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.

More Halibut Fishing, Faaancy Dinner 8-7-10

Today we got up pretty early and got ready to fish. It was cold and rainy, so I have to admit I was not all that excited about the idea. We threw on some of Matt's fishing gear (since we only had what we'd worn to the bar the night before) and jumped in his truck, which was towing what I'm going to call an ocean speedboat. We were with Matt and two hitch-hikers he'd picked up a few days before, Scott and Sarah. They were really nice.

We went to Two Sisters for sticky buns, but they were out, so we had to settle for other not-so-amazing-but-yummy-just-the-same food items and coffee. We jumped back in the truck and headed to the docks. The four of us "tourists" bought our one day fishing licenses again, and we hopped on the boat.

Matt likes to go fast, as we found out when the ENTIRE boat was out of the water multiple times as we ramped a wave. It was a little horrifying in my mind, as I am not a fan of water in the first place these days, but it was fun nonetheless. We would ramp a wave, fly, and crash down into the water again with a huge jolt that could easily give a person whiplash.

Our first spot for fishing didn't yield any halibut, but we caught a few Irish Lords. I'm rather proud to say that mine was the only one big enough to keep. :-) After that, we headed far out to sea, hitting harder waves and flying even more. It was raining and cold, and we were going quite fast, but we all survived. When we finally got to where the "real halibut" hang out, we started catching them as soon as our weights hit the ocean floor, which was between 150-250 feet deep in that spot. The halibut were easy to catch, but they were exhausting to pull up from the depths. I did better this time - I caught six and let a few of them go. It was good.

We finally headed back with our halibut (I'm not allowed to say how many) and then to dinner. He said we were going to a place called Wasabi's. There was a bit of panic going on in my mind as I remembered that Ray said it was really expensive. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded when we got there and Matt told the waiter to bring us whatever he wanted. Everyone there knew Matt by name, and our waiter just started bringing things. We had delicious mojitos, tons of sushi, several different appetizers, split a steak entree with potatos, and peanut butter pie for dessert.

After dinner, Jess and I lost ALL our remaining energy and ended up sleeping foot to head on Matt's couch under the same blanket while Matt fileted the fish and Sarah and Scott cleaned the boat. I guess we're landlovers after all, but at least we have good lungs, and we ended up with PLENTY of fish to send back to Leadville!

Spit Shops, Salty Dog, Duggen's 7-6-10

Today was very interesting. We hit the shops on the spit for quite a while, buying souveniers and gifts. After that, we hit a shower and then went to the Salty Dog on the spit for a drink. This proved to be an eventful time.

The Salty Dog is THE place to go on the spit for tourists, but apparently some local fishermen hang out there too. The entire place is covered in dollar bills with interesting sayings or names on them. There are so many dollars covering everything that it is almost imposing and forces a bit of claustrophobia to set in.

Anyway, we wandered into the room with the pool table, mostly I think to get away from the huge crowd in the main room, and happened upon a few guys playing a friendly game of pool. As soon as I stepped into the room, a really drunk guy (so drunk I was surprised he was still standing) came to me and said he was going to kick the other guy's ass (in pool). I basically told him to go for it. Anyway, the other guy started talking to us as well. His name was Matt, and after talking to us for a bit, he asked if we'd like to tour a couple of fishing boats with a small group of people, and if we'd like to go halibut fishing with him the next day. We ended up agreeing to this.

Touring the boats was rather amazing. They were rather large fishing boats called the Seaside Valley and the Grizzly. They were pretty in a fishing boat sort of way. Anyway, we got to sit in the captain's chairs and to see how all the fishing works when out at sea. It was pretty cool.

We ended up going to Duggen's after that and throwing some darts with Matt, who then took us to his house after the bar closed to hide from a drunk guy who'd been trying to get us to kiss him repeatedly. It was an interesting night, and we ended up crashing at his house until morning. Oh, and there were a great many dead animals in his house, mostly furs in every form you can imagine... I am not very keen on furs at all, so that part didn't sit well with me, or with Jess I believe.

