Our new home

4-24-2014

     Our new house is not really a house. It's more like a shed with a window. I call it our walk-in closet with a bed. At least it's a full size bed and not a twin! There's a small porch off the front, just enough space for a chair. I wonder if we'll be able to add more on, so the deck could wrap around the side and we could sit and look into the woods, rather than at the mud out front. 

     The whole parking area in front was just torn up last fall for a new sewer system, and it froze before the rest of the dirt could be put back, so there's a huge pond/ mud-pit in front of our house. On the other side of the mud-pit is the Bunk House. It's not really a bunk house any more, but that's what it used to be and that's still the name. That's where the kitchen is, and the bathroom. Two bathrooms, actually. We could each have our own if we wanted to. And there are three refrigerators, so we're covered there. 

     I'm planning on making a lot more meals ahead of time and then freezing them, so we can have relatively fresh stuff without actually getting fresh ingredients every week. The closest store with fresh food is an hour and a half away. And it's 5 hours to Anchorage for any bulk item food. I'll be shopping for the whole month when I do. It's a different way of living. 

     The trees are all the same, boring, tall, scraggly mountain pines that aren't very pretty. It makes me miss Washington, and the temperate rainforest. A few things really make me miss it there, but so far I really like it here. The people have all been really great so far, and there's a sense of peace and independence that I just haven't found anywhere else but Alaska. 

     The mountains are not visible through the trees where we are, but a quarter mile down the road in any direction provides spectacular views. The mountains are so big here, and relatively spread out. It's like looking at three Mount Rainiers along a single horizon, with mountain sized foothills behind us, and wrapping around the sides. I wish I could take a picture but it's always just hazy enough that the snow blends with the sky in my photos, and the pictures all fail to represent what we're actually looking at. Just like Mount Rainier. You really just have to see it in person. 

     I'm excited to get out and explore it all. I really can't wait to fly over it. I'm not sure how likely that is for me, but it's a certainty for Luke. There is so much to see.

Haines

Sorry for the major delay everyone!

4-22-2015

     We woke up in Haines and I looked out the front window of the Pilot to see mountains outlined by the colors of the sunrise. The orange and pink hadn't yet taken over, and a silvery grey blue color of the sky still reflected off the lake. We were parked on a hill just above the boat launch, so we had a good view. I got out of the Pilot and walked down the bank we were parked next to, all the way down to the river that fed from the lake, and soaked in the outdoors. Ducks were riding along in the current, dodging the rocks that stuck up here and there. Swainsons Thrushes trilled from somewhere in the trees across the water, which bubbled along making music of its own. 

     It was a great start to the day. At first I thought it was going to be the only good part about the day, because we had a hard time finding any place open for breakfast, but we ended up with some delicious breakfast burritos from a great little cafe attached to a little market. We even had great luck finding a place to stay for the the night! We ended up stumbling upon some neat little rental cabins on the way to Battery Point, which was also a cool hike. The whole area was super cool! Green, mossy forest, with little streams here and there... It was beautiful. I definitely wouldn't mind going back. 

Skagway

4-21-2015

     Skagway is awesome. The first thing we did was drive down Dyea road, which is a long, scenic road that winds around the bay and ends at a serene little campground area. As soon as I stepped out of the car I liked the place. It smelled like the rainforest in Washington: the smell of spring times three. Swainsons Thrushes were singing their eery, single long whistles, always in a flat key. It's beautiful to hear. Everything was green and the forest floor was covered in moss, but the trees weren't dripping with it. It was heaven.

      Just past the campground is the site of the original gold rush town, now completely grown over, with nothing but an odd false storefront or old boot to show that it ever existed. There's also a cemetery way out in the woods, down a two track dirt road, full of the graves of people who lost their lives in the Palm Sunday Avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail back in 1898. An estimated 65 people died, but not all the graves were in the Slide Cemetery. A lot were sent home to families who requested it. We wandered around and read the signs that told the story, then headed back to town. 

     The town of Skagway itself was a neat town, but it was closed. Really, the whole town was closed. It was like Mackinac Island in the off season. There was one restaurant/bar open, with a few locals inside, just off the main street. The main street itself was pretty cool, all the buildings were old but fixed up nicely, and it felt like walking through a legitimate old western town back in its heyday. But every building was either empty or in the process of being set up for the coming summer. We got lucky and caught a few park rangers setting up their building, so we stopped by and said hi. They let us in and we chatted for a bit, and they gave us a good food recommendation. It was for the brewery down the street but they didn't open until 5:00. We had tickets for the ferry that was leaving for Haines at 8:00 and we had to be there by 7:00. We decided that was still enough time to have a beer and a snack, plus it was the only place open to kill time, so we went. 

