Our Nation's Capital

D.C. is an interesting city. It took us over an hour to take the bus/Metro connection to get into the city. The Metro compared very well to the NJ Path. It was amazingly clean, smooth and quiet- quite a switch from the jerking, screeching ride of the Path. The city’s monolithic buildings make it feel a bit like Stalin’s Russia.

The Library of Congress covers 3 huge buildings. To use the resources in the Library, you first need to sign up as a researcher- a three step process – ending with a photo I.D. card and a session with a volunteer to help you understand where to find the info you need. Our first stop, at the Map Reading Library was a home-run. Their digitized collection of Sanborn Maps would cost a local library $90,000 for access. We stayed until their 5:00 closing, with a promise to return. We found a local bar on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Capitol Lounge, with $8 wines and 10 cent buffalo wings. The bar was filled with D.C. staffers – all in the same dark suits, looking like Neidermeyers from Animal House. The conversations were hysterical – lives revolving around politics.

Deciding to stay an extra week in D.C. gave us the chance to alternate days in the city and “relax” days. We decided to take a short ‘field trip’ on Wednesday to see the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception—the largest Catholic Church in the Western Hemisphere- and the 7th largest church in the world. Building started in 1920 and the Crypt Church was completed in 1926. The Depression and WWII delayed construction of the Upper Church until the 1950’s and the Church was dedicated in 1959. The upper church has a Byzantine feel with a huge blue and gold onion shaped dome and mosaics everywhere. The halls inside are lined with chapels dedicated to saints around the world….China, India, Vietnam, Slovenia, Poland. We even found a small shrine to the Malta saint, Ta Pinu.

We spent Thanksgiving with the “Indians” - the Asian Indians – as per our tradition. We found a great Indian restaurant, Sapphire, close to the campgrounds. We walked into the nearly empty restaurant and saw a buffet spanning the entire length of the dining room. We walked the length of the line, peering into the huge chafing dishes teeming with wonderful Indian curries with chicken, lamb, goat, lentils and veggies. We started with samosas and pakoras, then filled our plates with curries. After the appetizers and one plate of curries, we were stuffed.

Since we’d done the typical tour of all of the government monuments in our last visit, we decided to spend this time seeing some of the museums and exploring other neighborhoods. The American Indian Museum was under construction in our last visit. Today, it’s one of the most popular of the Smithsonian museums.

Noshing in New York

At last, THE CITY! A parking lot with a view of the Statue of Liberty out of our front window. We took the PATH into the City on Wednesday and went to the NYC Public Library. We walked our brains out…then met Steph for drinks at her local bar and dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. We were back on the subway by 9:30 – and she was off for the rest of her evening. Oh how old we felt!

We decided to take advantage of our proximity to the city and really explore this year. So, we signed up for three “food” tours. Our first one was on Sunday and we dragged Steph along. The tour covered about 4 blocks in Greenwich Village (Steph’s neighborhood). We ate the entire time . We started with fresh filled cannoli from Rocco’s, to NY style pizza (thin crispy crust) from Joe’s Pizza. More pizza , cheese from Murray’s Cheese, opera cake from Bruno’s Pastries, cookies from Milk and Cookies. We learned about the color of the street signs designating historic districts (brownish red in color). The guide was a bit of a lightweight, but the food tasting was fun. After the tour, we were so full that a walk was in order. Steph took us though Washington Park where we watched the dogs playing in the dog walk areas. Then, we walked to the Lower East Side to find the Pickle Guys. With 2 bags full of pickles, pickled mushrooms and veggies, we took a cab back to SoHo and had a drink (or two) at one of the oldest bars in SoHo, the White Horse Tavern.

On Monday, we met Steph and her friends in Chelsea at the West Side Tavern for drinks. For dinner, we went to a wonderful Chinese restaurant - great food with fresh off the boat staff.

We spent several days at the NYC Library doing research on the Harlows and Spencers, searching city directories. Kate met us for a visit to the Baptist Church- where Edna and Frank were married. We got a tour of the church (now Black Baptist).
Our second food tour of Central Greenwich Village and SoHo on Wednesday had a much better guide and even better food. Tasting of aloo kathi roll, Israeli pressed sandwiches, Jamaican beef patties, fresh mozzarella and Italian sausage, Greek yogurt, and homemade Halva with pistachios.

On Thursday, we met Steph for drinks and dinner at Chumley’s, a wonderful neighborhood bar/restaurant – formerly an old NY speakeasy.

