Prague

We have been wanting to visit Prague for about 3 years, and we were glad that Aer Lingus has direct flights out of Dublin to visit. Prague lived up to the hype, and it was a great trip!

We caught our flight out of DUB around 11am and arrived in PRG around 3pm or so. We knew we wanted to take a taxi in because the public transport options looked slow. The taxi was a good way to the Old Town Square, where our hotel was located; it was about 600 Koruna with tip, and quick. We were staying at the Hotel Černý Slon; a reasonably priced triple, steps from the Old Town Square. We were generally pleased with the hotel and would stay again. After checking in, we just wanted to walk around a bit. We thought maybe this afternoon would be good for a sightseeing tour, something we don't normally do. (We are trying to adjust how we run our trips due to 2 kids).

We did the green train that takes about an hour and drives by the castle. I do not recommend this method. There is a recording in 4 languages that plays, and the ride is quite bumpy. Even Nolan was done by the end of it! It only kind of stops once by the castle, but you don't ever get out of the thing. And, views are partially obscured by the plexiglass on one side of the car. You might be better off splurging and taking one of the old time cars around (even though these looked like they might get hot in the sun). We were actually wanting to do a golf cart tour, but couldn't find any!

After our tour, we went up the tower in the Old Town Hall for some views of Prague. Going in the late afternoon meant that we couldn't get good pictures of the castle due to the sun, but there were still good views of the square and Old Town Prague. Nolan was a little too scared to walk around the outside part. That night for dinner we just booked at our hotel as it had a decent rating. The food was good, but the menu was limited. The crispy duck with red cabbage was yummy.

Sunday was our day for the castle. First we walked over to the Old New Synagogue. This is quite old, and is the oldest active synagogue in Europe. It was no photo, but a very simple, small interior. We considered going to the cemetery because we heard it was a good sight, but the ticket was a lot more just to do that, and we were ready to go to the castle. We decided to take a quick taxi up the hill to preserve tired legs, and it was already getting hot.

The Prague Castle does not look that big at first, but it took us about 6 hours to do almost all of it, including lunch. We bought the full ticket to the castle, but quickly learned that the full ticket did not cover everything... what a pain! But buying the photo pass was definitely worth it, as it is cheap. First we saw the permanent exhibition "The Story of Prague Castle" which showed the history and growth of the castle over the years. We then ate lunch at the Lobkowicz Palace Café, rated well with a good view. The food was good and the view was nice.

Next we went to the Rosenberg Palace. This wasn't too big, just a couple rooms, but started off with a large chapel. They also had on display there many gargoyles on display from the castle. Next we walked the Golden Lane. This narrow passageway shows many of the old "homes" of people who used to work and live in the castle. This place was pretty packed and not much room to enjoy things. Next we stepped in Daliborka Tower. Once we got in, we realized this was a torture tower. Don't think Nolan really knew, but still we didn't linger.

St. George's Basilica was next. From the outside entrance, there was a nice view of St. Vitus. Inside the basilica was pretty simple. It reminded me a little bit of St. Francis of Assisi church, just not as big. Next we visited the Old Royal Palace. This started off with a large room and while mostly roped off, it was still a good place for Liana to run around a little bit. She was attracting a bit of attention! There are a few nice views of the cities from the balconies. There are also several little rooms in which to explore and see exhibits, including a room full of family crests.

Next we went to St. Vitus Cathedral. There were loads of tourists at the back who were not going to purchase a ticket I suppose. Once in, I happened to be stuck between two tour groups while walking around the back; I couldn't escape them! This church had several little chapels/prayer areas around the back of the church. They also had many areas blocked off that you normally don't see blocked off, but you could still see most of the areas just fine. Then while Kacey rested with the kids, I quickly went up the tower. There was a massive bell just barely visible on the way up. The views were pretty nice, though! It was a little hard to take some pictures due to all the iron gates over the window openings, but I was able to manage.

Next we visited the Prague Castle Picture Gallery. The air conditioning felt great! The picture gallery wasn't super special, but it is part of the full ticket and was a nice break from the sites. We lastly visited the Powder Tower. We got here just before they closed, but this is just a small military museum. We only spent 5-10 minutes here before heading out. There was a neat view of St. Vitus against the sky from near the entrance to the Powder Tower.

As we left the castle, we decided to walk back to Old Town via the Old Castle Steps. We snapped a few more pictures of the city here, and turned to look back behind us to see a HUGE storm system moving in. As we prepped the best we could for the impending rain, we scurried down the steps and quickly moved toward the Old Town. By the time we got to the river, it seemed like it was making a break, so we hung out on the bank of the river and took some pictures of Charles Bridge while picking out dinner. We picked a place, and as we started walking, the storm clouds grew even more menacing. By the time we got across the bridge, huge straight line winds blew in from over the hill and it quite out of control for a few minutes! We started nearly running toward the hotel. The rain started slowly right as we entered the Old Town Square. As we were steps from the hotel entrance, it really started to rain. We really lucked out! But, now it was raining and we had no dinner options. I peered out the window and saw one of the golf cart tour guys just sitting down there. I asked him how much to take us to our restaurant, just down the street. He said since he was done for the night, and that was on his way home, no charge. Awesome! I did tip him nicely, though.

That night we ate at Kolkovna. Non-smoking section was downstairs and while a little warm, the food did not disappoint! I had the Traditional Bohemian Platter; a wide array of meat, dumplings, and cabbage. Once dinner was done, the rain had stopped. So we decided to walk around the Old Town Square a bit at night. We stopped in a bakery because Kacey was wanting something; she ended up with a piece of chocolate cake. The Old Town Square at night was nice. I also ran over to take some pictures of the Castle at night from the bridge. Our Lady Before Tyn Church is nicely lit at night.

The next day we were just planning on a few random sites not too far away. We first tried Our Lady Before Tyn Church, next door to our hotel. It is closed Mondays! So we decided to try St. James Church. This church does not allow photo, or even walking around. It was a nice example of baroque, and had me hoping to see more at another church. Finally, we visited the St. Nicholas church. This was a nice little church with a grand chandelier in the centre.

We then decided to try a tour of the Old Town Hall, and we just barely caught the english tour. It was pretty neat, and we got to see the inner workings of the 12 Apostles inside the Astronomical Clock.



We searched around a while for lunch and finally found Klub Architektu. The flavours were good, but my meat was low quality. We headed toward the famous Charles Bridge after lunch. As expected, it was crowded, but interesting. Once we got across the bridge, we saw some gelato and it really hit the spot! We headed toward the other St. Nicholas church, this one in Lesser Town Square. Photo was allowed here and it was a grand example of baroque! We were even allowed upstairs for a picture gallery and nice views of the church.

We were now headed off to do a few things for Nolan. We were looking for the funicular up Petrin Hill to check out some things up there. Getting a ticket to go up is quite a pain, and confusing! You have to have exact change, there are no change booths, and a ton of people forming random lines to squeeze their way on the tram. Our plan was to take Nolan to the Mirror Maze. We weren't sure what to expect here. It was quite small, but we lingered in the crazy mirrors area and goofed off for a while. Nolan enjoyed it. It isn't quite a maze, it is just a path with mirrors. After about age 7 or so, it would stop being neat I suppose.

