Bear Viewing, Coin Showers, Ghetto Prince George 8-14-10

We got up and went straight to Hyder to view the bears, or at least we hoped. They let us in, even without the park pass because I'd left it in the tent. Yay, me! When we first arrived, there were two bald eagles. It took us a while to figure out what everyone was photographing. A little later, a black bear showed up and ate a fish and wandered around for a minute before disappearing. Another black bear, or maybe the same one, was wandering in the weeds for a while, but decided not to show him/herself, probably due to the noise of the tourists. We got to see a lot of chum salmon spawning in the river, which is what draws the animals to it. They were pretty nasty looking, and the smell wasn't so great either.

We were cold and hungry, so we went back to the campground to shower and find some food. We were surprised to find that the showers were coin-operated. Jess put in three dollars worth of coins, and received a four minute shower, much to her dismay. She was very excited to shave, and unfortunately that didn't happen. I had already put my money into the shower by the time I found hers didn't work, but mine seemed to go much longer. Of course, the camp host didn't seem to care.

We got online at the grocery store in Steward and while sitting there, a really nice older gentleman started up a lovely conversation. He turned out to be very interesting. He was from Switzerland and had come over to live in Stewart about 30 years ago. He kept bringing Eddy treats and water while we sat. He also had beautiful flowers and could name every one of them, but had trouble pronouncing geranium.

We went back to Hyder for another shot at catching a grizzly, but we were again unsuccessful. We headed back into the town of Hyder to take some pictures, and ended up at the local saloon, which boasted a shot that would make you "hyderized." Upon entering the bar, we found walls covered in a very organized fashion with both Canadian and American dollar bills. We ended up at the bar briefly with some motorcycle riders who had pulled up right before us. Jess volunteered to be "hyderized" if they would buy the shot. It was rather an intimidating shot, at least with the hype the bartender used. Jess did the shot and regretted it for a while, but she was "hyderized."

To get back into Canada, we had to go through a border crossing, which proved to be a pain this time. The girl who was there was on a power trip or something, because it was much more difficult than the first time with the nicer guy from before.

We had lunch at a really cute diner in the King Edward Hotel, which we had to get "to go" because it was much cheaper than if we'd been allowed to sit there, for some reason. We ate in the car and headed out of Stewart.

We drove straight to Prince George, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into. It was after midnight and the town was a dump. We had no idea where to stay. but didn't feel comfortable sleeping anywhere around that town, especially after talking about it being the highway of tears. Out of desperation, we ended up in a ghetto hotel downtown which was one of the cheaper ones there, but still really expensive for it being a crappy place to stay.

Fire, Bears, Dogs, Stewart, The Bar 8-13-10

We got up early yet again and headed toward our junction with 37, the Cassiar Highway. We ended up in a big line of RV's and cars, and other such things waiting to be allowed on the highway due to a forrest fire. We could already see the smoke, and apparently they'd just re-opened the highway.

After finally getting through the burnt forrest and smelling a lot of strong smoke as it came through the car, we got to see a lot of black bears. We even got pictures of some cubs! It was a beautiful drive.

We stopped at a rest area that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere to use the restroom. At the rest area, two dogs approached us with no collars. They were very sweet. One was a chocolate lab, and the other was some kind of a mix puppy. We looked for their owners, and since we didn't see anyone, we put them in the back of the car with Eddy to take to the next town, figuring someone had abandoned them there. We left a note at the rest area and a note on a nearby door just in case. Eventually we found a conservation officer, and he said he'd picked up two puppies very similar to the one we'd found a couple months before, and that he'd found out they live in a cabin around there. He said we should take them back.

We hesitantly took the two dogs back (with several conversations about taking them home with us) and took them down a trail behind the rest area to see if we could locate the cabin. We didn't see anything, but it appeared the dogs knew where they were going, as they quickly disappeared into the forrest. We went back to the car and started loading up, thinking they'd gone home, when they reappeared, trotted across the parking lot, and went back into the woods again. At that point, we hated to leave them, but we weren't really sure what else we could do.

We headed on to Stewart, BC for the "world famous bear-viewing." When we got out of the car, we found a festival taking place, which had live music that drew us to it. It turned out to be the annual Bear Festival. We walked around the town for a while, set up our tent in the campground, and went to "The Bar." It turned out to be a very friendly environment, with one of the locals buying us several shots. We left in a drunken state and ended up at the tent for the night. We LOVE Stewart!

Alaska Highway 8-12-10

Today was rather uneventful. We got to see a mom and baby moose on the side of the road going into a pond and got some cute pictures of that. We drove past Kluane National Park (or something like that) and Destruction Bay, ate in Haines Junction, and drove on to spend the night fairly close to the exit to 37.

Moose Pass, Anchorage, Car Fun 8-11-10

We slept in the car on the side of the road in Kenai National Park. We listened to a very strange argument somewhere outside the car, and apparently there was a mystery smoker near the car as well. It was a very interesting night.

