The Road Less Traveled

Yay!  Welcome to Alaska!

As the ferry docked just outside of Haines, Alaska we sadly said goodbye to the ferry and our restful sleep.  We would not have restful sleep that night, thanks to Tucker, but we'll get into that later.

The next (and last) leg of our journey to our new home would take us through the town of Haines and along the Haines Highway to Haines Junction, which is in the Yukon Territory of Canada. That's a lot of Haines'!

It is only 146 miles to Haines Junction from Haines, but once you get past Haines Junction there is nothing but the wide open Yukon Territory for a really long time.  Thus we decided to stay overnight in Haines Junction and then finish our journey to our new home the next day.  And let me tell you, for not being much of a town, Haines Junction had quite a bit to offer in the way of entertainment ....including a drunk Canadian lady getting sassy with the Chinese guy running a Chinese restaurant/bar/motel because his Canadian waitress would not serve her more alcohol and she being such a good customer and all, he should cash her check for her.  And the food at said establishment was a little more authentically Chinese than I think I would like to admit.  The boys had burgers which they deemed amazing, but I went with the Beef and Broccoli with chow mein since the waitress said the Chinese food was really good. Let's just say, the broccoli and chow mein were really good, but I'm not convinced the beef was in fact beef. But really, what did I expect from a Chinese place in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon Territory of Canada?  I'm really not sure.......but beef at the least.

Here's a little map to show you where in the world we were.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I think the memory of the not-so-beef beef got me all discombobulated.

The ferry docked in Haines at 11:45 a.m.  You would think that it would take a while to unload all those cars but we were off within about 10 minutes of docking.  We stopped in Haines briefly to buy Jason a jacket. Yes, we moved our children to Alaska in the middle of winter and one of them did not have a warm jacket, only a thin fleece jacket. Cue bad parent sign.

But in our defense, we had bought him the jacket he really, really needed (wanted) which arrived by mail two days before we left and then didn't fit.  So there. Anyway, we didn't buy him a jacket in Haines either.....things were a bit pricey there. He would continue to layer a flannel and another fleece jacket of Joe's until Fairbanks.  Rest assured he stayed toasty warm. :)

Here is a pic of downtown Haines.  Not much to it, but quaint and beautiful.

Haines, Alaska

After the jacket shopping stop, we hit the Haines Highway.  Here is how the Milepost describes the Haines Highway:

"Noted for its grand views of glaciated mountains and the variety of its scenery--from coastal forests to alpine tundra--the Haines Highway winds through the Chilkat River flats outside Haines before beginning a long climb up to the summit, where it meanders through a wide alpine valley before descending to Haines Junction via a series of long, easy grades."  My description.....absolutely stunning scenery. But before we got to see much of that scenery, one or both of the cats had finally had it and let loose a stinky deposit in their kennel, of the #2 kind.  We quickly pulled over and all spilled out of the car trying to get away from the stench.....our first introduction to the Alaska cold. Here's Justin taking a selfie while Joe and I deal with the situation.

Once the situation was duly handled, we were back on the road in a jiffy.  This part of the highway followed the beautiful Chilkat River that was mostly frozen over.

Chilkat River

About 20 miles from Haines is the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.  Large concentrations of bald eagles gather here during the winter months due to a natural phenomenon that results in about five miles of the river remaining ice free during the winter months, which allows the chum salmon to spawn later in the year.  The open water and salmon food source bring the eagles to the area every winter from November to February.  What an amazing sight!  These birds are spectacular!  They were perched in the trees all along the highway.  At one point we saw a group diving down towards the water but there was no where to pull over and watch them.  Ugh! Here's a few pics.

This is not a good picture of the eagle, but I love how the branches of the trees are in focus and the eagle sits in the background. 

Since there was no foliage on the trees, they were really easy to spot.  Do you see the eagle?

As the highway left the river, the scenery changed, but was equally beautiful.  

There is not much traffic along the Haines Highway this time of year and we rarely saw other vehicles, except for four who had also disembarked the ferry in Haines and were traveling the same way we were.  They all passed us by when we were dealing with our stinky situation on the side of the road, but we met up with some of them again when we stopped for lunch at the only place you could stop, the 33 Mile Roadhouse.  Yep, it's located 33 miles from Haines.  This place is known for their fantastic burgers and according to Joe and the boys, they did not disappoint.  I had some really great soup.  The place looks like a cabin with an old gas pump out front, and a few smaller cabins behind it.  Joe and I figured their main business during the winter must come on ferry arrival days. Here's a funny tidbit......If you go on their website, it says that their price for gas is about $5.  The price of diesel is also about $5. 

Cool old gas pump still works.

33 Mile Roadhouse Restaurant

The boys heading back to the car with burger-filled stomachs.