We were then going to just walk around before heading back down. On top of the hill is also the tower, but we already had lots of views of the city, and Nolan would not have liked climbing up. Kacey went in for the restroom and found a children's exhibit in the basement! So we went in and Nolan built for a while and Liana walked around and stretched her legs. Our next stop was supposed to be the big one for Nolan, where we would relax for a while. Detsky Ostrov, which translates to Children's Island. Yes, an island in the river with a big playground on it. We got there, and it was closed! We took a picture of Nolan in front of the mean, poorly spelled construction sign, with a frowny face.

We decided to cross the river and take the metro to Wenceslas square since we were getting tired. We strolled around a bit, did some shopping, and started the short walk back to Old Town Square. It was getting late by time we picked a restaurant, but we walked over to Lokal as it was rated well. It was hard to get a seat, but we managed after a few minutes and ordered a plethora of items off the menu. I recommend eating a meal here! Different beer pours, lots of meats, and yummy dessert.

The next day we flew home, but we had time to visit a museum in the morning. We picked the Museum of Communism. It looks a little small at first, and a little hard to find, but it was packed with info and exhibits. I recommend westerners to visit and spend some time reading the material.

Prague was great! Even in the heat, it was doable. AAA Taxis are readily available, there is lots to see, food is good, and people are generally nice.

Pictures from our trip can be seen here.

Nolan is 5 and Liana is 10 months

Our little guy turned 5 last week. He has adjusted pretty well to going to school here in Ireland; his teachers said if you didn't know who was new in class, you would never guess it was him. The little kids here use language not normal for 5 year olds in the states, but acceptable here. They are not good words. So we are already teaching him about other people making bad decisions and bad words. He seems to understand. He is still really in to creating his own Lego creations. He doesn't ever really follow any instructions, he just builds what he has been thinking about lately. He is a good big brother, and Liana loves him a lot. She laughs at him and watches him all the time. Nolan has also started eating hot sauce; I don't think many 5 year olds like Tabasco. We live next door to a little Irish girl named Rosa; she is such a doll! They have a lot of fun playing in the garden and we were very blessed to get to live next door to such nice people.

Since Liana learned to walk, she has just gotten faster and more determined. She is quite stubborn at times too. She can climb through tables to get where she wants, and climbs in boxes, pushing me right out of the way. Her balance is quite good and loves to hang on to the swings in Rosa's yard while they swing around. She seldom sits still, she really likes to be on the move. She likes to eat many different foods. She says cat, dad, and mom. And she tries to talk to the cats sometimes by doing a high-pitched squeal at them. And she still loves playing and wrestling with Nolan, even when it gets a little rough.

Liana is Nine Months!

Our little girl turned nine months and she is growing up so quickly! We has been walking along the couch for a while, and it getting quite quick at it. She goes quite fast across the room with her walker. On Friday, she kind of took a step toward me, and she can stand on her own. So she has the strength and enough balance, she just needs the encouragement and desire.

She is also waving hi and has been doing that for a couple weeks. She is getting good at "playing" with Nolan, which usually involves him picking her up and doing hugs. She loves her big brother. She can climb up on me too. Also, about two weeks ago, she took off quite quickly up our stairs like she had done it a million times before.

She started clapping last week. It is really cute!

She is eating a fair amount of food with her two teeth.

Liana at Gallarus Oratory

Rock of Cashel, Blarney Castle, Dingle Peninsula, and Ring of Kerry

We tried to pack a lot in to a three day weekend and we did ok considering the weather. We headed out Friday morning to go to Rock of Cashel. If the weather was bad, we would bail and skip, but there was a clearing, so we headed up. While just one brief rain period, it was just a little windy. Still cloudy, but better than our first trip. We grabbed some food to go and headed to Blarney Castle. We figured we could do this even if it was raining (which it was). Even though the grounds are nice here, we really didn't have time to linger, especially in the rain. There was only a short line to get to the Blarney Stone. It was about what I expected, but one of those things you have to do once.

Pictures from Blarney Castle

We headed toward Dingle. Along the way we stopped for the view at Inch Beach. We were just a short ride from Dingle at this time. The drive on the peninsula is quite nice. The little town is cute and quaint. We walked around for a few minutes before picking the Marina Inn for dinner. The food was pretty good. We then hit Murphy's for ice cream. Good stuff!

In the morning, we hit the SuperValu for some breakfast stuff, and Nolan and mom sat and ate while Kacey and I walked around town. We saw some houses built on a river, and an old cross commemorating the 1916 Uprising. Kacey stopped in a couple little shops and as we neared the SuperValu, the rain looked like it was coming, so we hurried to get started on our drive.

As we headed out on Rick Steves' guide of the Dingle Peninsula, it started to rain. We couldn't even get out of the car at Ventry Beach, but there were plenty of surfers out in wet suits. The first place we stopped was the Dunbeg Fort. With a very small break in the rain, I got to see it, but by time Kacey could go, it was a little wet. Next we stopped at the Beehive Huts. Rick Steves said to stop at the first one, so we did. There is only one there (that you can walk in), and they are working to reconstruct another. The next beehive hut looked to have more to see, but oh well. Both cost €2.

As we neared Slea Head, we drove over a bridge that isn't a bridge. You basically drive through a river on the side of the mountain. The cross at Slea Head has nice views, including the Dunmore Head, which is the western most part of Europe. We also stopped at the Dún Chaoin overlook for views of the beach, hillsides, and Dumore Head. We drove over to the pull-off for Dunmore Head and the beach. Kacey and I were going to run up to see what we could see. We ended up going around pretty far, about as far west as you can get. There was a pretty good view of the Big Blasket Island. There is also a little concrete building on top, probably for farmers to take refuge if the weather turns bad (the hill is an active cow and sheep pasture).

Next we headed toward the Great Blasket Centre for some history, toilets, and food. There was some neat info here, but you can probably get through here in 20 minutes if needed, skipping the video. The rain cleared out and the sun shone through, so we decided to get going and see some more sights while the weather was nice. We headed toward Gallarus Oratory next, with a beautiful stop at Waymont Head first. What a view!

The oratory is neat and worth a stop (and do skip the pay car park). We were mostly enjoying the nice weather at this point.  It was nice enough for a little photo shoot of Liana (see here). This was pretty much the end of the loop for us, so once back in Dingle, we circled back around to Ventry Beach to check it out. It is a nice, big beach, and Nolan had fun playing in the water (in his rain boots). We booked a hotel on the Kerry Ring for the night, so we headed out on the 90 minute drive there. On our way out of Dingle town, we stopped at Minard Castle (ruins). Off the beaten track, it provided a nice view and a neat drive through the hillsides. By the time we got to Waterville, we were hungry and it was getting late. So a quick check in to the Old Cable House B&B, and we went in to eat at the Butler Arms.

Pictures from Dingle Peninsula

On Sunday, we had a yummy breakfast at the B&B and started a drive around Kerry Ring to see what we could see before needing to head back to Dun Laoghaire. We doubled back to drive out on Valentia Island via the car ferry at Reenard to Knightstown. We drove up to the Cromwell Lighthouse, but the views were diminishing as the rain came in. We next drove out to the end of the road to take Nolan down to the Tetrapod fossil footprints. Due to the rain, I stayed in the car with Liana while Kacey and Nolan checked it out.

