There once was a family of four, Who thought staying at home was a bore. They planned a nice trip But had to wait just a bit. Just 5,000 miles to the shore? Jeff has been wanting to go back to Alaska since about the time we left there seven years ago. A lot has happened since then. We have continued traveling, of course. We've been on two Caribbean cruises, toured eastern Canada last year, and the boys finally got to Hawaii, heaven forbid they had to wait s o o o o long! Still, Alaska was calling. Our school district is on an early schedule for a couple years, so school ended today. I was scheduled to be at a conference until 4, so figured we would head out as soon as we were done. ... read more

We were very excited today to wake up and drive the Cabot Trail around the coast of Cape Breton and through Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We were going to walk some trails, find a few geocaches, see a waterfall, and gaze in amazement at the beautiful coast. Then we realized it was raining and completely gray. We’ve done that before, though, at Acadia and Olympic National Parks, so we headed out as planned, not sure what to expect. We drove up a slightly different route to save miles, only to realize it required a ferry. It cost $7, took less than 5 minutes, but was the car’s first ferry ride. The boys got a kick out of it. Our views of the coast were definitely impacted by the fog, but listening to the waves crash ... read more

Today’s destination was Charlottetown, the capitol of Prince Edward Island. The bridge here is the Confederation Bridge and we’ve seen signs for the Birthplace of Confederation, but really had no idea what that meant. To remedy that situation, we started at Founders’ Hall. It is a multimedia history lesson framed as a time machine. I usually don’t do the audio tour things, but this was well designed. Marks on the floor showed where to stand, and it all flowed easily. While there, we learned that twenty-three representatives from Canada East, Canada West, PEI, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia met in Charlottetown in 1864 and ultimately decided to unite as one country. They, as well as representatives from Newfoundland, met again in Quebec a month later to draft a constitution. Canada as a country was officially created ... read more

We spent the night near Grand Falls, New Brunswick and weren't exactly energetic to start the day. On our way to Fredericton, their capitol, we stopped for a view of Grand Falls, saw a small covered bridge and then the world's longest one, and couldn't resist a small detour to see the world's largest axe. Fredericton was our main stop. It was a beautiful little city, perfect for walking around. There were tons of restaurants and shops. We did a walking tour as part of looking for a geocache. It brought us past City Hall, the Legislative Assembly, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and a number of other buildings. It also brought us past the Historic Garrison District, a national historic site significant because British troops were garrisoned there from 1784 until 1869, when Canada assumed its ... read more

I'll get to the title later. It was a dreary day today. We drove in to Montreal in the rain, aiming for the Montreal Botanical Gardens. I saw photos online of fantastical creatures and thought it would be really interesting to see. Unfortunately, we either could not find them or they no longer exist. I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Despite that and a little bit of rain, the Gardens were stunning. We walked through roses and a Chinese garden, marveled at bonsai trees both young (20 years) and old (more than 200), and found some interesting new species we could plant in our shade garden. We saw Japanese peonies and Scarlet willows and birch trees and spirea and lemon trees and poppies and bishop's hats and the coolest begonias ever. I had thought we should ... read more