Last Day in the "Lower 48"

Jonny and I (and Kiwi the cat) have just checked into our hotel for the night. Tomorrow, we board the ferry! It's been quite a drive so far, so it will be nice to relax once we arrive in Bellingham. Within the past 2 days, we've driven about 1,100 miles. We still have a 125 mile drive to finish tomorrow, and then the boat will take us the remaining 965 miles within the next 3 days.

Our drive has been pretty easy so far. There's been a warm spell all along the west coast, so we haven't had to deal with driving through any ice or snow. I've been randomly taking pictures throughout the drive during the daytime, so here they are!

Jonny and I next to our cars. We stuffed them so much that we can't even see out the back!

Driving through tons of California-nothing.

Pretty sky.

Driving over some water.

More water..

The sunset from Santa Nella, CA.

Mt. Shasta?

Volcano?

Lots of Oregon trees.

More Oregon.

Oregon landscape.

In Oregon, they pump the gas for you!

Kiwi was happy to be let out of her carrier during our dinnertime break.

Unfortunately, due to our late start today, we arrived and drove through most of Washington after the sun went down, so I was unable to take any pictures. I'll have to get some tomorrow.

I believe our ship tomorrow is the M/V Matanuska. This is what it will look like.

According to the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry System website, "The M/V Matanuska was built by Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Company of Seattle and began service in 1963. In 1968 the vessel was lengthened and renovated. It now carries 500 passengers, and provides 4 four-berth, 23 three-berth, and 81 two-berth cabins. The Matanuska is 408 feet long, with capacity for 88 vehicles (20' lengths), and has a service speed of 16.5 knots. Passenger services include a cafeteria, gift shop, cocktail lounge, solarium, and forward observation lounge."

Sounds fun to me! Guess it's time for bed. Goodnight!

The Journey Soon Begins!

It's that time again! Time for another adventure!

In less than a week, my fiance Jonny and I will make the journey back to Juneau, Alaska! We are going to bring our cars this time, so we've decided to drive to Bellingham, WA and take the ferry. Here's our planned route with all of our marked stops. We'll start the drive on Wed Feb 22nd. Keep on the lookout for updates! And if you'd like to leave a comment or question about anything, just type it into the box below; we'd love to hear your opinions!

Haleakala Crater Hike

We hiked the Haleakala Crater yesterday, and it was quite a hike! At a length of 10 miles with an elevation change of about 1,500 ft, it doesn't sound so bad. This hike was HARD- the elevation change was quite unusal for me. We started at about 8,000 ft and descended to somewhere around 6,500 ft. On the way back up, I really felt that elevation change! It became incredibly hard to breathe during the ascent, and the higher we got, the more breaks I had to take. I just couldn't catch my breath! Being used to hiking at sea level, I've never felt anything like this. So here are tons of pictures, and a really long video that probably only my parents will want to see. :)

Enjoy the scenery!

Crater Hike

Hope you enjoyed it! We sure did!

Hello Hawaii!!

Where's the best place to get a little bit of sun after being in Alaska all summer? I'm sure there are plenty of really good places, but Maui is one of my favorites! So now I'm in Hawaii, which may be a little weird for an Alaskan blog, but why not? Thought I'd keep you guys posted about the wonders of the islands while on vacation!

Today we woke up at 3am, which wasn't that hard because of the time change, and got on the road early. Our goal: the Haleakala sunrise over the volcanic crater, one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life.

Isn't it amazing? We drove up the road and finished the hike to the summit in the dark using my phone as a flashlight. We couldn't see a thing! And as the sun slowly started peaking up over the horizon, what I thought were rocks turned out to be CLOUDS! It looked like we were on a castle up in the sky.

We also saw a plant that only grows at the Haleakala crater and no where else on earth: the silversword.

Silversword shoots off a huge inflorescence and then dies. Isn't it beautiful?

More adventures to come!!