Far North

Robert and I got to spend all last week up in Alaska with our friend Michelle. This was my seventh trip up north, and Robert’s third, so we did a lot of stuff I’d done on previous trips to get him caught up. I’ve decided to try to do a few smaller blog posts about the trip rather than one monster sized one.
Robert intended to take his new laptop with him, but the hard drive crashed right before we left and he had to get it replaced. It’s back home now, but didn’t make the trip. Michelle’s internet access was sporadic at best, and I wasn’t getting any data service on my BlackBerry, so we were almost completely out of touch. Thank goodness for Twitter or I’d have been completely out of touch!
We arrived in Anchorage Saturday night, and drove out to Michelle’s place in Eagle River. Sunday, we went back into town and went to the Market, which is always one of my favorite things to do. We had brunch at Sourdough Mining Company (which wasn’t as good as we’d remembered), and then drove to Wasilla to stay with Michelle’s folks in the Valley. (Yes, it’s that Wasilla – where Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin is from.)
Monday we drove to Talkeetna, and got an awesome view of Denali from the Talkeetna Lodge. Robert was impressed with the, um, uniqueness, of the little town. We spent Monday night in the Valley again, and tried to find the Windy Valley Musk Ox Farm. We gave up when we realized that Ruthie’s little Buick wasn’t suited for the gravel road, but we found this awesome view along the way. Doesn’t this photo make you want to start singing “The Sound of Music?” Absolutely gorgeous.
Tuesday we did the Valley yarn crawl and hit Fantastic Fibers (which used to be one of my favorites, but has definitely gone downhill), Ewe First (very ordinary), and A Tangled Skein (very cute and had some great accessories and buttons). Wednesday we drove down the Seward highway and stopped for about an hour at Potter Marsh and watched the wildlife. This golden eagle flew in and sat on this log for about 30 minutes – just posing for all the tourists to take photos. We drove on down the highway to Crow Creek Gold Mine in Girdwood (which was featured on tonight’s episode of “America’s Toughest Jobs“). Robert panned for gold, but decided not to quit his day job as he only got a few “wild” flakes at the river. When we got back into Anchorage, we hit Far North Yarn Company and Knitting Grounds, which is in a new location and a fabulous little store. Then Michelle went to dance class and Robert and I went to the Bear Tooth for pizza.
Thursday was a “do nothing” day, and Michelle’s internet was finally fixed so I caught up on some of my blog reading and Ravelry forums, and of course, we had to watch the first football game of the season. Michelle cooked deep fried fresh halibut for us and it was yummy! I got a little bit of knitting done, too.
Friday we got up at the crack of dawn to drive back to Anchorage to catch the train to Seward. We ate at Ray’s Waterfront Restaurant and had some awesome seafood chowder, and shopped in the downtown area. I found another cute little yarn store called A Flying Skein. The owner was very sweet and had some interesting hand-dyed yarns. More on my stash enhancement in another post. On the train ride back we saw lots of wildlife – bears, moose, beavers, bald eagles, salmon, ducks, and beluga whales – along with gorgeous scenery you don’t get to see when you drive the Seward highway – lots of glaciers and gorgeous mountains. the only thing we didn’t see was the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).
Saturday was our last day in Alaska, and we hit Saturday Market for its final weekend. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out until time to go to the airport. After saying goodbye to Michelle we got through security and waited for our flight. Then we heard something you never want to hear on an airport loudspeaker. First we heard this – no big deal: “Will the person missing a belt please return to airport security?” No problem – it was probably forgotten when trying to go through the metal detector. But then, ten minutes later, “Will the person missing a pair of pants please return to airport security?” Huh??
12 hours later we finally made it home, and crashed and burned. Time to catch up on sleep and recover from our relaxing vacation. Isn’t that always the way?