Contagion

With all the super-stars in this movie, how could I miss it! Matt Damon - Gwyneth Paltrow - Marion Cotillard - Jude Law - Kate Winslet - Laurence Fishburne (The Help STILL isn't here, Kristin!!!) Well, I kind of suspected the premise of the story and of course was pretty right on. If you think of the SARS epidemic that happened not too long ago, this is the story, although it is not SARS (but they do refer to it in the movie). Luckily, was only about 1-1/2 hours long - which was plenty long enough. A bit of a sleeper if you ask me although IMDb gives it 7/10 stars. Worth seeing?? I would wait for the DVD to come out.

south to Denali

Left Fairbanks and drove toward Denali National Park. The sky started to cloud over (oh no, where did our summer weather go???) and soon drops of rain were falling on our car. It showered off and on, but the bright side of this was the rainbows that formed.
We viewed a slight double rainbow as we neared Nanana.

Denali National Park, home of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America (20,322 feet). Unfortunately, the clouds had settled over this great mountain, so all we saw was the bottom 322 feet. We drove the allowable for personal vehicles - the first 15 miles. Although we couldn't see the highest mountain the foliage had turned and the scenery was alive with colour.


Next time, I want to take the bus tour into the park. It takes about 6 hours to complete and apparently the wildlife viewing is phenomenal.

north to Fairbanks

Forgot to tell you about the large mosquito we ran into in Delta Junction. K took a photo of it biting my wrist - boy did that hurt!

And, couldn't bypass North Pole Alaska. The town has street names like St. Nicholas Drive and Santa Claus Lane and the street lamps are decorated like candy canes. Ho Ho Ho, we did some Christmas shopping there.

Fairbanks and area

Took my computer, but not the cord to charge it. Consequently, the big break in my trip.
Onward now to Fairbanks. Visited the University of Alaska's Museum of the North. Loved the art exhibits. The building's design conveys a sense of Alaska, evoking images of alpine ridges, glaciers and a diving whale's tail.

Above is Kristin in the "outhouse", decorated with all those things you have at home and don't know what to do with. It was decorated inside and out, something I may do if ever I have an outhouse again.

The university is high above the main city and affords a wonderful view from the large windows.

One fascinating section of the museum was The Place Where You Go to Listen. It is a unique sound and light environment created by composer John Luther Adams. It gives voice to the rhythms of daylight and darkness, the phases of the moon, the seismic vibrations of the earth and the dance of the aurora borealis, in real time. Although not music, the vibrations of the earth are amplified to sound to our ears like music.

The university also has a large agricultural section in which it invited one to stroll through its gardens and greenhouses. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that.

The weather was beautiful. We drove east for about an hour to visit Chena Hotsprings. It was even warm enough to lie in the sun after our dip in the water!

Day 2, Alaska Holidays

Left Dawson City at around 9 this morning. Crossed on the small ferry to the Top of the World Highway. Never been there, so was as exciting for me as it was Kristin. Fall in settling into the landscape. The hills are beginning to turn crimson and the leaves are turning brilliant yellow. As we neared Alaska, the colours became more vivid.
Above, is the end of the Alaska Highway. The beginning is Dawson Creek - Mile 0. Above is the end!! This is in Delta Junction, AK.

Here is the ribbon of road. The road was actually pretty good if you discounted the potholes in which you could see hades! And on the AK side, the road was similar to the Fish Lake Road in Whitehorse. But, all in all, considering where we were, it was not too bad. I did have a stroke of ill luck when I ran into a caravan of about 18 RV's and had to pass them all. Yuck. Other than that, there wasn't very much traffic.

There ain't nobody here but us chickens. Our first stop, Chicken Alaska. Always wanted to visit this lovely little town!
Currently in Fairbanks where we will stay tomorrow to visit all the places on Kristin's list. And the weather is fabulous! Till tomorrow,

Dawson City

Left this morning for our week long trip. Packed plenty of warm clothes (from experience of this summer!), stopped at the Chocolate Claim for coffees and off we went. Stopped at Braeburn for a world famous cinammon bun and at Moose Creek Lodge for delicious soup. As we drove north the sun came out and by the time we arrived in Dawson City we were sweltering and had very very very very few clothes for summer weather!!!! If this keeps up we may have to do some clothes shopping. Saw a moose and a black bear on the way. Off to the top of the world highway tomorrow and hopefully make it to Fairbanks, but we'll see how far we get.

Lily

Guess who I dog-sat yesterday. We went for a couple of walks and as usual, she was full of beans. I think coming to my house is like going to Disneyland or some other amusement park. It was fun to spend some time with her.

