Following the Fosters to Alaska: ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

As we left Denali heading toward Anchorage,

…to our delight, the color continued.

However, it faded somewhat the closer to Anchorage we got. Just couldn’t match the color in Denali.

Traffic picked up as we neared the city.

The caravan was totally taken off guard by the Greeter in Anchorage who was prepared to park their RV’s. One gal said she got whiplash when she saw him(?)….others kept their comments to themselves…probably a wise decision…

(When Don and I married 26 years ago, he promised me he would take me to the Ballet. If he thinks he has now fulfilled his promise, he has another think coming!!)

One man, not part of our group, came out of his RV, with a camera to take a picture and commented, “My wife is not gonna believe this!” Yeah, well, the caravan couldn’t believe it either!

The next day, we were all off to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, about 30 miles away. The mountains towered over us on the way.

The Alaska State Fair is different in many ways than the fairs we have attended previously in Del Mar, CA and Los Angeles, not to mention, Oregon…and we loved it!

In Alaska, “The land of the midnight sun,” makes for a very long growing season resulting in monster-sized veggies.

At one previous stop on the trip, I was blown away by cabbages that were the size of basketballs in the supermarket, however, they didn’t compare to the prize winners at the fair.

The pumpkin above weighed in at 1,925 pounds, the largest grown in any state. However, it was disqualified from winning the top prize because it had a small hole in the bottom side.

( I’m surprised it didn’t have a BIG hole in it, I mean, how do they transport it from the farm to the fair anyway and still keep it in one piece?)

Well, the pumpkin was just for openers.

The 27.6 pound cabbage only won third place…It was the last day of the fair so some of the leaves had wilted a bit.

Then there was the zucchini that weighed in at 34.95 pounds. How much zucchini bread could you make with that??

And this pumpkin, "Lucy Lu," at 1,287 pounds. Notice the company that lifted it in was Peak Oilfield Service Company. Using lifts probably accounts for the hole in the first one.

I couldn’t get close to the guys who were doing bicycle tricks, but I was able to photograph one in the mid-air from behind the crowd.

Of course there was the usual crowd of fair-goers.

We enjoyed the “Back-hoe Rodeo.” Two back hoes with operators competed through several different feats of accuracy and time.

With a spoon attached, the back-hoe operator had to pick up a variety of coins in order and drop them in a small bucket.

Then they had to pick up raw eggs and put them in the bucket without breaking them. The guy nearest the camera was accurate and fast. He didn’t break any eggs. We didn’t stay for the entire competition, but he was obviously way ahead.

We watched a lumberjack competition that was fun.

It was a chilly, chilly day. Notice how wet these guys are. Brrrr!

Numerous things were totally Alaskan, like the Beaded Moose.

And of course there is the food at the fair. Probably our favorite was the pork chops on a stick. Very good, barbequed, not fried and absolutely delicious.

Also, I had crab meat that was fried, not totally healthy, but it tasted wonderful. It was a hard choice between that and shrimp chowder. I also saw a booth selling fresh oysters. Definitely not the usual fair food menu we were used to in the 'Lower 48'.

The next day was a trip to the Ulu Factory. Ulu’s are a popular Alaskan knife. We have watched natives skin a large salmon with one in a matter of seconds. I got one here three years ago and use it all the time. (I’m not nearly that fast!)

First was demonstration time, then time to shop in the store. You could also watch them being made through the windows of the factory itself.

I did get a kick out of the sign posted in the window of the store…

Later we went out to Earthquake Park, where a entire neighborhood slipped into the bay in 1964 during the 9.2 earthquake that struck Anchorage. There are still numerous areas where you can see where the ground dropped many feet from where it originally was.

We could also see where the “Bridge to Nowhere” is slated to be built... if it is ever built.

We drove around a lake that is one huge float plane airport.

Alaska has the highest percentage of private pilots of any state in the union, and most of them fly float planes as that is the only method of reaching many destinations in the state.

We also visited a local fur shop that the locals use to buy and sell furs.

Sylvia checked this hat out, who knows, come Spring, it may be her Easter bonnet. “Ah, yes, Sylvia, the ladies of Tallahassee will be so jealous of you!”

Cook Inlet is just outside Anchorage, and we drove by there on our way to some other spots of interest.

Cook Inlet is beautiful even on rainy or cloudy days.

Even on overcast days like this one, the light shines on the surface of the water, highlighting it.

We stopped by Indian Valley Meats, where the locals have their fish and game processed. Several of us purchased smoked salmon while there.

This was on the door to the restroom…

I caught this waterfall just before we entered a tunnel, snapped through a wet and rainy windshield.

There were waterfalls everywhere you looked.

…Near and far…

We tried to visit a glacier out there, but with all the rain, it had caused some flooding, and we couldn’t get close to it.

However, we did visit the museum nearby.

One of Robert Service’s poems talks about the ice worm, and as a result most people, if they have even heard of an ice worm, consider it to be folk lore.

But ice worms are real. The little black squiggly lines are ice worms that were in a glass on the desk, along with a piece of ice (on the left) to keep them happy. They are only about an inch long and are actually related to earth worms. They live in glacial ice.

Back at the park, Spike introduces us to Kelly Griffin, a 51-year old lady musher who runs the Yukon Quest (1000 mile) dog sled race. As you can see, she is a small woman. How any men do this grueling race is beyond me, let alone a tiny woman. Racing 1000 miles night and day in 50-70 below zero temps…It takes about a week. Unbelievable!

Don and I got a movie about mushing that features Kelly and Michelle Phillips, both outstanding and winning lady mushers. It shows a lot of the hardships they have to go through in order to run that race. It gives you a lot of awe and respect for them.

The highlight of our time in Anchorage was a trip out to Whittier and to Prince William Sound to see the glaciers calving.

To get there you have to go through a 2-1/2 mile long tunnel, taking turns with a train. Both autos and trains go through the same space, so you have to be there according to a published schedule.

We all got on this boat for a five hour tour. It was cloudy and rainy when we arrived but by the time we arrived out at the glaciers, though cold and windy, the rain had stopped.

A pair of sea otters wondered what we were doing out there.

Pieces of glacial ice floated around in the Sound near the glaciers.

The blue color of the glaciers was spectacular.

A group of seals lounged around on a floating piece of ice and totally ignored us.

Our boat would pull up close to the glaciers and then we would wait. Occasionally we would hear what sounded like a rifle shot and then ice would fall from the glacier. Other times we would hear the crack and not see anything fall.