Journey to Zion

It's official. We are back in Utah (or Zion as Brett likes to call it). We said a tearful goodbye last Tuesday afternoon, Aug 11 to the Jones family and started to float down the Alaska Marine Highway on the Taku vessel.We stopped at a few ports on our way down the channel but totaled 36 hours aboard the Taku. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 3:30 am to begin our drive home. We drove from Prince Rupert to Hope on Thursday, Aug 13, for a total of 16 hours of driving - that's straight driving, only stopped for gas. We also decided that on our journey home we would be camping instead of staying in hotels to cut down on the travel expenses. We purchased a 5'X6' kid tent while we were in Juneau so that we could save money and because we already have 2 nice tents at home in Utah and we didn't want to spend the money on yet another tent. So this is what we stayed in our journey home:

Needless to say: we were a little cramped on room/space for a few days.

The next day we drove across the boarder, down to Seattle, stopped in Seattle to check out Pike Market for about 2 hours and then made our way down the coast on the historic Pacific Coast Highway. We first saw the coast in Astoria but didn't get to physically touch the beach or the water until the next morning in Pacific City at Cape Kiwanda. This was the first time Brett had ever been/seen the open ocean. He was quite content watching the waves and the surfers - I think he would've stayed there all day had we had the time. We had fun playing in the water and the sand but continued our journey down the coast. We stopped in Newport at the aquarium and again just outside of Florence to see the light house. That night we stayed at a beautiful secluded lake outside of Sisters called Suttle Lake. Unfortunately, we got there after the sun had gone down and I forgot to take pictures the next morning. You'll just have to trust me that it was beautiful.

And the 5th day of our journey consisted of us drive 10 hours through the desert. This was by far the WORST part of the entire journey. There is absolutely nothing to look at or see and it's hot and miserable. From Brothers, Oregon to Tremonton, Utah there is nothing. Brett told me to stop acting like a kid because on this last leg of the trip I was asking if we were there yet about every 5 minutes and complaining because I was hot, tired, and my butt hurt so bad that I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. Some how we survived - barely.

We arrived home at about 8 pm on Sunday, Aug 16. We were greeted by most of Brett's family and my parents.

It was so fun to see our nieces and nephew all growing up so fast. It was great to be able to smell the fresh cut hay, the smell of the water sprinkling out of the pipe lines, see the farmer's kids in their mud boots out moving pipe, and a million other things that we were so excited to see/smell again. The smell of home will probably always call us back to the place that we love.

This trip was so much fun. We enjoyed our trip up to Alaska, definitely loved our time in Alaska, and thoroughly enjoyed our trek home. We were so thankful to be able to make the drive there and back with no problems and be able to enjoy a long road trip together. One thing is for sure - you sure do learn a lot about your spouse on a long road trip, good and bad. Luckily, ours was definitely for the better.

As always, here are some pictures from our journey:Ketchikan's Downtown District - a lot of the town is build on boardwalks

Brett enjoyed a Rueben while at Pike's Market

Famous Pike's Fish Market - a halibut flying through the air

The Lewis and Clark Bridge - Washington is in the distance and we're in Oregon

Brett's first reaction to seeing the open ocean for the very first time

Brett enthralled with the surf

If you ever have the opportunity to go on a road trip, we highly recommend making a giant loop, going up the Oregon Coast, up through BC, Bamff area, and down either through Montana, Nebraska, or Yellowstone. Every place we went was absolutely gorgeous. The most beautiful country that we had ever seen. We absolutely loved every minute of our trek and recommend it to anyone. As much as we loved being away from home, it is good to be back. We have started school and are slowly adjusting to the student lifestyle once again.