From here, we headed toward Skellig Ring. We stopped at a few lookout points which were nice, as this area seems to get much higher up than Dingle. We hit the Skelligs Chocolate Factory in hopes for treats and lunch. Well, the treats worked out but they don't really have food for lunch.

There are some brilliant views at Coomakesta Pass. It was so windy and rainy, it was hard to get pictures (and the bus tourists there were having problems walking due to the wind). On a nice day, this has got to be unreal. Next was Staigue Fort. This was kind of neat and Nolan liked running around some. We also explored a tunnel that went nowhere.  It was time to start our long drive home through Killarney National Park. It rained hard the whole way, but I am sure the area looks nice.

Pictures from Ring of Kerry

Scotland

This past weekend was an Irish bank holiday, so we turned it in to a long weekend in Scotland! The ferry service makes it easy to get to Great Britain. We drove to Larne, Northern Ireland Thursday night and stayed at the Harbour Inn B&B. It is next door to the port and included wifi and made to order breakfast. The manager was so nice! The fast ferry had us in Troon, Scotland by 9:15 or so, and we headed toward our first stop.

New Lanark is a World Heritage Site; an old mill town built next to a river. It was a nice drive to get toward Edinburgh, too, instead of just taking dual carriageways. We walked around some, ate some lunch, and Kacey took a tour of the weaving stuff while Nolan and I checked out a couple other things. Next we headed toward Edinburgh.

We decided to go out to the Royal Britannia Yacht first, since we would have to drive to see this. This is the yacht that the royal family used up until the late 90s or so, and now you can tour it. It was an interesting tour, and you can still see how the royal family had things set up in their rooms. We had cake and coffee with the queen (well, she wasn't technically there) and it was a good snack. Nolan really enjoyed the engine rooms.

We headed in toward our hotel (recommended by the Paschals). The Premier Inn is across the street from the castle, and we had a fantastic view of the castle! The room was a little pricey, but it was a good location. Dinner was a little hard as we didn't know that Scotland has weird rules about kids in bars/restaurants. We finally found the 1780 restaurant which stated they had a kids menu. They had a large beer selection and interesting foods. We tried vegetarian haggis (just lots of oatmeal) and I had yummy lamb with tasty Glencoe Wild Oat Stout. I recommend eating here if visiting with kids!

The next day was our castle day. We walked up the hill and took in the brilliant views of Edinburgh. We walked around a few museums and cathedrals. We walked past the crown jewels and the World War I memorial. Then we lined up for a view of the cannon firing at 1pm. Nolan had a great view! We decided to walk down the Royal Mile to look for food next. We walked around St. Giles Cathedral some to take it in.  We stumbled in an Italian restaurant that was ok, nothing exciting. We walked to the east end of the mile to visit Holyrood Palace, the home of the royal family when they visit. We went in for the tour as it started to rain a little. This was just an ok site; I suppose the English find it more interesting. Just a lot of nice stuff that doesn't get used very often. There is some history regarding Mary Queen of Scots here, but I think it is just their claim to fame here. As we left, the rain had stopped, so we headed back toward the New Town area for dinner. We walked back a different way, crossing over Waverly Station with views of Scott Monument. The weather wasn't quite nice enough to go up, so we walked toward Jamie's Italian, a place we had made reservations at the night prior. His restaurant was good, but they can't make a hot coffee! After dinner, I walked around a bit more for pictures while Kacey took the kids to the hotel.

The next morning, we went out to see St. John's and St. Cuthbert, next to the castle (but at street level). While services were getting ready to start, we kinda looked around anyway. St. Cuthbert has been transformed a little to be more modern, but still neat. Then I ran over to the Scott Monument to climb up since the weather was nice again. The view was nice, and it was a tight fit to get up some of the steps. The views of the city are better from the castle, but this was nice too. We got going to Stirling Castle next, hoping to find some food there in Stirling.

We arrived in town and didn't see any food. We learned we were in the new town later, but we asked a local and were directed to the Torbrex Inn. It was nestled in amongst homes and it was brilliant food! I got the Steak and Ale pie. The meat was fabulous and the puff pastry tasted like it had to come from the town's best bakery, but it was made in house. I highly recommend eating here! We headed next to Stirling Castle. This castle, we learned, has been restored and they have actors that play different roles in the castle. It is pretty kid friendly with activities for them along the way. Nolan attended Knight School and did some archery. We next started the long drive up to Inverness.

It was a beautiful drive, with a wide array of landscapes. We arrived in Inverness and it was a bigger town than we expected. We checked in and went next door to Contrast to eat dinner. This was supposed to be good and it did not disappoint. The scotch egg starter was delish as well as the haggis bon bons. We stayed the night at the Glen Mhor Hotel. This was one of the cheaper options in town, had free wifi and full breakfast, and had a nice big room, and renovated bathroom. They also brought in a rollaway bed for Nolan. It is also close to parts of downtown, so most things are walkable.

The next morning we had to be at the Clansman Harbour for our 1 hour cruise on Loch Ness. We cut it a little close, but got on with about 30 seconds to spare. They talked about stories and wildlife of Loch Ness. The 1 hour cruise goes out to Urquhart Castle, drops people off, picks up some more, and comes back to the harbour. It was a little cloudy the morning of our cruise, but not too bad considering the whole trip had been so nice so far. Upon seeing the castle, we decided we may not go spend a lot of time there. It is mostly ruins, and not very large. And many say the best part about it is the view, which we had already seen. So while we drove past it, we headed back in to Inverness for lunch before our scenic drive to Glasgow.

We decided we would drive down the main road toward the lowlands and stop at an information center along the way (we saw a few signs for them on the way up). We stopped at a place called Ralia Cafe that said it was a TI. The first person I talked to didn't know much. But the second guy warned us that the road ahead was shutdown due to a large accident; and since it was in the dual carriageway part, people were stranded. He said drive toward Fort William via Newtonmore and that it is a brilliant drive. So we headed that way and it really was. We saw more lochs, an old dam, and the Ben Nevis range. We took the cable lift half way up the mountain and it was great views. We moved on to see the fort at Fort William. Well, this is a very, very small ruin. We missed it at first glance. We drove toward Glencoe to see that area too. We saw the Three Sisters mountains and then drove by Loch Lomond. This loch is huge and beautiful! We arrived in Glasgow and tried to have dinner at a place reviewed well, but they were busy and there was no parking in the area anyway. We just checked in and walked to Merchant Square, a place also full of restaurants and bars. While there weren't as many as we thought, we found a few that allowed kids and settled on Arisaig. I got chicken with haggis and mashed potatoes and mashed parsnips, very tasty. I stepped in to the Beer Cafe next door; the owner was super nice.

