Summer Roadtrip: Seattle to Deadhorse, Alaska

Hellooo!

We just got back from a two week road trip up to Alaska. We splashed around in the Arctic Ocean and then spent a few days with Chris' family.

Here is our route:

Seattle to Deadhorse (c) and then back down to Anchorage (d). Our grand total: 3,700 miles.

Basically, it's like driving from Seattle to Miami, with a detour to Chicago, and then adding on a few hundred additional miles. 

The kids were fantastic road trippers. We swam in hot springs, saw a bunch of cool wildlife, and drove to the top of the world. nbd.

One of the highlights for me was seeing a wild wolf in Canada:

Alaska Fish & Game has allowed the big packs of Denali to be shot by trophy hunters so I'd pretty much given up hope on seeing our largest native wild canine.

Until this guy loped across the road in Kluane National Park in the Yukon.  My background is in environmental science and wildlife biology; seeing this guy made me giddy.

Other favorites:

Liard Hot Springs in BC.

And the Arctic Circle in the very, very far north:

The is only one reason that there is a road north from Fairbanks across the arctic tundra: the pipeline. Love it or hate it, this big 'ole pipe gave us access to scenery rarely seen by the casual tourist.

Don't let anyone convince you that the arctic is a flat, boring place. It is spectacular.

But when they say that Deadhorse is a dump...well, they weren't lying. :) The sweet ladies at the general store were thrilled to see kids, however. 

The road stops here: Beaufort Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. Temperature: a freezing 38 degrees fahrenheit.

And then we headed south to spend a desperately needed week of relaxation with my in-laws. After two weeks of roughing it in the truck camper, we were ready for showers, clean laundry, and a bed that wasn't on wheels.

Observe: the laziest fisherman that ever lived. 

And now, time to start school. We have a KINDERGARTENER this year!! Eek.

xo,

Sonja


Two more favorites:

Mama Moose.

Kluane Lake in the Yukon (Canada).

Trips: Camping on Vancouver Island

Hello!

It's been a while.


I go through phases with the blog....sometimes I'm johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to posting, other times it's like I've fallen off the face of the earth.

In other words, it's been a bit of a blogging dry spell.

We've been outside taking advantage of this beautiful Spring weather and trying to keep our lives only moderately crazy.

We went camping up in Tofino, British Columbia this weekend. Tofino is located about halfway up Vancouver Island on the western (Pacific) coast. We drove up to Canada and then hopped aboard a ferry over to the island. Upon landing in Nanaimo, it was a three hour drive across the island to the small towns of Tofino and Ucluelet. Vancouver Island is huge; it's the largest island in the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand.

We stayed at the Green Point Campground at the Pacific Rim National Park and it quickly became one of my favorite campgrounds due to the secluded spots and proximity to both hiking trails and beaches. Also, Canadians seem to be a bit more respectful of personal space and noise. There wasn't a single night in which fellow campers were playing their music too loudly or causing disturbances.

 Chris and I are still figuring out our perfect camping situation. We'd love to have a location where the kids can run absolutely wild. Ben and Emma, at 5 and 2, are loud rambunctious kids and there are very few places that they are allowed to be completely free. Even at the campground we are constantly setting rules in regards to noise, destruction of vegetation, and Ben's yearning to visit all the other campsites and have a fireside chat with the occupants.

That said, we're still deciding if we're entirely comfortable striking off into the wilderness by ourselves and wild camping. It seems lovely....but also a bit risky, considering that we have two very young children. Perhaps Chris and I have seen too many horror movies about crazies lurking in the woods. You know, ax murders and shady folk intent on defending their illicit pot grow operations. 

What do you think? Would you go camping off the grid with your little ones? Would you do it if you had friends (ie additional adults) with you? If so, any recommendations for spots in Washington State? I'm of two minds on this one. 

Ben is avidly interested in wildlife and we need to start keeping notes so he can record all his critters. He's careful to list the lowly slug right next to the bears and whales. That's my boy. 

The highlight of the weekend for me was the whale watching trip that we took amongst the islands. It ended up just being the captain, our family, and another family that had two boys, ages 4 and 6. All three boys had an absolute hoot running around the boat, nagging the pilot, and playing wildly. I still can't believe that nobody went overboard.

In total, we were lucky to see 4 humpbacks feeding in a shallow cove. Ben was enthralled.

Ack. Sorry for the blurry pictures. Still haven't pulled the trigger on a new camera and my old lens is suffering.

Here was a larger crustacean, farther out in the bay.

Bottoms up!

Emma did her best to hang with the big kids but she was having a rough day, as her nap schedule was thrown into disarray. We definitely struggled this trip to get a good routine set up for Emma. A month ago we took a similar camping trip down to Central Oregon and she seemed to do just fine. But she hasn't been napping well in the car during the long hours on the road and that, combined with the late nights around the campfire, were hard for our littlest babe. So we'll have to work on that for future trips.