Jess arrives! Nap, Diamond Beach, Sarah Palin 8-5-10

Today was great! I got up around 3am to pick up Jess in Kenai. On the way to the airport, I saw a bunch of moose, and coming back from the airport, we saw even more, including some babies. They were beautiful.

We took a little walk around the beach and the spit when we got to Homer, and finally decided to go back to the cabin for a nap before further adventuring.

When we woke up from our very long, satisfying naps, we went back to the spit and ate lunch at Starvin' Marvin (fantastic pizza and cheese bread). We walked around the spit a bit more, hit a couple stores, and ran into none other than Sarah Palin outside one of the stores we had found. She had a small mob around her, but I managed to get a couple pictures just to prove that we really did see her. I'm hoping we don't lose IQ points by proximity. :-)

Because the sun decided to make an appearance, we then hiked down to Diamond Beach with Eddy. It was a beautiful hike and the weather was beautiful most of the time. By the time we'd hiked back up to the car, it had clouded over, but we really appreciated seeing Homer with some sun today!

We haven't decided what to do this evening, but I believe we're getting beers somewhere and probably having a "Pirates of the Caribbean" marathon after that. I'm so glad Jess is here, but I can't believe it's almost time to head home. Where has summer gone?!

Shower, movies 8-4-10

Today was not very exciting, but I'm really happy that Jess arrives in Anchorage tonight, and is taking a plane to Kenai where I will pick her up tomorrow morning at 4:45am. I seriously can't even remember what all I did today, so I'm not going to write about it. Wow...

Two Sisters, Dinner, True Blood 8-3-10

Today wasn't very extraordinary either. We got up late... too late to set up the stand and pop. I ended up leaving for water and food, since we really didn't have either in the house.

I ended up at Two Sisters Bakery/coffee shop, which I've come to love. I had an amazing "sticky bun" and a caramel latte while I played on the internet. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend a couple hours in the afternoon.

After that, I met Ray for dinner at a really yummy thai place that I will miss when I leave. He went on a date, and I went home to watch more of "True Blood," my latest TV series addiction.

Errands, Back to Homer, movies, cookies 8-2-10

Today was not very exciting. We pretty much made sure everything that needed to go to Homer was in Ray's truck and did a few errands around Soldotna and Kenai. We then drove back to Homer and watched movies most of the evening due to our exhaustion. We also baked a pizza, which was really good. We ended up watching "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" and "The Green Mile."

2nd Day air show, Bye to Mike, driving back 8-1-10

I can't believe it's August! Anyway, today was the second and final day of the air show. It's really been cool seeing some of the plane formations and the crazy stuff they can do with aircraft! Today was much more busy than yesterday in terms of business. We were busy pretty much all day. I ended up popping for hours in our tent along with Mike, cranking out as much kettle corn as we could. It was hot and exhausting, but we got through it.

It took us a while to clean up the stands due to traffic, and the overall mess that kettle corn makes. Once we got out of there, Mike, Ray and I separated from everyone else in the suburban to get Mike to the airport. We got him a seat, then had some really good pizza and beer for dinner. After dropping Mike at the airport for good this time, Ray and I went back to Soldotna to spend the night.

Air show, IMAX 7-31-10

Today was insane. We got everything set up at our stand, though the entire ordeal was rather frustrating what with too many chiefs trying to set up two stands at once. When we were finally organized and ready, the morning went quite slowly. I even had time to wander around, take pictures of planes, and get coffee.

I'd never been to an air show before this one, and I have to say it was very impressive. It's almost a bit intimidating knowing we have planes like that under our control. A hovering plane? Wow.

Anyway, business picked up in the afternoon and I ended up popping for a bit. Mike did most of the popping at our stand. I was eventually called to the other stand to pop for a while too.

After we were all thoroughly exhausted, we closed down the tents, took showers, and went to see "Inception" on the IMAX. FYI: The price of an IMAX in Alaska is $17. This set a record for how much I've paid to see a movie. Typical.

