Vacation's Over!

 After attending Sacrament Meeting in Anchorage, we arrived at the airport for our trip home.  Goodbye Alaska.  It's been an awe inspiring experience.  We are grateful for the amazingly beautiful world God created for us to enjoy!  Alaska renders the "big bang theory" absurd.

 It's back to work for the two of us.  Steve flew to Denver on Tuesday and I was back to my broker meetings, showing homes, following up with builders, title people, lenders, etc.  Our market has slowed down to a more sustainable pace.  Sellers are getting frustrated again, but you can't sustain the flurry of homes being sold within a week and having multiple offers.  Interest rates and the celebrations in July have taken care of that problem. I have also been busy helping some "old" friends with needs.  I'm so happy that I can help out.
The best part of the week was the arrival of Jen, Will & June from China.  After a very long trip and a lot of hassle for Jen with flight cancellations, it was joyous to meet them at the airport!  Hurrah!  They arrived safe, sound and exhausted.  (Well Jen was exhausted, but the kids were rejuvenated when they deplaned.)

 The kids have grown so much in just a few short months.  It is so delightful to play with them and catch their zest for life.  They flew in on Thursday afternoon and Steve arrived Friday morning.  I worked Friday morning while Jen visited her parents and then Friday afternoon we drove them south to her sister's house for a few days of fun and visiting.  Then we went over to Grandma Ann's to pick up a bed, dresser and buffet that belonged to my Dad and Aloha and hauled those up north.  (Here come the Clampetts again).  Hilary is going to put the bedroom furniture to use in the basement so there will be more sleeping options for family members the next few weeks.  Ann is downsizing so we have been working on sorting and removing Dad's stuff.

 Jenna brought Jameson over early Saturday morning since her mother was on a "ride" and her dad was at a scout campout.  He loved licking the jam off his bagel.  He's such a cute character.

 Our new stake did a fantastic job of commemorating the 24th of July.  They had a delicious chicken dinner with home baked rolls, salads and corn on the cob.  Then they had pioneer activities for the families that included rag doll making, lavender wand weaving, ice cream making in a bag, watermelon eating contest, etc.  We were pretty impressed and glad it was only 99 degrees instead of 105 like our home to the south.

 We love our northern home.  They finished the sprinkler system this week.  The yard appears to be ready for final grade and hydro seeding.  We hauled some more boxes up from the barn and worked at organizing my sewing room.  It's coming along.  Every day is "discovery day" when we are up here.

 They installed our new lamp posts in front and back.  The front light goes on automatically at dusk which we like for safety reasons.  The back light is on a switch and not operable yet.

 We LOVE our yellow sheets.  You can see that I have patched them several times.  I have tried different options to no avail.  Yesterday, I tried one more time. One of our kids' high school friend's has a son selling sheets for his baseball fundraiser.  I decided for $30 to give it a try.  Voila!  We like them.  They are a microfiber/cotton blend. The yellow sheets will be our backup now. 

 Here are the holes the landscapers dug this week for our mini orchard.  We are going to plant nine fruit trees behind the little red barn.  I can hardly wait to go tree shopping.  We will probably plant them in September.

1700 Mile Alaskan Loop!

 We started our 2-day loop drive at North Pole, Alaska just southeast of Fairbanks.  It is a cute little town with a large, Santa Clause House gift shop.  Santa greeted us warmly and gave us information to help us find the roadhouse with renown pie.  The reindeer were safely resting in shade behind the double wire fence.

 Our next stop was another look at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline which follows the Richardson Highway all the way south to Valdez.  Our goal for the day is to make it to Valdez on the coast and see as much as we can in between.

 The mountains and scenery were spectacular.  When we got farther south, we stopped by the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Visitors' Center.  It is the nation's largest park with 13.2 million acres and nine of North America's sixteen highest peaks.  The park itself is only accessible by two dirt roads which enter the area for only a short distance.  If people want to go into the park, they need to pay tour companies to take them in with special equipment or see it from the air.

 This is a little Native Village we drove around. There are various tribes throughout Alaska.  It is doubt that this area could have been explored or settled at all without their help and expertise.

 Here is a fishingwheel used by the natives for their sustenance fishing. Steve always loves machinery.

 We had another delicious dinner with a salmon sandwich and wonderful seafood chowder at this restaurant in the Copper River Valley. It is one of the lodges and restaurants owned and managed by Princess Cruiselines.

 Just north of Valdez we crossed over Thompson Pass and saw fabulous glaciers including Worthington Glacier and amazing waterfalls.  Valdez is a quaint little harbor town where the fishing is king.  It is also the port where the pipeline ends and the oil is put on ships for further transport. 

 We hoped to see the salmon coming to spawn but the tides were out.  We did see bald eagles and otters on the receding tidal areas.

 There are lots of churches in this small town including this LDS chapel.

 As we walked around the harbor in the morning, we saw a family cleaning their salmon catch at a local cleaning station. 

 The weather was perfect on Friday-sunny and in the 70's.  This enabled us to see the mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, etc. without clouds.  When we woke up this morning in Valdez, it was totally cloudy.  We were so happy we had arrived the evening before when we could see the mountains all around us.  It is a beautiful little harbor inlet. We had to head back about 160 miles on the same road.  We left Valdez in the clouds and ran into dense fog on top of Thompson Pass.  As soon as we started down the pass and broker through the fog, we had instant sunshine.  It lasted the rest of the day.  The change was so sudden, it was a shock. For the next 6 hours as we circled back towards Anchorage, we saw a many, many bicycle riders.  There was a 400 mile ride going on.  We don't know how long they have been riding.  The mountain climbs were extremely challenging.  We just kept thinking of family members who like to bike.  It looked so difficult to us.

 We were told by one of the road construction flaggers, yesterday to be sure to stop at the Freeze in Glennallen.  So on our way back to Anchorage, we stopped for a shake.  We laughed that they serve hamburgers and food.  Steve thought the shake was okay, but not great.  The price was great.  Things are really expensive in Alaska.

 I loved the many fuscia colored wildflowers that were along the roadways.  Steve laughed that I took so many pictures trying to get even one that showed the brilliance and consistency of the flowers.  This one doesn't do that, but at least you can see them on both sides of the road at the same time.

 One of our favorite places which as little town about 30 miles east of Wasilla, named Palmer.  We stopped at their local visitors center.  They were having an art and garden festival.  It was really delightful.  I would have loved to purchase some of their starter plants for my garden.  I figure if they will grow in Alaska, they will grow in the foothills of home.

 Rhubarb is a very popular plant here.  Apparently it is hardy and grows well.  They make a lot of pies and other baked goods with it.  I resisted the temptation to purchase a cookbook but I really liked the the tart/sweet flavor of the pie I had.

 Steve saw a lot of old equipment displayed around the visitors' center.  There were several items he used as a boy growing up.  He remembered using a similar fertilizer spreader so I made him pose for a picture so the kids and grandkids could see one.

When we arrived back in Anchorage, we checked out the marketplace again but they were closing up.  We went to Earthquake Park which commemorates the devastating earthquake of 1964 which completely destroyed Steward and Valdez and did serious damage to Anchorage.  It was peaceful place and a nice way to end our visit to Alaska.  It was also crowded with mosquitoes which we are happy to leave behind.  We've had a wonderful trip but I know Steve is tired from all of the driving.  Alaska is a big state.  Our pictures don't do justice to the exquisite beauty we have seen. We are really grateful that we got to see so much of this incredible state.  However, I think that we are ready for home!