Resolutions

I'm not much of a fan for making resolutions for the new year.  But I do have a few goals:

• Move out of too-small apartment, buy my own condo.  Preferably before the tax credit expires.
• Cook a real dinner more often.
• Have better lunches at school - it's hard to break that mac and cheese trend once I get started...
• Be more crafty (and have a whole craft room?!?!)
• Grade school work more quickly
• Be more patient.  In pretty much all areas.  But that doesn't mean that PUNCTUALITY isn't important, male members of the family.
• Keep up with the laundry.
• Floss my teeth.  (ha ha ha, who am I kidding?!)

Those are mine.  What are yours?

Happy Christmas to all....

Another holiday, another excuse to serve a fancy meal.  And that is basically all Christmas was at my house this year.  I spent much of the morning and early afternoon terribly bored.  I made another craft Christmas flower arrangement.  This is my favorite shape flower to make.

The boys came over in the afternoon.  They took turns napping on the couch - what a big surprise...  Appetizer foods included chips and dip and pepperoni rolls.  I made them correctly this time.  You may recall my Thanksgiving issue when I bought crescent rolls instead of pizza dough.  Anyway they turned out just fine this time.  So fine that David ate 5 of the 8.  Pig.

Dinner was Ragout de Bouef.  Or beef stew.  It was very very easy to make.  I added potatoes to the recipe and also used beef stock instead of water.  More than two hours later, it was finished and we were good to go.

I once again took the table setting to a bit of an extreme for only three people.  I think maybe menus and placecards are unnecessary but I like to set a nice table, so we will all just have to put up with it...  I even ironed the napkins and table cloth this year, but that more because I was trying to fold the napkins in some creative way and that was hard to do when it was all wrinkled.  Unfortunately, it seems that my napkins aren't exactly square shaped, making it difficult to fold them precisely.  Anyway, the table looked very nice, I thought.  Sarah picked the color scheme of green and silver.  I knew she was a Slytherin at heart.

Dinner was good.  It left me with plenty of leftovers.  David survived on bread and salad (and pepperoni rolls from earlier...).  All in all, the meal was a success, it just didn't feel like Christmas.  I miss our old Christmases.

my emergency kit.

so, i know there are some skeptics among you who have made a tremendous amount of fun of my emergency kit. and i recognize that with the exception of an early use of the permanent marker in it, there were no emergencies that required its use on the alaska trip. but it also came along on this trip, and in the past 24 hours, we have used:

1. a small carabiner clip, to hold closed the curtain that separates our section of the room from sophie's, so she would go to sleep.
2. a binder clip, to hold the same curtain at one end, since we pulled it too hard & popped off whatever held it closed on that end previously (note: this was not specifically in the emergency kit, but it was meant to be, i just forgot to put it into the bag.)
3. cortisone cream, for a bizarre, unpleasant, majorly itchy allergic reaction that was spreading giant red welts up my legs.
4. benadryl, for the same itchy mess
5. the flashlight, because miss sophie was declining sleep with any lights on in the whole room, and, well, we wanted to see...

so, as you all can tell, without my emergency kit, we would have been stuck with a screaming non-sleeping baby, in the dark, and ridiculously itchy (or paying an overpriced visit to health services).

carabiner: $3
binder clip: $0.50
cortisone cream: $5
benadryl: $5
flashlight $7
not having a miserable first night of vacation: priceless.

love,
sarah, from key west.

House Hunting 12/6

I decided I am going to use the blog to write about the various homes I go see - what I like, what I don't, etc...  Today we went to 3 open houses.  We tried for #4 but the directions I had vs. the roads that actually exist didn't really match.

#1 - 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath
Pros - finished basement with full bathroom, new furnace and water heater, good master bedroom size

Cons - weird smell, smallish kitchen, weird layout with kitchen/dining room and a half wall type set-up, dated carpet, no private master bathroom, no central air, really ugly bathroom cabinetry

#2 - 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath - same complex as #1, slightly different first floor layout
Pros - bigger kitchen with open to dining area compared to #1, bonus room on 2nd floor (for storage, crafts, etc.), good master bedroom size, new windows

Cons - basement had very strong/odd odor, no central air, same really ugly bathroom cabinetry, dated carpets, no private master bathroom

Other - Note to the realtor: being forced to stand next to your extraordinarily pungent flavored coffee nearly caused me to puke.  Ick.

