Alaska Trip - 2007 - Week 1

Main Street of Augusta, Wisconsin - there is no rush hour here	Dispaly of Bonnets and dresses at the Mennonite store - "Weavers"	Farm in Wisconsin	The Ladies planning their Mall of America adventure	Inside the MOA
Ken studying the map of the MOA	Lego Store Dinosaur	Which one is the Lego Man	The beginning of the endless IPhone line	Roller Coaster in the Mall of America

Day 4  - June 30 - Minneapolis, MN to Winnipeg, MB, CA - 470 Miles driven

Todays road assault led us from Minneapolis to Winnipeg, Manitoba via I-94 to Fargo,ND and then I-29 north to the Canadian border and then up Route 75 to Winnipeg. The driving portion of the trip was in excess of 7 hours. We arrived in Moorehead,MN at around 11 AM where we visited the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center to learn about the story of the 76 foot Viking ship built in North Dakota and its journey to Norway. We also visited a full scale replica of an existing Norwegian Stave Church that was built here in Moorehead. We had gotten a glimpse of the Viking center when we passed thru Fargo in 2002 but couldn't learn more as the center was closing for the day when we arrived back then. This was our opportunity to see the whole thing and I wasn't going to let it pass us by.

The Viking ship was the dream of Robert Asp who started building the ship in an empty potato warehouse during the summer months when he was free from his duties as a high school guidance counselor. Starting in 1972, the ship was completed in 1980. The ship was launched in Lake Superior and test sailed by Robert Asp but sadly leukemia took Mr. Asp before he could realize the full dream of sailing the ship to Bergen, Norway. The Asp children took over the project and with the help of some Norwegian seamen, the ships mast, rudder and sails were re-done in preparation for the sail. In the spring of 1982 the journey started with a sail to New York City via Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Erie Canal and the Hudson River. From NYC the vessel named Hjemkomst (the Homecomming) ran into a tropical storm which almost ended in disaster but thanks to burlap bags as substitute caulking and a strong determination, the ship arrived in Bergen, Norway on July 19, 1982. The ship was returned to Moorehead/Fargo via a freighter and trucked to its location in the Heritage center.  We watched a 30 minute film on the ships birth and voyage and were impressed how much an ordinary individual could accomplish by not understanding the term - that can't be done. This is a true heroic tale.

The stave church is on the grounds of the Heritage Center in Moorehead, MN and was a gift to the center by Guy Paulson and his wife Beva and her sister DeMaris Mathison. The church is a full scale replica of the Hopperstad Stave church in Norway which was built between 1130 and 1180. This one was started in 1997 and dedicated in 1998. At one time there were between 1000 to 1500 stave churches in Norway but today less than 30 remain  - mostly as tourist attractions. When we saw this church in 2002 there was a wedding rehearsal going. The second time around in 2007 there is a wedding scheduled for later this afternoon.

After this detour from the grind of driving we headed on up to Manitoba. We passed thru Canadian Customs/Immigration without any problems (we didn't expect any). It was a nice day on the road.

The Heritage Hjemkomst center from the front	Wooden carving in the Heritage center	The Viking ship	Sail of the Viking Ship	Rudder of the Viking Ship
The Viking Ship	The Heritage Center from the rear	Interior of the Stave Church	The Stave Church	The Meaning of UFF DA