The next day we were going to walk around George Square and a few sites, then drive to the Cathedral, then get on the road by noon to catch our ferry out of Cairnryan. All the sites were very close to our hotel. We hung out at George Square for a few minutes, checking out all the statues. We stopped at the Pret for sandwiches for lunch later. We also let Nolan watch a big excavator tear down a building while Kacey took some pictures of a famous old casino. The cathedral was good, but the big attraction is the huge necropolis and view of the city and cathedral from the hill.

All in all, Scotland had some great sites, great food, and nice people.

Pictures can be found here.

Avoca and an Irish Food Festival

Two weekends ago, Kathleen was in town. On Sunday we visited Avoca and then drove up to an Irish Food Festival. As we arrived as Avoca, I saw men sitting in their cars and that was a sign for the inside. Fancy food things, clothes, and stuff like that. The take away salad bar stuff was pretty good. But from here we drove up near Kells for an Irish Food Festival, hosted by Sheridan Cheesemongers.

The field was packed with cars, and there was a line down the country road just trying to get in. The area was packed with people. There were vendors with samples selling things, and vendors with food to eat. There were cheeses and meat vendors. Fruit vendors. I got a "pork" sandwich, which was mostly gristle and fat. I also found some ice cream which is actually ice cream, not weird ingredients. We sampled some things, let Nolan play in the bounce house and bouncy slide, and headed home after 2 hours of taking it all in.

Pictures here.

Brú na Bóinne

A week ago we visited Brú na Bóinne while Christie was in town. While there are several sites in the area, we only visited the top two on this visit, Newgrange and Knowth. These are earthen tombs from about 1200 years ago. When you show up, you reserve a bus ride and a tour out to each site. To be honest, for all the hassle that might go in to getting a tour and what you actually see, it was just ok. Going in the Newgrange tomb and seeing how they built it to align with the solstice it neat, but that is the only thing there really.

Pictures can be found here.

Kilkenny, Waterford, and Rock of Cashel

This past weekend, we loaded up the car (4 adults, 2 kids) and headed south to Kilkenny. This is rated one of the top older, inland towns, and I would have to agree. Even with a little rain at first, it was pretty bustling on a Saturday afternoon. While we kinda struck out on lunch, it gave way to sunshine!

First we went to the Kilkenny Castle. We used our new Ireland Heritage card for entry. This is maintained in a usable state, so much different than we had seen anywhere else in the British Isles. We next walked to St. Canice's Cathedral. This was a nice little cathedral, and is famous for it's round tower. The weather was a little iffy at first, but once we got up, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It made for some great views of the town and the hills. It was now time to head to Waterford.

See pictures of Kilkenny here.

I didn't expect too much in Waterford, and I was right. The town was pretty much shut down by 6pm on Saturday. No one was out walking around except us. We found Koliba, a polish restaurant serving yummy pierogies. We had pierogies, potato pancakes, goulash, and kompot. It was all yummy. We also had some fruit pierogies, something we will try to make another time (and maybe fry them). After a quick walk around the old town triangle, we headed to the hotel for some rest.

In the morning, the town was empty again (but not too surprising). Mass ended as we walked by the Trinity Church and we asked a few people about breakfast, and they said "Maybe the hotel?". We found that the McDonalds was the only thing open, so we suffered through that and got to the House of Waterford Crystal for a tour. This was a pretty neat tour (and the factory is actually open on Sunday). Of course, this small factory is all that is left after the financial collapse in 2009, but they still make a few things.

See pictures of Waterford here.

Next we headed to Cashel to see the Rock of Cashel. We ate lunch at a little Italian place, hoping the rain would pass through. Well, it didn't, but we had free entrance to the Rock of Cashel with our Heritage cards. We walked with the tour for a few minutes, but we drifted off and did our own thing. Rock of Cashel isn't that big, and hard to do when rainy and windy (a lot of it is outside or in the cathedral with no roof). So, we will stop by another time when driving by.

See pictures of Rock of Cashel here.

Wales and Liverpool

Last weekend, May 4th, was a bank holiday in Ireland, so we decided to visit our friends in Liverpool, see Wales, and take the ferry over to Great Britain. The Irish Ferry was pretty easy to book and it traveled from Dublin Port to Holyhead Wales. We took the fast ferry, which does the trip in just under 2 hours. On board is pretty comfortable. They have free wifi, but don't expect to do too much with it.

Once we arrived in Holyhead, we started immediately to our first town, Beaumaris. We needed pounds immediately to pay for parking, and we didn't have any yet, but luckily a welsh woman paid for our parking. The castle here was decent, and you can walk on top, but it doesn't have many towers or hidden rooms. The town here is a very cute little town, and we were lucky to have picked this place for lunch (well, the guide book said it would work out well).

Next we headed to Conwy. By the time we got there, both kids were asleep, so I quickly went in by myself. This castle is larger and has more towers and some hidden rooms. Good views of the town from the towers.  But next we headed to Llandudno. We read that this town was actually having a large festival, evident by all the cars parked, but we drove the scenic road around the Great Orme Park. We were able to drive up to the summit as well, where the tram and cable car end up. There were some great views of the hills and towns from the drive. Llandudno looks like a real cute little town, but due to the congestion of the carnival, we decided to just skip it.

On our way to Liverpool, we decided to drive by one more castle. Rhuddlan Castle isn't far from the main road and located in a little town. By the time we got here, they would have been closing soon. So Kacey let Nolan run around a little while taking a few pictures. This castle looked to be a little more in ruins than the first ones we had seen, so by this time, we were ready to go see our friends!

We got to Wirral just in time for dinner. Nolan and Braeden became instant friends! They were running around and holding hands before we even got to dinner. On Sunday we visited their church in Hoylake and really enjoyed their service. I kinda needed some time in worship after the stress we had endured trying to find a place to live. After church we took the train in to Liverpool and walked around the Mersey. The weather was fantastic! We visited the free Museum of Liverpool and the kids had fun in the "Little Liverpool" kids area. After some ice cream and walking around Albert Docks, we headed back home for some dinner.

On Monday (bank holiday), we decided to go to Chester Zoo. Well, so did about 10,000 other people. The 5 mile line inched in and we gave up after about 30 minutes. Even if we had gotten in, it would have been extremely crowded. So we bailed and went to the Blue Planet Aquarium. It was pretty empty, and the kids had a great time running around. Afterward, we headed in to Chester to check out the cathedral and walk around. The Chester Cathedral was nice and we relaxed in the central gardens for a bit. We next walked down to the river and walked along a bit. It was a nice place for a lazy walk. But, it was dinner time and worried things might close, we started looking. We ended up at the Ristorante Sergio for dinner, and it was great. I always love good Italian eateries where you can speak Italian to the folks there.

The next day we drove back in to Liverpool to take in the Anglican Cathedral. This church is pretty massive and the view from the top is incredible. The bell tower on the way up and hard to put in to words its size. We were also able to grab a quick snack here before getting on the road back to Wales. We had scheduled enough time to visit the Caernarfon Castle. This was a pretty neat castle and some of the tall towers could be scaled by Nolan. There is also a nice vantage point of the town square from the castle. We grabbed some food before heading to catch the ferry.

We really lucked out. The weather the entire trip was really great, we saw a lot of fun castles, some grand cathedrals, and saw some great friends.

Pictures from this trip can be found here.

