Hot Dog and Jelly

I'm currently sitting on the deck reading some blogs and such, when Alex comes out of the house with a snack he made himself. This could be a new phenomenon, and if so credit should go to Big Al for inventing the HD&J...

Take one slice of bread, in his case the heel, and spread a generous amount of stawberry jelly on it. Then take one cold hot dog out of the fridge, place it on the bread, and fold the bread around it. Enjoy.

He ate at least half of it before he was done with it. That doesn't mean he didn't like it, half is usually where he stops with most things.

So, give it a shot.

Last day in AK

We didn't do a heck of a lot on our last day in the Last Frontier. Mostly we laid around Mom's place, but we did go out for a picnic lunch by Lake Hood. Lake Hood is the biggest float plane airport in the world, and in the 45 minutes we were there we saw at least 8 planes take off and another 4 or 5 land.

In addition to all the float planes taking off and landing (watering?) on Lake Hood, Ted Stevens International Airport was directly behind us, so we heard plenty of passenger and cargo jets taking off. Also, off in the distance beyond Lake Hood is Elmdorff AFB, so when we first started eating you could see six F-15s in the distance. (You could hear them long before you saw them.) So, if you're in the mood for watching some airplanes, there are three picnic tables behind the FAA building in Anchorage that will give you a view of small 4 person planes, big passenger jets, and the USAF all in one spot.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing. We did a quick shopping trip at REI and Title Wave Books. If we were hikers or campers REI would have been a great place to blow a couple grand. Title Wave Books is an interesting store, and we of course lost Mom in there.

I made a return trip to the Moose's Tooth for a t-shirt, and had an IPA while I was there. The bar was full, so I stepped outside to their outside waiting area and just looked over the Chugach Mountains a little since we're leaving them in a few hours.

That will about do it for our first trip to Alaska. We've got to pack and then head for the airport about 11:30 or so for our 1:20am flight back to OH.

A little driving in Alaska

So far all of our touring has involved little driving. We've driven to things close to Anchorage or in Anchorage, or taken the train for the long haul. Yesterday we took a pretty good drive north east of town to Williams reindeer farm and then on up to the Matanuska glacier. The glacier is roughly 90 miles from Anchorage.

The reindeer farm was interesting. We saw a lot of reindeer, Bruce the moose, and Eddy the Elk. You could feed the reindeer, which everybody did, even Alex. You had to pull grass for Eddy to eat, and not everybody was up for that one, so only Wendy and I fed Eddy. It was very windy while we were there, and there was a lot of glacier dust blowing down the valley, so we didn't stay out with the reindeer too long.

After leaving the reindeer farm we headed east towards the Matanuska glacier. We traveled on Alaska Rt 1, otherwise known as the Glenn highway. The Glenn is a lot of up and down and turning as it follows the Matanuska river through the valley. It's really not a bad drive, until you get one of the locals in their giant pick-up trucks on your ass because 60 on this curvy road is just "too damn slow!"

We hit a construction zone on the road, which means the road is only one lane. No flaggers up here, you follow a pilot car through the construction zone. Basically, the westbound side of the road is held while the eastbound side follows the pilot car. When the pilot car reaches the other side, it turns around and takes the cars headed the other direction through. I'd say it was at least a 4 mile construction zone, maybe more, so if you miss the pilot car you've got a 15 or 20 minute wait on its return.

Once near the glacier, we took Glacier Camp Rd to get closer, but it required crossing a small bridge that a couple occupants of the car didn't really want to cross. (Turns out had we crossed the bridge it was going to cost us $15 per person to continue on...a steep price to see some ice.) We went back up the hill to the main road, and then went about 100 yards and pulled into the Long Rifle Lodge. What a view while you had your burger here, above is what we saw out the window. And the burger was darn good, too. They also had a one-pump gas station, which is a good thing because we needed a little gas to get us back down into Anchorage.

