June 20; 2 DAYS AWAY FROM SUMMER SOLSTICE

Dawson, our #15 grandson, arrived in Anchorage last Wednesday. Days have been busy since then. A little boy had a big smile as he came off the big plane in Anchorage. He had an added treat when the stewardess put him in first class…since they had an empty seat there. Not a bad up-grade for a 12 year old!

The day after Dawson arrived we got him up at 2 am to go fishing. Since it was raining, we put some of grandpa’s rain pants on him. He looked a bit like Aladdin in them with the rubber bands holding them together around the ankles. Here there were returning from an unsuccessful fishing expedition at about 5:30 a.m. Fish 2; Chris 0.
It wasn’t as light as I would have liked it to be at 2 a.m. since it was so overcast from the rain.

This sign in beautiful downtown Talkeetna is kind of a landmark, can be found on the internet, and was made by someone 35 years ago. Many people use it for a photo opportunity…so did we with Dawson.

We decided to take a day and get Dawson to a couple of places near by that we thought he would enjoy. This is the Alaskan Veterans War Memorial.

From the War Memorial there is an awesome view of Mt. McKinley…IF you can see it. Dawson couldn’t. For 2 weeks we saw Denali every day…but haven’t seen it now for a couple of weeks. Rain. When we stopped in the Ranger Station in Talkeetna w/ Dawson to show him the board that tells how many people are on the mountain, have completed, etc. There are about 150 people sitting at “base camp” waiting for an airlift down to Talkeetna and couldn’t get down because of the weather.

There was a “junior ranger” talk at a near-by lake/campground that Chris took Dawson to. Tina, the wife of one of the rangers, talked about animals, plants, what they eat, etc. Only two animals eat the willow: snowshoe hare (rabbit) and the moose. Willow has aspirin in it (60 species in Alaska), and there is a enzyme in their stomach which allows them to eat it. Interesting.

This picture was Dawson’s idea. If you could see Mt. McKinley from here (Denali View South campground), it would be right on top of Dawson’s hand.

It was funny when we saw this blue house on a flat bed trailer pull in. The gentleman made this; it has a queen size bed, a bunk bed, and two bathroom vanities in it. He made it all out of recycled materials. It’s really cute.

Dawson likes to “geo cache”: ie. A big, world wide, scavenger hunt type of game, where people enter the GPS co-ordinates of a hidden “treasure” and other folks try to find it. The “treasure” is something little.The finder takes the little item and leaves something in return. Dawson’s daddy looked on line and discovered that there were 2 geo caches in Willow Creek SRA and gave Dawson the co-ordinates.

He found it! This little figure is what he found.

Last night Chris, Dawson and a couple of the volunteer trail crew went about 12 miles north of here to a Alaska Fish & Game managed area: Cache Whitna. Dawson didn’t have any hip boots, and in this area folks fish differently than here on Willow Creek. Here they can fish from the bank; at Cache Whitna they walk out in the water. One of the other guys loaned Dawson some knee boots, which were about 5 sizes too big for him.

Of course, Dawson had to walk out in the water right to the top of the boots….and water filled boots was the result….and cold feet. He emptied, and re-emptied the boots many times. Tee hee. Why go that deep?

• The pics turned out a bit dark, but it was raining and overcast.
  
  Tomorrow we are going to Homer, at the bottom of the Kenai Penninsula, spend the night and then go on a ½ day halibut fishing charter. Perhaps we’ll get some fish from this expedition???
  Tuesday night is the summer solstice. If we were further north, it would be 24 hours of sun. But right now night time is about 4 hours long….not bad. Wish it were clear so Dawson could see exactly how light it is in the nighttime. It’s not really dark; it’s just the sun is not up.

Gotta run home now, pick up the boys, and get to the Maintenance yard for our showers, then to church for Mass....then to the Burger Bus for lunch while our cloths are drying....our Sunday morning schedule.

So, until we "connect" again...