Charlie’s plane arrived in Anchorage on time and he saw us before we saw him. His hair is really long and he has facial hair, so he should fit right in up here in Alaska. Of course his baggage had been lost and we had to go report it. No matter. We went promptly went over to the SourDough Mining Company to eat – but there was a huge crowd. We then drove over to Friday’s, but there was a line out the door. We ended up eating at IHop – which was the same restaurant we chose when Elizabeth came to visit.

Their impressions of Alaska will be so different. Liz came in mid winter. It was freezing cold, mounds of snow everywhere, and dark all day. Charlie comes in mid summer, the sun is shining warmly and it is light all the time.

We hit the sack early cause everyone was tired. Charlie used some of Tom’s clothes. In the middle of the night they called to say the luggage had arrived. We picked it up the next morning early and then drove over to Gwennies to eat breakfast. He loved the place and had to try the reindeer sausage. We boxed up the leftover sausage and potatoes to eat for breakfast the next day. Our trip for the day was to visit the MuskOx farm in Palmer and then take a drive up to Hatcher Pass. Charlie loved every minute of it. He especially loved the mountains. I start to take them for granted so it is nice to have fresh faces see them with us. The MuskOx were friendly enough to eat fireweed and dandelions out of the guide’s hands. This particular farm collects the wool from these animals and sends it out to Native Alaskans to knit caps and such and then they sell it. It is actually a nonprofit organization. We then drove up to the Hatcher Pass to see an old gold mining operation that is being reconstructed. Tom and Charlie walked all over it but I took it easy in the visitor’s center. My knee hurts pretty much all the time but it really hurts when I do a lot of walking and we had done a lot of walking at the Muskox Farm. The visitor center was actually the foreman’s home and it had been completely recreated to the original state – very nice. We drove the truck on up to the very top of Hatcher Pass and I just can’t describe how beautiful it was. I think it was so special because we had our Charlie with us and he was having such a good time and was so impressed with the scenery. He said he wanted to live here more than once. (Remember it is summer!)

We made a special effort to get to the SourDough Mining Company to eat supper because Tom and I like the food. I got Clam Chowder soup and clam cakes, Tom got ribs and Charlie got the King Crab. Well we finished before he did and were waiting around for him to finish this huge plateful of crab legs. It was just taking too long – so Tom and I peeled the legs and put the crab meat on a plate for Charlie. It was like a race. We both peeled as fast as we could and all Charlie had to do was eat the meat. We laughed so hard! But at least he finished all those crab legs in a reasonable length of time. Afterwards we walked across the street to show Charlie the World’s Largest Chocolate Fall (like in waterfall). He was impressed.