Rick let me know that next Tuesday evening, weather permitting, they will fly up to Anderson Lake airport and pick up Peggy! That would be really accommodating, but if weather does not allow an Anderson Lake landing, Peggy and I would drive to the Birchwood Airport, just northeast of Anchorage, to catch the ride.
We did some light shopping today. I picked up oil so I can change the pickup's oil, a tube of chalk to replace a tube I had borrowed from Grant, and a few groceries.
Peggy made reservations for us to take the Alaska Railroad roundtrip from Anchorage to Seward for July 2! We will have about a 6 hour layover in Seward to explore the town and its sights. This will take us farther into the Kenai Peninsula than we've been with our trip to Hope, AK, which is at the very northern part. Seward is on the mid-eastern coast of the Kenai. Again, we're excited to take the RR. This will be Peggy's longest train trip ever. What a lucky girl! :o)
June 23 Happy anniversary to my beloved wife of 40 years! To start the celebrating we went out for breakfast at the Windjammer/Trout House in Wasilla. We had nothing specific planned for the day. Just being in Alaska is more than enough to keep us mesmerized. Other than that, it was a leisurely day with some TV, grilling, visiting with Grant and Debby, and a walk around the neighborhood.
Today's Photos Uploaded to Picasa
June 24 The day started out fairly typically. Peggy was cleaning with sporadic assistance from me when the phone rang. It was Rick Moore, a friend of ours and former colleague from my teaching days at Westbrook Middle School. Rick was in Anchorage visiting his brother and wanted to know if we'd be around. Yes, come on up to Wasilla!
It was fun to spend the afternoon catching up and meeting Tony, Rick's brother. Late in the day we went to the Noisy Goose and had dinner.
Tomorrow weather permitting a pilot who Tony is acquainted with will take Rick, Tony, and Peggy on a flightseeing tour. Peggy and I will drive to the Birchwood Airport which is towards Anchorage about 25 miles from Wasilla to meet up with the Moores for Peggy's flight adventure.
Tomorrow weather permitting a pilot who Tony is acquainted with will take Rick, Tony, and Peggy on a flightseeing tour. Peggy and I will drive to the Birchwood Airport which is towards Anchorage about 25 miles from Wasilla to meet up with the Moores for Peggy's flight adventure.
What are the chances that we would meet with someone from Omaha when we are 3500 miles from home? It was great to get together!!
June 25 Peggy and I worked on planning our next excursion further into the Kenai Peninsula. It took some coordination as we needed both a campground reservation and a halibut fishing charter reservation. It took until 4:45 this afternoon to get the fishing charter confirmed. We had a campground lined up so Peggy got that confirmed also. So, on July 16 we go to Ninilchik, AK, and will stay at the Scenic View RV Park, and then on July 18, Peggy and I both go halibut fishing with Ninilchik Charters. This charter company is sponsored by Cabela's, a Nebraska outdoor equipment distributor and outfitter. Exciting!!
This afternoon we went to Palmer, AK, which is about 5 miles east of us. We went to 2 museums depicting the 1935 establishment of the Palmer Colony which was comprised of farming families from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan who volunteered to come to Palmer to start a socialist form of farming. Although the experimental socialist setup wasn't totally successful for a number of reasons, many of the families stuck it out and further accelerated the populating and agriculture of Alaska.
The first museum had a very good documentary video program on the Palmer Colony. The second museum was in an original wood frame house built in 1935 for a single family. This house had a docent who was the daughter of an original farming couple who moved from Minnesota. She was born after the family arrived in Palmer. It was nice to get her remembrances of life back then. The house was outfitted with period furniture and other furnishings. Many of the things brought back memories for Peggy and I of items that we had seen in our grandparents' homes.
On the way home we stopped at the local ice cream shop for a dish of twist- chocolate and vanilla. We watched game 2 of the College World Series finals with UCLA defeating Mississippi State for the championship.
Rick Moore and his brother went to Talkeetna this afternoon which is about 1 hour NW of Wasilla on the Parks Hwy going toward Denali NP. After their visit there was over, they drove back through Wasilla and picked up Peggy for their flightseeing tour of the Anchorage area. They are flying out of the Birchwood Airport. When the flight was over, Peggy called me to come and pick her up as the airport is only 25 miles away.
