Talkeetna, Alaska

We took the train from Fairbanks to Anchorage and stopped at Talkeetna for one night, hoping to see Denali (but didn't).

Jan and CB

What stands out in my memory for Talkeetna is the BEST CINNAMON ROLL I've ever had in my entire life, even better than my mother's!

There are the cinnamon rolls on the bottom shelf.

THIS is where to buy the cinnamon rolls!
The Talkeetna Roadhouse

This is also the place where I stopped counting my Weight Watcher points and ceased to think of dieting, but it was a vacation, right?

Alaska Railroad

CB and I loved traveling on the Alaska Railroad. They reminded me of train rides I took in my youth when my mother would take me to visit relatives whenever my father was transferred to a new military location.

Do you remember those dome cars? We rode in one like this.

This is where we waited to board in Seward. CB is in blue looking at a map.

This is a glacier we saw on the way to Seward from Anchorage.

There was even a dining car on the train!

Mountains

Going to Alaska in the summer did not reveal the magnificent views of mountains that we had expected. Mt. McKinley or Denali was not visible while we were there, but that also means we fell into the 70% majority of people who visit and do not see the mountains.

Supposedly Denali mountain range is behind those clouds on the horizon.

We saw more elevated land while riding the train and on the ferry.

I took this picture as we were rounding curves on the way to Seward from Anchorage.

on that same train trip to Seward from Anchorage

At times we felt like we could see "better" mountains in our home state of Washington, although I am sure that in the winter we would see many mountains in Alaska IF we could reach those areas.

Mount Baker near Bellingham, WA

Now I have to decide if I would like to see more mountains in Alberta, Canada. My cousin Margaret has offered a two-day trip to Banff and Jasper. Never having been to Jasper, that is an enticing thought.

Clothesline Alaska-style

By Barbara Lavallee

I have this magnet on my refrigerator. It's from our trip to Alaska. I really like the happy art of Barbara Lavallee.

Fairbanks, Alaska

We were in Fairbanks, Alaska on July 19 and 20. From our bed and breakfast inn we could walk downtown across this bridge over the Chena River, which runs through the city.

There were lots of blooming flowers in Fairbanks, with many flower boxes on the bridges and houses.

We went on a paddle boat ride along the Chena River which moved into the Tanana River south of town. The Binkley family has operated this tour business with paddle boats since 1955, starting with the Discovery I.

Tanana and Chena Rivers merging

So many Alaskan rivers look dirty, because of the run-off water from melting glaciers and the accompanying silt.

Baking!

I am almost ready to bake blueberry grunt, which I used to bake when we lived in NJ in the early '90s. I bought a 2 lb. box of blueberries at Sam's and about 1/3 were thrown out. With MJ still here and me being back home, I feel like baking!

The welcoming aroma of baked bread is coming from the oven right now. Having 1/2 a cooked sweet potato left over from last night, I decided to try a sweet potato yeast bread recipe from an old cookbook by James Beard that my mother gave me when I was newly married: James Beard's American Cookery, which is now out of print.

So I am not blogging about Alaska. In fact, I have not even labeled my photos. CB has meticulously tagged his by consulting maps to get precise locations. That seems like too much work to me, but it is very nice as you can see with this picture of me that CB placed at an Alaskan location while we were on the ferry.


The bread is so good that I am going to copy the recipe here. I adapted it somewhat because I had about 1 cup of sweet potato left over, so here is the recipe I used:

Sweet Potato Batter Bread

2 pkg. active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water with 1 tsp. sugar
1 cup mashed sweet potato or yam
1/3 cup sugar
5 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. salt
3 eggs
about 5 cups flour

Now to quote James Beard:
"This batter bread, made with sweet potatoes, might be called a quick bread and is extremely pleasant to eat.

"Proof the yeast in the warm water. Add the mashed sweet potato, sugar, butter, salt, and eggs, and 1 1/2 cups flour. Beat several minutes in an electric mixer or by hand to blend well. Beat in the remaining flour to form a rather stiff dough. Cover, and allow to rise in a warm draft-free spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2-2 hours. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Transfer to two well-buttered loaf pans. Allow to rise again until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees 35 to 45 minutes, or until nicely browned. After 5 minutes, turn out on a rack to cool."

Beard, James. James Beard's American Cookery. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972. 788.

Last day in Alaska!

Tomorrow is CB's birthday, and we will get up at 3 am so that we can catch the Alaska Ferry from Juneau to Bellingham, WA. CB's parents will meet us on Friday morning.

