Post Alaska is coming soon

Our story is moving on. Lots has happened since the Alaska trip and there's another really fun trip coming up that we want to blogabout. I'm just checking the oil and kicken the tires.

This of course is the most important event of the last year

home

1650o miles
home safe and sound

Graceland

we saw the hurricane but didnt want to get too close

Sunday, September 7,2008

Seattle was a nice city. We took a tour around the city. It's a pretty spread out city but has a beautiful cityscape from afar. Our guide told us it was expensive to live there, guess taxes are high there. What was pretty cool is when something new is built a certain percentage of that has be an art piece. The troll however was built to keep homeless from living under that bridge. It seems like there were always bottles and cans left there so the troll was put there and it did solve the problem. While on this tour we went through this very wonderful market place. It gives Italy a challenge. The vegetables and fruit were flawless and the flowers we spectacular. It was huge as well. Also a fish area, a meat area, cheese, jams and jellies, nuts , pastas, it was pretty amazing. The next day we went to Boeing. This is an area just outside of the city. It was in the red building where the company began. And now it is all museum including to larger building. It was quite interesting. Across from the museum were two planes you could go through. One was a Concorde and one was Air Force one. The Concord was very narrow and quite small inside. It could cross the Atlantic if 2 hours and 49 minutes. Very expensive to run however and it never made any money. Air Force One was interesting as well. The presidents that used this airplane were, Eisenhower, Nixon, Carter, and Kennedy. I guess President Eisenhower designed the interior and it was a rather no frills sort of interior. It was nice but not fancy at all.

Ok now from there we went to Crescent City, CA to see the Giant Redwoods. There is a state park near where we stayed and it is filled with red woods. And they are red as you can see from the fallen one on the ground. They are very tall up to 370 ft.. The bark is very striated, almost like ropes going up the tree. Some are quite wide as you can see from the picture of Mike. Well we found a state park ranger and he told us that the Sequoia is a bigger tree!!!!! At least the trunk is, not as tall only about 300 feet but much bigger around. So we are going to go see those on our way out of California. Our drive from Crescent City to Petaluma was quite beautiful as it was along the pacific most of the way. Also from Crescent City and closer to Petaluma the temperature changed enormously. WHEW hot hot hot.

Got Petaluma and are in a KOA campground. Huge campground with 300 sites. They got a pools showers, everything and also have these cute little lambs and sheep as you drive in to the office. It ends all there. It STINKS, it smells like we are inside of the barn. It REEKS, we can't open the windows. Looking forward to leaving. Anyway yesterday we went into San Fran. They have a tour you can take from here but it was $69.00 per person for 6 hours. So no no no we drove in. Found a place (near the waterfront) to park the truck for $5.00 for the day. Walked a couple of blocks down the from the truck and bumped into this great market place with all the great stores in it. One I have never seen before, it was a Caviar place to eat!!!!!! All they served is wine and all different kinds of caviar. It was a great place I could shop there more. From there we went to Fisherman's Wharf and had a late lunch. Walked a little to where the old trolley cars are. A long line to ride it at $5.00 a ride and you couldn't do it round trip. I rode on it many times 40 years ago when it was probably a quarter to ride and you could jump on whenever. That took much of our day, and we were back to the barn about 8:00 pm.

Today we went in the opposite direction to Napa Valley. We were hoping to do Sonoma as well but did not have the time. Most of the winery's do not open until 11:00 and close about 5:00. This poop-aroma haven we're in is about an hour from Napa. We had great fun however, we went in Domaine Carneros which is connect to Tattinger in France. Beautiful tasting mansion and grounds. Mostly champagnes of coarse. Did not taste. Then we went to BV, but they did not have their zin so we did not taste there. Then to Merryvalle, we did taste there. A flight of white and a flight of red. They were ok, they did not have any starmont. But they did have some Zin that we bought. We did not get to taste the Zin and hope it is good, but they only make 200 cases of it and we would not be able to get it anywhere. Then lunch, nothing special but thought we should eat before going on. We went to Grgich and I tried there Zin. Gag gag gag. It tasted like a tart cab!!! Guy said our Zins are the syrupy Zins you get in Europe!!! What? EH? It had no fruit or berry flavor at all. Ah well
The we went to a winery called Peju, a fairly new winery. Very beautiful place. Most of their wines are shipped in the state. They produce about 40,000 cases a year. Found the wine pretty good. I'm not big on cabs and merlots which is mostly what we tasted. I tasted there Zin and like that. The last place we went to was Supery. In this place we saw their big vats and the area they make the wine and bottle it. It was fascinating. Did not taste there, we were done.