     The beer was good but it was really expensive. The food was excellent. I had a crab and artichoke spinach dip (with homemade bread slices!) that was delicious, even though it was made with overly frozen spinach. I'm not even counting that against them because it's unfair to expect such a remote place, in a cold climate, to have oodles of fresh spinach. Luke had a burger that was also quite good. I hardly even got to steal a few bites because it was so good he didn't put it down. 

     Pretty soon we had to leave to catch the ferry, so off we went. It wasn't hard to find, it was right down Main Street by the huge docks meant for the cruise ships. We waited a little over an hour because we had to be the last ones on since we were one of the first ones off. Haines was just the first stop of many. The ferry was headed all the way down to Ketchikan. I know because we ran into a guy setting up his sleeping pad and sleeping bag on a lounge chair on the top deck in the back. The deck was shaped kind of like a big oval room with the back half of its walls missing. The front had windows but they were blocked by the smoke stacks. We were all well protected from the wind, but it was still cold, and the view wasn't great. 

    I let my desire for warmth take charge and I headed down to an indoor deck with a better view. Turns out that was a good choice because there were orcas in the bay and I was glad I could see, even if we only saw dorsal fins. The sun was already well below the mountains and the lighting was flat, so I decided not to take pictures. They were kinda far away anyways. I hope I get another chance to see orcas or whales sometime this summer, hopefully up close, although now is the prime time. 

     Not long after that it was full dark, and I just slept until the boat stopped. We rushed back to our car to get off in Haines, and just drove to the first suitable place we could find; a half closed campground, where we slept in the back of the car for the night. 

Ghost Mouse

4-20-2015

     I have come to the conclusion there's a ghost mouse in the car. Last night, we woke up because we heard something rustling around in the small garbage bag we had on the passenger seat floor. We had it in the car because we were in grizzly country and garbage is bear bait. I'd rather have mouse bait than bear bate. We had garbage at all because we made dinner at our campsite area and there weren't any garbage bins around. Besides, what are the chances of having a mouse problem twice in one week? High, apparently. 

     We were certain there was a mouse in the garbage bag. We could hear rustling, chewing...very mouse like noises. It couldn't have been anything else. So we got up, grabbed the garbage, and threw it outside. We checked the car and didn't see any evidence of mice. We checked the garbage in hopes that we'd find the mouse and know it was outside. We were shocked to find that the garbage bag, which was tightly tied off, had no holes or any evidence of a mouse. Strange. I could have sworn we heard a mouse in there, for sure. But there wasn't one now, and it didn't look like there had ever been one. 

     Maybe there was something else plastic that the mouse could have been making noise in. I looked. Nothing. 

     We went back to bed, hoping it was gone. We couldn't be sure, but for a while we didn't hear anything. Then, maybe a half hour later, Luke heard some clunking noises. Then I woke up because I heard what sounded like a mouse chewing on a paper bag. We didn't have any paper bags in the car. I looked around anyway but didn't find anything. No paper bag, no shredded napkins, no evidence of anything, anywhere. I went back to sleep.

     It went on like that for a few hours. Luke moved the car as far away as we could get in the small camping area. It didn't help. I was relieved we'd moved all our food from bags to a plastic storage bin. There was only so much a mouse could get to. We were sleeping in the blankets. Our food was safe. Our stuff was in sealed plastic totes, and our gear was in the rocket box up top. 

      Eventually I didn't even get up anymore. Sometime, around 4:30 I think, we quit hearing any noise. I figured we'd find the damage in the morning and I quit caring before then. 

     In the morning we took everything out of the car. Again. We looked in Luke's slippers, we looked in all the nooks and crannies, and we didn't find anything. No food stores, nothing shredded, no poop...nothing! We looked at the garbage again, but still didn't find anything. We searched and searched and didn't find a thing. 

     So, obviously, the only reasonable conclusion is that we had a ghost mouse. It could not have been anything but a mouse, and yet there was no physical evidence of it. Clearly it was a ghost mouse; the ghost of the mouse we killed at Lake Louise. 

