We managed to drive a bit further than we thought the past couple of days, which made for an easy 6-hour ride into Anchorage, which included several stops for pictures and even a lunch break to let the cats stretch (Two was very fussy).

The trip through Western Alaska was beautiful—we are so excited to be living here! It is about 60 degrees outside for most of the day. Last night, the sun began setting at about 11:45 or so. We crossed into Alaska Time Zone today, which is Pacific – 1:00. I guess Sunday football games will start at 8:30 AM or so.

There is a good sized highway that starts about 60 miles out of Anchorage that runs into the city. Traffic seemed to flow pretty well overall. We’ll see how it is in rush hour. It’s amazing to me that all of this big-city business happens with snow-capped mountains staring at you from every side.

Today we traveled through Yukon Territory and crossed the border back into the USA! The Alcan Highway is famous because of this stretch of roads. We rode the rollercoaster for hours. The road is full of potholes and huge bumps followed by curves and long stretches of gravel. I kept the speed up on the car just for fun. The cats really enjoyed all the bouncing around, I think because it rocked them to sleep.

If you have driven through Death Valley, these roads make Death Valley seem like a drive down I-10 in Florida. The bumps were easily 2-3 feet high and came in patterns especially designed to jar your teeth.

The Canada/Alaska border was pretty cool. There’s a bit of history there regarding the border, and you can stand in Canada and in the US at the same time (I don’t know why that seems cool).

We’re stayed in Tok, Alaska, at a nice campground. Alaska is impressive and so far looks a lot like the Yukon, only with much better roads and cheaper gas. By the way, gas in Canada is about CDN$1.25 per liter, which equates to about US$4.60 per gallon. It’s even more expensive in the more remote areas (duh). On the Alaska side of the border, we paid about $3.10 per gallon. Glad we don’t drive a Hummer.

Unexpectedly, we drove over 700 miles today in about 13+ hours. The cats were very well behaved the ENTIRE time, which was a miracle. And they did get a treat when we stopped.

Between Ft St John and Watson Lake, we saw a TON of wildlife. We started the morning with a close look at a small black bear. Then some moose came trotting out of the woods. We got a good look at some caribou (cariboo in the Queen’s English). We must’ve also seen about 30 Stone Sheep (or, as Char likes to call them, Rock Sheep). These guys are amazing. They will just scamper right up a rocky hillside like they were running across an open plain. Incredible. We also saw deer and bison.

What a fun day! It is good to have made some ground, and the drives on tomorrow and Friday will not be so bad. Tomorrow, the goal is Tok, AK, and back to the USA! (I’ve got to get rid of this Canadian money.)

Sorry for backdating some of these posts. The internet here in Canada has been sketchy at best.

Also, all pictures are not quite up yet. The bandwidth is killer ... Check here for updates.

We are astounded by the depth of the landscape and the beauty of the scenery in Canada, eh! We are still on the lookout for wildlife, although we haven’t seen much.

This part of the highway is surprisingly crowded. It doesn’t look like we’ll have a shortage of places to stay for the time being. Every 20 miles or so there is an RV “Resort” (they call them resorts … they are really nothing like the Hilton or anything), so that was reassuring. Also, gas doesn’t seem to be a problem to find.

By the way, D$, I did have a Canadian beer just for you. (Picture available.)

On Day 14, we did have a 90-mile stretch without gas, but there was plenty of warning. If you ever make this trip, you HAVE to have a Milepost book. This thing is a lifesaver. It tells you, mile-by-mile, exactly what’s happening along the way. When we stopped today, the host-camper at the RV park where we stayed brought us a plate of stew. This really hit the spot because we were so hungry and tired and did not feel like making anything. Up for an early morning tomorrow!

We woke up early to go to the Pike Street Market and found a spot on the rainy Sunday. After finding some coffee (easier than you think in Seattle), we made our way through to the market.

The fish people at the market are crazy. They throw fish and tell jokes and scare old women and children. It’s hilarious. People gather all around just to watch them sell fish. They wrote a book about how to have fun at work. We bought some salmon from them which you can see being chucked in the picture. I also got a dozen oysters which I ate later that night in Vancouver. (Yes, we did steam oysters in the camper.)

Vancouver was cool – we took the driving tour. It has a really cool section of town called “Gastown”, which we would like to visit longer when we go back. They also have a *huge* Chinatown (second only to San Francisco … and I guess, China).