Other sights and sounds of Alaska

Thomas:  We were coming back from the glacier when we saw these in letters and so we decided to take a picture.  We don't know for sure what these pellets are.


 


Thomas:  I think this is the place where we got stevia.  There were swarms of mosquitos here.

Seward Marine Life

...and more...

On (with only a pause to go to Alaska) to his percussion recital. Starting off with some xylophony:



Next up, some work on the snare:



The pause at the end was the result of stage directions from Thomas's teacher Alyssa who whispered "freeze!"

Talking of Alyssa, on to a duet:



(Apparently all percussionists have the same hair.)

It's annoying that only a little bit of Thomas can be seen behind the monstrously large mirimbas, but I thought it would have been rude to pop up and change seats once they had started just so I could get a better shot. Simon, of course, disagrees. "He's OUR kid! They don't need to see him play!" In retrospect, I agree.

Music, Maestro, Please!

Thomas, multi-instrumentalist that he is, performed in two recitals this week. (His teachers make him - he always whines about it, but, as you can see, is remarkably composed "on stage".) The first recital was Piano, and took place just before the Alaska trip. Here he is playing dainty music on Spinnet:


...and here he is immediately afterwards giving a rollicking sea shanty on the piano:

Driving South...

We get out of town and head south on the coast road, down to the Kenai Peninsula. Lots of mountains, and the sea coming in amongst them. The days tended to start cloudy and clear up later. Novel signs to be seen:



Thomas takes the sea air (note DS clutched in hand):



We turn away from the sea and go up a bit. Snow!



This was just a turnoff by the side of the road. We went for a stroll, and, as often happens, had to pause to tie a shoelace:



A road bridge:



Now we're looking at a lake. Not a sign of human habitation. But there is the Alaskan Railway (built for the goldrush, and it doesn't actually link up with anything outside of Alaska):

Earthquake Park

On Good Friday 1964, Alaska experienced a MASSIVE earthquake (third most powerful ever measured). And there's a nifty park to commemorate it on the coast near downtown. Here we enter it:



Intriguing statuary:



Biblical quotes (it was Good Friday, after all):



Here's the sea. Very silty. And bloody huge mosquitoes - there's one coming right at the camera:



It was windy, too:

Bubble Boy

Anchorage has a very nice "Imaginarium" (like Flint's Children's Museum, only a bit of an upgrade) which we visited twice. The best bit was the giant bubble maker:



It's actually pretty hard to avoid popping the bubble with the end of the rope, but Thomas was a master!

Downtown Anchorage

Arrr! Here be chintzy souvenirs!!!



There is a real bear risk in Anchorage:



Now we know the real reason the glaciers are disappearing:




This is one of the few buildings of note to survive the massive 1960s earthquake:

North to Alaska

We arrive in Alaska just after 10 PM Alaska time (which is 4 hours behind Flint time, so we're dog-tired).  This is the view driving from the airport:



The hotel has interesting views in the Lobby:



Our room (or rather, suite) is palatial:



(Thomas finds it a relaxing place for DS-ing.  But then again, that's true of just about everywhere.)

We breakfast every morning (usually on Blueberry pancakes bigger than normal plates) at the Flying Machine, so named because you can see seaplanes landing on the lake outside the window:



After a stressful day, we find it congenial to unwind in the Hot Tub:



...but we're not so sure about this place:

Home Alone--with Frederick!

AAAHHHH!! Simon and Thomas left for Anchorage, Alaska a few minutes ago so it's just me and Frederick until Tuesday morning (exactly 113 hours from right now). I'll never make it!!! As they were getting ready to leave I was catatonic with anxiety. (And anyone who can remember me the day of my move from LA to Arkansas will have a fairly good sense of what that is like.) Sure, Emily promised to help out with Frederick a few hours every day, but unless she moves in, her time with him is just a drop in the bucket. It's not that Frederick is bad, it's just that in the past week or so he has invented a dozen new and improved ways to be exhausting. And I'm just too old and feeble to jump on a trampoline for 12 hours a day. AAAHHHH!!

Meanwhile, I planted these poppies in the front yard 5 years ago and this is the first year they have bothered to produce blooms. What gives?

Strange, I've seen that face before...

Lately strange things have been going on when no one is looking. First, we find letters chalked on all objects in the backyard:


Then, we find more letters in our books:

Then, we find this in the fridge:

Who could be behind all this? I have my suspicions but no proof.

We've got broadband!

Since we arrived in Michigan we've been using free dial-up service to access the internet from home, but now, apparently, about 3 people in the world still use that, so the University is discontinuing it. We have therefore been forced to shell out for broadband. This meant agreeing to a package deal where the cable company also supplies our 'phone service, and they won't let us use our nice cheap long distance service. Soooo, does anyone want to fill me on on how to use Skype? (I'm serious - the only reason we never tried this before is because we didn't have the speed at home.)