Alaska Day 17 (April 29th)

Friday we again drove up to Anchorage to meet John in his hotel after he had a chance to sleep a little since he flew in from Chicago Thursday night/Friday morning.  The boys were excited to see all kinds of military vehicles going by and took photos to show their friends at home.

 After we picked up John we drove up to Flattop Mountain, another place I had gone to the first time I came to Alaska.  As soon as we got out of the truck, we realized how cold and windy it was up here!  Whoa, was it cold!  We went up the path to the viewing area to see Anchorage below.  The guys figured with the wind chill it was -4 degrees.

 You had to lean into the wind!

The deck was half covered in snow, high enough to go over the railing.

The kids played around in the snow below the viewing deck.  I looked for a cache there, but the snow was still so deep, I couldn't find anything!  When we got too cold, we went down the slope and then up the other side of the parking lot to another trail, called Blueberry trail.  The kids liked the way up with the deep snow.

We used the GPS to check the elevation.

Ryan was trying to shelter from the wind here, but not much to hide behind.

This is actually how deep the snow was, the other photo was a fake, (John's idea) the kids were just standing on their knees.

 This was the path.

After warming up with lunch at Wendy's we headed to the Anchorage zoo.  The weather changed to being cloudy and drizzly cold rain.  Wish it would have still been sunny out, it would have made for better photos of the animals, but I still enjoyed it anyway.

Otter

                                            Seals

Snowy Owl

Fox

This bear was funny.  A sign on the enclosure said he was new to the park and still getting used to his surroundings.  He was just sitting in this spot, slumped down on his spine, just like our dog Sugar sits sometimes. 

Wolves

The Eagles were beautiful.

The musk ox, not so beautiful, except maybe to her mamma.

Kamryn was getting a closer look










Here they all are checking out the musk ox.

Tigers

Bears, I wonder if that is drool under his mouth?

This squirrel was not a member of the zoo, just a visitor scavenging for a meal.  The ranger told us the Ravens will fly in and offer the other birds trades for food, like gum wrappers.

Alpacas

a porcupine in a cache, I'm not going to try to get that one!

We watched the ranger feed the goshawk.  He said they get lots of donations of food for the animals from people who are cleaning out their freezers getting ready for a new hunting season. 

Look at the size of that paw!

the other polar bear was playing peek-a-boo.

After warming up in the truck again we headed over to the Anchorage airport on the backside, near the runway so the boys could watch the planes land.  On Saturday they were having an Aviation Expo at the Fed Ex hanger.  Me, I found a nearby cache. 

Alaska Day 15 & 16 (April 27th and 28th)

Wednesday and Thursday we spent by ourselves in Big Lake.  Laundry, cleaning, organizing, and a little shopping, and a hike to a cache, were the events of the day.  The Big event was the last of my kids entering the teens.  Kamryn turned 13.  How did the time pass so quickly? 

 On Wednesday after spending the day at the house, doing what needed to be done, I was ready to get out of the house!  I forced the kids to come along, and after doing a little shopping in Wasilla, we made a stop to look for a cache a geocacher in Alaska had recommended.  The area the cache is located in is call the Palmer Hay flats.  Interesting area surrounded by mountains, and hills, a refuge for birds, ducks, and wildlife, though we only saw some sandhill cranes, and heard some geese.  The cache was located up the hill I took this photo from.  The kids after seeing the terrain, perked up about being out.  There were lots of trees around and a creek we could hear ahead of us, so I had to hurry to keep up with them.

 

This is the creek we discovered after we found the first cache, and then I saw there was another cache, but on the other side of this creek, sooo...

we found this way to get across.  I noticed Ryan taking a moment to see what was around him, while Ian is always on the move. 

Unfortunately I did not find the second cache, my phone was all over the place.  Well, that does make for a good excuse to come back again with the GPS and hike around again, we can even bring John back with us.  So that makes that a good DNF!

Thursday was Kamryn's birthday!

Since I didn't have any wrapping paper, I recycled the Easter basket into a birthday gift bag.  She received cards from John and me, and also from our dog Sugar.  Though it was the makeup she went for first.  It was her choice of what to do for the day, so of course a trip to Target was first on the list.  She spent some of the money she got from her brothers on more makeup stuff.  Then a trip to Fred Meyers (a cross between World Market, Fresh Market, Walmart, and Publix, a great store!) to see their makeup.  I told her she could pick anywhere to eat, thinking more of a sit down restaurant, but she wanted to eat at Taco Del Mar (similar to Moe's), and since the boys don't like that they ate at Target.

Then Kamryn wanted to go back to the house and Skype her friend back home.  I wanted to try to find another cache but couldn't convince them to all go with me, so I dropped Ian and Kamryn off and Ryan decided to go with me.  It was a different direction than we had been so far, a quite place, on someones private property.  We hiked in found the cache easy enough though it hadn't been found since last October.  On the way back Ryan couldn't resist going off the path to see how deep the patch of snow was.  I was amazed to see the little growth coming up among all the brown.

