4 Wheels 4 Girls

June 28th, we went across the Yukon River. In the RV.

There’s no bridge across the Yukon River. Yet, we went across in the RV. Guess how that works? Well, we took a boat.

Boarding the Dawson City Ferry to cross the Yukon River

We drove down to the line to get on the boat. When it was our turn, the man wearing bright yellow and orange waved us on. We slowly, carefully, drove on to the ferry. Before I knew it, we were moving. But the current of the river was so strong that it took much longer than we expected. That was fine, though, because unlike the plain old cars, we can go to the bathroom and eat dinner if we’re stuck in traffic or whatever.

We finally made it across the river, and then we got to travel on. But the big ferry is yet to come.

June 27th, I woke up. I was going to get my ears pierced! Our parents said we would go into town a little later than nine, but when we left was after lunch! So I had to be really patient and wait for almost the whole day.

When we finally left, I was really nervous. We went in to another store to ask where the ear-piercing place was. They told us, and we went. We went about a block, and the place was on the corner. Suddenly, we were inside, and Dad was telling the lady that we had a girl who was going to get her ears pierced. I was just pretending that I wasn’t there. The lady was in the middle of cutting someone’s hair, so she said we should come back in fifteen minutes. That calmed me down. We went across the street to a gift shop. We looked around, and I saw something I really liked. They were shoes, and really nice ones, but they were 50 bucks. So I didn’t get anything.

After fifteen minutes, Dad asked me if I was ready. I said yes, because I was, but I was also very not ready. I was really scared. When we got back into the ear-piercing place, I picked out the earrings I wanted and sat down in the chair. Before I knew it, it was done. I got my ears pierced in Dawson City!

My ears are pierced! Yay!

June 24th, we went to the Braeburn Lodge.

About an hour before, I heard our parents talking about cinnamon rolls… I had no idea what they were talking about.

We pulled into a parking lot on the side of the road. I asked where we were and Jean said, “Let’s go check out these cinnamon rolls!” I excitedly threw my shoes on and hopped out the door with my sisters behind me. We went inside. I was really surprised we stopped there. My parents usually have no time for treats, but guess what they did today? Wait! I can’t tell you yet.

So we went up to the counter. Jean asked if they had dinner and the lady answered happily, “Absolutely!” She lead us to a table with six seats. We all sat down. Unfortunately, I got the seat by the window with all the bees, but otherwise, dinner was great.

We looked at our menus and ordered when the waitress came back. Greta and I split something, Ellie and Ana split something, and Jean and Dad split something. When our food came, we realized just how big the meals really were. They were HUGE, bigger than Greta’s head! (Sorry, Greta! I change that to Dad!) So they were bigger than Dad’s head! (Sorry, Dad, your head isn’t huge either.) Here’s some pictures to let you get a feel for how big the meals were:

Braeburn Lodge, where the sandwiches are as big as your head!

And…

Difficult to eat, but so good!

So aren’t the burgers and sandwiches huge? They were delicious, too. But next came the cinnamon buns. Or, I should say, bun.

The waitress asked us if we wanted to have our bun heated up, and we said yes. So after a few minutes, she came back holding a… cake. A cake? Wait… it was a cinnamon bun! The size of a cake! It was even bigger than the sandwiches, maybe twice the size! And it was the best cinnamon roll I’d ever had!

We had a great dinner and a great time at the Braeburn Lodge.

On June 23rd, we spent a full day at the Continental Divide Lodge. It was a nice day, so my sisters and I went outside to play. First we went to the play set. On the play set there was a swing set, a seesaw, and a rope that swung and had knots up and down it like seats.

On the see-saw and swing

Ana made it to the top of the rope ladder

I went for the swings. I found that if you have shoes on, the swings are very fun to jump off of. When you are in the air, you feel like a fairy, and when you land on the rocky sand, you feel like a galloping deer. I did this over and over, all day, except for when I spooked Ellie on the seesaw. Then I tried the swinging rope and realized that it wasn’t my favorite, uhh, activity on the playground. Here’s a picture of The Tale of Stella’s Splinter.

Jean is working hard to get my splinter out

I never really got it out. Well, Jean didn’t get it out, but I did. With my freshly grown extremely long nails. Ever since I was a baby, I’ve had an awful habit of biting my nails. A few days ago, I decided it was time to actually break the habit, after many failing attempts. And today I used my nails to get out the phantom splinter, the thing that was bothering me for the past few days.

After I’d had my fun on the playground, I discovered the volleyball court. My sisters and I played for the rest of the day until it was time for dinner, and after that, it was time for bed.

Playing volleyball in the Yukon

June 19th, it was suddenly Father’s Day! I didn’t have any time to make a card! I wish I did. But when I told Dad that I didn’t make one, and I told him that I still loved him, he said it was okay.

