Just in case you were wondering...
Toby is most definitely our little climber
Our Dancing Queen
2 months ago
A couple of noteworthy pictures from our trip to a cool park in Juneau (day 1 in Alaska):
Just in case you were wondering...
Toby is most definitely our little climber
Just in case you were wondering...Toby is most definitely our little climber
Alaska Day(s) 8 and unexpectedly 9: Once again, travel conundrums...all thanks to the Alaska State Ferry (yes, this is the last Alaska entry!!)
Just so you're not all too jealous of our wonderful, amazing, once in a lifetime trip to Alaska...I will now tell you about our travel home nightmare (along with some amazing scenery shots)...
So...we had been debating for days whether or not to trust the Alaska State Ferry again for our ride home. On the one hand, it is the much cheaper option. On the other hand, we all remember what happened on Day 1 of the Alaska trip when the ferry changed it's departure time leaving us stranded. Our other option was to take a bush plane back to Juneau...very reliable, but much more expensive. Of course we are cheapskates so we went with the less expensive option:
This was the first time while we were in Skagway where the clouds were low, hiding the peaks and glaciers. Luckily also the only rainy day.
Leaving Skagway on the ferry...and the last view of the port and the cruise ships.
Good times on the ferry...watching dvd's on the laptop
Just so you're not all too jealous of our wonderful, amazing, once in a lifetime trip to Alaska...I will now tell you about our travel home nightmare (along with some amazing scenery shots)...
So...we had been debating for days whether or not to trust the Alaska State Ferry again for our ride home. On the one hand, it is the much cheaper option. On the other hand, we all remember what happened on Day 1 of the Alaska trip when the ferry changed it's departure time leaving us stranded. Our other option was to take a bush plane back to Juneau...very reliable, but much more expensive. Of course we are cheapskates so we went with the less expensive option:
The Glorious Ferry
But boy did we have some amazing scenery on the way out:
But boy did we have some amazing scenery on the way out:
This was the first time while we were in Skagway where the clouds were low, hiding the peaks and glaciers. Luckily also the only rainy day.
Leaving Skagway on the ferry...and the last view of the port and the cruise ships.
Good times on the ferry...watching dvd's on the laptopSo what, may you ask was wrong about taking the ferry this time? Well, our arrival time in Juneau was SUPPOSED to be 90 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave for Seattle (tight schedule). If the ferry was on time, we could have made it...but of course the ferry was late! We arrived at the airport only 30 minutes before our flight's departure...just 15 minutes to late to check our bags!!! So we had to change our plans fast. Luckily, Alaska Airlines has no problem re-scheduling all our flights and we were set to leave Juneau around 7 pm and arrive in Seattle around 9:30. This gave us about 6 hours to kill waiting in the Juneau airport. Brent ran to the local Fred Meyer to pick up a couple more dvd's for the boys to watch and we had a great (boring) 6 hours waiting for our flight.
We got on our later flight with no problems...but the big problem lay ahead: there were NO flights from Seattle to Portland that night after our arrival. So we had to wait until 5 am to board our flight to Portland. There was no way we (cheapskates) wanted to pay for another night in a motel or risk missing this flight (all the later ones were booked)...so we had the most FABULOUS accommodations EVER!..sleeping in the Seattle airport! JOY! I am sure our family will remember this forever. Especially I. Who oh so comfortably slept on airport chairs being in the state of 7 months pregnant (with Toby often sprawled out across my lap).
But I guess those are the risks you take when you travel. And those are risks I'm willing to take because the results of the trip are SO worth it! The really kicker in the ending of this story is that we could've driven back to Portland in only 3 hours getting home sometime in the middle of the night. But then we would've had to rent a car and not get our money's worth on our airline tickets...no way we were doing that.
But the good news is that we made it home safe and sound, and all the guys seemed to sleep pretty well at the airport (the little boys were such troopers, I think more travel is in their future)...and best of all, we had an absolutely AMAZING trip!
(I think we slept for 2 days straight after we got home).
THANK YOU once again Liz for being an incredible hostess!
We got on our later flight with no problems...but the big problem lay ahead: there were NO flights from Seattle to Portland that night after our arrival. So we had to wait until 5 am to board our flight to Portland. There was no way we (cheapskates) wanted to pay for another night in a motel or risk missing this flight (all the later ones were booked)...so we had the most FABULOUS accommodations EVER!..sleeping in the Seattle airport! JOY! I am sure our family will remember this forever. Especially I. Who oh so comfortably slept on airport chairs being in the state of 7 months pregnant (with Toby often sprawled out across my lap).
