I LOVE Alaska (Part 1)

This summer, we went on the most amazing family vacation we've ever had! We had so much fun and saw so many things. The kids were into it right from the start. They were already giddy with excitement just riding the shuttle from the long-term parking to the terminal at the airport. They loved the wait, looking out the window at all the airplanes.

Connor loved that he got the window seat first. With a layover each way, it worked out that Connor got two flights with a window seat, and Mylie got the window twice. And Mariah had no idea what she was missing, so no fighting at all!
We got to Alaska really late and just settled in a recovered a bit the next day. Then it was off on a road trip to Fairbanks! I've been to Alaska several times, but had never been north to Fairbanks. We drove up through Denali Park, which was a beautiful drive.

We mad a couple stops along the way to get out, see some sights, and keep our sanity! Our favorite stop was at Byers Lake where the kids started out throwing rocks, then stepping on rocks, and before we knew it, they were in up to their knees!

The hike down to the lake was BEAUTIFUL!! Look at this GREEN! And this particular photo was not photoshop enhanced. It was really that green.

Once in Fairbanks, we went to Pioneer Park, which is a theme park dedicated to the pioneers of Alaska. It was really a neat little park. We didn't take time to see it all (some would have been more interesting to me and Tony, but not to the kids.) The kids really seemed to like riding this giant salmon, however. One of our main motivators to take the trip north was so we could take the kids to Santa's house in North Pole, AK. Strange little town, I have to admit. The lamp posts all look like candy canes and the street names all have something to do with Christmas. But it was also really fun!

Mariah wasn't sure what to think of this giant picture of Mr. and Mrs. Claus. This was as close as she got to Santa, however, because when we went inside and the real Santa was there, she didn't want to get too close to him! Connor and Mylie were pretty excited to see him, though. They liked his summer attire, which was pretty great!

We also got to see some of his reindeer, but not Rudolph. We concluded that this was his summer home, since in the winter time, he lives at the actual north pole. Rudolph must have stayed there this summer. Makes sense, right?

Another reason I wanted to make this trip was that I really wanted to see Denali, or Mt. McKinley. We stopped at a few places on the way up, trying to get a look, but it was completely covered with clouds. And it was overcast on the day we went back to Palmer, so I was pretty bummed. But just when I was about to give up home, I looked out the back of the car and saw THIS!!!!! It was so spectacular sticking up through the clouds like that. This picture is from a couple hundred miles away. Just imagine how big this mountain really is!

The day after we got back from our Fairbanks trip, we took a short trip over to Wasilla to see the Iditarod Race Headquarters. We looked through their gift shop, saw a really cool film about the Iditarod (which actually got me choked up a couple times), and then--the kids' favorite--took a ride on a cart pulled by actual sled dogs.

Although Mylie was glad we didn't see any moose or bears on the Fairbanks trip, Tony, Connor and I were a little disappointed at the lack of wildlife and wanted to see SOMETHING! So we took another one day trip, which turned out to be our favorite day of the whole vacation. First we went to Portage, where we stopped at a wildlife conservation area. We were able to see moose, elk, buffalo, musk ox, bald eagles, caribou, and bears. It was really neat.

From there, we drove on South to Seward, where we visited the Alaska Sea Life Center. It was really cool to see all the different types of sea life in Alaska's waters right there in aquariums. There were all types of fish, crabs, octopus, seals, puffins, etc. They had these fun touch pools where you could feel different varieties of crabs, starfish, and anemonies.

Probably everybody's favorite thing at the sea life center was Woody, the 1700 lb. sea lion. Looks like a WHALE, doesn't he? He was really cool, and we were able to watch him swim around and around for a long time from both above the water, and down under through the glass.

We also walked around the small boat harbor there. This was the kids' first time to the ocean, so all of this was very new and exciting for them. We even stopped to watch some fisherman cleaning their fish for quite awhile.

One the way home, we decided to stop at Aleyeska ski resort. Tony had been there once before we were married and remembered a really great hike he had gone on. When we got there, it was 7:30, and we realized that the hike we wanted to do was 5 miles round trip. We decided to just go and then see as we got into it if we wanted to cut it short. We almost decided to turn around several times, but I'm SO glad we didn't because just before the turnaround point, we got to see this amazing gulch, and ride across the river on a hand tram! It was well worth the hike! And because it's Alaska, it looked like dusk as we finally found a place to eat at 10:00 that night.

Two days later, Tony had to go home to work, but the kids and I stayed another week. But because I've already posted WAY too many pictures for one post, I'll have to make a part 2 to cover the second week of the trip.