We left around 1 and returned about 7:30, so it was a nice afternoon. Here's the map with some place markers of where we went. Our route took us up the Glenn to the Old Glenn Highway to get to the reindeer farm. after leaving the reindeer farm, we continued on the Old Glenn into Palmer, then north-east to the glacier. Coming home we just stayed on Rt 1 the whole way.

Maggie, Flattop, and the Moose's Tooth

Today's travels in AK started out at the Alaska Zoo. It's really a nice little zoo, well kept, very green, and not 90 degrees. (Like it would have been at the Columbus Zoo today.) We walked around the whole thing in about two hours, and they have some very nice exhibits.

We did get to see a local celebrity, Maggie the Elephant. Maggie has been a resident of the Alaska Zoo since 1983, and is the source of some local controversy. There are those that think Maggie shouldn't be kept in the rather harsh and un-elephant climate of Alaska, and the other side that thinks people should have the ability to see a live elephant at their zoo so long as her health isn't in danger. That's the short, "I'm visiting from Ohio," recap.

As it turns out, today was Maggie's big day, the zoo decided it was in her best interest to move her south. A decision as to where hasn't been made, but they want her flown and checked out by two independent vets to ensure that she is healthy enough to fly.

After leaving the zoo, we headed towards Flattop to the south east of Anchorage. I say "towards" because it wasn't all that easy to find. Mom couldn't recall the exact route, the maps we'd looked at the night before told half the story, and even a guy mom asked wasn't totally sure. (If you're up here and looking for how to get there, take O'Malley Rd, to Hilltop Rd, to Upper Huffman Dr and follow the sign at the top of Upper Huffman which points you left and up a gravel road.)

Once there, we paid the parking fee and walked up to the observation area. The observation area gave us a great view of Anchorage, Susitna, Cook Inlet, and way off in the distance you could see the Alaska range, including Denali. (Mt. McKinley to you lower 48 types.) It was a bit hazy, so Denali wasn't in clear view, but you could see the snow covered peaks off in the distance. Behind us on the observation deck was Flattop, which is one of the most visited parks by the locals. You can hike up to the top of Flattop, but we opted against it sticking with the much easier observation area.

After taking in the first two periods of the Cup Finals, we headed off to the Moose's Tooth. This place came recommended from mom and two of the tour guides on the train yesterday. It's simple, pizza and beer, but they do both very well. (I've yet to have a bad micro-brew up here, guess the long winters make for some good brewers.) To continue the world beer tour, I had a four beer sampler - Alpenglow Amber, Pipeline Stout, their ESB, and their Fairweather IPA - and followed it up with a glass of the ESB. Though, the IPA may have been the best, I opted for the ESB because I'd had an IPA downtown on Monday.

That pretty much closed out our Wednesday. We're likely heading off to a glacier tomorrow, but who knows.

Our day on the Alaska R.R.

Our day started at 4:45 am for our trip on the Alaska Railroad to Seward. But, since the sun comes up at 4:30, we had plenty of daylight for our drive to the train depot in Anchorage.

This was easily some of the best scenery we've seen since we've been here. Our trip to Seward took us out of Anchorage, around Turnagain Arm, past the Chugach mountains, through the Kenai mountains, past Kenai lake, and eventually into Seward on Resurrection Bay. (Map of our route. Not the exact route of the railroad, that's the Seward Highway, but that's roughly our travels.)

The train starts out in Anchorage (elev. 38 ft), climbs just over 1,000 feet in the mountains, and then ends up back near sea level in Seward. It varies in speed based on climbing or not and for the scenery outside. It slowed for glaciers and other photo ops, but did about 40 to 45 mph while traveling next to the Turnagain Arm.

