Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City

Thursday, Jan. 29 while Paul and I were in Salt Lake City we went to Temple Square to see the Mormon Tabernacle. We entered through the North Gate and made our way to the North Visitors building where guides [two young female missionaries – one from Hong Kong and one from Washington State] took us on a quick tour outlining the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The story was told using large murals and statues as we walked from station to station. From there we went to the South Gate Visitor building which is dedicated to family and also has a display showing the history of the building of the tabernacle. Our last stop was the Tabernacle Choir building. We had to leave then to get to Clark’s Planetarium which has a domed IMAX screen. The 5:30 feature was World of The Universe, lots of flashing lights and loud surround sound. Pretty awesome!! We ate at The Gateway Mall Food Court before returning to the Tabernacle to listen to the practice session of the Mormon Choir Tabernacle. We were early and waited in the South Visitors building. We did a quick search for our ancestors on the computers. I printed out the info on Grammie and Grandad Wile. Paul found oodles of info on his family. Other groups were wandering around – among them was Martin Luther King Junior!!!!! At 8 o’clock we hurried over to the rehearsal.
His group came into the temple and down the aisle just as a guide was taking our picture. We had to step aside to let them through. He was introduced to the audience during the choir practice. That’s when we learned who this VIP was.
The choir was magnificent. I took a few videos so we will be able to hear and see the practice.
Today we left SLC @ 10:30 and drove to Red Ledge RV Park in Kanarraville, UT. The freeway was really crazy when we started but thinned out after we left the city behind. The highway follows a wide valley plain with mountains to the left and right all the way down. This area is very high above sea level[@7000 feet] and must be very dry in summer as both sides of the road were covered with sagebrush and scrubby little pine trees. The only other trees were near streams and creeks. The farmland had huge irrigation systems on wheels – some were unbelievably long, stretching in straight lines and sometimes gargantuan circles over the grain fields. Black Angus cattle dotted the grassland along with an occasional sheep herd. We saw a couple herds of deer near Cedar Rapids. Paul is really good at spotting them. I would miss them completely as their color blends right into the landscape.

January 27, 2009-01-27

A wonderful four days and nights again with Stephen and Jaime in Calgary after making the full circle from Calgary – Ft. Liard – Whitehorse --Skagway – Vancouver – Surrey and back to Calgary! We had planned to head out from Calgary on Saturday with the Fun Finder RV, however some issues with the trailer plug, brake controller and wiring had to be resolved so our start was delayed until Sunday morning.
Beautiful weather and bare roads all the way to Great Falls, Montana where we found Rick’s RV Park for our first sleep in the RV! Paul is very pleased with the way the RV tows behind the Dakota. The confidence level increased as the day wore on with some very sensitive adjustment to the brake controller and Faye finally relaxed and enjoyed taking pictures of the Montana scenery!
The furnace didn’t quite keep up with the -21 C. but we survived. We need to get into non freezing temperatures before filling up with water, so electricity is the only luxury!
Paul forgot to unplug the trailer electrical plug from the truck causing a feedback into the truck computer from the park power. This caused the engine light to come on resulting in a four hour delay Monday morning getting the problem diagnosed at a Dodge dealer and fixed. UNPLUG THE TRAILER BEFORE HOOKING INTO OUTSIDE POWER!
Amazing country vistas in Montana through miles and miles of prairie with thousands of beef cattle winter grazing, all of them Black Angus.
On Monday we were determined to reach Pocatello, Idaho. This drive took us through the Blackfoot Mountains and the Chesterfield Range on a beautiful cold sunny day. Fantastic views with the occasional glimpse of elk, deer, eagles, hawks and huge ravens intermixed with numerous herds of Black Angus and sheep.
We finally settled into Sullivan’s RV Park in Pocatello, a very small setup but economical at $16.00. Our second night was more comfortable due to a more moderate outside temperature. We are looking forward to our next destination in Salt Lake City to have a look around the sights there.

Later…..

