Rockies Roadie

Day 30 marked the start of our Rockies adventure. We were headed for Hope for our first leg, breaking up the driving into bite sized chunks but the biggest chunks were over the first 2 days. We were expecting as we got further into the mountains the roads would narrow and become more windy but that couldn't be more far from the reality! The roads were generally 4 lanes minimum and relatively straight. The speed limit ranged from 90 to 120km per hour so you can imagine what they are like! Once we started getting further from Vancouver gas stations became more scarce so after every little township there would be road signs asking if you have checked your gas....next service 150km! The other signs that dominated the roadside were pictures of various animals to watch out for on the road including deer, moose and mountain goats. A large chunk of the road was either cliffs either side or fenced so the animals couldn't wander on to them but there were some fairly open spaces at times where they could wander, near Calgary there were even signs saying watch for Pedestrians....on the highway!
The trip to Hope was busy as everyone was heading away for Labour weekend over here but the roads flow pretty nicely because they are so good and there are almost always passing lanes. The main focus on the way to Hope was to find somewhere to buy bear spray in preparation for going into the forests to look at the scenery. Our first port of call was Walmart but they were all sold out! From there we tried a sporting goods store as we had left it until we were well out of Vancouver to try and get some and were getting close to our first forest adventure, so ended up paying twice the price! With bear spray in hand (which lived in my handbag on my shoulder for the week) I felt a bit more protected and we headed in to see Bridal Veil Falls. The first thing we spotted when we arrived was bear proof bins so we knew we were in bear country again. It was a really pretty waterfall, aptly named as it flows down graduated rounded rocks like a white veil. We arrived in Hope late afternoon as we had run a few errands in Vancouver in the morning and left quite late. With a population of around 4000 it is quite a quaint little town which consist of 1 min street about 3 blocks long. There is a pretty little park in the centre of town and a heap of chainsaw carvings all down the street (Logan has a photo next to one of the bear carvings). The amount of detail they can get with a chainsaw is quite impressive.
Anything off the main street was a little run down and dilapidated, some of the buildings have definitely seen better days. It did have a nice feeling about it though, we felt like we were at the start of the mountains with the little township surrounded on all sides. There were mountains peaking out at the end of every road, though they were small in comparison to what we would see later in the journey.
Day 31 we were headed to Kelowna. We weren't certain whether we would be able to go through Kelowna because of the wildfires, but they had just enough rain while we were in Vancouver to get some of the major ones in that area under control and even the smoke that had shrouded the region for the previous week had lifted dramatically. It was thinker as we got closer but didn't obscure the view fully like it had, but just added a bit of a mist to the air which almost gave us a better perspective of the depth of the mountains. Rach had suggested we go this way rather than the standard Kamloops as it was a more scenic drive. Our first stop on the road was not far from Hope, a place called Coquihalla Canyon, otherwise known as The Othello Tunnels. This is where some of Rambo was filmed. It is an old railway route of the Kettle Valley Railway that operated from 1916 and closed down in the early 60's. Because they tunneled through the canyon all of the bits not in the rock were subject to frequent rock slides, avalanches and falling trees. It was an extremely high maintenance track and that's what eventually led to it being closed. It was an impressive feat of engineering for the time it was built and the man who designed it was dropped in by rope from the top of the canyon to survey the area none else would touch. Apparently they used to schedule the journeys through there at night time so the passengers couldn't see the scary dropoffs! The canyon itself is beautiful. It is tight, unlike the vast size of the Grand Canyon, but it has beautiful blue water running through fed by the glaciers and the height of it from top to bottom must have been 100m. Just shear rock face with spruce popping out the top. The trail continues through the tunnels and into some quite different forest which is quite mystical. Little rock ledges with fallen trees covered in moss and lichen and the sun is obscured by the canopy of the forest. I believe Gorillas in the Mist was also filmed around here!
Once you get back on the highway you follow the rest of the Kettle Valley Railway, which no longer exists, but they have left all of the old station markers on the side of the road. They are also named after Shakespeare characters, apparently the engineer who designed it was quite a fan.
A little stop in Merritt for lunch was very reminiscent of Katikati. It's a similar size and there are murals everywhere. There is the Mural Walk of Fame which is a walk around 2 blocks with murals of famous Canadians covering all of the buildings - quite cute but also a little odd. The industry for the town is obviously forestry as there was a massive log yard as you first get in to town. 5 minutes out of Merritt is the worlds largest glass bell collection...so we had to go and have a look. It's a very quirky bell garden and it looks like it is part of someones property so we aren't actually sure who it belongs to.
We were keen to see some scenery so headed to Harmon Lake which is not far from Merritt. Unfortunately google maps doesn't seem to have a 'dont use unsealed  roads' setting like a GPS does. Pretty sure you aren't supposed to do on unsealed roads in rental cars but hey, 11 kms up a gravel road in Kane Valley we made it to the lake. It was quite pretty, your classic camping lake, and there are camping lots up the top that were all occupied by RVs. The whole area surrounding the lake and road was farmland (a couple of ranches) and there were horses and cows roaming fairly freely about. There were also signs along the side of the road indicating ski areas so it must be used for cross country skiing in winter, but it's not really a proper ski field that we could see.
We arrived in kelowna late afternoon so plenty of time for a wander through town in the daylight. Kelowna has a similar population to Tauranga City but the actual city is quite contained in one area. It's a little more like a combo of downtown Mount and Devonport in Auckland. When you first drive in from the top of the hill and over the bridge into the main city you have to remind yourself it is a lake rather than a harbor. There is just something about it that makes it not feel like a lake resort, but it definitely has the feel of a rich mans playground. There is a massive marina, beautiful waterfront, funky pubs and eateries and loads of tanned people wandering the streets and out on their jet skis. Any watersport is available and the hotels in the main city are super expensive. It was ramping up as we were there on the Friday night of the long weekend but it had a really nice vibe about it. It's so weird to think there are cities like this tucked away in the middle of the mountains! And we were thinking they would all be tiny little villages.
Day 32 was headed for Revelstoke. We had a couple of stops along the way and there were definitely showing the more quirky side of Canada. A lot of the things we found in this road trip were the types of things we were expecting on the American leg, not this leg! We found an Enchanted forest which was pretty cute but rather random. It's a little area in the forest with fiberglass fairytale characters and houses all through it, and little paths with miniature picket fences to guide the way. It was private property and back in the 50's the lady who lived there was a sculptor. She decided to create an enchanted forest in her garden being inspired by the surroundings and her husband dug out all of the paths by hand. In the early 60s they decided to open it to the public, and it is still as it was today.
Just down the road was Crazy Creek Suspension Bridge and falls....nothing too exciting and then on to lunch at a place called Salmon Arm (funny enough there was no Salmon on the menu). This was were we conected back up to the main Trans-Canada highway route. Because we hadn't had enough weird stops for the day our last stop was Log Cabin 1912. This was probably the quirkiest of them all. As the name suggests it is indeed a log cabin that was built in 1912. It was a gift/icecream store with a petting zoo. There was a bridge over the parking lot with mountain goats on it and massive dinosaur and bear models everywhere. There was a massive garden with old vintage cars in it, wildflowers and other animal models.
After a long day of adventuring we were quite late getting into Revelstoke. We managed to time it just right to get down to the riverfront park in time to watch the sun setting over the mountains. The smoke added another dimension to it which made it seem quite surreal. It's already an awe inspiring place ro be and the shear size of the mountains and beauty that surrounds you is hard to put into words. No words, photos, videos can so any justice whatsoever. It really is something you have to be in and experience first hand!
Revelstoke itself is very small and quaint. We can just imagine how gorgeous it would be covered in snow. It has a boutique ski field that keeps it going through the winter months, but in summer it does feel more like a place people just pass through.
Day 33 we were bound for Lake Louise. First stop was Revelstoke Dam. Not as large or impressive as the Hoover Dam but still pretty big, and surrounded by much prettier scenery. You can go in an up the dam but we had limited time with a full day ahead.
The road through Glaciers National Park between Revelstoke and Lake Louise was much more windey and loaded with snow sheds. There were are few in other places on the journey but they seemed to be every 500m in some parts of this road. There were a lot of avalanche valleys they were protecting from and obviously those roads are hard to get to with the snow plough in winter. The other giveaway with the state of the roads was a 40 ft truck down a ditch upside down and another that was fully burnt out sitting in the outside lane heading up the hill. It must have caught fire the day before or overnight as although there wasn't much left of it, the fire crew were still there and it was still smoking.
We stopped off at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, and the cedars weren't as giant as we thought they would be. They are pretty old trees but they get nowhere near as big as the redwoods. They have National Park passes in Canada that allow you to stop and do trails etc. They dont really monitor it in most places and dont make it obvious where to get them or what you need them for. Once you have a day pass you can access any national park, the locals all have year passes, but we skipped our on the first one. When we asked the attendant whether we needed one she said not to worry this time. It is quite a good user pays system to raise funds for maintaining the parks.
Lunch was in a place called Golden at a little restaurant called The Island. It is on an island in the middle of the river.
Just before hitting Lake Louise we stopped off at Takakkaw Falls and Emerald Lake. This time we sorted out a National Park Pass which was valid till the end of the next day.
The drive to get to Takakkaw Falls is lovely, mountains popping up every turn (like most of the drive) with lovely winding roads and forest either side. You can see the waterfall well before you get to it and the sound of it as soon as you get out of the car is incredible. It's the second highest freefall waterfall in North America at around 250m freefall. The walk to get right under the falls is quite short but it is along the river and over a little bridge so it is really pretty, despite how crowded it is. As we have been getting higher it has been getting colder, and some of the mountains surrounding the falls have visible glaciers. It's quite a contracts to the hill the actual waterfall is in as it looks more like the grand canyon.
Right up by the falls we met our first chipmunk. They are so cute!! We weren't sure at first if it was a chipmunk as I had always believed they were smaller than squirrels but this was more the size of a hamster. On doing some research the Eastern Canadian Chipmunk can get up to 30cm long. It was pretty cheeky and not scared to come up and investigate us.
Emerald Lake was breathtaking. It was the first glacier fed lake we had seen and the colour it creates is phenomenal. There is a lodge on the side of the lake that doubles as a wedding venue and there was a wedding happening while we were there. They had the outside fire all stacked ready to go on the lakefront with chairs around it. It would be such a stunning location for a wedding. It was so tranquil and beautiful you could just stare at it all day and not get bored. It was so still nestled in the mountains, the water was like a mirror!
We finally got to Lake Louise around 7pm. Just in time for a quick wander around 'town'. Its called a village for a reason I guess. It is literally the hotels which each have a few reataurant/pubs and a small strip mall with about 4 or 5 shops.....that's it! I imagine it would be absolutely humming in the winter months and everything is a maximum of 2 blocks away. We rugged up asbitvwaa forecast ro be 1°c overnight, and we woke the next morning to a decent snowfall covering the mountain tops surrounding us. We were definitely not expecting that! It was a super cloudy morning with clouds hanging extremely low over the mountains, with just the odd hole showing showy peaks. It was quite surreal. We headed to Lake Louise as it was getting dark when we arrived the night before so we didn't make it. We walked around the outside of it which is about 2km to get a good view of Fairmont Chataeau. It is really quite something from the other end of the lake, and it was that beautiful aquamarine colour. The low clouds, glaciers and snow capped mountains just added to the beauty of it all. On the way back we spotted another Chipmunk hanging in the bushes munching away. This one was tiny, more the size we expected a chipmunk to be! I had been keen on hiring one of the red canoes and paddling over the lake, but at $105 (USD) for 30 minutes we passed.
Moraine Lake was also stunning. That beautiful colour again, and really expensive canoes lol.
We headed up the Lake Louise Gondola which is basically the ski lift but they turn it into a tourist thing over summer. You can choose a proper gondola cabin or an open air ski lift. We went with rye ski lift in the hope of finding bears below. It is meant to be the best place in the area to see them. Well I think they were all resting because none of them came to play for us. The scenery however was the most stunning I have ever seen! Heading up was a nice view of the ski fields (which Logan was getting very animated about) and the snow capped peaks above us. It got chillier towards the top but we were all rugged up in preparation. We stopped and had lunch at the restaurant at the top....a game platter. Most of the meat was raw, half of it was ok and the rest was gross. Bison tartar, roasted bone marrow, duck bacon (not like bacon at all!), prosciutto, cured bison and some preserves.
While we were 'enjoying' lunch our view was a panoramic of the mountains surrounding Lake Louise, and an aerial view of Lake Louise itself. There was a slight smokey mist which made it look more like a painting than a window! Then we got to enjoy the view all the way down. When we got to the bottom around an hour and a half later we noticed how much less snow there was up the top compared with when we went up. It was almost half gone, so the sun had some decent heat in it, and it was quite a thin layer.
It was just an easy 45 minute drive from Lake Louise to Banff so we left quite late and got there late afternoon. Something we had noticed previously on the roads, but there were heaps between Lake Louise and Banff, was animal crossings over the highway. It is essentially an over ridge that connects the forests on either side of the highway and is planted with trees and bushes and grass just like the natural forest. It is such a cool idea to minimise the disruption the highway creates for the animals in their natural habitat.
Straight away we were taken by the scenery surrounding Banff, and the little township itself is just gorgeous. It reminded us a little of Queenstown with similar buildings, lots of fudgeries and sweet shops, surrounded by mountains and  just generally pretty. We decided to head up the Banff Hotsprings for sunset. The pool itself is outside on the hillside overlooking the other mountains and unfortunately the sun sets behind the building site we didn't really see it.
Day 34 we kicked around Banff checking out the hoodoos on Mt Tunnel, and checking out Bow Falls which is beautiful! Quite different again to all of the other waterfalls we have seen. We were going to do the Banff Gondola after such an amazing view the day before but in arriving and discovering it was $64 each we gave it a miss. It was good timing though, as Logan spotted an Elk on the way back down in a tiny slither of trees on a tight U bend between the gondola and hotsprings.
We had a quick drive around the Vermillion Lakes in the hope of seeing beavers but it was the wrong time of day so we eaded to the Banff sign for a photo before makeing our way to Calgary. When we first pulled up to the sign there seemed to be a bank up of traffic pulled over just past it. We immediately pulled over to see what was happening as that normally means animals. The cars suddenly cleared and a ranger truck with its lights flashing came the other way. While we were at the sign the rNger jumped out with a massive gun (assuming it was a tranq gun) and crossed the road into the bushes beside us. We are not sure what was happening but when we drove further down the road after we had finished there was another ranger and ranger truck doing the same thing. We think maybe it was a brown bear as we couldn't think of another reason for them to be so uptight.
We drove through a few other areas hoping to see wildlife but nothing other than deer eventuated. There were some led signs in a subdivision telling people there were bears active in the area and to remove fruit from their yards.
We stopped off at Canmore Rail Bridge which was quite pretty, more of a photo stop and our last full of the gorgeous mountains before heading back into the city.
As you leave the mountains and enter the plains on the Cakgary side the view back towards the mountains is quite spectacular. There is miles and miles of flat plains and then an enormous mountain range that rises up out of nowhere and goes on forever. When you are fully immersed in it, it really does make you feel quite insignificant!
Calgary is a nice city. Quite stark and lacking character though. We went up the Calgary Tower before dark and settled in to the hotel.
Day 35 we just cruised. We had planned to go out to the Badlands at Dinoaaur Provincial Park and check out some dinosaur bones but 2.5 hours each way wasn't appealing after 4 days of driving
So we kicked around Calgary instead. We went to Lougheed House which is an old historic house that have fully restored, and checked out the river front (where we saw a snake which we think was an Eastern Garter Snake). They have created a man made wetlands by the stormwater outlets which is quite impressive. With a big travel day ahead we didn't do too much and just relaxed. It's a nice city but not really a destination unless you have something specific to do there.
We are in our way to Hawaii now for a week of recovery and celebrations with Logans family before heading home.

Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd8_k4c4J7WR9TH3fg

Fairbanks - Heart of Gold

Day 25 we disembarked the ship at 7.30am in Whittier. It is a tiny town on the coast with a permanent population of 40 people! It the summer it swells to 200 for tourist season. The town consists of a hotel, 2 shops and 1 apartment building that houses everyone that lives there! Even the Police and fire department are housed in the same building.
The only way you could access Whittierbin days gone by was boat or train, and they have now converted the rail tunnel into a one lane highway to make it suitable for cars and buses. It only opens every half hour to each side, so if you miss the tunnel opening you have to wait another hour for it to open again. At 2.5 miles long it is the longest tunnel in north America. Our bus from Whittier to Anchorage was a narrated tour so we had a great guide who filled us in on the facts about Whittier. We saw several Beluga whales on the way up that were super close to the shoreline so really easy to see from the bus! We also saw loads of bald eagles perched in the dead trees that lined the road on both sides.
As we got closer to Anchorage the highways were all fenced off from the trees and bushes that line the roads, apparently that is to try and keep moose from wandering onto the highway.
Anchorage was a lot bigger than we had expected with a population of 300k people! We only saw the bits we drove through on the way to the airport, but the airport was really nice with plenty of shops and eateries!
Once in Fairbanks the first port of call was picking up the rental car
We were staying quite a way out of town and with no public transport options a car was essential. We did a quick grocery shop and were surprised by how fancy the grocery store we went to was - a lot fancier than at home with beautiful organic sections and pick'n'mix deli treats!
It was a lot more expensive though, most items were around triple the price of everywhere else we have been as they have to ship everything in at quite a large cost! A bag of chips was around $6-$8!
Once we were stocked up we headed out to our little log cabin in the woods....which did not disappoint! It was only about 10-15 minutes drive from downtown so not too far out of the way and super cute! It was on dirt roads and with a heap of other log cabins with permanent residents living in them. They were all spaced apart quite well and each surrounded by Bush, and spruce trees. This made for lots of wildlife. Sitting on the rocking chairs on the front porch we could watch rabbits, birds and squirrels going about their business. The squirrels were really loud! They chirp like birds and drop the cones from the spruce trees on the ground once they have munched the seeds out of them.
I want too impressed by the toilet situation, I didn't want a dry cabin as it would have been a pain and having to go outside in the dark to go to the loo would have been hazardous to the health with goodness knows what animals hanging around - so our cabin had an inside loo......it was pretty much a permanent portaloo which Logan thought was hilarious.
Our main reason for heading to Fairbanks and staying in the cabin out of town was to see the Northern Lights. Contrary to the forecast which was for cloud and rain, we had beautiful clear blue skies and sunshine. I was hopeful this would mean we could see the lights as that is the biggest thing that needs to be right is the weather, then you need to be away from light pollution (hence the cabin out of town) and they need to be active. After a day of travelling we were quite tired, so we crashed out of the couch and set the alarm to wake us up at 11pm as sunset is not until 9.45pm at this time of the year.
When the alarm went off I checked out the windows and it still didn't look dark enough (it has to be properly dark to see them which is why you can see them in summer) so I snoozed the alarm for another hour. We finally got up at 12.30am and headed outside to our little clearing to try and spot the lights. We were expecting them to be weak as it was a full moon and the season officially starts on the 21st August so we we were pretty early on.
Once we wer out there it was probably less than a.minute before we saw them, beautiful green ribbons of light dancing across the sky. It is a little like a light show but natures own version, so beautiful and graceful. They really are quite a special phenomenon to witness. I tried to take some photos and onlyamged to capture one really fuzzy image....then I decided to leave it to the professionals and just enjoy the show. We watched them for around an hour dancing around in all different formations, and then they started to slow down. It really is quite difficult to describe what they look like, quite unlike anything else we have witnessed and we felt extremely privileged to have seen them. When we spoke to some people the next day they said they had been trying for several nights to see them but the weather had been no good, and that night was the first viewing of the season so we were extremely lucky!
Fay 26 wasn't looking so hot weather wise so we decided to head to the Chena Hot Springs and Aurora Ice Museum. It was around an hour and a half drive from Fairbanks along a road that supposedly has the best options for spotting Moose.....well they have proven very elusive and we have yet to see one!
I hadn't realise that Chena Hot Springs was a full resort. They have cabins, yurts and hotel rooms for a rent an a full Aurora Borealis viewing room so people can stay indoors and view them. There are also loads of hiking trailheads that start there so a lot of hikers base themselves at the resort (it is literally in the middle of nowhere). We started off with a tour of the Ice Museum which was quite cool (no ounce intended). They had some of the worlds best ice sculptors based there and everything is made out of ice
...the stairs, the seats, the bar, the glasses. They even have an igloo, and a few bedrooms that you can rent out and sleep in...all made from ice! They all have patterns carved inside them, or flowers frozen into them, or lights inside them so they can light everything up. The place is there year round and is inside a big warehouse that is kept at -6°c with ammonia gas. We got appletinis as part of our package that were served in ice martini glasses. It is quite similar to the Ice Bars around NZ but a lot bigger and more impressive, and you can stay in there a lot longer.
To warm up after that we went for a swim in the hot springs which was lovely. I could imagine how beautiful it would be in winter when all of the surroundings are covered in snow. The springs had a gravelly bottom which was unusual an a beautiful backdrop of hills covered in spruce trees.We didn't last too long as it was super hot water!
After that we headed to North Pole which is a tiny town about 20 minutes out of central Fairbanks. It is super cute...all of the streets are named after Christmas with Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Street, and of course St Nicholas Drive where Santas House is.
All of the street lights are shaped and painted like candy canes and the whole town is in on the theme...every bollard and fire hydrant in sight is also decorated like a candy cane. Santa's House is basically a massive year round Christmas store, but with beautiful stuff. I had to get a copy of one of my favorite books as a kid 'The Night Before Christmas' and got Santa to personally sign it for Isla. He even let me sit on his knee so I could prove he signed it for her 😊
Just across the paddock was the area he keeps his reindeer, and they are absolutely beautiful creatures!
We headed into downtown Fairbanks which was pretty underwhelming, and apparently nothing is open on a Sunday night. The riverfront has been done nicely but the Chrna River that runs through the middle of town is very reminiscent of Waikato River. It's the same dirty brown, just not as wide. All over town they have markers of where the river flooded to in 1967. It wolf gave been a pretty deveststi g flood! Because of the lack of anything being open in town we headed to a little Italian place not far from our cabin for dinner. It was probably the most bizarre Italian we have ever had!
Day 27 was pretty cruisy, mainly a travel day but managed to squeeze in a bit more moose hunting (to no effect) and a few other areas around town.
Pioneer Park was quite cute, just a randiw collection if old artifacts put into one park. They have an old Denali rail carriage, airplane museum, paddle steamer and collection of old log cabins that have been turned into a goldrush town. That part I a lot like our Historic Village where people run little businesses out of the cabins.
We also took a walk around Creamers Fields, and old dairy farm that is now a wildlife reserve. A lot of it is swampy forest and the Sandy Cranes and dunes is migrate there so through summer there are loads of birds! Apparently you can also spot foxes and moose there as well but I am beginning to think we deter them for a place that supposedly has do many of them they are bloody hard to find! Hopefully we have more luck spotting them in Canada!

Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd8-g_v41g2B4D-Czw

Alaskan Bush People (Pt 2)