Seward itself isn't a huge destination, it's a pretty typical small coastal Alaska town. Except his one receives a number of cruise ship tourists and is home to the Alaska Sealife Center. We walked around the town and visited the Sealife Center, which is well worth the visit. The downer to Seward is that the train stops on one end of town, the Sealife center is on the other. Nana and Brendan decided to walk it, Alex, Wendy, and I decided to wait on the trolley to save Big Al's legs for later. We waited and waited and the trolley never showed...because it only runs on cruise ship visits. So, we got a cab, which took a while to arrive, but got us there for $5. The van was missing a few key parts, one of which was the muffler, but it got the job done.

The return trip on the train was just as much fun as the morning trip. We left Seward about 6PM and returned to Anchorage right around 10PM. Plenty of sunshine for photos on the way back, but it was a bit foggy up in the mountains. A couple of the glacier shots make it appear as if the glacier just appears out of the fog. A neat effect, but you miss the upper portion of the glacier.

All in all a great day. The folks that operate the Alaska Railroad are some of the nicest people we've come across. Each car has their own tour guide, all of which were working for Alex by the time the trip was over. He and Brendan both ended up with AK RR "Security Officer" badges, other small pins, and temporary tattoos. I wouldn't hesitate to take any of the other AK RR trips on a later vacation. (The ONLY downer on the train...the food is expensive and almost mediocre. Everything else was excellent.)

The Alaska Railroad pictures have been uploaded to our album, and there are plenty of them to see.

Downtown Anchorage

Today we headed to downtown Anchorage. Mainly to take in the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and also to have some lunch. Mom has proceeded to point out a number of really good eateries, but to eat at them all we'd have to stay until late July.

We parked near the mall and walked everywhere, which wasn't too bad. We ended up covering about 18 blocks in our travels, and it only sprinkled a little bit, so it was a pretty nice walk. There isn't much of a buffer zone between the sidewalk and the street in Anchorage, though, so it can get noisy and a bit tight as double trailered trucks go by 6 feet away.


The museum was really nice. They had some strange contemporary native American art thing going on that was kind of odd, but they had an Alaska exhibit that was very interesting. Thanks to some cruise tour groups, we went through it backwards, but still saw the whole exhibit. They had everything from a full size whaling boat that the Eskimos have used for centuries to a cross section and "pig" from the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

After the museum, we headed to the Glacier Brewhouse for lunch. Mom has had a number of meetings here, and it came highly recommended from her. The food was excellent, and the beer was more excellenter yet. I enjoyed a cask conditioned IPA that was scary smooth. It was 3/4 gone before I realized it. If this place was located in the greater Dublin area, I'd eat there once a week...though I doubt the halibut would be as fresh as it was this afternoon.

We then strolled back towards the car and did the touristy thing of t-shirt shopping. We also stopped at Town Square Park, which is where the picture of the boys above was taken.

All in all it was a nice day, and we made it back home in time to watch the Ducks beat the Senators. Nothing like squeezing in Game 3 at 4 in the afternoon, then having dinner.

Map of our travels today.

Sunday in the Land of the 10PM sun

Prior to heading up here, a number of people said to me, "Alaska? Now? Won't the sun be up the whole time?" Well, no, that wouldn't be until the first day of summer, and it doesn't happen in Anchorage, anyway. Long days, yes, but not the whole day as Anchorage is too far south.

Our first full day here was a Sunday, and since mom is a minister, we were required by law to go to church. Mom attends Turnagain UMC, which is about 15 minutes from her condo. Once there, we met a number of people there who said, "Oh, Brenda's your mom? I'm so sorry."

After church, we had some lunch and headed home to continue recuperating from the previous day's flying. After a good rest, we headed to Earthquake park to look over Cook Inlet and see some sights. The picture of the boys looking to the northeast over Cook Inlet as a ship passed. The marker from the link above is roughly where they were standing.

To the left of where the boys are is Susitna, which means "Sleeping Lady." Even with my little digital camera, you can see the sleeping lady in the mountain. Her head is to the left, and you can almost see her hair flowing down the hill.