 Day 5 - July 01 -  Winnipeg, MB, CA to Saskatoon, SK, CA  540 miles driven

We woke up this morning to find out it was Canada Day. Canada's official birthday like July 4 is for us Yankees to the south. Happy Birthday Canada!! Our goal today was to reach Saskatoon, Saskatchewan which was in excess of 500 miles from Winnipeg via CA 1 to Regina and Route 11 from Regina to Saskatoon. There was another route CA 16 which was labeled the scenic route or Yellowhead Highway which was shorter by about 30 miles but estimated to be an hour longer. Ken said that he had selected the route we took because the scenic road is one lane in each direction as opposed to the divided highway we were taking. We started out taking a short drive through the center of Winnipeg and then getting on the way. By the way, Winnipeg got its name from the children's book character Winnie the Pooh. So it says in the information book at the Comfort Inn. For the first two hours we had intermittent rain but by noon time the clouds cleared and we had brilliant sunshine for the rest of the day. Another gorgeous day. Looking at the attractions in the tourist books we found out that at least in Manitoba most of the tourist attractions like museums were closed on Sundays so driving the car was going to be it. We passed through miles and miles of farmland and saw acre after acre of the Canola plants which generate Canola Oil. The plant was in fool bloom and for miles on end you saw the bright yellow fields. We also saw some barley and oats and of course beef cattle. In one field we saw what appeared to be mule deer wading in a pond. They definitely were not cattle and they were bigger than the deer we see back home.

Coming into Regina I found that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Heritage center was open so we made a stop there. We found that the museum was open but that the grounds of the academy would not be open until the evening for the Sunset Retreat Ceremony which includes a firing of the cannon, troop drill display, military music and the March Past of the RCMP in their traditional scarlet tunic. As it was 3:00 PM and the ceremony would not start until 6:30 PM it was a no go for us. We settled for walking through the lobby of the museum and visiting the gift shop and then continuing on to Saskatoon which was still more than 2 hours away. We arrived at the motel in Saskatoon at 6:00PM. A road weary bunch.

Mural on a building in Winnipeg	Except for Regina there was about 500 miles of this	Grain Elevators along the route were plentiful	The yellow Canola fields stretched for miles on end	RCMP Chapel in Regina
In the lobby of the RCMP Heritage Center	Mural at the RCMP Heriatage Center	Coffe and Cup display at a rest stop below Saskatoon	Fiddler and wagon at the same rest stop	Fiddler statutue at the rest stop below Saskatoon

Day 6 - July 02 - Saskatoon, SK to Edmonton, AB 360 miles driven

We started out to Edmonton on the Yellowhead Highway, Canada route 16. Along the way we made several interesting sightseeing stops.  While driving my cell phone went off and I had trouble retrieving the voicemail message. We pulled into a rest area which gave me an opportunity to learn the workings of my new cell phone and everybody else the opportunity to take care of natures business and look at the statues in the rest area. It turns out my doctor is interested in changing my blood pressure medication and we will have to work that out in Edmonton tomorrow. For our first official stop Jeanne had suggested the "worlds largest" sundial which was in a park in Lloydminster, AB. The park was beautiful but the sundial was nothing to get exited about. It was a large yellow pipe sitting at an angle surrounded by a circle of wooden posts to mark the hours. It really wasn't camera worthy. The next stop was the town of Vermillion which was a lunch stop. Our food committee Jeanne and Mom selected the Pizza Hut which was joined with a KFC. Strangely everybody ordered KFC over the Pizza Hut even though Pizza Hut was the call. from Vermillion we visited the town of Vegreville which is the home of the "worlds largest" Ukrainian Painted Easter Egg. It is in a park in the center of town and was erected there to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Ukrainian settlements in the Vegreville area.It is dedicated to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who protected and aided the Ukrainian settlers.  It is an ingenious structure in that the egg is a weather vane which swings on a pivot at the beckoning of the winds. Our next "worlds largest" item to be visited was in the town of Mundare which held the worlds largest Kielbasa Sausage display. It was the dream of the founder of Stawnichys Meat Processing plant which is still in business in the town. Next to the sausage is a beautifully painted statue of a buffalo to commemorate the re-introduction of the bison in Alberta.

From Mundare we visited the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. The village is a living museum dedicated to the maintenance of the Ukrainian Culture. The village is made up of various buildings which have been moved fo the site. The buildings are staffed by living historians who live the lives of the people they depict. The time period they were portraying was the very late 1920's. The staff would talk as if you were a visitor to their time and it was not possible to get them out of character too easily. When I used my digital camera they couldn't understand what it was. They said I could go down to see the constable who had a camera that would take my picture. They knew nothing of the thing I had in my hand. One of the most beautiful buildings on the site was the St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church. It has been moved from Vegreville and is still used for services by the Ukrainian community. Other buildings of interest were the hotel where rooms were $1.00 per night, the Grain elevator, blacksmith shop,  and the constables house with the portable jail cell. This was a very interesting site and if I lived in the area I would re-visit it again and again. Unfortunately we only had a few hours and we rushed as it was.