Day 22 was in port at Skagway. I have to say this is the cutest little town! The main street is pretty much as it was back in the days it was a hub for the gold miners. It it one main street and a population of 1000 people. It doubles over summer with tourist season. The gold itself was a 600 mile journey over the Klondike Summot and into the Yukon but because of the harbour, Skagway made a good base for them to start their journey and collect supplies. All of the old buildings down Broadway had the original facades, but buildings built behind them that are more modern as originally they would have been tents set up behind the facades so it would look like a proper town but was just a shanty setup.
The first thing that struck us before we even got off the ship was the insignia painted on the cliff face of the port of a heap of different ships. This is a tradition started a long time ago, that the crew of a ship would paint this on the cliff face for their ship the first time it ever cisited that port. The height of it reflected the amount of respect the crew had for their Captain. Apparently there are some so low you can't see them during high tide.
They stil have the original White Pass & Yukon Railroad train that takes you to the Canadian border and the summit. It is quite a feature in town, but the tracks that used to run down the main street have been moved to run beside town now.
Our morning consisted of shopping and exploring and we headed on a journey to the Klondike Summit which is around 3200 feet above sea level. We stopped off at a little place off the side roof the Klondike Highway called Liarsville which is like a little shanty town where the media were based during the gold rush. As you van imagine the stories coming back from the Yukon were few and not very interesting as it was extremely hard to get to and to be allowed over the Canadian border you had to have 1 tonne of goods (which would take an average man 40 trips) so a lot gave up and never found any gold. Because of this the journalists did what any self respecting journalist would do and made stuff up. Consequently this fuelled the gold rush and brought in loads of prospectors as they made it out to be a pretty simple task to hop over a hill and grab some gold. Hence once people learned the truth they earned the name of Liarsville.
They have it set up like it would have been back in the day, and they let you do some gold panning. They collect dirt from the stream running through the camp and teach you how to pan. We got 2 decent little nuggets each....but certainly wont get rich quick doing it that way! This was one of Logan's must do activities as Klondike and Yukon are quite heavily featured on the Goldrush programmes he watches.
After Liarsville we headed to the Klondike Summit which takes you over the Canadian border. You travel through about a mile of no man's land as the border controls are around a mile apart and they shut them between 11pm and 7am! On the way up you go through Dead Horse Gulch which got its name because thousands of horses died there. The miners would head up to the summit and under such treacherous terrain and 100 mile per hour winds people and horses often fell. The miners so blinded by gold fever old remove all of their supplies from the horse and leave them there to starve to death while they carried on their journey. At the top we stopped in Tormented Valley, which is a little like  been desperate in looks but obviously pretty high up. They have a lot of filming done up there as it is such foreign looking terrain but quite quick to get to from Skagway. The trees all get shorter and shorter as you get higher because of the conditions and all they really grows is Locoweed that the Mountain Goats eat to get high and dandelions that are a favorite of the bears to get their digestive systems working when they come out of hibernation. Apart from that there is an abundance of Fireweed and not much else.
Interestingly they dont pay a goods tax or income tax in Alaska because of the abundance of oil it provides for the country. There are also a heap of unfinished houses around as if you declare your house as 'unfinished' you don't have to pay house tax. A lot of people build an attached shed to the house and never finish it for that purpose, claiming they are 'working on it'.
The ship had a musher come on board with some of his Alaskan Husky puppies for us to play with. As we didn't managed to do dog sledding we got in on this action! They were gorgeous..about 8-12 weeks old and their fur was beautiful! The one Logan and I got crashed out on the floor for the whole thing.
Day 23 was an early start for Glacier Bay. We had started to think we brought all of our warm.clothes for nothing as it had been warm enough in most of the ports for tshirts or just 2 layers. Once we got to Glacier Bay we needed every layer we had!! We spent about 3 hours out in the freezing cold winds on the bow of the ship to view the glaciers and wildlife. The early morning and freezing temperatures were totally worth it!! Before we saw any glaciers our entry to Glacier Bay was full of otters. We hadn't seen any to date so were stoked to see them diving and floating on their backs fairly close to the ship. We warmed up with a fairly small glacier as we entered the bay and then they just kept coming each one bigger and more vast than the last with hanging glaciers filling the gaps between the tidal glaciers. The last glacier, Marjorie, was 1 mile across and 200ft high which is the equivalent to a 25 story building! It probably also goes down 100ft below sea level as well! We managed to see it valve  couple of times which is quite impressive. You see the sheet of ice start to move, and after it has hit the water the sound hits you - it sounds like a low rumbling thunder. You get the odd rumble even when it isn't calving as the ice moves and pushes forward, they move forward 5ft per day!!
The boat rotated in front of the glacier for some time so we got around an hour to really appreciate it and take it all in.
Day 24 started with a sleep in! First one since the start of the cruise so we made the most of it. Today's adventure was College Fjord, where we would see 5 glaciers in the same spot. We spent some time on the deck after breakfast, just for a wander and spotted a pod of dolphins and  couple of otters. We had learnt by now to carry our binoculars with us every time we leave the cabin just in case!
Once we got into College Fjord the otters just kept on coming! They look so small from the ship but they are actually around 4ft. There were some lazing on an iceberg and loads swimming and lying on their backs. We had a lone harbour seal showing off that was leaping out of the water and flipping.
Once we got further in to the Fjord the glaciers were stunning! They all hit you at once with the biggest at the end - the Yale Glacier. This one is fed by 4 other glaciers and was the one that carved out the fjord when it was formed. It has obviously receded a lot but is still an impressive 1.5 miles wide and 300ft high. Again the glaciers were cracking as they moved and pushed forward and this one gave us some pretty impressive calving!
It is really hard to describe the majesty of the glaciers, the shear size and the beauty of them with the icebergs floating in the water, the beautiful reflections in the calm turquoise water and the blue glow coming off the glaciers on a cloudy day. So on that note our cruise has come to an end 😔 But on to the next adventure in Fairbanks! We are hoping for some nice weather and crossing our fingers we see the Northern Lights.....some late nights ahead!

Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd89SQEEHKwlC81HmQ
(I will post these photos when we get to Fairbanks tonight and have wifi again)

Alaskan Bush People (Pt 1)