On Friday, the third of our tours- this time in Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. We spent most of the tour in the Chelsea Market. This old factory (built in 1898) was owned by Nabisco and was the place where the Oreo cookie was invented. When Nabisco moved out, it was bought by a visionary who saw it as a place for both retail and wholesale operation. He brought in breadmakers, meat packers, produce vendors, flower vendors – offering them the ability to operate their wholesale operations on the exterior of the building- pulling their trucks in for shipments, and operating a retail operation on the inside. He kept the interior intact – so it has the feeling of an old factory. He encouraged the shops to have glassed in frontage to allow the shoppers to see their operations – baking bread, cutting meat… He had his son-in-law, an artist, create comfortable places for people to sit –resulting in huge Fred Flintstone like benches – that are now filled with people eating and drinking. On the upper floors are the TV studios for NY’s local channel, The Food Network and The Oxygen Network. On our tour, we had decadent chocolate almond croissants from the French Oven, chocolate and coffee milk from Ronnybrook Dairy, bread from Amy’s bread, lobster bisque from The Lobster Place, gelato from L’Arte del Gelato, and an antipasto selection from Buon Italia. After eating our way through the Market, we walked through the Meatpacking District seeing the renaissance of this once prostitute/drug ridden area. Today it’s the new hip place for 20/30 somethings to live and play. New restaurants are popping up everywhere and designers are showing their latest clothes in former meat packing spaces. The city is trying to keep what’s left of the original meatpacking operations in the area – tough with rising rents. 50 years ago, there were 150 meat packers, today there are only about 22.

On Saturday, we spent the night with Kate and Mike. We ate at a local Summit Indian restaurant with K&M and their neighbors, Ellen and Bob. The food was OK, and with Mike doing the ordering, we had food to feed 20 on our table. After too much wine, we stumbled up to Janie’s bedroom for the night. On Sunday, Mike made a huge breakfast- eggs, bagels, and smoked salmon.

Feeling like we’d mastered the PATH, we decided to try a tour to the Bronx on Monday. Meeting in Grand Central and taking the train to the Bronx was a new transportation adventure. The rail service was far superior to the crowded, dingy roller-ball ride on the PATH. The Bronx tour focused on Arthur Avenue, “Little Italy”. We were beginning to get suspicious that all of the fun, food tours always come down to some piece of a “Little Italy” neighborhood. More bread, cheese, olives, pizza. We picked up some pasta sauce from Mike’s Deli inside the Arthur Avenue market. Dinner that night was a shrimp fra diavlo – heavenly.

With the Bronx under our belt, we found one last tour- this time in Queens – Flushing. Another transportation challenge- taking the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) to Flushing. We got out of the train and felt that we’d been transported to Shanghai or Beijing. All of the signs were in Chinese- as we fought our way down the sidewalks (with sounds of hawking and spitting), we had a sense of deja-vu. With a bit of time before the tour started, John decided to get his hair cut at the local Chinese/Malaysian beauty shop. What a sight to see a blonde in the middle of all that black hair.
The guide was running late and as the group was waiting, we noticed a familiar couple—it was Sue and Ben, Mike’s sister and brother-in-law from Brooklyn. As surprised as we were to see them, they did a double take to see us. The group was too big- but we all headed down the street with Myra, our “guide”. Myra wasn’t the most knowledgeable or the most organized guide, but as John reminded me, it did get us off our butts and exploring another part of the city.

Flushing was chartered in 1665 and was a haven for people seeking religious freedom. The Quakers still have a meeting house here and in 1811 the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church was established. It’s hosted two World Fairs and today has a Sikh Center, a Jewish Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the NE, a Muslim Center and a number of Buddhist Temples. 55% of it’s 80,000 residents are Asian (Chinese, Korean and Indian), Latinos make up 22%. We were obviously in the Chinese section. We stopped at a huge Indian grocer and tried fig and rose ice cream, a huge indoor Chinese food court where we watched them making noodles and had a great bowl of noodle soup, and finished our tour in Korea town. The huge Korean market was like an Asian Sam’s Club. The place was paced with Koreans buying in bulk. Vendor had set up tables offering free samples of things like squid, baby octopus, seaweed, soy candies. We tried quite a few – confirming our experience that we really are 3 dish Korean eaters- bim en bap, jae yuk bokum and Korean pancakes (oh, and of course, kim chi). The other offerings just tasted like spiced rubber. They did have a Korean bed vendor – the beds had normal headboards, but the actual bed was a sheet of marble or granite with dual heaters. Evidently, the Koreans sleep on these with just a thin blanket on top. The salesman claimed that it was great for the back pain.

Steph dared to invite us to her office to meet her co-workers. It was quite impressive-she has a large office and a good size staff. She’s really got a great group of co-workers – interesting, well traveled. We had a great evening with Steph, Nicole and her boss, Ray at Kennedy’s, their local Irish bar and hangout. When Ray offered to drive us home, we could feel Steph cringe.

