The Willimers in America

Alaska Day 10 - 4th July at Seward

Today was a big day, with festivities and races all morning, and the big race at midday. The big race is the Seward Mountain Marathon, an annual event where runners leave the centre of town, run to the top of the nearest mountain, then half run, half tumble back to the finish line. For the best runners, going up takes about half an hour, coming down takes much much less. The town was filled with street vendors, with every kind of food and drink available.

So it was a big surprise that when we finally hit the streets just after 10am, nowhere was serving breakfast. Whilst Linda and I were looking forward to trying the street food, Tom wanted pancakes, but had to settle for pizza and fries for breakfast, which didn't put him in a good humour. We had some rough times of Ryan and Amy's schedule, which gave us plenty of time to wander around. The town had a real community vibe, and the day felt not unlike the Shadfest in Lambertville (where Ryan and Amy live) so there was no surprise why they like it so much.

  

During the morning, we went to the Alaska Sealife Center, where Bob Hicks had worked previously. We watched sea lions and seals pirouette gracefully around the tanks before heading back to town to meet up with the gang. After ice cream, our group dispersed, while the Willimers stayed with Ryan to watch the race start. A huge field of runners of mixed ability set off, and we tracked them from the centre of town as small dots disappearing up the hillside. 50 minutes later the leader returned, mud-spattered and bruised to cross the finish line. The end of the race was surprisingly low key, as the crowds of earlier seemed to have thinned out. And apart from a few groups of young herberts letting off stink bombs, the anticipated rowdiness never materialised. We finished the evening with a fine meal at Cristo's Palace, where I was able to extol and demonstrate the virtue of serving salmon with melted cheese, in my excellent Salmon Quesadilla.

  

More pictures of the day are here.

At The Zoo

Tom says - Today we went to the zoo in Anchorage and it, well... wasn't the biggest zoo ever, but it had a few bunch of animals. I did see some bears and a snow leapard and a lynx, hurrah ! But probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen I managed to captured on my camara. It's a video, and it uses Media Player. It involves a bear, a barrel, and a whole darn lot of abundance. So here it is !!!!

Alaska - Day 1

So May slips away, along with it the opportunity to blog in a timely way about all sorts of things - Tom's first Choral concert, all the end of year stuff, travel soccer events. And no sooner has the two-week party period called 'End of Grade School' finished, when our vacation starts, and we are on our way to Alaska.

Our good friends Ryan and Amy who come from Alaska have often told us amazing tales of their home state, commonly ending with the phrase "we must take you there one day" Finally we called their bluff and said 'how about this summer ?' Plans were made, and we now find ourselves in Anchorage, staying with Bob and Mary, Amy's generous and welcoming parents in their wonderful home.

Yesterday we travelled. But since this Alaskan adventure is a journey in itself, it seems pointless to write about the journey to a journey. We got on a plane in Philadelphia, it took us to Salt Lake City, where we got another plane to bring us here, 11 hours and four time zones later. We were fed the usual airline food, and watched cheesy airline movies, all in the cause of passing both time and 4,353 miles beneath our wings.

Now we are here, among mountains and lakes, float planes and strip malls, large stuffed moose heads and even larger stuffed fish. It's the first day, and I can't hope to sum up what it feels like - but it certainly feels different. On our trip out this morning, we played with words and came up with 'Alpine Redneck' to describe the feel of the area we drove through. It summed up the mixture of fabulous chalet-type wooden houses, built sympathetically into the side of impressively wooded mountain sides (Ryan said the area was called 'Hillside' but that didn't do justice to the scenery), occasionally punctuated with discarded washing machines and the odd 'Gun Supermarket'.

Our trip (that's me, Ryan and his good friends Shane and Missy, who we met in New Jersey on their 'Round America' bike ride) was intended to be a 'quick hike' up a local mountain called Flattop - a relatively simple 40 minute walk, and scree-scramble, to the top of an impressive viewpoint. Unfortunately Man got in the way of Nature, and the parking lot was half-capacity due to roadworks. We couldn't park anywhere near this trail, so we headed to a lower trail, and made the best of it. We picked our way up a sodden muddy trail, stopping to check out moose footprints and various piles of droppings. I tried hard not to be to alarmed at the advice on how to avoid being mauled by a grizzly bear, gored by a moose or bitten to pieces by mosquitos.

From the highest point of our trek, we were able to get some expansive views across the city of Anchorage and out into the Cook Inlet. We often advise travellers to new places to take a bus tour - it's a very effective way of getting to know a whole city very quickly, and to get your bearings for future excursions. Going up a local mountain, and looking out over the city was the most effective way of doing this for Anchorage - getting our bearings, and providing some context for future outings.

Much of our discussions have revolved around places to eat. Today for lunch we visited one of Ryan and Shane's old haunts, called Wee B's, for a classic grilled burger and chees fries. We returned to spend a little time talking about where else to visit, and a lot of time talking about various eating places we have to include on the itinerary.