#3 - 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath
Pros - nice open kitchen, dining, living room - very bright with lots of windows and vaulted ceiling, central air, new kitchen appliances, "crisp" looking

Cons - very weird layout with most of unit on 3rd floor but a separate room on the 1st level, way too many stairs to climb (separate home on the 2nd level), strange kitchen corner, no private master bathroom

Other - aside from odd first floor room and massive number of stairs to get to the home, all living is on one floor - not sure how I feel about that...

Giving The Finger

Because I know that you are all so worried, I feel duty bound to provide an update on the state of my wounded finger.  That, and I am procrastinating from the massive amounts of school work I have piled around me.

Anyway, my finger is doing just fine.  There is no pain unless I poke or prod at it, which I've been known to do.  I even took a picture of it for those who want to see it (though it isn't a very good picture...).  That reddish area in the middle is where I sliced into the finger.  I should have taken a picture when it was all bloody and the flap of skin was visible.  All the squeamish boys in the family would have loved that...

I suppose I should get back to my planning and grading.  And the Star Wars marathon (where, during the commercials, I've been listening to my new favorite Star Wars/John Williams song).

Black Friday

Because Steve feels I should blog about the mundane details of my life...

Today was an awesome day.  Going into it I had three difficult-to-accomplish goals: be lazy, not get dressed all day, and eat leftovers.  I am proud to say I accomplished all three.

I spent the entire day on the couch with my lazy cat.  We watched a variety of television programs, including the movies Hercules and half of Aladdin.  I also downloaded lots of music (legally).  It's always important to add to my Christmas music collection.  Thank you Amazon free downloads and discounted albums.  I ate some leftover lasagna (that accidentally sat on the counter all night, hope I don't die or anything...) and a few helpings of apple spice cake.  I can't emphasize enough how yummy it is.

In a somewhat productive moment, I began to redesign my school website, but I don't really view that as work because it didn't need to be done and it was something I had fun with.  It's going to be all pink and girly when I'm done with it.  Break out the Weird Al music...

I also cut away some of the dead skin from the flap on my finger as a result of yesterday's accident.  The bleeding has all stopped, there isn't really a scab, but it's all purply-red looking and my finger is still sore.

So that was my day.  I didn't find any great deals at the Black Friday sales, but since I already did all (or most) of my gift giving, it's probably best I not spend extra money.  There you have it, nothing profound or productive but an excellently lazy day!

Thanksgiving 2009

Today felt more like Fake Thanksgiving than last week.  Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday but today never felt quite right.  It was certainly a nice day spent with family, but I missed the rest of our group and our normal Thanksgiving routine.  Today was really just an excuse to have a nice fancy dinner.

I began work on the Apple Spice Cake during the Macy's Parade (as an aside, I really want to go see it again, as long as people don't fall out of windows and land on the person standing next to me...).  Perhaps being a little too forceful with my new and awesome pink knife, I sliced through an apple and straight through the side of my left index finger, on the knuckle.  Much blood and pain and bandaids later, it has mostly stopped bleeding.  It probably wasn't bad enough for stitches but perhaps could have been glued or something (it is not so much deep as a sideways slice so there's a huge flap of skin).

As delicious as my cake is, both times I have made it, I have had bundt pan issues.  The first time, the cake came out so quickly that it slid out of the pan and broke in half.  This time, half came out easily and half was stuck.  Still tasty but not at all pretty...

I set the table, digging out the tablecloth.  I even got all crafty and made pretty placecards and menus.  Perhaps a bit much for 3 people, but I really enjoy setting a nice looking table.  I wish I had a larger table so there was really room for everything.

Maybe I should have ironed the table cloth first.  Oh well.

The boys arrived promptly at 2.  Perhaps they have finally learned how I value promptness.  Veggies were served all afternoon.  I also made, especially for David, pepperoni bread.  Sadly, I brought crescent roll dough instead of the pizza dough, but they still came out ok.  Oops.

Pepperoni Bread, made with crescent rolls instead of pizza dough

Instead of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, we were going with an Italian theme this year.  Since we did the whole turkey dinner last week, it really didn't make sense to do it again this week.  David doesn't eat it and it's a lot of work for 2 people.  I made lasagna instead.  Dad was lots of help (he was awesome to help with the onion cutting!) and David (and Gerald) took a nap on the couch.

I am thankful this holiday season that Dad doesn't have nearly the awful reaction I do to onion chopping.