Atlin

4-19-2015

     We decided to take a very scenic way to Alaska by going South to Skagway, taking the ferry to Haines, then driving North back into Canada, then West back into Alaska. But first, we decided to check out a dead end road that led to Atlin, BC. What a great decision!

    Atlin is a mining town way off on its own in British Colombia. There's only one road in and out, it starts in the Yukon Territory, and it's about 60 miles long. As the crow flies it's actually not very far from Skagway in the US, just on the other side of some mountains, but by road it's a solid day's drive. It looks like it's on a sound, like Skagway, but the water is actually the very large Atlin Lake, a huge glacial lake. 

    The town itself is small, maybe a mile long. Most the houses are neat and tidy, of the cute fishing cottage sort, and almost all of them have a view of the lake because the town is on a bit of a hill. There's a small marina with lots of docks, and a few odd but picturesque churches. Most of the businesses are historical buildings, and they have placards on them explaining what the building used to be. Some have a long history, some have stories. Most of the stores were closed because it's not yet the summer season. There was a gas station and restaurant that were open, that was it. 

     We went to the restaurant just to get a cup of coffee and learned about a guy who makes jewelry out of the gold the miners of Atlin find. He sells it to jewelers in Skagway, where the price gets marked way up, and takes his stuff to jewelry shows in Canada, where buyers purchase it for their stores and do the same. 

     We were told we could buy directly from him, too, but we'd have to catch him at his house. So we went to his house (the waitress told us where to go) and it wasn't until we got there that I realized how rude this really was, since we didn't intend on actually buying anything. Too late, though. This was a very small town and we had already pulled in and parked in this guy's driveway. It was likely he'd come outside just to see who we were and what we were doing there. And he did. 

     He was a super nice guy, he welcomed us right in. He had two dogs that looked like labrador mixes, one short haired and one long haired, that were really friendly. He led us down some rickety, old, wooden steps into the basement, where he had his work table and a few huge display cases set up. Wow did he have some cool jewelry! He made jewelry out of the raw, uncut gold. He had huge nugget rings and necklaces, he had small nugget linked necklaces and bracelets. He had some of the coolest rings I've ever seen. I wanted one so bad but they were a little out of my budget, even at half the price of the jewelry stores. Now I am determined to save up and go back, at least on the way back to the lower 48, and get something. I mean, how cool would it be to have a gold nugget ring with real gold from a real place that we actually went to, found by real people we actually talked to, from such a unique and cool little town. And at a good price, too! I have to go back. 

     The coolest part is that it's not at all a tourist town. Hardly anybody drives that far out of the way without good reason, so everything there had a real local, homey feel to it. I may have just made up words there, but I hope I got my point across. It's a real down to earth place. 

     The surrounding area around Atlin was really cool, too. The paved road from the Yukon ends in Atlin, but there are two dirt roads that continue on for a few more miles before ending in the middle of nowhere: Discovery Road, and Surprise Lake Rd. Discovery Road continues south, and we took that one first. We drove past some houses back in the woods, then started seeing signs for Warm Bay on Atlin Lake. Before too long we passed Warm Bay. There wasn't too much there, just a small beach and a tiny little trickle of a stream that went under the road and fed into the lake. It was the only part of the bay that wasn't covered in ice. 

     Later down that road we saw a small sign for Warm Spring. That sounded intriguing, so we pulled in. The "road" was a short, muddy two track that led right to a bright, emerald green pond. It was the greenest thing we'd seen in Canada so far. We parked right next to it and got out to explore. Luke touched it and confirmed that yep, sure enough, the water was warm. Not hot, but warm. Like a baby's bath water. Just offset from the middle we could see a grey gravel bottom and some small bubbles rising up in little rivulets. It was the only part of the bottom we could see, so we assumed that was the direct source. The rest of it was covered in algae, like long, green hair. Mermaid hair. It looked soft to the touch, and most of it was between one and three feet long. 

     At the opposite end from where we parked our car there was a little stream running off. It was only two to five feet wide, and about two feet deep. That same, soft, stringy algae grew in that small stream, too. On the sides bright green patches of moss, shrubs, and green grass sprouted, in complete contrast to the dead yellow grass in the rest of the field. It looked so very odd.

     Warm Spring was the coolest find so far. We drove down the road further but it changed from a reasonable dirt road into an unmaintained two track, comprising of only snow and mud, so we turned around there. 

