{"id":2999,"date":"2014-07-25T05:10:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T05:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2014-07-25T05:10:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T05:10:39","slug":"vacation-2014-days-3-and-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/2014\/07\/25\/vacation-2014-days-3-and-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacation 2014: Days 3 and 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Walking<\/a>
Walking uphill to Thunderbird Falls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day three involved a drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna with ad hoc<\/em> stops along the way. \u00a0Candy has a great book that has everything in Alaska by milepost. \u00a0We made an impromptu stop at a pullout for Thunderbird Falls. \u00a0After a mile hike over mostly easy trail, we reached the falls.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird<\/a>
Thunderbird Falls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They were nice, but not the most spectacular falls we’ve ever seen. \u00a0Still, it was a nice hike and a great way to break up the drive.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Iditarod Headquarters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Farther up the road, in Wasilla (Sarah Palin’s home town), we visited the Iditarod Race Headquarters. \u00a0The race actually begins in Anchorage, but the headquarters is in Wasilla.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>
Some of the artifacts inside the Iditarod HQ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inside the gift store they showed an eighteen-minute movie and had some very interesting race memorabilia. \u00a0I was hoping that the movie would talk more about the history of the race. \u00a0It was in fact more like a racing documentary, discussing the mushers competing in the 2012 race. \u00a0In anchorage we learned that this race commemorates an historical event. \u00a0One winter there was an outbreak of diphtheria in Nome and the only way to get the serum from Anchorage was by dogsled. \u00a0Sometime in the the 60’s or 70’s someone came up with the idea or resurrecting the event for sport, not unlike running a marathon, which was initially to commemorate the end of the battle of Marathon.<\/p>\n

\"Miller's<\/a>
Miller's in Houston, AK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still farther up the road toward Talkeetna we stopped at Miller’s roadside cafe. \u00a0They were reputed to have great burgers and ice cream. \u00a0They did. \u00a0This was a neat place: combination general store, ice cream parlor, burger joint, coffee house, and post office. \u00a0In fact the Postmaster is the person who cooked our food.<\/p>\n

\"Hmmm.<\/a>
Hmmm. To lick or not to lick?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We topped off our food with ice cream and got back on the road.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our campsite at Talkeetna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eventually we arrived in Talkeetna. \u00a0The town, which has a year-round population of ~800, was originally a transit point where goods were take off barges and the hauled by mules, horses, or dog sleds farther into the interior. \u00a0Today it is largely a tourist attraction, with gift stores, place to eat, river rafting excursions, and flights to glaciers on Mt. McKinley.<\/p>\n

\"Downtown<\/a>
Downtown Talkeetna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We signed up for a flight up to a glacier on Mt. McKinley the next day and walked into town to look around.<\/p>\n

\"Entering<\/a>
Entering downtown Talkeetna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Future<\/a>
Future mushers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Smooch!\"<\/a>
Smooch!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zoom!\"<\/a>
Zoom!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The garlic spinach bread here was awesome!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nagley's<\/a>
Nagley's General Store in Talkeetna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This town was the model for the town in the television show Northern Exposure. \u00a0One of the locals told us that the high school (fed by three towns) graduated 22 last year. \u00a0This general store reminded me of the one in my grandmother’s home town in Illinois. \u00a0 There was a little bit of everything in the store, from bread to bait and from animal skins to snacks.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The master chef grills teriyaki chicken kabobs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That night I made chicken kabobs on the grill for dinner. \u00a0We finished the day with a little ice cream while watching an episode of the Mission Impossible TV show. \u00a0It began to rain that night. \u00a0The next morning, clouds hung low in the sky and visibility was limited. \u00a0Our flight to the glacier was cancelled. \u00a0We, therefore, took our time getting packed up and then headed toward the entrance to Denali National Park.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/a>
Sam goofing in front of the Alaska Veteran's Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of our stops this day was in Denali State Park, where we saw the Alaska Veteran’s Memorial. \u00a0Nearby were some VERY interesting placards describing interesting vignettes about Alaska at War, mostly WWII and the Cold War. \u00a0There was also a story about a Confederate ship, the Shenandoah<\/em>, which was sent to Alaska to sink Union whaling boats. \u00a0Apparently, profits from whale hunting were important sources of revenue to finance the war. \u00a0The Shenandoah<\/em> sank 6 or 8 Union whaling vessels, continuing its mission for six months after the war had officially ended. \u00a0There is debate among historians as to whether the crew knew the war was over and kept sinking ships anyway. \u00a0This whole memorial area was a really unexpected gem.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A view of the mountains along Parks Highway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can see by this picture that it was drizzly all day, and visibility was limited. \u00a0We should have been able to see Mt. McKinley most of the day, but the thick clouds got in the way. \u00a0We eventually arrived at our campsite just a few miles outside the gate to the Denali National Park. \u00a0I barely had time to finish cooking burgers for dinner on our little grill before the sky opened up. \u00a0We are told that the weather will get progressively better throughout the weekend, so we have hopes of a good visit to the National Park and making another attempt to fly up the mountain and land on a glacier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day three involved a drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna with ad hoc stops along the way. \u00a0Candy has a great book that has everything in Alaska by milepost. \u00a0We made an impromptu stop at a pullout for Thunderbird Falls. \u00a0After a mile hike over mostly easy trail, we reached the falls. They were nice, but … Continue reading Vacation 2014: Days 3 and 4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}