County Wicklow Mountains

Saturday we drove the short trip to the Wicklow Mountains to visit Powerscourt Gardens and then take the Military Road to Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock). Rick Steves recommended this day trip from Dublin, so we thought we would do an easy one for our first trip.

We drove in through the village of Enniskerry and followed the signs to Powerscourt. It is a very large area with a golf course, a Ritz-Carlton, the main house and the gardens. We walked the garden for about 90 minutes then headed in to get a bite at the cafe. The food was decent, but I bet the cafe gets very crowded in the summer! We walked anti-clockwise through the gardens, which unfortunately was not very stroller friendly. The Japanese Gardens is probably the nicest area there, but the Walled Garden is probably very lovely in the summer.

Next we drove the old Military Road through Sally Gap to head to Glendalough. The road was pretty rough and the scenery was mostly bogs. The little village of Glencree seemed like it might have been a good place to eat lunch at the pub.

We arrived at the visitor center in Glendalough and drove around the carpark looking for a spot. In the summer, it is probably near impossible to park there. We walked around the Monastic City for a bit, then walked the boardwalk to the Upper Lake. While the boardwalk route is stroller friendly, the Green road path is no worse than the monastic city, and the boardwalk is longer. The Upper Lake is beautify with a green space for play.

With recommendation from a local, we ate at the Wicklow Heather Restaurant. It was our first (finally!) pub and it was awesome. Corned beef, potatoes, and Guinness.

Pictures can be found here.

How are Things? (Liana is 7 months)

What a week! We moved to Dublin, Ireland almost a week ago. The few days leading up to the flight were busy, but we had planned things out and didn't have any surprises we couldn't work through. Our almost 5 hour layover at JFK turned in to a non-running hurry-up and we basically walked straight on to our Aer Lingus flight due to flight delays and weather.

Our arrival in Dublin was quite good. We were offered a ride to immigration. We fit everything on 2 carts and the stroller (we didn't really know how we would get 10 bags, 6 carry-ons, and 2 car seats to a rental car and taxi). Then, a very nice woman insisted on helping us push our carts to the rental car desk. It was quite nice, we were overwhelmed by all the nice people trying to help us, just within the first couple hours!

Our plan was to fit as much luggage and kids in the rental as possible, then Kacey would take the rest in a taxi. Well, the nice folks at Enterprise helped us get it all in! (Except for the stroller that we forgot on the shuttle).

We arrived at our temporary apartment in Sandyford, which wasn't quite ready, but we just waited in the coffee shop for 30 minutes.  Once unloading the car, I immediately went to Lissen Hall Vet Hospital to pick up the cats. This was also uneventful. I was also able to swing by Enterprise and pick up the stroller.

We explored the Dunnes grocery store, which is next to our apartment. They have about anything we use to make meals, it just isn't always where you would expect in the store.

The kids have done ok. Nolan didn't really get any kid time for about a week. Liana popped a tooth through finally! Right in time for her 7 month birthday. She wants to be so active, but our apartment just doesn't have room for her to crawl. I swear the other day at the Children's Museum she wanted to take a step but didn't. Her balance is getting better by practicing in her playpen.

We are excited to be here! We are looking forward to finding a house (the rental market here is crazy) and settling in, which is hard to do in a little 2 bedroom apartment.

Next Chapter Coming!

This is our final week in California; next week we move to Dublin, Ireland! We have made some great friends here in SoCal and it is sad to leave them. Hopefully we get some visitors to Ireland!

This week is going to be hard on Nolan because I can't give him a lot of attention, and a lot of his stuff is packed up. He has still been pretty good, though.

We are almost done selling a few things. Still need to sell the Durango and the cordless drill. We have backup plans for each, so not too much stress.

We are excited for the next chapter of our lives!

Liana is 6 Months!

She is doing so great and growing really well. The bottle is getting a little easier, but we still struggle sometimes. She has been crawling for a month and getting good at it. While it is still an army crawl, it is effective and she can clear obstacles. She *almost* sat herself up the other day, so her strength and balance are improving. She really loves to bounce too. Tonight, she will try her first rice cereal!

27" long (90%)
16 lb 3.5 oz (51%)
16.5" head (48%)

Liana is 5 Months!

Liana is 5 months old today! And today she blessed us with a wonderful surprise. For a couple weeks, she has been pushing herself backward on the hardwood floors, but now she can crawl!



She laughs at Nolan all the time, he gets the biggest laughs.

Liana is 4 Months!

Liana is doing great! Big brother loves her lots, and she loves to watch big brother play.

25.75 in. 91% height
14 lb 6 oz 70% weight
16 in head

Liana is 3 Months Old

Liana is 3 months old! She is progressing so well!  A week or so ago, Liana started rolling from her tummy to her back.  But on her 3 month birthday, she finally make it from her back to her tummy!  She had been trying so hard for a few days and finally figured it out.  She is 25 inches long and 13 pounds 4 ounces.  She is getting to big and strong!  We are also getting some giggles, but mostly lots of smiles.  She loves to watch her big brother play.

LEGOLAND!

We had been wanting to get to LEGOLand while Kacey was still on her maternity leave (so we could go during the week), and we finally went last week.  We got cheap tickets online because it is winter time, so that was good.  We stayed in a hotel the night before so we would be at the park when it opened.  It had rained the day before and the day we went had the potential for a little rain, so we were hoping this would keep the crowds down. Boy were we right!  We got in at 10am and rode rides non stop until around 3 when the rain started.  We only waited in line once!  Many times, we just stayed on the ride!  It was an awesome day and Nolan had a blast. And, even once the rain started, we just went to the aquarium until the park closed at 5.

Liana is Two Months!

The past two months have been exciting and fun.  Nolan is a good big brother.  Liana is eating very well and getting her chunky baby legs.  And we are in the middle of our first big trip.  Liana is very alert and has been since birth.  She loves to look around with her big blue eyes.  We have great play time where she likes to smile at mom and dad.  She is doing well holding her head up.  She sleeps relatively well at night.  She has been a wonderful baby!

On Thanksgiving, Liana met her first great grandma Lillian, who was turning 80 that day.  Liana also got to meet a lot of her extended family.  Liana traveled ok in the car for 8 hours.




Just a couple days later, Liana got to meet yet another great grandma.

Our Daughter, Liana Phillips

Liana Phillips

Liana was born Thursday September 20th at 9:27pm Pacific Time.  She was 6 pounds and 14 ounces, and 19.5 inches long.  It was a wonderful, relatively quick (planned) birth at our home.

The happy family,
Chris, Kacey, Nolan & Liana

Alaska!

Alaska has long been high of my list of places to go.  So when we saw an opportunity to do it, we jumped, even though Kacey was 6.5 months pregnant.  One thing that helped was I found a way to use reward flights and a reward car.  Also, grandma came in to watch Nolan.  Even though we have taken him on many adventures, and even though he would have liked a couple things on the trip, it just wasn't the best idea to take him on this adventure.  We had a wonderful time, saw a lot of wildlife, and visited places few will ever go.!  And, I couldn't resist putting my one of my favorite pictures right here.

