Adventures in Anchorage (July 11 and 12, 2018)

One of our first stops in Anchorage after getting settled into our hotel was to see one of the two remaining Blockbuster stores in the US.  Blockbuster Video was an integral part of our young adulthood, and it is a completely foreign concept to our kids.  Jack totally didn't understand the concept of renting a movie or video game from a store and having to return it.

CBS Sunday Morning did a piece about this store, so we wanted to take the kids to experience it.  John Oliver of Last Week Tonight also did a feature on it, and he has spearheaded efforts to keep it open by purchasing Russell Crowe memorabilia for display in the store.  Here is a jacket that Russell Crowe wore during the filming of Les Miserables, in which he played Javert. 

Unfortunately, the day after our visit, the store announced that it would be closing next week temporarily and only reopening to have a liquidation sale.  Apparently, Blockbuster is about to be officially extinct.  I guess we should treasure the Blockbuster Membership Cards they gave us free of charge.

Early in the evening, we were invited to dinner at the house of a friend, John, who is originally from Lexington, and his wife Martha, who is originally from Fairbanks.  On the drive over, we passed someone on a unicycle riding with traffic on the road.  They were even able to cross traffic without stopping!

It may look like a bicycle from behind, but NO...only one wheel!

 John and Martha had two other friends in town for the evening from Fairbanks, one of whom is a musher in his spare time and raises Alaskan huskies, and his son, who is the same age as Sidney. We had a truly lovely evening with them, which included wonderful home-cooked food with many items from their beautiful garden.  We also had lots of great conversation.  I was so glad we had been on the mushing excursion so that we could participate in those discussions.  After dinner, John suggested that we stop by Cook Inlet to see if we could view Denali.  It was too cloudy to see, but it was a beautiful evening.

To cap off such a wonderful evening, we even saw a rainbow.  It was the most vibrant rainbow I had ever seen, and it was at 9:30 PM!

Our second morning in Anchorage began with a leisurely breakfast.  After we took Jodie to the airport for her return to NYC, we visited the Alaska Aviation Museum, which is located right next to Lake Hood.  We had also seen a piece on CBS Sunday Morning about the seaplanes on Lake Hood, so we wanted to check this out.  As we bought our tickets, the docent showed us this diagram to explain why aviation is an integral part of Alaska. On maps of the US, you usually only see Alaska floating out in space beside the contiguous states.  The map below shows the massive size of Alaska as compared to the contiguous states.  If you superimposed Alaska on top of the 48 contiguous states, the northernmost city of Barrow would be located around Duluth Minnesota; the farthest island of Attu would be around Bakersfield, CA; Anchorage would be located around Jefferson City, MO and the southeastern tip of Ketchikan would be around Savannah, GA.  It is totally amazing when you look at it that way.  Due to the remoteness of the areas and rugged terrain, much of Alaska is only reachable by air or boat.  Juneau, the state capital, is one of those remote areas, which is why Alaskans lobbied to change the capital to a more central location several years ago.  The state legislature decided that is was too cost-prohibitive to move it, so the majority of Alaska has to take a boat or plane to be able to visit their Governor or legislative representative. 

Jack quickly discovered a kid-sized plane with working controls.  

A major portion of the museum was dedicated to the WWII Japanese invasion of Attu and Kisku and resulting battle.  The battle of Attu was the only WWII land battle fought on a US incorporated territory.  It was a 2-week battle that resulted in 549 Americans killed and 2,351 Japanese killed.  I won't bore you with further details, but the exhibits were very informative and interesting. 

The museum also displayed a Model T that was used by a local airlines.  We knew both of our dads would like this, so we took pictures.

Airplanes in Alaska are often designed so that they can be reconfigured to carry either passengers, cargo or both.  We were able to go on board an Alaska Airlines 737 that was configured for both.  

It was even known to haul caribou at one point in time...

It was so much fun to go outside to the old control tower to watch the seaplanes take off and land on Lake Hood.

Later, we passed an elementary school, so I took a picture for my mom. 

On our way to Hatcher Pass, we stopped by the small settlement of Eklutna, a native village, to see the Eklutna Historical Park.  Russian Orthodox Missionaries visited the tribe in the 1800s and converted many of its members to Christian Orthodoxy. They still maintain some of their ancient tribal traditions, however, including building spirit houses for deceased family members.  You can see both the spirit houses and orthodox crosses in the cemetery in the background of the pictures. 

Little Susitna River runs alongside most of the last 20 minutes of the drive to Hatcher Pass. It was a beautiful sight. 

Hatcher Pass is a little over an hour drive outside of Anchorage.  The pass is a 20 mile drive over the Talkeetna Mountains that is only open in the summer months. It is an unpaved road, and it takes about an hour to drive the 20 miles.  The Independence Mine State Park is near the entrance to Hatcher Pass, so we toured it, too.  Hadley wanted to pose for a pic in the parking lot.  

Robert Hatcher first discovered gold here in 1906, and the mine continued to operate until 1951 with a brief closure during WWII.  The state of Alaska decided to leave most of the mine buildings in their naturally-deteriorating condition.  This shows the ruins of the Powerhouse, as the mine had to produce its own electricity. 

This was a view of the Talkeetna Mountains from the mine. 

We hoped to see some wildlife along the drive, as there were lots of moose crossing signs, but the only sightings were of small marmot-type animals.  After a very scenic drive, we arrived at the summit of Hatcher Pass. 

A panoramic view of the summit...

And a family pic...Yay!

The Hatcher Pass ends in Willow, Alaska, and then you drive about an hour and a half back to Anchorage.  The route happens to take you straight through Wasilla, so we decided to drive by the Mayor's Office.  You definitely can't see Russia from there, either.