After 2 travel days getting to the cruise we were well and truly ready to relax.
We decided the get the skytrain to the cruise terminal (2.50 each instead of $40) as Vancouver doesn't have Uber!
Our check-in day for the Cruise was mostly spent waiting as the entire national border control system for US Immigration went down and they couldn't process anyone. Although we were in Vancouver they do immigration before you leave port so you dont have to do it on the cruise when you arrive in Alaska. It was quite amusing that there was an older Englishman helping mange the crowds said the ship was sending a message to all of the Aussies that they had run out of beer 😉
The cruise out of Vancouver Harbor was nice and we sailed under the Lionsgate Bridge, quite picturesque so we are looking forward to heading back in a week or two.
Day 19 was a sea day so we made the most of relaxing. We went to a seminar by the Naturalist on the sea creatures of Alaska, what to look out for and how to spot them from the ship (this proved very useful later on). Later in the day we went to a presentation for Captain Jack Molan (off Deadliest Catch) about being a fisherman on the Bering Sea which was fascinating! Hes has turned into quite the animal photographer after capturing bald eagles that would always hang around his boat using a camera he got from an airport vending machine.
Most of the rest of the day was spent orienting ourselves with the ship, getting spruced up for formal night and enjoying some normal  familiar food! The big show on the first night was a full production show, which was only 30 minutes max. It was pretty food, the dancing is very slick with great choreo but some of the singing is not as hot as it should be.
Day 20 was spent in Ketchikan. Our first glimpse of it was from the top deck of the ship on the way to breakfast at 6am. It's quite a quaint little place, the waterfront is quite distinct with the colorful weatherboard buildings that line the boardwalk. The sky always has at least two or more floatplane buzzing around and there were 5 cruise ships in port so it was bustling while we were there. The population is 13k and they joke that they are outnumbered by the 15k bears.
Our floatplane tour started at 7am and we had to be off the ship by 6.45am so it was quite an early start. We got bussed out to Tarquan Air about 10 minutes through the other side of town. The omens for the day were set from the start with a random seal hanging around the pontoon as we were heading our to the planes. It followed us along the length of the walk swimming beside us and checking us out. It was a fairly bumpy take off from the water but once you are in the air is is like any other flight. The plane only fits 7 adults plus the pilot so they are pretty small. We headed out over the little harbour and towards the Misty Fjords where we spent most of the flight. The view was beautiful and wants from newer formed mountains that were quite pointy through to quite rounded mountains that have had many more years of glacier erosion. We landed in the middle of the fjords and jumped onto the floats of the plane to take it all in. In the winter months when there is no tourism the float planes are used to deliver goods to the more remote areas as there is no other way of getting there. It was an absolutely beautiful day with no clouds in the sky so we didn't get to witness the reason it is called 'Misty Fjords' but you can see the watermarks on the rocks where the waterfalls all spring up when it is raining. We had hoped to spot some wildlife from the air but we only managed to see mountain goats and sealions.
Because it was such an early tour we were back in town by 9am and already needing to strip off to tshirts because it was so warm! Ketchikan gets around 16 feet of rain a year so getting a day like that is unusual even in summer. We went for a wander to Creek Street where the salmon head upstream to spawn. We had learnt about the process during the naturalist seminar the previous day so we were schooled up on what to look out for. It's a pretty fascinating process and there are hundreds of them all jammed together heading up the stream. We even had a couple jumping for us. We managed to spot our first bald eagle hanging out on a tree above the creek, it was still slightly mottled so was just transitioning from teenager to adult we think.
We carried on up towards the salmon  hatchery where they keep and fees up the babies for over a year to help build the salmon population and took a little back road. It ran along the side of the creek and on the other side were houses so probably a private way. There were cars parked on both sides and bushes lining the side of the creek so it was pretty quiet. As we were heading up this little walkway/driveway we came up beside a big Ford van, and I was walking slightly ahead of Logan. As I approached the back of the van I was greeted by a young black bear!! I got the front half of it in my sights and my blood ran cold, then I immediately turned and very calmly started walking back towards Logan. All I could get to come out of my mouth was 'Bear' and signalled for him to walk the same was as me (afterwards he admitted he didn't believe me as I was too calm, he thought I was joking). At this point I had no idea if it was following or not, but we hadn't made eye contact so I could only hope it hadn't seen us. Next thing we heard a massive crashing nd shaking through the bushes beside the van and my heart nearly stopped, and as we looked through the bushes in front of us the bear was running across the creek away from us. Logan managed to catch a glimpse of it as it was running. It was the cutest thing ever, but it took a good half an hour for my heart to return to normal speed!! Some of the locals had come out of their house that backed on to the area and when we let them know there was a bear around there response was 'oh, I'm glad we didn't put the rubbish out yet'😂
After that experience we went and found a pub as we needed a drink! It all happened so fast it was quite surreal, and we weren't expecting a bear in the middle of town in the middle of the day. Safe to say we were on high alert for the rest of the day!
Sailaway was 2pm from Ketchikan so a short action packed port! But at 5.30pm we were heading through Snow Pass which is where the Humpback Whales and Dall's Porpoises hang out. We had been told in our seminar how to spot the spouts of Humpback Whales in the distance, but that we needed to be at the front of the ship as they normally dive deep when the ship approached as they dont like to be too close. We had also been educated on what bubble-netting is(a form.of group feeding....google it if you dont know as it is fascinating) and how to spot it but that we would be very lucky to actually witness it and lobtailing, which we would also be lucky to witness as the Male whales only do that when they have eaten enough to gain 6 feet of blubber and are ready to head down to Hawaii or Mexico to mate.
Our dog sledding excursion in Juneau had been cancelled at the beginning of the cruise due to the glacier being unstable so we were still deciding what to do in Juneau the following day. Apparently that is the best place to see whales bit we also wanted to see the glacier so we decided to see if we saw whales in Snows Pas and if not we would book a whale watching tour in Juneau. If not it would be kayaking on Mendenhall Lake to see the glacier.
The first lot of action was a pod of dolphins on Port side and we were Starboard, but we stayed put hoping patience would pay off.
We started off seeing one or two spouts in the distance and as we got closer there seemed to be more. The naturalist was narrating on the decks so you knew where to look and what you were seeing. As we approached the whales didn't dive and we realised they were actually bubble-netting. There would have been a group of around 7 whales involved and you could clearly see the process...spouts then breaching, then the dive down where we saw the flutes and all of them coming up with their mouths full of herring. We just followed the seagulls as they hang out above all of it as it happens to try and get the jumping herring trying to escape. They were so involved in their feeding that they carried on as we sailed past them so we got a great view!
Still on a high from seeing that a decent sized pod of Dall's Porpoises approached and some of them came right up to the ship to ride the wake directly under were we were perched. They just look like baby Orca, absolutely beautiful.
Then another lot of spouts off in the distance, and it turned out to be another group of Humpbacks bubble-netting. Probably about 6 in the second group, and again we sailed past and got a great view from our side of the ship. They would have only been 100m away if that, you didn't need binoculars that's for sure!
Our naturalist told us we were unlikely to se more because they are traditionally solitary and with 2 highly concentrated groups so close together there probably wouldn't be many more around.
We waited it out (only another 5 minutes) and there were more! Another couple of loan whales lobtailing! We were just on such a buzz seeing everything we had been told about and in such large numbers and so close to the ship is unheard of. Our naturalist said it is the best display she has ever seen....she's been doing it for many years and even she was buzzing. So kayaking on the lake it would be 😉
Our wind down for the evening was performance from Teacake (yep that's her real name) doing a tribute to Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. She was absolutely stunning but after such and emotionally charged day were were too tired to fully appreciate it!