David getting all the sleep he can before he has to show up for work at 4:45 tomorrow morning.  Poor kid!

Dinner itself was yummy - lasagna, salad and garlic bread.  Afterward, we watched this week's episode of Glee - Dad and David enjoyed their first glimpse of the show, I think.  The cake tasted good despite how it looked.

An Italian Thanksgiving (with Clio keeping watch in the background)

All in all, it was a nice day.  I'm thankful this holiday week (both Thanksgiving celebrations) for getting to spend the time with my family - while we occasionally don't see eye to eye on some things, I truly enjoy it when we are all able to get together and enjoy one another's company.  It happens more and more infrequently these days.

I win, I win, I win, I win!

I've never been so excited to come in second place!!  The Second Place Thanksgiving Miniature Golf Tournament Plaque is mine at last!!

with my plaque and pretty, pretty new apron

Fakesgiving went well - a splendid and tasty meal as always. It continues to be my favorite holiday.  Any holiday that is all about food is all good.

Real Thanksgiving is going to be odd with just the boys coming over and a very non-Thanksgiving-like meal.  But it'll be good, hors d'ouevres, dinner, and dessert - the works.  Maybe I'll even break out the fancy table stuff and wear my awesome new apron...

Fakesgiving

Are we ready for Fakesgiving-Hannumas 2009?  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not crazy about this early, fake holiday but we'd best make the most of it - it's likely to be our last Florida holiday for quite some time. 

We will celebrate Fakesgiving with Sir Turksalot (if he arrives in time).  Isn't he cute?

And this is the year I win the 2nd place mini golf award.

Pick a letter, A through K

These are all possible pictures that I picked out to make a new header image.  Which are your favorites??  Or add your own.  Course that would only apply to the one other person who actually took pictures on the trip...

A - Fireweed

B - On the train to Denali

C - On the Train to Denali

D - Sunset Along the Canadian Coast

E - Mt. McKinley

F - Margerie Glacier

G - Polychrome Mountains, Denali

H - Glacier Bay

I - Scene from Denali

J - View from McKinley Lodge

K - Glacier Bay

change is coming...

Ok Rosenbergs (and the occasional Gordon), we need a new use for the blog.  Any thoughts?  I'm thinking of making a new title picture from one of the shots we took on vacation - do you have a favorite I should use?  I was thinking something from Denali.  Or perhaps Steve and the fish...

very cool

not to take away from the seriousness of the previous post, but this is quite neat, and reminded me of our trip: Stunning Views of Glaciers From Space.

just a taste:

Kudos

Okay, the old man has to be serious -- much as that upsets every one of his anatomical systems...

Thanks, Amy, for setting up the site and for reporting the trip (with a shout out to Sarah for her contribution, as well).

The trip meant a lot to me (more than anyone who hasn't seen me get wet-eyed at the drop of a hat can ever understand) -- and having a place to remember it only added to multiplied that experience.

When I die (not planning on it any time soon) and St. Peter asks why I should be admitted to Heaven, I can reply (after dealing with the shock of nice Jewish kid who doesn't actually believe there's an after-life or that I'm actually in this position), "See The Rosenblog".

Thank you.

States Visited - Amy (version 3)

Woo hoo, looks like I'm #2 on the states visited list!!  Take that, Stephen!!  I now have 34 states, sadly I missed out on Oregon after our railroad snafu.  But still, #2 isn't all that bad at all :)

Day 19 & 20 - Heading Home to Florida.

So we chose to break our travel up over two days, since a giant plane flight with Sophie seemed...risky. The first day, we were flying from Anchorage to Seattle, then spending the night in a lovely airport Marriott, and flying back to Orlando the next day.

So I got up nice and early that day (6am, not as early as everyone else, but still awfully early), to await the people to pick up our luggage. The plan was, I would hand them the luggage in the hall so that they didn't wake Sophie. Too bad they never showed up to get our luggage. Eventually, Steve called down, and they came to get it. We found out later that they thought we were all in David & Amy's room, so they knocked there & no one answered, so they didn't pick anything up. Or something. Maybe they thought they already picked it up the night before? I dunno. Anyway, by the time they came for the luggage, we were all up anyway. So at the appropriate time, we all headed down to wait for the bus. And we waited, and waited. The bus was delayed at the other hotel, for whatever reason. At this time, they also asked, "So wait, where is David Rosenberg?" Um, he left two hours ago on the other bus. D'oh. Anyway, eventually the bus came, and we got underway. We took some back roads route to the airport, which was uneventful (we got to hear more about the earthquake blah blah), but we did get to see a moose wandering down a side street right next to the airport, so that was cool.

