We spent six days in Anchorage where we stayed at an Airbnb.There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms. One bathroom had a bathtub with jets and the other had a cool light that turned blue and white. I loved having my own room!

In Anchorage we went shopping. We went to a lot of stores: we went to Costco, Three Bears and REI.There was so much cool stuff and food. We got a lot of stuff like eggs, bread and earth balance, a type of butter.

We did a long hike called the Coastal Trail. It was 11 miles long and paved. I was on my scooter and Ma and Pa walked on foot. We saw a lot of cool things like the mud flats and the airport. The trail ended up downtown where we took an Uber back to our truck.

Last but not least, Becca flew in to visit us for one month. We rented a van for her because there was not enough space in the camper. I am excited to hang out with Becca!

I loved being in Anchorage but now we are moving on to new adventures!

We went to Cordova, which is a fishing community on Prince William Sound. You cannot drive to get there because it is not connected to the road system. You can only get there by ferry or airplane.

We came on the Aurora ferry. I got to see the bridge, they even let me turn off auto pilot and drive the boat. I saw a lot of electronics in the bridge like the radar and anemometer. We also saw a pod of killer whales. It was super interesting and fun being on the bridge.

We explored the Cordova Harbor were we saw the fish processing plants. We saw all the fishing boats coming into the harbor and there were a lot. There was smoke billowing out of giant exhaust pipes and there was always the smell of fish assaulting our senses. The fish were lifted out of fishing boats by large bloody nets at the processing plant. The bloody nets had a quick release at the bottom. the fish were dumped from the bloody nets into tubs of ice and taken in for processing.

We went on three hikes. The first one was the Sheridan Lake Trail where we saw icebergs and the glacier. The next hike was the Haystack Trail where I picked blueberries as we hiked. Our last hike was the Saddlebag Glacier Trail where we hiked to a beautiful lake. We saw a lot of bear scat on the trail so we sang to not surprise a bear.

We camped in the Copper River Delta.There was a old washed out bridge at mile 36 and that was the end of the road.

After we arrived in Tuktoyaktuk the first thing we did was wade into the Arctic Ocean. The water was warmer than I expected. It was like our backyard pool on cold days.

Next we walked around town and found a playground. I had a lot of fun playing tag and other games with some kids. There were a lot of things to climb on like a rope ladder. There was also a big swing set and a slide.

The next day it was Canada Parks Day. We joined the celebration at the Pingo Landmark. A pingo is a big mound of earth and ice. A pingo is formed when a lake mostly dries up but there is a disk of water left behind that freezes the lake bed and expands, pushing up the earth making a hump in the ground. This is the starting of a pingo. It keeps growing until the unfrozen ground turns to permafrost and the pingo has a core of pure ice.

As part of the Parks Day celebration we got to take a boat across an estuary of the Arctic Ocean to see Ibyuk, Canada’s tallest pingo and the second tallest pingo in the world. Wow!

At our first stop on the Dempster Highway, on our way to the Arctic Ocean, we went on a very long and tiring hike. After a hot and long journey we finally found … snow?

Yes, there was snow when it was eighty degrees! We raced out in the snow and ate it, threw it, and put it down our shirts. I loved playing in the snow and getting refreshed!

We spent six days in Skagway, Alaska. We arrived on July fourth and went to the Independence Day Parade where the participants threw candy. In the parade there was a fire truck, a bus full of dogs, bag pipers and floats in all different shapes and sizes!

After the parade we played some old fashioned games from the 1800s like Graces and Cup-and-ball! Later in the day we went to the Rubber Duck Derby. One thousand numbered rubber ducks were released into a river. The first one to cross the finish line was the winner. If the person’s ticket was the same number as on the duck they would win. We didn’t win but we did get to keep a rubber duck and we named him Quackers.

We spent time wandering around town. We walked to the Gold Rush Cemetery and Reid Falls. We also got popcorn from a popcorn shop that had wacky flavors.

We learned about the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1898 gold flakes were found near the Klondike River. People who heard about the gold came from all over the world to seek their fortune. They had to hike over Chilkoot Pass from Skagway and from there take the Yukon River to Dawson City. It was a treacherous journey and many people died but about thirty thousand people made it to Dawson City to search for gold. Most of them only found little flakes of gold, not what they were hoping for.

We went on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad. The train was originally built to take people and supplies from Skagway to Whitehorse where they took a riverboat to Dawson City to work the gold claims.

We hiked on the Dewey Lake Trail. I got to ride a kayak and a canoe that were left at the lake by the community. I went swimming in the lake and got bit by horseflies but they weren’t too bad.

I loved staying in Skagway, but now we are moving on to new adventures. We are heading to Canada and the Arctic Ocean!