Dog Show

When I woke up last Friday, I noticed that there was quite a bit of activity going on outside. Looked like the parking lot was being turned into a flea market, fair, or something. Lots of booths were being setup. Turns out they were setting up for a dog show Saturday. Well, we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to let Thomas act like a puppy, so Jeannie took him out about thirty minutes before they left (show was already over, this way Thomas couldn’t interfere with the show itself). I was informed that Thomas was the worst behaved puppy there. Nonetheless he had fun, some puppies got to lick his face, and he came back (willingly I might add) with two balloons.

We started the day off with some donuts at The Moose is Loose. Figured it had to be good, they were pretty busy. Thomas liked his halibut cookie (not made with actual halibut), Jeannie liked what she picked, and my apple fritter was pretty good for the first few bites. Then we headed off to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Looked around the visitor’s center for a bit, then hiked out to the lake.

Here’s Thomas trying to get a better view.

Catherine had to take a look too.

The sky looked really strange here.

We left and headed back to Girdwood to pan for gold at Crow Creek Mine. Here’s a picture Jeannie took of me along the way. I’m holding a bottle of Pepsi Natural that she bought.

My dad has used a similar refrigerator before.

Thomas is digging while I pan for gold.

Yay, I found four flakes of gold!

We all found gold, but only when using the ziplock bags of dirt that you were guaranteed to find gold in. At least we tried! After this we headed back to Anchorage, ate at Golden Coral, then set back up at the school we’re camper hosts at. I thought the day was done, until I had to take Thomas to the playground late at night. I think it was past 11PM when we got back to the RV.

Finally made it to Seward today. Stopped at a Safeway to get some groceries, the visitor center to see what there was to do, then on to a new playground that had just been built. Thomas really played it up.

Thomas and Catherine played in the “sandbox” (actually really fine rocks that the glacier had ground up).

The view behind the playground (just past some trees).

After we ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we went back to the playground for a bit. Then it was back in the RV for Thomas’s nap. I walked around the campground that was right next to the playground, but couldn’t find a spot worth paying for (it was either $15/night for a spot next to the ocean with no hookups, or $30/night for a spot with hookups but no view). We decided to start heading back. Along the way we stopped at a bridge that went out to a pond with lots of lily-pads.

Since we were way ahead of schedule, we decided to take a detour to Soldotna. We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant, then parked at a Fred Meyer’s for the night. We caught up on some shopping while there. For those back home, Fred Meyer’s is kinda like a Super Wal-Mart, except possibly bigger. They’re also owned by Kroger’s. This particular store had a lot of parking for RVs, and even had a dump station and dumpster they could use (don’t think any Wal-Marts have this).

We started the day at the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. Took the tram to the top of the mountain. Jeannie didn’t know if she could make it back, I pointed out that they had trails going down the mountain if she preferred. She did end up taking the tram back.

Thomas and I played in the snow in July.

Thomas had just hit me in the face with a snowball.

A view of the trams in action.

This was the position Thomas was in for most of the trip back down.

Once Thomas woke up from his nap, we stopped at a lake for him to play in. If you look closely you can see that he was splashing us.

Next we hiked up to Exit Glacier, just outside of Seward. Here’s a family picture, it was pretty windy next to the glacier.

Another windy picture.

Our view for the night.

Catherine’s first piece of pizza.

We took a short trip to Seward and back. Along the way we also stopped at Girdwood and Soldotna. Unfortunately we don’t have any of the pictures from our main camera (Pentax K10D) for the first one and a half days, as I didn’t have the memory card installed (it still happily focused and snapped pictures the entire time). We don’t have pictures of the actual turnout we boondocked in the first night, but here’s some pictures from a turnout a couple miles up the road we also stopped at.

Cute family picture. Had to take quite a few pictures with Thomas crawling all over the rock until I finally caught him being still AND facing the camera.

The things Jeannie puts Catherine through.

Thomas on his tricycle

Thomas watched a train go by.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center has some indoor exhibits, a stage where people will sing/dance and tell stories, and outside they have several sections describing the different native tribes in Alaska.

Here’s Thomas trying to figure out how to make it rain.

I believe this was an emergency exit tunnel for one of the underground buildings. We had to crawl up and down several times.

Thomas treed his first squirrel.

There’s a playground about 5-10 minutes from the RV (about five minutes to get there, but Thomas walks a bit slower on the way back). We’re parked in a high school parking lot, and the playground is part of the elementary school next door.

This is only part of it, behind it is a jumper (basically something you get on and jump) and some swings. There’s also a basketball court, more swings, monkey bars, and a rope ladder/net that Thomas likes to climb sometimes.

There’s also a hill that Thomas likes to roll down.

Last year we saw our first glacier. This year we actually walked on one.

Starting the long hike.

This was about as far as we were allowed to go. It was extremely slippery the last 50-75 feet.

Catherine was happy.

Thomas wanted to touch the glacier water.

This was probably the highlight for Thomas.

The view from the parking lot.

Here’s the boundary between Canada and the US (Yukon and Alaska). Thomas wasn’t quite ready to leave Canada.

We compromised and let Thomas be in Canada and the US at the same time.

Here’s Catherine split down the middle.

Alaska!

Here’s some more pictures from the Alaska Highway.

Just hangin’ around.

There are turnouts everywhere, and many have great views. Every night except for one we’d simply pull over, get some sleep, and head out in the morning.

Wish we could have overnighted here, but we were heading for a proper RV park a bit up the road (they had a playground, which Thomas really needed).

Here’s a buffalo that was grazing next to the road.

We’re in the Yukon!

One of the turnouts that we overnighted at. This picture was taken at around 12:25AM Pacific Time (we weren’t quite in Alaska yet).

The view from the turnout.