Rick Moore and his brother went to Talkeetna this afternoon which is about 1 hour NW of Wasilla on the Parks Hwy going toward Denali NP. After their visit there was over, they drove back through Wasilla and picked up Peggy for their flightseeing tour of the Anchorage area. They are flying out of the Birchwood Airport. When the flight was over, Peggy called me to come and pick her up as the airport is only 25 miles away.
- I was the lucky one to go up in the Skyhawk II Cessna. It was very nice of Tony and Rick to offer the extra seat to me. We waited until about 9:15 p.m. to take off to avoid some of the possible turbulence which resulted from the hot, humid weather of the day. John was our pilot and got us up in the air smoothly with the whole flight remaining that way. We flew over the Knik River and got to see the Knik Glacier, along with several other glaciers. John tried his best to find some animals and close to the end we hit the jackpot with moose. Think we saw close to 20 and even saw one with two calves. The two hour flight was amazing - the scenery was unbelievable!
June 26 Arrrgh! Just realized that when I combine several days together on one posting to the blog, I have the days descending, but the blog puts individual posts in ascending order. Oh, well...reader beware! :o)
Big day in my life...today I become eligible to draw Social Security! WooHoo...though I'm not filing for it yet. Oh...and that means it's my birthday.
After last night's lateness resulting from Peggy's late evening flightseeing tour of the Knik Glacier area, we got to bed around 1:00 p.m. We slept in after which Peggy whipped up a breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon to help celebrate this day.
Later in the morning we went shopping at Walgreens since it was senior citizens day. I'm still not very comfortable having to admit that I qualify! But a savings of 15-20% does help especially if there are goods that you need.
We also stopped at Target and Walmart looking for a lens cover to our camera but none were to be found. Peggy had inadvertently dropped the cover in Tony Moore's car last night. A call to Rick who is still visiting his brother in Anchorage will get the cover in the mail to us here in Wasilla.
After lunch we did a Skype with Shelly, Macy, and Halle. It was nice to have Happy Birthday sung to me, and the girls had made a happy birthday sign! Technology certainly has allowed close communications with loved ones. Doesn't seem very long ago we'd be driving around looking for a post office drop box to put a post card in!
After our Skype session we drove up to Hatcher Pass about 10 miles north of Wasilla. The scenery has really change since we were there Memorial Day weekend. (Hard to believe that that was nearly 8 weeks ago!) All the snow has melted and been replaced with green. As we neared the top of the pass, we noticed a paraglider lazily using the upslope winds to remain aloft.
We turned around at the top as the road heading west from Hatcher Pass toward Willow, AK, was still closed due to needed repairs. A short distance from the top we stopped at a pull off and watched the paraglider. We spotted another glider who was hiking up the mountain slope. Since we had camp chairs in the pickup, we sat and started watching this paraglider make his way to where he thought he'd catch the strongest updrafts. However, about the time he laid out his chute, the winds became very erratic, almost stopping at times.
So this paraglider moved further along the side of the mountain hoping for steadier winds, which he appeared to find. He was able to get is chute inflated and then with a good gust became airborne. He zigged and zagged looking for consistent winds to keep him aloft. However, the winds ebbed, and he dropped with a final swoop to the ground with enough force to cause him to do a face-plant into the ground.
But, this guy was determined. He folded up his chute and hiked back up the mountainside a short distance. Finding what he thought were favorable winds he was soon gliding again. But...Mother Nature said, "No more paragliding today." And with that the winds stopped, and he made a much more graceful landing.
It was during this time that my iPhone notified me of a missed call with a voice mail. I brought up the voice mail, and it was Becky singing Happy Birthday to me! Don't know why my phone didn't ring, but I called her back and had a nice chat.
All the while this was happening, 2 guys who themselves apparently were paragliders, got out their guitars and started playing and to some degree singing in between swallows of beer and chiding their mate on the mountainside. Maybe if I had complimented on their musicianship, they would have shared a beer with me. Alas, Peggy and I split a lukewarm Diet Coke.
Back at our home base, we waited a bit for the temps to lower. Actually it must not be the 79º as much as the humidity is quite high. Maybe the clouds we saw developing over the mountains will result in some much needed rain here in the MatSu Valley. It is dry enough that Grant and Debby are watering their yard.
Peggy found steaks in the freezer to grill to help bring a conclusion to what has been another good day in Alaska!
2 comments:
Happy Anniversary! You are special, as many people know, and this trip just shows how powerful your relationship is.
Blessings!!
Thank you, Dennis! Yes, we are blessed in many ways.
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