So tomorrow we are on our way to Yosemite where the Sequoia are located. We are forfeiting Lake Tahoe.

Headin South

denne's busy so I'll pop a post. The pics on the left for victoria and seattle represent a feeling of euphoria about being out of canada. To support their socalist lifestyle they pay a 5% gas sales tax above the regular gas taxes that push the price to near $6 a gallon (part of the National sales tax on everything) and they complain in every newspaper about the lack of healthcare (the free stuff). Most difficult operations are just sent to the US. The news reports are just full of this stuff.
These just too much canada between US and AK
So back to normalcy. Cresent City next to see the giant redwoods and then to Sonoma for a few days. Lake tahoe on the way to colorado and then down to taos and then homeward bound.

the weather is perfect 72 daytime and 50s at night
Will keep you posted
Telephone works now too
That's nice
Mike

August 22,2008

It's been 4 days and we have been traveling every day since I last posted here. We have traveled the entire Alaskan/Canadian Highway total miles 1454. The highway starts or ends whichever way you are going, in Delta Junction, AK and ends in Dawson Creek, BC. We stay over one day in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. I wanted to stop there because of all the gold rush stories we have been hearing about. The "stampeders" that started in Skagway Ak hiked over mountains to get to Whitehorse. Then once there they had to build boats which would take them down the Yukon river to Dawson City which is where the gold was suppose to be. The Yukon river is a very big river which starts somewhere just south of Whitehorse and travels all the way to the Bering Sea. Amazing what those gold seekers went through. The town itself is not much to see. We went through the shops but everything is the same in those places. We went to see the largest fish ladder in the world. It was something else I'll tell you. The coho salmon come down the Yukon river from the Bering sea to spawn. By the time they get to this fish ladder they have traveled over 1800 miles. Just amazing. Then in the evening we went out for a quick bite and went to this show called the Frantic Follies. It's a vaudeville style show and it tells tales of mostly gold rush days and the pioneers who lived by in the 1890's. It was very funny and very entertaining.

From there it has been driving everyday ever since then. Very long, but it was definitely time to go as the trees are changing colors. Bright yellows. New snow on the mountains and temps in Whitehorse was in the 40's. It has been in the 40's and 50's up until today. We saw a few animals on this trek. Buffalo, a bear, and caribou and a baby moose without it's mother!!!!

We are now in Dawson Creek BC which is mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway. This is a busy town and we are going to spend one day here. (tomorrow) There are some historical things here we want to visit. Plus I think we need a break for riding in the truck.

From here we are on our way west again. On our way to Victoria, still about 2 days drive from here. Looking forward to getting out of Canada. Gas is outrageous here. It was bad in Alaska but not as bad. Alaska has the most expensive gas in the US but it is still less than Canada. One of the drawbacks of going to Alaska by car is the distance you have to go in Canada. It takes days and days. Once you get into Alaska, nothing is over a days drive. There is so little of the state you can really explore by car. So much of it has no roads and you have to fly to get there.

A little word about the Goob. He's doing very well and is getting very spoiled. We bought him some toys in Alaska cause I was concerned he wasn't getting any exercise. So we play with him almost everyday. We just got a catnip toy and he's been batting that thing around all evening. We we start to pack up, he goes under the comforter on the bed and stays there until we stop in the evening. The ride doesn't seem to phase him anymore if he can be under the covers. He's really a nut.

Take care all, talk to you again soon.