Byron Glacier

Wednesday June 27 - Bakersfield to Fairbanks

What started out as a simple connection in Denver turned in to a transfer to Alaska Air, adding Seattle as another waypoint (with awesome views of Mt. Rainier while landing), and our bag waiting in Denver for 24 hours.  But, we made it to Fairbanks, and got to our hotel, the Regency Fairbanks Hotel, for bed around 2:30am.

Thursday June 28 - Fairbanks to Denali

This morning, we ate "breakfast" at the hotel - a continental with slim pickings.  But, we had a plan to stop by a Safeway on the way out of town to pick up some snacks and lunch for later.  The drive to Denali was a little surreal.  We were tired, driving in a strange place I have wanted to visit for a long time.  The landscape was uniquely different than anything I had seen before; Alaska is the definition of rural.  The rolling mountains go for miles without interruption, and the trees quickly change while driving as they adjust to their varying ecosystems.  The roads are pretty good, and there aren't very many of them.  The speed limit is usually 65 mph, but 55 through some mountains, and 45 through "towns".  There are also usually passing zones in mountains and on long straight-aways.

We reached Healy, a small town about 8 miles north of McKinley Village, and stopped for gas at the Miner's Market and Deli.  They had a sign for deli as well, so we decided to check it out.  It was surprisingly good!  (And they are the cheapest gas around)  They made a fried fish sandwich for Kacey and I got the Denali (the works).  We headed on to the Wilderness Access Center in Denali National Park.

We were supposed to meet our bus tour here, the Tundra Wilderness Tour, and we were early in hopes to sit in the front.  The nice lady there informed us that we were the last pickup location, yuck!  She then proceeded to help us out by telling us the first pickup location, changing our tickets, and getting us on our way quickly.  We rushed to the Grande Denali Hotel and were lucky that only one person was already waiting, so we were second in line!  We ended up with good seats on the bus (i.e. we could take photos out the front window of the bus).  Unfortunately, the bus was having issues so we had to wait at the visitor center and change buses.  But after that, our guide and driver David (with 30 years experience) had us going and was teaching us a lot about Denali. It didn't take long to reach Savage Station (mile 15), the end of the road for most traffic.  And hanging out near the Savage River were a few caribou, our first sign of wildlife.

Our first stop was at the Teklanika River rest stop (mile 30).  It was lightly raining and the sky was overcast, but we still went out for a look at the river.  The views were much nicer on our return journey, though.  Also, as the road is gravel, the windows get dirty quickly so the bus driver (and a few passengers usually) would wipe down the windows at our stops.  Shortly after we started back up, we saw our first of many encounters of Dall sheep.  Throughout the day, they were high up on the mountains, so we relied on the camcorder zoom to view them.  But even more exciting is that a grizzly bear was spotted not too far from the road!  While it was foraging for food in the brush, we were able to spot it a few times through breaks in the trees.

Our next stop was at Polychrome Overlook (mile 46).  The rain had stopped, but the clouds remained.  They were high enough, though, to get a partial glimpse of the Polychrome hills.  There were a few small trails that lead up to the overlook here, so I went on up.  On my walk up, I saw an animal coming toward the group.  At first I thought it was a wolf.  But as it got a little closer, it was obviously a fox.  This guy was pretty fearless and walked around with the tourists for 10 minutes or so. Our next stop was at the Toklat River rest stop (mile 53).  The views were pretty nice here, but again much nicer on our way back home.  There were Dall sheep grazing on the hillside next to us, and I walked out to the river to bask in the beauty of the hillsides.

Just a few minutes after leaving Toklat River, a moose walked right in front of the bus!  As I was in the front, and my Nikon was always in the waiting, I got a few pictures of it; and I think I was the only person to do so.  It was very exciting!  We reached the Stony Hill Overlook (mile 62) and simply turned around without stopping.  I was a little bummed, but we stopped right after the turn around and stopped near a small field of snow.  The sun was starting to peer out of some of the clouds, so at each rest stop on the return, the pictures were much nicer.  The cloud cover was still too thick to see Denali, but we were happy to see the wildlife that we did!

The tour ended around 9:30 at night (even though it was light out, weird), so we asked David where to get some pizza.  He told us Prospector's Pizza was our best bet.  So we stopped in, ordered a pie, and walked around the shops next door.  While most were closed, I was able to stop in at Subway for a Sprite (not sure why I was craving this, I seldom drink these).  We picked up our pizza and took it back to our hotel, getting in around 11pm at night.  If you are in the area, the pizza was pretty good!  We stayed at the Denali Park Hotel, which is not what you might assume; it is not the park hotel.  It is a hotel about 8 miles north of the park in Healy.  It was much cheaper than the places in McKinley Village and if you are looking to save $100/night, then stay up in Healy!  The room was fine for our single night stay and the curtains blacked out the sun pretty well.

Miles driven: 135
Pictures from this day

Friday June 29 - Denali to Anchorage

Today we got up, Kacey got a breakfast sandwich from the Miner's Market, and we headed back in to Denali.  We wanted to check out the Visitor's Center before driving down to Anchorage.  First off I had to get the National Park Passport cancellation stamp and brochures.  Then, we started a short hike down to Hines Creek via the McKinley Station Trail.  The bugs were getting too bad, so after going back for our spray, Kacey decided to hang out in the Visitor Center and watch the video.  The view at Hines Creek was peaceful and on the way back I saw a snowshoe hare!  We bought a postcard for mom and mailed it from the shop (which we still beat home) and got on the road for the long drive to Anchorage.

We read in the 2 tour books we took that Denali State Park had two rest stops with lookouts of McKinley.  While we stopped at both, it was too cloudy for a view of the mountain.  We kept on driving and decided to go straight to the Anchorage Museum so we could spend maybe 2 hours there.  We didn't really decide to go here until we were driving that day, and if you have a couple hours in Anchorage, this isn't a bad place to spend it.  While the contemporary stuff on the top floor was too strange, there is tons of interesting Alaska information and artifacts to be found.  Once we were done, we stopped by the airport to retrieve our bag and drove to our hotel, the Howard Johnson Plaza Anchorage.  Yes, Howard Johnson's apparently do still exist!  I love budget hotels and we found the sign posted at the front desk of this HoJo humorous.  This hotel rated poorly, but it is because people probably weren't expecting a budget hotel.  If you want to stay downtown Anchorage for cheap, then this is your best option.

We decided to walk to Glacier Brewhouse for dinner (recommended by many sites and Mike and Maggie).  The food was good (especially the bread pudding; they ran out and had to make more, so we got it free and warm), and it was tasty to try a few beers they brew.  This is also where we realized that properly prepared, fresh halibut is awesome!

Miles driven: 263
Pictures from this day

Saturday June 30 - Anchorage to Seward

This morning, we woke up and I walked to Starbucks to use up my gift card for breakfast.  We got on the road and decided to stop at a few of our potential stops today.  These were the Alyeska Tramway in Girdwood, Portage Glacier, and Exit Glacier.  This was a lot to do on our way to Seward!  But, it was a fun day and the weather was absolutely beautiful by time we reached Portage and Byron Glaciers.

