Alaska and the Yukon Part 1

Let me start by saying that I never once thought of the Yukon Territory as a place to vacation to. In fact, I never gave the Yukon Territory much thought at all. It turns out that its a fantastic place to visit, and combined with a trip to Alaska, I'd have to say that I was actually more impressed with the Yukon than with Alaska.

So far Mr. V has gone on 2 deployments and I've let him pick the pre-deployment trip each time. My theory is that since he's the one who has to deploy, then he can pick the trip. 2 years ago we ended up in the Canadian Rockies. This year we went on a 10 day road trip from Alaska to the Yukon and then back to Alaska. I have always wanted to visit Alaska, but again, the Yukon never crossed my mind. In fact, while I knew that Alaska bordered Canada, I never realized that if you wanted to drive to Alaska from the continental United States, that you had to drive through the Yukon Territory. I guess I always just pictured Alaska being attached to British Columbia (which it is) and nothing else.

I was convinced that Mr. V was absolutely crazy for wanting to do this trip. And couple that with the fact that I talked to a friend of mine who's from Alaska, who told me that the trip wasn't crazy at all, but some of the routes we wanted to drive were routes that she would never drive at that time of the year...due to frequent avalanches. That was a little disconcerting...especially when Mr. V blew off her warnings by saying "whatever...we'll be fine" - because clearly, having never been to Alaska, he knows what he's talking about....

So he was excited about this trip, and I was having my doubts. Both of us were also unsure of exactly how much we would get to see and do while we were there because we were going at time when not all of the tourist attractions, or for that matter, entire towns were open. But since we had no choice as to when to take this vacation we had to make due with what we had. According to numerous people we ran into while up there, we were there just one week before all of the tourists would arrive. Though, according to the locals, we went at the perfect time. Apparently, they don't like the swarms of tourists very much. It turns out that it was a great time to go, because it wasn't super crowded, and while some things were closed, a lot was still open, and that also meant that we didn't have to spend too much time choosing what to see and do because we had time to see just about everything that was open.

So our trip went like this:

We flew to Anchorage and spent two nights there. We visited the area south of Anchorage to see the Portage Glacier and the scenic mountains.From Anchorage we drove to Fairbanks, which was an adventure. Fairbanks is about 300 miles away from Anchorage, and because we were there at an odd time of year, lots of things were closed. Which meant that there wasn't a single open gas station between Anchorage and Fairbanks, so we ended up rolling into town with the gas light on and a ominous digital warning sign flashing "no gas" at us.
Once in Fairbanks we went up to the Arctic Circle. This was something that both Mr. V and I wanted to do - mainly just to be able to say that we went to the Arctic Circle. However, the road to the Arctic is known to be pretty brutal. If you've ever seen the show "Ice Road Truckers", its one of the roads featured on the show - The Dalton Highway or the "Haul Road". We had read a lot of warnings about the road conditions, and about how many rental car companies in the area actually specifically state that you can't drive a rental car on the Dalton Highway. Of course, Mr. V wanted to ignore all warnings and drive ourselves, with our rental car, and just take the risk. The road is kept clear all year long, due to the trucks that drive it back and forth, so its not very snow covered (only in some areas) or icy...its just broken up in pieces with pot holes, and all kinds of ways to run off the road or get a flat tire without having anyone around for miles to help you. I finally convinced him that paying a tour company to take us up there would be much cheaper than what we would have to pay the rental car company if we ended up destroying their car on the trip. Due to the fact that most rental companies state that you can't drive a car up there, insurance won't cover any damage done to the car if you do decide to take the risk. So we went with a tour group, which made me feel much better.

It was an interesting trip. The Alaska pipeline runs the length of the highway from the oil fields at Prudoe Bay at the top of the state by the Arctic Ocean, down to the oil refineries in Valdez at the bottom of the state. I'm not a person who is typically fascinated by things like an oil pipeline, but this thing was pretty amazing to see. Its known as one of the 7 Wonders of the United States and is over 800 miles long. Its built to move side to side to prevent earthquake damage, and overall is just an engineering marvel. I have to admit that I was fascinated by it! So we followed the pipeline up to the actual Arctic Circle. These next pictures are of the Dalton Highway, the highway with the pipeline next to it, the highway pipeline and one of the oil trucks, the frozen Yukon River (I'm completely fascinated by the fact that it can get cold enough to freeze a moving river and actually freeze the waves in motion), Mr. V and me by the pipeline (two pictures to attempt to show the massive size of the pipeline), and finally me at the Arctic Circle.