The airport is near there, as is Lake Hood which is a pretty big float plane base. While we were at Earthquake Park, at least 6 or 8 float planes flew over on their way to somewhere in the middle of Alaska. In contrast, we also watch three 747 cargo jets take off.

Mom then took us to her favorite tourist place - Fredy Meyer. It's owned by Kroger's so, fairly familiar. I picked up a six pack of Alaska Brewing Company's summer brew, which was quite tasty. We had a traditional Alaska meal of take-and-bake pizza, and then settled in for the evening.

I put a few photos up from yesterday on Picasa, and will add more as the trip progresses.

Alaska Trip

We made it to the Last Frontier

Yesterday was the longest travel day I may have ever been through...literally and figuratively.

Literally, because a flight from Columbus to Anchorage is 12 hours out of your day when everything is on time. If your plane leaves Columbus an hour late, things seem to get longer. Then when your plane leaves Phoenix late - because in the world according to US Airways Phoenix is between Columbus and Anchorage - things seem to get drawn out even further.

In reality, we landed in Anchorage 10 minutes later than our original time. The worrying about connections and everything else was for naught, we got here right on time. Right on time was 12:00 am Alaska time...4am EDT for those of you scoring at home. Leaving Columbus at 5:10 for a 11 hour trip means it's gonna be late when you get there.

Figuratively the longest day because Brendan and Alex were on the trip. Both have flown, but it's been a while, so both were pretty excited about flying on the "big hairplane." (Alex's words) Their excitement lead to neither of them sitting still the entire trip between Columbus and Phoenix. Not bad, we had a row to ourselves, but only one parent gets to sit in a three seat row with the boys, so no tag teaming them. Unable to tag out until 3:15 minutes into the 4:15 minute flight, dad was worn out...and this was the short leg of the flight.

Upon arriving in Phoenix, our plane's original departure of 7:20 has been pushed back to 7:45 according to the board at the gate. Cool, we've got 50 minutes before we board another plane for the final leg to ANC. Enough time to get a bite to eat and get some Benedryl in the boys. Or, so we thought...

US Airways, front runner as my choice of "Biggest PITA Airline Ever," announces that the plane will board on time. Not a big deal, except Wendy's with the luggage while the boys and I are halfway down the terminal looking for something to eat. (There was a Burger King sign down there, figured that would to the trick.) During negotiations on what to eat - which weren't going well - Wendy comes running up. She's got both pull-carry on bags, my laptop bag, the camera bag, and both the boys backpacks. She was a funky hat short of looking like a Sherpa. I look at her funny and get, "WE'RE BOARDING!! WE'VE GOT TO GO!!" We get her load lightened, and get back to the gate. Needless to say, tensions were running high. We didn't get anything to eat, had no time to settle down from the last flight, and are now being told we need to get on the plane to leave on time. AND the magic of the Benedryl hadn't been brought out, and without food in him, Brendan wasn't cooperating. "The Incident" then happened...there was yelling, crying, an attempt at force, more yelling, louder crying, more yelling, etc, etc. Somewhere in Phoenix, children's services is probably looking for a man who fits my description.

Thankfully, the Benedryl did it's thing - Brendan eventually took his, in exchange for getting the window seat - so the flight from Phoenix to Anchorage was pretty uneventful. Well, other than being damn near 6 hours long, it was pretty uneventful. I got a movie in, both boys slept, Wendy slept, and we still had three hours to go. Those three hours eventually passed, and we landed in Anchorage just after midnight local time. Mom met us at the bottom of the escalator, and we proceeded to wait on the bags. And wait. And wait. Got the bags, threw them in Mom's car, and Brendan and I went to wait on the shuttle to get to the rental car. And wait. Got on the shuttle, got to the counter and, yup, you guessed it, waited some more. All the waiting was finally over around 2am, and we were in bed by about 2:10.

Hopefully in the coming days I'll add some more from the trip, hopefully a few pictures. Tuesday we're on a train to Seward, and that should produce some good pictures.