So, we got to the airport, checked our bags, and headed to the gate. I don't really remember anything tremendously interesting about the airport, to be honest. We got on our flight (yay for the family preboard), and headed to Seattle. After a few fairly uneventful hours on the plane (I think Sophie was mostly ok, she wasn't feeling great, so I think we held her a lot of the time, but she wasn't hysterically screaming like the previous day, at least), we landed, and went to get our bags. Again, uneventful. Piled them all precariously on another cart, and headed to the Seattle airport parking lot elevators of doom once more. Once again, Sophie & I ended up in one elevator, and Steve & the luggage were in another one, and once again, we got on after he did, but got to the destination floor before he did. I swear, those elevators were possessed. Anyway, found the airport shuttle, headed to our airport. It was nothing exciting, but perfectly adequate. I think it was midafternoon by then, and we were *tired*. Well, all of us except Sophie, of course. We ordered midafternoon room service, and watched tv for a while. That night, we had dinner with an old friend of Steve's sister, which was nice, then we went back to the hotel room, watched most of Mamma Mia on tv, and went to sleep.

The next morning, we had to get up pretty early once again, to catch another shuttle back to the airport. This was, once again, uneventful, as was the flight itself. At least this time we got a porter to help us navigate the elevator of doom. I don't really remember much of the flight home itself, except that Sophie was a little less clingy that day, I think. Maybe. Our driver met us at the baggage claim (different driver from the first day, but he was fine), and took us home, where the cats were very happy to see us. And thus ended our Alaskan adventure - lots and lots of fun, lots of very cool things, but it was still good to be home. :)

Day 19: The Journey Home

Note: There will be 2 Day 19 posts since our two groups traveled quite separately this day. Sarah will post her report when Sophie lets her!

Thursday, July 30, 2009
The day dawned much earlier than any of us wanted. Our shuttle left at around 5 in the morning, perhaps a little earlier. It didn't take long to realize that the Princess people really did have our flight info all messed up. The bus stopped first at the Delta terminal. When no one got off the bus, the driver looked up who was flying Delta and announced our names. The only problem was that we weren't flying Delta. So she loaded the suitcases back on and we went to the other terminal where everyone got off the bus.

We were flying Northwest, as were most of the people on the bus. There was only one flight leaving at that hour and the line to check-in was quite long. But because Dad got us first class tickets, we got to move over to the special line. Yay! The curmudgeonly ticket agent checked us in (and added my Delta frequent flier number to the super long flight) and we headed to security. I had forgotten to put my shampoo in my suitcase so I tossed that. There were no problems getting through and we camped out at the gate. We were very early and the Anchorage airport, especially at that hour, was not at all exciting. Our gate was the very farthest away, of course, so we just hung out there for the most part until it was time to board.

The flight itself wasn't that exciting. We boarded early and made David sit by himself as he was planning to sleep the entire way. He did end up switching his seat when an enormous family (4 little kids, all under the age of 6 or 7) boarded and their seats were all over the first class cabin. People moved to allow them to sit together. David got his window seat after all... Actually he ended up sitting next to some kid who was probably also college aged and was reading Stephen Hawking stuff.

The flight itself was completely uneventful. Well, almost. Not ten minutes after take-off Dad sets his orange juice on the tray and it just slid right off and spilled all over his legs and feet. Oops. That was messy and sticky for him. We were served breakfast - some, um, interesting looking egg omelet thing, fruit, and a bagel. It was ok. Other than that, we didn't do much. I did once again assert my cribbage playing authority... We landed in Minneapolis right on time.

We had a couple hours to hang out in Minnesota. I thought Dad and David should go find the Larry Craig bathroom, but they didn't think that was a brilliant idea. That airport was absolutely huge. Despite the options, I couldn't really find anything I wanted to eat and so ended up with Burger King chicken fingers, not one of the finer foods in life...

The second flight was equally uneventful. We got dinner this time - I annoyed Dad when I took that last sandwich, apparently (I was not aware it was the last). I made David get the salad since he wasn't going to get anything. I ate it instead (well, parts of it). This flight was only 2 hours. When we landed in Hartford, I was shocked at how crowded it was. The baggage area was just packed with people and the luggage was really slow to come out. It eventually did and we had to track down Unreliable Cab Company. We eventually found the guy outside, way at the end. In his defense, he had called and left a few messages on Dad's cell phone, but would it really have been so hard to wait inside with a little sign with our name on it?? Making extra work for us at the very end of a long trip just wasn't cool.