We were scheduled to go on a city and glacier tour this morning, but no one ever came. When we checked in the tourist center, the volunteers there said that tours often do this on Monday mornings, because they forget that no cruise ships arrive until lunchtime. So we called and were told they had put us on an afternoon tour, which CB denied and asked for a refund. One of the volunteers, also named "Jan", told us that we could take a taxi to Mendenhall Glacier and then catch the much cheaper shuttle back to town. (The shuttle would not start running until the cruise ships arrived.)

So we walked to the Alaska State Museum and saw a wonderful exhibit about the natives of Alaska, especially those on the coast, the Tlingit. The quality of the items showed are superior to those we saw at the museum in Anchorage, maybe because this is situated in the capitol of Alaska, Juneau.

After that, we took a taxi to the glacier. The driver was a pleasant young woman, who agreed to pick us up at 4 am in the morning and take us to the ferry terminal. At the National Park Center, we saw an excellent movie about glaciers and more specifically the Mendenhall Glacier. It is in the Tsongas National Park, which is the largest one in the United States. The glacier is receding 60 feet every year and has been doing so since the American Revolution. I also learned that the ice that looks blue is glacial ice; however, some areas look white, which means that the ice is softer and is melting. It was impressive to see.

We also rode the Mount Roberts Tramway up to the top (and back, of course)--up 1800 feet. There was a trail to go walk around up there, as well as the usual gift shop, restaurant, etc. That's when the sun came out, and everything was beautiful!

It was a wonderful day to end our time in Alaska.

Now I will not have access to phone service or a computer on the ferry, so I will not be posting (except for the pre-scheduled posts I put here before I left on this trip) until we are in Bellingham. Possibly I will be able to post some Alaska pictures on CB's parents' computer.

Juneau!

We are finally seeing mountains (in Alaska, of all places)! Friday we took the train to Anchorage, and on Saturday we took the train to Seward and back. That's where we saw mountains and glaciers! (I have always wanted to see a glacier.) I learned that there are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska!

We took a boat tour in the drizzle in Resurection Bay and saw sea lions, dahl sheep, eagles, and six humpback whales who were bubble netting, which is has only been seen in two other places of the world. Usually humpback whales are more solitary, but these six were making noises and blowing bubbles in a circle in trapping the fish in the middle so one whale comes up and eats them; they continue in this pattern. You could tell that they were doing this because of the birds circling around trying to get fish--and we saw their tails.

Today we flew to Juneau and are amazed at the mountains surrounding this town. It increases in size by thousands when cruise ships come to town. There were four HUGE ones here today. This town reminds us of Bellingham in a way, but it has hills like San Francisco.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Mendenhall Glacier. On Tuesday we board the Alaska Ferry to Bellingham, which will arrive there on Friday morning.

Denali!

We are in the Denali National Forest after eight hours on the Alaska Train. It has been beautiful, but raining and the further we went the more we saw clouds sinking down low. We should be able to see Mount McKinley (or Denali), but clouds shroud the hilltops. I asked the clerk at the gift shop when I bought postcards about that, and she said it was doubtful because it has been such a cool and wet summer. In fact, only 30% of the people coming here at this time of year see the mountain. Oh, well--I have postcard pictures, plus some photos of mine that show lovely shots of rivers and gorges. Someday I will be able to connect the camera to download them and I'll post some pictures.

We are going out on the Talkeetna River in the morning and then will explore the little town before catching the Alaska Train again, heading to Anchorage tomorrow night. For pictures of what it looks like when it is not cloudy, go here.

CB and I are having a good time together. It is cool, pretty, and green here.

Fairbanks!

Yesterday CB and I flew to Seattle and had a lovely dinner with daughters AE and KA as well as our good friends Terry and Dennis. This morning Dennis took us to the airport so we could fly to Alaska!

We are staying at the Minnie Street Bed and Breakfast in Fairbanks. With the forecast for rain during our entire stay, we were pleased to arrive to sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s F. It started to drizzle after dinner tonight and continues to lightly rain as it is staying bright into the night.

We passed into another time zone west of Seattle, so we are now three hours ahead of TX time. It is currently 9:30 pm and quite bright outside. I'll probably go to sleep before it gets dark tonight.

I'm so glad friends are still looking at my blog. Pictures will come when I can hook up the camera to the computer; it looks impossible here.