Niagara - Day 3/4

We woke on Saturday morning to find an inch of snow had fallen overnight, and a fresh fall was just beginning. Our new found skill of 'getting up and getting on' stood us in good stead, and we were on the road in no time. Good thing too, as the snow seemed to be getting thicker and thicker. We had to find petrol and breakfast quickly on the road (Tom ate pancakes, sausages and about 8 hash browns at the first McDonalds we came across), but as we left Niagara we seemed to be heading away from the worst of the weather. The sky stayed grey and heavy throughout the journey, full of snow-laden clouds, but as we travelled east, and the skies lightened slowly and almost imperceptibly, it seemed like we were watching the movie of our Thursday journey backwards.

We arrived in Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in mid-afternoon. Cooperstown is a bit of a one-trick pony, based around its single (but enormous) claim to fame. The main street is pretty and 'olde world'y, full of baseball memorabilia shops, and cafes with names like "The Home Plate". It may be a centered entirely around its tourist industry, but it does it in a considered and charming way.

The Hall of Fame itself was very impressive, even to one who was not immersed in the culture of baseball as a child. Baseball is as big a business as it is a sport, which means that the teams themselves can provide a level of funding that allows the Museum to be done in a very classy fashion. Every sport should have a facility like this, and I only wish there was a UK Football Hall of Fame like this.

We were staying the night locally, but by the time we had found our hotel, checked in and had a quick swim,  Thomas could not be persuaded to go out again to eat. So instead, I did a lightning tour of the take-out restaurants in the shopping plaza next door - and returned to the hotel with Pizza Hut pizza for Thomas, with fries from McDonalds, a chinese take-away for Linda and I, and beer and ice-cream from the supermarket. Everything was still pretty warm by the time I got back, and of course we had far too much food for three of us.

Next day we headed to Oneonta, to visit the US Soccer Hall of Fame. For obvious reasons, this facility was much smaller (there are few fewer things to exhibit) but it was done pretty well, and had a number of activity-based installations for the kids, including a mini soccer court, where Thomas played in a 2-a-side game with some older boys. Our only complaint was the price of souvenirs in the gift shop. We left at lunchtime to complete the last leg of our journey with a 4 hour drive.

By the time we got home, we had driven over 960 miles, stayed in two hotels, been in the car for around 20 hours - all within the space of three and a half days. And if that wasn't even, we were steeling ourselves for the onset of the busiest period of the year. Thanksgiving sees the back of November, and ushers in December which includes two birthdays as well as Christmas - much festivities to follow...

Niagara - Day 2

We avoided a traditional Willimer family holiday pitfall by being up, breakfasted and out of the hotel by 9am, instead of flopping around and wasting half the morning. The hotel was minutes away from the Niagara Falls Visitor Center, and we were tantalised by the unmistakable not-so-distant roaring sound of water rushing over the rocks - just out of sight, like that first glimpse of the sea from a car window on a family holiday. Before long we had climbed downed to the edge of the gorge, and...well, the awesome sight of the falls themselves is undescribable - which is why Linda took lots of photos with her new camera !

Niagara must have a number of distinct identities (all of them stunningly beautiful) and we were quite privileged to see Niagara wreathed in white lace. The water vapour from the falls, which creates a permanent rainbow in the gorge, and normally disappears in the summer heat, combined with the sub-zero temperatures to cover the grass, the trees and most of the street furniture with a lace-like lattice work of ice. Treacherous to walk on, but magnificent in its beauty. And of course, bloody freezing. Tom was not at his best, complaining bitterly and with some justice. We walked around the American Falls for about an hour, then took a trolley bus around the rest of Goat Island back to the Visitor Centre, where we climbed up the Observation Tower before heading back inside for some well-earned hot chocolate.

According to plan, we completing our walking tour of the American Fall before lunchtime, then headed back to the hotel to pick up the car and drive over to Canada. There is always an additional level of complication with us going in and out of America, especially as we get closer to completing the Green Card process, but we needn't have feared. The Canadian Immigration Officer was friendly and even joked with me - how pleased she was that after 4 years we hadn't picked up the American habit of carrying firearms !

Our first stop was the Skylon Tower, which at over 500 feet high offered fantastic views of all of the falls. Amazingly here, Linda rode the glass-fronted scenic elevator without a single wobble, whilst Tom get very agitated at the top, and only wanted to come straight back down again. "I'm not afraid of heights, I just didn't want be up high today" - We were happy to oblige after a decent interval, since unsurprisingly the biting wind made it freezing at the top of the tower.

Our next destination was Ripley's Believe it or Not, which we took in after a quick spin along 'the front'. The Canandian Side of Niagara is unquestionably like a seaside resort - along with the tourist attraction of the Falls there are all manner of attractions to allow a family to spend several days if not a week there. Ripley's, the Mystery Maze, Rainforest Cafe for dinner, the Hershey shop, Marvel Comics Superheros, The Lego Brickhouse all saw us visit before we drove back to America at around 7pm. There was even a drive-through Festival of Light, scenes of animals and flowers in flickering christmas lights in the local park, which reminded me of a family holiday in Margate when I was 9 years old.

There was time for a swim back at the hotel before heading out again to watch evening fireworks over the Falls, then one last refuelling stop at the Hard Rock Cafe for dessert (and in Tom's case, fries). We thought it best to head back to the hotel marginally before Tom collapsed from tiredness head first into his ketchup at 10.15.

Looking back next day, it seemed incredible how much we had managed to pack into a single day, which was very satisfying since it would be the only day we wouldn't spend a huge chunk of time on the road.