But I guess those are the risks you take when you travel. And those are risks I'm willing to take because the results of the trip are SO worth it! The really kicker in the ending of this story is that we could've driven back to Portland in only 3 hours getting home sometime in the middle of the night. But then we would've had to rent a car and not get our money's worth on our airline tickets...no way we were doing that.But the good news is that we made it home safe and sound, and all the guys seemed to sleep pretty well at the airport (the little boys were such troopers, I think more travel is in their future)...and best of all, we had an absolutely AMAZING trip!
(I think we slept for 2 days straight after we got home).
THANK YOU once again Liz for being an incredible hostess!
Day 7: Our last day of Skagway Adventures
We hopped aboard another helicopter to the Meade Glacier. This time without the boys. This was a serious glacier tour/hike wherein we got to observe some serious Moraines (glacial debris) and Moulins (glacial ravines).
It was a much longer helicopter ride.
The picture on the bottom left is the glacier with two moraines (the dark stripes) from the air. The picture on the bottom right is what the moraine looks like up close.
This is some of that blue glacial ice peeking through the moraine
This is our helicopter pilot/tour guide showing us a large boulder that got carried down the mountain on the glacier.
This one amazing scene right here was the most beautiful and frightening thing we saw on our whole trip...a deep glacial moulin. It was wide enough for two or three adults and how deep was it???
Brent's panoramic picture
We saw a pair of bald eagle beauties on the way...
These were the only bald eagles we saw in Skagway, but in Juneau they were EVERYWHERE...like seagulls or crows (crazy!)
Some wild purple irises on the Dyea Ghost Town trail
(if I look tired...it's because I was...in a good way)
The one store front left standing in the Dyea Ghost town
After our Ghost town tour...we were able to visit this family that we met in church:
Our kids really had a great time playing with their kids and it was nice to see where they live and hear about living in Skagway year-round. Thanks to Liz we enjoyed very freshly caught shrimp and s'mores!
Glacier Exploring:
Blue glacier ice...one of the most beautiful natural phenomena in the world
Blue glacier ice...one of the most beautiful natural phenomena in the world
We hopped aboard another helicopter to the Meade Glacier. This time without the boys. This was a serious glacier tour/hike wherein we got to observe some serious Moraines (glacial debris) and Moulins (glacial ravines).
It was a much longer helicopter ride.The picture on the bottom left is the glacier with two moraines (the dark stripes) from the air. The picture on the bottom right is what the moraine looks like up close.
This is some of that blue glacial ice peeking through the moraine
This is our helicopter pilot/tour guide showing us a large boulder that got carried down the mountain on the glacier.
This one amazing scene right here was the most beautiful and frightening thing we saw on our whole trip...a deep glacial moulin. It was wide enough for two or three adults and how deep was it???WAY TOO DEEP!
Brent's panoramic pictureAfter the helicopter ride we drove back over to Dyea to hike the little historic ghost town loop.
We saw a pair of bald eagle beauties on the way...These were the only bald eagles we saw in Skagway, but in Juneau they were EVERYWHERE...like seagulls or crows (crazy!)
Some wild purple irises on the Dyea Ghost Town trail(if I look tired...it's because I was...in a good way)
The one store front left standing in the Dyea Ghost townAfter our Ghost town tour...we were able to visit this family that we met in church:
Our kids really had a great time playing with their kids and it was nice to see where they live and hear about living in Skagway year-round. Thanks to Liz we enjoyed very freshly caught shrimp and s'mores!
Alaska Day 6: Sunday, the Day of rest...Toby's 4th Birthday...the Summer Solstice in Alaska!
Yes, I know that Alaska has overtaken my blog...don't worry I will quickly finish the rest of the trip and get on with my blogging life before this baby gets here...
So, we went to church with Liz at the Skagway Branch. It is the first time I have ever been in such a small and compact church building. And it was built out of logs. Not to mention, it was very crowded with people! During the summer there are lots of visiting church-goers.
After dinner Liz made the most delicious dinner for us and she had a friend make some yummy s'mores cupcakes to celebrate Toby's birthday. Toby and Joshua loved them!
I promise Toby was thrilled with the cupcakes, even though he doesn't look happy. He often does not like being the center of attention.
Yes, I know that Alaska has overtaken my blog...don't worry I will quickly finish the rest of the trip and get on with my blogging life before this baby gets here...
So, we went to church with Liz at the Skagway Branch. It is the first time I have ever been in such a small and compact church building. And it was built out of logs. Not to mention, it was very crowded with people! During the summer there are lots of visiting church-goers.
After dinner Liz made the most delicious dinner for us and she had a friend make some yummy s'mores cupcakes to celebrate Toby's birthday. Toby and Joshua loved them!
I promise Toby was thrilled with the cupcakes, even though he doesn't look happy. He often does not like being the center of attention.After the celebrations, Liz took us on a 'short walk' to see this glacier:
cool
cool
And finally, we went back to the church for the weekly Eat, Meet and Greet! It was fun to get to know some of the people who live up there! Joshua and Toby made great buddies with the kids in the Zalit family...and they invited us to come over the next night.
