Debates...Alaska Style

An online newspaper here (Alaska Dispatch) posted this picture on Twitter last night and the caption was:

An Alaskan photo of the presidential debate

Image via

It made me laugh.

So of course I had to share.

Our Denali Road Lottery Adventure

We headed out on our adventure yesterday after church.  It rained the whole way to Denali National Park.  5 hours and 300 miles of rain did not give us a lot of hope.  (The road permit is only good if the road is actually open...)  But we had a great time hanging out together, and seeing the fall colors in the rain.  Or what was left of them at least.

We stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort.  And hearing the wind howl all night made us extra glad we decided not to camp in the park.

We woke up early so we could get a good head start getting our road permit.  Just as we pulled onto the Wilderness Access Road, we realized the road wasn't bad.  The bumpiness we were experiencing was from a flat shredded tire.

Great.

We were in my dad's Mazda MPV.  We knew it had a spare.  But we had no idea where the jack was.  I called my dad.  He didn't know either.  I called roadside assistance.  They didn't even know how to spell Denali.  Luke used to power of google to find that the jack and tire iron were actually hidden alongside the passenger seat.  We held our breath and hoped and prayed the spare tire had air in it.

Phew.  It did.

Luke did all the hard work.  I asked if I could help, and he said I could help by documenting.  So I did!

Lowering the spare.

Removing the carnage

Carnage up close 

Wilderness Access Center in the background...so close yet so far away

Putting the shredded tire away

The spare

After that we were worried something would happen if we ended up going into the park.  And we were all out of extra tires.  We went in the Access Center to see what kind of services the Park Rangers could give us-if needed-in the park.  It turned out that the Park Road was mostly closed.  You could only go to Teklanika.  So then we had to decide if it was worth paying $45 to go 10 miles into the park on a blustery day such as this.  We decided that we wouldn't buy our permit and we would only drive to Savage River (where anyone can go...no permit needed).

We saw some beautiful scenery.

Our cracked front view

The sun even came out for awhile!

Oh and we did get to see some wildlife...

On the way home I slept...and sneaky Luke took some pics...

The colors don't look as bright in the pictures as they did in real life!

And this is the sneakiest picture of all...

We stopped in Talkeetna to eat at the Roadhouse on the way home.  It was delicious!  And after that, I stayed awake. :)

Moosen in the News-en

When's the last time you've seen an albino moose?

I didn't even know there was such a thing as an albino moose!

This is from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

 I think it's kinda creepy looking...but it will have great camouflage when it's snowy out...

Reindeer and Bison and Moose and Elk...Oh my!

Our friend Lauren (from Colorado) came to visit us!  Hooray!  She got in late last night, so the fun didn't officially start until today.

Our first stop was the Reindeer Farm in Palmer.

We got to feed the younger reindeer some pellets of some kind...hay pellets?  I know it wasn't grain.  Anyway, whatever it was, they loved it!

Begging for food

Luke and Lauren feeding the reindeer

It was hard not to drop the cups of food!

"see...I don't have anymore food..." 

And then we got to feed a bison.  It's a woods bison.  (meaning it's not as big as a plains bison...it's still pretty big tho!)  I think her name is Dolly...but I can't remember for sure.

And then we got to meet Denali the moose.  He loves willows and kisses and long walks along the beach.

Luke opted for the petting the nose...instead of the kisses.

He looked hard core with his velvet shedding like that!

They also have elk at the farm.

 We took our chances and fed them some grass.

They loved it!  And we didn't get bitten!

Hatcher Pass Take 2

This weeks group hike was at Independence Mine in Hatcher Pass.  (See I told you that you would be hearing about that place again...)

It was a beautiful day for a hike!  And on the way home I stopped to gather more fireweed because fireweed jelly is SO SO SO delicious!

Hoary Marmot...I call it a "mine chuck" tho.  (Rock chucks live in rock piles.  Wood chucks live in wood piles.  Mine chucks live in mines.  Genius, right?)

Hiking up the hill

The kids did some extra curricular exploring...off of the main path

It looks like they are on top of the world! 

Looking down the valley.  What a beautiful view!

I looked for gold in the stream, but I didn't find any.

Now it's time to make 2 more batches of fireweed jelly.  I'm just lucky that I was able to find Sure Jell.  I think there are a bunch of Sure Jell hoarders here in Alaska.  But I'm no better than the rest...when I finally found some (at the 3rd store I went to) I bought all they had.

If you can't beat them, join them.  And then you can enjoy the delicious jelly!  :)

And now I know I need to stock up on Sure Jell early...