After our Arctic Circle adventure, we left Fairbanks and stopped for lunch in North Pole, Alaska (the entire town is decorated like a giant candy cane), and stopped in at the Santa Claus house. Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I was loving this place. Mr. V, on the other hand, was not. I was excited that we got to sit in Santa's chair because apparently, Santa was on vacation to a warmer, undisclosed location at the time...

After our brief stop in North Pole, we begin the 4 hour drive to Beaver Creek, Yukon...stopping for gas in the town of Tok, Alaska. This was the first of many towns that fascinated me, simply because of the fact that they were so unbelievably small, and so far away from any kind of civilization. I honestly can't wrap my mind around the fact that people live like this. This general store is the only grocery store within a hundred miles...
And then we finally made it into the Yukon Territory! This is a horrible picture of me but I had to get one of me standing in two countries at once.
And since we never got a "Welcome to Alaska" sign when we flew in, we got one on our way out of Alaska.
Apparently, the Americans and Canadians who designed this border felt it was necessary to cut down a line of trees so we would sure to see the actual line drawn on the border.
We were also interested in the fact that once you leave Alaska, the Alaska Highway (otherwise known as the AlCan highway) goes from a paved road and turns into a pile of gravel in the Yukon, that was quite an adventure to drive on.
And of course we needed a picture of the "Welcome to the Yukon" sign to prove that we really were crazy enough to drive there.
From this point we drove to the border town of Beaver Creek, a town with a total population of 86 people. Its the farthest west community in Canada. The people are strange, but friendly, and one of the only two hotels in town was called Buckshot Betty's - which is where we stayed. If you had told me a year ago that I would be staying in a cabin, at a place called Buckshot Betty's, in the Yukon Territory, I probably would have laughed at you.
I took this picture because this map is a map of the entire town of Beaver Creek. Have I mentioned that I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that people live in towns this small?
The next day we left Beaver Creek and started our drive to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon.

On the way to Whitehorse, I realized that the Yukon is by far, more beautiful than Alaska - or at least the part that we saw was. I was blown away by the scenery on our drive.
We passed through the tiny little town of Burwash Landing, which has absolutely nothing in it except for beautiful mountains, and the world's largest gold pan.
As we were leaving Burwash Landing, we came across this guy on the side of the road (see my post before this one for more pictures).
We made a brief stop at Kluane National Park for more beautiful scenery.
We drove through Haines Junction, which was a decent sized town, considering where we were (there were maybe 2,000 permanent residents here). This is the place where the Alaska Highway intersects with the highway that runs up to Dawson, Yukon. Dawson was a huge gold rush town, and was where people generally ended up during the gold rush years. (yes I know one of these pictures is of a cemetery, but the view behind it was really pretty.)

We finally made it to Whitehorse, where we spent the next 2 days of the trip. Whitehorse is a real town (it has a Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, and other "real" town things), and has a population of about 25,000. At first I was fascinated by the fact that there was a town in the Yukon that had 25,000 people in it. I was thinking "wow thats a lot of people for a place that seems pretty unpopulated. But I was more amazed when I learned that while, yes, there are 25,000 people in Whitehorse, thats also 75% of the ENTIRE population of the whole territory. And its a pretty big territory! Again - I just couldn't wrap my mind around that fact.

But on that note, I've been typing for a while now and since this is already a really long post, I'll leave you with the "Welcome to Whitehorse" picture and finish up the rest of the trip tomorrow.

Meow Monday

This clearly isn't one of my own cats, but I thought it was appropriate for a Meow Monday post. We came across this guy on the side of the road in the Yukon Territory on our vacation a few weeks ago. I think he'd make a nice addition to my feline bunch at home...don't you think? I mean he's just a really big kitty cat right?

Memories of a friend and lessons learned

Its taken me a while to post this because after receiving this horrible news, my life became a whirlwind of last minute plans to travel to North Carolina for a funeral, followed immediately by a 2 week pre-deployment vacation.

A few weeks ago I received news that Anna, one of my closest friends, had died very suddenly and unexpectedly. At the moment, no one is sure what happened. It can apparently take 6-8 weeks for autopsy results so we are still waiting. When I saw the message that her husband had posted on Facebook, I was numb. I actually sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out why he would joke about something like this...because clearly, that message had to be a joke. Anna had just celebrated her 30th birthday and her 5th wedding anniversary. She was too young to die.

