Alaska diaries : Day to day life

We're currently on our autumn half term, but as Pierre has his leg in plaster, we're not actually doing a great deal at the moment. This has had me looking through the draft blogposts that I never found the time to post, to see what I can share with you. I've found some more photos of our trip to Alaska this summer that made me smile, so I thought you might like to see them too.

You can't go to America without going to a mall, and the Dimond Center in Anchorage (yes, that is how it's spelt !) was the perfect place for the girls to get some retail therapy in. They loved looking at the clothes and bath products and spent a fortune in a "fan store" that had T-shirts, badges, mugs and all sorts of other things related to all their favourite series. Pierre, meanwhile, was happier skating around on the ice rink on the lower floor.

He also enjoyed making full use of the massage chairs while the girls shopped up a storm !

Food was another thing that kept the kids happy ! Whenever we were heading out somewhere, Jim, our host, would always stop the car at the final garage before the main road, declaring that it was the last chance for snacks. They managed to find all sorts of things to while away the final miles - sweets, drinks, doughnuts, corndogs, cookies, ... you name it ! We also ate out in a lot of "family restaurants" like McDonald's and Subway. This was in a local Mexican restaurant.

The kids all opted for nachos, which they declared delicious.

I opted for enchiladas, which were very tasty too. The little pot of tomato salsa was stupidly spicy though !

Another afternoon was spent at the local bowling alley.

Yep, you've guessed it - we checked out the food and drink on offer there too !

The ice cream sandwiched between two cookies was a big hit. I reconfirmed that root beer is absolutely disgusting though - ewwww !

On one of our trips to the nearby Three Bears store to get some groceries, we spotted some popcorn kits. They came in what looked basically like a sieve - a foil tray with a long handle and a dome of foil over the top, that you heat over the cooker. Our first one was a spectacular fail, as it all came popping out of a hole, but it did give us a good laugh ! Luckily, the second one worked perfectly.

Hmmmmm I just found this photo and can't remember what it is - it was Jim who knocked this up for breakfast (well, brunch, as nobody was hungry for lunch afterwards !). I need to ask him for the recipe because it was delicious, but as far as I can remember, it involved sausages, split open and cooked, then mixed in with milk or cream and spices - I need to check the details. Underneath were hash browns and on the side, a milk roll. All absolutely delicious.

Yep, we definitely need to go back to Alaska some time soon !

Alaska diaries : Down By The Lake

Before we went to Alaska, if you'd asked me to name something that the state had in abundance, I'd have answered snow. Having now visited in the summer though, I'd be able to list several other things : trees, greenery, rosebay willowherb (or fireweed as it's called here) and lakes. There were several lakes close to where we were staying, including one just a five minute walk from our house, which was great when we wanted somewhere to head to for a quick adventure. Wandering down the road, Pierre always loved this "dead end" sign, and couldn't resist pretending to be a zombie !

We soon arrived at the lake.This lake is called Prator Lake and it's a really calm, peaceful place to chill out for a while.

There's nothing much to see or do here, but I loved it. There is a bench to sit on and a rack of life jackets to put on the kids, as well as a little car park, but that's it !

There was a family of ducks that often put in an appearance, as well as many huge dragonflies. One day, we were amazed to see an eagle swooping down into the lake and flying off with a fish - I didn't manage to get a photo of that though ! Pierre loved trying to skim stones across the water, but as they weren't flat, it was more about creating the biggest splosh possible !

I was happy taking in the scenery and enjoying the peace and quiet, as well as trying to get artistic shots of the reflection of the clouds on the lake surface.

Meanwhile, the kids were busy looking out for bears on the opposite shore. They didn't see any, but we DID spot this enormous, fat caterpillar. I'd never seen one with a big pink rear end before - ewww !

Another day, we got an unexpected visit from a very friendly dog. He came running through the trees from one of the neighbour's houses and came over for a stroke.

The kids were over the moon and the dog absolutely loved all the attention.

He was soon charging around, playing chasing games with Pierre.

It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest if he was on dry land or in the water.

Then he'd go and stand next to Pierre and shake dirty lake water all over him !

Time to head for home, dropping off the cheeky doggy on the way back.

Many of the houses have deer antlers or moose horns on the signs. Welcome to Alaska !

If there's one thing they like in Alaska, it's their own sense of personal space.

*** Don't miss the rest of our blogposts about our Alaskan adventure ! ***

Alaska diaries : The Alaska Zoo, Anchorage

On our recent trip in Alaska, I was absolutely determined that, if nothing else, I wanted to see at least one bear and one moose. I didn't care where, but I just wanted to be able to tick them off my bucket list. After chatting with Jim, who we were staying with, I admit that I did have a few doubts about getting up TOO close, but I was still up for it ! In the end, we didn't actually see any in the wild (boohoo !), but Jim drove us down to Anchorage so that we could be sure to see all the local animals in the zoo.

The Alaska zoo, which is the only zoo in Alaska, is home to about 100 animals and birds, with over fifty species, including, for the most part, those native to Alaska. What I absolutely love about the zoo is that many of the animals were found orphaned or injured before being taken to the zoo to be cared for. We spent about 2 or 3 hours wandering around looking at the animals (and munching on reindeer hot dogs - I kid you not !) which was plenty of time to see everything.

The beginning of the zoo is a fun story. It was started back in 1966, when Anchorage grocer Jack Snyder won a contest offering a prize of either $3,000 or a baby elephant ! Unsurprisingly (or not, I suppose !), he took the baby elephant and, a couple of years later, Alaska Children's Zoo was opened, with the elephant as the biggest attraction. Sadly, Annabelle the elephant died back in 1997.

We started off visiting the seals' enclosure, watching them lazing around outside of the water then diving in to cool off.

Just next to the seals were the otters, which were having great fun swimming around, trying to get at a little green sweet placed up next to the glass, which was hilarious !

We headed around, checking out the other animals, including these musk ox, which are apparently called oomingmak in Inuit.

We loved all the educational boards dotted around the zoo, with samples of fur, teeth and bones, as well as scaled down skeletons, to discover.

There were also lots of displays of antlers, from various sizes and species of deer and moose.

Lots of them were fixed to the railings at the perfect height for antler-selfies!

I think they definitely look better still attached to the animals though !

The wolves looked very laid-back and chilled-out in their huge shady pen, lying serenely on the plastic slide or wandering around aimlessly ... until a visiting teenage girl came bounding down the path, howling like a wolf. According to Jim, she was obviously a hunter, practising out her wolf howl imitations. Literally seconds later, the whole pack of wolves came up to the fence, howling back at her - I have no idea what it all meant but it was very impressive !

Moving down past the temporary cages, we came across a very frail-looking baby moose - just 4 months old apparently and brought into the zoo when its mother was killed in a road accident. This was the first moose that I'd seen, but I didn't really count it, as it was so small and had no antlers !

We watched the eagles, checked out lots of other animals (llamas, camels, porcupines, dall sheep, foxes and deer, to name but a few), ate some snacks then finally - woohoo ! - we headed to the big brown bear enclosure. There were three bears in there, as far as we could see, all snoozing in the sun, and before long, one woke up and wandered down to the bottom of the enclosure, just next to where we were standing. Woohoo again ! 

We had another adventure awaiting us, so we headed back to the car, full of smiles, stopping off at the gift shop on the way out and buying various souvenirs.

If you want to find out more about our trip to Alaska, click here !