Upon our arrival back into Anchorage, we attempted one more shot at a view of Denali from Earthquake Park.  Success (with the aid of binoculars)!!!  It is hard to see with the naked eye, but the image that looks like fluffy clouds right on top of the tree line on the left side of the photo is actually Denali. 

We had dinner at a very yummy restaurant called Rustic Goat.  Dan and I had reindeer sausage with our clams.  I highly recommend the restaurant, if you are in the Anchorage area.  The kids were all smiles after dinner.

And they wanted to take a "rustic goat" picture, too, whatever that means...

We packed all of our bags for our flight to Seattle the next morning.  While Dan and I were getting in a quick workout, the windows of the workout room showed that the sun was actually setting!!!  Dan took this pic of the sunset at approximately 11:30 PM. 

We really enjoyed Anchorage and would like to visit again someday.  Tomorrow, Seattle!

Two days at sea with more glaciers and fjords than we could count (July 9 and 10, 2018)

The last two days of the cruise were spent at sea on our way to Anchorage.  The first day, we cruised through Glacier Bay.  It was a very rainy day, but we were able to go outside long enough to take pictures of Margerie Glacier. 

A park ranger from Glacier Bay National Park came on board to talk to the kids about the park.  (It is a little weird to think of a waterway as a park...)  Then, he swore them in as Junior Rangers.  That evening was a formal dinner, so we were able to get a few pics of the family all dressed up.  The picture of Jodie and Hadley is a little blurry, so I am leaving it small so it won't distort further. 

The next day, we were in College Fjord, which has a long line of glaciers.  It is very beautiful, even in the rain.  We were able to see a few otters frolicking in the water, too (but, alas, no pics of the otters). 

The final morning, we arrived in the harbor at Whittier and had to disembark around 7:00 AM.  Then, we took a bus into Anchorage, got Nana and Poppy through security at the airport, and headed to our hotel for the next several days. 
We are very grateful for the opportunity to take this cruise with Dan's entire family.  We were able to see many sights in Alaska that are only accessible by either boat or seaplane.  We have decided that we are not really "cruisers", though.  From what I understand, you either really love it, or you don't.  Jack enjoyed the kids' club on the boat, but the other five of us felt a little stir crazy at times.  We really just prefer setting up a home base on land during our travels and planning day trips and small adventures with the opportunity to try different foods, activities, etc.  It was a beautiful experience, though, and one we will treasure for a lifetime. 

Puppies in Skagway!!! (July 8, 2018)

Today began with a mushing excursion, so we had 4 excited kiddos that were missing their puppy at home.  They couldn't wait to get their hands on some husky puppies!  There were a lot of other activities in store before puppies, though.  We waited for our tour guide in the Skagway harbor.

Our tour guide took a selfie on Dan's phone while he was taking a family picture for us...

He was a pretty funny dude and a Harry Potter fan (complete with a Deathly Hallows tattoo), so he was entertaining.  He drove us out of Skagway to the former town of Dyea.  I say former, because the town no longer exists.  It was a major hub during the height of the Gold Rush, until the railroad line  was built into Skagway. Then, the people of Dyea completely dismantled their town and moved it to Skagway.  Not a trace exists any more. You can still see the raised, flat stretch of land among the trees where the boardwalk once existed, but there is not a hint to be able to tell a major town was located there.  It was very fascinating to think about.  Sidney read The Call of the Wild this year in Literature, so this excursion was particularly meaningful to her, as the book is about sled dogs and is partly set in Dyea.  

We arrived at the musher's camp in Dyea with this beautiful view.  

Then, they loaded us into Unimogs (humongous open air all-terrain vehicles) to ride up a mountain to the sleds where the dogs and mushers were waiting on us.  

Our musher was a professional sled dog racer that brings his sled dog team to this camp in the summer to train.  We got quite the ride!  The dogs stopped for a break partway through the run, and the musher took a few pics for us.  

After the ride, he introduced us to the dogs and we were able to pet them.  

On our way back down the mountain to the base camp, we stopped for a beautiful view of the Dyea Tidal Flats.

At the base camp, we met a professional musher who told us lots of fascinating facts about mushing, including the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest. He works for Ryan Redington, who is a professional musher and whose grandfather started the Iditarod.  Then came the puppies!  They breed Alaskan Huskies at this camp, and they like to socialize them from a very young age in order to make them good sled dogs, so they give all of the visitors an opportunity to hold the puppies.  This one was named Arthur.  

They also have an area they call the Shark Tank for socializing and exercising the older puppies.  They were all relaxing while we were there.  We said we would like to have one of these giant hamster wheels in the right side of the picture for Deacon at home. 

We also had the opportunity to meet some of the more experienced dogs.  

The dog below, named Grr, is an Iditarod champion.  

Needless to say, a wonderful time was had by all.  The drive back to Skagway gave us a beautiful view of Long Bay.  Underneath that water is a shipwreck from the Gold Rush era.

Skagway has been maintained to keep its Gold Rush feel.  

One of the buildings on the main street is covered in driftwood.  

We also visited Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, which is also located on the main street of Skagway.  

It had some fascinating models and diagrams about the Gold Rush and the paths that prospectors took in order to attempt to locate gold.  

The trip up the mountain in Dyea was treacherous enough in the huge vehicles we rode in. I can't imagine what the prospectors went through during the Gold Rush.  

An exhibit about the children of the Gold Rush was fascinating to Hadley and Jack.  If you look closely, you may recognize a few of these kids.  

These were some of their stories...

After lots of fun adventures, it was time to head back to the boat for the final two days at sea.  We can't wait to follow the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest online next February and March!