Tales of Alaska and the Alaska Highway: Our Old House

There is always a risk when you go back years later to visit an old familiar place.  Will the things you loved about it still be there?  Will the new owners have taken care of it?  What changes will there be?

First we stopped by our old home in Anchorage.  I hardly recognized it!  It used to be blue and white...and I don't recall there being any trees in the front yard! They have moved the driveway from the front of the house to the side, but the shed we had to put siding on in order to sell the house was still there.  We lived there from 1973-1977.

Next we visited our house in Wasilla.  I really liked some of the changes they had made, but other things I did not like at all.  Where our large dining area used to be, the put in french doors and added this beautiful deck.  Actually it looked they probably replaced all the windows to something more modern and energy efficient.  As you can see, they also added a little window in the upstairs bathroom.

The rest I didn't like as well.  Our backyard which was a big open play area with few trees they wanted to make a giant flower garden out of, which is fine, but it looks rather like a wild jungle enclosed by a fence just in the middle of the yard to keep the moose out I suppose.  None of the basement windows were visible as they were completely covered with either the deck or shrubbery.  They did say their friends were envious of all the storage space they have.

When we built the house, we knew about the high winds that came up from time to time, so we put a metal roof on the house and never had a problem with it while most of the neighbors had frequent flying shingle problems.  I loved the sound of rain on that metal roof.  As you see, it is now just an ordinary shingle roof.

Here is the front of the house which is also apparently supposed to be a large flower bed, but it has gotten out of hand.  Brush grows up so fast in Alaska.  The sidewalk used to seem pretty wide to me, but as you see, the flowers are now encroaching on that area.

That nice deck wraps right around the house to the 'garbage door'.  If you wonder why we called it the garbage door, it was the door where we took the garbage out.

Over the years, many people commented about our little grove of trees just east of the house.  Those trees were just buggy whip size when we first left them there after getting rid of the brush around them. When we left, it was a nice place for a picnic.

There where people are standing and looking towards the east, there used to be a chicken coop and yard, pig pen and greenhouse.  Those are all gone now.  The plants in the middle of the picture on the right are still the berries we planted with some rhubarb gone to seed right behind them.  The rhubarb we actually planted in the old pig pen after the pigs were gone.  It grew great there.  The raspberries are totally gone...choked out by grass.  The garden area is also gone, which surprises me, because it was my understanding that the garden area is what drew them to the house in the first place.  Back where we had a couple of little apple trees on the east side of the lawn, you can see the current greenhouse.

Our driveway used to be 'T' shaped.  We could back out into the turnaround area and then head out to the west going frontwards.  Now it is more 'L' shaped.  The turnaround area now has this workshop/garage structure on it.

Here from the side you can have another view of how much the various trees have grown.

Tales of Alaska and the Alaska Highway: Wildflowers

The wildflowers are always one of the highlights of a trip to Alaska.  Although many bloom in June, there were still some lovely ones along our way in July.

We found the bluebells in Canada along the Alaska Highway where we stopped to eat lunch.  They were a favorite of mine when we lived in Alaska.  The children loved to find them and bring them to me.  One even dug some up so I could plant them near the back door.

These butter and egg flowers seem to grow even under difficult circumstances.  They look like little snapdragons to me.

Fireweed  grows everywhere the earth has been disturbed, whether by construction or wildfire.  They start blooming at the bottom of the flower stalk.  By the time the flowers are up to the top of the stalk, you know it is almost time for winter.  Fireweed also makes tasty magenta colored jelly.  A triptych showing the various stages of fireweed flowers hangs in my livingroom so I can enjoy it still.

When we lived in Anchorage, there used to be a patch of white fireweed between Anchorage and Eagle River, but it was destroyed when they widened the highway.

Wild roses are also prolific.  They not only look pretty, they turn into rose hips which can be made into jelly.

Wild Lupines are one of my favorites.