After the whales it was time for a visit to the local Stellar sea lion colony.

Playing? Fighting? Who knows.

If you're planning a visit, we especially enjoyed the inland Rainforest Trail and the Lighthouse Loop near Ucluelet. Long Beach (as accessed via Green Point Campground) also had nice tide pools where we spotted fish, anemones, and jellyfish. 

We went to Chesterman Beach to watch the surfers, but decided that a game of soccer was more entertaining (and warmer). Those surfers were hard core; I was freezing just watching them paddling about in the frigid waters.

The tide pools at Long Beach. I nearly dipped my phone in the water trying to get this picture. 

Ben and his dead sea lion. "Whoa Mama, check out all the flies!!!"

And to top it all off, we ran into this guy. Love them bears. 

And that, my dears, was our trip to Tofino. Definitely worth a visit.

xo,
Sonja

Summer Camp on Lopez Island

Chris has three siblings and a few weeks ago we got together for the first-ever Team J Summer Camp.

In true Seattle fashion it rained. Blast! Such it life, right? It wasn’t too big a deal but I was so hopeful for one last gorgeous summer hurrah.

Chris’ brother and his wife were the true champs of the weekend as they flew down from Alaska to join the party. I think next year we owe it to them to all head north or find a place that’s out of town for all of us.

We spent our weekend on Lopez Island in the San Juans. Megan and Eric brought their boat and the highlight of the weekend was hauling crabs for a magnificent feast on Saturday night.

Here’s Megan stuffing fish heads into the bait trap.

We got Ben his own crab license and he was proud to contribute ‘his’ crabs to the party.

This was the last weekend of Dungeness crabbing for the season so we weren’t sure if we were going to be successful. There was a lot of trepidation pulling up that first pot.

Success! Sorry little buddy. 

All hands on deck. And watch your fingers! Chris and Alex learn the fine art of detangling crabs from Eric. Ben (true to form) is supervising. 

Nope, that’s a female. Throw her back into the water. Go free little lady and make lots of new tasty crab babies. 

What about this guy?

He’s a male so he’s fair game for harvesting.

Measuring the shell to see if he’s big enough:

Yep, we have a winner loser! Into the bucket you go.

Katherine was one of our resident crabbing experts. She got to sit back and laugh at our newbie attempts to not get pinched. I’m happy to report we’re still in possession of all our fingers. 

This kid. He doesn’t know it yet, but he won the lottery when it comes to aunties and uncles. 

 I like this one best. What do you think they’re talking about?

World peace? Donald Trump’s domestic policy? The state of the Chinese economy?

 And then: we ate! And ate, and ate, and ate. And then we took crab home and ate it for two more dinners. Thank you crabbies, for providing us with a feast.

Greg ate the rest of us under the table.  The sun has set, the diners are gone, the dishes are washed, and still Greg is going strong. King of crab.

One thing we’ve started doing for vacations is assigning cooks to specific meals. So Chris and I took lunch, Eric and Megan did dinner, and Alex picked Sunday breakfast. Each person is responsible for bringing food for the group, cooking it, and then doing dishes. Everyone else gets to sit back and relax (and eat!). 

Greg and Katherine, for their meal, introduced us to the horrible-sounding but shockingly delicious breakfast pasta. Think noodles, eggs, and bacon all rolled into one. 

Actually scratch that. Don’t even think about it because there is no way it’ll sound appetizing in your mind. Just know that it was fantastic. 

The one thing we definitively proved is that little Emma is a champion lounger. The girl can relax anywhere. 

We took a day trip into Friday Harbor (on San Juan Island). It’s a nice little town to hang out in, have dinner, and eat an ice cream cone. Chris and I went there a few years ago (our first trip after Ben was born) and especially enjoyed our hotel, 123 West. 

Ben made friends with the resident harbor seal. 

Photo bomb!

Ben gets a little biology lesson courtesy of his Uncle Eric. 

We also met a sea urchin. 

I am of two minds when it comes to sea urchins. I stepped on one once and having someone dig the spikes out of my foot is one of the most painful events I’ve ever experienced. That, and giving birth. :)

I suppose it wasn’t a fantastic day for the sea urchin, either.

All too soon it was time to pack up and hit the road. 

We were one of the very last cars on the ferry boat; if you’re traveling to the San Juans, be sure to carefully read up on the new reservation system. Some of the islands (like Lopez) don’t allow for pre-booking on the eastbound route. Lesson learned. 

xo, 

Sonja

[Many thanks to Eric and Alex for all the photos. xo]