Hawaii/Alaska Trip Part 6

Day three in Alaska we started out by going to Perseverance Trail.  We wanted to hike longer, but didn't because the kids wanted to cut it short.  I did 5 miles and everyone else did about 4.5.  Maybe some of boys and Lee got 5 miles.  Apparently this was the first road in Alaska.






Freezing air was blowing out of the mine shaft.


So pretty basically everywhere!


Cal found a branch and a sharp rock and kept sawing on it throughout the hike.  Haley worked in it as well.
























More rock skipping!




He broke through!




The kids finished up the ranger activities and we headed to a ranger shack (not sure of the proper term) and they received a very cool ranger badge.




We did a little stop at the grocery store and bought some fun snacks. We chewed a lot of gum on this trip!


Family scripture reading!


We headed back to south Juneau and walked around then ate at the Twisted Fish.


The kids loved finding incredibly LONG dandelions.  Like I said, lots of vegetation in Juneau area!  There is even a rainforest there.




Makes our van look more "granola".


We also stopped and got some chocolates, which were really yummy.




Lot of fun trinkets to look at!


The Twisted fish was really yummy.  I loved my salmon.


Some of the younger kids had lots of "kid" meals the past several days eating pizza and burgers, ha ha.  They didn't want shrimp or salmon.








We enjoyed some ice cream that night!


We had a nice time at church on Sunday, day four.  We kept seeing an LDS church building nearby and assumed that it was the one we were going to on Sunday.  We showed up right before 10am but I could tell Sacrament meeting was well underway and basically almost over.  Some people in the foyer told us where to go and looking at our plans the church building they told us about was the church we were supposed to go to anyway.  We arrived about 10 minutes late but didn't miss the Sacrament song or the Sacrament. The church building was also nice and warm!!!  It was funny because we saw some Tongans at church.  Several Tongans in a family moved to Alaska.  One lady said she didn't mind the winters.  And the stake has two pilots to fly the Stake President around for visits. 

After church and lunch, I wanted to drive to the "end of the road". We got to the end but a service road kept going.  I wanted to keep driving on it, but Lee was worried about the minivan.  It was misfiring and even would die after just starting it.

We pulled over to a little stopping area for a little bit to walk around.



Our minivan became more hip.






End of Road!!!




Day five we headed out to Mendenhall Glacier.  Lee talked with some people at church and found out about a good trail to go on.  I really, really wanted to touch the glacier!  I found out as well that there is bear repellent... Who knew?! The hike was really pretty and quite the hike! Kind of crazy in many places as well. We did 7 miles! Lots of moss...










Lots of steep climbs.




It was a gorgeous day.








This rock face was scary.  Cal went up it, not knowing it was the wrong way.  Some other kids started to follow too, but mainly Elden.  We realized it was the wrong way and backed down.  Elden was stuck though.  Water was running down the rock and made it very slippery.  Lee went up to help and had a hard time as well.  It was pretty freaky.  The thought of falling from half-way up was scary. Thankfully they made it back down.








We got closer and closer to the glacier.


















These are the trail makers along the way, on rocks and tree or bush branches.


We finally saw the glacier but we were still far away!  About a mile or so at this point.




Nugget Falls!




Love the blue ice/snow.


We made it to the glacier! It was fun walking on it ,though scary, because we didn't spiky ice shoes, or crampons.




Too bad it was so dirty up close.




Easy going up, but not down. Not injuries though!






















On our way back down...steep decent and all.






After making back just fine from the hike and eating lunch, we headed to the DIPAC fish hatchery.  We had a little tour of the hatchery, visited their touch tanks and looked at the fun aquarium displays.














And all of these things are native to the area!  Wow, so many different sea creatures!  The huge light orange star fish with lots of legs was really fluffy.  The gray and orange one to the left was hard and spiky.








Coloring pictures and hanging them up. 










That afternoon we snagged more snacks for on the flight home.  We saw Rocky Road bars and couldn't pass them up.  Lee's Grandpa Lyle always had one for lunch, along with a Pepsi and a hot dog.  He lived to 94.  (If I got that all correct!)


Loved this...so TRUE!


We had a fun stop at Juno Froyo.  Yum!  Then it was off for another movie...Incredibles 2!  Fun movie, but I was disappointed with the swearing.  Sorry kids, we won't be seeing that movie again.


We headed yet again to south Juneau to eat at the Crepe Escape but they closed at 7.  RATS!  We walked around for awhile trying to figure out where to eat that night and decided on a local Mexican place.




