Alaska

Looking at the Tanana River from a hill above Fairbanks.

Backing up to the very beginning of July. . .

On July 1st, Lauren and I began our adventurous trip to Alaska. My sister, Cortney and her husband, Mark live in Fairbanks. It started out on an ominous note. As we were heading up the Salt River Canyon, our car began to make loud warning signs and a large sign on the dash said, "STOP NOW! TURN OFF MOTOR!" Well, being married to a mechanic, I've always known this is a bad thing. I've heard horror stories of people who ignored these warnings and kept driving. So I pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the car. Unfortunately is was 106 degrees and I didn't have any cell services. I thought there is no way I'm going to hike to the top of this hill, so I let the car cool down, turned it back on and slowly made my way the mountain. So far so good. But still, I could hear Ryan freaking out in my head. So once I got to some shade, I pulled over again and tried to call home. I was able to get to Cade and we ran through checking the oil and the water. Everything seemed OK. I called my dad and we did the same thing. So I crossed my fingers and on we went. We made it safely to Phoenix--crisis averted.

The next day, we flew out of Phoenix, headed to Fairbanks, with a stop in Seattle. Lauren was pretty excited because it was the first plane ride she would remember. It was all great until we started to descend into Seattle and she got a little sick. We were looking forward to the Seattle-Fairbanks leg of the trip because we had planned on renting a movie. I settled her into to "Nim's Island" and thought everything was OK. The next thing I know, she is throwing up into her drink and then turns and throws up all over me! Luckily, we were sitting next to an ex-elementary school principal, who in one swift motion jumped up, and swept us right into the bathroom. By the time I had Lauren and myself cleaned up, this lady had cleaned up after all of us and got Lauren some crackers and 7-up. I'm telling you, God looks out for me on these Alaska trips (I've had some other experiences traveling up there when Cade and Syd were little).

Anyway, Lauren was a little weak the next day, but soon recovered and we started getting down to the business of vacationing. The first day, we went to the North Pole. Actually, it is not THE North Pole, but a town named North Pole Alaska. And corny as it is, I love it. My mom and I took Cade and Sydney there a long time ago, and Lauren was always fascinated with the pictures of the older kids sitting on the REAL Santa Claus. Yes, it is the town were Santa resides during the summer months. He and his wife are at the Santa Claus House, where you can buy souvenirs and take a pictures with the big man himself. In fact, Lauren and I were browsing around the shop, when Santa came along and talked to her about her age (he guess it right on) and the beauty of the White Mountains of Arizona. She was completely star struck. But as luck would have it, when I whipped out my camera. . .the battery was dead. So I was left taking pictures with my cell phone. Talk about a rough start to my trip! Lauren was also fascinated with the reindeer. Comet, Cupid and Blitzen were on hand for photo opportunities as well.
So, the very next thing for me was to actually charge my camera battery. Then we spent a wonderful week visiting Cort and Mark, and enjoying Alaska. Fairbanks is a neat old mining town without a lot of history behind it. I love the Chena river that runs throughout the town. The people of Alaska use of every spare minute of the summer. My favorite site was a couple of teenage boys who had put a cooler in a small raft, tied it to an air mattress and were floating down the river on the mattress. Not even a paddle to guide them, but what the heck?! Tom and Huck on an adventure!

We went on a lot of hikes. Some, Lauren didn't like, but after soaking her in DeepWoods OFF, she enjoyed our hike at Creamer's Field. We watched a baseball game between two teams in the Alaska baseball league. It is a lot of fun to watch baseball, at night, without any lights. Lauren thought we had drug her into her own personal hell having to watch baseball when there wasn't even the excuse of "you have to cheer for your brother". We enjoyed getting ice cream and snow cones at "Hot Licks", a little shop that makes its own ice cream every day. My favorite was Raspberry Truffle.

Lauren leaned to skip rocks on the Tanana River (her favorite activity of the week).

We also did the tourist-y thing and took a trip down the Chena river on a big paddle boat. It was a lot of fun, and they cram in a lot of Alaska sites into 3 hours.

For example, there is an exhibition of a float plane landing and taking off from the river. One of my favorite sites. . . When Cade and Syd were young, we spent so much time in Alaska that they could yell out "Floats" or "Wheels" whenever they saw a small plane.

Another one of my favorite stops is at Susan Butcher's house and kennel. She wasn't the first woman to win the Iditarod, but when she did win it -she won it four times. She recently passed away from cancer, but the kennel is still run by her husband, and Jessica Royer, another Iditarod racer, helps out during the summer.
There is also a brief stop at Chena Villiage where we got to see various aspects of Native life, including fish camp, and how the various animals are used for food and clothing.

Not a part of the boat ride,but pretty cool anyway, is the pipeline. While I can't explain it to you, I was amazed out how intricate and insulated it was.
Thanks to Cort and Mark for such a great week. We are grateful that the are willing to brave the cold, dark winters so the rest of us can vacation in the summer! We'll see you next year!
And by the way, I doped Lauren up on Dramamine for the the trip home.

Not a single problem. . . .