Just south of Anchorage is Beluga Point.  We saw the sign and decided to stop in hopes of seeing some.  I didn't know the time of year they come through, but apparently we were a couple weeks early.  It was still a nice view point, and some Dall sheep were hanging out on the cliff above us.

Next was the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood.  We wanted to take the Tramway up Mt. Alyeska.  While the weather wasn't super clear, we decided it wasn't too bad and we gave it a shot.  Kacey saw that they had a deal for a discounted lunch combo at the top of the mountain; and since it was almost lunch time we went for it.  Kacey got a crab roll and I got fried halibut.  It was ok and if you are going up the mountain close to lunch time, it is not a bad option.  We watched some paragliders taking off after lunch, played in the snow, and headed back down the mountain.

Our next stop was Portage Glacier.  I stopped by the Visitor Center first to see where exactly we should go.  Portage Glacier is across the lake from the visitor center, but they recommended the hike to Byron Glacier.  So we drove up to the trail head for the simple ~0.8 mile trail.  I sprayed for bugs and Kacey covered up.  The skies were really starting to clear up and the views of the glacier and the creek were absolutely beautiful!  Once we got to the glacier, we just hung out a while and enjoyed the view!  Everything was super blue, except for the bright green hillsides.

Our next stop was Exit Glacier, just north of Seward.  I didn't realize until we pulled up that this was in the National Park System!  (That meant another stamp)  The road to Exit Glacier is the only road within Kenai Fjords National Park.  This glacier also had a short, relatively easy hike.  It is paved almost all the way to a lookout point, and then gets a little more rocky to get close to the glacier (but still not very hard).  Exit Glacier has been rapidly retreating the past 150 years and markers along the trail show it's retreat.  Kacey bundled up once again and I had to spray my hair because the bugs were so bad!  It was another beautiful glacier viewing, and it was time to get to our hotel and find some dinner.

We drove in to Hotel Seward, the only place we would stay 2 nights in a row.  The rooms are small but with the just of us, we did fine.  We unfortunately stayed above the boiler and sweat through the night.  Opening the windows just let light in, and allowed us to listen to the drunken locals all night.  This was about the cheapest option by time we made our reservations.  I think next time, I would try to stay on the north side of town near the marina, not on the south end by the SeaLife Center.

We drove back to the marina area for dinner.  We tried to eat at Chinook's, but were disappointed by the small menu.  So, we walked next door to Ray's Waterfront.  We got seafood linguine and halibut piccata.  Food and view were ok, and the portions were pretty good size.  I was kind of wanting something sweet, so we stopped at one of the last places open, the Wild Iris.  They had fudge and gelato, both made downtown Seward.  Since we were close to the Safeway, we decided to grab a few breakfast items for the morning.

Miles driven: 164
Pictures from this day

Sunday July 1 - Kenai Fjords National Park Boat Tour

Today was all about the boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park.  We were hoping for good weather, wildlife, glaciers, and delicious food on Fox Island.  We were blessed with all!  We arrived a few minutes early for departure at 10am, and Kacey stopped by the Bakery at the Harbor to supplement her food for the day.  The day started off a little overcast, but the skies cleared up pretty quick, and the sea was very calm all day!

Our first bit of wildlife was some sea otters hanging out in Resurrection Bay.  Very soon after, we saw humpbacks near the shore.  Since the bay was carved by glaciers, the shoreline drops immediately a hundred feet or so, enabling the whales to dive near the coast.  Just as we decided to move on, some Dall porpoises come up along the port and starboard bows and swam with the boat.  They didn't jump up too much, and it was hard to get decent pictures, but I got a few where you can make them out.

As we moved out of the bay and passed Bear Glacier, Orca whales were spotted!  It is rare that this trip gets to see them, so we were excited!  Our captain did not get very close (two other boats were already close), so the pictures were from far away, but still cool!  After watching them for a while, we headed toward Aialik Bay.  We did see another humpback along the way, but he was casually feeding.

In Aialik Bay, we first passed Holgate Glacier.  While this wasn't our big attraction, we didn't really see it for long.  The big attraction was next up, the Aialik Glacier.  The bay around the glacier is beautiful mountains to the west and bright green hillsides to the east.  But straight to our north was the magnificent Aialik Glacier!  We moved in, about a quarter mile from the glacier, and shut down the engines for about 20 minutes.  We just sat and listened to the glacier (and the loud folks out on the deck).  I snapped a few pictures of ice calving, and recorded one video of it.  While the pieces look small due to our distance, they were actually large and created a large booming sound upon impact with the water.  There were a few ocean kayakers near the glacier enjoying the view as well.

On our way back to Seward, we were lucky enough to see another wonder of nature.  A breaching humpback whale!  It was quite awesome (and a little difficult to photograph).  The whale only gave us a show for 10 minutes or so before stopping the fun, at which point we moved on closer to the dock.  Along the way, we spent some time near Barwell Island, watching lots of birds, watching some seals, and watching some puffins.

Our next stop was our salmon and king crab dinner on Fox Island!  (Oh, and the vegetable lasagna was good too).  We had a good time skipping stones and sitting on the beach.  But we boarded the boat for our 45 minute ride back to Seward marina.  There were beautiful views of the mountains along the way, and we had a view of the trail used for Mount Marathon each year.

Back in Seward, we walked around for a few minutes at the marina, stopping at the Harbor Street Creamery for a peanut butter milkshake.  I also picked up a breakfast pastry at the Bakery at the Harbor.  When we got to the hotel, Kacey was craving something sweet, so we walked over to Sweet Darlings for some gelato.

Pictures from this day

Monday July 2 - Seward to Kenai, Whittier, and then Girdwood

We got up and while Kacey was getting some food for the day started not feeling too well.  I just ate my muffin from the night before and was ready for the drive to Kenai (and skip the SeaLife Center).  We didn't really know what to expect on this day, but it was fun to explore.  We stopped at the visitor's center in Kenai and learned about the old town; maybe two blocks of an old Russian Orthodox Church, a sandwich shop (closed on Mondays), and some apartments.  There were also some old buildings which have been re-purposed as little hotels and things like that.  I was mostly excited about the Russian Orthodox Church! After a quick (cloudy) view of Cook Inlet from Erik Hansen Scout Park, we headed toward Soldotna for lunch.

Soldotna is just a little town east of Kenai with more commercial stores and restaurants.  We were recommended to St. Elias Brewing Company for pizza.  The pizzas were pretty good, and so was the beer.  After a quick chat with Nolan on the phone (while we had service), we headed back east, this time taking the Skilak Lake Loop road (on a recommendation from the Kenai visitor center).  This is a gravel road that parallels the highway and swings down by lake Skilak, and we were on the lookout for wildlife.  The drive was nice and we saw a black bear, but the camera didn't quite focus fast enough as he was really on the move.

As we were driving, we were contemplating driving to Whittier.  All we knew is that there is a shared use tunnel from Portage Lake to Whittier, the longest vehicle/railroad tunnel in North America.  Once we picked up a cell signal, I searched online for more information and found the schedule.  It was open eastbound to Whittier vehicles from 4:30-4:45.  It was 4pm and we were about 50 minutes away.  So with Kacey behind the wheel, we got a move on!  The most important part of making up time is using your opportunities to pass trucks and RVs, and she did great as we got to the tunnel at 4:45 exactly!  We were the last car, so it worked out perfectly.  The tunnel is about 3 miles long and takes about 6 minutes to drive.