We spent election night at Kate and Mike’s – pizza, wine and a bit of shouting at the TV. Kate got Mike an early XMAS present of a Persian kitten. The new kitten is absolutely adorable - fluffy white, light blue eyes and only 9 weeks old. I was in love and had thoughts of getting a kitten- so much easier than a dog.... But, after about 3 hours in their house with little "Nigel" or "Spike" in my lap (we're voting for Spike as his name, but we're in the minority), my eyes started to water, my nose started to run. John got this look of sheer joy on his face--no cats in his future. Even the next day, I spent the day without eye makeup and itchy, watery eyes.

We were elated to wake up Wednesday morning to find that the Democrats had actually taken over the majority in the House – and may actually take the Senate (two seats still in contention- with recounts happening). Can it possibly be true that not all Americans have drunk the Bush kool-aid?

With only a few more days left in the city, we met Steph for dinner at her favorite Thai restaurant – excellent food and cheap – and on Saturday night for drinks at The Wine Bar. The bar served only NY State wines and they were surprisingly good. The menu paired the wines with appetizers (cheese plates, chocolate soufflés).

It was time to leave and we reluctantly left the City. We smartly left early on Sunday, avoiding the afternoon city traffic and the upcoming bad weather, arriving in D.C. in early afternoon.

Cajuns conquer Boston!

Wednesday- more sun. We took the ferry into Long Wharf. The ferry went right past Winter Island and we got a great view of the campground and our 3 huge motorhomes on the harbor.

We spent a few hours in Quincy Market and ‘old Boston” showing them the oldest section of Boston. We managed to snag the stools at the Union Oyster House for lunch (more chowder- what else?). As we left, we started talking to Maria, the owner of the restaurant. She was a charmer- in her late 80’s and very pleased that we had taken the time to hear her story. Her father came from Sicily and opened a jewelry store in the North End. She married into the family owning the Union Oyster House.

While the guys went off to the Fenway Park tour, the girls headed to the North End for Michele Topor’s North End tour. It was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it. We started at Martinetti’s liquor for a bit of history on the North End and the cuisines of Italy.

Tour notes:
General:
Italians eat multiple courses:
Primo-a starch, soup, pasta or polenta
Secondo – a protein – meat, poultry or fish
Salad – at the end, the acid breaks up the food
Start with wine-but don’t have wine with salad
Italians don’t serve “spags and balls”.
Pasta is served with very little sauce.
There are 20 “food” regions in Italy, all with very distinctive cuisines.
The southern half of Italy was the poorest –and thus gave the North End most of its immigrants.

Then we were off for tastings and touring
Maria’s Pastry Shop:
Italians eat late- but have a “merenda” – a late afternoon sweet. (Tiramisu- means “pick me up”).
Maria makes her own marzipan- and they are gorgeous.
The dried bread and biscotti came about because people didn’t have the ability to keep bakery goods fresh – so they dried them and could store them for longer periods of time.
Dairy Fresh Candies:
Crystalized ginger-excellent for nausea. Used for chemo patients.
Licorice- great for sore throats, nausea. Watch it if you have high blood pressure.
Covered (Jordan) almonds- a symbol of love
Salumeria Italiana:
Olives- either cured or pressed. Buy naturally cured. No black olives from California-bad for you.
Olive Oil: Only 100% pure extra virgin- all others have chemicals
Can be filtered (clear) or unfiltered (some pulp left in – cloudy)
Shelf life- from harvest date : Clear 2 years, Cloudy 1 year
Store in a cool, dark place
Vinegar: Natural only – cider, wine, malt, rice. Use white for cleaning only.
Balsamic- only 2 modena and regoamelia. Aged a minimum of 12 years in wood barrels. Must say “must” on the bottle.
Vinegared veggies help digestion
Polcari’s Coffee:
Arabica coffee- has less caffine
Cappucino-only a breakfast drink. Steamed milk is too heavy on the digestion late in the date.
Cammomile tea – good for sleep and digestion
Ciraces:
Apertiv- sweet vermouth, campari and soda
Digustivo- at the end of the meal to help liver digest fats (grappas, amaros)

After tastes of pistachio macaroons, pumpkin fudge, pine nuts, marzipan, Italian lemon ice, crucalo cheese, mortadello, and limoncella, we finished our tour and found the guys waiting at Café Paradiso. We got back to Winter Island in time for a meal of spinach bread and empanadas.

