GLACIER LANDING

GLACIER LANDING

  

 Alaska offers so many opportunities for exciting things to do and places to explore.  Our country's largest mountain is one of America's popular attractions.  It's common name is Mt McKinley, named for one of our American Presidents.  However, it has been called Mt Denali for many many years by the natives of Alaska.  There is a movement by the people of Alaska to have the mountain officially called Mt Denali.  The family of McKinley, of course, oppose this change, so the battle continues on both sides.

   Denali National Park is also the largest  National Park in our Nation, as well.  I believe it has 14 of the highest mountains in the USA, besides Mt Denali, the highest.  One can fly for many miles seeing nothing but snow covered mountains.  It is quite a sight!
   One of the things I wanted to do from the time I first read about it, was to fly into the mountains and do a Glacier landing.  Thus, Ron Pinkerton and I found ourselves laying $389.00 on the barrelhead for this opportunity.
   Talkeetna is a primary hub for Alaska adventures.  We arrived early for our 11:00 AM flight.  Our destination today will be the Ruth Glacier, a flat, snow covered Glacier a half mile wide and about 4 miles long.
   The flat, glaciated valley approaching the mountain range was mostly uninhabited. There were a handful of private cabins in the lush green tundra, dotted by a myriad of ponds, lakes and streams.  This area is best traveled in the winter when snow and ice covered the vegetation and freezes the water.  ATV's and dog sleds are popular as transportation into this area.  The cabins are primitive with no electricity.
  The tundra began to change to remnants of receding glaciers.  Eight passengers and one Pilot were on board this small single engine prop driven plane.  The landing gear was equipped with a pair of skis designed for landing on snow.  We sailed around varying heights of steep sided peaks and spires.   Flying in and around the mountains is difficult to describe.  It was beautiful.  Photographs failed to truly capture this experience and mere words cannot adequately describe it.
   This was an impressive experience and, I believe, was the high point of my Alaskan experience.

ANCHORAGE

ALASKA - 2015

To ANCHORAGE

Once again the Thomas' begin another adventure. ALASKA is our 50th State!  Yes, I know it's really our 49th State, but this is our 50th state to visit!  
The Pinkerton's arrived last night from Arkansas. They have been fellow traveling companions on many of our adventures.  

We boarded an Alaska Airlines Aztec flight to

Seattle on the first leg of our Alaskan Adventure. (Just FYI in case you rent a car in Anchorage!)

ALASKA - DAY 1:

Our room at the Marriott gave us a great view of the parking lot. The mountains outside of Anchorage were on the other side, though they were partially obscured by a bad case of haze. After the free breakfast at Marriott we hailed a Taxi and 

headed to the Hertz car rental office downtown Anchorage. We had already reserved our sedan for the week at a much cheaper price than if we had rented from Hertz at the airport office. In fact, in a later conversation Debby had with p airport agent, he said, "You got a very good price!" (Just F in case you rent a car in Anchorage!) The downtown office was supposed to open at 0800; we arrived about 0900. The agent was not there. After several phone calls and an hour of waiting around, the man finally showed up and made some lame excuse for not being there at 0800.

A half hour later we had our car loaded and we were on the road. Our first stop was to Walmart where we bought a case of water and other necessary supplies.  

So we headed back to the car. At this point we were about two and one half hours behind schedule. Once behind the wheel, Ron decided he should have made a stop at the bathroom and got out of the car. I decided to go with him. As we walked across the parking lot, I heard Debby and Nancy laughing hysterically. I turn around to comment, "Never pass up a bathroom!" They were still laughing as they also followed us to the bathrooms.

So about 3 hours later than we intended, we set the GPS and headed towards Denali. A half hour down the road we doubted if the GPS was right and so we turned around and headed back towards Anchorage. A half hour later we realized the GPS was smarter than the 4 of us put together, so we turned back around...another half hour wasted. *Sigh.

We decided to stop in Wasilla, home of Sarah Palin, to have lunch. Somehow, along the way we missed the turn. *Sigh.

Towards the end of town, we spied a burger joint and pulled in hoping we picked a good place. I don't believe any of us were impressed but we made it work.

Continuing on Highway 3 towards Highway 1, we watched the woods and meadows, even the ponds of water, expecting to see a lot of wildlife. We saw two birds...a Raven and a Sea Gull, I think. *sigh.

We passed the town of Willow and the Talkeetna turnoff. There was a lot of road construction going on, causing us several delays all the way to Denali. Apparently, Alaska land moves and shifts enough to cause the highways to buckle.

We finally arrived at the Princess Lodge, where we would spend our second night. *Whew!

