Haines - Definitely a Favorite

Howdy!

While I was in Palm Springs trying to escape the heat (111 degrees some days), Matt stayed back in Cordova and had to deal with sheets of rain every day. He didn't get any fishing in, but did go hiking a few times.

Thanks to the Figaro's gang for making my stay in Palm Springs a great one. It was great to see and talk to my pizza friends and I can't wait to see you "Salem gals" when I get down there next month. We'll plan something fun to do - and I'm sure margaritas will be involved, so be ready.

AFTER CORDOVA -

I arrived back in Cordova last Saturday and on Sunday early morning, Matt and I got up and hopped on the ferry to Valdez. The truck was right where we left it so we drove all day to Tok, Alaska and stayed the night there in a 'good-enough' motel. It was cheap anyway.

On Monday morning we rose to sunshine (in the Interior of Alaska it's always sunnier than the coast it seems) and drove through Alaska, into Yukon Territory in Canada, into British Columbia in Canada, and then back into Alaska after Haines Junction. I did get to see some moose off the road, but before I could get my close-up picture, the disappeared in the trees. Why all Alaskan's say they see moose running around here like crazy is beyond me. I'm having one heck of a time finding one...

HAINES, ALASKA -

We spent 5 days/4 nights in Haines, Alaska. The first night we got a room at the Captain's Choice Motel and the room was fantastic. We had an awesome view of the ocean! We got in late that night so we didn't get to see our friends, Owen & Jill until the next day.

After that first night in town, we drove out to Mosquito Lake (about 30 miles outside of Haines) where Owen & Jill, the couple we met while camping on Lake Powell in Utah months ago, bought a campground. It is an absolutely amazing piece of property and besides the little campground, they have fixed up a small cabin where they stay nice and cozy. They let us use their 21' trailer - similar to ours we left in Wisconsin - for those nights and it was great. We had a super fun time with them hiking around, eating & drinking, and chatting. They even took us around to some cabins/land that are currently for sale. We drove out to the Chilkat river and lake and enjoyed seeing lots of bald eagles.

Needless to say, Matt and I both really like Haines. The town is large enough (3,200 pop.) to support some small restaurants and businesses and land is still available at reasonable prices. I don't want too many people moving out there, so I won't brag about it too much, but we may think about it after we figure out how to BYOM (bring your own money) out there so we can live comfortably. NOTE: A local told us about the BYOM.

Right now, we're in Juneau on a ferry layover from Haines to Sitka. In a few hours we need to get back on another, bigger ferry and we'll wake up in Sitka tomorrow a.m. It's a 13 hour ferry ride. We'll be there for 3 nights, so that will be next on the blog.