The map above shows our routes through Alaska. The initial 9-day cruise was in the southeast, from Ketchikan to Juneau. Then we flew to Fairbanks, and from there to Barrow. Then back to Fairbanks and Anchorage, and over to Denali, and then out to the west end of Denali to the Backcountry Lodge. Back to Anchorage, and down to the Kenai Fjords and Seward. Back to Anchorage, and from there to Seattle and home to Berkeley.

Wednesday, Day 1, 8/1/2007

I flew by myself to C.A. I met Tie-dye and drove to their home. I sat, then practiced chess and finally went to a circus museum. You can do a few rides. I watched a very competitive soccer game, and went to bed.

Thursday, Day 2, 8/2/2007

I woke up and had apple pie. We drove 8 hours only stopping for lunch. I saw Shasta, a huge mountain. We got to the motel and went to sleep.

Thursday, 8/2/2007

We got off (about an hour late) and drove and drove and drove up Rte 5. We ate the lunch we brought (cherries and chips and dried mangos and water and peanuts) near Mtn. Shasta. We stayed overnight at the Shilo Inn in Medford, OR, and ate a really nice dinner in their nearby restaurant. Then a family domino game, and bed.

Friday, 8/3/2007

Drove only 1.5 hours today, to the Evergreen Aviation Museum that houses the Spruce Goose that Howard Hughes built. Until the recent AirBus, it was the biggest plane ever made, and it still has the biggest wingspan: about the length of a football field with the goal posts. It was made during 1942-47 under contract to the US government. Because of war shortages, they were not allowed to use any metal, or any regular boat or plane makers, so Howard Hughes used birch wood and carpenters to build his huge Spruce Goose. By the time the war was over, the government was no longer interested in having a massive transport plane, but in about 1947 Howard Hughes flew the H4 (he hated the press' name, The Spruce Goose) a very short distance, just to prove it could fly. During the test flight he had the huge plane loaded and stuffed with beach balls to provide extra flotation in case the plane started to sink in the water!

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After lunch at the museum (including some delicious ice cream) we drove on to Seattle and went on Mercer Island to see Alexis, Betty, Ethan, & Nikki. The kids hit it off at once. Their new house is very big and very nice. It was built with the idea of an Italianate Villa in mind, with a high vaulted central area to be a sort of atrium, and rooms off the central area. Their guest room is on a high platform above the "atrium" center, with a balcony overlooking the center. Arthur and I felt we should go out on the balcony and address the multitudes below!

Saturday, Day 4, 8/4/2007

I woke up and skipped breakfast. I shot rubber bands at everyone. After that, we went shopping in Central City. It was beautiful. We went every where, even on the monorail. I rode in rubber bands at a museum. I really rocked the basket. We got to a fountain that people could go in. Tie-Dye said I couldn't get wet. It turned off and Tie-Dye said, "You can go touch it," but it turned on from under me. I went to bed.

Saturday, 8/4/2007

Natan, Ethan, and Nikki were running all over the house playing with rubber bands. Then Betty, Arthur, Martha, and the kids all took off for Seattle.

We rode the monorail nto the center of town and checked out a big fountain there. The fountain had many sprayers that were on an apparently random sequence. Kids would run up to the center of the fountain, and then scatter screaming and giggling when the water threatened to get them wet. Betty and I tried to get the kids to all wear rain ponchos, but only Nikki complied. As a result, Natan kept getting wet so we told him he had to stay up with us. Later, we told him he could go down again and touch the fountain to show how. Of course, the minute he was there, up came a big stream of water right between his legs, plastering his wet shirt to him. Ah well. By then it had gotten a little warmer and sunnier and he dried off after awhile.

We then walked over to the Central Market, a big marketplace for veggies, fruits, flowers, and crafts. It was gorgeous. While there, we saw some of the fly-overs by the Blue Angels, but didn't try to see more because we're going to see them up close and personal tomorrow. .

We went to a sculpture garden where the kids had fun riding in an enormous spherical basket made of lawn-chair tubing. Home to Betty's house, dinner, and bed. Alexis is coming in late tonight from a surprise meeting in San Diego

Monday, 8/6/2007

Alexis and Betty went off early to work at Swedish Hospital. Amy, the nanny, was there to get Nikki and Ethan off to camp. After breakfast we drove to Bainbridge Island ferry, and ferried across to the visit Chris and Diane Walker. They have a beautiful house on the very northern tip of Bainbridge Island, where the tip curves out and west to make a tail. They are the last house on the spit of land, and have beach on three sides of the house. The four of us adults went out to lunch, and Natan was taken out to lunch by two "hot chicks" (one was Abby (?), Diane and Chris' daughter, and the other was a friend of hers.) We met back at the house and drove back (through rush hour) to Betty and Alexis'. Soon to bed.

Tuesday, Day 7, 8/7/2007

We woke up and Tie-Dye, Bop, and I drove to the Museum of Flight. There was a Black Bird. It had wierd wings, and huge engines. There was a Angel, too. It had so many bomb compartments. I flew in the simulator. I took off, did a flip and shot a plane down. After that we flew to Catch-me-if-you-can (Ketchikan).

Wednesday, Day 8, 8/8/2007

I woke up. Imeditly, we walked Married Men Trail, and along the boardwalk along the Marina to get breakfast at the New York cafe. We contined on the bord walk around the Marina as far as it could go. Then we came all the way back. Then we went to this: Southeast Alaska Discovery Center. I learned alot, like the tallest tree is the hemlock and lives up to 700 years. See the paper fore more.

Next we had lunch. It was at Chico and very, very delicious. I got pizza. Later, we went to a Lumber Jack show. It was so exciting. One was running across logs in water. Another was choping a log in half. The last one was trying to knock off the other person on a log in the water. I had a huge Mud Pie dessert. We next went to totem Bite. We saw Raven. I now know some stories. We came back and we watched the Mark Brothers. It was really, really, funny. We all went to sleep.

That afternoon we went to the logging show, which was great fun. They split into two teams: the local Alaskan Mills team and a Dawson's Creek (Canada) team. We were rooting for Dawson's Creek, and they did very well. There was a 2-person sawing contest, a contest trying to knock each other off of rolling logs by rolling and shaking the log, a contest doing log-line running, a contest sawing off a high pole while standing on a board punched into the tree and a contest pulling a high pole with pulleys and tackle to get it into the water.

That evening we drove to Totem Bight Park, which has many beautiful totems and a big clan house where Tlingits lived.