"Fishing" Fun

A few weeks back we took a Sunday to ourselves and spent some time as a family out at the river. With Anthony working so much, we don't really get much time to do anything together (especially now that he's working 7 days a week). So our river trip was a definite highlight for the month of July. We drove down the Fish Creek road for quite a while and found ourselves a very secluded spot to park and play. Alexis was ecstatic to try out her fishing skills and she spent most of  her time working on her casting (which is one the best parts about fishing).

We got some practice in on casting and reeling. Alexis did quite well :)

We didn't catch anything on this trip, but it didn't really matter because she had a great time trying to cast further and further out into the river. It was a success in her eyes.

Kaitlyn decided that fishing wasn't really for her right now. She was much more interested in a little sandy pool that she could wade and play in.

She had a great time making a "castle" and then laying siege on it with her stomping feet. Her dress got nice and dirty from the whole thing. Again, a successful trip in her eyes as well :).

We were able to spend quite a bit of time just relaxing and spending time with one another. Suzie even had fun chasing an obnoxious bird around and then diving into the river. She's such a nut.

Killdeer Bird - VERY obnoxious :)
http://www.jrcompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/Mar-07.html

The girls and I have since been to the river a few times by ourselves (with protection, of course) and had a great time playing in the pools of water. It's such beautiful landscape and so peaceful.

This picture is of a spot that is actually 1/4 mile behind our travel trailer. It's so close and there is hardly ever anyone there. This is a slow moving portion that runs into the highly volatile river just on the other side of that clump of trees. The girls get some good "swimming" practice in (it only comes up to Alexis's thighs) and I plant myself with a slingshot and a good book right on the edge. Great fun.

Yvonne

Skagway

Well, this post has been a long time in coming, but here it is.....the continuation of our Alaska saga :)

A Skagway street car giving tourists a ride downtown.

After the Excursion fiasco that caused us to decide NOT to drive the 700 miles to Hyder, we went back down the hill and parked at the Pullen RV Park in Skagway.  We spent some time reformulating our plan of how we were going to get Anthony to Hyder by Monday (we were currently on Saturday).  We did some calling around and found that the only way to get him there on time was for him to take an early flight the next morning back to Juneau, catch another flight two hours later to Ketchikan, and wait there until Monday morning to fly to Hyder.  So that’s what we did.  It was definitely not the ideal plan considering he would be in Hyder and we would be headed back to Juneau.

We hung out that last evening together and it was a bit emotional.  We were all pretty clingy and not looking forward to the next day.  At six o'clock in the morning I got up with Anthony to help him get ready to leave. Then it was off to Hyder for him and "what do we do now" for us.

The girls and I spent all of Sunday just doing the things that we wanted to do.  We walked into town and explored the shops, bought some yummy lollisticks, and a coffee for Mommy.  Suzie chewed through her leash two different times when we tied her to the benches that were located near every shop. Rotten dog! Afterwards, we walked through the little park that was near our camp and the girls spent some time throwing rocks into the little creek.  


Monday morning, back on the ferry and back to Juneau we went.  We didn't end up in Hyder with Anthony until a few weeks later :( But, all is well now.

Yvonne

To Skagway, Up the Hill, and Back

We made it to Skagway on the ferry from Juneau with no mishaps, meltdowns, tantrums, or scares (either from us or the girls) so I give that section of the trip a gold star.  Especially since we all took a nap for a portion of the ride.  For anyone who knows me they will understand the happiness this brings.

Once we got off the ferry we headed straight for the nearest fuel station which happened to be two blocks from the dock and the only one in town.  Of course we didn't realize this until we had drove all the way through town, checked google maps, and realized our little blue arrow (symbolizing our vehicle) was pointed in the wrong direction.  As you may have guessed, that did not make Mr. Trail very happy having to drive back.  However, on the positive side, Skagway is not that big of a town so it only took a few minutes.

While Anthony topped off the truck and filled the 7 or 8 gas cans we have, I went in and got a couple maps showing our route to Hyder and where some of the fuel stations were on the way.  The lady (named Candy) was really nice and let me know exactly what she thought of the gas prices driving through the Yukon.  I could tell it was one of "those" kinds of subjects with her because I didn't ask anything about the gas prices through there.  However, that did not dissuade her one bit from jumping up on her well-used soap box to let me know all about it.  Nice lady.

Once we were filled up and settled in we started down the Klondike highway to travel the 14 miles to the Canadian border.  I had my paperwork for all of us, including the dog, ready to go for when we hit customs.  We started climbing the first hill through the pass and things went well for the first 2 miles.  We were all ooooing and ahhhhing over the scenery and I had even tried to trick Katie into watching out for giraffes.  But she was way too smart for me.  She said, "Mommy, there are no giraffes in Alaska.  It's too cold."  Schooled by a 4-year old. 

Unfortunately, after about 2 miles we started noticing this little cloud of smoke starting to form behind the Excursion.  At about 3 miles it had turned into quite a spectacle.  We pulled over and Anthony informed us that we were leaking transmission fluid onto the exhaust (insert heart-sinking and panic-attack moment here).  We continued another mile and then stopped to let the truck cool down a little, and repeated this process a few more time.  At this point it was really bad and when Anthony checked again he yelled at us to get out of the truck and get away.  Apparently, something had caught fire a little but soon extinguished.  We knew it was no use at that point.  Anthony and I looked at each other and I said, "Well, at least we're not in the middle of Canada."  So, back down the hill we went to find an RV park.  This particular portion of our trip got a big, fat thumbs down.



Yvonne