I'm not sure when it finally sunk in that this was no joke. One of my closest friends in the entire world was gone. I would never see her again, or hear her voice and her laughter. I spent most of the night crying, and didn't sleep for a single minute. I'm filled with happy memories, but also regrets.

Anna was one of the first people that I met at Catawba. We used to joke around about how we met because I actually "met" her before I really met her. It was my first day at Catawba and I was in the bookstore with my parents. Our orientation hadn't started yet so we were killing time walking around campus. I was excited, but nervous, and I think some of that nervousness is what made me react the way I did. I saw Anna in the bookstore. She smiled at me, and said hi...and I didn't respond! I have no idea why. I am not the kind of person who would just ignore a random stranger like that. But for some reason, I looked at her, and decided that she was a snob. When my orientation class began later that day, I walked into the room and realized that the "snob" I had seen in the bookstore was in my class! Our orientation classes were small. I think mine had 12 people in it, so what were the odds of the snobby girl from the bookstore being in the same class as me. Later that day, after our parents had left, and we were left alone to mingle with our new friends, Anna and I started talking. I realized in an instant that my initial assessment of her was 100% wrong. She was clearly one of the sweetest girls I had ever met. We became instant friends. For years after that moment, we would joke about the bookstore incident. It turns out that when she saw me in orientation she thought "Oh great, the snobby girl who ignored me in the bookstore is in my class." So at random moments throughout the next 12 years she would say to me "I can't believe you thought I was a snob!" or I would say "I can't believe I ever thought that you were snobby" and we'd have a good laugh about it!

Anna truly had one of the kindest and most compassionate hearts ever. If a friend needed her, she was there. She went out of her way to make people feel loved and comfortable in every instance. I remember one particular time when a friend of ours had his wisdom teeth removed. He had a pretty rough go of it, and was feeling pretty miserable for a few days. Everyone who was friends with him gave him the obligatory "I hope you feel better. Let me know if you need anything." And we all meant that. But I'm almost embarrassed to admit that none of us did anything for him without him asking...except for Anna. He never asked for her help or her comfort, but while the rest of us said "get well soon" and then went on with our daily lives, Anna was the one who took it upon herself to make him soup. It seems like a small gesture, but that's who she was and those are the kinds of things that she did. No one else thought to bring him soup, then sit there with him while he ate it, just to keep him company.

I remember another similar time when I had a horrible allergic skin reaction to something. I have no idea what, but I had broken out into hives everywhere. I was itchy, uncomfortable and miserable. But I just sucked it up, and tried to ignore it. While I was sitting in our room itching every single part of my body, Anna left. I didn't know why she left, but she came back about 15 minutes later with Benadryl cream for me. I never asked her to get me medicine, she just did it without even thinking twice about it. Again - it seems like such a small gesture, but its those small gestures from people that end up meaning the world to someone.

We spent 3 years as college roommates, and when I moved back to North Carolina at the end of 2004, Anna became my roommate again. She wasn't always easy to live with, but I know that I wasn't always a gem of a roommate either. What I found amazing about her though, is that no matter how annoyed I got at her, or whatever petty thing was bothering me at the moment, I could NEVER stay mad at her for more than a few minutes. And if you know me well, you know that its pretty unusual of me to just get over something that quickly. But she was so genuine and so caring, so even when something annoyed me slightly, I always knew that Anna would never, ever intentionally do something to annoy someone on purpose. I truly don't believe that she had a single mean bone in her body.

When I left my fiance a few years ago, I went through some rough times. It was a period of time when I had the unfortunate experience of learning who my true friends were. It was hurtful when some friends that I thought were true friends, turned against me. Logically, I know that these "friends" were never true friends to begin with...but it still hurt. I came out of the whole experience stronger though, and secure in knowing who I could always count on in my life. Anna is one of the people who stuck by me. She let me know, in every possible way that she could, that she would always be there for me, and she would always be my friend. She never judged me. She never waivered her opinion about the entire situation. She just stuck by me like any true best friend would do. Anna was the definition of loyalty. I've never met anyone else who could even come close to the amount of loyalty that Anna showed her friends. I think part of what is so hard right now is that I always knew that she would be there and that I could always count on her. But now if I need her, she isn't there and I can't wrap my mind around that fact just yet.

