Day 6 of Terry and Dee’s visit and this is the first minute I’ve had to write anything! Let’s see, we picked them up Sunday night at the airport – after taking our precious Roxy to the kennel for her 10 day stay. This kennel is really first class – the dogs are walked three times a day, they have washing machines and dishwashers for the doggy things, they groom (extra), and the vets are right there working in the same facility. So we feel very confident that Roxy will be just fine. She will be mad, but she will be fine. Back to Terry and Dee…they were really impressed with our little camper. We had improved their mattress and given them two heavy blankets and the sheets. They were pleased that we could turn on the heat and had running water, although it is cold. We had moved the camper to the slot closest to the bathhouse. The Elmendorf Air Force base campground is quite nice – lots of trees and the showers are brand new. It is quiet except when the planes fly over or the sirens turn on from the ambulances across the road.

Monday, we took them to Gwennie’s for breakfast, then Lake Hood and the Aviation Museum. They were impressed with the hundreds of float and ski planes and we got to see several of them land and take off. Dee loved the little houses they build to hold the supplies and equipment for each plane – some even had sod and flower boxes. She saw her first moose in a back yard near the lake. We then went over to the Ulu Factory, took a tram ride through town and saw Ship Creek where the salmon run. Bunches of folks were out fishing, so that was nice. We dropped them off to see Resolution Park and the Captain Cook Monument. Later we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Museum where we saw Native Alaskan dancing, crafts, games, and homesite replicas. It was their favorite activity of the day. Several times during the afternoon, Chevak was mentioned by the folks there and they even had dance from Chevak. One of the dancers was related to John Pingayak, who is our Cup’ik Culture teachers in Chevak. Another one of the instructors mentioned the steam bath he had in Chevak. By the time we left Dee and Terry thought Chevak was famous.

We ate Saturday night at the Sour Dough Mine and they gave us entirely too much food. In fact Tom and I shared one meal and Terry and Dee shared one meal and we still brought home a doggie bag. Food was delicious – we will definitely be taking all of our guests to the Sour Dough Mining Company.

We might have done more – but Dee loves to shop!!! It was a successful day.

Day 2 – We folded up our camper and headed toward Denali Park. Our first stop on the way was Thunderbird Falls. I insisted that we stop and walk to the falls because I had heard that it was a quick easy walk. Tom decided to stay with the car – since we had so many bags in the truck. Well, this was a mile long walk up and down steep rollercoaster hills – and me with my upcoming knee surgery. About half way through we met a guy coming back – he said we didn’t have to go all the way that he would share his photos with us and that’s what he did. We turned around and trekked back over those steep hills to our truck.

Tom did a great job with the camper – like he had driven it for years. We got to
Denali that evening, checked in and then drove to our campsite at
Teklanika Campground at Mile 27 on the park road. Very pretty – but no electricity (no heat) and no water. We had to use the primitive bath rooms and we had to keep all food and such inside the trailer so as not to attract the bears and wolves. We were really, really cold! Got in bed early with no bath and had no bath the next two days.

