"Exploring the Blue" - Luka Bloom

Welcome to hotel living.

We were in a suite, which consisted of a bedroom separated from the living/kitchen area.  The couch in the living room is a pull out couch, but Caitlin was cool with sleeping on the couch instead of pulling the bed out and having to put it back together every day.  She liked her "little" bed.

Chad took the rest of our travel days (we drove faster than the Army anticipated us to) so we could start looking for a house instead of signing in to Post early.  Day 1 we drove the town and saw the sights.  I was pretty excited to finally see what Fairbanks had to offer - which is loads more than Leesville.

The first night I attempted to make dinner went okay.

As you can see, it was the easiest thing to make on a stove top - spaghetti!  This is the entire kitchen, the refrigerator is immediately to the left of the sink, a microwave above the stove top, a dishwasher you can see part of, two lower cupboards, and one upper cupboard.  And these are all the pots/pans I had.  Things got interesting as the meals got more creative. 

We were spending a lot of time in the downtown area where our realtor's office was, so we found a park close by that we could go to after breakfast before we met Chris.  It was a very nice park, a lot of open grassy space, a giant concrete tube that Caitlin could run through, and a pretty cool boat :)

JUNE 15th.
We put an offer on a house!!
There were three that we saw in the week before that we were torn between.  Each one had really distinct differences...like we were comparing apples to bananas.  But we decided on the big one :)  And by big one, I mean over 3,000 square feet...whew.

JUNE 16th.
The sellers countered on the house and we accepted!  Let the closing process begin :)

JUNE 22nd.
We drove about an hour north on our first weekend to explore a hiking trail.  It was one of the warmer days we have had since we have been here.  

Beautiful.

 The first 1.5miles was on this dirt road.

 This is how Cate did most of her hike.

 Not a bad view, eh?

 This was the next part of the hike, after going about 1.5miles...I had to put the kibosh on continuing on.  I didn't want to have a baby in the forest and Bug was having a hard time walking on the moss and not face planting and throwing a temper-tantrum about eating grass...

Oh, well.  We had a very good 3ish mile hike I'd say that is pretty good for a 2 year old, and a 34 week pregger.

And to top it off, on our way back we saw a moose!  This time Chad stopped and turned around, and as we were driving back with our eyes glued to the side of the road, they appeared right in front of us!  Caitlin was pretty impressed and continued to demand moose all the way back home (to the hotel).

JUNE 23rd.
The next day was the Festival of the Sun in Fairbanks and they had pony rides.  The best part about having a 2 year old is living vicariously through them...It was a long wait, but Caitlin did really well passing the time brushing all the ponies that weren't working.

And then it was her turn!!

She had her eye on this pony the whole time b/c this little one was also a Mommy.  The sweet little baby followed Mama's every step and Caitlin was infatuated with them.  So not only did she get to ride the Mama, the baby walked with her.  Best 7 min ever.

THE NEXT 2 WEEKS.
Chad signed in and started the In Processing process (yea, I know what I typed).  He only had to walk across the street so we had access to the car and Caitlin and I were able to explore Post a little bit on our own.

The library has a pretty awesome play room with puzzles and dinosaurs and blocks...oooohhh the blocks!

 We went to the park often.  See, it was warm here!

 

We discovered a play group on Post called Romp Stomp.  There are awesome hands on activities and then story time and then the stomping aspect...there is an indoor play structure!

And when we weren't out playing around, we took to skyping!  Which we are happy to do with anyone that wants to see our faces.  Keep in mind, you have to remind me via text to get on the computer b/c we are 4 hours behind most of you and I don't think to skype with anyone until y'all are in bed! :)

And when we weren't chatting with Grandparents or friends, we apparently raid Mom's closet. 

Oh, and we read a lot.  A lot.  Which is cool.  Especially having the library just across the street, we were getting about 4 new books ever 3 days :)

"On The Road Again" - Willie Nelson

For a split second of sitting in the car, my butt almost missed the seat.  Almost.  We still weren't sure as we pulled out of the Haines dock parking lot at 1pm if we were driving the 10-11 hours straight to Fairbanks or if we were going to stop in Tok for the evening.

Not everyone was happy that the car was back on the road and moving, but he was happy to attempt to make himself comfortable in the arms of a toddler.

 
Marvin couldn't seem to appreciate that we were surrounded by beautiful white capped mountains!

The temperature in Haines as we left was 56 degrees, and gas was a whopping $4.96 a gallon-ouch.