Then there was my wedding. I threw my wedding together in a time period of about one month. It was a small ceremony, and it was done as simply as we possibly could. Anna was my maid of honor - a job that usually means she would throw me a wedding shower and a bachelorette party. I told her that I didn't want or need either of these two things. This was supposed to be a simple day and I didn't want to do anything that would make it more complicated for anyone. In the end, timing simply didn't allow for a bachelorette party, but Anna insisted on a wedding shower. I protested, and she protested back. She always was stubborn and there was no arguing with her this time, so I caved. She ended up throwing me a shower a day before my wedding, and it was a beautiful shower. She went way beyond anything that I would have expected her to do, but the ridiculous thing is that I don't know why I didn't expect it. Because once again, this was just the kind of thing that Anna did. She went out of her way to show her friends how much she loved them.

I'm saddened to say that I truly think she was a better friend to me than I was to her. I have never been good about keeping in touch with people. Its a flaw that I know I have. I don't even know how many times I had cheerful voice mails from Anna and then I forgot to call her back. Or how many times I would think "I need to send Anna an email" but then put it off for days, because I was feeling too lazy to sit down and write. In the back of my mind, I just always thought she would always be there. I always thought "I'll just email her later" or "Crap I forgot to call her back, but its ok, I'll just call her back tomorrow". It just never crossed my mind that one day, tomorrow wouldn't be there anymore.

I also put off going to see her several times because plane tickets were too expensive. I've been wanting to take a trip back to North Carolina for about 3 years now, but there's always a reason why I can't...usually its the cost of airfare. But looking back now, I should have gone anyway. In the end, its just money. But because I wanted to save money, the last time I saw my wonderful Anna was at my wedding - almost 3 years ago. If I could go back in time I would buy 10 plane tickets, regardless of the cost, just so I could go see my friend one more time. Her 30th birthday was this past February, and once again, I missed my chance to see her. Her husband threw her a magnificent party. It was a home petting zoo party, and if you know Anna, you know how well this fits her personality. Her compassion and caring was equally divided between humans and animals. In fact...she's the one who gave me my first cat (not counting my "first" cat who ultimately became my dad's cat). When a scrawny, undernourished, sick cat showed up at the dumpster at her apartment complex she, of course, fed it. She moved into the house we rented together a few days after finding this cat and I will never forget her walking in the door that day. She had the ugliest, scrawniest, howling at the top of her lungs, cat in her arms. And she said to me as cheerful as ever "Look Brooklet! I found a cat!" (and as a side note, she's the one who gave me the nickname Brooklet) I wasn't even a true cat person at the time, but as we all know now...that was the beginning of my decline into crazy cat lady land. Back to her party though... by the time I knew of the party, airfare had climbed pretty high. I wanted to be there more than ever, but I told myself that it was ok. I could see her any other time. Little did I know at the time that that would be my last chance to see her.

All I can hope for now is that she knows how much I loved her and how much I valued our friendship. I hope she knows that she was such an important piece of my life and that I truly wouldn't be who I am today, if it hadn't been for her. I have so many regrets, and I hope she knows that my laziness in keeping in touch with her, and my fear of spending too much money, had nothing at all to do with her. I hate that I had to learn my lesson this way, but if I could go back in time, I'd buy those plane tickets without even flinching at the cost. I'd send her more emails and call her more often. I'd make every effort that I possibly could to let her know how much she means to me. Sadly, all I can do now is to simply honor her memory and treasure the memories that I have of her forever. So to anyone who is reading this - please treasure your friends and family. Hug them daily and let them know how much they mean to you. Don't make excuses to put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Life is simply too short and tomorrow may not always be there.

I was looking through some old college pictures today and I came across this one from our sophomore year. Not only is Anna wearing her signature smile, but the angel wings made me burst into tears all over again. If anyone in this world deserves to be an angel...its Anna.

Meow Monday

Back in January, we went on a 5 day trip to Victoria, British Columbia. Our cat, Moe, has asthma, and he requires a twice daily preventative inhaler. We had a friend come to feed and check on the other cats while we were gone, but I didn't want to ask someone to come over twice a day just to give a cat an inhaler. Instead I wanted to board him at our vet. However, Mr. V decided that it would be cheaper and easier to just bring him along with us (and he also admitted that he misses the cats when he's away from them). Needless to say, Moe became our first cat to become an international traveler. So if anyone wants to know who the real crazy cat person in this house is...don't point to me!