We were driving along when we pulled into a parking lot. I looked out the window and we were at Michael’s! I hopped up and got my shoes on. I love Michael’s! And I have a gift card, also. We went inside and looked around. There were tons of crafts and artsy things to do. Greta pulled me over to a rack filled with charms. A lot of them were on sale. I looked along the rows and one of them caught my eye. A trumpet! I wouldn’t have been excited if I was a stranger to it, but I play the trumpet. The charm was really cute. It was silver and small, just how I like it. Jean, Ellie, Ana, and Greta were up at the check out line, so I went up there quickly and asked if I could get it. I was not surprised to hear that Jean thought it was great. So I got it.

After we left Michael’s, we went to Dairy Queen! What a wonderful day! We ordered six shakes and brought them back to the RV. They were delicious! We had them with lunch, which was turkey, ham, cheese, and lettuce sandwiches. They were good, too.

Then we drove until it was time for dinner. We had enchiladas that Jean made. I always love Jean’s cooking. Before we went to bed a little while later, Dad read the cards that we had made for him. It was a nice Father’s Day.

June 17, my family went to see the Athabasca Glacier. When we first got there, I saw a mini lake. I don’t think it had a name but it was still pretty. [Editor’s note: These were the headwaters of the Sunwapta River, bound for the arctic ocean.] Then, beyond the lake was a huge chunk of ice. I don’t mean huge like the size of my head, I mean huge like 20 football fields. Maybe even 30. Yeah, probably 30. So anyway, Dad said it was a glacier. Athabasca Glacier.

We took a short hike up a hill so we could get closer to it. Ellie, Greta, and I ran ahead, and Ana hung back with the parents. We beat them by about five minutes, and it seemed like forever, but finally they came. We walked a little farther, out to where the rope was. The rope was there to stop people from walking out onto the glacier. There were signs all over telling the stories of deaths or terrible injuries from falling in crevases or the ice breaking and people falling into the freezing cold water. But don’t worry, we didn’t go anywhere near the ice or the river flowing underneath it. We were on land that was about 20 to 50 feet from any ice. We were safe, and we had a nice time.

So when we got back down the hill, we raced back to the RV. I was the first one to touch it. When we were all loaded up, we parked across the road in an RV slot in the parking lot for the Icefields Visitor Center and hopped out. We all walked up the stairs to the building. It looked huge, but when we stepped inside, it seemed tiny. I don’t know why.

Right now, Dad is reminding me what we learned in there. Dad says that a glacier is an ice river, and the Athabasca glacier is about 4 miles long. He says the glacier moves down the mountain a few inches per day. So, in the picture below, the glacier on the left is 4 miles long and moving slowly down the mountain. The steep parts are like an ice waterfall, and they are called icefalls. In the visitor center, there was this big 3D map that Dad told us to look at. He said that on the top of all the mountains was a huge bowl-like valley. That valley was filled with ice and snow. It is called the Columbia Icefield. It is so big that it covers all the mountains around it and drops a dozen glaciers down from it. Athabasca Glacier is one of them. So do you remember how big I said the glacier was? 30 football fields? Well, the Columbia Icefield is about 125 square miles. So that would be about 60,000 football fields! I told you it was huge!

Athabasca glacier flows down from Columbia Icefield in the left valley, Dome glacier flows down the right. Snowdome is up on top, in between them. The icefield extends back on the other side of the mountains.

So Dad says that there’s something called the Continental Tri-vide, or apex, or something like that. I think it sounds better than the triple continental divide, don’t you? Well, on the Continental Tri-vide, if a raindrop or snowflake falls on it, it can go to either the Pacific, Atlantic, or Arctic Ocean. There’s a place on the Columbia Icefield called the Snowdome. The top of the Snowdome is where the apex of North America is located.

We had a fun time at the visitor center and to make it better, as we were leaving, we each got a Canada National Parks passport, and a butterscotch-flavored candy cane.

With a Mountie at the Icefield Center

June 12th, we arrived at a campground. It was called the Crooked Tree Motel and RV Park. We discovered that there was a playground and an indoor pool. The indoor pool was what got my attention. I asked if we could go to the pool and the parents said yes, but we kept not going. Finally, it was time to eat dinner, so we ate and I wondered if we were ever going to go to the pool. So I asked again. This time, they told us to get our swim-suits on. I already had mine on so I grabbed a towel from the cabinet and pulled my goggles out of the swim-bag. I was ready.

An indoor pool, what a special treat during a cold, rainy week!

