice and HOT as Hell20-MAY-2008 11:43:04Today we decide to take a trip to the Chena Hot Springs and Ice Museum, it’s just under 2 hours out of town, we grab breakfast at a local bakehouse cafe and then head on out. My hopes are up today on seeing and photographing a Moose on this trip as Candy said you often see them on this road.
No lock on the Moose front on the way there, although my spotter fell asleep in the passenger seat. Well the ice museum is definitely cold as ice, with the internal temperature kept at 19° deg Fahrenheit (-6.5° Celsius), some very impressive carvings inside, after a tour and some time to browse and take some photo’s we have an Appletini served in a glass carved out of ice, which we take outside and smash when finished.
So after some cold temperatures inside the ice museum we decide to check out the hot springs, they might not be as hot as hell but they are much warmer than the springs in Banff, and they also have that smell of sulphur, the showers stank of it. After experiencing these we are sure the Banff springs were mostly tap water. They had a rock pool section that was 18+ only, no kids and nice and relaxing. My rings turned to gold from the minerals in the water, we found the inlets as two sections of the pool at either end were extremely hot.
We then returned to Fairbanks and on the way back I noticed some people slow down and do a u-turn behind me, I decided to do the same and go back and see what they had spotted. It was a moose and we finally managed to get some pictures, not terrific but pics non the less. We stopped in Fairbanks and checked out the local Wal-mart, it’s like a cross between Big-W and Bunnings, it’s massive they have everything, including a guns section, I snapped a covert shot of one of the shotgun cabinets. We grab a couple of essentials and leave hoping Wal-mart never makes it to Australia.
We then grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant then took a drive out to the “North Pole”, we visited Santa’s shack but it was closed for the day, despite Bears best efforts we couldn’t get inside.0Farewell Fairbanks21-MAY-2008 12:43:48Well this is our last day in Fairbanks before we head down to Denali National Park for a couple of nights. We pack our stuff and load the car up then head down to the local information centre to see if there are any sights we might have missed. The animal sanctuary isn’t open yet so it’s a pass, only thing left to do is the Farmers Market and the Museum, we head to the Markets first. The fruit is still not in season so it’s mostly knick knack stores and some homemade food, we wander around and don’t really find anything to our liking.
Next stop is the Museum where we check out the exhibits, some nice things to see. Fans of The Armstrong and Miller show will know what I mean when I say “Ou ike Mammoth?” After a couple of hours checking out everything when do a drive past the closed animal Sanctuary and check out some Muskox then past the Universities Reindeer habitat. Then we decide to call back past the Farmers market and grab some lunch before leaving Fairbanks, had some really nice fresh sandwiches and smoothies.
It’s a little over 2 hour drive to our lodging for the next couple of nights, the weather is very average and we pass though some heavy patches on the way, we arrive at McKinley Creekside Cabins around 6pm. After checking out our digs and relaxing for a while we head up to the attached cafe for dinner, Caroline had some Salmon and I decide to try the special which contains Reindeer sausages, I think you have to try some of the local cuisine. To my nephews, it wasn’t Rudolf it was the other Reindeer that made fun of him, it was actually quite nice a little gamey but not too bad at all.
We talk about what to do tomorrow and we think if the weather stays as it is our best option is white water rafting as we will get wet anyway. Chris at the front desk is very helpful with information and is even able to do all the booking for us. We head back to the room and use the spare time to do a little catch up on Journal entries etc.0White Water Rafting in Denali22-MAY-2008 13:59:59We have a slow start to the day, catching up on some much needed sleep. We head to the cafe for breakfast and Chris tells us we are able to do the Rafting at 2pm, we tell him that’s fine and he gets us sorted. We have some traditional Bacon and Eggs for breakfast, it’s been a while since either of us had eggs.
We then head back to the room to waste a few hours till it’s time to drive down to the rafting, around 30 min away. We once again take the time to update our Journal and attempt to make a couple of phone calls. We drive to the rafting and get suited up in a “Dry suit” then we are take back up the road a little to where we start rafting from, we are giving the safety and rafting rundown.
There is a total of 8 of us waiting to do the second half of the river, it’s 4 hours in total, you can do the full 4 hours or either end, we decided to do the second half as it’s the part with most of the rapids. Another 4 people come down the river in a raft having done the top half, Caroline and I split off and join them in their raft with our guide Russell, the other 6 are loaded up in another raft and then we all head off down the river.
It was great fun, a little tamer than we were expecting, the rapids were graded up to a level 3. We all managed to stay in the boat, one of the guys fell out of the other boat. But both boats made it to the end with everyone unscathed, the dry suits do an incredible job of doing as the name suggests. We paid the excessive price for the photo’s take of us on our ride, it’s not like you can take your own. We then headed back to our lodging and find a couple of Bumblebees on our veranda, they look just like Mr Bumblebee on the Simpsons and nothing like the Bees at home, fat little fellows.
We have some more time to burn till dinner so once again use it to catch up on journals, we were both a long way behind. And finally I am up to date. We again visit the Cafe for dinner before returning to our rooms for the night, and at 9:00pm it still looks like 4:00pm outside. It would take me along time to get used to such long days, but I think it would take even longer to get used to the other end of the season when you only get 3 hours of daylight.0Returning to Anchorage23-MAY-2008 11:43:56After breakfast this morning we decided to drive as far into Denali National Park as we could, you can only drive 25km in, as far as Savage River, but it was far enough to get a feel of the park, we were going to do some hiking but it was the windy was very strong and even colder.
On the way back out of the park we did see a porcupine, I managed to get some glimpsing photos of it up a tree, I didn’t realise they could climb so easy. When then proceeded on the close to 400km journey back to Anchorage, on Caroline’s request we made a special stop to feel some Alaskan snow, it was more ice than snow but it had to be done.
Caroline got some shots of one of the hundreds of little drive through coffee shacks that seem to be so popular in this part of the world, she also found it very amusing when she found one that was BBQ to go, it had a spit roasting cooking to the side.
After check in we did a drive around the lake here that has water planes lining the edge, we then got to the end and found just as many small 4 seater plans, the water plans are docked like boats with little huts next to each one, it’s like rather than owning a boat people here own a plane. We then went to try the organic restaurant that we had been recommended on our first day but closed before we got there. A band was doing a show so we decided to get our food to go, it was an excellent meal, and finally we got a decent serving of vegetables.0Cranking the Air Miles24-MAY-2008 14:29:200Niagara Falls, Canada25-MAY-2008 12:16:220Toronto, Canada26-MAY-2008 14:00:440Ottawa, Canada27-MAY-2008 10:32:170The Thousand Islands, Canada28-MAY-2008 12:59:240Montebello, Canada29-MAY-2008 09:48:120Québec, Canada30-MAY-2008 11:41:430Montreal, Canada31-MAY-2008 11:36:180Old Montreal, Canada01-JUN-2008 10:30:010Parc Olympic, Montreal, Canada02-JUN-2008 11:17:120Empire State Building, United States02-JUN-2008 22:04:080Manhattan, United States03-JUN-2008 10:43:030Liberty Island, United States04-JUN-2008 09:58:200Fifth Ave, United States05-JUN-2008 09:36:490Vegas Baby, Vegas06-JUN-2008 12:33:580McCarran International Airport, United States07-JUN-2008 07:26:030Kulima Golf Course, United States08-JUN-2008 12:11:190Kulima Golf Course, United States09-JUN-2008 09:18:550Grays Channel, United States10-JUN-2008 13:25:560Kulima Golf Course, United States11-JUN-2008 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