Greetings from Juneau, Alaska

We made it! We’re in Alaska! Not the mainland part, but Alaska none-the-less. We made it through British Columbia: huge, vast BC. We’ve made it as far north as either of us has been before. It’s 10:15 right now in Juneau and the sun hasn’t set yet. We have a few more hours tomorrow on the ferry and then we’ll be driving through the Yukon Territory, which seems crazy. We’ve seen eagles and whales and glaciers! We made it!

So back to a week ago, back to the lower forty eight. It seems like forever ago. Last Wednesday, before we crossed the border, we got the oil changed. At that point we’d already traveled almost 5,500 miles. I’m pretty sure I lowballed the mileage estimate for this trip when I told people it’d probably be 15,000 miles. So anyway, we crossed the border and made our way to Vancouver and checked into the Victorian, a pretty nice Victorian-era hotel near Gastown. My first impression of Vancouver is that it looks similar to Panama City, Panama: tall high rises made with an abundance of glass on the water. After getting settled into the hotel we walked down to Gastown, saw the old gas-powered clock, walked past the Gassy Jack statue and decided on a Tapas bar for dinner. We drank Spanish beer and shared prunes stuffed with cheese, wrapped in ham and prawns in garlic. In Canada they call shrimp prawns. They also drive really slow. I mean, I got to do 100 on the highway, but that was in kilometers, so it was really 60 miles per hour. That’s the fastest speed limit I’ve seen. That’s a huge drop from some places out west where the speed limit was 80 mph. I guess it does help cut down on gas use, which is nice since gas costs an equivalent to $5 a gallon.

Thursday we got up and drove around Stanley Park, probably the biggest park in Vancouver. We didn’t get out since we would’ve had to pay to park, but we saw totem poles and Vancouver from across the water. We then boarded a ferry for Vancouver Island, drove around Victoria for a bit and then went to Butchart Gardens just outside of Victoria. Butchart Gardens is an expansive garden that was created over 100 years ago but Jennie Butchart on her husbands depleted quarry. The main garden is called the Sunken Garden which was developed in the actual quarry. There was also a Japanese garden, rose garden, and Italian garden. We took hundreds of pictures of the flowers. Alicia was impressed by the many varieties and colors of the flowers. We may have one variety around home, but here they had it in eight different colors. Following the gardens we made our way to our campsite and enjoyed the last night of good weather we’d see for a few days. We camped amongst the large conifers at Goldstream Provincial Park.

Friday we got up and made our way up Vancouver Island towards Pacific Rim National Park, our first Canadian National Park. This being the Pacific it meant the good weather couldn’t last and we drove down winding roads in a light but steady rain. We found our campsite and then went for a walk on the beach. Fortunately for us, the rain stopped for a bit. We climbed over huge rocks jutting out of the ocean and watched the clouds roll over the tree-lined hills. Alicia spotted Sea Lions surfing the waves just off shore. We then drove down the coastal road towards Tofino, taking a short hike through the rain forest. The rain began again just as Alicia finished making dinner. It was a damp night, but nothing too bad.

Saturday we woke up and packed in the rain, drove back down the rainy, twisting roads back to the ferry, took the ferry back to the mainland and drove the Sea to Sky road towards Nairn Falls Provincial Park, which is just outside of Whistler, BC. Whistler is an expensive ski town which is akin to say Vail, Colorado. It hosted the ski and snowboard events when Vancouver held the 2010 Winter Olympics. We stopped there to grocery shop for dinner and everything seemed to be expensive simply because it could be, I suppose. We then drove on to Nairn Falls, made dinner, enjoyed a campfire and called it a day.

Sunday we woke up to rain, packed quickly and began the long drive northward towards Prince George. The early part of the day was spent driving through snowcapped mountains on winding roads. Around noon we made it to Cache Creek, got on another highway and found ourselves driving through beautiful meadows. Around five we finally made it to Prince George. We found our campsite, spent some time by the pool (the sun was out and it was a relatively warm 75 degrees), then made dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Monday we got up early and began our drive to Prince Rupert, the port town where we could board the ferry. We ate breakfast at the saddest Subway I’ve ever been to (in Vanderhoof, BC) and drove on and on and on around north western BC. Not too much to say about the drive. As we got closer to the coast the clouds started building and it began to drizzle. We approached the mountains, but followed a river, so we didn’t have to drive over them, made our way into Prince Rupert and set up camp for the night. It looked like it might rain, but nothing came up of it. We woke up the next morning and our air mattress had considerably less air in it than the night before so we had to go to Wal-Mart and get a new one. Alicia really liked her old one, so it was a bit traumatic.

We then headed towards the ferry. I’m actually really tired right now and we have to get up early to catch the ferry for our last leg of the ferry trip so I’m gonna stop here for now. Next time I’ll continue with the ferry, which really wasn’t super exciting. Really, Canada hasn’t been that exciting. It looks like much of the Pacific Northwest, which we’ve already seen. It’s been kind of a lull on the trip – long days in the car, not much to see or look forward to. I know that’ll quickly change once we get into mainland Alaska! Sorry, no pictures this time. We really haven’t taken many the past few days and like I said, am really tired and it takes a while for them to load. I promise some next time.