Anchorage ~Alaska Trip Day 39

Before leaving our Cabela's overnight parking, we walked inside to check out their amazing animal displays. They had fish & animal boards from each geographical area of Alaska, plus huge stuffed moose, caribou, elk, bears, walrus, wolves, fox, lynx, sheep, goats, deer, etc.

We finally saw the beluga whales!

Next we visited Earthquake Park, by the inlet, after parking just past the airport runway gate and watching a couple commercial planes fly directly over our heads and across the water. I think in 1964 a major earthquake slid chunks of Anchorage land into the sea. At that time, tsunamis devastated the port towns of Seward and Valdez. We could see the drop-off where land originally had been level with where we were standing.

I like parks because they have fresh outdoor air, have paths or playgrounds to burn off energy, and are free!

Very neat to see scripture on a public city park info board.

RV parking can be difficult in cities, so we motored to the edge of downtown and found plenty of room at the Ulu Factory, just down from the train depot. After shopping a bit, we hopped on the free trolley to the visitor center and Public Lands building. Mount McKinley was out and peeking above the city over 150 miles away. The trolley driver said he had seen it now for 6 days in a row.

Mr. Pickles, the porcupine form the city zoo, was in theatre 1. After learning about him (I'd never seen a live porcupine), the girls stamped native Alaskan animals in their Jr. Ranger books and looked at the displays.

We caught up on laundry, replaced our dysfunctional RV thermostat, and restocked food supply at the grocery. Then we drove on to a turnout next to the Matanuska River near Palmer, met up with Mom & Dad, watched the sunset, and got to see Dean & Martha fresh from the airport before Hank took them home.

view from our campsite

Cook Out, Birthday, Zoo Field Trip ( A Week in Review #7)

The second & third weeks in September held some fun out-of-the-ordinary days for us. Well, the first week did too, but I've already posted about when the relatives came!

We spent a weekend in Quinter, KS enjoying yummy meals and fellowship in a couple different friends' homes, plus a church potluck. We also brought home a bed frame for Riley's room that had been hauled out from Virginia.

We picked a few beautiful pears off our neighbor's tree. Most of them were too high or rotting from wasps, but we did can 7 quart and munched some fresh.

The ladies Bible study I've been attending finished up the book No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. It was a very good, thought provoking study and always fun to share it with other gals!

Riley had basketball practice on Tuesdays & Thursdays for a couple hours in the afternoon. The rest of us have spent lots of time at the library waiting to bring him home (except Daddy who is working late in corn harvest).

Every Friday we attend a homeschool coop class where the students learn three subjects. I'm teaching one of Riley & Annie's classes: Jr High Art. Then we take lunch to the park and enjoy the beautiful weather together!

A different homeschool group held a campfire picnic at Lazy B Ranch.

We had picked apples and made 33 quarts of applesauce & 10 pints of apple butter on Annie's 12th birthday, barely finishing in time for her special supper of Italian ham pineapple sub, oven fries, taco pinwheels, and candy cupcake faces.

Annie attended a special tween program at the library where she made a duct tape wallet and pen flower.

The whole family got up very early and spent the day in Wichita.  First stop, IHOP for scrumptious pancakes! Except for me, who scarfed cheesy ham & bacon, egg crepes.

We shopped awhile for basketball paraphernalia, and also hit a Goodwill store, before joining other homeschoolers at the special priced zoofari day.

apes are always fun

elephants

Australian bird

tortoise

Oops! The bear is hidden behind Riley

impressively active tiger

We gathered with friends for 3rd Friday worship & dessert.

Annie baked and sewed again for Saturday morning's farmer market.

 Those are our September highlights!

Wichita Zoo

Thursday morning, Sept 19, we got up before daylight to get our breakfast at Krispy Kreme before the 9:30am session at the zoo started. We were still a little late, so, walked through the North America part of the zoo until the next sessions of Wetland Magic and Menu Mania.

We also went through the jungle area and spotted colorful birds, bats, and fish.
Meg took a morning nap in the backpack carrier while we listened to the 3rd session about zoo careers.

We met our Medicine Lodge friends for a picnic lunch...

...then spent a lot of time watching the chimpanzees and orangutans. They both had little 2 year old apes that frolicked around the pen and with the adult primates. Flipping, swinging, picking, tumbling, poking, flopping. So amusing!

Then we walked through the Australia habitat and almost ran into a kookaburra perched on a low branch.

After the gorillas and Asia, we ended up in Africa. Riley wanted to see the exotic birds again and the girls wanted to see the funny apes another time, so one last peek before exiting the zoo.

It was a lovely fall day; nice to be out , and nice to see the animals up and moving around!