All their food was yummy except my chicken quesadilla.  Something was off about the meat. I have meat issues sometimes!




The place where we bought our chocolates the other day were making treats and fudge.  So fun.


One more stop at the whale statue.




We got home about 9/9:30.  We were all really tired. Do your kids soak things in water, or just mine?  Gummy bears.


Well, I decided to just go to bed and get up extra early the next morning to clean-up and pack. We had had a full day last starting with all of the kids waking up super early to watch a movie... Like 3 am. I decided that it would be better to just get up early and pack. That way Lee and I could help each other and the kids could pack their stuff.

This morning I got up at 2:50am to start getting ready for our flight that left at 7am from Juneau. 

Lee or I closed the bedroom door at one point that early morning. I wanted to get back in about 3:25 am, but the door wouldn't open. Lee got up and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't work. We had some clean laundry so I started folding that to stay busy. He still couldn't get out. I was getting a bit stressed. Thankfully there was a Phillips screwdriver in the drawer in the kitchen so I slipped it under the door and he took the knob off. It didn't work. The door still wouldn't open. It was getting later and later and remember the condo is a mess and no one is packed to leave at 5am to catch our flight on time. 

I got Clark up. He took a shower and then tried to help Lee. He tried wiggling it and even got a card and tried to open the door using Lee's health insurance card. Still nothing. By this point almost everyone was up and Lee started getting ready as much as he could inside the bedroom. The kids slowly started getting ready. Shanna was stuck in that closet in the same bedroom on Sunday, but we didn't think much of it.  She was able to get out with Clark's help in just a couple of minutes.  We had no idea that other doorknobs were defective.

We were pretty loud about 3:40 trying to get kids up, trying to open the door and trying to get out of the condo at 5am. The neighbor started banging on the wall. I said really loudy, sorry my husband is locked in a bedroom! I called the owner and her husband a couple times each, leaving frantic messages about how we are trying to fly cross country, we had to leave for the airport at 5 am with five kids and my husband was stuck in the bedroom. I even called a lady in the local ward that gave me her number. Lee figured he could get out of there if he had a hammer and a flat head screwdriver. I was even tempted to go to the neighbors and ask for their help. I knew they were up because they were banging on the wall. I was definitely praying that he would get out of the room! 

We also got Lee a butter knife and a paring knife. Nothing was working. It was about 4 am.... an hour before we had to leave.  Finally Lee told Clark to just push the door open. 

Clark leaned into it and rammed the door hard with his shoulder. It opened! The inner part to the knob was busted but the door, frame and door jam were all fine.  We went into high speed mode to get ready to leave. Whew, we made it to the airport about 5:10am. Clark was especially helpful putting away blankets, and cleaning and washing dishes.  I called the lady again and left another message telling her what happened and that I assumed that we would not be held responsible for any damages or cost.  I never saw a single charge.  Though if I would have I would have complained.  It was not our fault the door knob was faulty.

It's funny looking back but it was very stressful.  After we went through security (and of course they held aside several of our bags and searched them) Lee and I were sitting down looking at each other and started laughing.  Boy, it was quite the morning. 

I am paranoid about getting to the airport with time to spare...especially since we were flying cross country with all five kids and Lee was due at work the next morning at 9am! Yeah we could have shown up at 5:45, but that would make it even more stressful.  I just like getting to the airport with plenty of time for security and check-in.  We also had to clear out the minivan all the way and leave it in short term parking.  Which worked really well.  Elden gained a new-to-him Hot Wheels car that I found in there.  Hopefully no one is missing it!

Goodbye Alaska!  We had a great time!

More sleeping at the airport.








We spent the whole day flying home.  Our first stop was Seattle. Switching planes actually wasn't that bad.  Also on the way home we just used my phone for boarding passes and it was great!


Next stop, Detroit. I had to take some boys on a walk because they were getting restless in the gate area.


We made it to BWI about 9:30 or so.  Jeff picked us up. We went to his house and then drove our vehicles home.  Lois and Jeff had borrowed our minivan so we needed to take it home.  Reed, Blake and Rhett also came home with us for a couple of days.  I was going back up again for a sealing on Friday and brought them back then.

I hope we had do another big adventure in 2019.  Loved that we visited all 50 states! YAY!  As Haley has written, and others, adventure is out there!  As sad as I was about the trip being over, I was a bit surprised that I was actually quite happy to be home.  That was a nice feeling.  But I am ready for another trip!