We drove from Bainbridge Island down to Portland on Wednesday afternoon/evening pretty much directly to our AirBnB. The purpose is to go the the 2025-26 USATF Cross Country Championships tomorrow (Saturday) where some of the fastest runners will compete on golf course. The weather is supposed to be horrible. We’ve discovered a nice coffee place…
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Shrine of St. Thérèse and Echo Cove
The Shrine On Monday (7/28) we decided on having a quiet day and just drive up the coast as far as possible which isn’t very far. (When driving off of the ferry we’d seen a sign that said “End of Road, 24 miles.”) Arlene did some research and found a couple of things to look…
Another Mine and Deckhand Dave’s
Looking For Coffee In Juneau We began Saturday (7/26) by looking for coffee in Juneau. Arlene had picked out a place called Spearfish Coffee that seemed to be closed. We stopped by the same places several other times and it seemed to always be closed. But we also walked around Juneau for a while before…
First Full Day in Juneau
Since we got in so late we spent the first half of the day unpacking and re-organizing after 3 days of living out of the suitcase. In those 3 days we had been unable to refreeze the ice in the cooler so we were a little worried about the milk and eggs, but they were…
Thursday and Friday
Whittier On Thursday we went to Whittier. There is only one road from Anchorage to Whittier and it involves a single lane tunnel that runs under Maynard Mountain and is 2.5 miles long. The single lane contains a set of railtracks as well and, in fact, from when the tunnel was constructed in the early…
A Few Quiet Days
Note We’ve been having trouble completing blog entries because the internet in our currrent AirBnB is spotty. Hopefully we’ll get this one done today. We’ll be moving from Seward to Homer on Friday. Rainy Sunday The weather was predicted to be a bit more rainy and cloudy on Sunday that it had been and the…
Alice Mountain
Hiking After a long hike yesterday we decided on the shorter hike up to Alice Mountain today. It was only 5 miles round trip to the top, but it gained about 2500 feet. Ultimately we failed to reach the peak because of snow but we stopped only 300 feet below the summit and the views…
Utqiaġvik
The Flight Arlene and I had mostly packed on Friday night and on Saturday morning we finished that process and left the dry cabin near Denali at about 6:40am. The first 90 minutes of the drive were the same route that we had taken the previous Saturday to see spectacular views of moutains all the…
Driving down an Alaskan highway listening to ABBA
Taking An Easy Day Saturday after multiple days of hiking on tired and sore legs, Arlene and I decided to take an easy day. Arlene had found what was supposed to be a good place to see Denali. So in the morning we set off on a drive to the South Viewpoint of Denali State…
Sled Dog Afternoon
Today we visited Denali National Park Kennels to take a look at the sled dogs used to patrol the park in the winter months. It was a warm afternoon and preferring cooler conditions many of the dogs were having a siesta. Like Rudolf, when the dogs are old enough, they try out for the sled team.…