Thursday- the last day in Boston for the Cajuns. The girls wanted to shop so the guys joined us later in Quincy Market. After lunch at Artu, it was time for power shopping in the North End- pasta, sun dried tomatoes, nougat at Modern Pastry. Then it was time to head back for “graduation dinner”.

Leave it to the Cajuns to put on a “Paarty”. Brenda, John, Carol Ann and J.C. got a little party area set up- picnic tables with stations for gumbo, fried fish and the bar. At 5:30 Charlie, from Winter Island, arrived with his blender in tow. We howled reminding Charlie that his only admonition to us when we asked about the “no public consumption of alcohol” in the park had said, “Don’t worry about it….just don’t set up a bar and get rowdy”. What a photo—Charlie, with a blender in his hand, full bar and 8 thirsty patrons. Jim and Rick finally arrived and the Cajuns made them feel right at home. Dinner was heavenly and after we had all eaten way too much, Sharon brought out her bread pudding. It was heavenly. After the cleanup, Rick, Jim, Brenda, John and I went back to our coach and stayed up talking and drinking. What an evening!

Friday- Time for the Cajuns to leave. We guided them to 128 South and said our goodbyes. The silence back at the motorhome was deafening! With our normal lives returned, we did the logical thing—NAPPED!

Boston- Meet the Cajuns!

Home…we had the typical queasy stomach driving through the city. But, once we hit Winter Island Park and pulled into ‘our’ spot, we were ‘home’. We decided to come in a day early to give ourselves a chance to get ready for the Cajun invasion. And then they arrived. John and Brenda came in about 11:00, EJ and Sharon at noon. The train station was in motion. We met them at the 128 exit ramp and guided them through the tangle of streets to Winter Island Park. The Cajuns had fought our guided drive- but grudgingly admitted the wisdom of our recommendation after they arrived.

With the pending arrival of Ernesto and the probability of several days of rain and storms, we decided to take the Salem Trolley Tour and give them an orientation to Salem. Our driver was full of interesting antic dotes.

True to prediction, Ernesto arrived the next morning with a bit of drizzle and cloudy skies. The guys took off for Logan to pick up J.C. and Carol Ann while I took the girls to downtown Salem for a bit of shopping. We met up in Marblehead at the Landing and had a great lunch of chowder and crab cakes.

Sunday- and Ernesto was at full force with heavy rain and chilly weather. But, we decided to persevere and drove to the Salem Witch Museum. A new experience for all of us- it was a bit like a low-tech Ned Kelly. The story of the Salem Witch Trials was well told- but really kitschy- lots of bad mannequins and a narrator with a voice like Boris Karloff. The rain was a bit lighter after the show, so we walked to Derby Street and had lunch at “In a Pig’s Eye” – more chowder. We ended the afternoon at Finz where we met a group of local Bostonians celebrating a birthday. Michael –owner of a chain of Laundromats in Winthrop- had the Cajuns going. But, his wife, Maria (the ‘pit bull”) really got the guys going. She was a stunner- and the boys were in heaven. We were having a great time- but John (Dippa) decided that it was time to leave…we left in such a hurry that we left our camera on the table….(Note: camera found – in the motorhome two weeks later…) That night, we had po-boys made with a roast that J.C. had cooked. It was excellent!

Labor Day Monday- and the sun was out. We got everyone out and headed to the train station for our first day in Boston. We did a full day tour of Charlestown, the Navy Yard and the North End. It was strange to be back “home” with a group of Cajuns. More chowder at the Warren Tavern. We took Chestnut Street down to the Navy Yard and saw the changes to our old street. Our house was looking very tired- the shrubs were unkempt and paint was peeling from the front door. It was sad to see. After a stop at the Constitution, we had a drink at Tavern on the Water.

The girls got a taxi to the North End, the boys hoofed it. We met at Café Paradiso and headed to Pagliuca’s for dinner. This was a recommendation from Michael- and was he spot on! Maria, one of the owners greeted us--Michael had called to let her know we were coming. We had a huge corner table and after getting wine, the food started flowing—bread, antipasto, salad, veal parmesan, chicken cutlets, shrimp fra diavlo… A success!

Tuesday and another sunny day. At last, we were experiencing typical September New England weather. Another Boston day- train to North Station. From there, we picked up the Old Town Trolley and got an orientation to downtown Boston. We hopped off by the Boston Common and walked through Beacon Hill. Hitting all of our old hangouts, we had lunch at the 7’s. We picked up the trolley and took it over to the Back Bay. We took a self-guided tour of Trinity Church and walked through the Public Gardens. At this point, the guys went on strike and found a spot at Joe’s on Newbury while we shopped. Newbury was a bit high style for our motorhome taste, but it was fun to walk and people watch. We couldn’t let the Cajuns leave Boston without a dinner at Addis Red Sea- so we walked over to Tremont and let them experience Ethiopian cuisine. Remarkably, they liked it!