Once in Whittier, we knew there was a Prince William Sound Museum we wanted to see, and we thought we would have about 30 minutes to view it.  Well, it turns out it is open later than the travel book said, so we had plenty of time, but it was pretty small.  It is a single room in a building that doubles as a convenience store/apartments?  It was hard to tell.  But there was some interesting information about Alaska's role during WWII and the building of the railroad, highlighting Alaska's heroes.

We next drove over to the marina area as there isn't really a town here.  There is a tall building which is apartments, some industrial businesses, a train station, a marina with adventure excursions, and some restaurants and gifts shops near the marina.  This town is mostly a jumping off point for people heading in to or out of the waters of Prince William Sound.  The biggest thing in town is the large parking lot to support people going either way.  We contemplated eating but decided to do it in Girdwood and catch the 6pm exit through the tunnel.

We got to Girdwood, found the Carriage House B&B, and went in to town for dinner.  We decided to eat at Jack Sprat for dinner.  The pan seared halibut and the baked ricotta cavatelli were both very good!  It was too late to make the ice cream shop or the bakery, so we stopped at the Eagle grocery store and bought a small tub of ice cream for dessert.

Miles driven: 253
Pictures from this day

Tuesday July 3 - Girdwood to Palmer, Talkeetna, and then Fairbanks

We got up, ate our breakfast prepared by Rachel, and got on the road toward Fairbanks.  Today was a big driving day, but we also had a few stops planned.  We first headed to Palmer to see a couple sights and eat lunch.  The visitor center there didn't have much to say about the area, but confirmed that we should next drive Hatcher Pass on our way north.  The old town really doesn't have much, but one can walk by a few old buildings.

The Colony Inn serves up some lunch and while we were contemplating getting something to go, a local advised we order food here.  So we ordered 2 sandwiches to go and walked down to the United Protestant Church, otherwise known as the Church of a Thousand Logs.  It was a very unique looking church, both inside and outside.  We grabbed our sandwiches and headed up toward Hatcher Pass.

Hatcher Pass is a mountain pass road known for it's beautiful views, traveling from north of Palmer west to Willow.  It is a gravel road that had just opened up a few days prior and was still lined with snow in some places.  The road was easily passable in our all wheel drive Taurus and while it was a little cloudy, it was very peaceful and beautiful.  We stopped a few times along the way to look around, and once in the middle of the road to take a photograph.  After an hour or so, we reached the Parks Highway and headed north to the road to Talkeetna.

Talkeetna is a town often used as a jumping off point for many adventure excursions to Denali.  This little town draws lots of tourists and has a lot of food options.  Kacey got some food at the Spinach Bread shop.  They were also selling some delicious homemade rhubarb-blueberry cobbler!  We walked in a few shops and Kacey bought a shirt for her little girl.  After a quick walk to the Susitna River, we got on the road for Fairbanks.  But, not before stopping at the Kahiltna Birchworks.  I was hoping for some birch beer, but we just sampled the other treats they had, and Kacey bought some birch caramels.

We stopped once again at the south and north viewpoints for Denali within the Denali State Park.  And to our luck, the mountains were viewable!  After taking pictures for a while, we continued north to McKinley Village just outside of Denali National Park.  We went to the Salmon Bake restaurant for some food.  With a long wait for a table, we went upstairs and waited for a spot at the bar.  We got a salmon sandwich and a buffalo burger.  Not too bad, and their fries were good too.  Kacey heard what sounded like an Indiana accent next to us at the bar, and she was correct.  They were from Shelbyville and Evansville.  On our final drive to Fairbanks, the sunset views were very nice and we stopped frequently to photograph it.  We also saw a moose drinking water right by the road!  We got in around 10:30pm and tried to get some rest.

Miles driven: 445
Pictures from this day

Wednesday July 4 - Fairbanks to Coldfoot and Wiseman

We got up, ate a little "breakfast" and headed up to check out the pipeline.  At Mile 8.4 of the Steese Highway north of Fairbanks, there is an area to view the pipeline.  For two engineers, this was cool!  Mostly, because there was an Alyeska pipeline engineer there and we talked to him for a while.  We headed back to town to check out the visitor center and grab a bite before heading to the airport for our tour.  We didn't have long at the visitor center, but it seemed pretty cool.  We stopped by Alana's Cafe for sandwiches to go on the plane.

We got to the small aircraft airport around noon and started getting briefed about our flight.  Simon was our pilot of the 10 seater plane.  It wasn't too bad, much more comfortable than our flight to Placencia, Belize.  The seatbacks had a map of sites we would be flying over.  The views of the Yukon River, the pipeline, and the mountains were incredible.  It started raining when we were getting close and it was sprinkling as we landed in Coldfoot.

We got in our van for the 15 minute drive north on the Dalton Highway up to Wiseman.  Our driver, Cody, was working up here for the summer (and originally from Indiana).  Wiseman got a bridge around 2000 to be connected to the highway, and about 13 people live here year round.  It is the northern most town in Alaska with year round residents (we were told).

Wiseman was full of bugs!  People live off the grid, but have internet and satellite TV.  They have federal licenses to live off the land.  It was an interesting town and local Jack Reakoff kindly hosted us around town and his house.  We toured the little chapel as well as one of the cabins people can rent (and they sell coffee, tea, and snacks there too).  After walking around a while and using the outhouse one last time, we headed back to Coldfoot for our flight home.  The skies opened up and the views of Gates of the Arctic National Park were awesome!  We were about as close as someone can drive to get to the park, as there are no roads to the park.

After arriving back in Fairbanks, we decided to drive to North Pole.  We figured it wasn't much, but we visited the year round Christmas store (with year round Santa!, who was already gone for the day) and saw the reindeer outside (they looked sad).  We drove back to Fairbanks for dinner at the Pump House.  It was nice!  I got elk meatloaf and a beer sampler, and Kacey got one more serving of pan seared halibut.

Pictures from this day

Conclusion

We couldn't have asked for anything more (except for more time).  We saw wildlife, towns, mountains, museums, glaciers, big skies, the Arctic Circle, and ate some good halibut.  We took over 2200 pictures but only about half are viewable on the website.  I only exposed about 10 of the 120 orca whale pictures, for example.  Our car served us well, but was pretty filthy after a week in Alaska.  Hotels are more than we were used to paying, but we always stay at budget hotels (and even Alaska budget hotels get expensive).  Gas wasn't too much more than California, but someone from the midwest would double-take the price.  We were lucky to have very little rain as it is common for rain in the summer.  Tours are worth the money and get you close to the things you went all the way to Alaska to see.  I am sure we saved money by booking the tours all on our own.  The train is expensive so if you don't mind driving, a car is the cheaper and faster way to travel.  I already know that a second trip to Alaska would include a cruise (which we don't like) of Juneau, Glacier Bay, Homer, and Kodiak.  But, it was an awesome trip, and we were really blessed to have the experience to see so many of God's beautiful creations!

Find all of our pictures here