The end and the beginning...

We made it home safely to Anchorage! I got very choked up as we crossed the Alaska-Canadian border for so may reasons (not excluding fatigue). But now the fun has just begun. It's been 5 days and we stayed at our friend Christine and Cindy's place for a few nights and are now settling into our new temporary condo (Thanks Christine). We have a lot of work and a lot more fun ahead of us as we transition into Anchorage. It will be odd not to take daily pictures of everything. And I'm kind of used to writing the blog, so it may just keep going and going...especially while I still have some free time. I'm already looking at spaces for my own dental practice, but trying to not to be too stressed about it.

Actually I have more pictures I'd like to share once I get some motivation. Thanks to everyone who has been following faithfully. There will be more to come.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day. We love you all.

Wayne hits 43 in the Canadian Rockies!

This is the last leg of our trip, and the drive through Canada has been an incredible experience. Wayne has been driving since Edmonton, because I am too chicken. I keep taking pictures of the "views" which never seem to be any good compared to the real thing. And it has really been a lot fun with the kids, playing games, listening to Joe sing in the van, eating at small mom and pop restaurants, staying at odd hotels, Tyler spotting all kinds of wildlife on the ride. We really did see almost everything from a snowy owl, to mountain goats, buffalo, elk, a fox, lots of moose, and caribou, and most of them just on the roadside.













Also, we celebrated Wayne's birthday although it wasn't quite as festive as Tyler's in LA. We ate at a restaurant with really bad service, and spent the night in Haines Junction, a town that had no open grocery after 5:00 pm, so he got no candles or cake. Tyler made him a very nice card though.

Liard River Hot Springs

Waaaayyy north in British Columbia we stopped at an amazing place, the Liard Hot Springs. What a relaxing detour on our long journey through Canada. I can't describe how beautiful this place is, and how fortunate I feel to have been here in the middle of winter.

The WestEdMall

We spent a day and two nights in Edmonton in Alberta. No trip to Edmonton would have been complete without a visit to the West Edmonton Mall. That makes two big malls that we have visited in the past week which is pushing it for Wayne. However, we weren't really shopping and managed to spend 7 hours there. The West Ed Mall is THE largest in North America, and used to be the largest in the world until recently. This mall has everything including two hotels, a huge waterpark, an indoor amusement park, sea lions, a hockey sized skating rink, a miniature golf course, and (no kidding) a life size, to scale replica of Christopher Columbus' Santa Maria. Whew!

Canadian Mint

We spent last night in Winnipeg in Manitoba and checked out the Royal Canadian Mint today, where they make all the circulating coins for Canada, as well as other countries as well. It was pretty cool, although they wouldn't let us take photos. We did get to hold a $400,000 gold bar (very heavy!) and took these cute pics of the boys!

Minneapolis, MN

We spent three nights in Minneapolis with Wayne's boyhood friend (since he was 5 years old!), Rich Ragatz and his daughter Joci. Joci is easily Tyler's new love as she is into bugs and wrestling as much as he is. Of course, we had to go to the Mall of America, which was really quite a spectacle. We spent a good part of one day at the Nickelodeon Amusement Park in the center of the mall, and never actually went shopping. Tyler and Joe rode roller coasters and a log ride and met Sponge Bob, and Lenny and Ming Ming, two of the Wonder Pets. We watched the Super Bowl (Hooray Steelers!), and we are headed to Canada.