Eventually, Dad made it out the door and we all walked over to the pool. We got inside the building and Dad sat down on a bench with his computer. Ellie, Ana, and I went over to the other side of the pool, where the steps were, so that we could get in the water in a different way than just jumping in; a way that went more slowly. I stepped onto the first step, so only my feet were in. It didn’t feel very cold on only my feet, but I stepped down two more times, and it was now a little over my knees, and it was getting colder. I stepped down again, and by then, it was up to my thighs. It was starting to get really cold. I shivered. Meanwhile, Ana was coming in behind me, and I noticed Ellie stepping out of the water. She walked over to the ladder that led into the deep-end, and she was about to jump in. I threw my goggles on and yelled, “I’ll be the first one all the way in!” ,and held my breath and went under.

After I’d gotten used to the temperature, Ellie, Ana, and I swam around for a while. We practiced doing handstands and front-flips and back-flips. Ellie and I did a competition: Who could do flips the fastest? First, we did front-flips, and Ellie won. We did it again and we tied. We tried it one last time and we tied again. Then we did back-flips. I won the first one. Then I won the second one by about two thirds of a second, and won the last. It was really fun.

Then I swam into the center of the deep-end, where it was the deepest. I hovered at the surface of the water, getting ready for my experiment. I had never in my life been able to touch the deepest part of a pool before. Not with my hands, at least. And only, like, once or twice with my feet. But that pool wasn’t very deep. This one was. And I have never been very good at holding my breath for a long time, even though I’m on swim-team and have been for three years. So I took in a deep breath and went under. I pushed with so much force that immediately my ears popped and my feet thudded into the ground. Quickly, so I wouldn’t take in a gallon of water, I shoved off the bottom of the pool, felt my ears unpop, and was back up at the surface. Ellie had been watching me and she smiled at me. She’s always been really good at holding her breath for a long time and being able to do things like swimming all the way across the pool. But even Ellie doesn’t beat Ana. Ana can swim to the bottom of a pool and touch the bottom with her hands in THIRTEEN FEET!! Isn’t that amazing!? Even if you don’t, I think it is.

So anyway, I was grinning ear-to-ear when I came up. And guess what? I had to teach Ellie how to do it until she finally got it! And then guess what? I touched the bottom with my hands, even though I swallowed some water on the way back up!

The next day, we went to the pool again. This time, Greta came. We swam around the pool and had a lot of fun. We played this game where we had to swim around and do fancy things to get letters from Greta. Then, when we’d gotten all the letters we needed, we’d go to her and she’d tell us to unscramble them. We would, and we’d find a word. Then we’d have another activity and we’d get another word. We’d keep doing that until we made a sentence. It was pretty fun. It was really mysterious… and it was called the Quest. Then, sadly, it was time to leave.

We came back again the next day, and had fun just swimming randomly. We had to leave early, which wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I was happy when I realized that it meant going to get huckleberry milkshakes. We had a great night, and I slept great, too.

June 11th, we drove out of Glacier National Park to look for a place to go out for Jean’s birthday. I was hoping we’d go get a Dairy Queen ice cream-cake after dinner, but no such luck. Instead, we looked out the windows for restaurants to stop at and celebrate. We passed a pizza place that I really wanted to go to, but we drove right past it. The parents said we might go back and check it out, but no luck on that either. Boo.

We just kept on driving and soon after the pizza place, we spotted “The Huckleberry Patch”. There was a restaurant there and the sign didn’t say what they served, but I didn’t care because the sign did say, “Homemade Huckleberry Milkshakes and Ice Cream!” I was lured. I wasn’t too surprised when we pulled into the parking lot, but I was when we drove right back out. Wow! Terrible luck that day! It’s a shame it was on Jean’s birthday. But what happened next turned it around.

We drove a little more and then we saw a restaurant called the Elkhorn Grill. It didn’t look too great to me, and it got even worse when the waitress said they weren’t serving dinner anymore, only burgers and baskets. We looked at the menus and Jean said we’d try it out. So we did. I ordered a cheeseburger. I was going to get an elk burger, but it was more expensive than a regular burger, plus, Jean said it would taste the same as a normal one, and that it was too big for me to eat by myself. That last reason wouldn’t really matter except that if I had to split it with one of my sisters, I thought that half wouldn’t be enough. I still ignored the last part, and was going to split one with Ellie, but Ellie likes tomatoes, and I really don’t like them, I was going to get it with cheese, but Ellie doesn’t like burgers with cheese. So obviously, that didn’t work. I just gave up and got a cheeseburger. It was really good. And the fries that I got with it were delicious!

Celebrating Jean's birthday at the Elkhorn Grill

Then, when we’d finished, we ordered a piece of huckleberry pie with ice cream, a piece of strawberry cheesecake, and some nice, moist carrot cake for dessert. The waitress even gave us candles and lit them for us. We sang Happy Birthday and Jean blew out the candle. We had a great time on Jean’s birthday.

