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Monday, August 3, 2009

GRANDPARENT ADVENTURE - PART 1

Okay I know it's been forever since I've posted anything - I'm either way to busy lately or just way too lazy to post. Anyways, my parents came up to visit last month and we went on a couple of "adventures". First we decided to trek up to Prudoe Bay. To get there you have to drive almost 500 miles on a dirt road - we ended up with 3 flat tires, cramps in our necks from looking out the window, painful legs and bums from sitting in the car for forever - but we did see the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean so all in all it was totally worth it. Here are a ton of pictures from the trip.
The start on the dirt road, more commonly known as the "Haul Road".
The fields on fireweed were so pretty.
The Yukon River.
First piggy-back ride.

It's kinda funny when you hit the Arctic Circle this is the only thing there is - just this lonely sign out in the middle of nowhere.

A stretch of the road commonly seen on Ice Road Truckers.
Our "hotel"(if you can even call it that) at Deadhorse.
Our room was the window on right under the air vent.
Showing off our $120 bed. :) Yep these lovely rooms cost $240 each. Really we weren't expecting them to be nice - we just didn't realized it would cost quite expensive. It was really funny because minutes before this as my mom and I were sitting in the car waiting for the boys to check us in, we were plotting to talk them into taking us out to dinner. That was until we realized just how much we'd spent on a bed. Ha,Ha,Ha! We ended up grilling hotdogs on the tailgate.
On the tour bus of Prudoe Bay.
The Arctic Ocean.
Needless to say it was pretty chilly. The wind was blowing like crazy.
This picture is pretty accurate on the way you feel when you finally drive into town.
Our first flat tire. Luckily Justin was a great handyman and has now become a little expert on patching tires.
Grandma taking Bri for a walk while the boys were changing the tire. I thought it was a pretty neat picture of the "nothingness" that you see when driving through the tundra.
Yes our car was white at one time.
The boys washing the car outside our cabin in Wiseman. We really didn't care about a clean car - it's just that we'd all would get so filthy getting in and out of the car.
Having a nice relaxing evening outside on the porch of our cabin in Wiseman. Wiseman was the weird little old mining town right outside of Coldfoot. I think it has something like population 13.
We decided to stop and eat lunch in Deadhorse while we had one of the tires professionally patched. We were running out of good tires and we wanted to make sure we'd get home.
This was taken just a couple of hours before we got home. I think it's a pretty good image of how we all felt by then. Just plain FED UP!!! :) Bri did a really good job on the trip considering we locked in her car seat for 4 days. She's such a trooper!

Well we had a great time even though I think each us wanted to scream at one time or another. But I think it's pretty cool that we can all now say we've seen "the end of the road" in Alaska.

More to come later...

5 comments:

Dustin & Kristy said...

Ok who's idea was this trip looks like a blast ha ha thanks for the pics can't wait for the next post :)

The DeVito's said...

What a cool trip! Definitely sounds like an adventure!

mamatamera said...

Glad that the damage wasn't worse than 3 flats. Looks like you had a good time even though it took forever.

Nicole said...

Okay- I showed the pictures to Brandon and he wants to take the Minivan up right now (you know, because I'm nine months pregnant and dirt roads are really nice :)). Needless to say, Brandon might be a little addicted to Ice Road Truckers :). At least you get to say you've been to the Arctic Ocean, right? Now, if they'd only get some nice hotels.

PS- I LOVE that sweater on Bri!

Unknown said...

that looks like fun!! the weather looked good yay!! and the 120 bed underneath the air vent.. nice!!