We were quickly approaching Canada which got me sifting through our "Important Docs" folder for proof we needed to traverse through the great land of Canada.  The border patrol asked for Chad's ID and if he had ever been to Canada before.  The answer was no, the guard stepped into his office, was back about 4 min later and told us to have a safe drive.  He didn't even ask our final destination...huh.  So glad I busted my butt to pack all of our "Important documents" so neatly.

Our scenery through British Columbia quickly turned ugly and really blah.

The scenery turned a little sour, so we turned to pondering odd topics.  Like, do prairie dogs live in Canada?  Or turtles?  Or any other cold-blooded animal for that matter.  Answers to come...

The Yukon Territory brought some prettier scenery than what BC had to offer.  Some sunnier weather as well.

It's time to add to the "Things That Amaze Me List", #5

Rest stops in Canada:

They are ultimately slightly glorified out houses...they're glorified by being a bit larger...but they lock with the little hook and eye latch, some didn't have lids, and toilet paper was optional I guess...I craved a gas station bathroom after using two of these...Oh Canada...

And now I'm just going to list some beautiful scenery pictures for your eyes to feast on.

We thought a manual for all the signs we passed would have been nice.  Some of them were obvious, and just silly - have you ever seen a sign warning you of rams?  But some of the signs weren't as clear.  See for yourself:

We were pretty elated when we saw the first sign for customs into Alaska, we were very ready to be done driving through Canada.  We were ready to be done driving period. 

Customs this time around was a bit more inquisitive as to why we wanted to cross into Alaska.  I felt a little more validated for having all of the documents neatly organized.  About 10 min later we were finally on our last stretch of the trip.  On this leg of the drive we saw...

A bear family!!!

A couple hours later, when we got closer to North Pole (about 30 miles from our final destination) we saw a moose on the side of the road but I wasn't quick enough to grab a picture...thanks Alaskan wildlife for giving us such a warm greeting on our first day in your state :)


We arrived in Tok, Ak around 11pm.  There was a restaurant that happened to be still serving food so we were able to get real food (we had been munching on cold hot dogs and gold fish crackers).  I called the hotel on Post to make sure if we showed up 12 hours prior to check-in if they would have a room for us, and they did, so we decided to keep on trucking.  This is how light it still was at midnight thirty.  Kinda cool, it actually made the drive a little easier. 

We arrived at North Lights Inn around 2:30am and promptly collapsed in the hotel.

One journey down, just in time for another one to start!  Welcome to Fairbanks, AK/ Fort Wainwright!

"Sing A Whale Song" - Tom Chapin

Now that you've seen the exciting entrance onto a floating hotel, here's the dull, "holey moley we've been on a boat for 40 hours..." side of it :)

First big adventure - we learned about "Things That Amaze Me #3".  A cat can fit anywhere. Especially when he's scared.  And when two people search the vehicle where he's supposed to be and they notice that the 4 windows that were left cracked open could have all been possible escape routes for said cat...preggo Mom goes into panic mode.  I was on a car deck on a moving ferry with about 50 other vehicles full of barking dogs and my cat was no longer inside our car, safe and sound!!  About 12 really loud heartbeats later I heard Chad say, "found him".  Gah.  He was under the middle bench seat.  I vacuum that car often, and I've had my head on the floor-you can't see through to the other side.  There isn't very much open space under that seat...I will say it again-Gah.  Yes, this story is kind of the opposite of dull, but I will tell you that after this I was pretty ready to be done traveling.     

Yea yea yea, I know the view was gorgeous, especially when the sun was shining and whales were sounding...

And when toddlers think it's cool that you're on a boat and not throwing temper tantrums for one reason or another, it's pretty cool, but still-there are only so many laps you can make around the ferry deck before even the toddler gets bored.


Even if the toddler is in such a good mood that you get big cheesy smiles whenever you ask for them!

This is a light house, believe it or not.  As we passed it I couldn't really see any access roads to the place.  I wouldn't be surprised if the only access was by helicopter.  After tooting our horn at them (probably pretty exciting moment for those at the light house...) we heard over the loud speaker that there was another sighting of whale spouts!

On to our 2nd full day aboard the Columbia.  We made our first stop in Ketchikan, AK at 0600.  I got up early and took the opportunity to walk to the grocery store across the street from the ferry dock.  My goal was to get some food supplies like cereal and milk and munchies so we weren't spending $6 on one of those little individual cups of cereal that are so incredibly over priced because we are on a ferry and I guess that makes everything triple in price...but I forgot that we were now in Alaska and I was never going to spend less than $5 on a box of off brand cereal again even if I wasn't on a boat. 

It was a cute little town.