Day 3
We took the shuttle bus at 7:55 to Wonder Lake. I have wanted to go to Wonder Lake for a year now. That’s the lake you usually see in the photos of Denali when there is water in front of it. There are no words to describe how beautiful, how immense that park is. It was truly overwhelming. But let me get to Wonder Lake. The bus ride there was over five hours. I was prepared with a mosquito net and repellant and was expecting to have wonderful time. Upon our arrival the bus driver said 35 minutes. I couldn’t believe it – 35 minutes!
We got off the bus and were met with about one million mosquitoes. We pulled those nets over our heads at the same time we were spraying repellant all over us. I have never seen anything like it. They were lighted all over my netting trying to get to me! Two campers were throwing their gear on the back of the bus and getting on as fast as they could since they had obviously camped the night before. Some folks were not even getting off the bus. I realized immediately why they only stayed 35 minutes. But we four braved it – we sat down and had a picnic lunch - lifting our nets only to put food in our mouths. We walked down to the lake and watched our bus leave. We would just catch the next one back. Just for moment when the quietness came (except for the mosquitos buzzing) – I wondered if maybe we had made a bad decision. We walked down to Wonder Lake and felt like we were the only people in the world. Took lots of photos and waited a while for the next bus to arrive. When it did, we were sitting four in a row on a log with our mosquito nets still on. A woman on the bus took our photo from her window! We hopped on that bus to return on the five hour trip to our campsite. We sure laughed a lot about the mosquitos - but I was a little disappointed about Wonder Lake. I guess I did not believe it about how bad the mosquitos could actually be. I’m glad we stayed a while and felt the tranquility and silentness of the place. It was beautiful – of course we could not see Mt. McKinley because of the cloud coverage. We saw lots of bears, Dall sheep, a fox, moose, rabbits, and of course the one million mosquitos at Wonder Lake. We really had a wonderful adventurous time.
Day 4
The next morning we drove back towards the visitor center, stopping by to see the fabulous sled dog demonstration which Dee loved. We were able to see the dogs up close and pet some of them – then they hitched them up for demonstration ride. I will always be surprised by the total excitement of the dogs when they realize they have a chance to run with that sled. These dogs are born to run. On the way home to Anchorage we were fortunately able to see the mountain since it was a bright sunny day. I was so glad for Terry and Dee because I thought – gee, going all the way to Denali – camping with no water or electricity, traveling ten hours on the bus and then not seeing the mountain. Luck was with us on the way home and I think they were happy.

We have the camper take down and/or set up down to 30 minutes. Tom is doing fairly well with his frustration level – he gets just tad tense when it comes time to take down and set up. I have to read his mind to figure out what help he wants and when he wants it. Tom works alone. I do try to assist with comments and observations (totally unwelcomed and ignored on his part) and I do actually pack up the stuff inside.




We took a day trip to Whittier – a lovely place which we had to access through a dark train tunnel. We took a Prince William Sound tour to see some glaciers and they were absolutely fabulous! We were out there several hours, had some great crab cakes and chocolate chip cookies. Saw oodles of birds, Mary. You are going to be so impressed with all these birds. On the way back we stopped at the Alaskan Wildlife Park where they rescue animals and take care of them. We got there late – only had 30 minutes to see the animals because they were closing. The girl at the desk took pity and told us we could have an extra 15 minutes since they still were feeding. Sooo – we were the only ones there, and they were feeding the animals. It was wonderful. We were following the feeder from animal to animal. We saw bears eat this hunk of red stuff and “argue” over it. Almost every animal was up near the front because they were being fed or waiting to be fed. We could have reached out and touched every one of them. Reindeer, bison, a fox, muskoxen, brown bears, black bears and some other brown bear, owl, beautiful elks. Very nice 45 minutes.

Day 5
The next day we packed up the trailer and headed south. We stopped on the Turnagain Arm at the Indian something gold mine and panned for gold. Such fun. This place was so cute – all sorts of old mining stuff and camp stuff. I loved it. We all found gold and I also found a garnet, so it was loads of fun. We then drove over to Alyeska resort and took the tram to the top of the mountain. There was snow everywhere – although the sun was shinning and it was hot. There was a skydivers convention of some sort going on so lots of young men going around with huge packs on their backs and a continuous succession of skydivers taking off on the top of the mountain. Very colorful and exciting. We had lunch – reindeer sausage and cookies. It was magical.

Day 6
We are now in Seward at the Military Recreation area (Thanks for this reference Mary) and about to leave to get some sort of legendary omelet at Ray’s. Then we will go to see the Benny Benson? Memorial. He was the little 13 year old orphan who in 1926 submitted a design for the Alaska Flag and won out over hundreds of entries all over the state. There is a children’s book about him. Afterwards we will head toward the museum and later to the Exit Glacier. This will be a really low key, relaxing day. We pull out in the morning for Homer. Now, we went downhill the entire 87 miles from Portage. So I guess we will go uphill all 87 miles back to the turnoff to Homer. Oh, I had blackened halibut for supper last night. We also drove out by the shore and took photos of eagles and sea otters. I want to live on the ocean, this place is beautiful.

On the way down yesterday we stopped at a rest stop to see some rafters training. The leader made them prove that they could swim across the current to the other side of the water before he would take then rafting on this fast water. You wouldn’t believe all the colorful gear.

We have had wonderful sunny days in Anchorage and Kenai.