Day 21 we arrived in Juneau, Alaskas capitol city. Well I dont really think you can call it a city by any stretch with a population of 32k. We spent the morning exploring town which is a litte reminiscntnof Dunedin with super steep streets and some of the streets are just pedestrian access as they are literally a massive set of steps from one street to another. We went into the Red Dog Saloon where all of the servers were dressed as saloon girls and the floor was covered in sawdust. We had tickets to the Mt Robert's Tramway but the queue was huge so we decided we would do that after our tour. We had booked the kayaking tour which headed off after lunchtime to Mendenhall Lake. It was a nice drive up to the lake, mainly bush, and the first thing you are hit by when you arrive is the glacier. The morning was a brilliant sunny day, but by the time we for to the lake it had clouded over. This is apparently the best weather to view glaciers as they appear bluer. We got into all of the wet weather gear they provided as there was apparently a storm coming in so it was going to rain (this unfortunately meant we didn't get any photos). Out on the lake we saw some Bald Eagles quite a distance away on the shoreline, the last Arctic Swallows of the season as they are migrating and Harbour Seals!
There were about 5 seals and at one point they formed a bit of a circle around us. One curious seal got within about 5m and keep hanging out with us, which our guide said was really unusual for them to get that close. E were enjoying the seals and were were told to head back in quite abruptly by our guide. Within a minute of us paddling towards shore a massive change in weather hit us! Failing winds working against us, torrential rain, waves breaking over the kayak and slapping us in the face, and ominous black clouds. It was a rough paddle back into shore and it felt like we weren't moving for most of it! Boy did that give us a workout! We didn't get as close to the glacier as we hoped but we got a few other things we hadn't bargained for.
When we got back and got into dry clothes we headed up the tram on Mt Robert's. Unfortunately the weather had really closed in and the top was shrouded by clouds so we couldn't see much, bit we didn't want to waste the tickets.
The show on the cruise was Motor City, so a smaller production show. Quite entertaining, and another exhausting day so we were pretty tired! We did learn as our new Cruise Director took over that New Zealand is the 5th most represented nation on the cruise..there are 38 of us!

Sorry about the lack of photos but wifi is scarce and internet is slow up here!

Nashville - Music City (Pt 2)

Day 15 was our day to visit Jack Daniels. Logan had been looking forward to this for a while. It was an early start as we had to be in town before 9am to get our tour bus. It started off with and hour and a half deive to a little town called Lynchburg. I dont know if it even really qualifies as a town.....it had a population of 675 people and the distillery employs around 600 people. The town centre is literally a square (1 block) and half of those shops are dedicated to selling Jack Daniels merchandise. We had prebooked our tour of the actual distillery so we did that ahead of looking around town. It tales around an hour and a half for the tour and it is very thorough! There are areas you are not allowed to photograph (mainly the parts of the process that make Jack specifically a 'Tennessee Whiskey'. The thing that sets it apart is the mellowing process where they filter the raw alcohol (moonshine) through Sugar Maple charcoal. This process apparently makes it easier to drink. They have not synthesized this process, it is still done manually at the distillery. They have huge fires onsite to burn sugar maple and make their own charcoal 3 days a week, and we happened to be there on one of those days. They mill their own sugar maple as well and trim it into lengths and stack it to weather in the yard for several months before burning (you can see these in the photos). The heat from the fire was incredible, we were probably 50m away and could stil feel the heat!
You can also see in the photos everything is a little bit black..including the trees. This is caused by the fumes that come from the whiskey making process!
Jack Daniel's actually purchased the distillery feom the preacher that taught him how to make whiskey at the age of 13. He left home when he was 6!
The barrel houses were pretty impressive. They are each 3 stories high and each level ages the whiskey in a different way because of the difference in temperature. They have 89 of these barrel houses on the property. They also make their own barrels, they use a brand new barrel every time as the theory is that new barrel gives the best flavour, and they sell the used barrels to other distilleries that reuse them. At the end of the tour you do a whiskey tasting session. They have converted an old barrel room into a tasting room so it is a very cool setting and you taste 5 of their top shelf whiskeys. One of them is the Sinatra whiskey which was created for Frank Sinatra and was all he used to drink (it's worth 150USD per bottle). That one was a round 90 proof, one of the others we tried was 129.9 proof.....pretty much rocket fuel!
After the distillery we headed into town for lunch and a spot of shopping. We ate at a quaint little cafe called the Bar-B-Que Caboose. It was an eclectic mixture of decor....kind of like a diner but the walls and ceilings were covered in all sorts of niknaks. No beers with lunch as Lynchburg (and the distillery) are in a dry county!
The 'Events Centre' was a little gazebo attached to a small marquee (probably 5x5).
We headed back to town and spent a few hours on Broadway listening to some more fantastic music and then made our way to the mall around the corner from where were were staying in the Hope's of being able to find some more 'normal' food. We settled on a German Bier Haus, and even that they had managed to Americanise, but it made a nice change from burgers and bbq 😒
Day 16 was our last day in Nashville and we spent a chunk of it sleeping...oops. after a few early mornings and late nights it was nice to feel refreshed! It meant we didn't get into town till 1.30pm so we skipped the sightseeing bus as we wouldn't have enough time to get around everything and instead opted for more music and a couple of othe bars we wanted to go to. It was also a rainy day so not the best for being out in the open anyway. We explored The Gulch which is a little boutique area with shops and bars...not really anything very exciting, so we walked back into town as the weather was settling.
Our first stop was Skulls Rainbow Room. This was on my list from the beginning as it is a speakeasy burlesque bar. It's down a little alley way behind Broadway called Printers Alley. When we initially went in we were struck by the authenticity of the bar and on getting chatting with the bar tender we found out it is a genuine speakeasy feom the 40s! Our bar tender gave us and the people next to us a fascinating history lesson on the bar and the area (something she has a clear passion for!). The bar was opened in 1948 during prohibition. Printers Alley was named for the fact that they ran the biggest bible printing factory and distribution centre in the midwest. All of the pipes running along the ceilings in the bar used to carry the ink for the printing. So during the day they printed bibles and at night it housed all of the speakeasies and ladies of the night. It was one of those places where politicians and mobsters would drink together. He was personal friends with many musicians through the years that drank in his club and performed on his stage including Etta James, Patsy Kline, Willy Nelson, Elvis Presley and many more. There is a network of underground tunnels under the alley running from Skulls to the Cumberland River that they used to get the booze in and out. Everything was done in cash so that there was no trace of what was going on. From habit David Schulman (the owner) continued to operate that way even after prohibition in Tennessee ended in 1968. Every night at the end of the night he would empty all of the cash from the cash register into his front pocket. In 1998 an ex-employee that knew his routine teamed up with someone else and planned to rob him (by this time he was in his 80s). They came in before a shift started and stabbed him taking off with his money. Because it was at the beginning of the night they only got $50 as all the money was in the register, but he died from the stab wounds. From shock the club was closed down immediately and was only reopened 3 years ago! They run everything in the same format including the live music and burlesque.
We also learned that the work Hooker also originated from Printers Alley. When the confederates came through and made time with the ladies of the night because they were away from their wives, one had a particular infinity with them...his last name was Hooker. Because he was such a regular the girls named themselves Hookers girls, and so the name stuck!
We mad enquiries into booking a table for the burlesque show but the only allow that for dinner reservations which were all booked out so we had to take our chances later on for a seat at the bar.
We called into Dicks Last Resort...Logan was dissappointed in their lack of interaction, but when we chatted to the bar tender she confirmed what we thought about them having to be careful because it is so conservative in the south! We moved on to Wildhorse Saloon to try and see some linedancing. This was the place to go, and they run free linedancing lessons every hour or so. We jumped up at lesson time and joined in to learn a basic dance with around 100 other people. They play a few well know line dancing songs which everyone knows the moves to and you just follow along. It was pretty fun! When the band comes on everyone just keeps linedancing,  someone will start off a routine and everyone else follows.
We checked out a few more rooftop bars and then headed back to try our luck with getting a cancellation for the burlesque show. We never managed to get seats but perched on a ledge right in front of the stage (be at view in the house!) to watch the band and show. The jazz band was fantastic (lots of videos in the link) and the burlesque show was great. It's an odd thing to have in such a conservative place but was full of mainly tourists.
We had an amazing time in Nashville, next time we would probably make sure we are there over a weekend as well....not that the day of the week or time of day has any impact on entertainment! It doesn't matter where you are, or whether it is breakfast or dinner there will be a live band playing! We are sad to be leaving Nashville as anyone who loves music would be, but looking forward to our Alaskan adventure and some slightly cooler weather!