Terrace-Nanaimo-Surrey-Calgary

In Terrace we had a great four day visit with Jeanine (niece), Greg, Nolan and Damian. Their large, lovely home is on the shores of the Kalum River. During our stay Greg did up a very tasty Skeena River salmon on the barbeque. Jeannine took time out of her busy schedule to guide us on a tour up the Nass River Valley to the lava fields and the Nisga nation village of New Alyansh. Faye was impressed with the totems and was brave enough to walk with Paul across the swinging bridge.
Paul managed to visit the local Legion and a couple tackle shops in Terrace where he picked up some local steelhead salmon flies to try out on Souris River next spring.
The drive thru the Skeena River Valley from Terrace to Prince Rupert on Friday morning was totally awe inspiring as the sun finally showed its face after a week’s absence! The scenery on the drive through the mountain ranges was “wow”!!
The ferry MV “Queen of Prince Rupert” departed from Prince Rupert at 4:30 taking the spectacular inside passage to Port Hardy arriving at 4 pm on Saturday so we caught some good mountain views while sailing through the Grenville channel which is about 1400 ft. wide and very deep. We had a berth and so had a good nights sleep and spent all day sitting at the bow windows looking out at the magnificent scenery. We met and talked to a number of people who have been to PEI and loved it. The father of one girl was from North Rustico and now practices law in Prince Rupert. Sharon and Peter were both in education and Faye enjoyed her conversations with them. Paul Toth is an outfitter. His business is called “Something Fishy Charters”. www.somethingfishycharters.ca
He is a great talker describing some of the fish he guarantees - king salmon, halibut, and steelheads! He also explained much of what we were seeing as we sailed along. Terrific to get the local knowledge!
Upon reaching Port Hardy we drove thru clear weather as far as the Rustic Motel in Campbell River where a thick fog had set in. On Sunday morning we had another spectacular drive down to Nanaimo to catch the ferry to the Vancouver mainland. The truck GPS steered us under sunny skies and past green fields to Carl & Kim’s place in Surrey where we enjoyed visiting with them, their son Justin and another visiting nephew, Craig. Carl treated everyone to terrific beef tenderloins from the barbeque for dinner. Blair Deveau dropped in too. We had a great evening with them in their beautiful home.
We headed out from Surrey towards Calgary on Monday through the beautiful Fraser River Valley and up through the mountain ranges passing Hope, Kamloops, Salmon Arm as far as Revelstoke where we had a delicious meal (maple glazed salmon for Faye and Buffalo burger for Paul) at the Great Northern Bean pub. There we discovered Revelstoke Ski Resort and Tuesday morning took the opportunity to take the Gondola up to the upper restaurant for breakfast and then up further above the fog into sunshine and +4 temp and a view from 4700 ft. This ski resort opened in 2008, a massive project still underway with costs reaching one billion which includes a buyout of a heli ski company! (Confederation Bridge was one billion!)
From Revelstoke we drove through Golden and Lake Louise and on to Calgary. Faye took pictures at every turn in the highway.
We were so happy and relieved to have had mostly clear highways the entire trip from the time we left Calgary to our return. The trip of a lifetime!!!
We arrived in time at 6:00 pm to go to a birthday dinner at the Flatiron Restaurant honouring Jaime’s brother Ryan. What a great way to end our day and this leg of our trip.

Later……

Terrace, BC Legion Visit

Dropped into Terrace Legion today! Very well appointed Legion with all the amenities one would expect. Some very friendly opinionated locals and received good advice on fishing options for another time when we will definitely visit again.

Later.....

New Aiyansh and Gingoix

Wednesday, January 14th, our friendly tour guide Jeannine Knox (niece) took us to two First Nations Villages, New Aiyansh capital of the Nisga;s Nation and Home of the Gitmidiik famous for their smoked salmon and to Gingoix, another village. These places are located approximately 100 km northwest of Terrace. We drove through miles of lava fields that resulted from an eruption about 200 years ago causing much loss of lives. Totems are in evidence depicting stories of myths and legends of native lore.
We glimpsed bits of mountain ranges, rivers and lakes through the fog and mist burnt through on occasion by the sun.
For a late evening snack we sampled Skeena River smoked salmon and some Alaskan King Crab. The salmon is packaged as a promotion and fund raiser by the Skeena Wild Conservation Trust. Check it out at www.skeenawild.org. Greg Knox (married to Jeannine) is the Executive Director of this trust which is primarily funded by the Moore family who are owners of Intel headquartered in the US. The Skeena River is the second largest salmon producing watershed in BC second only to the Fraser River. The watershed produces all pacific species of salmon, Coho, Chinook, King, and Sockeye along with various species of trout. The Skeena remains un dammed and open to public access. It yields large fish to those who angle. But there are constant challenges facing the various environmental organizations including First Nations Peoples who work diligently to keep the watershed pristine, the current one being an attempt by a large oil consortium to build a pipeline alongside the river to transport Alberta tar sands oil to the coast. There is a moratorium on this type of development locally but the consortium has earmarked 100 million in its campaign to convince the decision makers and public to approve the development.

