For those of you who don't know me, I grew up a military brat and moved about every 2-3 years. When my husband made the decision to join, I was used to the idea of moving and living the military life. His first assignment was 3 years at Eielson AFB, Alaska.
October 25th, 2013 my husband graduated Tech School in Texas and we drove up to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to meet the movers! Then we headed to Maryland to visit with my family before we headed to Alaska. Below is our whole trip!
*Sidenote, at this point in time I was not a very good photographer, so my photos are not that great. This Blog is mostly for my husband and I so we can remember our trip*
On Saturday November 16th, we were off! Our first stop was Swanton, Ohio. We stayed the night and the next morning we headed to Grinnell, Iowa. My husband is a HUGE John Wayne fan, so he just had to stop at the John Wayne Birthplace Museum which is in Winterset, Iowa. Our next stop was Rapid City, South Dakota. We ended up staying here an extra night because there was so much to do and we loved the hotel we were staying in! Plus after the first two days of driving we were ready to rest for a bit!
November 18th, 2013: During our stop in Rapid City, South Dakota, we visited Mount Rushmore!
November 19th, 2013: After eating breakfast at Tally's Silver Spoon (for the second time, because it was THAT good), we started our drive to Butte, Montana! If you've ever driven across this part of the country, you know that there is a whole lot of NOTHING! Although it got a little old seeing the same scenery for hours on end, we still had a good time enjoying one another company. That afternoon, we drove through Wyoming and ended up spontaneously stopping at the Devil's Tower and hiking the 2.1 Mile trail! It was so great stretching our legs and getting some fresh air while enjoying the beautiful scenery! Em loved it too.
November 20th, 2013: At 9:30 AM, we left Butte, Montana and with our next destination being Seattle, Washington! At this point in our trip we had driven 2500 miles. We drove through the Rocky Mountains and through Idaho, and finally reached our destination at around 6PM!
Somewhere along the way we found this nice pull off where there was a trail leading to this overlook!
November 21st, 2013: After a good night's rest, we had one full day to just explore Seattle! There were two DDD restaurants we wanted to hit, so that morning we went to Voulas Offshore Cafe.
For dinner, we headed to the other DDD restaurant which was called Bizzarro Italian Cafe.
November 22, 2013: Friday morning, we found out some exciting news! First, I will say that I was NEVER a person that could sleep in the car. A few days into the trip I was just passed out while my husband drove and it was the weirdest thing! Well On that Friday morning I took 4 pregnancy tests, and they were all positive! I was extremely surprised because we had been trying for about 6 months and it just hadn't happened! That afternoon we had to board our Ferry to Alaska and we knew we wouldn't have good reception, so we called all of our family members and told them the amazing news.
We then made our way to Bellingham, Washington where we would get on the Alaskan Ferry which would take us to Haines, Alaska.
*This pregnancy was my first one which ended in a miscarriage. Our faith in our amazing and loving God got us through. He had a plan for us*
We were on the Ferry from the 22nd to the 25th (3 nights). The Ferry was definitely an experience. We had our own little cabin with a bunkbed and bathroom. It was pretty boring, but we entertained ourselves with cards, slept a lot, and enjoyed the scenery from the observation deck.
On Sunday (November 24th) we had two stops! The first one was Ketchikan, AK where we were able to eat breakfast. The second stop was at Wrangell, AK.
November 25, 2013: We woke up pretty early and stopped in Juneau, AK on Monday. The next stop was our stop, Haines, AK. When we got off of the Ferry it was VERY snowy and cloudy, which was a little scary. Most people that got off of the Ferry with us were stopping at Haines Junction which was only a few hours away, but we had decided to head all the way to Tok, AK which was about 6 hours.
The road was only one lane each direction so it was slow going with the weather and following other cars. About an hour into the drive we went through the Canadian border which took almost two hours. We stopped to eat in Haines Junction and finally arrived in Tok around 10PM. Another thing to keep in mind is that in November, there is barely any sunlight in Alaska, the day doesn't last very long and it was pretty much dark our entire drive!
Finally on November 26th, 2013, we arrived at Eielson AFB! We were so glad to be at our new home and excited to start our adventure of living in Alaska. We had an amazing journey and are so blessed to have had the opportunity to drive across the country together, experiencing things we never thought we would have!
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