Orange Citrus Spiced Hot Toddy

October 23, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 4 Comments

The one thing I appreciated most about living in Oklahoma was experiencing a variety of winters. Some years the weather stayed temperate, with very few sufferably cold days. Other years we endured intense ice storms, or even blizzards. I was once snowed in at my office for three whole days! You never knew what you were in for until winter was on your doorstep.

Orange Citrus Hot Toddy - Ingredient This is our first year in Alaska, and the seasoned residents are telling us that we’ve had an unseasonably warm October. This time last year they had 10+ inches of snow on the ground.

Over the last few days, frost has whitewashed the landscape, acting as a herald of what’s to come. The grass isn’t looking as green, and I’m starting to realize that I won’t be going out without a jacket for a long time. Gulp.

My favorite winter activities are many, but none really come close to enjoying a Hot Toddy and a Christmas movie when the weather just won’t allow much else. I missed out on that last year while I was pregnant with Margot. This year, I’ll gladly drink responsibly.

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Fairbanks’ Newest Cheechakos

September 20, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 3 Comments

This post is coming to you from Fairbanks, AK where we are the newest Cheechakos (or Canadian/Alaskan newcomers)! Our travels through Canada went off without a hitch, but I sure did miss reliable cell service and wi-fi.

We were your typical tourists: camera and baby clumsily in hand, an overweight dog on a retractable leash, and a dirty Subaru with out-of-state plates. The back seat became our diaper change-station, the front seat, our refrigerator. We lived in that car for up to 14 hours a day. Margot was patient, even when I wouldn’t let her crawl on the floor of at least two off-putting hotels. She was content to roll around in her pack ‘n play or hang out in the slightly cleaner beds for a energy-burning nightcap.

Yukon Territory via Yea Yea Pueblo Watson Sign Forest, Yukon Territory, Canada via Yea Yea Pueblo

The Watson Lake Sign Forest was a fun tourist destination. We weaved up and down the aisles, looking for artifacts from our respective hometowns. Isaac was a little more successful than I was, oddly enough.

Then there was the beautiful Whitehorse, YT; a beautiful Canadian city with friendly locals and great food. We strolled along the river front, poked around in gift shops and ate BBQ Salmon at the famous Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ on their very last weekend of the season. Many northern businesses shut down for the winter months, presumably because of the lower number of travelers passing through. And little did we know, the Yukon Territory, with an area the size of Germany, Austria and Switzerland combined, only has a population of about 36K, most of which (26K) live in the Whitehorse metro area. My high school was bigger than nearly all of their towns. Mind-boggling!

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Greetings from the Alcan!

September 14, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 3 Comments

After a few long days on the road, we’ve made it to Whitehorse, Yukon. We’re making great time, so we’re taking an extra day here to check out the local sites and sounds before we hunker down in Fairbanks for the winter.

Our initial departure was delayed when my darling husband spilled a five gallon bucket of exterior paint in our garage while the movers loaded up our goods to ship to Alaska. It took several hours to clean up, adding to the moving-day chaos.

Toad River Lodge, Yukon via Yea Yea Pueblo

Canadian Rockies, British Columbia via Yea Yea Pueblo

The first night we only made it a few hours north to Bellingham, where some criminal tried to steal the wheels off of our trailer. Thankfully, they were only successful in taking our dust caps which we expediently replaced. However, those dust caps fell off as we drove off from the parts store in Blaine. We resigned ourselves to life without dust caps and forged onward.

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