Ghoulish Delight
06-05-2006, 02:27 PM
***Yikes, this came out long. I'll be shocked if any of you actually read my whole rambling here.***
Okay, we have 390 pics and video clips to sort through, so a full photo tour will be slow in coming. But I'll start to debrief what we did (if I can remember it all!).
Going in, we had very little in the way of actual plans. Our main objective was to visit CP's brother, meet his knew wife/in-laws, and get to know our new niece (his 3 year old step daughter) and nephew (their 2 month old baby boy). With 2 kids to attend to, we weren't exactly expecting to do a huge amount of site seeing.
Shows what we know. From day 1, we were on the road, seeing anything CP's brother could think for us to see that was withing an hour or 2 of Anchorage. The kids were fantastic. The 3 year old kept up with us driving and hiking all over the place, with barely a complaint. She's amazing, her definition of "throwing a fit" being quietly crying for a coule minutes while still doing what Mom and Dad ask her to do. And the baby was more than happy to spend hour after hour being toted around in his carseat (which doubles as a carrier and triples as a stroller).
So, here's how it went down:
General Notes:
CP's brother has started himself a wonderful little family. We couldn't have been happier to meet them. His wife is great, she's raised an amazing daughter so far, and her parents are incredibly nice people who have been wonderful to CP's brother.
Alaska is nothing short of spectacular. And we picked the absolute perfect week. It had been cold and rainy the week before, but it was sunny and warm 90% of the time we were there. Lots of snow still on the ground, so it was gorgeous. And since the salmon don't start running for another week or so, we beat the tourist rush. There were times when we were the only souls for miles around. And we really packed in the activities, so even with just a week, we felt like it was a good, long vacation.
Day 1
We arrived at about 5PM local time on Saturday, grabbed our rental car, and settled in at the in-law's house where we'd be staying. They spend all of their summer weekends on their boat in Whittier, so we didn't see 'em. VERY gracious of them to let us intrude like that. We went out to dinner with CP's bro and family at "Arctic Roadrunner", a local burger joint that sits right on a creek that runs through town. And we got our first taste of the flavor of Anchorage locals as we saw a few guys in a tiny canoe floating down the creek :D Spent the rest of the evening hanging out with the family, getting to know everyone, and freaking out over the late sunset (cannot stress enough how bizarre it is to have daylight at 11PM).
Day 2
Up bright and early for breakfast at "Gwennies", a local cafe chock full of mounted animals, hunting and fishing gear, etc. Think "Moose Burger Lodge" at Magic Mountain. Spent the rest of the morning at a weekend local crafts market where we picked up a couple gifts for family and friends, as well as ourselves and saw more oosiks thank you can shake a stick at (go ahead, look up oosik). Then, into the cars for the first of many road trips. This time to a big game park near Portage. They had moose, caribou, musk ox, bison, grizzlies, black bears, a bald eagle, coyotes, an owl, deer. And all with just a chain link fence in between. AND most of the animals had just given birth, so lots of cute little ones running around. It was great. After the drive back (the drive is fabulous, btw, with miles and miles of beautiful coastline), we spent the remainder of the day lounging about the apartment, as we would spend the end of every day, playing with the baby and watching movies.
*Side note: Because there were 7 people including the kids (one of CP's younger brothers came up for the week too), we were in two cars, with CP's brother leading me everywhere we went. A large percentage of my time in Alaska was spent tailing a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee. I began to worry that if I got back, I'd start absentmindely following blue Jeep Grand Cherokees to God knows where.
Day 3 - Memorial Day
Started off with a little local ceremony in the park downtown, organized by a few different veterans clubs. A very nice ceremony with memorials, a bagpipe band, and Airforce band and color guard. Then, into the cars and off to Thunderbird Falls, about an hour north of Anchorage. A beautiful
hour or so hike to the base of a waterfall. Surrounded by trees, lots of families, very peaceful and beautiful. It's been a while since we've been camping, it was nice to do something like this. I just hope that our failure to follow instructions when paying the parking fee doesn't result in a $500 citation :rolleyes: (we paid the fee, just didn't display the stub on the car...oops).
Then came dinner. The in-laws returned from the boat and put together a Memorial Day bbq. And we got our first taste of real Alaska seafood as they came back with a fistfull of fresh-caught rock shrimp. They were so plump and unbelievably delicious, grilled up with some butter and garlic...damnit I'm drooling now. Good meal, good company.
Day 4
We went to Portage to glance at the glacial lake there. It's been receding for the last century or so, so you can no longer see the actual glacier from the visitor area on the shore, so we decided to spring for the boat ride...and boy was it worth it. Nothing can really describe a glacier if you haven't seen one in person. It's such an imposing thing. When you look at it, even though it's just sitting there, you can plainly see what it's done, and is continuing to do, to the mountains around it. You can just sense the raw power it has. And then there's the blue. Because glacial ice gets so compacted under hundreds of feet of snow, it absorbs almost all wavelengths of visible light, except blue, it's stunning. As is the color of the lake that comes off of it. Filled with the silt created by the stone it pulverizes, it's an other-worldly steely gray. And, of course, bitter cold.
From there, we headed to Whittier for a quick lunch. As Moonliner mentioned in an earlier thread, there's a 2 mile long one lane tunnel heading in and out of Whittier. They allow one direction of traffic through at a time, alternating every half hour. It was dug as a military train tunnel during WWII to reach the Whittier port, which was a submarine port. Whittier itself is a nothing of a town, consisting of docks, a few small stores and restaurants, a hotel, and abandoned naval barracks. We had the best fish and chips ever (someone remind me to tell the red snapper story), then headed back for another evening at the apartment.