Visiting "Dan's" old stomping grounds

Time for a stop in the Berkshires before Boston. More Spencer research…

We actually got a tour of Daniel Jr.s original house. The house was eventually bought by an Italian family and two sisters live there today. Rosemary was so much fun- telling us stories of growing up in her large Italian family.

Alaska Adventure Day 14: Fairbanks – The end of our journey

We made our daily call home in the morning and John had news of the latest terrorist scare. The U.K. had uncovered a terrorist plot using liquids to explode a bomb on planes traveling from London to the U.S. So, Homeland Security had put an immediate ban on all liquids in carry-on luggage. Thankfully we learned this before our arrival at the airport. Already there were huge delays in the check-in lines as people re-packed their bags. So, with this bit of news, we started to re-pack our behemoth bags, putting everything into our checked bags. It certainly made the carry-on experience much easier and our bags much lighter. We just checked everything except our handbags.

Breakfast in the hotel was buffet- and we had visions of a horrible experience. It was great- oatmeal with raisins, walnuts and brown sugar, small cheese-filled Danish and fresh fruit with granola and yogurt. We just called it “brunch”.

We had a few hours before our “Riverboat Discovery” experience, so we decided to get the hotel shuttle and visit Fred Meyer’s (a local Walmart) to see where the locals shop. It was a huge store- with everything from 1 hour photo, to furniture, to jewelry and clothing, to food and Alaska souvenirs. They didn’t have any reindeer sausage, so we walked over to Safeway and Mom bought some reindeer sausage to take home.

Mom’s Interesting Facts:
* Peaches: $3.49/pound
* Bananas: 79 cents/pound
* Milk: $4.09/gallon
* Butter (Land o’ Lakes): $4.59
* Delicious Apples: $1.99/pound
* Fuji Apples: $2.29/pound

After dropping off the sausage to the hotel freezer, we took the shuttle to the Riverboat Discovery. This Alaska sternwheeler cruises along the Chena and Tanana Rivers for a 3 ½ hour cruise. A family run operation, the ship has 4 decks, can carry 700 passengers and offered free coffee and donuts. It proved to be a relaxing way to spend our last afternoon in Alaska.

While the experience was a bit “canned”, they did a good job of trying to educate and entertain. Cruising down the river, we got to see a variety of houses- some palatial, some much more crude. These were the ‘off the grid’ folks – who have to supply themselves with everything except electricity.

* A 1 acre waterfront property ranges from $50,000 to $100,000 and cost to build a home about $150/sq ft.
* The temperature ranges from 90 above to 60 below.
* The walls of homes are 16” thick and they use quad-glazed windows.
* Wells are 300-500 feet deep due to permafrost.
* The Tanana River is the largest glacier-fed stream in the world.

After watching a bush pilot demonstration, we cruised past Susan Butcher’s Dog Kennels. Susan Butcher (who recently died from cancer) was the famous 4 time winner of the Iditarod. She was loved by Alaskans and they truly are mourning her passing. It was so sweet to see her dogs racing and playing outside. Then, to see them get ready for the sled dog demonstration. I have never seen dogs so excited in my life- they love their job. And this time, instead of pulling a sled, they were pulling a tractor! Absolutely amazing.

The canned experience continued as they herded several reindeer to the banks of the river. Note- reindeer were introduced from Siberia and are the domestic version of caribou. From there, we saw the fish wheels (now regulated) which were designed to increase the daily catch of salmon from 12/day when caught individually to over 1000/day when using the wheel.

The boat stopped at the Chena Indian Village where we were sent in groups for a 4 stop tour of the village. They did a good job of explaining the housing and lifestyle of the Native Americans. At one stop, we saw the handiwork of Dixie Alexander. Her parkas, made of 45-50 muskrat hides and taking 6 months to make, cost $16,000. The inner ruff is made of wolverine, the outer ruff made of timber wolf.
There are 11 Alaska Native cultures in 5 distinct groups:
1. Inupiaq – lived in the northern part of Alaska. They used semi-underground dwellings because of the harsh climate.
2. Yup’ik – lived in the southwest. Men and women lived in separate sod structures dug into the ground.
3. Aleut and Alutiiq - lived in the south and southwest Influence of Russian culture was strong in these groups-in language, food and religion.
4. Athabascan Indians – lived along the major riverways of Interior Alaska. Prior to western contact, they were a nomadic people. Today many live a subsistence lifestyle. They focus on a respect for every living thing and the culture is matrilineal.
5. Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Indians – lived in the southeast. Similar to Athabascans, children inherited rights through their mother.