Getting home was nice. The cat was very happy to see me. She didn't leave my side for a few days. Crazy kitty. Shockingly, I had little trouble readjusting to east coast time, I guess because I naturally stay up really late anyway and didn't do that on vacation... Unlike normal trips, I even unpacked right away, did laundry, sorted mail, etc.

All in all, the trip was an amazing experience. I definitely think that Alaska is one of those 'must see' places - especially the glaciers and the interior area around Denali. I'm sure I could come up with more eloquent things to say about the experience, but I'm not feeling overly creative at the moment. I know I'll remember the places, the people, the crazy family memories for a very long time. And I know that everyone else on the trip joins me in saying a very big Thank You to Dad for making this happen!

So Dad, where are we going next year? My vote is Italy. Just saying....

Day 18: A Whaleless Whalewatch

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The day started MUCH earlier than anyone wanted. We needed to get to Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula, for a whalewatch. The tour company arranged our train tickets ahead of time. We left the hotel at about 5:15 AM to go to the train station. We didn't all fit in one cab, so Sarah and family followed in the second cab. That is when the "fun" began.

As soon as we arrived at the station and got out of the cab, a railroad employee informed us that the train was canceled. Gosh, that's just wonderful news... Apparently, there was a rockslide over the train tracks. I had a secret wish that darn, the whole day would be scrapped, let's go back to the hotel and sleep. I'm sure I wasn't the only one with this thought. As it turned out, the railroad brought in buses to transport everyone to Seward instead. It cut the trip in half, as well. This meant we'd arrive in Seward really early, but it also meant that on the return trip that evening we'd get in much earlier than expected.

After Dad and Steve worked out the ticket problems (apparently the tout people never got Sophie a seat and then the names got messed up), we boarded the bus for a rainy (shocking!) drive to Kenai. The drive was uneventful. At one point we stopped for a rest break - nasty nasty bathrooms, but we made it to Kenai without any issues. We took the shuttle from the depot to the docks to get our tickets. Because we had nearly 2 hours to kill, we went to get breakfast and then just hung around for awhile, wandering about. It was very UNEXCITING.

Grandpa and Sophie watch some Sesame Street on the iPhone

Sophie makes a new friend

Eventually, it was time to go to the boat. I'm not really sure how many people were on the tour, maybe 50 or so? After our safety spiel, we were on our way. The captain stopped the boat when she spotted wildlife and we'd watch for a little while before going on. Because it was so overcast and chilly, we spent most of our time on the lower level. We saw some otters and a lot of birds (the puffins were Sarah's favorite) before spotting a whole group of sea lions lounging about. I very briefly saw a dolphin, but it was gone very quickly. The one thing we did not sea were whales. Hmmm....

A playful sea otter

Sea lions taking in the "sun"

A puffin on the rocks

After 2 weeks of really good behavior, Sophie had had enough. Between teething, lack of a schedule, and over-stimulation, she had a huge meltdown. The poor kid just cried and cried and cried. When the boat stopped at an island for lunch, she really got going. Lesson learned that day: when going on an ALL day trip somewhere that is inaccessible to a store (i.e. you will be on a 5 hour boat trip), bring baby motrin! Sophie cheered up a bit the second half of the boat ride, she sat with us and played a bit, but was still out of sorts. Also, the Sesame Street podcasts on the iPhone saved the day.

Sophie zonked out after a loooong day

It is rather becoming, no?

When the boat finally made it back to the dock, we split into to groups - Sarah and I went to the True-Value store across the street to see if they had any baby medicine (there were no nearby drugstores or grocery stores) and everyone else went to Subway to pick up meals for the ride back to Anchorage. After some searching, I found children's motrin. We waited in the slowest line (it had 2 people in it, there is no reason it should move this slowly) and then met the rest. For some unknown reason, everyone else got 12 inch sandwiches but Dad ordered a 6 inch for me. Still not clear on why...