I wanted to take some photos of Kamryn to see and have a reminder in years to come what she looked like at this age.  This was one of the times she actually wanted to do this  We needed to add some of the makeup she got for her birthday though.  I'm not a big makeup person myself, but I think she looked pretty good when we were done.  I'm sure she'll outgrow me doing her makeup real quickly.

She is changing so fast from the tomboy who was always with her brothers and their friends, doing everything they did, to a young lady into talking with her friends, experimenting with makeup, and actually kinda liking her curly hair.  I think she is just a beautiful girl who is strong and beautiful  inside and out.

Alaska Day 14 (April 26th)

Day 14 began at a place I had been to the first time I came to Alaska, MMMMMMM, a chocolate factory with a chocolate waterfall!  When we got there I pulled out my phone and looked to see if there was a cache in the area and there was, you had to take a photo of yourself in front of the store, and then ask if you could hold one of the 10lb blocks of chocolate they melt and use to fill the fountain.  Okay, no problem.  Picture outside, go in ask the cashier to hold the chocolate, get a blank stare, and then the other employee says, oh geocaching, come with me.  So she brings it out and hands it to me, Ian snaps the picture, and I was sooo tempted to lick that bar of chocolate!  I could smell it! 

Yes the sign says "Do Not eat from the fountain."  No swimming either.

We also went to the Diamond Center Mall, where we went on our first trip here, this ice skating rink is in the middle of the mall.  I have a photo at home with me and Ryan standing in the same area, only he was 3 months old.  A few things have changed since then, we've both grown.

After spending some time at the mall we dropped John back off at the hotel, so that he could go back to work, and drove back to Big Lake.  Our rental truck is a stick shift and I can't believe how easily driving one comes back after all these years.  My first car, a Ford Tempo, was a stick shift, but I haven't driven one in years.  I kinda like it. 

We made one stop on the way home to find a special cache called Cache Across America - Alaska.  There is one special cache hidden in each state in the US, and when you find all of them you are able to find the final one.  This is the first I've found, wish I'd have know about these caches when I was in Hawaii, but now I'll need to do another vacation there to find it.  I really don't know if I'll ever get to all 50 states to find these, but while I'm here, I'll add this to my found list.

I was out to take photos of the sunset and wanted to show you how much it has changed since we arrived, there is now very little snow in the yard!  I can't believe how quickly it has melted.  The ice on the lake is still solid, with a layer of slush on top, but most of the snow around is gone.

The Sunsets have been beautiful, but getting later every evening, it set around 9:50 tonight.

Thursday is Kamryn's birthday and I wanted to make a "card" for her to put on facebook.

Alaska Day 13

We drove into Anchorage to join John for his day off.  He flew back into ANC from Chicago and we joined him at the Hilton after he had a chance to rest for a few hours.  We brought snacks from the Big Lake house, but found the room didn't have a refrigerator to put the cold stuff in.  So what do you do?  In Alaska, you can just open the window and put it on the ledge, it's cold outside.  That's our yogurt on the window sill.

 I'm sure a great hotel like the Hilton doesn't mind food on their ledges.

On to some fun, well at least for me.  Geocaching.  This one was a block away from the hotel, so a natural to go for.  It's in there do you see it?  It took a bit, but I finally noticed it. 













Then on to a little prospecting.  We didn't find anything though.

Then back to geocaching, this is a model of an Alaskan cache, used to store things so bears and animals can't get into them.  It's in the Anchorage Welcome center.  There is a real geocache there also, and they have a brochure about geocaching they give out to visitors with list of geocaches in the area.  John had found this cache for me before, but I wanted to actually come and "find" it myself and bring a travel bug here for a visit.

 We had lunch at the Teriyaki Box a little place downtown near the hotel where John eats sometimes.  Chicken, Shrimp, or Fish, with rice and a cabbage salad, pretty good.  While eating, I checked for other caches, and saw one across the street, a multi (that was kinda like a puzzle) where you had to find the coords from the signs that went with the two totem poles.  I figured it out (I think!), but I had to wait to find stage 2 since it was a few blocks away in the opposite direction John wanted to go.

Next up, to the other visitor center, where they have short movies to watch and taxidermy animals to see.  Only one problem, see the other sign above that says Federal Building?  Well you have to show I.D. to get in the building.  Guess who lost their I.D. the first day we got here?  Yep me!  So I stayed outside with the knife Ian had in his pocket, another item not allowed in there.  So instead of feeling bad, I just went shopping! 

 John often tells us, when he calls home, that he is going to get a reindeer hot dog, this is where he goes.  The same guy is in the same spot all the time, and he has his dog with him, or in his truck.  Another little piece of John's world away from home. After they were done, we walked around the shops downtown some more, then the boys went back to the room for a nap, while Kamryn and I bought some gifts to take home.  Later we went to the mall to eat at the food court, then in for the night.

 Though I'm not a city person, it was a beautiful view as the sun went down, and the lights came on, with the mountains in the background.

This was our view in the morning, F22's practicing above Elmendorf Air Force Base.  Ryan especially loved it.  These are his photos.