http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/kengelha/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from kengelha en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:28:06 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:28:06 +0000 Our trip to Alaska this summer was so much fun that we're going to make long vacations an annual tradition. Next year though we'll be heading east to the big citiesWashington New York Boston and Philadelphia. Does camping in New York seem wrong http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/blog-430542.html Jeff disagrees but if I could only go back to one place wersquove been this trip it would be Jasper National Park. If truth be told Irsquom trying to figure out how we can back here sooner rather than later like August.Jasper is stunningly consistently beautiful. We could have stopped every half mile to take photos. We had absolutely perfect weathermdashblue skies occasional clouds. Th http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/blog-430516.html We are in go mode. When we were finishing our cruise from Juneau to Skagway the captain said we wouldnrsquot stop even for whales playing hopscotch. Wersquore not quite there nor are we in our typical drive 24 hours straight through to get home mode. But we are heading home.Liam requested this morning that we stop at a dinosaur museum. He is still enthralled by Beringia which Irsquom conv http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Saskatchewan/blog-430519.html We took a wrong turn in southern Saskatchewan and ended up driving on Road 18. It was a bad decision because the lower half of our camper and truck is now completely covered in a fine layer of oil topped with dust. YukOn the good side we passed through customs for the last time in a long time with only the loss of 2 oranges. We also passed through the great State of North Dakota without issue a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/blog-430530.html We spent today at the KOA in Moorhead. We ate and sat around and thatrsquos pretty much it. It felt so nice to be outside. Mom Dad joined us in their first trip out with their new camper. Dad will head back to Velva tomorrow for work and Mom will head home.License Plates Noticed IA MN MB ND NMHigh Temperature Low Temperature Miles 21.6 7977.6Total Time on the Road 000 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/blog-430532.html There are 168 National Park Service parks monuments and memorials in the county. We've been to 65 of them but none of the three in Minnesota. Frankly it's a bit embarrassing. So we finally decided to do something about it and head southwest.We camped FridaySunday at Kilen Woods State Park near Lakefield. We've been there once before as the fourth of four state parks we visited 28 August 20 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/blog-430536.html Today was another driving day. The scenery was pretty but not exceptional compared to what wersquove seen this trip. We did see a cute little fox early on who almost escaped a photo. We also met an adorable dog at a wayside rest who we could have easily brought with us. Sadie wouldnrsquot have liked it though if we had left her for over 3 weeks and come home with another. His owner was also http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/blog-420178.html We are home. It was very nice to just relax at the KOA with Mom Dad but it is so nice to be home.On the vacation we saw license plates from 4351 statesDC. Not surprisingly we did not see Hawaii. We didnrsquot even see Nebraska or Massachusetts until we were within 100 miles of home. All the rest we saw in Canada or Alaska. We saw 1013 Canadian provinces. The missing three were again not http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/blog-420145.html We planned today as a crazy long drive so that tomorrow would be very light. It didnrsquot exactly work out that way though. We again got a late start and started seeing wildlife. First we saw a black bear being lazy on our left. We didnrsquot stop for pictures. We then saw bison on the right. We didnrsquot slow down for pictures. Jeff then saw a brown bear on the left something we h http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/blog-418276.html After staying at a rest stop last night we took a short drive from just west of Ft St John down to Chetwynd. Along the way we stopped at the WAC Bennett and Peace River Dams both with visitor centers. After arriving we drove around town just a bit to see their carvings. Chetwynd of course is the chainsaw carving capital of the world and has some very impressive carvings.I think the boys app http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/blog-418273.html We left Denali this morning under a complete downpour and were so glad we saw the park when we did. Fortunately the rain didnrsquot last a long time and the drive to Fairbanks wasnrsquot very long at all.Our first stop was Museum of the North on the campus of UAF. There were two main exhibitsmdasha natural history portion and an art museum. Liam was very impressed that there were things i http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-417644.html We decided against driving to the Arctic Circle which is a good thing considering we didnrsquot wake up until 9. Instead we dallied and started the drive home. We stopped at a few waysides to take photos getting nothing terribly spectacular. We also stopped at Rikarsquos Roadhouse near Delta Junction for a quick walk around and lunch. Their tomato basil bisque was pretty good as was their http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Yukon/blog-417632.html Today was again a drive day as most of the rest of our trip will be. I am very glad to be done with the frost heaves between Delta Junction and Whitehorse. Very very glad. Tonight we stopped at Campground Services in Watson City YK the one with all the signs. We called to see if they had availability and she told us to go to site 93 if we didnrsquot make it before their office closed. We di http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Yukon/blog-417622.html Our big adventure today was the shuttle bus in Denali. Again our boys were the only children aboard but seemed to do well. Two couples travelling from Arizona told me that they saw our kids and hoped they wouldnrsquot be on the same bus but were entertained nonetheless.The mechanics are on strike here and are picketing with signs that say ldquoIs your bus saferdquo Not 20 minutes into o http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-416703.html Our only scheduled event for today was a cruise through Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park. It didnrsquot leave until 1145 so we had the laziest morning of our vacation. The boys slept in we had French toast for breakfast. While Jeff was cooking I was just hanging out on the beach watching the bay. There was a single bald eagle fairly close in front of me and a couple further do http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-416342.html We left Glennallen a little later than usual to drive to Seward. We drove past many mountain ranges but saw little because of the haze. I love the effect that type of picture has but more for the background of scrapbook pages. It made for a quicker drive though because we didnrsquot stop nearly as often as usual.We were very excited to get into Anchorage and discover civilizationmdashan ac http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-416338.html Sorry itrsquos been a couple days. Our last campground offered wifi but at a price. At this point in our trip wersquore pretty much not willing to pay for anything extra. Irsquoll be adding those blogs after I put this one in.Today was another driving day. We retraced our drive from two days ago and were fortunate to see Turnagain Arm at higher tide. It was again very hazysmoky so we st http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-416333.html We left Tok early this morning and headed southwest on Tok Cutoff toward Glennallen. It was supposed to be a better maintained road than the Alaska Highway but Irsquom not terribly convinced. We discovered when we got here Northern Nights Campground that the cap off our bumper was missing. Jeff didnrsquot think a whole lot of it until he discovered that our sewer connection which is stored http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-415250.html We have been fortunate up to this point as far as highways go. Today we hit something a little different. From Whitehorse on but mostly for 100 miles on either side of the AlaskaCanada border we hit frost heaves and occasional potholes with great regularity. We also drove for miles on dusty gravel which we preferred until getting in to the camper this evening and noticing the fine dust over m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-414999.html Today was an absolutely amazing day by far the best of our vacation thus far. I'm so glad it was on Liam's birthday. It was a cruise to Juneau and back with Alaska Fjordlines www.alaskafjordlines.com. Honestly I canrsquot even imagine how Irsquom going to express the day in words but Irsquoll try. Irsquom racing through pictures trying to get this posted so we can go to bed so I may http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/blog-414695.html