Pelley Family Blog

We took a 13 hour bus tour of Dinali today.  The weather was terrible (foggy and rainy) but we saw lots of animals.  We left the lodge at 7:00 AM and got back at 8:00 PM.  We got some pizza and went to bed. 

We saw:

Beaver

Grey Wolf

Moose - cow on road; young bull off road

Lynx - but ran too fast to photo

Black bear

Dall sheep

Some “hawk owl”

Ptarmigan

Red fox (with black on it)

And the bottom third of Mt McKinly on the way back.  There was too much fog on the way out.

They provided multiple snacks on the bus.  Lunch was at the Katishna Roadhouse; turkey wraps and some good minestrone soup.

The driver talked a lot.  He seemed very proud of what he knows. 

We had to have our bags out at 5:45 and get 0n the bus at 6:45 to go to the train station.  I got some oatmeal at the restaurant; the girls ate on the train, but said the dining car was nothing special.

The train ride was spectacular.  We were on an upper level and had access to an outside deck to take pictures. 

The lodge was nice.  We had two (non-connecting) adjacent rooms. 

Joanna and I went white-water rafting.  One good thing about all the rain is that the river was very high and very fast so we had a great ride.  In fact they canceled the “easy ride” since the river was too violent.

They put you in dry suits and tell you all about hypothermia and how to get rescued before you take off.  There were 8 people in the raft.  Our guide rowed, I was in the front, Joanna was in the back.  I got drenched, but the dry suit kept me dry (but I was still very cold).  The river water was ~35 degrees since it was glacier just a day ago.

We had $10 hamburgers for dinner and went to bed.

We had a full day today, with three excursions.

First, we had a bus tour of the city with a brief history lesson.  We went by the university and stopped at the Alaska pipeline.

Second, we went to a "gold dredge".  This is a huge floating machine that mechanized gold digging and panning.  We panned for our own gold and got about $10 each of the yellow stuff.  They served a good beef stew for lunch.

Finally, we rode a big paddle-wheel boat.  The tour had correographed a few sights along the way (float plane takeoff and landing; dog sled demo, reindeer viewing).  We then stopped for an hour at an Indian village for some quick demos and got back on board.

We had dinner at the restaurant on the resort grounds.

I was feeling pretty crummy (cold/drainage) and went to bed early.  Grace was very weak also; we struggled at the Indian village.  I didn’t sleep very well.

We got up; started packing, had Gran and Minnie in our room and shared our cereal for breakfast.  We finished packing, checked out and went downtown.

We went to a Russian Orthodox museum, which explained some of the Russian history of Alaska as well as some of their theology.  After that we went to the "Land Management" office for a movie about the 1964 earthquake. 

We went to find some lunch and saw a place that advertised chowder and since the day was cool, we decided to go there. 

We then went to the Alaska museum.  They had some good exhibits.  I liked the one that showed how past generations of natives of western Alaska were able to make whbat they needed from available materials.  They had a lot of quotes of people who still remembered people making and using the things on exhibit.

Fly to Fairbanks.

The resort we stayed at had lots of one room cabins.  We had two adjoining rooms so the girls had their own space.  We got a little pizza and went to bed.

We got up and went to an 8:30 service at a Lutheran church a couple of blocks from the hotel.  We were a few minutes late and walked in with an older woman who was also late.  The service was dry.  The people seemed friendly.  The woman gave us some butterflies she mde by "tatting".

As we walked back to the hotel, we saw Gran and Minnie.  After exchanging greetings, they joined us in our room for a while.  We met up with the group in the parking lot to take a chartered bus to take us to lunch.

We had lunch at the Sourdough Mining Co.  It was served family style.  We had ribs, chicken and halibut (and good cole slaw).  It was good!  Across the street was a tourist shop. 

Ther is about 20 in our group.  I think we are the youngest.

We gave Grace some birthday gifts and sang to her at lunch.  Kay (the travel organizer) also gave her a pretty tee-shirt.

We then got a tour of Anchorage on the bus.  The driver was pretty interesting.  We stopped at Earthquake Park and at a bridge where we could watch salmon fish and fishermen.