We got up pretty early and headed back toward the highway, stopping in Moose Pass for breakfast at a really nice little lodge. It was beautiful there. While eating, our waiter/cook told us he could show us where we could see some spawning salmon. We followed him down the road a very short way and went down to a little stream where a lot of red-colored salmon were pushing their way upstream. There were dead ones all around as well who apparently had accidentally jumped onto the bank. The rest were working very hard. We were told they swim upstream from the ocean to where they were born to then lay eggs and die. They looked pretty nasty...

After looking around Moose Pass (which we loved) a little longer, we headed toward Anchorage to get the car ready for the long drive home. Upon arrival in Anchorage, we picked up Jess' birth certficate from the UPS store (thanks Craig and Bernadette!) and went to Muffler City. After giving the car an inspection, they told me it would be around $1,100 due to it needing new tires, an oil change, and new brake pads all around. It hurt, but it was needed.

We picked up the car, hit the mall for a minute looking for Verizon (which we found doesn't exist in Alaska), and started driving around 7:30pm. We're spending the night in the car at a little 24 hour gas station somewhere on the Alaska Highway.

Goodbye Homer, Seward, Exit Glacier 8-10-10

Today we got up, re-organized and loaded the car, and headed out. Ray showed up right before we left from Soldotna to say goodbye, and we all went to breakfast in Homer one last time. We picked up the fish we'd left at Coal Point, I gave some of mine to Ray, hugged Ray goodbye, and we shipped the fish from the Homer airport to George Finnell in Leadville (thanks George)!

We finally got on the road and headed straight for Seward. We both enjoyed Seward. It's a beautiful little town! We bought some groceries in the Safeway there and ended up at the Alaskan Sealife Center, which struck us as a place we should check out.

When we looked at the prices inside, we were a bit hesitant about spending an extra $20 each, so we asked the two guys behind the counter about discounts. We said we had AAA and that we were teachers, and after some begging and pleading they allowed us to enter for free! It was awesome! Anyway, the Sealife Center was really nice. We saw all kinds of fish, sea lions, otters, birds, and got to touch some interesting plants.

We then drove around a bit more and checked out an old orphanage/school (abondoned now) that belonged to our friend Kari Crum's great-grandparents many years ago. It was a really cool old building.

We finished that and headed for Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. We hiked to the edge of the glacier, which was just beautiful, hiked back near dark, and slept in the back of the car just inside the entrance to the national park. It was a good day!

Disaster Averted, Preparation 8-9-10

I woke up (if indeed I ever did sleep) at 7:30am and started making phone calls. Some of the people reading this may have received one of these frantic calls asking for advice, phone numbers, or moral support. I was not excited about making the whole drive alone again, so I was feeling rather desperate to find a way for Jess to cross the border. Seriously... I had to think there was a way for her to get home other than buying a plane ticket. Other people must have this problem!

Fortunately, after five hours of calls, automated not-so-informational recordings, and holding for a human to answer, I got hold of American border crossing information/customs, and a very nice lady informed me that with a picture ID (a birth certificate is also helpful) and a little more questioning than usual, we can get Jess over the border as her "one time courtesy crossing." She said she didn't know how Canadian customs would feel about it, so she gave me another phone number. After waiting for another twenty minutes or so, a human being told me she didn't know why Americans think they have to have a passport to get into Canada because they don't require it at all. Words cannot describe the relief I felt after these two phone calls.

So, after informing Jess that she didn't have to buy a $400 ticket after all, we started packing and doing a few last things, and decided to leave tomorrow.

Coal Point, Two Sisters, Sleeping, Packing, More Dinner 7-8-10

The next morning we went to Coal Point to have our fish processed (vacuum packed and frozen). We grabbed sticky buns and much-needed caffeine at Two Sisters, made some plans for the evening, and we headed back to the cabin for a lovely nap.

When we finally woke up, we packed for quite a while, and then headed back to town to go to the brewery. We were running early, so we went to Alice's first where we found out that the brewery was closing in ten minutes. We quickly changed our plans and went to dinner at the Crooked Hook instead.

During dinner, we all had the chance to eat 7 saltine crackers in exactly one minute (meaning they had to be completely swallowed) for $100. None of us succeeded. In fact... I'm not sure any of us was even close! This is not something I will be trying again in the near future.

After dinner, we hung out at the Salty Dog for a little bit to say goodbye to Sarah and Scott because they were catching a ferry to Kodiak Island (jealous). After everyone was gone except Jess and me, somehow we got on the topic of passports. This is when Jess mentioned she didn't have one. I thought she was joking. She wasn't. We both had meltdowns at the Otter Room after getting over the shock and making frantic phone calls for help. The Otter Room closed and we went to Duggen's to throw darts, although our minds were far from the game.

We spent a restless night worrying about having to fly Jess home and a LOOOOOONNNGGGGGG drive back for me, all alone.