We decided to celebrate Canada Day in Whitehorse before heading off to Skagway. We started with a sourdough pancake breakfast at Shipyards Park, where Liam devoured his pancake. A woman came by and offered them stickers—“I’m cute and Canadian”—which they proudly wore for the rest of the day. We also found Canadian flags that they waved whenever possible. The big event was the Canada Day parade. We found a parking spot on Main Street and sat in the bed of the truck. The boys were most impressed by the Mounties and the bagpipers. A woman standing next to us gave [View Full Entry]

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As anyone who knows me knows, our vacations, at least the ones I plan, are jam-packed with stuff. Go somewhere; see four museums. In one day. So this trip has been weird. Drive 2000 miles and see three museums total? That is so not me. Today was better. We drove from Teslin to Whitehorse under sunshine, so were able to see mountains and appreciate the views of Teslin River and Marsh Lake. Compared to the last few days, it was a very short trip. Our first stop in Whitehorse was at Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. The Beringia was the area not [View Full Entry]

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We had hoped to do another crazy drive today and make it all the way to Whitehorse, but it didn’t start well. Rain had some to do with it. (We drove through it for about the first 6½ hours.) Jeff says that some of it looked suspiciously like snow. We also hit actual construction delays for the first time, but were stopped for no more than 15 minutes each time. Again, there were hardly any vehicles on the road, at least nothing like what I expected. Today’s views were much closer to what I expected for this highway. The 200 miles [View Full Entry]

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Today was all about the driving. We left the truck stop shortly after 0700 and spent a few extra minutes trying to get a picture of the Edmonton sign. (The first time we noticed it, I only got a blurry picture.) Why did I want a picture of the Edmonton sign? Because it’s the hometown of Kael Mouillierat, of course. He will be a senior at MSU-Mankato this fall. Jeff bought his jersey his freshman year because we thought he had a cool name, but it turns out he’s a great hockey player. Anyway, after leaving Edmonton, we took a picture [View Full Entry]

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We laid in bed even later today, ‘til the boys climbed in around 7. It took us about an hour to get ready, which is when I realized Jeff hadn’t changed his watch to mountain time and it was then only 7. We parked the camper out of the way and went off to find the Saskatchewan Legislative Building and Wascona Centre. We found an overlook for the first and noticed the lanes set up for rowing, but no one on the water. With a little more time and better shoes, it might’ve been nice to do the walk around the [View Full Entry]

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For the last few weeks, I followed a couple travel blogs from Alaska. One belonged to Bob Kribs (Snowhaug), who is now home. He did some very cool things, like flying over and landing on a glacier and over Wrangell-St Elias to see bears. With two small boys in tow, we will be much less adventurous. He mentioned the importance of Milepost in doing the Alaska Highway. We aren’t there yet, but I’d also recommend The Next Exit for services on interstates. We found last night’s rest stop there and decided where to get gas there. For non-interstate driving, I’d recomme [View Full Entry]

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After planning for months and officially counting down for 7 weeks, we’re finally on our way. Work went well and I got out 55 minutes early, letting us get underway at 1650 instead of 1800 when the countdown expired. Our goal was to get 200 of the 800 miles to Regina today. Lisa Hardesty wanted all the inane details, so: we stopped at McDonald’s before leaving St Peter. Liam had a hamburger Happy Meal with apple dippers and chocolate milk, while Cole had a chicken McNuggets Happy Meal with fries and chocolate milk. I had a hamburger Happy Meal with fries [View Full Entry]

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My goal for the weekend was to walk most of the trails, and so we took off for Hidden Lake Trail (a round trip of 2 1/2 - 3 miles). It was hillier terrain than the others had been, so it was probably good we did this last and by itself. Surprisingly, you can't see Hidden Lake from the Hidden Lake Trail, but only from a tiny portion of Maple-Basswood Trail. [View Full Entry]

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Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Not too warm. A little breezy. Great for walking. The Neumans actually do geocaching and have a good GPS, so our first adventure was to find the park's geocache. They had a brochure and Sam had prepared, so we headed off for a walk along the Maple-Basswood Interpretive Trail to follow the clues. It worked well and the boys had fun, but it wasn't the critter cache that we had been looking for. Our boys were worn out, so after finding the first clue for the critter cache, we all went back for lunch. That [View Full Entry]

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From August 2004 through June 2008, Jeff and I challenged each other to a bocce battle in Minnesota's state parks, as a way to see them all. He kicked my butt, to put it mildly. It was great to see all the parks, but for many, our visits were brief. Lake Carlos was the third of four state parks we saw 21 May 2008 and we were there less than an hour. Jeff won 22-7, not one of my better performances. So, when planning a camping weekend with friends, we picked Lake Carlos and planned to actually see the park. The [View Full Entry]

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