Here

We went to Valdez when we drove back to the east coast. There were a lot of water falls along the way that you don't see in the rest of the interior. The roads were clear in April, but at the top of the pass we pulled off the side of the road and I ended up standing in snow up to my butt on the side of the road. Also it was pretty neat to see Valdez about 10 years after the oil spill. There was no sign that anything had ever happened. I am not found of riding on school buses for multiple hours. We didn't do it when we were in that area partly because other people told us it really wasn't worth it. Had I been able to drive my own vehicle, I probably would have traveled through the park. As far as the sled dogs go, there is Seavey's sled dog show in Anchorage...I haven't seen it partly because we had the chance to see the Iditarod start twice and the sled dog races at Fur Rondy in Feb. Plus we had our own Siberian Husky up until about 2 months ago when we had to put him down. I would suggest trying to find a carseat on Craigslist or talking to the company that you are renting the RV from. Stop at the overview for Matanuska Glacier between Palmer and Glennallen. This shouldn't take very long. Your kids might also like the Reindeer farm and the musk ox farm that are close to Palmer. The Anchorage zoo is pretty good as well if you are going to be in that area for a couple of days. If you have a good pair of binoculars I would take those with you. A friend of mine has said that they have had a cool wet summer so be prepared with layers.

The picture of Denali in the previous post was taken from Parks Hwy near the last day of summer 2 years ago.

I have seen RV's cross Hatchers Pass. I think it would depend on how comfortable you are with the RV, but a car would be a good option. You can seen Denali on a clear day from Parks Hwy. I don't think you get any closer by going into the park. It is kind of silly that you can't get any closer. It is often covered in clouds in the summer. Hopefully that won't be the case for the whole time you are in that area. I am not familiar with the Riverside House in Soldotna. It might or might not be a bar. Hobo Jim used to regularly play at the Wildberry Theater in Anchorage, but I couldn't find a schedule for that. I really don't know how clean his concert is live. I don't object to anything on his CD's. If you guys are interested in Salmon fishing Bill Masker with Sleeping Lady Charters is a good charter captain. It is a fly in overnight thing and is probably one of the most expensive things we did while there. He did take us to the fish and we maxed out on the number of fish both days. I also don't know how expensive it is to pack it on dry ice and ship it back. I know people do it on a regular basis. I have enjoyed remembering a bunch of the fun places and things that we did while living in Alaska. One more thing to consider depending on when you are going is that the Alaska State Fair is in Palmer at the end of August and the beginning of September. They have all the huge cabbages and other veggies there. Any questions are more than welcome and I would love to hear how your trip turns out. I know I have sent you lots of ideas and there is probably no way to do all of them in 2 weeks or on any kind of reasonable budget. :D

Buy a Hobo Jim CD to to listen to while you travel when you get to Alaska. We never saw him live, but we've really enjoyed his music about Alaska. He is pretty famous across the state.

That is a personal preference. I have done it by car and would like to do it by RV at some time in the future. A lot of the hotels/cabins etc. are pretty um, shall we say rustic in comparison to the lower 48. Anchorage wouldn't be a problem, Seward has a couple of nice places to stay, and we stayed at a nice place in I think it was Healy, AK. We stayed in several other places some of which would be OK to stay in again and some of which would not. One thing I should mention about the Denali Hwy and the drive across Hatcher's Pass. Once it starts snowing any to speak of they close the roads. If there is even a little snow I would not do Hatcher's Pass in an RV. There aren't too many months a year that they are open for anything other than skiing or snow machining. The name of the flying company is Denali Flying Service and the pilot is Barry Stanley. We didn't do a flight to Denali with him, but he did fly us out to a cabin where we went Salmon fishing and he was a really good guide.

Sharing good news sounds like a great idea. I am glad your husband and daughter are doing better. My hematoma caused by a c section has finally healed up this week and my almost 6 week old baby girl is finally gaining weight without having to be supplemented with formula.

Sitka/Juneau/GB are inaccessible by road. That leaves either flying or by boat. We did not get to that part of Alaska while we were there. I think if you tried to do Interior Alaska (Anchorage to Fairbanks to Seward and/or Homer... you could potentially even make it to Valdez) you wouldn't be able to also do Sitka/Juneau/GB by ferry in 2 weeks. I would either do one or the other. Things are fairly expensive and add up quickly. If you want to do a boat tour, we did the 6 hour tour in Seward with this company as well as the captains tour. I would suggest with younger kids that the 6 hour tour would be more suitable. There are comfortable chairs and tables on the boats that are inside and the windows allow you to see a lot. We got to see otters, humback whales, birds, sea lions, and glaciers. My niece was with us and at the time was about 3 years old. http://www.kenaifjords.com/kenai-nationalpark.html I am working on trying to come up with the name of the pilot that would we used out of willow for a flight around Denali. There are also flights out of Talkeetna. My husband suggested calling and talking to them and finding out a price per hour instead of a per head tour rate. I think as a family you will have better luck with this.

I will keep an out out, and you can also PM me.

I haven't read all 8 pages so this might have been addressed...what about all the school supplies that are donated? Everywhere I have worked in corporate America takes up collections for school supplies. Do these never make it to the schools?