The view across the street from 33 Mile Roadhouse.

Another fifteen miles or so we came to the Canadian border, paid our $50 to pass through with guns and were on our way.  They didn't want to see said guns and make sure we were claiming what we were really bringing, only the $50. Joe was bummed he had left the handguns in California to be shipped to us later (you cannot legally bring handguns into Canada).

From the Canadian border the highway climbed to an alpine valley and the scenery changed again. It was stunningly beautiful as well.  We passed our ferry mates along the way, which we did several times between Haines and North Pole.  Joe was clearly more comfortable driving the icy roads than they were and the ice road trucker had no problem passing while I closed my eyes.

 

Sunset.  I love this pic.

That evening we arrived at our motel, the Alcan Motor Inn in Haines Junction.  There were not a lot of choices for accommodations in this small town, but I had booked the Alcan based on really great customer reviews.  It did not disappoint.  Though is was really dated, it was exceptionally clean, comfortable and had all the amenities of home. Not surprisingly, one of our ferry mates was already there when we arrived and the ones we passed earlier showed up later.

After settling in, we went about a block down the street to the only food establishment open and well, I've already told you about how that went.  After dinner we went back to our room and settled in for a good night's sleep.  Or so we hoped.  Dear little Tucker was finally at his whits end with the traveling and once the lights were out started meowing loud enough to wake the dead. And he would not stop no matter what we did.  This went on for a couple hours.  Finally I decided to give him one of the sedative pills the vet had given me, hoping he would just calm down and sleep.  Nope.  Instead he just stumbled around the room like a drunken kitty, still meowing.  Desperate, I stuck him in the cabinet under the bathroom sink and boom, he was out.  A few hours later he was up again, stumbling and meowing.  This time I stuck him in one of the dresser drawers, where he stayed quietly until we got up. Thank God for cabinets and dressers, and Tucker's love of them.  To this day, he sleeps almost everyday behind one of the bottom drawers in the kitchen.  He opens it himself, climbs in, and some days stays in there all day.  This is how I know where Tucker is these days:

That morning we were back on the road for the final push to North Pole.  Just down the road from our motel we made a left turn onto the world famous Alcan Highway, which would take us home.

As the sun rose we passed through Destruction Bay, a small community on the shores of Kluane Lake in the Yukon Territory.  The sunrise was gorgeous!

Kluane Lake sunrise

Later that morning we crossed the border back into the good ole' U S of A and into our new home state of Alaska!

Leaving the Yukon Territory

Pit stop so Brandy can get a picture of the Welcome to Alaska sign!

Later that afternoon we stopped in Tok, Alaska for lunch at a place called Fast Eddy's, along with several of our traveling ferry mates. By 6 pm that evening, we were pulling into our driveway at our new home in North Pole, Alaska, ready to begin another new adventure.......living in Alaska!

Alaska By Sea

Let me just start by saying, the next leg of our trip treated us to the most restful sleep we have had in years.  So if you're having trouble getting a good night's rest.....book a trip on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry.

Ok, there's my bit of advice for the day. Do as you will with it.

I also need to say that this is going to be a very long post with lots of pictures.  Please try not to fall asleep.

As we waited to board the ferry, we decided we better get whatever we wanted to take on the ferry with us out of the trailer.  Our trailer has one of those ramp doors that comes all the way to the ground and we figured it was pretty likely the vehicle loaded behind ours would be too close to open our door.  So we piled a ton of crap on top of the boys in the back seat, on my lap, on the floor at our feet......basically every free space in the Jeep was filled in with luggage, pillows, snacks, blankets, etc.  And we sat there like that for about an hour.  It's times like these that I miss my Tahoe.

Finally it was time to board the ferry!  Here's the view driving onto the car deck.

And a little closer......

And a little closer.....

You almost felt like you were driving in there, didn't you?

And yes, we were right.  Vehicles were loaded bumper to bumper, so there was no way we were opening the trailer.  Middle row on the left was our spot.  This is where the cats would live for three days, and I would visit them every 6 hours or so, even in the middle of the night.  It  was like a brother/sisterhood of sorts.  The same dedicated group of us would meet at the stairwell, in pajamas, red eyed and barely awake, patiently waiting for the car deck to open.  For fifteen minutes we would feed and water our pets, some would take pent up large dogs for very lively walks around the deck, some like me waiting patiently hoping the dang cats would just use the litter box already!  The guy from Colorado would pass me as he walked his dog and ask..."Any luck yet?" as his dog pulled him down the row.  One of the boys would usually accompany me during the day, but I was on my own at night...so I made friends. Where was Joe, you ask?  Sleeping.  Surprisingly, the cats did really well. No accidents in their kennel, no freak outs, no escaping from the car and jumping overboard....all things I worried about. Kitty troopers.

