Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

It has been quite a busy week since returning from WI. There are still so many last minute things to take care of before Christmas, and I’m checking them off my list slowly but surely. Yesterday I put up the Christmas tree (finally!). We have a 4′ table top tree now. We gave away the big tree a couple of years ago, as it was just too large for our home, and we really didn’t need something so big without kids here at home.  I strung some lights over the windows in the living room too. I really do like the ambient light they provide. I’m still contemplating putting some lights in the front windows, or wrapped around the porch posts, but I’ve got other things to worry about that are more pressing.

I still haven’t written out my Christmas cards, but I did finish the family newsletter two days ago. Unfortunately Steve ruined a good bunch of them when he was printing them, as he didn’t keep an eye on the printer and it sucked several sheets of paper through at a time, printing half on one sheet and half on the other. We never had a chance to take a family photo for our card, so I just used a photo I took at Pioneer Park for the front. They should be ready for pickup tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find time tomorrow night to start addressing envelopes.

Today is my birthday, and we’re going out to dinner. It’s a birthday dinner for the both of us. We usually celebrate both our days on the weekend between the two, but Steve was on night shift this weekend. We decided to go to Pike’s, as we haven’t been there in awhile. At first we were going to go to Lavelle’s, but I’m such a picky eater there is only one thing on the menu that I will eat (a chicken dish) and it’s nearly $30 just for the entree. Restaurant prices up here are so high! I think that’s ridiculous for chicken. Their steak/seafood dishes are much higher. The food IS good, but wow…

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I never finished my November Gratitude and wanted to do that now. I look forward to doing it again next year!

November 28th: Today I am thankful for a fourth successful Alaska calendar year! Thank you to all of you who purchased a calendar(s). I hope the images bring you joy throughout 2012. Thank you as well to those of you who missed the pre-order deadline, but put your name on a back up list. While I am always sorry when someone has to cancel an order, I am so very thankful for those of you wanting to give the cancellations a home. All calendars have now been accounted for. I am humbled by your overwhelming support. Thank you. ♥

November 29th: Today I am thankful to finally be off the plane and sitting on a comfortable sofa. (The plane ride was long and miserable!)

November 30th: Today I am thankful that my kids grew up so well. We never really know how our kids are going to evolve. We raise two kids the same way and they can still be as different as night and day. All we can hope for is that someday our kids will be responsible, loving, compassionate, and fairly well-balanced adults. Since mine turned out pretty nice, I guess we must have done something right.

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The flight to Madison was long, as always. Steve and I are MVP Gold Members on Alaska Airlines, which comes with some added perks. One of those perks is a free upgrade to First Class when there are seats available. Unfortunately, there are quite a few folks who are MVP Gold Members and you are upgraded as you check in. Most of the time First Class is full, so getting one of these upgrades on a long leg (like Anchorage to Chicago - which was the route I flew) is pretty much impossible.  However, the shorter Fairbanks to Anchorage leg sometimes has some First Class seats available, and I lucked out. Granted, it’s only about a 40 minute flight, but I was thankful for the extra legroom. My seatmate was a Fairbanks orthodontist who had just come back from vacationing in Hawaii the day before (another long flight) and was heading to Chicago for a seminar. We chatted the entire time, which made the short flight seem even shorter.

Although I couldn’t get a seat in First Class, I did get a seat in the emergency exit row for the Anchorage to Chicago leg. Thank goodness for extra leg room.  It was an overnight flight and I think I dozed off for about 3 hours.

It was so good to see Brandon waiting for me when I came down the escalator in Madison. I didn’t have any checked bags so we were on our way to the kids’ place quickly. The weather was beautiful! The sun was shining and temps were in the 40s. There was a bit of a wind though, so it felt a little chillier at times. I was happy there wasn’t any snow on the ground. It seems everytime I visit Madison, I either arrive to snow, or it follows me there.

