Tomorrow I start heading back home with our kids. Jeannie’s staying in Anchorage for another month and a half, so it’ll be slow going (I can’t just feed the baby and drive at the same time). I may only get as far as Eagle River, I really just want to be able to head out by Thursday morning and drive (and not deal with morning traffic in Anchorage).
Wish us luck!
Today we drove south to Valdez.
Here’s a picture of a glacier near Valdez.
It was tiny compared to this one:
Bridal Veil Falls.
We stopped at the site of Old Valdez and had a nice view of the bay.
View in the opposite direction.
We stopped at Horseshoe Falls for a bit.
Then we headed back towards Anchorage. Made it most of the way, only had a couple hours or so of driving the next morning. Thus ended our second Alaska Road Trip!
We’d realized that everyone but Catherine got to play on the arctic tundra, so today we remedied that. She wasn’t sure what we were doing to her.
I think Santa’s reindeer were checking up on us.
Here’s some more pictures from that day.
We finally made it back to civilization (Fairbanks), got some groceries at Wal-Mart (they have a Supercenter!), and then ate supper at McDonald’s (Thomas enjoyed the play area).
Here’s Thomas using the spongy arctic tundra ground as a trampoline.
Jeannie found these cranberry-like berries on the ground and decided to eat some (then Thomas had to follow her example). I decided to wait until the next day, so I could see if they got sick. They didn’t, but I didn’t see any berries the next day.
Anyone who’s watched Season 3 of Ice Road Truckers has seen the road we drove on to get to the Arctic Ocean. Yup, we drove about 414 miles (one-way) on the Dalton Highway, which is about 25% pavement and 75% gravel (the gravel sections were often in better shape than the paved sections).
Here’s a couple pictures we took along the way.
We made it to the Arctic Circle!
We stopped at Coldfoot Camp, filled up the RV, and ate at the truck stop. We continued on for a while until it started to get dark, then picked a spot to park for the night.
We started the day by going to North Pole, Alaska.
Thomas just wouldn’t sit still for Santa.
Catherine was on her best behavior.
“Can you put in a good word for me with Santa?”
After visiting Santa’s house, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut, filled out our postcards, then took a trip to the post office to mail them. Then we started our journey further north.
Our first stop was at the Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry in Wasilla.
An old hay cutter. I remember having two of these in our yard when I was little.
Thomas really enjoyed this toy train caboose.
It’s a plane!
Catherine had lots of fun pulling Thomas’s hair.
Later that night we pulled over at a turnout and watched the Northern Lights. There was a faint display all night, but they did flare up for about a minute.
Here’s some pictures from our outing to Earthquake Park.
First up, another photo for the blackmail file.
Thomas wanted to pose here.
Catherine tried to eat this flower shortly after the picture was taken.
Thomas is doing his best to chase all these Canadian Geese back to Canada.
There’s just too many!
Here’s some pictures of a picnic we went to earlier this month.
Catherine had her face painted.
Thomas wanted to climb a mountain. Luckily there were stairs.
The view at the top.