Finally

After 30 some odd years, I finally met Debbie's sister Judi's husband Fred (did you follow that!?!) He was very nice and I don't know why she kept him as a secret for so long. We had a couple of golf outings, the last one in the steady rain. But that's what happens when you are only here for a few days. Had fun and look forward to their next visit.

August 20, 2011

Two cousins finally got to spend some time together.

The cabin is beginning to look cozy and homey. We had a wonderful evening. Thanks Brooke for suggesting the celebration be held there!

Happy Birthday Kristin

Kristin had a cabin-21st-birthday! Again, the photos didn't come out in order, but above is K blowing out her candles. The cake, a pavlova, came complete with Cheerios (her favourite food), fruit and edible flowers.

Dinner, prepared by SR & Brooke, was the most delicious bar-b-qued steak, baked taters and corn on the cob. When asked what her favourite food was besides cereal she responded "I enjoy a good steak". I believe we got that good steak which was cooked to perfection!
And miracle of miracles, the clouds separated, the sun came out and, for the first time since the first week of June, we were able to eat outside.

To celebrate her 21st, K popped the cork and poured champagne.

Happy Birthday Princess Kristin. Hoped you enjoyed your party!

(I stole this from cousin Joe)

National Film Board of Canada: What happens when you travel the world and cut together 1 second of footage from each location?

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Discovery Days

Ontario has civic holiday, we have Discovery Days (third Monday in August).

Gold was discovered in the Yukon territory on August 16, 1896. The discovery of placer gold on Rabbit Creek - later known as Bonanza Creek - touched off the great Klondike Gold Rush.

The discovery was made by George Carmack and his aboriginal friends Skookum Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie. While Carmack always maintained that he was the first to find gold, both Jim and Charlie agreed that it was Jim's discovery. The claim was registered the next morning on August 17.

At the height of the great Gold Rush, Dawson City -- named after George Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada -- was the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of Seattle with a population of 30,000. Once the gold ran out, the adventurers moved on.

This Discovery Day, K & I visited the Old Log Church (it was free today) as well as the SS Klondike, the old paddlewheeler by the Yukon River.

Golfing

Where's the camera when you need one. Golfing last night at Meadow Lakes Golf Course, we had to pause our game to allow a BEAVER to cross the fairway in front of us. So neat to see!

Fjordlines Express Continued

The harbour seals were floating on this marker in the Lynn Canal (which is really not a canal but a fjord). That is Herbert Glacier in the background.

The 'funnest' part was watching the humpback whales. Just outside of Juneau, there was a pod of at least a dozen whales, all breaching, spouting and diving. This, apparently, is unusual to see so many swimming together and it was great for whale watching. The photo above shows a man in a small boat (the arrows point to the man and to a part of his boat). He was just standing there watching as they surrounded his little boat. (It was at this point Kristin told me about the story of the "rogue whale" in the waters around New Brunswick that was tipping boats.)

We just couldn't get enough, but finally the boat had to make its was back to Skagway.

This rock is a popular resting spot for harbour seals. We saw bald eagles galore as well as the many glaciers (one hanging). It is about a three hour journey one way and a whole lot of fun.
If your up that way and have the time, do consider taking the trip. It is well worth it. Here is their website: Fjordlines

Fjordlines Express

The Fjordland Express is a 65' high-speed catamaran that travel from Skagway to Juneau and back in one day. The great thing about travelling on this vessel is that it will make stops along the way for wildlife viewing. As usual (and par for this summer) the weather wasn't sunny as you can see from the photo above. That is Haines Alaska nestled on the shore in front of the mountains. But the weather could have been much worse, so we were pleased.

For some reason, these photos display however they wish and today, they wished Kristin, coupon hunting in Skagway, to be in the middle of our sea voyage! She was Coupon Queen, on our trip!


Back on the water, this was one on the waterfalls to be viewed from the boat.

A Skagway Visit

A trip on our (mine and Kristin's) wishlist was to take the Fjordland Express, a catamaran from Skagway to Juneau. As it turned out, my ol' friends, Linda & Terry were taking a cruise along the inside passage with a stop in Skagway. Perfect timing - we could visit with my friends one day and then take the trip to Juneau the next. So, in my car we hopped and drove the 2 hour journey to Skagway and happened to arrive right at the moment they disembarked from their excursion on the White Pass & Yukon Route to the White Pass summit. I met their travelling partners, Peter and Karen and we all squished into my car (and I literally mean squished) and lunched at Poppies, a restaurant on the outskirts of Skagway, located in a picturesque garden.


We finished lunch, made out way to the Red Onion Saloon and chatted the afternoon away until they had to board their ship to continue on their way.
It was so good to see my long-time friends, if only for an afternoon!