     We drove all the way down Surprise Lake Road, too, but it wasn't nearly as exciting. There was nothing there but gold mines, which look a lot like gravel pits, so it wasn't nearly as scenic. We did find the town cemetery, and a separate historical cemetery full of Klondike gold rushers, and those were pretty neat. 

    Overall I really liked Atlin. I hope we can get back there and explore Discovery Lake road to the end, and can buy some original, authentic gold jewelry from that nice old man. What a neat town. 

Upper Liard Hot Springs

4-17-2015

     There's a place in Northern British Colombia, along the Alaskan Highway, where everyone must stop. Or so we were told, by truckers who drove the road regularly, and by locals in the small towns we stopped in. Everyone was talking about how great the Upper Liard Hot Springs were, so of course we stopped. 

     Across the road from the Liard Hot Springs Lodge there's a campground. At the back of the campground is a dirt parking area, open to the public, which is where we parked. Right by a big sign, of the kind we typically see at trailheads. Sure enough, the sign was about the hot springs, and we could see a trail lead off through the bog and into woods. We followed it for about a half mile before we could see a building. It was small, two stories tall, with no windows. It looked more like a really nice maintenance shed. As we got closer, we could see there was more off to the left. Two separate wood buildings that shared the same roof, with a deck in the middle, that turned out to be changing rooms. They were light and open, and clean. They seemed new. So did the deck that ran the length of both buildings, along the steaming river. Stairs led down into the river from every inch of deck near the water. 

     The whole river was the hot spring. The head of it was the spring itself, just past the stairs at the North end. It was really hot at that end, but it got cooler the further we went downstream. At the end of the deck was a man made wall, even with the water level, which made a man made waterfall. Stairs also wrapped around from the end of the deck to right below the waterfall. That part of the river was cool on the bottom, but warm on top. It was refreshing after the heat of the upper part of the river. 

     We spent the better part of an hour there, maybe a little more. We met some really cool people from Chicken, Alaska, and had some good conversations. They told us they stop there every time they pass through, which is usually twice a year, and I've heard the same thing from many Alaskans ever since. Everyone asks us if we stopped there, and I'm glad to say yes. It was a great place. 

Win!

     We caught the mouse! Yay! It was a cute little field mouse and it fell for the peanut butter bait. Our stuff is safe again! Luke took the car out and vacuumed it all out before we repacked it, and now we're on our way again. We're headed to White Horse and then Skagway. From there we'll take the ferry to Haines and then head up through Alaska. We probably won't have internet again until Skagway or Haines, in a few days. Until then, adventure on!

Columbia Icefields

4-18-2015

     There is a mouse in the car. It stole a cracker and cheese rinds from the small collection of garbage we had. It chewed the tiniest hole in one of the granola bags and stole a dried cherry. We also found a pistachio and a pumpkin seed, and I have no idea where those came from. It keeps finding pumpkin seeds, too. It's baffling.

     So far it has chewed a little of Luke's comforter, but thankfully just the cover and not into the feathers. It chewed major holes in my favorite fleece pullover, and it's ruined. It also chewed through the pocket of my rope bag. And for some reason it has an obsession with napkins, because it keeps finding them and steeling them to use for its nest, which it keeps making in Luke's slipper. At least it hasn't chewed the feather pillow, feather comforter, or any of our nice, down jackets.  But my fleece sweatshirt was the last straw for me, and this is war. We got a hotel room tonight just so we could empty the whole inside of the car, set traps, and catch this little bugger. It's going down.

     On a more positive note, the good part of today was seeing the Columbia Icefield. Well, we didn't actually see it, but we did step on it. It was just snowing too hard to actually see anything but an occasional peak of the surrounding mountains. That white, snow covered glacier up there? It was well hidden in the blowing snow. The cool part was how we got to it: a monster bus built for snow travel. It was a red, short nosed bus lifted up on 6 giant tires, 2 in front and 4 in the back, that were almost as tall as I am, with treads the size of my hand. It could drive in 4 wheel drive or 6 wheel drive, and it could drive straight up and down hills. I know, because we did just that. We literally drove over the moraines right onto the glacier, drove a little ways up, got out and walked around, then drove back. All with an informative tour guide, of course. It was cool! It's the only triple continental divide in the world. The Columbia Icefield and surrounding glaciers (once all one piece but now separated) are the headwaters for the Columbia River, which runs into the Pacific Ocean. They're also the headwaters for the Athabasca River, which joins other rivers and eventually runs into the Arctic Ocean. It is also the headwaters for the North Saskatchewan River, which eventually ends in the Atlantic Ocean.  Pretty cool, eh? I thought so. It's pretty wild to be at the origin of some of the major rivers of North America. 