It was so neat to finally meet my grand-dog Perseus. He’s such a bundle of energy and so adorable! Everyone is quite enamored of him, even though he’s still quite the devil with his chewing, and his occasional puppy pad misses. I’m so glad Raven was housebroken when we adopted her.

Look at this adorable face! He’s wearing an Ozzy Osborne t-shirt here.

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Part One of our New England Trip (Boston) can be found here.

Part Two of our New England Trip (Maine) can be found here.

Part Three of our New England Trip (New Hampshire) can be found here.

When I ended the last New England blog installment, we had just crossed the border into Vermont and celebrated reaching our goal of visiting all 50 states.

The route above is the way we made our way through Vermont. Steve wanted to explore the Lake Champlain Islands, so we drove across the northern part of the state, down through the islands, and then back across the state to White River Junction. We stayed in White River Junction for two nights. While staying there, we drove a huge scenic loop that took us to Killington and other ski areas.

When we left White River Junction, we chose to drive scenic routes to Bennington. However, Hurricane Irene left much of interior Vermont in a shambles. While we didn’t encounter any road closures, we did run into some delays as road crews worked hard to repair storm damage. We saw so many homes that were severely damaged, and several that were totally destroyed. It was so very sad. The foliage was also pretty much gone in many places.

Highway 105 through northern Vermont is dotted with quiet little towns. The landscape is lovely, with rolling hills, farmland, old farmhouses and barns, and historic clapboard homes and cottages. At several points along the highway, there were signs indicating that Canada was only a few miles north. It was hard to believe that we were that close to the border, and if we would have had our passports with us, we may have considered a short jaunt over the border - just for the heck of it.

A couple of miles down the road, we ran across a small group of wild turkeys. They ran quickly into the brush on the side of the road, but I did manage to capture a photo of them before they disappeared.

Everytime we passed through another small town, we saw beautiful churches with tall steeples. Not only does New England have an abundance of churches, but each town - no matter how small - also has its own cemetery or two, or three. Some cemeteries were tiny plots of land enclosed by white picket fences, with only a few headstones within, while other cemeteries were situated on several levels of rolling land, surrounded by ornate iron fences, with tall marble monuments, statues, and even mausoleums. Though the cemeteries differed in appearance or size, they were very similar in that they all had markers and headstones dating back hundreds of years. Living here in a relatively *new* state, I sometimes forget that Americans have been settled in the NE for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of our drive through the Lake Champlain Islands because we hit torrential downpours for that entire leg of the drive. It was so disappointing to not be able to see and appreciate a part of the state we were really looking forward to. I suppose we have no choice but to go back again someday. This is the only photo I took on that leg of the drive:

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Part One of our New England Trip (Boston) can be found here.

Part Two of our New England Trip (Maine) can be found here.

I never thought I’d get through the photos I took while we were traveling in New England. I’m still working on Vermont, but have the New Hampshire photos ready to share. Now I just have to see if my old brain can recall some of the details and information regarding our New Hampshire trip!

Here’s a map of the route we took when we left Bethel, Maine:

We hugged the ME/NH border - even crossing in and out of NH once or twice. When we got to Fryeburg, we crossed the border for the last time - looking forward to our drive on the Kancamagus Highway. The Kancamagus Highway - better known as the “Kanc” - is a 34.5 mile scenic drive along NH’s Rt. 112 in Northern New Hampshire that is well known as one of the best Fall Foliage viewing areas in the country. It takes you through the White Mountain National Forest with breathtaking views of the White Mountains, the Swift River, Sabbaday Falls, Lower Falls and Rocky Gorge.

When we left the Briar Lea Inn, there was a low hanging fog in many places, and a soft mist settled between the rolling hills. It was really beautiful, and the colors of the foliage were just gorgeous! I love when nature creates a picture perfect landscape.

Look at these colors!:

We’ve never seen so many churches in one place, like those in New England. Each town - big or small - boasts several churches of different faiths. One thing they have in common are their tall steeples. The steeples can be seen poking up above the trees when you’re driving in some of the higher elevations. I thought this was a great representation of what we saw throughout our visit to New England:

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