Whilst playing in the nursery with the other kids, Joshua found this crazy rubber ducky and wanted to take it home. We told him that he would have to settle for a picture:
Isn't that the craziest ducky you've ever seen?? It reminds me of the game "would you rather" that my friend Maria and I used to play when we were roommates in college. 'Would you rather have a beak for a nose/mouth, or wear fruit on your head all the time?'
Whilst playing in the nursery with the other kids, Joshua found this crazy rubber ducky and wanted to take it home. We told him that he would have to settle for a picture:
Isn't that the craziest ducky you've ever seen?? It reminds me of the game "would you rather" that my friend Maria and I used to play when we were roommates in college. 'Would you rather have a beak for a nose/mouth, or wear fruit on your head all the time?'
I forgot to blog on Day 4 that Auntie Liz took the boys for a special overnight party while Brent and I had a date. She even made reservations for us at the Stowaway Restaurant! It was so good and fun that I just wanted to say THANKS Liz!
While Liz had the boys at her house, some of her friends showed up from Utah to hike the Chilkoot trail. These crazy guys with their Alaska-grown beards told Joshua and Toby that they didn't have to go to bed since it never got dark. The little boys were very impressed with these big guys and their beards...they told Brent that he had to grow a beard!
While Liz had the boys at her house, some of her friends showed up from Utah to hike the Chilkoot trail. These crazy guys with their Alaska-grown beards told Joshua and Toby that they didn't have to go to bed since it never got dark. The little boys were very impressed with these big guys and their beards...they told Brent that he had to grow a beard!
Alaska Day 5: Adventure Miscellany
We started out the day exploring Skagway a little more. We saw the train exhibits at the White Pass & Yukon Route station. The big engine on the bottom left is a snowplow engine.
We got some yummy treats at the Kone Kompany:
We saw this really great little green house at the trailer park:
We love this idea for a greenhouse because we've been wanting to put one in our yard, but can't quite come up with the perfect spot for a big regular sized and expensive one. But this little greenhouse is built over a garden box with scrap wood and plexiglass. We could totally build one over one of our garden boxes. HOW EXCITING!
Liz got us the hook up with a gold panning tour at the gold dredge:
I cannot understand why blogger is turning this picture sideways! Arg!
This is probably the activity that Joshua was looking forward to and he enjoyed the most. How funny! He just wanted to get some gold and get rich.
It was lots of fun...too bad for Joshua that our gold findings were about $10. Well, I guess that's a lot for him...but not enough to buy the Nintendo WII he's trying to save up for.
We started out the day exploring Skagway a little more. We saw the train exhibits at the White Pass & Yukon Route station. The big engine on the bottom left is a snowplow engine.
We got some yummy treats at the Kone Kompany:
We saw this really great little green house at the trailer park:
We love this idea for a greenhouse because we've been wanting to put one in our yard, but can't quite come up with the perfect spot for a big regular sized and expensive one. But this little greenhouse is built over a garden box with scrap wood and plexiglass. We could totally build one over one of our garden boxes. HOW EXCITING!Liz got us the hook up with a gold panning tour at the gold dredge:
I cannot understand why blogger is turning this picture sideways! Arg!
This is probably the activity that Joshua was looking forward to and he enjoyed the most. How funny! He just wanted to get some gold and get rich.
It was lots of fun...too bad for Joshua that our gold findings were about $10. Well, I guess that's a lot for him...but not enough to buy the Nintendo WII he's trying to save up for.
After gold panning, we had to try the homemade gold dredge root beer:
It was fantastic!
We also had to sign our names on the wall of their new restaurant.
Brent and Liz created a Jefferies Family legacy wall...and signed everyone's name in the family who has been to Skagway. I hope we didn't forget anyone!
Joshua and Toby got to touch/hold live crabs outside of the restaurant! That was fun.
It was fantastic!
We also had to sign our names on the wall of their new restaurant.
Brent and Liz created a Jefferies Family legacy wall...and signed everyone's name in the family who has been to Skagway. I hope we didn't forget anyone!
Joshua and Toby got to touch/hold live crabs outside of the restaurant! That was fun.Oh yeah...one more thing: I got my bum kicked on a 4 mile hike straight up to and around Lower Dewey Lake. Liz said it was only 2 miles, but our GPS said 4. That just goes to show what an awesome hiker woman Liz is (she runs up there on her breaks to go swimming!).
going up!
At the top!
Liz and her crazy friends jump/dive off that cliff in the background behind Toby (!)
Taking breaks...I'm sure our pregnant/kid pace was much too slow for Liz (and Brent)! But they didn't let on.
I just love these warning signs...
