Once William was born, and orders were finally cut, the journey began. We made a visit to Utah to attend a wedding and introduced William before our departure. Who knows when we are going to be able to visit again. It could be a while with three little ones. The drive to Utah was also a good test run for the drive to Alaska.
We lived in the base TLF (temporary lodging facility) for a month before we waved goodbye to Great Falls. Two adults, two toddlers, one infant, and a dog on the road. The scenery was a bit rainy, but the first days drive was pretty good. We stopped in Spokane for the night. The front desk of the hotel we stayed in was nice enough to take Denali for us while we went to get some dinner, and then we were off to bed.
The next day's weather was a bit better and we made a few more stops along our journey. The next stop was Joint base Lewis/McChord. We had a reservation for a few days on Fort Lewis and we had a doggy day care and grooming appointment for the dog... which was a necessity at that point, she stank, and the van was taking on the odor.
We spent a few days in Washington before getting on the ferry that would take us to Alaska. We visited the fish market, and went to the now famous Pikes Place Fish Co. . Duncan and Millie were both completely thrilled with the guys throwing fish. We bought some smoked salmon and cheese as a snack, which the kids devoured (I was pretty happy about that). We decided that we should probably get lunch as well, so on our way back to the van we stopped in at a little Italian pizza place. An older man sitting at the counter, enjoying his own lunch break, cooed over the kids in Italian with the man behind the counter. Chris and I just let them decide what we wanted and listened to them talk. As we were leaving the man behind the counter asked the older gentleman to tell Duncan all about baseball. Tuns out that the older gentleman was a baseball player for Washington back in his day. I never learned his name.
The space needle, zoo and children's museum were also on our list. We didn't make it to all of them (of course we chose the one weekend that the zoo would be closed for an event), however, we had a lot of fun exploring the area on foot when things didn't work out. We wandered around and found a fountain next to the Children's museum. It was a pretty warm day, so we let the kids go down and play in the water. Duncan had the unfortunate luck of getting soaked when the fountain changed patterns and he wasn't expecting it. The more he tried to run away, the more it got him. It was traumatic for him, but I think everyone else that witnessed it will remember it as pretty funny. Luckily we had extra clothes for them.
The day finally arrived to get on the Ferry. We picked up the dog and drove out of Seattle and up to Bellingham. We survived the crazy traffic and made it to the port, but by this point I did NOT want to be in the van while Chris drove it onto the Ferry. Lets just say that the drive there was harrowing enough and I was done risking my life in a vehicle. Chris was very understanding and he took Millie and the dog in the van while I walked on with the boys. It was fun watching them drive on from the pier. Duncan was climbing the walls after the car ride, so we went out in the grass so that he could run around before I explained the rules for the boat... which included NO running. Despite the review of the rules, Duncan was eager to get on the boat, and when they opened up the ramp we headed on to meet up with Chris and Millie. Once we found our cabin and unloaded our supplies for the next few days we headed up to the deck to waive goodbye, and sailed off into the sunset.
I was nervous about the Ferry with three little ones. It turned out to be a pretty good experience for all of us. The boat had a little play area on one of the deck's that the kids spent a lot of time in. We were able to get off of the boat at port a few times to let the dog out and let the kids run around. The scenery was beautiful and we were able to spend some quality time as a family. We played every game we could think of. Our cabin was always a mess, and we sang "Row, Row, Row your Boat" more than I care to remember. It was pretty fun.
The day came that it was our turn to get off the Ferry. We had arrived in Haines, Alaska. Once again, I didn't want to be in that van as it drove off of the boat, so I took the dog and Duncan and we walked off while daddy took care of the rest. I am grateful. Soon we were on the Road again. We decided to stop at the local book store and pick up a Mile Post so that we could have some more info on the sites as we were driving. We knew that we had to drive through Canada and up to get back to where we needed to be. Having heard about the possible delay at the border, we decided to try and make it as far as we could the first day. Not even ten minutes into our drive we spotted our first moose! Turns out that the border hardly even looked at our passports, so we were well on our way.
The fist night was a little rough. We had a plan of staying in Haines junction the first night. Since we got out much earlier than anticipated, we decided to drive further and just stop somewhere that looked decent. We should have stuck to our original plan. We found a few places that were dog friendly, and decided to go to the one that was larger. Unfortunately it was a bad choice. The room was gross and the entire place seemed pretty shady. We decided not to eat there, dropped our stuff off in our room and found a place for dinner. When we got back there was a bar fight right outside our room. I took William with me and demanded a refund and we went to look for another place to sleep. I am glad we did. We found a little Inn that was hidden from the road. The place was quiet, clean, dog friendly, and had a restaurant attached for an early breakfast in the morning. We unpacked, again, and went on a little walk around the Inn before heading to bed. The next day we had a wonderful hot breakfast, prepared by the Innkeeper, and were off again. We enjoyed the scenery and lots of conversations about what had changed since the last time we drove through. We stopped at Buckshot Betty's for lunch (how could we not, with a name like that!) and introduced Millie to cheesecake. Then drove on through the border to Tok for the night. As we drove into the hotel for the night we explained to the kids (well, Duncan really) that we were in Alaska now, and this time we were going to stay in Alaska. It was pretty exciting.
The next day we were off to our new home... kinda. It was pretty exciting for all of us. The trip had been fun, but we were ready to be done with the drive. As we pulled up to TLF on Elmendorf Duncan and Millie asked if this was our new home now. Even with it not being home, they were pretty excited that it would be the last hotel before our new home. The playground across from us helped quite a bit. Being able to get out "new" toy bags helped too.
In that first week we explored the area. We saw our first bear too. By the time we were moved into our new house we had been "moving" for nearly three months. Needless to say, the journey was fun, but we are glad to be settled in our new home in Alaska.
I could go on and on in reflection of the trip, how it was different from when we didn't have kids. How much the drive and even Ferry experience has changed. I won't. Things are very different, but we are all in love with being back in Alaska.
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