Interestingly, there are no Indian reservations in Alaska. Under a Settlement Act signed in 1971, 13 Native Corporations were formed and granted $96.5 Million and 44 million acres to settle their aboriginal land claims. Most Alaskan natives born prior to 1971 are shareholders in one of these corporations. They are for-profit businesses (the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation grossed over 41 billion in 2004). They benefit their shareholders by making money from their lands natural resources (oil, gas, timber) and pay dividends and also provide employment. No gambling casinos required!

Well, our riverboat cruise ended and it was time to head back to the lodge, pick up our bags and make our way to the airport. The airport was only a 5 minute drive away, and we were grateful to be departing from Fairbanks this particular day. We arrived to the NW check-in area and got a one page update on the “new carry-on rules”. Not only had they banned all liquids and gels, but they wouldn’t let us take lipstick! We did a last minute purging of our purses of all cosmetics and send our bags on their way.

With the “no-liquid” rule, we decided to finish off our water bottles of wine before going through security. We grabbed a seat and had our own private happy hour. Thankfully, both check-in and security were painless. No lines, no hassles…we were the only ones in the security lines and other than having to take off our shoes, we breezed through. Now, we had 2 ½ hours to spend in this very tiny airport. We had our last shopping experience in this land of a thousand gift shops. The gift shop could not even sell any liquids to be taken on the plane- this included jams and jellies, lipstick…. Oh how ridiculous.

We got a seat by the gate and watched as the TSA staff set up two long tables outside the check-in. We were in for yet another security check. And this was FAIRBANKS!!! The line started to form and we watched as everyone was subjected to another search of their carry-on. We were fortunate to get a TSA agent with a sense of humor. I told him my distress at having to meet my husband after a two week separation and an all night flight- with a few extra pounds from the cruise and no way to brush my teeth and no lipstick. Finally, we were in our seats- fortunately, with an empty middle seat between us and we settled in for our all night flight.

The next morning, we said our goodbyes in the MSP airport and I headed off to Cleveland. Back to reality…. Hopefully this will be the first of our annual “girl get-aways!”

Alaska Adventure Day 13: Denali to Fairbanks

It was hard to believe that we were on our last official day of the trip. We had a good breakfast (Mom had oatmeal with raisins and walnuts…Mmmm). Then it was back for our last trip on the bus – on to Fairbanks, a 3 hour drive.

The bus was abuzz with the news story of the Celebrity tour bus that had overturned in Juneau. One person was seriously injured and a number of people had broken bones and injuries. The other story was the closing of the road south to Anchorage. It was causing huge delays for both the tour buses and the railroad. We were fortunate to be heading north.

To keep the ride interesting, Scott and Nick had a little Alaska Trivia Quiz…

Interesting Alaska Facts:
* Alaska has 3 million lakes – 1.5 million with names. One of our guides said that since Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes, Alaska could be called the land of 300 Minnesotas.
* The State of Alaska is 2 ½ times the size of the state of Texas.
* It has 100,000 glaciers.
* Alaska has 5000-6000 earthquakes/year. 1000 of them are a 3.5 or higher. They have 11% of the world’s earthquakes and 50% of all U.S. earthquakes. They have had 10 earthquakes over 8.0.
* In the Good Friday earthquake of 1964 the earth shook for 5 ½ minutes.
* Alaska has 80 potentially active volcanoes.
* State Flower- The Forget Me Not

* State Sport - Dog Mushing
* State Fish – Salmon
* State Mammal – Moose
* State Mineral - Gold

Exploring Fairbanks:
We arrived into Fairbanks at noon and we dropped off in the center of town for lunch
on our own. We found a little Italian restaurant, Gambardella’s, and found-once again- that fine Alaska service. These restaurants have an influx of cruise ship buses arriving on the same day every week- and don’t seem to staff up for the crowds. As a result, you have to fight for service. We didn’t have much time to shop in downtown Fairbanks—but with a 2 block main street, there really wasn’t much shopping to do.

We were off to the El Dorado Gold Mine. The mine started back in 1902 and today they’ve made it a tourist stop—for those wanting “an authentic experience learning to extract gold from the earth”. We all agreed that it was more of a way to “extract gold from the tourists”. We departed on a replica of the Tanana Valley railroad out to the ‘mine’. The conductor provided narration on the mining operation complete with stops in a permafrost tunnel to see the rock formations.