Canmore, Banff, and Lake Louise

4-17-2015

     Just outside the city of Calgary the mountains popped into view, and I felt free. Finally! The real adventures could begin. In less than an hour we were at the mountains. Just before driving into them we took a detour and drove South on AB 40 to Spray Lakes, and then took the Smith Dorrien Trail back North to Canmore. It was a beautiful, scenic route that wound up into the mountains, around rivers and fantastic peaks, with some seriously cool campgrounds and recreation trails scattered throughout. We even discovered a community of small, beautiful mountain houses and cabins around the Spray Lakes Reservoir. We even saw a movie set for a movie that's supposed to be released next year, starring Tom Cruise. We'll be keeping our eyes out for it.

    Canmore came into view just when the road was at its best, where it was wedged in with a river between tall cliff walls. The top of a dam was just visible ahead, and then just when I thought we were going to drive over the dam the road turned and began its long descent into Canmore.

     What a cool town Canmore was! We had some good food at the first place we could find (we were hungry!), at a pub on Main Street, and headed to Banff right after that. Some locals in the pub told us about a lot of cool stuff in Banff, and between Banff and Lake Louise, which was a little further west. Also, Canmore is best for hiking and trails, which were mostly covered in snow still. A lot of trailheads were down roads that were still closed for the winter. So we moved on to Banff. 

     Banff was cool, too! The locals all seemed to have their opinions on which town was better, but I can't decide. They were both so cool. Banff had a castle, so that's pretty persuading. Not really a castle, I guess, but the Fairmont hotel there sure looks like a castle. It's all stone, and it's 9 stories tall, plus the suites and towers that could only be accessed from the 9th floor. It was built in the 19th century, and the inside reminded me of Hogwarts. It had full suits of armour, weapons displayed on the walls, and crests carved into the stonework. The crest of the thistle was all over the William Wallace dining room, and the hotel in general. The crest of the wild rose, for Alberta, was also prominent on the walls and in the stained glass in the back lobby. It was so cool. Someday I am determined to come and actually stay here.

     We had drinks in the William Wallace room. I got a pear Cosmo that was indescribably amazing, Luke got a gin and tonic with a heap of kiwi fruit and hint of pineapple juice that was also really good. I hate gin, and even I really liked his drink. 

     After our drinks we left and went to the Banff Upper Hot Springs, which was very commercialized but still pleasant. The water was treated and fed into a big pool that was situated like a deck on the mountainside, with views over the town of Banff and the Canadian Rockies. Because it was treated, it didn't smell like sulfer, which was nice. 

     We watched the sun set behind the mountains and then left before it got truly dark, since we were staying in Lake Louise that night and I didn't want to miss any views on the drive there. The Canadian Rockies are incredible. Unlike the Rockies in the US, whose peaks build on each other, the Canadian Rocky peaks are all very distinct. It's like a group of stand alone mountains all crowded together, stretching on forever. The mountains are all patterned, too, and each one is different. Some are striped horizontal, some are striped vertically, some are striped diagonally, and some are striped and twisted. Others look like smears and slabs all built up. Some look like they got sliced by a giant sword because half of the mountain is sheer cliff, and some look like slices that got thrown into the ground, because they're sheer cliff on both sides. I've been taking pictures all day every day and with each new turn, I feel like I need another picture. I may have too many now, but someone wise once told me that it's better to take too many pictures and pick the best ones than to have to go all the way back for a shot you wished you'd taken. 

     By the time we got to the hotel in Lake Louise, it was almost 10:00, and we were hungry again. The only place still open was the bar in the lower level of the hotel, which had good food, but not amazing. No complaints, though. After that we went right to bed. We had all day the next day to check out the town. There was another Fairmont Hotel on the lake that was supposed to also be amazing that I was excited to see. I'd also heard Lake Louise was prettier than Banff, so I couldn't wait to check it out in the daylight. 

     Since we had all day to see things, we decided to go skiing first. Best decision ever. Lake Louise is the coolest mountain I have ever skied at! Every run was right at my comfort level, and yet I felt like I could improve a lot if I spent a whole season skiing there. There wasn't anything too scary but there were plenty of challenging runs. And the conditions were awesome! They had just gotten dumped on the night before last (when we got snowed on in Calgary), but it was warm and sunny now. 