Later....

Skagway to Prince Rupert - Inside Passage

Friday, January 9th, waiting all day in Skagway. We went for supper at the Skagway Brewing Co. restaurant. They make their own brand of beer and the friendly waiter/bar tender was happy to regale stories about Skagway..
The MV Ferry Taku departed from Sdagway at 0100 hrs Saturday, Jan.10th. We were assigned an outside berth with upper and lower bunks. The ship was built in 1963 in Seattle, Washington. It is well appointed with gift shops, observation lounge, cafeteria, and bar. We toured the ship before going to bed to get oriented with the layout.
The inside passage from Skagway to Haines loomed through a vague moonlit mountainous landscape as seen from the observation deck. The channel cutting between two low mountain ranges seemed to be only ¼ mile wide! It’s hard to imagine large cruise ships navigating through this narrow channel.
The odd foot passenger spread out sleeping mats on the floor of the observation deck which was kept in semi darkness.
The top bunk had Paul’s name on it and he had a sense of déjà vu bringing back childhood memories. We both slept through docking in Haines as we tied up in Juneau at 0600 hrs.with Haines situated between Skagway and Juneau.
The ferry passage from Juneau, capital of Alaska, to Kate took all day providing panoramic views all along the way. The crew were put through boat and fire drills when we were reading in the cafeteria lounge. We spent part of the afternoon in the bar lounge chatting. The lady bar tender sold Faye a book called Sourdough School wriiten by her grandmother, a chronicle of her teaching experience in Alaska.
After Kate the next port of call was Petersburg arriving sometime in middle of the night after which was the port of Wrangell. From Wrangell the sail was through the Wrangell channel, a long twisting passageway which eventually opens up to a body of water taking us to Ketchikan where we had to disembark ashore and wait twelve hours to board the M/V Kennicott to Prince Rupert arriving there at 0700 hrs on Monday morning.
Ketchikan, a port town, has an impressive amount of recreation and fishing boats located up and down the waterfront. There are lots of amenities throughout the town. We had time to explore driving both ways up and down the coast. The Cultural Centre is a museum depicting the Haida, Tlingat, and Tsimshian First Nations. It was very interesting. Faye thought Paul had an uncanny resemblance to a picture of an elder!
In Prince Rupert we dropped in to visit with nephew Gary McQuaid and his two girls, Hyla and Araya who took immediately to Faye. After showers and much needed laundry, we all had lunch at a wonderful dockside restaurant, then took the two hour drive, along the famous Skeena River, up to Terrace to visit with neice Jeannine, Greg and sons Nolan and Damian.
Later......

Skagway, Alaska

Good decision to leave Whitehorse a day early as the White Pass is closed today due to severe storm conditions and an avalanche somewhere on the Skagway side of Carcross. Apparently some truckers are stranded on the other side and running low on fuel!
Today we took a tour of Skagway which has a winter resident population of 700 souls. In summer the population soars to 2000 residents not including the huge numbers of tourists. The town buildings are still "old town" store fronts. Skagway is one of 16 top cruise ship destinations in the world so a large number of shops are gold jewelers and fur dealers. The liquor store had a very friendly lady clerk who was very informative and helpful. Faye wanted something for the ferry trip so Paul picked up a taste too!
The boat harbor includes a marina with boats still in the water but there were also a lot of boats hauled out. We definitely were the only tourists in town and looking forward to leaving on the ferry MV Taku due to depart at 12:45 am on Saturday. The host at our B&B are allowing us to check out just prior to leaving later tonight.
Time to go get a bite at the Skagway Brewing Co. restaurant downtown... hope we don't get lost along the way!

Later....