Another early morning for me, this one was our last on the ferry!  Up at 6am and I was WAY too excited about getting back in the car...

...I mean, whales are cool, they will always be exciting in my book.  But, I could never live on a boat.  Too dreary.  Too small.  Even if it is a cool looking boat.

Our last grab of fresh air, about 20 min from docking in Haines, AK.

Wave bye-bye!

Things That Amaze Me #4:

A cat, a 2.5yr old, a 7.5mo preggo, and a guy that's afraid of water made it on a boat for 68 hours!!!

After waiting only 45min or so in the car for our turn to ride the car elevator, we're off the boat and back in the car!!!  Wait...did I just say that?

And only needing one more sign, I was able to get it :)

"I'm On A Boat" - Lonely Island

Today is the day.  We get on a boat. 

68 hours later we would exit the boat.

68 hours.

For those of you who have never put your car on a ferry...stay tuned, it was kind of cool.

This is the first view of the ferry.  I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Once we parked, we got out and wandered the dock a little bit.  They corralled us all into lanes specific to our destinations and then we waited.  And waited.  For about 2 hours.  At least we could get out of the car.

Here is a better view of our floating hotel:

Upon some more wandering we ran into a set of confusing signs...

Did someone not pay attention??

We lined up in the parking lot at 2:30 in the afternoon, we were told to be by the car by 3pm.  We didn't start moving until somewhere around 5pm...we watched Disney's Robin Hood a few times...

And then it was our turn!

We drove right into a car elevator.  There were two, this is the one on the other side of the ship, to give you an idea of what a car elevator looks like.

This was ours:

The elevator took us up and we were the second to last car to get on the 2nd floor deck.  So we backed right out of the elevator into our spot.  And then we got to explore our new digs...

(There are a couple of typos in the above picture-the reason they aren't being fixed is due to the HORRIBLE internet bandwidth in our hotel, I'm not re-uploading this picture...If you can ignore the mistakes, we can continue to be friends)


We "set sail" and wandered outside to wave good-bye to the contiguous United States. 

Not entirely sure why she was hiding...

Yes, these are tents on a boat deck. 

This is off the back of the boat.  There was an upper and a lower deck, the upper deck had a solarium that was heated with a large amount of those cheap deck lounge chairs you find next to pools.  I'm not sure if I have a picture of the solarium, but it was ultimately a covered porch (with windowed walls on the port and starboard sides and heat lamps on the ceiling) where on a first come first serve basis, you could grab a chair and it's surrounding space, claim it with your belongings, and then go duct tape your tent to the deck floor outside of the solarium.  If I had been on this ferry 7-10 years ago, I would have been here.

And if you had a spot claimed off the back of the ferry, this was your view.  They had a pretty awesome view the whole time.  Despite the wind and possible frigid temperatures at night, it's a pretty cool idea.

Making it onto the ferry was a major goal in my mind.  Once in Haines, AK we are over 60% done on our overall trip to Fairbanks.  The Columbia was our substitute home for 68 hours.  It just goes to show our "little" journey across the country to get to the ferry ended at "home".  It was a very good journey, we had a couple close calls (almost losing the cat, leaving my favorite re-freezable cooler in the hotel fridge-sorry Mom), but those are nothing compared to what could have happened and never did.  The deployment (that is almost a year ago now) is still fresh in my mind, and it keeps me enjoying every moment with a complete family.  Every time things get tense, or nerves start to run a little raw, it's easy to remember how empty and sometimes hopeless those nights could feel, but now, don't.  It keeps my perspective in check and I'm very thankful for that.  It's good to know I can still learn from something even though the situation is long over and done with :)

"Rain, Rain, Go Away...

2 days in Seattle, WA.

It rained.  As I've heard it usually does in Seattle...but it didn't keep us from getting out and exploring.

I initially wanted to visit the Space Needle, until we got in the car and saw Seattle traffic...it seems that it's always rush hour.  It took us about 35 min to go 7 miles through downtown.  We decided to just visit the Market before it closed, which didn't give us much time.  We hung out in the public parking lot for about 7 min for it to hit 5pm and only pay $15 for unlimited parking through the night (not that we planned on staying that long) otherwise it was something outrageous like $8 for 15 min.  The downside was the Underground Market closed at 5pm, the above ground portion was open until 6.  I'll admit, it was kind of cool to see the fresh fish and fruits and vegetables laid out on ice (very much like the movies).  I can't imagine people coming here to buy their food every day through, where do they park?! 

We made it through the market (I drooled through most of the fresh produce), and we stopped for one of those rare moments - a family photo...it was really windy, and cold. 