Our last stop for the day was the Elk Island National Park which is the only National Park in Canada that is fenced in. It is supposed to be a animal viewing park with buffalo, moose, elk, beavers, and coyotes as those one might see. Of the above we only saw a coyote run across the road in front of us and that at a distance. It was a nice ride though. I must say that Jeanne Stutt did an excellent selection for today's activities. On top of that the weather co-operated and gave us some of the most spectacular views of the clouds that we had ever seen.

Mountie Statue at the rest area north of Saskatoon	Buffalo Statue at rest area - it is made entirely of barbed wire.	The workds largest Ukrainian Painted Easter Egg in Vegreville	Worlds Largest Kielbasa in Mundara	Which one is the Kielbasa
Painted Buffalo sculpture dedicated to the return of the bison	The sky was unbelievable	Grain Elevator in the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village	St. Vladimir;'s Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church at the Heritage Village	Celing Painting in St.Vladimir's Church
St. Vladimir;'s Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church at the Heritage Village	View of the Hotel at the Cultural Heritage Village	The girl in charge of the hotel	Blacksmith at the Cultural Heritage Village	Mural at the Cultural Heritage Village

Day 7 - July 3 - Edmonton, AB,CA - 0 miles driven

After pounding long driving days for the previous six days we took a day off from the road and other intellectual pursuits by vegging out at the Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in the Americas if not the world. Our largest, biggest quest continued. The scale of this mall compared to the Mall of America is overwhelming. While the MOA has 500 stores, this mall has 800.  This mall has a full size hockey rink, a huge wave pool with attached water park, a deep sea adventure, a casino and a humungous amusement ride area with  huge roller coasters and other crazy rides. Interspersed in the mall area are various bronze statues and fountains. Its is definitely a tourist attraction. One thing that we noticed was that the mall was quite busy and all the amusement areas seemed to be well in use.

In between Jeanne and Mom shopping in the various stores we watched 10 year olds preparing for a hockey tournament on the rink. They looked like they had been skating from birth. They probably learned to skate before they walked. We also went to visit all the large attractions like the pool and amusement ride area and deep sea adventure where at 12:00 noon they put on a performing seal show.  

When we entered the mall I asked the man at the information desk where the casino was. He told me where it was and also informed me that the employees had been on strike since September 2006 and that I should be ready to be verbally abused if I were going to enter. Little did I know that he was right. Some time later I wandered to the casino with the intent of donating $20.00. Getting close to the door I was immediately approached by one of the pickets and asked to be humane and not spent any money in the casino. Not wanting to argue with him I just passed on in. Within minutes of dropping in my $20 in the slot machine I had parleyed it into $100. I wasn't in the casino more than 5 minutes and I was $80 ahead. I cashed in my money and passed out the same door and told the same guy that I took $100 out of the casino. His immediate reply was that I had to spend money to win money and that I should be ashamed of myself. I continued on and he shouted after me wishing that I should choke on my winnings. Nice folks. Later in a store a clerk told me that she had heard one of the pickets telling a lady that she should go home and die rather than going into the casino.

We returned to the mall for dinner at the Bourbon Street area and had a delicious meal in Jungle Jims.

Oil Field Worker Bronze	10 year olds practicing for the tournament	Outside the Bourbon Street area in the mall	Bourbon Street area of the mall
Flamingo at he sea adventure area	Replica of the Santa Maria at the sea adventure area	EuroStores area - store fronts simulating European buildings	Seal getting ready to perform
Bungee jumpers - $10 for 5 minutes	Wave Pool - it was huge	Water slides in the wave pool area	Roller Coaster ride in amusement area

 

Alaska Trip Summary

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