Through the White Pass

Sudden departure from Whitehorse today... quick decision to drive to Skagway this afternoon instead of Friday due to severe storm warning due to start 6 am Friday morning. We need to catch the ferry in Skagway at 12:45 am Saturday. It was hard to leave saying goodbye on the telephone as we had planned a goodbye dinner this evening with Jeanette, Jamie and Kaden.
The drive through the White Pass to Skagway was uneventful with Faye snapping pictures of the rugged mountain scenery. Weather was light flurries and really cold as the windshield would not completely clear.
We cleared through US customs ok even allowed to take a 6 pack Yukon beer Paul wants to deliver to Stephen in Calgary.
Skagway does not offer very much in way of lodging this time of year however we managed to get a B&B in a quaint old place called "The White House". They said we could stay tomorrow evening until check in time for the ferry at 11:45 pm. We then went for supper at the only place open called The Skayway Brewing Company, another landmark here.
Looking forward to boarding ferry and sailing down the inside passage towards Prince Rupert.

Later

Whitehorse Dinner with Brian & Nancy Pope

Paul spent a couple hours doing grunt work gathering fuel wood and burning brush while Faye was busy getting our stuff organized to pack for the next part of our journey.
Our friends from Tagish Lake, who Paul met when he was in Whitehorse to a CWF meeting back in the mid eighties, dropped in for a visit and treated us to dinner in Whitehorse. Brian was a former director of CWF with Paul at the time and they were meeting in Halifax and came over to Souris for a visit. Brian Brown took them out on his lobster boat out of Fortune. Brian Pope says the lobster fishing and eating on board Brian's boat was an experience he always fondly remembers and relishes to this day.
Brian is a retired sheriff for the Yukon and both he and Nancy are currently para medics for an ambulance service in Tagish.
Nancy's father, Willie May, was one of the RCMP Officers directly involved in the hunt for Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper of Rat River. Lots of stories in the Yukon!

Later....

Keeping in Shape and Watching Hockey

Paul spent the past two days felling, blocking fuel wood and burning brush in a desperate attempt to keep in shape and help out Jamie with his wood supply!
Faye and Paul watched the last two games Canada played in the World Junior Hockey Championships over at neighbors Doug and Sheila. They have a HD 52" flat screen so it was awesome to watch Canada win both games..very exciting! Doug and Sheila shared their adventure photos of a two month sojourn to Africa, India, and Thailand. Wonderful people.

Later....

Moose Tenderloin

Faye & I went to dinner at Grant's (close friend of Jamie) place in Carcross. We were joined by Lynn and a neighbor of Grant by name of Pete. Grant lives in a log home built himself 38 years ago. Really nice place overlooking a lake with mountains in full view when weather permits. Really neat place with all the comforts of home including outside privy!
The main dinner course was delicious moose tenderloin taken from a three year old bull shot last fall by Jamie when he and Grant went on their annual moose hunt. Unfortunately the bbq wouldn't work as the outside temperature was too cold at -38 C. so Grant cooked the loins on a cast iron railroad skillet over the wood range. We had a great meal and finished the evening with a game of cards.
We are rapidly approaching the end of our stay in Whitehorse before journeying to Haines, Alaska on Friday for the ferry down the inside passage to Prince Rupert.

Later.....

Whitehorse New Year's

Whitehorse New Year's Eve house party at home Rick and Janet, friends of Jamie and Jeanette. This was a family event with children involved.. fireworks display and lots of great food fortified with whatever you brought for refreshements!
Paul found the menfolk conversation interesting as it involved discussion related to caribou surveys, bear studies and subsequent entanglements, moose habitat, biologists and the internal politics of Yukon Natural Resources employees.
Faye was delighted in meeting new people......there was a couple belonging to First Nations and she was interested in hearing about their life here in the Yukon.
Unfortunately we didn't have our camera when we saw 3 caribou walking out of the woods situated adjacent to Robert Service Road coming out of Whitehorse. These animals were within Whitehorse city limits!!

New Year's Day dinner put together by Paul & Faye as we felt Jamie should have a well earned respite from cooking. The whole gang was here including Jamie's dad, mother Lynn, Grant and neighbors down the road. Dinner consisted of glazed ham, baked beans, Lynn's perogies, scalloped potatoes, carrots, turnip, asparagus, and Faye's blueberry grunt with ice cream for desert.

Today, January 2nd is a balmy -41 degrees C.!! Paul was concerned about antifreeze in truck but it checked out ok.

Later.....