2 Jury Duty

We left our home in Juneau Alaska on June 6^th 2019. We bought an RV, got rid of most of our earthly possessions, put our house up for rent, and took off into the great unknown. We planned to travel for about a year visiting places we had always wanted to see, checking out places we might want to move to and bonding as a newly enlarged family of four. Here we will share pictures, videos and lots of stories from our travels. This is JUST KEEP GOING!

Day 2. Oh, cell phone coverage when you’re on the ferry, you are cruel and unusual. In a moment of coverage, I was able to check my e-mail. I had an e-mail from the State of Alaska Court System. I was very surprised to see those words in the sender field. I’m not sure I’ve ever received an e-mail from the court system before. I thought for a moment it might be a phishing e-mail. It was in fact from the State of Alaska and it was a notification that I was being called for Jury Duty. Are you freaking kidding me? Now? Now that I’ve just left town for extended travel? We took this unwelcome news in stride. Hoping that I’d be able to get my jury duty deferred to another time.

We drove off the ferry in Prince Rupert, British Columbia at approximately 3pm. Once we got through customs, we saw a deer by the road before we even left the city limits. So cool! We drove to Smithers as quickly as we could with a baby in tow. On the way, our daughter was already talking about spending the “toonie” that the Tooth Fairy had left her on the ferry. It’s only 200 miles to Smithers, but we didn’t make it to our hotel until 10:15pm.

Day 3 We stayed at The Prestige hotel in Smithers and it turned out to be a nice place to stay. Trying to get going in the morning with kids is such a challenge. We tried to get out early but didn’t manage to leave until after 10am. Our daughter lost her second tooth that day. We made several stops on our way to Quesnel.

A nice break in Prince George for food and a new booster seat broke up the drive. When we left Juneau, we left with a booster seat for our six-year-old that my parents had been using. I had sold the other booster seats that we had without realizing that this was a mistake. The booster seat my parents had turned out to be a three-point harness booster seat instead of a booster seat that just uses the seat belt. This meant that our daughter could not secure herself without help. We bought her a new booster seat at Canadian Tire. There was just one problem. What to do with the no longer needed, large seat? Greg tried to act casual as he disposed of it. Rest assured, we did not litter.

We arrived at the Quesnel Ramada Inn at 6:30. This was the first Ramada we’d ever been to that we’d never go back to. Everything looked dirty, the ceiling, the walls, and the towels even. Walking around barefoot in the room turned the bottoms of our feet black. It was so gross! I took the time to leave a review.

Day 4 It was a very long day of driving! Nine hours after leaving Quesnel, we made it to Bellingham. We were exhausted and starving when we got to our hotel. My best friend since the age of three, Amy lives in Bellingham. We were so happy to see her and the Chinese food she brought with her to our hotel. Our daughter was so happy to see her Godmother! We were happy too, but the excitement of a little kid is on a whole other level.

Day 5 After getting to spend the night at Aunt Amy’s, our daughter proudly stated that she got to have bacon and hot cocoa for breakfast. That’s what Godmother’s are for, right?

We had a really nice visit. Amy showed me around town. Until then I had only seen the area from the Alaska Ferry Terminal to the freeway to drive south.

Day 6 Bellingham has many beautiful old houses. I really enjoyed Amy showing me the historic neighborhoods. The Victorian architecture is so fun to look at. Victorian homes have so much character and are so regal.

On our last evening we all went out to dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant. The food was so good! It was really nice to see Noah again. We hadn’t spent any time with him since we went to Hawaii together in 2016. We don’t get to see each other enough. It’s truly a joy to see the love that Amy has for our children. She is a true best friend forever and I’m so glad that my children have her in their lives. She was the first loved one that we got to visit, and we planned to visit many more.

‘Hey! Why do you get chocolate and I don’t?!’

Coming up, leaving the other nest. Thank you for reading, Just Keep Going!