Epic Alaskan Summer Part 5: The Grande Finale

The last act of our summer began quietly. My mother came up for a pleasant, low-key visit.  Since she has already been to Fairbanks a couple of times, we skipped the tourist traps and found some stuff she hadn't seen. We went hiking at Creamer's, visited the botanical garden again, drove down to Delta Junction, and hit up the beach at Tanana Lake. The last was particularly memorable for the kids, as they brought home Swimmer's Itch* as a souvenir.

(*You're happier not knowing.  Really.**)
(**Fine.  It's a skin rash caused by snail parasites in fresh water.  It's very common and very, very miserable.  You're welcome.  And, in our defense, this is the only time they got it out of the many times we've gone.)

E, making good choices.

 We left the kids home to scratch and went out on the river. It was cool seeing all the beavers.  It was less cool that the river was so low that I had to drag the kayak through several feet of calf-deep mud to reach the little cove where we were parked. 

This lump is a beaver.

We took one morning to visit the musk-oxen at the Large Animal Research facility.  Mom had never been, and really enjoyed seeing the fuzzy, knee-high babies.  The highlight was the massive cow moose just chilling on the side of the road, eating fireweed as we drove by.

This little foxen bolted out of nowhere during the tour.

Apparently people need to be told that falling off the Trans Alaska Pipeline can hurt them.

We also nipped out to the pipeline (it runs from Valdez to Deadhorse, skirting Fairbanks on the way) for some pictures.   It was a really nice trip; I'm lucky my mom likes me enough to come all the way up to visit.

Just a few days later, the big event of the summer started. Two of my sisters and their kids came up for seven crazy days.  For months we'd discussed and planned and researched, and we hit the ground running.  The first day was spent recovering from the red-eye flight and just getting an eyeful of Fairbanks.  They wanted to see ice sculptures, so, out of the two year-round ice museums available, we went to the Fairbanks Ice Museum.  I chose...poorly.  Well, I guess that's not fair. The video was informative (but about 15 minutes too long), the ice sculptures were fun (if rather small), and it was cool to watch the professional, prizewinning ice sculptor work.  It ticked all the boxes and the fam got to sled down an ice slide, but if I had to do it again, I'd try Chena Hot Springs instead. Of course, then we'd have missed the chance to talk with a bunch of tourists from New York.

The next day we started out on possibly the most ambitious (or stupid) part of the visit--a turn-and-burn trip to Valdez for a glacier cruise.  As you might recall from our earlier June excursion, Valdez is roughly 6 hours away--8 if you have a car full of women and kids who are extremely well hydrated.  We packed Bertha full of kids, snacks, and sleeping bags and headed down the Richardson Highway.

Once we finally arrived, Valdez was amazing, of course.  Worthington Glacier was beautiful, and we did eat at The Fat Mermaid this time (I recommend it, and not just because of the name).

We stayed in the sketchiest little campground about 15 minutes outside of Valdez proper.  It turns out some of my very favorite people from Fairbanks were down there as well, and had a run-in with a bear--unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to make any ursine friends.

The promised bear.

What it lacked in bears, the campground made up for in glaciers and waterfalls.

Not our campground (we had too much estrogen in our party) but it made me cackle every time we passed it.

After chasing bunnies and roughly 500 Korean tourists, we made it on to the ship.  It took some politics--and a very assertive Amy with a cunningly placed cranky toddler--but we managed to get a decent table for the cruise.  We got 6 hours of beautiful views, glaciers, sea lions, and otters.  I was hoping for a whale, but Alaska continued to be a punk and we were denied.

It was windy as hell and about 40 degrees, but this was where they spent 90% of the trip.

We were compensated for the disappointing lack of bear and whale by the thousand rabbits, three porcupines, and four moose we saw on the drive home.  Even without the moose, it would have been a great drive.  I haven't laughed like that in a long time.  If Brenna's slightly traumatized, well, she shouldn't have listened in.

Not the best photo, but this was taken after sunset, so stop complaining--we did the best we could.  This is a mama moose in the pond and her baby is the grey blob on the hill.

Back in Fairbanks, we went to soccer games and gold-panning, kayaking and hiking.  I took the kids out on Tanana Lakes, and that evening we big kids went out on the river, which was fortunately a little higher this run.

Since Alaska enjoys making you work for what you want, we watched the weather and on the single, solitary clear night we went out to look for the aurora around 1 a.m., when it was finally dark enough--and were lucky enough to catch some of the show.

One of my favorite parts was when we abandoned the kids to go hiking at Angel Rocks.  It was easier sans children, but still a bit of a kick in the butt.  Amanda beasted it, but generously waited for Amy and me to catch up. It was gorgeous.  Jumping on the squooshy, ankle-deep moss on the side of the trail was the best part.

Of course, we had to visit North Pole and the Santa Clause House.  We managed to sneak into the Antler Academy and see the reindeer, who are exactly as grumpy and pushy as you'd expect.  The kids mostly enjoyed it, though.

 Our last adventure was the 40 Below Experience at the Riverboat Discovery.  Since the ice museum apparently wasn't cold enough, we had to drop things another 60 degrees before everyone was satisfied.  There really isn't a way to describe how it feels when your nose-hair freezes with the first breath.

Well, I tells a lie.  The last adventure was packing.  Rounding up the various small articles that go missing over vacation is always a challenge, but we got extra excitement over a souvenir that was inexplicably gone.  We turned the house upside down and *thhhppppbt* nothing.  I kept having the weirdest impulse to check the trash.  Now, usually I manage to suppress urges like this, but after fighting it for two days, I gave in.  Luckily, I didn't have to dig long.  The lost items were promptly recovered and I was the conquering smelly trash-panda hero.

And thus ended the epic Alaskan summer of 2018.  The seasons have turned and now that I've finished this chapter I can finally move on with my life (and, with luck, a more recent blog).  I'm glad I got to relive this wonderful summer.  Alaska may have my heart, but Family is where I'm home.