Disneyland 2015

Disneyland 2015

Disneyland 2015

Although it had been a while since our last visit to the Magic Kingdom, we had no trouble adjusting to the excitement.  

The planning stages for a trip to Disneyland began before the Thanksgiving dinner dishes were done.  We wanted to surprise our six year old Great Granddaughter, Melody.  After all, no grandparent in their right mind would ever dream of telling a little kid about going to Disneyland too far in advance, else the daily onslaught of excitement and questions would drive a codger crazy.

We had a great plane ride to Long Beach. Deb and I had invited our grandson, Dawson, to come along, too.  We figured two kids would be better than one in case we couldn't ride all the scary Tea Cup type rides with her.

The jetBlue Airlines provided the best flying times, as well as the best price. This is one of our two favorite airlines to fly as it seems to have more room than other planes. Debby sat with the two grandkids and I was in the first seat across the aisle. Next to me was a couple on their way to Cypress. The husband sat next to the window and worked on being a humorist. He leaned over as I was trying to read the words on the video/audio controller on the arm rest, telling me to be careful, that if I pressed the center button the wing would fall off. His wife laughed. A few minutes later, not to be outdone, I held up the barf bag and asked if they "have any extras because I only have one?" They looked at me nervously before figuring out I was only jerking their chain.

Our minivan ride from the Long Beach Airport was uneventful and our driver was talkative. That made the trip go faster. We gave him an extra dollar tip. He dropped us off in front of our motel in good order. We put our luggage in a storage room and headed across the street to the Disneyland entrance. This was our first of three days.

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Our time there passed quickly. Our Park Hopper passes allowed us to enjoy both Disneyland and California Adventures. According to our step counters, we walked several miles every day. One thing was for certain, we were exhausted every evening!

Our fourth day did not include the Park. My cousin came and picked us up for a time of visiting. We headed for Ruby's, at the end of the pier at Huntington Beach. We watched the surfers and had lunch. The kids got to play in the sand for a little while. The weather began to change. Dark clouds were blowing in from the south and I could smell the rain coming. We load up and went to my cousin's house for a little while before he took us to the Long Beach Airport, where we were scrutinized, X-rayed, photographed, fingerprinted and searched as we went through Security. I guess we fit the terrorist profile.

MOUNTAIN HOME, IDAHO

It was an easy drive from Park City, Utah to Mountain Home, Idaho.  Alan reminded us that the freeway through Salt Lake City would be hot, crowded and uneventful; that beginning our route by heading East on I-80 towards Ogden would provide a more scenic drive.  He was absolutely right.  The mountains were very scenic with amazing vistas.

We especially enjoyed the formation called The Devil's Slide, a twin projection of what appeared to be granite rock protruding perhaps 20 feet into the air, resembling a double spine cascading down the mountainside.

We were excited to stop and see our Niece and her family in Mountain Home. They had just finished a birthday party when we arrived.  This was the first time that Little Alice and Rosie had seen each other. They both hit it off and were inseparable the remainder of our visit.

It was great to be with this part of our family!  Carrie and David welcomed us and made us feel at home. We spent the evening visiting and catching up on things. George and Nolan, their two boys were out of town attending The Hawks baseball game when we arrived.  We slept in Nolan's Queen-sized bed and he bunked in with George on a spare bunk. The next morning we were sitting on the back deck in the cool of the morning sipping our second cup of coffee when Nolan came out. I thanked him for letting us sleep in his comfy bed.  I said it was so nice that we've decided to stay a while.  In a heartbeat he hung his head and said, "Awwww".

Today was Sunday.  We spruced up, packed our Sienna and went to church with them.  As the local preacher was out of state with family concerns, David had offered to preach this day.  We enjoyed his talk and felt good that we could be here on this particular date to hear him.

Following services we invited the family out to lunch at Cracker Barrel in Boise.  We had a great meal at one of our favorite stops.  We had fun buying the kids a little toy in the gift shop and snapping some family photos.

It was a sad time for Alice and Melody trying to say goodbye.  They had attached themselves so much in such a short time.

We left Boise in the early afternoon.  The closer we got to Portland, the more we wanted to forget about an overnight Campout somewhere and head home.  Well, that's exactly what we did after stopping for ice cream at the DQ.

It was great to drive into Portland and know we were finally home. We had a great trip that covered more than 6,200 miles.  But it was great seeing our Portland families again and feeling like we were really "home".

Park City, UT July 4

It was about 4:30 when we arrived in Park City, checked in with security at the gated community entrance and parked in JoAnne's driveway. It was great seeing her again.  JoAnne and I were in high school in Kansas together.  We both had recently attended our 50th Reunion party at the old school, but it was good to see her in her own environment.