Finally, we were on our way again, back on the bus. Sophie was doing much better at this point, happy to have her medicine. Once we returned to the hotel, we needed to find out about the morning shuttles to the airport. They were supposed to have already given us this info... It wasn't until very late that they finally told us our shuttle left at the hotel at 4 something in the morning. Eek. Sarah and family had a couple extra hours since their flight was later. The luggage procedure was such that you couldn't bring it down yourself - you needed to have it ready an hour before the shuttle left. There was no way I was waking up that early just so they could get my suitcase, so bell services came and got them all before we went to bed that night.

We said all of our goodbyes since we wouldn't see each other in the morning. Sophie was super cute, running from person to person giving hugs (poor David, she wouldn't give him one). And then it was time to sleep - the end of a very, very long day. Next time, don't plan such a filled day at the very end of an already crazy vacation...

Upon returning home, Dad discovered that most of the days adventures had been refunded by the tour company. No reason was given - perhaps the inconvenience of the bus instead of the train?

Our Journey, Thus Far (Part 3)

Day 17: Northern Exposure Exposed

Seriously family, none of you noticed that I went from Day 8 to Day 10 when I was naming the blog posts? You need to be more observant about these things so I don't have to go back and rename a gagillion posts...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The morning was nice and leisurely. We breakfasted at the same place we had dinner last night and we were super-lucky to have Jason wait on again. I'm not sure he felt lucky, but a good time was had by all. We hung around the lodge for a good portion of the morning, on the deck and also inside, all showing up in bits and pieces. The lodge had internet access, so that was nice.

This is the room David and I slept in. One of us (hint: not me) is the world's messiest sleeper...

Sophie on a bear hunt

View from the McKinley Lodge. If it was clearer, Mt. McKinley would be visible right in the middle of the picture.

We decided we'd spend a few hours in the town of Talkeetna, which was about an hour away. The train left from there to take us back to Anchorage so we had to go anyway. The bus ride was uneventful. Thankfully, Oaf was not our driver this time. Talkeetna is the town that served as the inspiration for the television show Northern Exposure. Sadly, we did not see any moose walking down the street.

Enjoying the busride to Talkeetna

The town itself was tiny. It had a bunch of shops and restaurants, but that was about it. We wandered around for awhile, but it was pretty boring. We ate lunch at an OK (but highly recommended) place. They didn't have some of the items listed on their menu and their milk was frozen. Very weird. But they did have really pretty bathrooms - they were painted with scenes of the Alaskan countryside.

Sophie has decided to enroll in flight school to become an Alaskan bush pilot

SMOOCH!

We made our way back to where the shuttle would take us to the depot and from there, Sarah, David, and I went the opposite direction to a neat little bead store. There were lots of pretty beads and I'm sure I could have easily spent a lot of money there, but instead just looked. I did, surprisingly, have a most pleasant port-a-potty experience. It was clean and didn't smell, I was quite shocked. It was eventually time to go to the depot. We waited (and waited and waited) for the train to arrive, already standing in line to board.

Like last time, we were assigned to a particular car and tables. This time, however, we really lucked out. The train had cars on it from the Alaskan Railroad and several different cruise lines. Our car was the very last one and our tables were the very last tables. This meant we had the huge back window all to ourselves. We also didn't have to share with anyone this time and the end seat was really a big long bench the width of the car. We had lots and lots of space. That would have been great for the ride up.

This doesn't seem like a good idea...

This train trip would only be about 3-4 hours in length. We ate downstairs - the food was absolutely nothing special and very slow. I think I had some type of salad for dinner. Afterwards, we (except for Steve and Sophie) played Trivial Pursuits. I had lugged that stupid game all the way across the continent and we were going to play it come hell or high water. We never got a chance to finish the game but I declare dad the winner - he had 5 pieces when we stopped. Sarah and I had 3. David actually had 4 BUT he kept getting the world's easiest questions when he landed on a piece. Questions like "which Jewish holiday holds a seder?" and things like that. The rest of us were not so lucky with our questions.

One of the houses across the lake is where Sarah Palin lives (she resigned as governor 2 days earlier)

From the station in Anchorage, we were brought to our hotel, the Captain Cook. It's a pretty large and apparently fancy hotel. It was fine. Because our plans for the next day began very early and would end very late, David and I got all our packing in order that night so we didn't have to worry about it tomorrow. Afterwards, I uploaded ALL of my pictures to Picasa, labeled and everything. It was soon bedtime. Bedtime in my twin bed. How weird...