Our Alaska Trip

Look at the map, and you will see where we will go on our Alaska trip!

1.Fairbanks: We fly from Seattle to Fairbanks.

2. See the train tracks that connect Fairbanks to Anchorage? We're taking the Denali Star to the Denali National Park where we will spend the night.

3. Anchorage: From Denali, we'll take the train to Anchorage

4. Seward: We'll have a day trip to Seward from Anchorage via the train. We'll go there in the morning and spend six hours in Seward and then take the train back to Anchorage.

5. Juneau: We'll fly from Anchorage to Juneau

6. From Juneau we'll take the Alaskan Ferry to Bellingham, WA and will stay in a room like this:

And all the time we are gone, our dear friend Maria is going to live at our house and take care of our three dogs and one cat!

Remember that I have posts scheduled to come up during our trip. I also hope to find a computer here and there to give you updates on our time in Alaska!

I am excited!

I am excited about our trip, of course, and today I am excited that I have officially lost 30 pounds at Weight Watchers in the last ten months!




And now I am hoping I will still be aware and conscious during the trip and not follow my usual vacation indulging extravaganza. Instead, enjoy the scenery and the family and friends.

I keep on blogging. . . .

by Dave Coverly

In an obsessive sort of way, I prepared for our trip to Alaska by pre-posting quotes, cartoons, and thoughts. So I hope you will continue to look at my blog every day to see what I put ahead of time. I am not sure how often or when I will have computer access, but if I do, I'll try to post a picture or two of the beautiful scenery in addition to the pre-planned stuff.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. . . .

CB and I are starting to make decisions about what we want to do in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau. Which tour, which path, which way to go?

As we ready for our big trip, other thoughts flutter around:

• I've met for a Monday lunch with three friends since 1995. Last week DHT was telling us how her elderly father is so much fun that his grandchildren love to do things with him. Then everyone decided that we need to be "FUN" people; but I am not that type of extroverted person. Today when I voiced that doubt, the others told me I was a good listener and was interested in all sorts of things, so I'd be okay. (whew!)

• The Wisdom Class finishes Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird tomorrow. We will not meet again until after Labor Day. For the first time in years, we will take a long break. In this time, I need to decide upon our next book; I am seriously considering The Case for God by Karen Armstrong, which comes out in a paperback edition in September.

• I signed Maisie up for a training class that will meet for eight weeks starting on August 18. That will be good for both of us!

• Even with the Kindle, I'll be taking too many books on our trip to Alaska. There are a few I want to finish and then leave with AE and KA. My friend PD gave me some interesting books about Alaska that will be good to read. It is always my tendency to bring along an excess of books, as if there are no bookstores anywhere I am going. . . .

• CB's 60th birthday will occur while we are on the ferry from Juneau to Bellingham. It will not be a big celebration, and he doesn't seem to care, which is good. It is odd to me not to be baking him his usual chocolate cake.

• I typed up the short section about pain from chapter 6 in Into the Silent Land. I emailed it as an attachment to several people I know who are suffering. If anyone is interested in receiving that, please email me and I will send it to you.
  

Our trip starts next Sunday!

A week from today we will leave for our Alaska trip. We'll fly from Seattle to Fairbanks. From Fairbanks we'll take a train to Anchorage, which goes through the Denali National Forest. We'll also take a train from Anchorage to Seward and back. Then from Anchorage we will fly to Juneau. (And from Juneau we'll take an Alaskan ferry to Bellingham, WA, our hometown.)

Alaska in one month!

One month from today, on July 18, CB and I are flying to Seattle and then to Fairbanks! We are going to take two different trains: the Denali Star from Fairbanks, with an overnight in Denali (at Talkeetna), and on to Anchorage. From Anchorage we will take the Coastal Classic to Seward and back in one day.

Then we will fly to Juneau and take the ferry to Bellingham, WA, where CB and I are from and where CB's parents still live. We will spend three nights on the ferry, which is the first time I have slept on a boat since we took a U. S. Navy ship from Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco in June of 1964.

After this 11 day adventure, we will have one more week in Washington to visit in Bellingham and in Seattle (where daughters AE and KA live). MJ will join us then.

It will be here before we know it! I have always wanted to visit Alaska!

Alaska

This picture from Alaska reminds me that CB and I are going to Alaska for the first time at the end of July! He planned this trip while I was gone. We've always talked about taking the Bellingham, WA ferry to and from Alaska; in July we'll take it one way to Bellingham from Alaska.