Alaska Trip - Day 8 (August 23, 2009)

Yes, I know how long it's been.  We've been so busy.  Too busy.  I'll just pick up where  left off and try to catch up over the next week or so since I have some time off.

Don't forget about Sarah's book, which you can pre-order (for a significant discount) here: http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Down-High-Blood-Pressure/dp/1590771591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261620016&sr=8-1

Also don't forget that this new version of blogger still doesn't allow me to upload video, so be sure tocome back later to these last serval posts once I'm able to upload them.

Today the weather continued to be kind of crappy - misty/drizzly with low hanging overcast skies.  Ed and Jeanette wanted to go White Water Rafting, and we did too, but it wasn't a good idea with Sarah being knocked up and all.  So, we dropped them off at the rfting company headquarters, then went back to the Denali NP "village", where they have a general store, showers, etc.  We each took much needed showers, and felt much better afterwards. 

Then we went back into town to check out the sites.  There were a lot of nice littel stores with unique things, but unfortunately, most of the stores were tourist traps filled with the exact same tainted "Made in China" crap as almost every other store on the strip.  The nice stores were a bit expensive, and we only splurged on a nice glass bowl. 

Sarah was shopping too long.

There were also some cool-looking places to eat in town, and Ed and I sampled some sausages - reindeer and something else, like musk ox or moose, or something.  Doesn't really matter - they were both good.

Ed and Jeanette had a great time rafting, but said they were freezing. 

On the way back into the park this afternoon we stopped at the other very nice park entrance sign to take pictures, and then saw thise cow moose fairly close to the road. 

Once we got back to camp, there was still plenty of daylight left, so we drove on the park road as far as you could go, which is only a couple miles farther in beyond our campsite.  We walked around there for a short while, and again around our camp site, but the weather was dreary, cold, and we were getting close to dinner time.  While we were walking we made a decision about the rest of the trip.  As much as we hated leaving the beautiful park after only seeing such a small part of it, we decided we'd get a lot more out of our trip if we drove the next day to Fairbanks, a few hours farther North in the Alaskan interior, than if we spent another day in dreary & wet conditions here in Denali, and that is what the weather was supposed to be like. 

I don't really remember this, but apparently we had a ramen noodle eating contest for dinner.  Looks like Jeanette won.