School Days

Well we got the kids into school, and it wasn't too easy. Apparently Alaska has different immunization requirements than Idaho, so they have all had to get shots. Ayden and Autumn only had to get Hep A, but poor Austin had to get Hep A, MMR, and Tetanus. He had a tetanus shot when he got stitches, but it wasn't in his records. We have been teasing him that he has to get blood work done today.... he got the shots on two separate days.
The kids all did very well on their first day of school. Austin found a fellow Mountain Homie that he has gone to school with since second grade. She was very excited to see him and I guess they got here two weeks ago. They are also waiting for housing. They have requested a housing close to ours...which I guess is the housing that nobody really wants. I really don't care what the housing is like. It's not like its cruddy... it's just smaller. A house is just a structure.... a home is what you make it!!
We are in TLF (temporary housing facility) for now. It feels good to be in something somewhat like a home. It is like a four-plex two bedroom apt. I got to actually cook a meal last night for dinner... I made stroganoff. This is after we went to the commisary. That was an ordeal in itself! We share the commissary and Bx with the army base, and maybe I am just being sensitive right now... but the army people are extremely rude!!! I don't know where things are in the store, and I litter ally got pushed aside twice by people so they could get something. ARGH! But other than the people, they store is very nice. It is HUGE! The aisles are nice and wide, and the store is kept very clean. The prices are comparable to home except for the basics.....milk is more than gas!!$4.50 a gallon!!! I stood there and stared at the price and Austin just laughed at me! But we got some food for the next two weeks, which is nice because eating out is so expensive and it gets old quickly!

WE MADE IT!!

We made it to Anchorage!! We got here a few days ahead of schedule because of circumstances in certain towns along the way. Our last day of driving was the longest one... and one I do not want to repeat. We left Haines Juction around 7:30 am and got into anchorage around 10:30 pm... and we lost an hour in there because of the time changes. That is just way too long in a vehicle!!! The thing is, is that it wasn't planned to be such a long day. After our ordeal in Watson Lake, we were off schedule with our reservations. Then when we got into Alaska (Tok), there wasn't a single room for us! The only options were to stay there and sleep in the car.. or continue driving. Our drive got lengthened because they were blasting... but the wait wasn't too long...just two to three hours!!! We made the most of our wait, we went to a pull off area and looked at a glacier. Adam and the kids did some more berry hunting, they found and ate some salmon berries. We took some pictures and I'll post them tomorrow.
Things went well here today. We should be getting house soon, and we started to enroll the kids into school today. Yes I said started ... Idaho does not require Hep A vaccines....so they had to get shots today. Welcome to Alaska!! :o)We got somewhat familiar with the base. It will take some time to get in all down, it is SO much bigger than Mountain Home. I am happy with the stuff on base....Starbucks, Cinnabon, Baskin Robbins : ) Right off base is a brand new Target... so new I'm not sure if its open yet. We ate at Red Robins tonight!It's nice to have some of the comforts of home in a new place.

This one is for Kenzie

I said I'd do more on the buffalo we saw.. and this is just for my Kenzie!! We wanted to see some and some we saw!! I thought you'd enjoy them.We hope to see some more wildlife as we come into Alaska. The views here are so incredible... words can not express! The country is so vast, it seems like it never ends. Green trees as far as the eye can see, and the river today was a beautiful turquoise color! You can tell along the side of the road where the animals have been, the grass is all matted down. It has been rainy, so most of the animals are hiding. We also kept seeing signs today for Elk... but they must have those confused with downed trees.... there plenty of those along the road.. ha ha! Or they have them mixed up with all the Ravens. They are all over the place. Did you know that they can remove your windshield wipers... and drink through a straw?!! I find this kind of creepy..does anyone else?

What a Difference a Day Makes

So we hit the road aroung 7:30 again this morning, and what a differnt day it was today. The weather was so extreme... it was fair but chilly when we left Fort Nelson. Not far down the road it was so foggy that we couldn't hardly see passed the end of our vehicle. Then it rained and rained, and this isn't rain like back at home...I didn't think it was going to stop. We complained about the lack of wildlife, so we got to see some today. We saw a Moose, but it was far from the road and in a river. We saw some Caribou, Dall Sheep, and Buffalo. More on the Buffalo later. When we got to what was supposed to be our destination for today, we found the hotel we were supposed to staying at. I was not impressed and we even looked for something else but found our choices weren't any better. Even Adam was leery but we went in anyways. We ate a lunch there,which was ridiculously expensive ($65), and went back down the very dark hall to our room. The place stunk so bad, it's like the horrible gas station restroom deoderizer... but stronger! Our feet were sticking to the floor in our hotel,....and I can't even discribe the bathroom to you!!! NASTY is too nice! We left the keys to the room in on the table and left....we drove to where we were supposed to be tomorrow night!! TG they had a room. It is no Ritz, but it seems like it after our other choice!!
So we are in Teslin, B.C. It has two rooms with a queen in each, but there are berries growing everywhere. The hotel is on a lake, and you have to cross this neat long bridge as you come into town. Ayden and Adam have been wanting a berry book, and they had one in the gift shop, so we went out identifying berries. It felt good to get out and walk, we got here around 5:45. That is long enough in the car!!