    It took us a few runs to get used to the rental equipment. I had boots so soft I had to crank them as tight as they'd go so I could actually edge on my skis. The first run was terrifying because I couldn't get my skis to turn. But, I tightened my boots, switched my skis, and I made it work. Luke had a snowboard that had some sort of triple edge with camber, and he really had to get used to that. By the third run, though, we had it down. And then we really started having fun!

    We skied at least one run on every open lift, and we found ourselves catching the last ride up the tow seat (I don't know what else to call it) up into the back bowl for the last run of the day. The tow seat was this awkward blue circle attached to a curved pole that you were supposed to put between your legs from the front, squeeze your thighs together, and the blue circular part caught your butt and pulled you up hill. I didn't think it'd be enough to pull me uphill without me also having to grab on for dear life and hold on all the way to the top. It wasn't that bad, though; I had an easy time with it. However, this invention was clearly made for skiers, not snowboarders. Luke had to deal with all this while standing sideways, with one foot free. He hung on for dear life the whole way up. It was tiring. By the time we made our last run, we were both glad it was the last run. My leg muscles were so sore it was painful to stop, especially from high speeds, but going slow was tiring, too. I think Luke was in the same boat. Regardless, the run down the back bowl was the best run of the day. The snow was dreamy, the run was perfect, and the views were epic. 

    Sidenote for likeminded people who worry about avalanche conditions on a nice warm day after a heavy snow: we found out that ski patrol had blasted the back bowls for avalanche control right after all the new snow. 

    Now, for the next part to make sense, it's essential to think of the back bowl as an upper bowl, rather than the backside of the moutain. It was the highest section of ridge on the wide mountain that is Lake Louise Mountain, only accessible by the tow rope, or steep uphill hiking from the next lift over. Once we were out of the backbowl, all we had to do to get back was keep going down the run. Eventually it went all the way down to the base of the mountain, and back to the lodge.  It was our longest run of the day, and the best. Even when we were down the mountain further, the snow was still buttery. It didn't turn to slush until the very bottom. It was great.

     Tired, sore, a little sunburnt, and hungry, we rallied and went right on over to the Fairmont Hotel on Lake Louise. From the outside, it was not as cool as the one in Banff. However, it overlooks some pretty epic peaks, a glacier capped ridge-line, and the lake, all in one view. It was awesome. We got a table with a window view in the restaurant there, and ordered some drinks and food. I tried another Cosmo, this one raspberry. It was not as good as the pear, but still good. Luke got a maple rum old fashioned. I liked that so much I basically stole it from him. He ended up ordering another drink, a bloody mary made with clamato juice (clam tomato juice), that he was surprised to find he loved, since he doesn't like clamato juice. 

      The food was also amazing. We got bison burger sliders that were phenomenal, and sweet potato fries that were good by themselves, but with the dipping sauces that came with them they were phenomenal as well! 

     Content with that, we decided to check out the lakeshore trail that goes back toward the glacier, with some pretty epic waterfalls along the way. We took a chance and walked across the ice as a short cut. I think a few more days and that would have been a very bad idea, but we made it just fine. No cracks or groans or anything scary. Eventually we ended up at a huge ice flow, which is 110 meters tall! That's 361 feet tall. It was impressive. Across the lake from that was a shorter, wider flow of beautiful, thick, blue ice that would have also been excellent for ice climbing. But the ice was unreliable and we were too tired, anyways. We walked a little further, but we turned around before we got into the avalanche fall zone. We stuck to the lakeshore trail for the walk back and it was beautiful. I bet it's even better in the summertime when the ice is melted and the water sparkles turquoise. I'm determined to go back to all these places again, both for more skiing and for a summer vacation. Heck, I wouldn't even mind being Canadian if I could live in the area! (I hope any Canadians reading this have a sense of humor. I'm just teasing.)

     Tomorrow we head out through the rest of Banff National Park and through Jasper National Park to Jasper and then to Grand Prairie, or thereabouts. Can't wait to see more mountains!

      

Road Trip to Alaska! Part 1, aka the Food Diaries.

Road trip to Alaska, part 1. Aka the food diaries. 