We found a mexican restaurant that was actually really yummy.  I wanted so very much to have a margarita...

Bug asked politely to play "Birds", restaurants are about the only place she is allowed to play on the phones.  Dad was only half watching what she was doing and it seemed she was finding hidden bonuses and things that he never knew existed, and couldn't figure out how she was doing it :)  I guess this generation is born with a weird knowledge of electronics...

Overall, I was pretty unimpressed with Seattle.  Yea, we only gave it 24 hours, but I'm not sure I could handle the dreary weather and traffic...

"Car" - Brand New

Day 3 of, I have no idea how many...

Technically we are done driving for a while after this.

Missoula, MT though Idaho into Washington with a final destination of Seattle.
478 miles.
7-9 hours.
Fort Polk to Fairbanks total completion = 60%

Things that amaze me #2:

Adding a lumpy soft-sided car top carrier to the top of our SUV actually improved our gas mileage from the time we left Traverse City to getting to the mountains.  It seems all those people that pay the extra $ for the smooth aerodynamic cases...you're wasting your money!  Just don't drive through mountains and you'll get great gas mileage.

We had a handful of debates (like you do when you're stuck in a car for the number of hours that we were).  One of them was trying to come up with the scientific term for the elevation at which vegetation stops growing in the mountains.  There is a very distinct line that traces the apex of a mountain that doesn't have anything there...So, are you ready for this so very scientific name?...

Wait for it...   Tree Line

"The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. Beyond the tree line, they are unable to grow because of inappropriate environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures or lack of moisture)."  Thanks Wikipedia!

I know, anti-climatic, right?    

Other than crossing into Idaho while it snowed, anti-climatic was pretty much the rest of our trip. 

We did have another conversation about Princess Hiawatha.  We were trying to figure out why we see her name all over the place, there is a forest named for her in Mi, we were seeing her name along our route out West...and neither of us could figure out what she did...

Back to wikipedia...
Basically, she was the leader of the Mohawks and convinced 5 nations to band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy.  Good for her.  That's some good girl power!


As we have crossed through a ridiculous number of state lines, the ones from MI to WA were the exciting ones because we were on official orders to Alaska.  Well, I did fantastically well getting pictures of each border crossing.  Until we got to Washington...

THERE WAS NO SIGN!?!?!  Jerks. 

It was a pretty state to drive through though. 

And then we hit Seattle at about 4:45...yea we thought that through well...

Seattle means a little bit of a break from driving.  We get to visit with one of our best friends from college.  She's been in Portland for a year or so, maybe two...I lose track of time easily :)  Either way, she's driving up to spend the next day or so with us before we head another 80 miles north to catch our Ferry to Alaska!

You have no idea how much joy there is in the fact that we successfully drove across damn near the entire country (Louisiana North to Michigan and then Michigan West to Washington) without any vehicle accidents or break downs, any major earth shattering temper tantrums, a cat who is in one piece and still under our care, a pregnant lady who is still pregnant and a happy couple that is still married!

I am thanking our lucky stars, counting our blessings, and loving all those family and friends who had any part in our vacation and/or general travels.  Those that followed us on Facebook and sent texts or comments throughout the trip, you all helped keep me sane :)  

Love, hugs, and blessings to everyone!

"Meet Me In Montana" - Marie Osmond

Day 2.

1 state line (ND to MT).
759 miles.
9-10 hours of drive time.

This is the part of the drive I was dreading.  Our longest stretch, mileage wise, and the most boring.  We got on the highway and never left it.  The hotel was even right off the highway.  Anyway, it was flat and boring.  And rainy. 

Marvin did not do well today.  He had a hard time being back in the car.  He tried to give me a heart attack by escaping from the car while I was checking us in to the hotel at 10pm in North Dakota.  Chad had the "difficult" decision to either chase the cat, or stay with his child...hmmmmm.  Luckily there was a man in the parking lot who chased after Marvin long enough to track him and allow Chad to unbuckle Caitlin and run after Marvin with her tucked under his arm...needless to say - my husband loves me.  A LOT. 

This is the last half of North Dakota.  We figure this is kind of what the Bad Lands of South Dakota look like, just a little more prolific.  The buttes were kind of cool to see.

And what long day on the road isn't complete without a big rain storm?

At least I was quick enough to catch the lightening!!!  I was initially really impressed with myself, but with the amount of lightening happening and how long each strike lingered in the air, it was actually pretty easy, especially with a SLR camera...

Montana was pretty when it stopped raining on us.  It became much more mountainous the more we got into the state and (duh) closer to the Rockies-go figure!