I Hate Lairs!!

So we got up early and ate, then hit the road again. We had a pretty good drive, still not much in the way of wildlife. We had been told that we would see lots of wildlife....so far we are up to eight deers. We have been joking that the people who put up the signs have deer mixed up with cows, and moose confused with horses!!He He!We have seen plenty of those.. but only eight deer this far into the trip is disappointing.
But here is the thing that has me so upset. I mentioned our experience in Dawson Creek and the laundry mat... we were told in there that it would be a lot more expensive here in Fort Nelson.WRONG!!! Not only is this town a lot cleaner, but they have a laundry room in the hotel. I had to go and find out what it was like:it has clean machines and it would of only been $9 to do all our laundry!Frustrating!! I understand that they want the business, but dishonesty really gets my knickers in a bind!!Arrg!
Anyways, we have to just let things go and enjoy the trip. We haven't been here before and we don't know what we have coming up ahead.You can't really tell anything from websites or put too much into word of mouth. It's all a learning experience!
Our hotel tonight is a newer Super8, and it is pretty nice. The room is bigger with two queens and a sleeper sofa. It also has a nice pool and a water slide that comes down from the second story.....and yes it is indoors, it was a whopping 60degrees today. We just got some snacks from the vending machine and tried some different candy bars.I haven't ever seen them back home...even in places like Powells. One was called "Mr Big", it was a wafer cookie covered with carmel and peanuts and then covered in chocolate. It was pretty good. It is about 9-10 inches long. The next was an "Aero" bar. It says "have you felt the bubbles melt?" on the package. It is a bar kind of like a Hersheys divided into eight peices but thicker and shorter, and once you bite into it, you see all the "bubbles". I didn't try this one, but the family all said it was really good.It is made by Nestle where as the Mr Big is made by Cadbury.. so if you find them somewhere, we recommend them. As a note...we paid $1.35 each for them. Everything in this country is more expensive; I know I have said that before, and I'm sure I'll say it again.: )
Well I could ramble on and on, but the kids want to play Uno. I prefer this to going back to the pool...I think their brains are turning into chlorine!!! More later! :o)

What day is it?

We have now made it to Dawson Creek, Canada; which is mile "0" for the Alaskan Highway. I sat down to start this blog and had to ask if it was really Friday...all the days are starting to blur together. Here was the highlight and big ordeal of the day. We had to do laundry becasue we haven't done it since our first night in Boise...we had a lot to do! We found a laundry-mat, which we have been looking for the last two nights, and ventured inside. It wasn't the nicest or cleanest place I've been to, but we had to get it done, we were running out of clothes! Adam and I went in to scout it out and find out how much it cost...here is the kicker...it was $4 for wash and a quarter for 3 minutes in the dryer!! After all was done we spent $18.75 to wash/dry three loads of laundry!! We then headed to Wal-Mart to find a jacket for me and got one for Autumn as well. It's hard to think aabout jackets when you are packing and it is 100 degrees outside....I packed one for Ayden and Adam-n- Austin has theirs.
We have noticed that the gas prices are relatively the same in all the towns. It's not like in Boise where you can see a huge difference in prices from station to station, or one side of town versus the other. We aren't sure if this is because it's goverment regulated or not, but it does make it easy to know how much it will cost to fill up on your trip.

Canada vs. USA

So far the major differences we have noticed between the US and Canada has been in the highways. Canada's highways are really nice.... well maintained and absolutely no trash on the ground!!! It has mostly been a two lane highway, but there are lots of slow vehicle turnouts. They also have litter deposits every so far.... these are trash cans that are bear proof. It takes a bit to remember the difference between Km and miles when it comes to the street signs. We have to really thing about it when we are looking to see how much farther a town is.......wish I would of paid more attention in math class now!
As for the towns we have stopped in,....they are alright. Cache Creek is older and small, and the motels was not much to desire. Tonight we are in Prince George, and the hotel is better. It is also older but not as old. I think it would be from about the 80's..... C.C. was more form the 50-60's. We have two rooms tonight, so we can all have a little space. It also has room service, but things here are rather pricey!! A kids meal at any restaurant starts at$5.00 and goes up to about $8... so needless to say, we are not ordering room service!
Everything here is more expensive.. it seems weird to see 139.9 for gas, but its for a liter. Now back to math class... there is roughly three and a half liters in a gallon if I remember right (but don't quote me). Now you can finish the math problem...... I have a 33.5 gallon tank!! UUGH! But we have actually been getting pretty good gas mileage so far. It only took around $30 to go from Tacoma to the Canadian border.