I must tell you that Alaska really knows how to “do” wildflowers. Right now it is “doing” Arctic Lupine like there’s no tomorrow! While they often line the roads up here, sometimes it’s a little tricky to just stop and take pictures. But this little pull-off absolutely called to me with its abundance of the purple beauties. And I cannot resist sharing all of these pictures. I just can’t pick a favorite!

OK – there are actually a couple more here (plus a couple mountains shots), but I think you get my drift about how stunning these flowers are!
And, coming soon to a roadside nearby – the Fireweed!

Can’t wait!

Last week –
Mt. McKinley, Glaciers, Majestic Mountains, Hikes, Moose, Bears, Whales, Puffins, Daughter
Today –
Laundry.
Sorry to be so behind in all of our activities, but between the busy-ness of being a tourist and some very slow internet connections, I just couldn’t seem to get regular posts posted.
In an effort to bring you up-to-date without boring you with details……
Denali National Park –

Magnificent! We were there for two days – not enough for any true outdoorsman or hiker, but plenty for us. On day one we drove as far as a private car can go (about 15 miles) and then took a beautiful hike along Savage Creek.

We were able to see Mt. McKinley (aka Denali) on our drive with just a little bit of cloud cover and the other views were spectacular. Our second day we took a park bus trip (about 8 hours) further into the park, about 66 miles. On that trip we saw 5 Grizzly bears (including a mama with two young cubs), mountain sheep, moose and more beautiful vistas that you can imagine. And since I remembered my camera and extra batteries, but left my memory card back at the computer, all of those sights will just have to remain in my memory!
They say that The High One is only visible about 20% of the time, so we were pleased to get the mostly clear views that we did. Ironically, the only crystal clear view we had was as we drove south from Fairbanks – around 3:30 in the morning!

The mountain is over 100 miles away here!
Seward and the Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise

Our other big event was an overnight in Seward (camped right on the water)

and a beautiful cruise down Resurrection Bay. Like our cruise out of Skagway, this was excellent! We saw lots of whales, sea otters, puffins, dall porpoise, seals and sea lions, many other birds, and several glaciers.





Anchorage
Our final day together was spent driving to Anchorage for her late night flight back to Texas. It turned out to be quite the wildlife drive!
From this bull moose first thing-

to this Mama and calf outside of Hope (who crossed the road right in front of us)

to the two bears along the highway along the Turnagain Arm -

to even more moose (this time with twins!)
and finally we even spotted a couple of mountain sheep up on the cliffs on our way back to the rig -

So our hectic fun week with Lara has come to a close. After 14 hours either in the air or sitting in airports, she is home in Waco, and yes, our laundry is caught up! It was a wonderful visit – and we miss her already!

You know there are more pictures…….
Denali National Park
Seward and the Kenai National Park Cruise
Driving to Seward
Anchorage Day

This has truly been an exceptional project for us.
1.The folks we worked with.
We were working with the team we drove to Alaska with along with those new team members Pete and Ellen.

After all that time on the road we are STILL good friends, and thoroughly enjoyed sharing devotions each morning, working together and then playing together. Such a blessing!
2.The folks who work at Camp Li-Wa
Li-Wa has been a camp in Fairbanks since 1959. Like Alaska, it is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. I can’t speak for all of the counselors and summer staff, but I know that the full-time year around staff are all there as missionaries. There are no big salaries or corporate perks with these jobs, everyone raises their own support and feels called to serve the Lord at the camp. They are a remarkable group of servants, and we were honored to serve along with them.
3.The work we did.
a. The men took on a huge job, and (as usual) handled it with great skill. The camp had been given a small construction trailer and needed to make it into the boys’ bathhouse.

When they started the shower stalls were in, the plumbing was there for the toilets and sink and that was all. No water, no electric, no sewer, not even steps into the building. By the beginning of the third week it was fully functional with a new peaked roof along with stairs and a landing into the building.

While Gary finished up the electric and water service to the boys’ bathhouse, the rest of the guys moved over to the girls’ bathhouse where they put a peaked roof over the existing flat one. Towards the end of our work time the guys worked together on getting the sewer line installed in the bathhouse and then while Gary worked on water lines in one of the new cabins,

the rest of the men built a solar box for the hot water heater!
These four men accomplished amazing things!
b. We ladies started out with a big cleaning job – getting the camp kitchen ready for the “season”.