After the tour, we took Gran and Minnie to the outside market and then to an ice cream shop that had some unusual flavors, such as Glacier Silt (cinnamon and ginger).  (we ate so much at lunch, we weren’t interested in dinner.)

We went back to the room, opened more gifts, played a card game, and called it a day.

The day started very grey and damp, but got sunnier as the day went on.  There was a very cool breeze, but it got calmer toward the end of the  afternoon.

Well, we slept in today.  I guess we were exhausted!  It’s raining today.  (in fact, it was a gentle rain all day.)  We ate cereal for breakfast.

We walked downtown, went to the start of the coastal trail, and then the visitors center.  We walked through a few tourist shops.  They have an outdoor market with fair food an Alaska crafts and trinkets.  We ate lunch there, including funnel cakes.

We found some nice exhibits at the federal building.  The highlight was a volunteer from a bird clinic who brought a Great Horned Owl.  We also saw a video of Denali.

We then went to “Wild ride” sled dog show.  It was informative and entertaining (and expensive).  We then ate dinner at a teriyaki place.

Grace still seems very clumsy.  Kathy has a runny nose.  Joanna and I are doing good. 

Today we leave for Alaska.  When we planned this trip with Mike’s mom Doris, we had no idea we’d be in the midst of an adoption.  At first thought, the timing wasn’t good, but as we traveled - I realized how good it was to have the mental break from the adoption - there was nothing we could do while we were gone!  I had a great time.

I had been frustrated that we were unable to get our dossier done before the vacation.  This was due to many things - the five weeks it took to write our homestudy, the longer time it took to process my fingerprints at the Child Abuse Registry (I was told I wash my hands too much), the post office not putting enough postage on our CIS papers and having them sent back.   All of those things combined may have meant not havng her until 2009.  (And not collecting tax breaks until 2010!) Then I thought about how overwhelming December is to us, and I know it would have been way too much for her.  Perhaps God knows she couldn’t handle it and was using all of these delays for our own good.  Do you think?!

Got to bed at 11:30 last night after a busy week with most of our bags packed.  Got up at 4:45, showered, got dressed and finished packing and left at 5:45. Met a cab at Parkside, checked our bags, got through security quickly, ate some breakfast, got to the gate and boarded without any problems.  We are on our way!

The plane was a 757, which has 42 rows of seats.  Hint - Sit in the “emergency exit” row: they have lots of leg room.  Don’t sit in the row in front of it: the seats don’t recline.

When we arrived in Houston, we found our next flight was at the next gate and we had almost two hous to kill, so we wandered around to stretch our legs and then found stuff to eat. 

Grace had Auntie Anne’s pretzels.

Joanna got some Chinese.

Kathy ate a Wendy’s low-sodium salad.

I (being in Texas) had a BBQ beef sandwich.

When we got to the gate, we found out that they had changed gates! To one two terminals over!  So, we hurried over, found the train, found the gate, and then found it was a half hour delayed because the plane had not arrived yet.  We finally boarded for our 7 hour leg to Anchorage on a very full 737.

We got to our hotel with no problem. The hotel is in the middle of remodeling the entrance, so there is no handicapped ramp.  The room is large with a sink, microwave and frige.  We went for a walk and stopped at a grocery store for breakfast (and deserts).  After a snack, we got ready for bed at 8:30 (12:30 OH tome).

Grace is especially tired and very weak; she can hardly walk.  Kathy feels like she is getting a cold.

Today we received Pre-Approval from the CCAA!  While this does not guarantee that Mixi is ours, it is close enough for us.  They have looked over our initial paperwork and deemed us acceptable.  At least at first glance!!

Maury gave us this timetable:

  –3–4 months from PA (or LID, whichever comes last) to Letter of Acceptance (LOA)

–2–4 weeks from LOA to Final Travel Approval (TA)

–3–5 weeks from TA to travel

While I say that it cannot come soon enough, we have lots of work to do at home to make room for Mixi and to start saving money BIG TIME!