Talkeetna trip

Greetings from Anchorage! We made it!

We began our trip Monday morning. We left home at about 8 a.m., after getting Kaitlyn off to school. My dad had driven up to Snowflake with my mom Sunday night so that he could drive back down to the airport with us and then drive our truck to his house. Me made it to the airport close to noon and had lunch there before boarding our plane to Seattle. We had a good, sometimes bumpy 3 hour ride...but it was so cool to look out the window as we flew over the Grand Canyon....or the Snake river...or Mt. Rainer. I loved seeing all the trees and just couldn't get over how green everything is there! SO pretty! We had a hour lay over...which was GOOD because we were told that our gate number was changed...so we took the tram over to the other terminal...only to find out that the gate was back at the terminal we were originally at....so we took the tram back and still had time to grab a bite to eat before boarding our plane at 6 p.m. The flight from Seattle to Anchorage was about 2 1/2 hours out over the Pacific Ocean. Let me tell you...I paid extra close attention when they went over all the pre-flight safety stuff...and I read the pamphlet and tried to memorize what to do if we had to land in the ocean! :) It was very cloudy....so that's about all we could see...clouds and we weren't by a window for this flight...a man watching cartoons on his lap top was.....but as we got closer to Anchorage, we could see the shore lines and mountains......we landed, got our luggage and took the shuttle here to our hotel....the Howard Johnson....not the nicest hotel or most comfortable bed...but it's a place to lay our heads! It's SO strange for it to not get dark until around 10 p.m.!

So...we got up this morning, walked down and bought a quick breakfast at a cafe down the road and then we boarded a bus to go on our group tour. (We are with the "Fun For Less" tour group....most of the people are from Utah. There is a couple from Riverside, CA (that's near where I grew up) and another couple with the last name of Barrett...which is my maiden name.) ANYHOW...the average age on the bus was about 60! Maybe not....but Brandon and I+ his siblings + in laws are the youngest people. We drove through Wasilla(sp?), that's where Sarah Palin is from...we saw her house across the lake. I told Brandon that we're going to move there...they have a Target...and it's so pretty there...what more could you want from a place? Well...we didn't stop in Wasilla. We keep on driving...and all of a sudden the tour guide and bus driver were all excited and telling us to look out the window to our left because "You can see Denali". Well....I had no clue what they were talking about. BUT...they finally explained to us about Denali...aka, Mt. McKinley. It is a mountain and it has the highest peak in North America. They told us that it is so high it creates it's own weather and it is usually hidden in the clouds and only 20-30 percent of all the summer visitors get to see it. So...we snapped a few pictures...then continued on to Talkeetna. (I love all the Alaskan town names!) In Talkeetna, we visited a gift shop then took the bus down to the river....I am not sure what the name was....but we boarded these jet boats and took a river tour. (OH...and by the way...we got very little rain...just some sprinkles...the weather today was beautiful...so glad the forecast was wrong!) The water in the river is mostly from glacier run off. The glaciers melt in the summer and help feed the river. So the water was like 38 degrees. But the boat was covered...sort of like a green house...lots of windows on the sides and ceiling....so it was warm in there. So anyways...we rode up the river a ways...stopping to look at the bald eagle...speeding past a bear in the bushes...(I guess we were supposed to yell out when we saw some wild life and they'd stop the boat to look at it...but we didn't know that so by the time the guide heard that we'd seen a bear...it was too late to go back.)....then we saw a huge bald eagles nest up in the trees. I think they said it's been there for 10-15 years....I don't remember...but it was big...way up at the top of a tree. Then we docked and went on a little trail tour. We saw replicas of places and things the natives to the area would have used only about 110 years ago. Then we saw a trappers cabin and cache. I have pictures...but no USB cord...I of course forgot to pack it...but oh well. Then we got on the boat again and zipped back down the river and disembarked! Oh! I forgot to say that when we were on the little trail tour...our guide carried a shot gun...which I was very glad for because I was having a hard time trying to figure out a way to use my camera to defend myself from a bear! Did you know that if a brown bear is after you...you can climb a tree to get away...but if it's a black bear...then you better try to put up a fight because they will climb the tree to get you. ANYHOW.... By now it was about 2 p.m.. The tour bus took us to the Talkeetna Lodge...which is a really nice place with a great view of a mountain range...plus we also ate lunch but had to hurry so that we could get to the Iditarod Headquarters. We got there and took a little one minute loop pulled by a dog sled team. There's no snow right now...so the dogs pull a 4 seater big wheeled "sled". Those dogs are fast and powerful! All of the dogs that pulled us have been in Iditarod race before. The Iditarod is the dog race that goes from Willow, AK to Nome...it is about 1100 miles long. The fastest time was about 8 days and some odd hours+minutes. We also watched a little video about the race...and it looks like a grueling race! Our tour guide said it cost about $4000 to compete in the race...but if you're the first to Nome, you win about $100,000....plus they have prizes for those who are first to the different check points. They said that the dogs run about 100 miles a day!... After Willow, we boarding the bus again and came back to the hotel. We spent a LOT of time on the bus today. Oh! We also saw a full rainbow from the bus!.....(back to what I was saying)....This seems to be a very nice group to tour with as far as friendly people go. We all took turns introducing ourselves while we were on the bus. There were 40-50 of us on there...and that's half our group. The rest are coming today. SO...we got here, to Anchorage...then a bunch of us family went to look for a place to eat dinner. Food is NOT cheap here! We walked a ways and found Uncle Joe's Pizza. I had the best pizza ever! It was so yummy with this creamy garlicky ranch sauce instead of marinara and it also had broccoli and tomato...which doesn't really sound good...but it was SOOO good. Then we went to JCPenny (there's a mall close to our hotel) and got a back pack because that's another thing we forgot to bring and it'll really come in handy when we are at port and able to go one shore.

SO....it's probably time for me to get ready for bed. It's 11 p.m. We have to get our luggage out the be stowed on the bus by 9 a.m. tomorrow morning...then we will have until 12:30 p.m. until we take the bus over to Whittier, AK where we will board our ship!

I have talked to the kids a few times. They are having fun with Grandma. She took them shopping yesterday and bought patterns and material for their Halloween costumes. Kaitlyn is going to be a cowgirl. Addie, who has been saying she wants to be a witch, changed her mind, and she's going to be a fairy....and Weston is going to be a cowboy. My mom is so excited to make their costumes...and I think she already has then cut out. That woman is AMAZING I tell ya!

Well...I am going to go get ready for bed! Sorry there are no pictures...but I will post them as soon as we get home...in a week!

Take Care!