Photos/Videos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd886vHnLVlc3wlwNA

Nashville - Music City (Pt 1)

Day 13 we completed the last leg of our mid-west roadie from Memphis to Nashville. Its only a 3 hour drive between the two on the Interstate so a fairly easy drive on dead straight roads. We grabbed breakfast at Sonic Drivein where you pull your car up into a drivein, order from a panel (much like the drive thru ones) and they bring your food out to you on rollerskates! This is  franchise we have seen everywhere we have been.
When heading to Music City what do you do first?? See a ball game of course! We were itching to get to Broadway in downtown Nashville but this was really going to be our only opportunity to see a real American Baseball game. The teams playing were minor league (Nashville Sounds vs Rock Express) but we really wanted to go for the atmosphere. Of course they start with the national anthem and the hold stadium comes to a halt. They wont even let you through the gates while it is happening, everyone just stops and puts their hand on their heart. It was a half decent crowd considering it was a Monday night and our seats were in the front row right next to the benches so we felt like we were on the field! You have to keep your eye on the game to avoid being hit in the face by a speeding baseball!! A little kid got hit in the face cause his dad wasn't watching 😕 It can be a pretty slow game at times but they keep it exciting by adding all sorts of competitions between innings and they have the dance cams going. Everyone sang 'Let's All Go to the Ball Game' which is apparently the standard thing at every game.
The big screen was in a shape of a guitar of course and as each batter was up they played a little theme music and had the stats and little video of them up on the screen (quite similar to wrestling intros on tv).
There was the classic hotdogs and chips being sold everywhere, and the cheerleaders do a hotdog throw where they chuck free ones out into the crowd.
The kids in the crowd all have baseball gloves ready to catch rouge balls as they come flying, and after every innings one of the players throws a ball into the crowd for the kids to catch and take home as a souvenir, they must go through around 20+ balls a game.
The game got pretty exciting in the last innings as the home team were down 1-5 and they made a comeback to win 6-5!
First Tennessee Park is only a few blocks out of town so we made our way straight to Broadway when the game was finished.
Well Broadway is just a giant version of Beale Street! It was awesome, and the fact it was a Monday night seemed to have no bearing on the crowds whatsoever! Our first stop was Tootsies Orchid Lounge which is 3 stories and had a different band on each level. This is the bar where many big artists were discovered in years gone by. As you walk down the street there is bar after bar, who all have multiple levels and rooftop bars with bands on every floor playing country, honky tonk and bluegrass. After enjoying a few packed bars we found a quiet bar in a sidestreet to have a drink as the main street was just a little overwhelming!
Day 14 was Grand Ole Opry day. We spent a little time in the city duty the day but it was 33 degrees, humid and we were tired from a late night on Broadway the night prior. We sussed out the location of the burlesque and line dancing bars to come back to at night later in the week. We are staying around the corner from Opryland so it was an easy trip to the Grand Ole Opry. We attended the weekly Tuesday night radio show which gets broadcast live across the world and has been a tradition since 1925!
The show was great, lots of variety as each artist only does 3 songs. Our line up included the Charlie Daniels Band, Holly Williams, Jason Aldean, Michael Ray, Trent Harmon and Riders in the Sky. When those red curtains go up and you see the Opry backdrop for the first time it is quite impressive!
The actual venue has  some lovely bits of historical tributes to the Ryman where the show first started, it only moved to it's own purpose built venue in the 70s. Some people were upset about the move so they cut a circle of wood out of the Ryman stage from behind the curtain on stage right where the artists would all stand when waiting to go on. This has been inserted into the centre of the stage at the Opry where the performers stand to perform and where lots of great artists before them have stood. We got to stand on this as part of our backstage tour 😍
They also have pews from the original Ryman pulpit at the back on each side of the stage where friends and families of the artists can sit and watch them perform. The auditorium has bench seats to emulate the pews from the Ryman, however they are padded so they are a little more comfortable.
We checked out the dressing rooms which are all themed, and they are beautiful! They try and match the artists to the dressing room they think they will most enjoy, and they have a special dressing room for people making their debut performance. We got to peek into the one that is generally used for Nashville dressing room scenes as well...its one of the actual dressing rooms. The whole Opry is an interesting concept as it is not your traditional venue and the artists that are members are selected by a board and invited to be a member, so it is very prestigious to be a member. They even have a little post office where fan mail for the artists gets delivered and when they come to perform they pick it up out of their mailbox.
We ate not big country music fans, but there was something quite special about this venue and all of the traditions and history surrounding it.

Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd886vHnLVlc3wlwNA

Walking in Memphis

Day 10 marked the start of our wee roadtrip to Nashville. We started off getting our of Dallas and the crazy players of highways. It definitely competes with LA! Once we were out of the city we stopped off in Royse City for some cheeky McDs for breakkie. Deciding to be adventurous we ordered Bacon and Egg McGriddles....not realising that meant instead of muffins you get maple syrup pancakes instead of the McMuffin! 🤢
After tracking down the highways for a while we decided to go on the back highways in the hope of seeing more scenery. We weren't disappointed! Instead of being on massive, straight highways 2-4 lanes a side and a speed limit of 70 miles per hour (113km) we went to small 1 lane each side with no passing allowed that went through little townships, RV parks and derelict buildings. It's funny, no matter how small a town was...and some seemed to consist of 5 houses, there was always a church and a donut shop!!
When we got to Texarkana we did the only thing there is to do in town - stand on the state line that runs down the middle of it. It is more than just that.....its 2 towns that are both called Texarkana, one in Texas and one in Arkansas that are right next to each other. They each have their own town hall...however the town feels abandoned when you drive through it. We stopped and a little dive pub and had a drink and a game of pool before deciding to drive a bit further before retiring for the night.
We ended up finding a Super 8 on the side of the highway in Hope to stay the night which would shorten the next days drive.