I wouldn't worry about safety too much on any of the main roads including the dirt roads and I would take an RV across the Denali Hwy and Hatchers Pass. I've seen people cross both roads in an RV. Two other places of interest that I thought of are Alyeska Ski Resort between Anchorage and Seward. They have a tram ride to the top of the mountain and there are a couple of restaurants at the top of the mountain. I think the ticket for the tram ride includes lunch at the top. Also Lake Eklutna is really pretty and has bike, walking, and 4 wheeling trails. I think they have horse back riding and kayak rentals as well.

Buy multiple packs of the same socks for each person in the family and make sure each persons socks look different. This helps to make it easier to match socks.

If you go in the summer don't worry about getting stuck in the middle of now where without phone service. There is enough traffic even in the remote areas and people will normally stop if help is needed. Wild life is a concern. There are lots of places to pull an RV off the road and spend the night. Traveling the dirt roads in an RV is possible. We passed by several when we were on the roads. The roads are well kept. I would do Denali Hwy over Denali National Park. Riding for several hours on a bus isn't my idea of fun. You can see Denali without going into the park and the chances of seeing wildlife are better on the Denali Hwy. If the weather is good you might consider a plane ride to see Denali as well. Hatchers Pass from Palmer to Willow is another incredible drive. It is gravel but only takes an hour or 2. This is one of our favorite spots. The drives from Anchorage to Seward or Homer are both incredible as well. There is an aquarium in Seward and Exit Glacier is close to Seward and well worth stopping to see. Homer is a fishing town and there are lots of charters to go Halibut fishing. That was one thing we missed out on but will do if we get the chance to go back. My aunt and uncle came to visit while we worked in Alaska. They said that they got to see so much more of Alaska with us than when they had taken a cruise. They went home feeling like they had actually seen some of Alaska. I have also done the train ride from Anchorage to Denali. Once was enough for me, but that is personal preference.

Having worked in Anchorage for 1 1/2 years, I really enjoyed my time there. Anchorage has about 300,000 people. Yes there is a certain amount of crime there, but it is much better than most cities in the lower 48. There are a couple of areas to stay out of but once you get there everyone can tell you where those are. They do keep the roads plowed in the winter and we had a 4 WD vehicle with studded tires that would allow us to go almost anywhere we wanted to outside of Anchorage. For us the middle of summer was more difficult than the middle of winter. Dressing right is a big key to enjoying the winter and making your mind up that you are going to do things whether it is dark or not makes a big difference. We would go cross country skiing several evenings a week. During the summer it was hard to get enough sleep due to the amount of sunlight. We finally ended up putting up a couple of dark sheets over the mini blinds that helped our sleeping situation. You can find almost anything that you need in Anchorage and the temperature there is not nearly as cold as in other parts of the state. There is minimal wind and small temperature swings there. If work opportunities open up there again we would go in a heart beat.

I think anything that you do will be appreciated.

I would use some corn masa and corn starch mixed together using a lot more corn masa. You can buy a 5 lb bag of Ma Se Ca corn masa at most grocery stores in the international foods section. I use this for frying scallops, okra, tomatoes, etc.

From the box of Swan's potato starch...this is great. 6 eggs 1 1/2 cups of sifted sugar 1 1/2 tsp grated lemon rinds 3 tbs lemon juice 1 1/4 cups Swan Potato Starch Flour 1/4 cup boiling water Instructions: 1. Separate eggs, place egg yolks in mixer, (biggest bowl) beat until light, beat in sugar gradually. 2. Add the lemon rind and lemon juice to boiling water, add to mixture and mix until thoroughly blended. 3. Fold in Swan Potato Starch Flour. 4. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks are formed, fold gently into mixture. 5. Place in ungreased 10in bunt pan, bake at 300 degrees for 30 mins, increase heat to 350 degrees and bake 35-40 mins longer. 6. Invert pan and allow to cool.

I'm a Civil Engineer and my DH is an Electrical Engineer:D

While in college none of our friends were studying to be math teachers, but we did know some people studying to be teachers. While we were applying multivariable calculus and differential equations they were studying See Spot Run. We were laughing at their homework, not at them.

I think what you are saying that you want to teach your children mercy without first teaching them what justice is. That is like teaching calculus without first teaching addition and subtraction.

A book that I have on my to read list is The Art of Problem Solving: Accompanied by Ackoff's Fables by Russell Ackoff. The other way to work on problem solving is to fix things together and discuss your thought processes as you are figuring out what is wrong and how to fix it. If you are discussing specifically word problem type things, I finally learned how to do this in college during my engineering classes. They drilled into me how to set up a problem by restating the question, listing all the knowns and unknowns and learning how to set up equations. I hope this helps some.

I have used Walgreens and never had a problem. I am not sure why it was slow for you.

I like this timeline pretty well. http://www.bibleworldhistory.com/

By the way where are you in Carroll County? My dh is from Westminster.

Congrads! I went to college right after finishing high school. One of the things that became very obvious is that students who were even a few years older and had been out in the real world generally did much better than everyone else. They were more serious and had their goals much more figured out. I am sure you will do great.