We flew out on Christmas Day. My family has flown on Christmas Day before and it's usually a pretty slow day at the airport. What made the flight to Anchorage awesome is that we got to fly with my brother and sister-in-law! We had two hour layover in Seattle which gave us enough time to eat and call family before hopping back on the plane. I decided Chinese food sounded good so I walked up to the counter and started looking at my options. The only thing that looked okay was the "spicy chicken," but I'm a wimp when it comes to spice. Don't get me wrong, I like a little kick, but I hate that feeling of your mouth being on fire and downing water like there's no tomorrow (only for it to not help). So I asked the lady behind the counter how spicy it was. She told me it was "PRETTY strong!" and proceeded to give me a sample. Yeah. Spicy : Washington :: Bread : Texas. Jalapeno bread is spicier than this stuff. All in all, it wasn't good. So why tell you the story? Because I get a kick out of people up North.
So we finally arrived in Anchorage and ALL of our bags made it (there was a mild panic at one point)!
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| Yay! We made it! |
We were not the first to arrive, nor were we the last. Since we still had people coming in, we decided to have our Christmas celebration the next day. We all slept in - which is hard to do when you're three hours behind! We spent most of the day cooking a traditional Christmas dinner. I had my first swing at making my Grandmother's stuffing/dressing...and I bombed. bad. :( Everything else was delicious! After dinner it was time for presents. Rather than having a big gift exchange, we did a white elephant swap this year. Chad and I ended up with a camo baseball cap, BBQ sauce, Tabasco chocolates and a cook book! We finished off the night with a few rounds of Apples to Apples (my favorite)!
The next morning, we needed to wake up early for our dog mushing adventure. The drive to Willow took about 2 hours and it seemed that everyone slept but Chad and I. I had never been north of Anchorage and I wasn't going to let the haze or the fog on the windows keep me from seeing the mountains!
Now let me just go ahead and tell you that this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Seriously. I mean, I'm a dog person to begin with, but this made me want to move to the Northwest and start a dog kennel! I would have been happy just getting kisses all day!
After we went through a short information session on what we were doing and the equipment we were using, we got to go outside and meet the dogs. The main section had all the older dogs (older as in able to run) and off to the side were the puppies (who weren't really puppies anymore). Chalk was my personal favorite. She was one of the puppies, of course.
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| This is Chalk :) |
We actually got to go on a pretty neat trail. We had three out at a time so Chad and I teamed up and he took the first leg. The rest of us drove in a van to the midpoint where we could switch out. My leg of the trail was absolutely amazing. Yes, I had a professional musher with me, but I felt like it was just me, out in the middle of the wilderness with these dogs. It. Was. Awesome. Seriously - I could do that every day of my life.
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| Chad getting ready to head out. |
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| I'm on my way! |
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| Chad and I with Jesse |
So the next day we decided to lay somewhat low. Travis, Maegan, Chad, and I decided to go to the Anchorage Museum to get out of the house and see some of the city. The Anchorage Museum is actually really neat. They have some amazing pieces of art as well as tons of native artifacts from the whole Alaska region. Now something interesting to know about Alaska - when you say someone is "native Alaskan," it means that they are Native American. Someone can live their whole life in Alaska and not be native. It is not like we have here in Texas where if you're born here, you're a native Texan. Also, not every Native is an Eskimo. Actually, it's considered very naive and, well, stupid to just call all Alaskan natives Eskimos (it's like calling a all Native Americans Cherokees). There are so many different 'tribes' - each with different cultures and traditions. The Smithsonian has come in and set up a very nice exhibit with artifacts from each tribe. After we looked through the museum, Maegan wanted to do a little souvenir shopping. We walked around for about an hour, then we headed home to dinner with Chef Al!
...or should I say by Chef Al? One of the Christmas presents we did not know about was that one night, Alaska's famous Chef Al Levinsohn was going to come over and cook dinner for us! Now Chad and I were in HEAVEN! Of course we would have loved to just watch him and take a lesson or two home, but the food was phenomenal. I can't remember how many courses we had, but I do remember it just being out of this world. Honestly, it was just a really good time for the whole family.
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| Alaska's famous Chef Al |
Let's just say the next morning came waaaaaaay to soon. The next day was snow machining! Like dog mushing, it was far enough outside Anchorage that we had a shuttle come pick us up very early in the morning. Now Chad and I had the opportunity to go snow machining on our first trip to Alaska. We went on a breathtaking trail where we had the chance to crawl inside and onto of glaciers on a frozen lake. Since that year, that trip had not been offered due to a lack of snow. We had our fingers crossed that it would be open again, but we weren't that lucky.
It actually wasn't because there wasn't enough snow - the rivers actually weren't frozen enough. We still had so much fun on the trails we did get to go on. Halfway through, we stopped and had hot chocolate and fire-roasted reindeer hot dogs.
After snow machining, we went to the nature preserve just down the road. This is a really cool little park with a lot of Alaskan animals. It's kind of like a big drive through zoo. You can get out at your discretion to take pictures or just observe. it's a great place to get pictures of wildlife. We also drove out to a glacier and played in the snow a little before heading home.
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| Everyone passed out on the way home. |
The next day was definitely a day of rest. I can't remember exactly what we did that day. I know we planned to go snowshoeing, but we put that off until the next day. That night we went curling. Let me tell you - this is a spot that is much much harder than it looks.
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| ...all smiles now |
I don't know why I thought it would be so easy, but I got frustrated very quickly. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed getting to do it all, but I don't hunk I would go for it again on another trip...
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| Chad was much better than I was. |
The next morning (New Year's Eve) Chad and I took off on snowshoes on a short hike. This trail took you down on the mudflats and down to a bluff. During the Summer, the tides vary so much that for much of the day there are just the plains of mud. These are actually very dangerous - and people have dies if they get stuck in their quicksand-like consistency. Luckily during the winter, the Cook Inlet is frozen over and you can hike over the coasts.
It's amazing - when you actually get down to the mudflats, you can see until the earth curves. It's like being out in West Texas, except everything is white and it's dead silent. Chad and I hiked down to the bluff and back up. It was nice to get away from the noise for a while and just be us. Of course Chad and I took our terrible towels with us so we could get pictures :)
That night we celebrated New Years with Champagne and shared out resolutions with those of us who were still in Alaska. The next morning Chad and I packed up and headed to the airport. We were sad to go - we had such and amazing trip. At the same time, I was glad to get home to see sweet Emma.
As I say after every trip - this is a place YOU have got to go. Alaska is unlike any place on Earth. There is so much to do and so many amazing things to see. I hope you get there one day, if you haven't already been.
As always, Thanks for reading and God bless!
-Shelley
