Chena Hot Springs Ice House

Chena Hot Springs Aurora Ice Hotel

We camped two days. Toured the ice hotel created by famous ice sculptor Steve Brice. Impressive work. It's between 15 to 20 degrees inside. After the tour when we walked back outside the wind hit our faces and literally felt like a warm blast from a furnace. It was 60 degrees outside!

Salmon drying in the smoke house. 

Example of where pioneers stored food. 

Eskimo summer camp smoke house. 

Example of a pioneer home. 

We watched the dogs pull her on the ATV. 

The sled dog houses. 

Susan's property by the Chena River. 

Susan Butcher, four time winner of Iditarod. 

Riverboat ride down the Chena River (Fairbanks) 

Teaching us how to pan for gold. 

Getting your gold officially weighed. 

Gold panning (in Fairbanks) 

With an inside pocket! 

My new carry all bag

I bought a new carry all.

Out with the old, in with the new. My husband did the laundry and he bleached my Sonlight bag. Sonlight was what I used to homeschool for preschool. Now my old bag is ruined, the blue bleached to a disgusting brown, so he bought me a new one. It's bigger and it's better! Only thing is, I always imagined a fellow Sonlight curriculum user would see my bag and then I figured we'd talk and yak, and it never happened. Threw away my Sonlight bag to make space for my new one.

The next day I met and chatted with the librarian while I was moseying around for books. She said she homeschools too. What curriculum do you think she was using? Yeah. Sonlight!

Unbelievable.

Fairbanks

After Denali we cruised two or two and a half hours up to Fairbanks. Anchorage stunk. It's just a big American city - half of the state's population resides in and around Anchorage - but Fairbanks is smaller. It's nice. Its population is around 70,000 compared to Anchorage's 350,000. Hmm. I can't remember anything special about Fairbanks right now. They have a Wal-Mart and Fred Meyers. Heh. We did all our shopping there. They have outlets in the parking lot and we noticed lots of vehicles have extension cords with electrical plugs hanging out the front grill. You know why? Because winter is SO cold they have to plug their cars in in order to keep them warm while they do their shopping.

Moose mama eating at Denali Visitor Center. 

The road into Denali National Park. 

View from our trailer. Kachemak Bay. 

No verbage yet

Hi! We're having a wonderful time and I want so much to write but my time is out now. I had to re-download all my programs and I forgot my Blogspot username. Sheesh. I will write soon. Love to bsyhomescholmom, and Fox, and Leia and my other girlfriends. I haven't logged on much and haven't visited the Loom or much of anywhere online yet... Isn't it fortuitous though? I'm logging onto my blog exactly one month since my last entry. That's weird, but cool. And, I did a scalp wash today. No small feat in a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 foot tub. Up here in Alaska, there are lots of women my age who don't color their hair. I don't stand out at all. There aren't too many girly-girls either.

My boy found this for me on Mother's Day. We put him back in the bay of course, but what a beautiful color, eh? 

We went to a presentation about bald eagles. They're all over the place in Homer. All over the place! I see them in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. Sunset here is about 11:00pm you know. 

We stayed in Homer on the spit for a week. This art is called "Logs on a Barge." Ha! I just thought they were neat so I took a pic. 

Education on the road. We're at the library and the library had free WiFi. Nice. 

My machine bit the bullet on our trip. It became slower than molasses. Got a new one for Mutter's Day. My husband is too good to me. Soldotna is a community on in southcentral Alaska, on the way to Homer. Break out your map! 

We didn't look right and we didn't look left. We hauled out straight for Alaska from southern California and arrived in exactly one week - this was taken on April 29, 2005. 

The Yukon Territory was splendid. We saw moose. This welcome sign is about 500 feet opposite the Alaska sign. We just ran from one to the other for a photo. Haha!