Alaska from the Back of the Bike, Day 3

June 23

Left Prince George on the Yellowhead Highway after a nice breakfast of Belgium waffles and Sasketchiwan syrup, Canadian bacon, and fruit. Julie, our hostess, has a daughter with brain tumor, so we prayed for her at breakfast. Hope it made a difference.. I get the feeling that Canadians don’t really like Americans though. We are obviously too wasteful and not "green" enough. Tend to blame us for everything that effects North America, especially economically. She was a lovely hostess though. She composts and makes homemade bread. I think she was surprised when i said i compost and make jelly. ha

She ironed our sheets, though, and man were they amazing! Mom used to do that. Her cat, Furry, is beautiful--buff color long hair with blue eyes. Furry has a 9:00 curfew because foxes and other critters eat cats. eww.

Was rainy and chilly off and on all day, so it was uneventful until later. Julie packed us an amazing sack lunch-- ham sandwich on multigrain homemade bread with some sort of garlic butter spread. But we had to eat at an busy rest stop at the side of the highway.

At Gitwangak we saw totem poles, took pics, and headed down the Cassiar highway. I noticed along the way that the back roads are lined with wildflowers, as if they are cheering us on our journey. All kinds -- daisies, lupine, beautiful colors.

So later in the day when i was getting sleepy, Duane yells...a bear is walking across the road! Sure enough, a big one.. i woke up. Later we saw two more smaller ones. One was trying to cross the road and we spooked him. He almost ran right up beside us. I could see the panic in his eyes. The next one popped up as we were driving by and he had a flower stem in his mouth -- looked silly. Impossible to get pictures as we were whizzing by.

Beautiful drive to Stewart, B.C. on remote highway 37 north. One of most scenic drives in North America. We passed towering coastal mountains whose slopes are capped with icefields

and hanging glaciers. It is one of the only places in the world you can see glaciers from your vehicle. Blue glaciers that were visible from the road.

Water falls cascading down mountains in streaks, canyons.

So we got to Stewart and were chilled to the bone a bit. Found our hotel. Quaint and simple. Eclectic. The Ripley Creek Inn. Slate floors again, but this time, not heated.

We ate a wonderful dinner at the Bitter Creek Cafe. I had an amazing halibut dish dredged in pistachio nuts, with baby potatoes and veggies. Duane had fried halibut shrimp cakes. yummmmmm. We topped it off with chocolate panna cotta layer cake. It was sooooo good. We totally splurged, but loved it all.

A quaint anniversary dinner in an old hotel... Our waitress, Ceebraun was friendly and cute. We enjoyed talking to her. Her step mom owns the restaurant and Cee is engaged to a guy in New Zealand and just came for the summer to help out.

Loved today. Simply loved it.