Day 15 of the Great Adventure: Tok to Eagle River

This was it, our final day.  We would finally make it to Anchorage (well, Eagle River, same municipality) and begin this new chapter in our lives we had been anticipating since February.  It would finally be real, because to this point it still felt like a vacation rather than a move.  But before I go on, I must make a confession about the brevity of the post.  Randi and I were unimpressed with Alaska.  There, I said it.  British Columbia and the Yukon had been so truly beautiful and grand that Alaska just didn't measure up on day one.  The drive to Tok was actually kind of ugly.  It was basically a lot of 'evergreen swampland' and not the grand views and sights we expected.  What we failed to realize was that we would begin to see those sights on this part of the drive and everyday since arriving at our new home, but we were kind of jaded and really didn't take many pictures of this day's drive.  With that said, this part of the drive was really pretty, we saw a giant bull moose along the way (no pictures), and the beauty of the state really began to unfold.  We just didn't take very many pictures of it for whatever reason - honestly, most of it would not have photographed well from the car and we didn't feel like stopping much, we just wanted to get to our house and clean our the cesspool of a car we were riding in.

So, with consciences clean, we embark on our final day.  

Last day, Brutus.  Let's do this.

First, we shall fill up.  See?  Much cheaper than Canada, still pricey, but easy to swallow after that past few days.  Also, what is that option in the middle??  88.5?  I couldn't help but snap a picture, I had never seen such shenanigans at a gas pump.  We opted for 87.

Not sure what was happening here, but ay-ay, Robby.

Our first view south, things are looking up.  Still 55 MPH speed limit though : (

 This picture and most of the rest in this post are our poor attempts to photograph Mount Sanford.  From Wikipedia - Mount Sanford is a shield volcano in the Wrangell Volcanic Field, in eastern Alaska near the Copper River. It is the third highest volcano in the United States behind Mount Bona and Mount Blackburn. - Pretty cool, huh?  Anyway, as one might expect, our pictures turned out poorly.  Enjoy!

This is the Matanuska River - The Matanuska River is a river, approximately 75 miles long, in Southcentral Alaska. It drains a broad valley south of the Alaska Range known as the Matanuska Valley - We took some pictures of it as well.

 While the drive was pretty, it was slow going, windy, and on narrow roads with some large drop-offs to the side.  This pretty well did away with my "I'm not texting I'm taking pictures of things" method of photography and Randi was trying to pacify the children who, we believe, had had enough of being in the car.  We finally made it to Palmer, about 35 minutes North of our destination, changed some diapers and grabbed drive through food (Robby had not yet figured out there are not "Chicken Lays" (Chick fil a) up here and was asking for some *tear*) and jumped right back on the road.  We wanted to enjoy the beauty of the rivers and mountains more, but at this point, we just wanted to get there.  We figured we'd have three years to enjoy our surroundings.

 I apologize if this is anti-climactic, but other than the joy/relief of finally arriving at our new house (rental - if you're wondering) it WAS kind of anti-climactic.  Still, we were so happy to have made it.  The boys immediately loved that it had stairs and that there was a play room for their toys to be strewn across.  We unloaded our stuff, gave Brutus a rinse at a car wash, made a run to Target, and settled in for the night.  Since that moment, this house has felt like HOME.  We love it here and would make the decision to come here a million times over if we could.  We both hope to have many many posts over the next three years of our adventures around the state.  We plan to see the sights: Denali, the Arctic Circle, the Northern Lights, etc.  And we will keep you updated on all of it.  I (Tim) plan to catch some fish (for Randi to eat, of course) and hopefully shoot something tasty, so hopefully there will be family-friendly photos of all of that as well.

Thank you for reading, please lob your comments and questions to us so we can share the details we probably didn't think to post originally.  We are home.