It hadn’t been used all winter so it took us a couple of days to not only clean the appliances, shelves and floor, but also wash and sanitize all the dishes and silverware. After we got the cleaning done, Ellen and I worked on painting the floor.

With the kitchen cleaning done we moved to making curtains!!! Naomi, Rosie and I are Sewing Sowers, so we were pretty happy with that assignment. Ellen kept busy watering the gardens and flowers boxes that decorate the camp (and get enormous with all the sunlight!).
After we made curtains for one of the new cabins, we made new curtains for the camp dining hall and then for all three of the boys’ cabins.


(Check our our anti-mosquito garb!)
We were done with a couple of days to spare so we tackled some pillows and a wall hanging that they had had for a while and just hadn’t had time to get to. So for the last two days I was machine quilting!!!! What a delight for me!


4.The fact that we are in ALASKA! We have had a great time this month during our “tourist” moments – Chena Hot Springs, the Dalton Highway and the Arctic Circle, Discovery Riverboat, local farmer’s market, museums and parks, and the lovely Camp Li-Wa itself. As a special bonus, today as we were heading into Fairbanks we actually (for the first time) caught sight of Mt. McKinley on the horizon. It’s almost 200 miles away, so the conditions have to be just right for it to be visible. It was a great way to end our time in Fairbanks. (Sorry, but I didn’t have my trusty camera with me!)

Right now we’re parked in the Fred Myer’s parking lot waiting for a call from Lara that her plane has landed. While the Fairbanks Airport may have a “cell phone waiting lot”, we’re pretty sure it doesn’t have an RV waiting lot! It’s been a good month – and we’re looking forward for more goodness in the weeks and months ahead.

PS – if you’d like to see more of these hard working folks workin’ – Here you go!

Today was our last “tourist” day in Fairbanks. We headed to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (UAF) and their renowned Museum of the North. It was chock full of all things Alaskan, including two short films on winter in Alaska and the Northern Lights. Both were excellent (though the Northern Lights one was a little on the technical side!). But maybe the most fun we had was watching Rosie learn how to use an Eskimo Yo-Yo!

I’m done!

But there were other interesting parts in the museum –




Looks like Gary, John and Rosie were done before the rest of us!
After a quick bite to eat, we drove over to the Georgeson Botanical Garden – also part of the UAF. I was busy practicing my macro shots – I just love those beautiful flowers!

From there we went to the Large Animal Research Station (also part of UAF) where they do research on the Muskox and the Caribou –

See those folks at the bottom of the picture? They paid the $10 each for a 45 minute tour of the facility. We enjoyed the picnic area, a couple of close by muskox

and the gift shop (we could have purchased a tuna fish size can of reindeer chunks in gravy. For $9.00. I’m sorry, but eewwwwwww).
We checked out a couple of local stores and then ended the day with a great little sundae.

A yummy day all around!

---

Tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll be finishing up a sewing project for the camp while Gary works on getting his tools all packed up for our departure Saturday night. Then we’ll be doing all the laundry, getting our inside stuff all put away for travel. We pull out in the early evening to get close to the Fairbanks Airport where we’ll be picking Lara up in the very early hours of Sunday morning. From there – it’s Denali National Park for us!
I think there will be adventures ahead!

OK – so we made it to the Arctic Circle. But John and Rosie made it all the way to the Arctic Ocean and he just dropped off a couple of their pictures of the day -
Here they are (shivering) as they stand on the frozen Arctic Ocean.

This was the only hotel in town (for non-workers)-

For the area I’m sure it’s a 5 star!

While the scenery right up in Purdhoe Bay was less than stunning, I know they traveled through some impressive areas -

And even though they traveled home through the same rain we did, they were blessed with this rainbow at one of their stops -

Sweet.

And Now The Rest of Another Story
Today is the eighth anniversary of our son Toby and his beautiful wife Tammy. I don’t have any cute/current pictures of the loving couple, but I did snag some pix of their precious little girls off of Facebook -



I think those were some pretty good years!
Happy Anniversary, Toby and Tammy!