Here's Moe hanging out in our hotel room:

Mil-Spouse Friday-Fill in #36

I realize I'm missing 3 Friday Fill-Ins, but since its unlikely that I'll ever be able to catch up completely before the next installment comes out in a week, I figured I'd just answer this week's questions and catch up on the missing ones as time allows...

1. What romance movie scene reminds you of your s/o or spouse and the LOVE you share? submitted by Simply Sunshine and Daisy’s

Umm...honestly? I have no idea...I'm running through movie clips in my mind right now and I can't come up with one that reminds me of me and Mr. V. I tend to think that romance movies, while good, are also really fake, so maybe thats my problem here. I'll have to get back to you on this one.

2. If you were allowed to deploy with your husband to a war zone would you and why? submitted by I & J

Yep..and we've had several conversations about this already. He claims he "wouldn't let me" go to a war zone with him, but the truth is, I was given an opportunity to teach in Iraq before I even met Mr. V. I turned it down at the time, but I do think its something that would be really interesting to do. Plus, I think it would be really interesting to see parts of the world that the average person doesn't get to see. I don't know if I would want to live out in town in a war zone, but I think I would at least feel halfway "safe" if I was on a guarded military base. (the teaching job was out in town, but I would have been escorted by armed guards to work every day)

3. Have you ever done anything (intentionally, or unintentionally) to embarrass your spouse/significant other in front of his military cohorts? submitted by Marrying the Navy

Intentionally? Definitely not. Thats just cruel and unnecessary. Unintentionally? I sure hope not...although I did recently sit at a table with his CO and the CO's wife, while talking about the figure skating competition that Mr. V and I just went to. The CO's wife said to her husband, "See? HER husband will go to a figure skating competition with her." At that point I realized that perhaps I shouldn't have told his CO that he even somewhat enjoyed the competition. However, I'm going to say that it doesn't count because Mr. V wasn't there, so technically, it wasn't in front of him :-).

4. What is your most irrational fear? submitted by Eights on the Move

I've only recently figured out what my most irrational fear is. I'm afraid of falling, but I don't think thats necessarily irrational. I'm also terrified of bees, but since I've only been stung once in my life, by a wasp, and never a bee, I also don't find that completely irrational. The wasp sting HURT like you wouldn't believe (or maybe you would believe it) and on top of that I suffer from tons of allergies that have gotten worse as I get older. So aside from the fear of the pain of a bee sting, I'm also afraid that I'm going to be deathly allergic to bee stings, and die within minute of getting stung. So maybe thats slightly irrational, but I don't think its completely irrational.

As for completely irrational, I'm afraid of wide open spaces, and I really just figured this out. I know there's a name for this fear, but I can't remember it offhand. Mr.V and I have gone on several day and weekend trips around here and I've realized that when I'm standing on a beach that has no one on it, and its HUGE and you can't see or hear any sign of life outside of the beach, it makes me feel panicked. (I'm talking about 2nd Beach in La Push in case anyone wants to know which beach freaked me out.) I also felt panicked driving through Wyoming when we moved out here, because there was just nothing around. Same with the Canadian Rockies, near the Athabasca Glacier. There are just mountains, and fields of snow, and NOTHING else around, and it just panics me! I honestly have no idea why, but its a feeling I don't like, and I do realize thats its completely irrational.

5. If you could only live in one kind of climate for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? submitted by Many Waters

I can't believe I'm actually going to say this, but I think I'd choose Western Washington...but without the rain, gray skies and clouds. I do like having 4 distinct seasons, but moving around so much has taught me which types of weather I can and can't physically handle. Hot weather, while occasionally nice, really takes its toll on me. I've always been very sensitive to hot weather to the point where even 90 degrees makes me feel like I'm going to pass out. Cold weather, is just cold and uncomfortable, so I think I could happily live somewhere where the temperature is typically between 50 and 70 degrees year round, with the occasional really cold day or really hot day mixed in there. And honestly? Western Washington has that climate. But I hate the rain and the dreariness and the 3pm sunsets in winter. So ideally, I would live somewhere where the weather stays between 50 and 70 degrees on most days, it only rains 2 or 3 times a month, and the sun sets no earlier than 5pm (but preferably much later than that) every day.