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The Daily Doings of Steph

Friday July 31st, was the 44th Anniversary of the day that Mom and I arrived in Alaska. We drove - well, actually Mom drove Henry I, I was only 6 at the time - into Anchorage at about 3:00 PM in the afternoon completing the ten day migration from Denver to Anchorage.

Mom and I always try to do something special to celebrate. Usually we got out to dinner and Mom brings her little shoebox of treasures; pictures, calendars, etc. dating from 1965-1967. It is so much fun to revel in the past - and especially the mid 60’s in Anchorage - a very different place. Very frontieresque - but with a vibrant arts and social scene.

This year Mom, Peter, and I celebrated by driving down to Girdwood and doing dinner at Sakura, the simply superb Teppanyaki bar at the Alyeska Prince Hotel. Girdwood is its own place - home to Alyeska, a world class ski resort, and a phenomenal northern rain forest micro climate. Intensely green and fecund with giant Sitka spruce, ferns, berry bushes, moss - even the Devil’s Club is striking.

We even brought the poochies - Echo’s first long road trip - well, at an hour it’s wasn’t that long, but for Echo it was really eye opening. She was mesmerized by Turnagain Arm and all that water - until she finally flopped down to snooze, she was glued to the window watching the water and the coastline.

Below are several pictures from our little outing. After those, are a few of my favorite pics from the mid 60’s.

Mom and me.

On the bench with Peter and the Poochinis. The forest behind us is just stunning.

Mom, me, and her grand-dogs.

On the bridge.

Looking very tomboy-cowboyesque standing beside Henry I.

Mom and me next to a friend’s plane.

Fur Rondy races. Maybe 1966 or ‘67.

Fur Rondy Fur Auction.

I’m in the ahkio (the sled) being towed by the snowmachine. This was taken in front of our little ranch duplex - lots of kids in the area lived on homesteads and had snowmachines. They would give me rides to school on their snowmachines. Those were the days.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Alaska, Tyge. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.