Here's some pics of the car deck.

Once we got the cats settled, we grabbed our stuff and headed up to the cabin deck to check out our cabin.  It was pretty small, but had four bunks, a shower, toilet, sink, closet and one chair.  We had everything we needed.  I will say.....there's nothing like the family bonding that occurs when you share a space that small for three days. I'm actually being serious.

The hallway to our cabin

Our room

Jason demonstrating how low the ceiling is.

Justin...cozy with the new fuzzy travel blanket Grammie got him

None of us can explain exactly why, but all four us slept better those three nights/days than I think we possibly ever have.  I don't know if it was the comfy bunks, the hum of the boat engine, the slight swaying of the boat, or a combination of all three.  For Joe and I, it was also the first time since he got home that we really had a chance to relax and rest.  Whatever the reason, man.....sleep was good on the ferry!  And we did lots of it.

After we got settled in our room, we did some exploring of the ferry.  The ferry was still decked out for Christmas which made it very festive.

Merry Christmoose!

Really the only thing negative about the ferry was the Cafe; more specifically...the food. Yikes, the first night Joe and the boys had hamburgers that were unidentifiable as burgers.  All of the food was bad, like really bad. And expensive, which we expected and would not have minded had the food been edible.  So when the ferry docked in Ketchikan the third day, we went straight to the grocery store.

For those of you planning to book a trip on the ferry to get some good sleep....be sure to bring your own food.

Here is a picture of our itinerary and voyage details.  It goes from the bottom up....which I found weird.  Don't most people read from the top down?  We were sailing from Bellingham to Haines, the second to last stop (second from the top....again, weird).

Here's a map of our ferry sailing, for those of you who are more visual.  Keep in mind we only went as far as Haines.

When we weren't sleeping, we spent the majority of the trip watching the beautiful scenery go by. There was no wifi on board (something that made the kids gasp when they heard), and it was nice to be unplugged from the rest of the world.  It was smooth sailing most of the time, but on day two there were two open water crossings that were quite unsmooth.  Like.....we're on an episode of Deadliest Catch kind of unsmooth. Thankfully none of us got sick, but others did.  The cool thing about that day was there were patches of rain here and there, which resulted in the most beautiful rainbows and stormy skies. Here's a few pics.

Double rainbow.  Photo credit to Justin

Photo credit to Justin

One of our favorite photos...taken by Justin.

The forward observation lounge was our favorite spot to hang out and watch the scenery.  Views were best from there and the seats were comfy.  They had this monitor in there that showed our route and had a little green boat on it that showed the ferry's specific location. It was cool to watch the ferry's progression.

Here's some misc pics of the first couple of days of our ferry trip.

Joe and the boys checking out the monitor.

Hanging out in the observation lounge.

Waters are rough, but picture does not do it justice!

Joe and Justin in the Solarium.  It's a heated space on the top deck where a lot of people pitch tents and sleep during the summer.  Not heated enough during the winter though.  Cold and windy up there!

Jason.....ain't he handsome?

Justin kicking back in the Cafe.  Ain't he handsome too?

Joe and I enjoying an adult beverage in the Lounge.

Sunset.  Photo credit to Jason.

Joe and Justin hoping to see some marine life.  Earlier in the day they saw a whale and a couple of porpoises.

Joe and Justin

The first place the ferry stopped and the only one that it was light enough to see anything at was Ketchikan, Alaska.  It's a cute little town nestled along the coastline.  We got off the ferry and headed straight to the grocery store to stock up on food for the rest of the trip.  That's really all we had time for.  Here's some pics of Ketchikan.

Our ferry docked at Ketchikan.

Another ferry dry docked at Ketchikan.

After Ketchikan, the ferry stopped at Wrangell, Petersburg and Juneau.  It was too dark to see anything when we stopped at Wrangell and Petersburg and we were only docked for 45 minutes, so there wasn't time to get off the ferry anyway.  We docked at Juneau at 4 am and no one even got out of bed to see it, which was a bummer since it's the state's capital.  The passages between Wrangell and Petersburg are very narrow and they use a series of flashing lights to guide the ferry through them safely.  That was pretty cool to watch in the dark.

Wrangell

Wrangell

The scenery became increasingly beautiful as the trip progressed.  Eventually we were seeing the rugged snow capped mountains you expect to see in Alaska during the winter.  It was getting increasingly colder too, which made it more difficult to stand out on deck and take pictures.  We still managed to get some stunning photos though.

The wind did not do good things for my hair.  Just sayin'.

Unfortunately our relaxing ferry ride had to come to an end.  But we were all excited to start the last leg of our journey that would take us to our new home in North Pole, Alaska!