     The middle of North America is somewhat unremarkable, except for a few spots here and there. Michigan has more than its fair share of pretty, inland lakes, not to mention the Great Lakes. Wisconsin has gently rolling farm-fields dotted with picturesque farms and silos, and houses hidden in the private nooks of the hills. The great plains states have farms so large the ends are out of sight, and they're so flat you can see for miles and miles. Eventually the farm fields give way to the plateaus before the mountains, and then there's nothing to see but scrub grass, horses, and some apparently free-range cattle. Often they're both out grazing together. 

     Canada has not been any different than the US so far, except with more Tim Hortons and fewer gas stations that are open 24/7. Like, none. Manitoba looked just like North Dakota, and Saskatchewan looked just like Montana. Alberta's plains look an awful lot like the ones in Montana, too. It's easy to forget we're in Canada, except for the maple leaf flags and speed limit signs in kilometers per hour.

     There hasn't been anything to write home about except crazy high winds and the food. The food has been phenominal. In Chicago we were shown the best sushi in all the land, at Sai Cafe. The sashimi was incredible- melt in your mouth, amazing. The rolls had just the right amount of roe, wasabi, and house made sauces. Each piece of sushi was perfect in taste, texture, and presentation. It was awesome.  For dessert we had something called mochi, which looks like Baybel cheese but in fact its actually ice cream, covered in pounded sticky rice that's basically Japanese gummy. There were 3 flavors: vanilla, lavender, and green tea. I'm not a fan of green tea but even that one was good. I will be seeking out mochi at every Asian store I ever go to from now on. 

     After all that, we walked a few blocks down to a wonderful Italian restaurant that smelled amazing, and had some really neat decor, and finished off the night with some amazing glasses of wine. Delicious.

    The next day we were in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and we got to eat at Matt's Bar, home of the original Jucy Lucy, which was featured on the TV show Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives for good reason. That was one good burger. 

     After eating a wonderful breakfast at the Uptown Diner (Luke and I split a skillet), we went shopping at the Mall of America. That's right, we went shopping. We both hate shopping, yet we managed to kill four hours there. It helped that we rode on a roller coaster, which was a total blast. 

     We moved on through North Dakota and made our way to the Canadian border, where we found out empty gun magazines are still too scary for Canada (but ammo is not), in spite of having been told otherwise when Luke called ahead. We decided to mail it to Alaska, like the guns themselves, but it was a Sunday, so that meant not only getting turned around, but also having to stay overnight in North Dakota. We went back to Grand Forks and got a hotel. It was a little less than fantastic, but we did get a really good gourmet pizza that had cream cheese and shrimp with a white sauce that was pretty good. 

     The next day we made it into Canada and headed to Winnipeg, Manitoba. We ate lunch at a 1900s style Jewish restaurant, Sherbrook Street Delicatessen, which was extremely unique and absolutely delicious. I had a red beet borscht that was life changing, and we split a smoked meat sandwich that was heavenly. They had all kinds of unique sandwich options like pickled tongue, chopped liver, or corned beef. They all seemed quite popular, and they all looked good. 

     Not to be outdone by the day before, we went to the Thuy Tien Vietnamese Restaurant in Medicine Hat, Saskatchewan, for lunch, and that was really good. Luke ordered a curry that tasted just like Mom's, and she makes a good curry. I had a stir fry that really impressed me, over some really good rice noodles. 

     Since we were on a roll, we couldn't skimp out on getting a decent dinner once we got to Calgary, in Alberta. Luke looked up some places that got good reviews and we settled on a Nepalese Indian food restaurant called The Himalayan. That was some of the best indian food I've ever had! Luke got a sample platter with a little bit of everything. I got something called Chatpat, which had green and red pepper, onion, and chicken in a carrot based sweet and sour sauce. It was good. It came with a traditional Nepalese dish, which had lentils, some other sort of large green pea, and potatoes in a curry sauce served cold, and that was also good. So was the fresh, warm "flat bread," aka Naan. For dessert we had a mango rice pudding that was nothing like a traditional English rice pudding, and a Himalayan cake made of some kind of root (Cassava?) and coconut. It was the consistency and shape of a lemon bar but it was only semi sweet and very refreshing. It was very much appreciated, if not necessary, after the sinus clearing spiciness of the main meal (and we only ordered medium spice!).  

    Tomorrow we'll be heading to Lake Louise in Banff, to spend a few days there. I'm sure we'll still find good food but starting tomorrow our trip will become less about food and more about adventure. My other favorite thing! Yukon Ho!