Day 11 we continued our journey east towards Memphis from Hope. With another three and a half hour drive ahead Logan needed a trip to the tobacconist to stock up. Hope is a pretty small place, however their Tobacco Superstore has a drive thru! As I have said previously, there is literally a drive thru for everything!
The flash flood warnings they were giving several days earlier for Little Rock thankfully didn't come to anything and the weather had cleared over those parts by the time we went through. New York and Dallas were getting the brunt of the storms and flooding so we got out of Dallas just in time. Instead Little Rock was a stinking hot 34 degrees and extremely humid. It's a lot bigger than expected....the name is deceptive! They have reserved names for Bill Clinton as he is from Arkansas and they have some cut trams/trains but there is not really much else there!
We arrived in Memphis at around half three in the afternoon and it was pretty striking to drive into. After 2 days of tiny towns Memphis seemed like a huge metropolis springing out of the Mississippi River. The bridge you cross getting into the city gives it a bit of a grand entrance and the state line between Arkansas and Tennessee sits half way across.
It took two goes to find our accommodation as the first time we found it we decided it was a mistake and kept looking around. After realising we were actually in the right place we stood out the front and took in the beautiful old historic building in front of us. The building had been split into 3 separate apartments that are all rented as holiday homes. They have been beautifully renovated to be modern but including plenty of elements from the original house to keep its historic feel. Every window had views over the city from different perspectives and a cute little balcony off the bedroom.
We didn't want to waste any time as our Memphis visit was short so we headed straight to Beale Street for the evening. Google took us a slightly dodgy way into town but we made in in one piece via a nice local brewery (it was so hot it would be rude not to).
Beale Street was not quite what I expected, it was a lot like my expectations of Broadway in Nashville. The main part of Beale Street with all of the music clubs was blocked off to traffic and had a fairly heavy Police presence. We got there is daylight, and as it got dark the street came to life! Neon lights adorn the front of all of the clubs, horse and carriages with full Cinderella coaches covered in lights line the side streets, people selling glowing lights to wear, buskers sing somersaults down the middle of the street and people with bubble blowing machines all add to the vibe down the street. Add to that the smell of cajun cooking and bbq, and a cacophony of various live bands spilling out onto the street, and you have a pretty awesome vibe! We didn't realise we had also stumbled on the Annual Elvis Week....so there were people dressed as Elvis everywhere and loads of impersonators performing in various places.
The sidewalk of Beale Street plays homage to some of the great Memphis artists in a little walk of fame in the shape of music notes rather than stars. There were various parks in between the bars that had bands playing and some bars that just had an old building facade held up by big steel beams - the rest of the building was gone but the bar was set behind the facade forming a garden bar.
The whole feel of the street was reminiscent of New Orleans on Bourbon St, and as the night amped up so did the Police presence. But the time we left there was a massive line waiting to be security checked just to get in to the street.
Day 12 we were off to Graceland. It was an early start as we had already booked the first tour of the day. This turned out to be a good call considering it was Elvis week! This tour was everything you would expect. We started at the Graceland Mansion(originally a cattle ranch 10 miles out of town called Graceland Farms) and took an audio tour around the house and grounds. The living areas are generally smaller than you would expect and generally quite understated, but there is something special about the feeling you get from being in the house Elvis Iived in for so many years. He made a lot of extensions including the crazy Jungle Room (with green shagpile carpet on the floor and ceilings), a private racquetball court, pianos and TVs everywhere and loads of custom made furniture. They have kept everything as original as possible and most of the furniture and accessories throughout the house were original.
The kitchen had some very 70s carpet (Elvis completely redecorated it in the 70s and it is as he left it), the pool room has walls and ceilings made of ruched fabric that took 3 days to hang, and there is  multimedia room in the basement (the yellow room) to preview his movies and recordings.
Elvis and his parents and grandmother are all buried beside each othe out the back of the house as where he was originally buried in the public cemetery created  massive security risk.
After the mansion tour was done we headed back across the road to the exhibits. This is where we viewed his personal car collection, artifacts exhibit which is artifacts from Graceland, and the career museum where all of his jumpsuits and gold/platinum records are on display.
I was quite taken with getting to see the jumpsuits up close and realising they are made out of suiting fabric. No stretch fabric in sight and fully tailored to fit. The decoration on the Aloha suit must have been so heavy, particularly the Cape as there weren't the lightweight sequins you have these days.
After absorbing Graceland and everything we had learned we headed to Sun Studio....another amazing place to be in. This is where Elvis cut tracks for a year before being invited to cut a record by the producer. We got to stand in the actual recording studio where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, BB King, Carl Perkins and many more have recorded.  Everything is original, even the rickety acoustic panels in the ceiling and walls.
Sun Studio still records at night using a mix of analogue and digital recording techniques and it's open to tourists during the day. A lot of gear has been left there from people who have recorded over the years (including modern artists) and we got to play with Elvis' original recording mic. The room we stood in was where Elvis invented Rock'n'Roll with a version of 'That's Alright' during a test recording session.
A change of scene was in order so we headed towards the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks do their March down the red carpet (which was pretty cute) and then headed back to Beale Street for our last fix of blues before heading to the Country Music Capitol tomorrow.
We leave Memphis with full hearts and happy souls!

Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd87nezSuz0OXE3vxQ

Toomers do Dallas

Day 8 we headed back to Denver Airport for our flight to Dallas. Mandy had regained some urban legends on the way to drop us off including the airport is thought to be cursed or haunted and the giant bucking horse that "welcomes" you is rather creepy with its glowing red eyes and it fell on the artist who created him and killed him.
We had also forgotten the underground train that ferries you between terminals has a cowboy greeting you to each terminal and plays a little western ditty each time you approach a stop!
We have also observed since Mandy pointed it out is that almost everything had a drive thru....even Stabucks and Krispy Creme donuts have drive thru's at most stores!
After being delayed on the tarmac for 40 mins because of and air conditioning problem we finally arrived in Dallas. On being told there is no transport other than taxi from the airport and a $50 taxi ride later we got to the apartment. Our day was about to get even worse....I had booked through the normal website but it was a corporate apartment and there was no front desk, just a sales office. On trying to reach the owner with no response and not being able to get through to booking.com (after 2 hours) I booked another hotel for the night. I tried Trivago using the map view to find something close and still in the city. Once that was all booked I went to order an Uber and on the Uber app the ride was 30 mins away. After looking up the address the new hotel was miles out of the city and the booking made was non refundable. After time on the phone trying to cancel that one they told us we had to wait 48 hours to know whether it would be refunded.
In the end we decided to just go ahead and make our way to the hotel.....which was pretty basic compared with the lovely apartment we had booked. Thankfully there were loads of eating places around to grab dinner as it was pretty late by the time we managed to get settled.
After we had gone to bed the Police came hunting for someone....the walls at the new accommodation were paper thin and they were knocking on someone's door trying to seek them out.
Day 9 started with a great sleep in....much needed after the previous travel day. We started out by finding our way into town on the local bus and train. Pretty sure we were the only white people on both! We headed out to Bishop Arts District to Lockharts Smokehouse. I had done some research before heading over and this was meant to be one of the best  BBQs in Dallas. It didn't disappoint! We got some brisket, ribs and sausage with coleslaw and potato salad. Some of it was pretty spicy but the meat was beautiful, full of smokey flavour and cooked for a long time.
After wandering the cute shops in Bishop we grabbed a bus back to Downtown Dallas to go to the Sixth floor museum, which is dedicated to JKF and his assassination. We hadn't realised the museum is actually the floor Harvey Lee Oswald used to shoot him from! They have cordoned off the window he shot him from and that forms part of the museum so you get a good view of where it all happened on the street. It was super interesting Nd tied in well to the mob museum we did in Vegas with the conspiracy around Jack Ruby's involvement. We finished off with a wander through Wild Bill's which is a western outfitter with walls and walls of cowboy boots at 1k a pop and cowboy hats in every color and style you could imagine!
After heading back to the hotel we had to catch a bit of the show the storm was putting on. Thunderstorms and heavy rain across the drought ridden state with flash flood warnings for the area we are supposed to be driving through tomorrow 🙄. The bizarre weather seems to be following us so hopefully tomorrow clears up a bit for our roadtrip! We have no accommodation booked for tomorrow night as we are not sure where we are stopping on the way to Memphis.

Photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsbHvsl8mGaZgd87nezSuz0OXE3vxQ

Mile High Denver

Day 5 started with making our way to Denver. A bit of a last minute rush as the flight time was half and hour earlier than I had put on our itinerary (I must have missed updating that change) but we still made it it good time. We grabbed Starbucks before jumping on our flight and were stoked to see they now do Flat Whites over here!!! We were flying a really budget United flight so didn't get allocated seats until we got to the gate....which we hadn't realised so we ended up sitting one behind the other, but no so bad for a short flight. I think the guy on the aisle seat in my row was definitely suffering a true Vegas hangover, but was apparently heading home 14k richer 😜
After spending the first afternoon in Denver we realised it's not quite what we thought it would be! For starters it is a lot smaller....only 600k population and nowhere near as redneck as we expected. We were thinking there would be a lot of people wandering around in cowboys hats but we have only seen 2 the entire time we have been there. Mandy has since explained the political status of the state and it is very divided. We spent the first afternoon exploring the city, with our hotel being in the prime location we were 2 blocks from the 16th st mall which is the main attraction in the city. It runs the length of the CBD and is closed to traffic. The only vehicles using the mall is the free bus ferrying people from one end to the other for free. Other than that you can rent bikes or scooters or take a horse and carriage ride. The mall is lined with shops, bars, restaurants and street entertainers. We found the highest rooftop bar in Denver and had a drink while watching the sun setting over the Rocky Mountains, which was a very cool setting!
Day 6 we started out with a pretty nice sleeping and a cruisy morning, then Mandy came and picked us up at lunchtime. Grant had to take some stuff up to the Salvation Army Camp in the Rocky Mountains and with no set plans we decided to head up and meet him there! The landscape is not too dissimilar in places to parts of NZ but on a much bigger scale. While driving up there the landscape changes very suddenly and you feel like you are in a whole new place. We can certainly see why they were named the Rocky Mountains!!
The Salvation Army Camp is beautiful. It is nestled in the mountains and made up of log cabins and beautiful stone buildings that seamlessly blend in the the landscape.
After checking out the camp we headed to Estes Park, which is a township near the top of the mountains, to have dinner.
Logan had an Elk burger.....apparently much like beef. We wandered through the countless sweets shops and even a Christmas shop that I'd there all year round. It is exactly what you expect an American mountain town to be like with breathtaking views of the peaks every way you look. We also drove past the infamous Stanley Hotel, which is where Stephen King wrote The Shining.
After driving up via Bloulder we drove back to Denver via Big Thompson Canyon to try and see some wildlife. The Longhorns sheep were in hiding but we saw and elk casually munching on the grass in someone's front yard, a deer, and some rabbits. There were some random lightening strikes on the drive home, thunderstorms seem to be following us! It's a weird climate in Denver with the altitude (it's called Mile High Denver because the elevation is 1 mile above sea kevel) and the mountains down the side. It's a fairly dry heat, we have mainly been around 28 degrees but lots of random rainshowers.
Day 7 was another nice cruisy day where we headed our to lunch with Grant and Mandy at Dave and Buster's which is a restaurant with a massive arcade inside, so you get game tokens with you meal as part of your combo. That was a pretty fun afternoon and we even spotted a squirrel in the trees in Grant and Mandy's backyard and a groundhog on our way back from lunch.
Dinner was at the local strip mall at a grill that served Bison (super yum!) And a walk home through the neighbourhood. It is your classic suburbia you see on TV with every house having a porch with rocking chairs on them and an American flag!
Gearing up now for heading off to Dallas tomorrow!

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Vegas Baby!

Day 2 didn't start with much promise! I was already a little annoyed as I had finished my blog and on posting it the app only saved the draft not the original. So decided to try and rewrite it whilst walking to the car rental depot....this resulted im me tripping while crossing the road (in front of a heap of traffic) and dropping my phone which smashed the screen 😠 Then on arriving at the depot we had problems getting the car because the main driver and credit card dont match. In the end someone with some authority decided it was ok as we were married and gave us the car ......40 mins late 😒
Rocky start aside though, we had a great day! I was navigator and Logan was driver, and between us we survived the LA freeway and made our way to Vegas. We managed to do the first leg with the top down, it was getting up to around 39 degrees at which point I could no longer deal with the heat. Thankfully the seats in the car have their own cooling system so you don't stick to the seat! We stopped for a classic Applebee's lunch before heading further into the desert. The temperature got up to 44 degrees in the thick of it, and then suddenly dropped as we started seeing fork lightening and dust storms on the horizon. We drove into a weird storm with absolute torrential rain so we were super glad we had decided to do the middle of the trip with the roof on! In the middle of all of that I received a location based text saying there were flash flood warnings in the area for the afternoon. Let's just say it made for a slightly more stressful trip. We didn't stop much along the way as we just wanted to get there ahead of the storm.

The Hilton Grand was to be home for the next 3 nights and provided a stark contrast to the Super 8 on the first night. Logan felt pretty smooth pulling up in the valet parking area and putting the roof down to talk to the concierge lol.
We are well into holiday cruise mode now, with the heat being between 38 and 43 during the day you can't move fast, and Vegas always makes you relax, despite the hustle and bustle. We haven't felt pressure to do anything in particular seeing as it is our third time here, but still managed to find some nooks and crannies we hadn't been to on previous trips. We spent more time up Fremont St end as we haven't done much time there in the past. We checked out the Mob Museum which was really interesting and finishes is a basement done in the style of a speakeasy. They even have their own moonshine distillery and let you sample it......if you haven't tried it let's just say it's like rocket fuel! 100 proof and takes like pure alcohol with a hint of whiskey flavour.
I think Logan found 'the best burger he has ever had in the States' at Hash House. It was huge, and he finished the whole thing (bar one bite) which is a rare thing with American sized meals. My chicken hotpot was ridiculous, with the huge bowl it was sitting in made out of their biscuit mix (similar to a plain scone).
We have certainly noticed a much heavier Police and Security presence this trip than previous ones, we are picking this must be in response to the Mandalay Bay shooting. We came across some sort of crime scene on the way to breakfast one morning where two streets were cordoned off and there were at least 6 cop cars and a few ambos.   
We stumbled across a great 80s band at a bar on the strip that did their whole set by requests. The guitarists both sang and they went turn about with the lead singer, all of whom had absolutely stunning voices! !
We also managed to catch Tenors of Rock who were mind blowingly good. The guitarist from Rock of Ages we had a drink with last time we were here is playing in this one and told us about it when we emailed him last year. We didn't know quite what to expect but it was fab......and one of them is the spitting image of John Snow 😍
We had hoped to get into The Laundry Room, which is a speakeasy. We had to find a number to text for a reservation and then they tell you to text another number. You don't know the location until they text you back with a reservation....unfortunately we got so far and then found they were all booked up 😢
Sorry about the lack of photos for this one but we already have heaps of Vegas so didn't bother taking too many.
Well we are all packed up and ready to fly out to Denver in the morning!

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We Have Arrived...Yay!

Ok, blog take 2....I just wrote it and somehow lost it!

Well we made it....after a super long first of August! The flight was long but relatively comfortable thanks to a OneUp upgrade to premium economy. The only pitfall is that you don't get to choose your seats so we got stuck in the middle of the middle section 🙄 Apart from that it was pretty good with comfy wide seats, heaps of legroom and 2 course meals.
We had been dreading LAX as we have often had issues at immigration, but they are  ow finally up to the play with epassorts and anyone on the ESTA system that has travelled to the US before can go through a kiosk. Consequently it's the fastest we have ever been through customs and we didn't even go through security on the way out!

On arrival on at our super cliche (super 8) accommodation for the night we dumped our bags and headed to the local bus depot. We hopped on one of the local buses to Venice Beach for the afternoon.
I have to say is is much bigger than expected. The beach itself has to be at least 100m deep. The boardwalk is lined with alternative shops and bustling with skateboarers, rollerblades, cyclists, walkers and escooters. You have to have your wits about you as those escooters can get up some serious speed!
The area itself has so much happening, there is the skate park on the beach front, beach volleyball courts, basketball courts, buskers galore (including someone playing the grand piano on the beachfront), mini tent city, helicopters flying overhead and the pungent smell of pot fills the air everywhere you go!
After making our way toward Santa Monica along the boardwalk we explored Pacific Park which is the amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier. It was pretty packed and I have to say the buskers were less than average...most of them couldn't sing and they were quite bizarre!
We jumped on the ferris wheel for a good aerial view of the beach which really allows you to take in the size of it.
We managed to catch the sign that marks the end of Route 66 on the pier and then made our way into town for a much needed drink!
Dinner was simple...seafood takeaways. We can only liken it to a McDonald's for seafood, but it did the trick. By this time we were too exhausted to care. After an Uber incident (we missed our first one) we made it back to the motel for some winks ahead of our roadtrip to Vegas.

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