Thursday, June 9th, we biked from our campground down to Dad’s friends, Bob and Elsie’s, house. It was a short and nice ride. We arrived and Bob and Elsie waved us inside. We all hung out in the living room for a while and then the parents said Greta, Ellie, Ana and I could go outside to play. When we first went outside, we were in the smaller part of the backyard. We took off our shoes and socks and made a people pyramid. Greta and I were on the bottom, Ellie next, with one knee and hand on my back, and the other hand knee on Greta’s back. Ana was supposed to be getting on Ellie’s back, but when she finally got one knee on, Greta and I collapsed from the weight. We all laughed and got up.

With our friends, Bob and Elsie, in Bayview, ID

Then I told my sisters that there was another part of the backyard. I led them to it and we explored. It was much, much bigger than the yard we were in before. It had a bonus, too. There was a huge hedge that was great for hiding behind, and it came in handy for the talent show. Yes, the talent show. I’ll tell you about that in a minute. But first, we played Bite tag. Ana told you what it was in an earlier post, but I’ll tell you again. It’s not like we chase each other and when we get tagged, we get bitten. No way. It’s where Ellie pretends to be a crazy animal: part dog, cow, cat, lion, tiger, and I don’t know what else, but it acts like it has rabies. I mean, she doesn’t turn completely evil, just extremely wild and crazy. So it’s just where Bite chases us around and tries to tag us; that’s why we call it Bite tag.

So we played Bite tag for a while and soon it was time for dinner. We went inside wondering what it was. I was surprised to discover that Elsie had made tacos for us. I love, love, love tacos! And these were better than any I had ever had! I’m not going to say what was on it because you’ll get too hungry and you’ll go begging to your mom for it, but I’ll just say that it was wonderful. I went back for seconds and thirds, and finally I was done.

Oh, my gosh! I couldn’t even believe what came next! It was Hoggin Dogs ice cream! You’re probably thinking, ” Hoggin Dogs? What on Earth is Hoggin Dogs? You mean, Haggen Daz? That kind of ice cream?” And yes, that’s what I mean, but I meant to say it like Hoggin Dogs, not the correct way, Haggen Daz. I said it like that because Ellie didn’t know how to pronounce it at first, and she called it Hoggin Dogs. The name just stuck. But yeah, we had some after dinner, mixed with Moose Tracks. That’s another kind of ice cream. It was all so good, and so was what came next.

Next was our talent show! Actually, it wasn’t our real talent show, just the practice for it. It was really fun, though. Especially the practice. The first act was an act about a girl who loved bubble gum so much and ate it so much that one day, her mom didn’t care anymore if she bought bubble gum instead of what she was supposed to be buying. Her mom’s only instructions were to stay alive, and guess what the girl did? She choked on bubble gum!!

The second act was the ” Who Let the Dogs Out?” thing. We were crazy dogs that sang that and then, when all the grown-ups were supposed to think the act was over, we’d all sneak out and slowly creep up on the audience and then sing loudly, ” We know who let the dogs out! You! You! You! We know who let the dogs out! You! You! You! You let the dogs out! You! You! You!” And we would keep singing that until the act actually was over. That one was really fun! And then the finishing act…

The Macarena! The only problem was that Ellie and Ana didn’t know how to do it. So me and Greta just did it on our own. And you know how right before you spin the next direction, you sing, “Hey, Macarena! Oww!” ? When we said “Oww!”, we slapped each other’s butts just to make it less boring.

When we finished the talent show, the audience cheered and clapped for us. Then we thanked Bob and Elsie and set off for the nice bike ride home.

June 6, we got packed up to leave Lori and Sarah’s house. We loaded up our stuff in the RV and Greta, Ellie, Ana, and I were sorting the folded clothes. We suddenly ran into one of Lori and Sarah’s dish towels. Jean asked Ana to run up and give the dish rag to Lori. ( Sarah was at work. ) So Ana walked up the hill to the house and gave it to Lori and then the next thing we knew, Ana and Lori were riding down the extremely long driveway on the scooter motorcycle. Jean and Dad were like, “Oh, that Lori.” And I laughed. Because Lori did soooo much for us and now, at the last minute, she ‘s giving Ana a ride down the driveway on the scooter? Wow, “That Lori” is right!

So we kept sorting the clothes and guess what? I came across another dish towel! I told Jean and she told me not to take it up yet; to wait to see if there were any more. There weren’t. But Jean told me to take it up to Lori. So I did. And I got a ride back down on the scooter, too.

We said good bye one last time, then we were off!

Lori and Sarah, we really miss you guys. You, too, Olive and Roxanne!