JoAnne and Alan had been invited to a neighborhood 4th of July party and had invited us as well.  The hosts were very nice Texans up for the summer.  The community association had spent all day setting up a fireworks display.  As guests arrived, catered food of Ribs, Chicken and Brisket was set up along with salads and other goodies.

The fireworks were awesome!  We had the best viewpoint one could have had!  The kids had a fire below the edge of our deck, on the ground, where they made S'mores. Rosie enjoyed playing with a little girl her age.  She loved the fire and the water fountain. But when the fireworks started, all eyes were on the sky.

We spent the night in the guest bedroom, that rivals one in a five star hotel. It was spacious and comfortable.  The balcony offered amazing views of the unique, UINTA MOUNTAINS and sprawling valley floor that resembles a huge cauldron, home to this beautiful development. The early morning sunrise was a spectacular display of blood red sky pushing through spotted gray clouds with ever increasing intensity. It was as if God was displaying His own 5th of July fireworks!

Rosie enjoyed getting to know JoAnne's two long haired cats, Pepi and Bucky, as well as irritating them by paying with their toys. She thought the cats were very special to have such cool toys!

Following a relaxing morning over coffee and breakfast, we ventured into their secluded back yard with amazing views of the Wasatch Mountains. Wild flowers are still in bloom on the hillside and signs of Mule Deer and Elk still visible on the animal trail.

We leisurely loaded our bug splattered Sienna, (it's amazing how many suicidal bugs hang around on the Midwestern freeways), and set our GPS for Mountain Home, ID.

Denver, CO to Glenwood Springs

Having made plans to spend July 2nd with my Nephew, Tim and Rebecca, but being delayed for 8 hours going back to pick up our Great Granddaughter, Rosie, it would prove to be too late to barge in on them for the night.  We opted to stay in a Motel in Aurora.

The next morning we arose early, packed the car, had breakfast and drove the half hour to Tim and Rebecca's. We had a great visit, but short.

We left Tim's and headed for Casa Bonita, a souped up Mexican Restaurant with okay food but better than okay entertainment. This was where we had lunch the day we adopted our son, Eric, from the adoption agency.

The place was still the same as we remembered from 1975, even the food was the same, leftovers I suppose.  Just kidding!  Casa Bonita never serves left overs.  We sat in a portion of the dining room where the Cliff Diver does his dive into the pool of water.  The pool is surrounded by dining tables in a half circle fashion.  It used to be Casa's policy to comp your lunch if the diver got you wet. There were two other shows on the cliff-side stage.  One was a gunfight with the Sheriff and Black Bart, the bad guy.

Leaving Casa Bonita, we headed out of town, along with two-thirds of Denver on their way to the mountains. We chose poorly.  It took us 2 hours to travel the first 10 miles!

Our choice of highway took us North and West into snow covered mountains, down through the Glenwood Canyon and to the City of Glenwood Springs.  We stayed the night in the Best Western Motel and enjoyed their swimming pool, hot tub and playground. We sat on the porch during morning coffee watching the cable cars go up the mountain.

We left Glenwood Springs the morning of July 4 heading for Park City, Utah to spend the night with our friends, Alan and JoAnne.

SNAFU KANSAS

Things were going along pretty normal.  We made plans to stay overnight tonight in Littleton, CO with my Nephew, Tim.  We spent last night in a nice motel in Russell, KS; very comfortable, clean and quiet. This morning, their free breakfast bar had all you could want including made-to-order omlets.  It was very good!  So, if you find yourself traveling across the Kansas prairie on I-70 and you need a cool place to lay your head, try the Fossil Creek Hotel and Suites in Russell, KS.

But I digress; back to SNAFU KANSAS.  Little Rosie (remember Rosie?), was in need of a rescue; a hero who would ride in on a white steed and take her back to Portland.  That would be her Great Papa and Grammy who were more than 5 hours West.  After a few conversations with Little Rosie's keepers, we turned around, headed East, meeting her grandma halfway to pick up Rosie and her things, turn around and continue our trip.

We stopped in a couple of hours and had a picnic.  Rosie is sad that she had to leave Oklahoma and couldn't stay with her Mom and Grandma until August 23rd. A very sad little girl we have.  She fell asleep after our picnic and slept for most of 200 miles. A tired little girl.

Snafu 1.....calling my nephew to cancel our arrival in Littleton.
Snafu 2.....turn ing around and doing the hokey pokey for 8 hours.
Snafu 3.....canceling our Banff, Canada trip.
Snafu 4.....explaining adult drama to a 6-year old and helping her understand that nothing is her fault without actually calling her mom and grandma names.

Into each life a little Snafu must fall.