: : : June 21, 2002 : : : 5:38 PM : : :

For the past hour I really needed to sneeze but I couldn't. I finally did but the funny feeling just behind my nose hasn't left yet.

----------

Phew. I finally get the chance to update. I'll start off by saying that I had a really good time on my trip. Juneau was great. I wish I had an extra day so I could explore the valley more.

Before you continue, you should listen to our theme song while reading: "North to Alaska" by Johnny Horton. You can probably find it somewhere on the 'Net.

We started driving Friday night and got to Cache Creek just in time for our reservation. We foolishly followed the advice to take Hwy #7 because we were told it was faster. Getting out of the city it was, but afterwards the speed limit was only 70 until we got to Hwy #99 (we should have taken the Trans-Canada. The motel looked quite cheesy (green shag carpeting) but had really nice cars outside (OK, when I went to the site the first time, there were classic cars outside. Now the picture isn't as nice).

Saturday morning, I managed to catch the last bit of the Croatia/Italy match. The guide I was looking at gave the wrong time for it. But after that and a part of the next game, we zoomed to a lake about an hour-and-a-half north of New Hazelton (but for us less than an hour). We were trying to drive as far as we could that night so we didn't really get to stop anywhere except the 100 Mile House and Williams Lake visitor centres. We didn't stop in Prince George because it was very underwhelming when we drove into it to find a gas station. But how many times did we have to cross the Fraser River these two days?

And by popular choice, I'm tastier than my friend (according to mosquitoes).

Driving on Sunday was a real pain. The Cassiar highway for some reason has gravel parts to it. The van we were driving in was sort of new so we had to drive really slow in those areas. Most people were courteous when they passed us, but this one semi coming the other direction didn't slow down and sent a rock to our windshield creating a nick in it. We'll have to get that fixed.

We made up for the slow speed and drove the long distance to Whitehorse in about 11 hours. We managed to get there at a decent time so we walked around and took goofy shots. It didn't hurt that at 11:30 PM it was light enough to be 7:30. That was pretty cool. When I woke up during the night at 3:00 AM it was STILL light out. Cool.

We were going to explore Whitehorse a bit in the morning but the woman at the front desk of the motel told us that the city is very expensive and we should leave early to spend a lot of time in Haines because the town is great.

The drive was spectacular. We loved the mountains. We also managed to find some snow and pulled over to play in it for a couple of minutes.

We had no trouble at all crossing the border. We were debating playing the song, "Drugs in My Pocket" but chickened out. I suggested we play our theme song, but we ended up turning our stereo off.

Haines was pretty cool, but it was so small that we finished seeing everything in only a few hours. Joy of joys, however, because while we were buying ice for the cooler, I found Junior Mints. Yay. That was the first box of a few that I bought on the trip.

We took a ferry over to Juneau, because you can't get there by car. The ride was four hours but it didn't feel like it because there was a small movie theatre so we got to watch Lord of the Rings.

So we got in late Monday and made it to the hostel just before it closed. One guy promised to keep it open while we tried to find a legal parking spot. That's what we learned on our trip: Juneau isn't very car friendly. Parking spots are hard to come by. Fortunately the hostel was mere blocks from downtown.

Juneau is super cool! The downtown is really touristy but there are a lot of cool stores among the souvenir shops. On our last day in Juneau we went to a Pub & Grill for dinner and they served Moosehead on tap. ON TAP. I forgot all about drinking a local beer and ordered that.

On tap!

I had two favourite parts of my visit to Juneau. The first was hiking up Mt. Roberts (though we did take the tram part of the way up) which got us a good view of the area. One man we met on the way up (he lent us his binoculars to get a better view of a bear) said it best: "Mother Nature really had her shit together to create this." My other favourite part was seeing the glacier. That was cool.

Cold, even.

At the crack of dawn on the Thursday, we had to leave to catch a really, really, really long ferry ride. I enjoyed it. We didn't get a room so we camped in one of the rear viewing lounges, where camping without a tent was allowed. I took a shower on the ferry, and that is such a strange feeling. I don't know how it would be different than at a public pool, but it felt weird.

The ferry ride, not including the stops at ports was 23 hours long. Egad. We did get to watch a couple of movies so that shortened it a bit. We played chess, but only one game because I won by a landslide. Yeah, we had to find ways to kill some time.

Crossing back into Canada took a bit more time which surprised me a bit. It was funny, just before we got off the ferry we asked a ferry employee if we needed to declare our stuff off or on the ferry. She told us that we didn't have to worry - that we could do it at the actually crossing: "Don't worry, they're Canadians." I guess we looked American?

We camped at an RV Park just south of Prince George last Friday. Again, I was the preferred meal. I still occassionally scratch those bites.

Overall, we had a good ol' time but could have used a couple more days. Maybe next time. =)

Anyway, I have to go. I just got a call from my sister enticing me with vegetable lasagna.

=)