Our Journey, Thus Far (Part 3)

Day 16: An Indescribable Experience, Described

Monday, July 27, 2009
Morning plans today were divided in two groups: the brave and the not-so-brave. Ok, perhaps that's not quite fair, but I'll keep it. Dad, David, and I had an early morning flight to Mt. McKinley. But before we could go, we had to make sure luggage was outside our doors, breakfast was eaten, and everything was in order. After a last minute luggage swap, we were on our way. I opted not to eat breakfast. The thought of flying in a teeny tiny plane, bouncing around, did not do anything to settle my stomach. I didn't think eating would be a good plan.

A van from the flightseeing company picked us up at the lodge and drove us to the "airport" in the town of Healy. By airport, I really just mean an airstrip, thankfully paved. It was pretty cloudy outside, but we were assured that the mountain was out and things were a lot clearer over there. Apparently, yesterday's wind causes all flights to be grounded then so we were fortunate to be flying today instead. At the "airport," we were weighed and assigned a plane.

Our pilot seemed to have quite a bit of experience here, having spent the last couple of decades flying in Alaska during the summers. He winters in St. Thomas. It's such a tough life, clearly! Anyway, he gave us our safety talk once we were in the plane (it was a 10 seater, including the pilot/co-pilot seats). We were given a garbage back in case we felt the need to vomit, a juice box to help with ear pressure issues, a headset to hear everyone, and an oxygen mask for when we reached a certain altitude (the plane wasn't pressurized). Oh boy, this will be something. Dad and I were seated 3 rows back, right over the wing. David was seated behind us.

I will admit that there was a time after we took off that I thought I was going to throw up. The plane was really being thrown around due to the winds. Our pilot assured us that it would settle down as we got further into the park so I just spent a lot of time at the beginning concentrating on my breathing and trying not to make a fool of myself. I'm glad to say I succeeded.

It was kinda neat to fly along a similar route to the one we drove yesterday - it's just a totally different world up there. We were able to get pretty close to Mt. McKinley but unable to go about 20,000 feet and see the summit (and therefore didn't get to wear our oxygen masks, sniff). It was just too windy and unsafe. That was disappointing but overall, it was an amazing experience - the mountain tops, the snow, the unpredictable weather, etc. I can't imagine climbing a mountain like that... I took lots and lots of pictures with Sarah's fancy camera but they really don't do the actual scenery justice.

Images from our airplane:

Our lodge, from the air

Coming in for the landing

Shockingly, I looked back at David numerous times during the flight and he had dozed off. Seriously? Sleeping? That boy can sleep anywhere... He still swears he was just "resting his eyes" but I absolutely do NOT believe him. He had the whole head bobbing thing going on and everything. That was one expensive nap he took...

Dad...

David (awake)...

and Amy

We eventually had to return, which also meant we had to fly back into the really turbulent area, lucky us. We landed without any problems and waited around for the second plane to return so we could go back to the lodge. Overall, a very cool experience - I'd definitely like to try out other trips in tiny planes.

In front of our plane

We found the rest of the family upon our return. They had a quiet and relaxing morning. We had enough time for lunch before we had to catch a bus to go to the next lodge. We ate at the fancy restaurant, though lunch wasn't at all fancy.

Sophie helping Steve with breakfast

Exploring the great outdoors

Aren't we cute?!

The bus ride was mostly uneventful though the bus driver was the most irritating of all the guides on the entire trip. Not remembering his actual name, but recalling it was 3 letter with 2 vowels, Steve later renamed him Oaf. Oaf would not stop talking nearly the entire way. He also had to pull the bus over at some point to go to the bathroom (on the bus). He didn't win any bonus points from me. At all.

A less than exciting bus ride

He delivered us to the McKinley Lodge, another run by Princess. We were staying here for one night. It is named the McKinley Lodge because it has a great view of the mountain from the main building. Of course, it only has a good view if it is clear, which it was not. But it was pretty anyway - I liked that lodge overall better, though there was a lot less to do in the area. Our cabins were way far away and a bit of a pain to get to. The rooms were nearly identical to the previous lodge.

After getting settled in, we headed to dinner at '20,320' - their standard burger type restaurant. We were seated in the corner. Dinner was enjoyable, we had a great waiter, Jason. He was pretty entertaining and very tolerant of our dinner-table antics. After that, we hung out on the deck at the main lodge before calling it a night.

Sophie trying to locate Mt. McKinley

Grandpa finally gets a big hug!

Sophie thinks her daddy is pretty funny (looking)

Our Journey, Thus Far (Part 3)