My parents and aunt/uncle arrived from what we Alaskans call "down south" for a long weekend here in Haines.  We enjoyed the wildlife park near here where we saw Alaskan animals and petted many of them, too.  Of course the next day was the 4th so we took in the parade and park activities.  Finally, on Monday we piled in the car (except for Abbie and Carina who stayed with friends) and began the long trek to Fairbanks. 

The most interesting part of the drive was an unfortunate one.  We drove through smoke blowing in from forest fires in the Nenana valley.  The eerie glow of orange in the sky, the inability to see well through the haze of smoke and the artificial darkness on an otherwise sunny day combined to silence almost every comment from all eight people in the car.

Boy howdy, was it hot up there.  Actually, our own little town had extreme weather while we were gone.  Friends reported 92 degrees at home while we saw a sign that said 98 degrees up there.   Apparently that 98 degree-temperature was a fifteen-year record. The heat was a certain reminder that we love, love, love living in a temperate climate.

While in the big city we played mini-golf inside at a place called Glow Putt.  What fun!  You can guess the scene, complete with glow-in-the-dark golf balls.   Now here is the surprise...I won!  That is officially the first time that I have ever won at that game.  The kids (we took the two youngers) were delighted with the swimming pool at the hotel.  Bill and I were delighted to have stores to shop in.  Yep, we hit Sam's club...a good 1 1/2 hours of Sam's club.  Then on our second and final evening we visited with friends and their baby.  We got to see their new house and they had recently discovered a bird nest built in the grass of their yard.  There were two hatchlings in it.  How wonderful of God to make some birds nest on the ground where even our three-year-old could see in that nest.

Now here is an interesting bit... We took some mail with us thinking how fun to send it from the post office in North Pole.  However, if you drive the main highway through that town (there's only one) you don't see the PO.  Did they do that on purpose?  I suppose they have enough burden with the letters to Santa every December.  Well, we were slightly disappointed.  Not disappointed enough to get off the main highway and search for it though.  By the time we passed through North Pole on Monday evening all we wanted in life was to FINALLY get to Fairbanks.  On Thursday, as we set out, it was entirely too early being about 6am when we drove back down the highway.

Even if we had not found wonderful deals on so many items we otherwise would have had to shop the internet to find, the store-time would have been worthwhile.  Here's why.  Seth bought himself a watch.  This is the boy who pretends he doesn't know anything academic until it slips out kind of sideways.  Anyway, he has had digital watches that I have purchased for him.  He wasn't so interested in telling time.  Now is a different story.  Somehow he decided he wanted a watch and the one he wanted to buy for himself  was an analog dial, no less.  On the way home he reported the time from his own watch every so often.  Relief.  He DID learn to tell time all those months ago.  Our youngest saw him with his watch and so had to borrow mommy's.  At each report of the time from Seth, Ellie also reported the digits from my digital watch.  Tee hee.

Animals had a small role in the whole trip, too.  We saw several moose, including two calves, a baby fox, many ground hogs and two or three pairs of swans.  Oh, and the swans had babies.  We couldn't see the babies too well.  They were just white spots beside the mommy and daddy swans as we whizzed by.  But we did see them.  What we didn't see was bear.  I was surprised at that because we saw plenty of bear sign along the road. Anyway, when we arrived home we found that the animal interest on our trip was not finished.  Two of the pet birds in our house escaped from their cage!  There they were sitting right on top of it as if they were innocently just hanging around.  They were stuck outside the cage for a good while, too, because as soon as we opened the door, they rushed the food bowl, eating side-by-side without squawking at each other.  The older girls had been by to feed and water them on Tuesday so, at most, they were stuck outside their cage for two days.  I am assuming it was less because they went for the food rather than the water.  This was their first escape --hopefully the last. 

This trip was our first as (most of) a family.  It is my parents' first to the interior of Alaska.  It is my aunt and uncle's first in Alaska at all.  (They are continuing in a giant loop around the state.) Hopefully, it won't be the last for any of us.