Tales of Alaska and the Alaska Highway: Kalmbach Lake

While visiting in Alaska we were so fortunate to have a place to stay with Woodworker's sister and her husband. They live a few miles outside of town by a quiet lake with ever changing views. I think flowers like the cool weather in Alaska as the colors always seem brighter to me there.

The lake has pretty limited access, so it stays quiet most of the time.  One evening I noticed a stump sticking out of the water on the other end of the lake.  That was pretty far away, so we used binoculars to see the stump as I hadn't noticed it before.  With the binoculars we could see that it was not a stump at all, but rather it was a moose, munching on moose moss in the lake.

Even at 10:30 at night, it was light enough to take pictures.  Sometimes the lake was so calm.

This view was taken from the deck of the house.

One night we looked out and noticed a rainbow and loved how it was reflected in the calm lake.  It wasn't until I looked at the picture that I saw it was really a double rainbow.  Through the trees we could hear one of the neighbors singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

We even went out to explore the lily pads with the paddle boat.

It was a wonderfully restful place to stay.

Tales of Alaska and the Alaska Highway: Wasilla Schools

This is not a comprehensive look at Wasilla schools, but just the ones people in our family have attended over the years.

This first picture shows the first Wasilla School which was built in 1917.  It wasn't until the Woodworker was in 6th grade that he attended school here because the regular school building was too full.  The school has been relocated into a little historical park.

Next up is Snowshoe Elementary School where all of our children went to school.  It has been repainted.

Sadly, when we looked at the playground, the Big Toy was gone as well as the other playground equipment that used to be there.

The next pictures are of Wasilla Middle School which was smaller and called Wasilla Junior High when the older kids went there.  The little part in the middle was once the new Wasilla High School.  I bet there were as many as 10 classrooms in the 'new Wasilla High School' back in the 60s.  The wing starting at the tall, pyramid shaped roof was added MUCH later, probably in the 80s.

The last two pictures are of the newest Wasilla High School.  It has also been repainted and MANY more portables added in the last 10 years.

Tales of Alaska and the Alaska Highway: Aurora Wasilla Cemetery

 One of the first things we did once we were in Wasilla was to stop by the cemetery to visit family members there.  There is a new sign on the road leading into the cemetery which we found amusing.  It is now labeled 'St. Peter's Way'.  I guess it is appropriate.

When we saw Woodworkers father's grave, we were sad to see the condition it was in.  Moss was filing up many of the letters, making them hard to read and little lichen colonies had set up shop on the face of the stone.

Woodworker's sister suggested a trip back to the cemetery with some cleaning supplies so we could work on it a bit.

Other than some slight staining left by some of the lichen colonies, I think it turned out pretty good.  

Next we wandered through the cemetery, remembering old friends and neighbors.  Eventually we came to the the grave of Woodworker's little sister who died many years ago.  I was amazed at how many of the graves in this cemetery bore familiar names.  I heard many stories of people there.

It felt like visiting old friends.

Tales of Alaska and the Alaska Highway: Watson Lake Sign Forest

One of our favorite stops along the Alaska Highway is Watson Lake.  We could easily spend hours there looking at the sign forest.  Usually we don't have hours to spend, but on this trip we stayed overnight in Watson Lake, so we had extra time to look.

The sign forest was started in 1942 by a soldier who put up a sign showing the mileage to his hometown.  Now there are more than 75,000 signs from all over the world.  Some of the pictures were taken on a whim and others had a reason.

There are rows and rows of these posts.

Someone even made a sign out of a bedpan.

This one is here because I have been to Aachen...only 7065 km away.

Found a sign of an Alaska license plate that says Wasilla on it.

In the middle of the sign forest were several pieces of old equipment.  I think, judging from the tree growing in the middle of it, that this thing hasn't been used for a few years.

Here is for the Longmont, CO, folks in the family.

This sign is inside the visitor center and tells about the placing of the first sign.

This has a little sign that says 'Roma'.

Olathe, KS, appears on this post.

If you want to put up your sign when you visit Watson Lake, they will even loan you a hammer and a couple of nails, but you have to find your own spot to nail it.