Cleaning, driving, misfortunate events, rude camping neighbor 7-30-10

Today we once again got up very early to head to Soldotna with my kettle corn stand in a trailer. Unfortunately, when we got to the truck that was pulling the trailer from Ray's cabin, we found a flat tire. We ended up having to wait for Ray's family to come with a jack and fix the tire.

When we finally got to Soldotna, we spent hours cleaning out kettles in the rain, packing trailers, cleaning everything else, organizing, etc..., but we finally got it all done and packed.

Ray, Mike and I headed to Anchorage in a suburban. Everyone else had a truck and trailer. We stopped once to put more air in a tire of a truck, we stopped another time because the two guys pulling one of the trailers decided they had to have music playing... let's just say it was a very long ride to Anchorage that night.

When we got to the air force base, we had to get picture ID's to get in for the weekend, and to get the ID's we had to have a military sponsor. Fortunately, Ray's mom could sponsor us being the wife of a veteran.

When we got to our spot in the overflow camping on the base, we had to deal with a really rude guy in a camper trying to steal a picnic table (which we didn't really care about, just thought was rather rude), and his wife saying we were being too loud. By the way, it was about 10pm... not insanely late, and all we were doing was setting up the camp, and I didn't really think we were that loud. Oh well.

Halibut Fishing 7-29-10

Today was the big day for fishing! I have to admit I was a bit nervous about the trip. We got up insanely early to head to the boat dock. I made us slightly late when I couldn't locate my fishing license for a bit.

After we checked in and paid, we went to the boat and sat outside (almost everyone else was inside), and took a whole lot of beautiful sun/cloud pictures. It was a beautiful morning (and now I have that stupid song in my head). We rode for about an hour and a half into the sea, which grew increasingly more rough and rolling. I'd never been on a boat in the ocean (other than the bigger ferry we took to Seldovia), and this was a completely different sort of adventure. I could feel stomach wanting to get queasy, but tried to ignore it.

We finally got to our first destination fishing place, and they handed us all poles which were already baited, and showed us how to work them. The sinkers were as big as my fist, and quite heavy, so when we let them go into the water, it pulled the line out pretty quickly. We were to let it sink (about 250 feet) until it hit the bottom of the ocean, and then real it up slightly so it didn't drag. As soon as we figured out what it felt like to hit the bottom, we were catching fish very quickly.

It was very exciting to get the first bite on my pole, but it soon became exhausting work pulling in both the fighting fish and the heavy sinker. We were all taking breaks as we pulled them up. It was very gratifying to pull that first fish out of the water. We had to yell "fish up" when he came to the surface, and one of the boat crew would come to take care of it. I guess it was "tourist fishing," but I reallly didn't mind. Halibut are not pretty, as you can probably tell from the above pictures.

We each caught our two fish in the end, and slept most of the way back to shore in the cabin. I know two of the three of us was not feeling so happy about the rolling ocean movement by the time we got back.

After collecting our cleaned fish, we went to Cosmic Kitchen for a bite, back to Ray's cabin,and slept away the afternoon. We then took down my kettle corn stand to get prepared for the upcoming air show this weekend. We are definitely facing a long, tiring weekend in Anchorage. After all this was done, Ray cooked up some of his halibut for us to eat deep fried. It was heavenly. I'd never had halibut that was never frozen, but it was divine. Wow.

Flaming kettle, preparing to catch halibut 7-28-10

Today I got up semi-early and headed to the stand to pop. I thought it would be rainy, but it turned out to be a very nice day. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten far when the kettle decided to catch on fire on the inside, so I turned it off and gave up for the day. Ray said he'd take care of it when he arrived.

So, I went back to the cabin, cleaned a bit, and waited for Ray and Mike to show up. When they did, we went into town and had a beer at Alice's, and got ready to go fishing the next day. We hit Safeway and got some things to eat and made sure we had fishing licenses. My out of state fishing license was $20 a day, so I guess I'm glad it was only one day!

Now that we're back to the cabin, we're hitting the hay, considering we have to check in tomorrow at 5:30am to get on the boat. Ugh. I hope I don't turn into a blooper fisher when I get pulled into the water by a big fish! :-)