Once we got to the “gold camp”, our hosts, Dexter and “Yukon Yonda”, explained how gold was panned and mined. We were there on a day when the yellow-jackets were swarming. I have never seen so many wasps in my life. They were literally crawling over Mom and even though she was completely still, one of them decided to bite her. Old Yukon Yonda heard her yelp and immediately called for the emergency kit (evidently they were used to dealing with multiple wasp bites on their tours). We took the little vial of something to combat the swelling and went to the Visitor Center. Mom convinced me to do the ‘gold panning’. Everyone was given a bag of dirt and led to a huge area to pan the dirt for gold. Of course, everyone got just enough gold dust (and an occasional tiny nugget) to make a locket or earrings. We, too, succumbed to the ‘gold fever’ and got a little locket with our gold dust inside. It was actually quite cute. We were definitely the “gold mine” for this family—just about everyone on the tour was wearing their new necklaces. (We also got the story of many wasp bites from everyone on the bus…)

On the way to the hotel, we made one last stop at the Alaska Pipeline (the Trans Alaska Pipeline System). A timely stop since the recent news story of the BP closure of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay due to corrosion of the pipes. The pipeline was quite fascinating.

Interesting Pipeline Facts:
* Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968
* The first pipe was laid in 1975 and oil began flowing in 1977
* The project involved 70,000 workers from 1969 to 1977
* There are 800 miles of pipeline, 420 miles are elevated because of permafrost
* The construction required 832 state and 515 federal permits
* The projected cost was $900 Million – the final cost $8 Billion!
* It crosses 34 major rivers, 3 mountain ranges and can withstand a earthquake of 8.5
* It takes 9 days to travel through the pipeline at 4 mph – 1 million barrels per day travel through the pipeline (17% of the U.S. domestic oil production)
* The pipeline has an outside diameter of 48” and ½” thick walls.

The Pipeline Pigs are interesting (and the lack of the use of these pigs to detect corrosion caused the BP problem). There are 3 types of “Pigs”:
1. Made of Teflon, it cleans the pipeline by scraping the sides.
2. An electronic version with video camera sensors to detect corrosion. Run every two weeks 3. The corrosion detector – spreads an anti-corrosion agent on the walls.

We got to our last hotel about 6:00 and checked into our room at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge. We had a beautiful view of the river, a mini-refrigerator and we were on our own. We had our own happy hour. Amazingly, we had planned our wine supply out perfectly. We finished our last bottle- with a small water bottle filled for the following day’s flight. Dinner was at Pike’s Landing Waterfront Restaurant. We tried the tables on the river, but they had a pesky yellow jacket problem, too.

Interesting facts:
* Fairbanks- population 33,000 - is only 120 miles from the Arctic Circle
* We had traveled about 500 miles into the interior of Alaska.
* It’s often called “SquareBanks” because car tires freeze flat in the winter
* Also called the “Town of Midnight Sun” with summer daylight of 21 hours and 49 minutes.
* On June 21st each year, they have a baseball game at midnight without lights.
* Winter temperatures can reach 66 below- without wind-chill! The parking lots have electrical outlets for the cars.
* 85,000 people live in the “borough” (county), many living off the grid. Houses in the borough typically have only electric service provided. Most have their own 1500 gallon water tanks in their house (or have their own water tanks on the back of their trucks).

Alaska Adventure Day 12: Denali National Park

An early start for our 8 hour “Tundra Wilderness Tour” of Denali. We were loaded into an old Blue Bird school bus. We fortunately got one of the upgraded buses- complete with a bit of padding on the seats and small video screens that were used to project the image from the guides’ video camera – helpful when trying to view wildlife at a distance.

Our guide, Josh, was absolutely wonderful. Married to an Athabascan woman, he had an amazing knowledge of native culture, park history and wildlife. He made the 8 hours in a school bus fly by. Although, Mom did avoid the views over “Poison Point” – a frightening drive up a very narrow road with no guard rail. The name’s origin – “one drop will kill you”.

A Bit of History:
A man named Charles Sheldon first came to Denali in 1906 to hunt Dall sheep. He was so taken with the park and its wilderness that he came back the following year. He saw the mass slaughter of sheep by commercial hungers and had the vision of a refuge to protect the wildlife and the land. He went to Washington and in 1917, Congress passed a bill to establish Mount McKinley National Park. It was renamed Denali National Park in 1980 and the park was tripled in size.

Interesting facts:
* The park is 6 million acres- larger than the state of Massachusetts.
* The park is home to more than 650 species of flowering plants. Most of what we saw was “Fireweed” –with bright pink flowers. Alaskans believe that once the fireweed bloom reaches the top of the plant, winter is only six weeks away.
* The “town” of Denali has 1 gas station and 1 traffic light.
*There is only one road- 91 miles- into and out of the park.
* The park is patrolled in the winter by dog sleds.
* Winter temperatures on Mount McKinley can reach 95 below. Permanent snowfields cover 75% of the mountain.

