Friday was my mom's last day in Seattle. We spent the day hanging out and trying to get some errands run before the second leg of my trip began. We got Phoenix bathed, purchased some fresh chex-mix and cleaned out my car. There was a river of rain flowing through the Motel 6 parking lot by that time, so we had to dry our pants and shoes on the heater in the room before heading out to dinner with my Aunt Vic.
Aunt Vicky has lived in Seattle for the last nine years, and I'm not sure that I've seen her at all since she moved up there. It was fun getting to have dinner with her and see what she's been up to lately. She seems to throughly enjoy this cold grey rainy city she's got here :) Also I was glad to see she is still a vegetarian, I'm pretty sure she was a big influence on my first round of vegginess back in Elementary school.
After dinner I headed out to pick up Pedro from the airport. He is graciously making the drive from Seattle to Alaska with me. Pedro, my mom, and I went out for some beers so that mom could get a better feel for what I'm getting into. Even she pointed out that Pedro should work for the Alaska Visitors Bureau, he does sell it well! We didn't stay out too late because of our early morning to come. My sleep was pretty restless, strange dreams and anxiety kept me up, but I guess it had to happen some time.
Saturday
Woke up very early and very sleepy, but hopped up to give my mom a ride to the airport. We had heard on the radio that part of a SW plane had broken off in flight, but for some reason didn't assume this would cause trouble at the airport the next day....wrong! I think she finally made it out on a different plane a few hours later, but then ended up making it home to Austin six hours later than expected! Ouch!
Pedro and I grabbed some coffee and heading up I5 North to the boarder of Canada. He had been over there a few times, but this was my first! Customs was cute, much smoother than coming up from Mexico. Unfortunately, no stamp for my passport :( We drove directly to Vancouver, I had always heard really great things about Vancouver, and they all seemed to be true! The downtown area is nice, the people are helpful, and the coffee is plentiful!
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| Phoenix playing, Day 1 in Canada |
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| Sign Forest, somewhere between there and here |
Sunday
Pedro (an apparent hater of sleep) has such patience with me, but apparently also he posses enough finesse to have me up and out before 8am. Crazy. We drove again, all day. Got turned around a couple times, but ended up with a some good laughs out of each. Finally around 2am I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and I pulled over at Toad Creek (?) in the BC for some shut eye. Another early morning, but I'm markably easier to coax out of sleep when not having slept in a bed.
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| Cute bridge in the Yukon |
Lots more driving, our goal for today was Whitehourse. Today held my first sighting of moose, buffalo, and, swear to god, a beautiful Bald Eagle!! It took forever to get there, but once we arrived, it was like this strange oasis of life in the middle of nowhere. We had a couple of victory beers with a really cool old man named Clouse - he was a weathered looking old Russian man who had apparently came to Canada seeking 'adventure.'
After some aggravating news from my bank, we got back in the car and decided to push on as far as we could go. We ended up pulling through the boarder into Alaska at about 1:30am. Another super easy boarder crossing, (we even offered to provide Phoenix's vaccination records, and customs agent couldn't have cared less - I could have been transporting a box of rabid monkeys, no problem!) Pedro drove for a few more hours into Alaska but by 3:30am I had already nodded off and he decided to pull off for a nap too.
Tuesday
A few hours later as the sun was coming up, we continued driving and made it to Palmer pretty early, around 9:30am. The drive was very overcast and snowy, so it wasn't till this afternoon that I could finally see some of the beautiful mountains this town is surrounded by. Our first order of business was to get some breakfast, we went to the grocery store, which to my delight was as close to a proper grocery store as I could have ever hoped. I can defiantly make things happen here! :)
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| View of a glacier on the way into Palmer |
Next we went for a short hike at a Nature Center on the way to Anchorage. The actual center was closed, but the trails were open, we walked around for maybe 30-40mins, Phoenix had a blast pouncing at snowballs and romping through snow drifts. I don't think I'll have anymore worries about him not taking to the snow.
We piled back into the car and headed towards Anchorage, I don't know if it was splitting the drive with the hike, or the fact that all other car trips over the last few weeks have been extremely long lol but Anchorage seems to be much closer to Palmer than I expected! We went over to Pedro's friends house - they had been looking after his truck while he was driving up with me. The girls are really sweet, and the house they live in is adorable! Gina went out for dinner with us to a place called TapRoot. I think they usually have live music, but didn't last night for some reason. We ordered a bunch of appetizers (some more of her friends joined us too) And I had my first draft Alaska IPA <3 <3
Pedro was running on fumes at that point, so I drove us back to Palmer, I know its pretty much a straight shot from Anchorage to Palmer, but I felt pretty badass making it back to town w/o help - though getting to the exact right address did require me to wake Pedro up for directions - hey, its day one!!
Today is Wednesday, I'm just waking up - Pedro is at work, and I can hear the roommate giving her baby a bath in the next room. How did I end up in a house with a baby?? Oh well, I think this is pretty temporary - actually next to finding work, finding a new apartment is on my list of things to do today. I think I'm going to head up to a coffee shop down the street and possibly the library
Wow, that was some amazing driving y'all did. Let us know how to see more of your pictures.
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