...and how our kids are always playing nearby. (don't worry it wasn't really swift and dangerous...at least not when we were there).
OH...and this is the HAUNTED BOAT! (In fact, I think the whole lake is haunted).
But the story of the boat is that once Liz and her friend took it out for a row, and they completely sank it. Liz said it was SO deep down that they couldn't even dive down to touch it. Then the next time they were hiking up there, it was back in its usual spot on the shore of the lake!
It was a very beautiful hike...thanks Liz!
And by the next day I was completely recovered...as in, I was not going to puke my guts up anymore (don't worry folks...I made sure to keep my heart rate in the correct pregnancy range).
going up!
At the top!
Liz and her crazy friends jump/dive off that cliff in the background behind Toby (!)
Taking breaks...I'm sure our pregnant/kid pace was much too slow for Liz (and Brent)! But they didn't let on.
I just love these warning signs...
...and how our kids are always playing nearby. (don't worry it wasn't really swift and dangerous...at least not when we were there).
OH...and this is the HAUNTED BOAT! (In fact, I think the whole lake is haunted).But the story of the boat is that once Liz and her friend took it out for a row, and they completely sank it. Liz said it was SO deep down that they couldn't even dive down to touch it. Then the next time they were hiking up there, it was back in its usual spot on the shore of the lake!
It was a very beautiful hike...thanks Liz!And by the next day I was completely recovered...as in, I was not going to puke my guts up anymore (don't worry folks...I made sure to keep my heart rate in the correct pregnancy range).
DAY 4: Adventures Galore!!
We started off our day (and every day at our base camp at the Sergeant Preston's Lodge in Skagway. It was quite a nice accommodation, especially for the price!
Liz picked us up and made breakfast for us at her house (yum)! Then she took us to her work (Temsco) to catch a helicopter ride up to the Denver Glacier to take a dog sledding tour. We rode on separate helicopters (Joshua and I on one and Brent and Toby on the other) since we were flying up on standby (for FREEEE!...one of the perks of having Jefferies siblings working there for years)
Temsco base in Skagway
a view of the glacier fields from the helicopter
a view of dog camp from the helicopter
just landed on the Denver Glacier at dog camp
family picture at dog camp...
no huskies here. I was surprised to find out that they don't really use huskies to pull dog sleds. They use several breeds mixed together to make a super hybrid sled-pulling doggie! Many of the dogs here at camp have raced in the Iditarod Race...the grand dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome. Denver Glacier is like summer camp for them.
we rode on two sleds attached together...our musher (picture in the bottom right corner) drove the front sled and all of us (except Toby) took turns driving the back sled.
we were delighted to see the dog sled puppies after our ride...so adorable!
taking off and heading back to Skagway
the view of the three bays:
on the far left is Dyea, the middle is Long bay (where we went kayaking later) and the right is Skagway
a closer look at Skagway
It would be no exaggeration to say that Liz kept us really busy...
so next we were off to kayaking in Long Bay
the boys were totally ready to kayak!
(yep...we plugged the boys in the cargo holds)
our lovely and VERY gracious hostess Elizabeth
Ah boy! I was SO tired after this day...but it was INCREDIBLE!
We started off our day (and every day at our base camp at the Sergeant Preston's Lodge in Skagway. It was quite a nice accommodation, especially for the price!
Liz picked us up and made breakfast for us at her house (yum)! Then she took us to her work (Temsco) to catch a helicopter ride up to the Denver Glacier to take a dog sledding tour. We rode on separate helicopters (Joshua and I on one and Brent and Toby on the other) since we were flying up on standby (for FREEEE!...one of the perks of having Jefferies siblings working there for years)
Temsco base in Skagway
a view of the glacier fields from the helicopter
a view of dog camp from the helicopter
just landed on the Denver Glacier at dog camp
family picture at dog camp...no huskies here. I was surprised to find out that they don't really use huskies to pull dog sleds. They use several breeds mixed together to make a super hybrid sled-pulling doggie! Many of the dogs here at camp have raced in the Iditarod Race...the grand dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome. Denver Glacier is like summer camp for them.
we rode on two sleds attached together...our musher (picture in the bottom right corner) drove the front sled and all of us (except Toby) took turns driving the back sled.
we were delighted to see the dog sled puppies after our ride...so adorable!
taking off and heading back to Skagway
the view of the three bays:on the far left is Dyea, the middle is Long bay (where we went kayaking later) and the right is Skagway
a closer look at SkagwayIt would be no exaggeration to say that Liz kept us really busy...
so next we were off to kayaking in Long Bay
the boys were totally ready to kayak!(yep...we plugged the boys in the cargo holds)
our lovely and VERY gracious hostess Elizabeth
Ah boy! I was SO tired after this day...but it was INCREDIBLE!