Wildlife Sightings:
* Of the “Big 5” Grizzly Bear, Dall Sheep, Moose, Caribou, and Gray Wolf, we saw all but the wolf.
* Our only Moose sighting was dramatic – the huge moose ran directly in front of our bus. Males weigh up to 1600 pounds, females 1300 pounds. This was definitely a male!










* We saw a Grizzly (brown) Bear and her cubs on a hillside next to our bus. (In the summer, when the bears are getting ready for their winter hibernation, they can eat up to 200,000 berries per day. How do they know this? Naturalists (usually the new ones) have to count the seeds from the bear poop!)
* Other Bear facts: Females can be 375-500 pounds. They have 1-3 cubs. The cubs stay with the mother for 3 years. Since the female will not mate during those three years, males often try to kill the cubs.
* Caribou – we saw them grazing in the treeless tundras and saw a huge male just outside our bus. (Although, with 950,000 wild caribou in Alaska, we thought we’d see herds of them)
* Dall Sheep – we can claim to have seen them, but they looked like little cotton balls high up on the ridges
* Multiple sightings of Tarmigans, the Alaska state bird. In the summer, its plumage is brown, in the winter it turns snow white. They are arctic grouse.
* Countless Snowshoe Hares and Ground Squirrels
* Eagles…everywhere

We got back to the Visitor’s Center in time for the Sled Dog demonstration. Getting to see these adorable dogs – and see a sled dog team in action was great. We also did a walk through the new Denali Visitor’s Center – a chance to see a display of the various animals in the park (carved out of epoxy resin and very realistic). From there, we caught the bus back to the hotel, had our happy hour and found a new restaurant, the “Roadhouse “, just a short walk from the hotel. It was much better and MUCH cheaper. We also discovered that they serve breakfast – a real, not buffet- breakfast.

Alaska Adventure Day 11: Anchorage to Denali National Park

We had a 9:30 departure so we had time for a hearty Alaska breakfast. Scott and Nick had recommended the Snow City Café, a few blocks from the hotel. The place was bustling with both tourist and locals (always a good sign). Service was typically Alaskan…slow, but with a smile. When we saw reindeer sausage on the menu, we knew that eggs, toast, hash browns and “sausage” were a must. The sausage was great- a bit like an Italian sausage/polish sausage- not your typical breakfast sausage. The toast was sourdough-with homemade strawberry jam.

It was then back on the bus for our 6 hour drive to Denali. Our first stop was at Miller’s Ice Cream Shop in Houston – offering ‘the best ice cream in Alaska’. It was pretty darn good- we had a huge scoop of some kind of espresso/chocolate chip ice cream.

Driving through Alaska is not only scenic- but there are NO billboards. It’s a state law! We drove through the little town of Palmer, known for its’ world record veggies: a 17 pound carrot, a 300 pound pumpkin and a 116 pond cabbage. Everything is big here in Alaska. Palmer also had a WalMart recognized as the leader in sales of Duct Tape in the entire Walmart chain. We also noticed that Alaska doesn’t have “Dollar Stores”- but has “$1.25 Stores”. The town of Healy, with an average income of $60,000, made it the wealthiest in Alaska. Their coal plant has the cleanest burning coal in the world.

Finally we got our first look at Denali National Park and some distant- but fairly clear- views of Mt McKinley (“Denali”, the “High One”, to the natives), part of the 600 mile long Alaska Range. Mt McKinley, base elevation of 2000’, towers to 23,320 feet, the highest mountain in North America.

It was almost 4:00 before we got settled in at our hotel, the McKinley Village. After the ship and the hotels in Alyeska and Anchorage, this was fairly spartan- definitely a “lodge” feeling. We were given our 7:45 AM start time for our tour in the morning- and quickly realized that we’d have to find something for breakfast - or have the over-priced hotel buffet breakfast. We grabbed the shuttle into “town”. The trip, with several stops took almost 30 minutes- and we were dropped at the sister hotel “in town”. Basically ‘town’ was a combination of hotels-with large gift shops- and a strip of small gift shops. We found a small grocery store and bought some juice and muffins for breakfast and quickly grabbed the shuttle back. The dinner options at the “Village” were a high priced restaurant menu or a bar menu. We opted for a halibut dinner at the bar—and were presented with 4 huge, heavily battered filets. We made a bit of a mess pulling the breading off and eating the fish.