---continued below---
Okay, we have 390 pics and video clips to sort through, so a full photo tour will be slow in coming. But I'll start to debrief what we did (if I can remember it all!).
Going in, we had very little in the way of actual plans. Our main objective was to visit CP's brother, meet his knew wife/in-laws, and get to know our new niece (his 3 year old step daughter) and nephew (their 2 month old baby boy). With 2 kids to attend to, we weren't exactly expecting to do a huge amount of site seeing.
Shows what we know. From day 1, we were on the road, seeing anything CP's brother could think for us to see that was withing an hour or 2 of Anchorage. The kids were fantastic. The 3 year old kept up with us driving and hiking all over the place, with barely a complaint. She's amazing, her definition of "throwing a fit" being quietly crying for a coule minutes while still doing what Mom and Dad ask her to do. And the baby was more than happy to spend hour after hour being toted around in his carseat (which doubles as a carrier and triples as a stroller).
So, here's how it went down:
General Notes:
CP's brother has started himself a wonderful little family. We couldn't have been happier to meet them. His wife is great, she's raised an amazing daughter so far, and her parents are incredibly nice people who have been wonderful to CP's brother.
Alaska is nothing short of spectacular. And we picked the absolute perfect week. It had been cold and rainy the week before, but it was sunny and warm 90% of the time we were there. Lots of snow still on the ground, so it was gorgeous. And since the salmon don't start running for another week or so, we beat the tourist rush. There were times when we were the only souls for miles around. And we really packed in the activities, so even with just a week, we felt like it was a good, long vacation.
Day 1
We arrived at about 5PM local time on Saturday, grabbed our rental car, and settled in at the in-law's house where we'd be staying. They spend all of their summer weekends on their boat in Whittier, so we didn't see 'em. VERY gracious of them to let us intrude like that. We went out to dinner with CP's bro and family at "Arctic Roadrunner", a local burger joint that sits right on a creek that runs through town. And we got our first taste of the flavor of Anchorage locals as we saw a few guys in a tiny canoe floating down the creek :D Spent the rest of the evening hanging out with the family, getting to know everyone, and freaking out over the late sunset (cannot stress enough how bizarre it is to have daylight at 11PM).
Day 2
Up bright and early for breakfast at "Gwennies", a local cafe chock full of mounted animals, hunting and fishing gear, etc. Think "Moose Burger Lodge" at Magic Mountain. Spent the rest of the morning at a weekend local crafts market where we picked up a couple gifts for family and friends, as well as ourselves and saw more oosiks thank you can shake a stick at (go ahead, look up oosik). Then, into the cars for the first of many road trips. This time to a big game park near Portage. They had moose, caribou, musk ox, bison, grizzlies, black bears, a bald eagle, coyotes, an owl, deer. And all with just a chain link fence in between. AND most of the animals had just given birth, so lots of cute little ones running around. It was great. After the drive back (the drive is fabulous, btw, with miles and miles of beautiful coastline), we spent the remainder of the day lounging about the apartment, as we would spend the end of every day, playing with the baby and watching movies.
*Side note: Because there were 7 people including the kids (one of CP's younger brothers came up for the week too), we were in two cars, with CP's brother leading me everywhere we went. A large percentage of my time in Alaska was spent tailing a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee. I began to worry that if I got back, I'd start absentmindely following blue Jeep Grand Cherokees to God knows where.
Day 3 - Memorial Day
Started off with a little local ceremony in the park downtown, organized by a few different veterans clubs. A very nice ceremony with memorials, a bagpipe band, and Airforce band and color guard. Then, into the cars and off to Thunderbird Falls, about an hour north of Anchorage. A beautiful
hour or so hike to the base of a waterfall. Surrounded by trees, lots of families, very peaceful and beautiful. It's been a while since we've been camping, it was nice to do something like this. I just hope that our failure to follow instructions when paying the parking fee doesn't result in a $500 citation :rolleyes: (we paid the fee, just didn't display the stub on the car...oops).
Then came dinner. The in-laws returned from the boat and put together a Memorial Day bbq. And we got our first taste of real Alaska seafood as they came back with a fistfull of fresh-caught rock shrimp. They were so plump and unbelievably delicious, grilled up with some butter and garlic...damnit I'm drooling now. Good meal, good company.
Day 4
We went to Portage to glance at the glacial lake there. It's been receding for the last century or so, so you can no longer see the actual glacier from the visitor area on the shore, so we decided to spring for the boat ride...and boy was it worth it. Nothing can really describe a glacier if you haven't seen one in person. It's such an imposing thing. When you look at it, even though it's just sitting there, you can plainly see what it's done, and is continuing to do, to the mountains around it. You can just sense the raw power it has. And then there's the blue. Because glacial ice gets so compacted under hundreds of feet of snow, it absorbs almost all wavelengths of visible light, except blue, it's stunning. As is the color of the lake that comes off of it. Filled with the silt created by the stone it pulverizes, it's an other-worldly steely gray. And, of course, bitter cold.
From there, we headed to Whittier for a quick lunch. As Moonliner mentioned in an earlier thread, there's a 2 mile long one lane tunnel heading in and out of Whittier. They allow one direction of traffic through at a time, alternating every half hour. It was dug as a military train tunnel during WWII to reach the Whittier port, which was a submarine port. Whittier itself is a nothing of a town, consisting of docks, a few small stores and restaurants, a hotel, and abandoned naval barracks. We had the best fish and chips ever (someone remind me to tell the red snapper story), then headed back for another evening at the apartment.
---continued below---