They say that Disney is the happiest place on earth. Well, I beg to differ! You should have seen the ginormous smiles on my familys' faces almost the entire time we were in Alaska! As soon as we stepped outside (still at the airport), Matt and I both took in a deep breath, looked at each other, and said, "We're HOME!" It felt so good to breathe Alaskan air again!
While we were there for a short 5 days, we stayed in a log cabin, walked the streets of North Pole (park trails, too), visited Santa, hiked in Denali National Park, rode on a train and carousel at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, had family pictures taken (thank you, Kim! Can't wait to see them!), drove passed our old house (of course!) and explored the changes made on base, got ice cream at the Knotty Shop in Salcha, played at multiple playgrounds, went to church in our old ward (congregation), went for a nice Sunday afternoon drive, and of course, visited with a few friends. It was perfect! We loved almost every second of it (kids waking up at 4 am, 'cause they were still on Eastern time - not a fan!)
Here are a few of our favorite pics from the Alaskan part of our vacation:
Pic taken while driving down a road...... it really is this beautiful!
Running down a trail in Denali - of course, they felt the need to run ahead of us....
My 3 favorite people in front of a historic cabin in Denali. Aren't they handsome?!
The boys had lots of opportunities to pick-up sticks and carry them around. They LOVED it! Palm trees don't produce sticks.
Going for walks was fun! We could go for more than about 2 blocks without either walking down or crossing a highway (that's how it is here)! This is a park trail in North Pole, but walking the streets was fairly similar. While outside, the kids had room to just RUN (within reason of course)!! I didn't have to worry about heat exhaustion, sun burns, traffic, strangers, etc. We were all in heaven!
The Knotty shop is a gift shop that has a bunch of things made from wood with all these crazy, lumpy knots in it (like the posts/railing). They also have a great big display of wildlife found in the area (taxidermy) in a Denali setting. It's kinda cool to see. And, they have good ice cream!
There's also several knotty figurines on display out front. Here's the giant mosquito! Alaskan mosquitoes ARE pretty naughty! (feel free to groan - I promise not to be offended!)
A park in Fairbanks (Pioner Park - frequented by both locals and tourists) has a ton of historic cabins that have been turned into all types of gift shops, food stands, etc., has a couple museums, a dance hall, a theatre, miniature golf, playground, carousel, home the famous all-you-can-eat Alaska Salmon Bake, and Darren's favorite, an old train station with a train that goes around the perimeter of the park. Here's Darren and I riding on the train. He LOVED it!
My good friend, Karen. She was also a life saver through both of my pregnancies, and her daughter was Darren's favorite babysitter.
We saw some other good friends too, but for some (stupid) reason, we didn't take pictures. Wish we would have!
While we were in North Pole, of course we had to go to Santa's house, and let the boys sit on his lap! Christmas in June!
We had a wonderful time in Alaska, and we dream about the day that we can move back there! I think it's fairly safe to say that it is my favorite place in the world (so far!)
