Aunt Billie's and Cousin Herschel's Birthday Party

Yes, the birthday party/mini-reunion was mainly to celebrate Aunt Billie reaching the milestone of her 90th birthday.  (We wouldn't have had such ceremony for Herschel's 29th birthday.)  But since so many people from the Slosberg and Ellis families were together, it seemed like a great idea to add to the celebration.
Aunt Billie has six grandchildren, five grandsons and one granddaughter.  Five of the grandchildren were able to travel from California or Nevada to celebrate their grandmother's birthday, which is actually in September.  (My cousin Ricky and his wife Nancy figured more people would be able to come in August before the school year started than if they waited until September.)
From left to right is Gabriel Slosberg, Alex Marcus, Herschel Slosberg, Billie Slosberg, Andrea Slosberg Proulx and Aaron Slosberg.

In this photo from left to right are Nancy (daughter-in-law), Ricky (oldest son), Billie, Jeff (youngest son) and his wife Monika Slosberg.  Sadly, Phylliss Marcus, Aunt Billie's only daughter, had passed away in 2003 from cancer.

 

After Aunt Billie had already cut the birthday cake, Nancy brought a birthday cookie to her son, my second cousin, Herschel, who was celebrating his 29th birthday this week.  (Too bad I had no room left for the cookie.  I'd already eaten so much at the brunch plus had a slice of birthday cake that I couldn't fit any more food in.)

Nancy's brother and sister still live in the Chicago area, so she was glad to catch up with Ferne and Joel and their families.

And, of course, the "arm stretch" shot of Russ and me.  A trip wouldn't be complete without one of these photos.

Even with the crummy weather getting here, I'm really glad we made the trip out here.

Flight to the Chicago Area

My Great-Aunt Esther "Billie" Slosberg was celebrating her 90th birthday this weekend with a mini-reunion in the Buffalo Grove, Illinois area, which is a suburb of Chicago.  (Aunt Billie was my Grandmother Rose Slosberg Stoller's sister-in-law.  Billie was married to Harold Slosberg, who had passed away shortly before my birth.)
With Russ flying us in N75078, it should have been a 5 hour flight, including two stops for bathroom breaks.  Russ could normally make this a non-stop flight, but for safety will include one stop to top off the gas tanks.  (It would be very bad to run out of gas while flying over Lake Michigan.)  But for my comfort he'd planned two rest stops/re-fuelings.
Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas.  If we'd just been out for a pleasure flight, we would've cut the flight very short and headed back home.  But because I wanted to see my my uncle and his family, plus Aunt Billie and my other cousins, we pressed on with the flight.
Due to the headwinds and rapid development of thunderstorms, it took 8.5 hours and three rest stops for us to make this flight.  We also experienced some turbulence that left me very shaken up and Russ with a bump on his head.
I seriously hope the return flight is better.

Household Goods Delivery

 

Today was the second attempt for the moving company to deliver our household goods.  They'd come earlier in the week, but didn't have half of our household goods.  I think we figured out why they hadn't brought this half for the first part of the delivery.  (Keep in mind, our household goods had always been delivered in one attempt.)  The boxes were so mangled.  I don't think there was a single box that wasn't mashed or had chunks missing from it.  It's amazing that the shortest relocation I've ever had resulted in the worst amount of damage of the eight Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves I've made plus the four PCSs Russ has made.  Maybe our couches and ladder will make it with the next delivery. 

If you notice, each box seems to have a variation of Roslewski on it.  I didn't include all the boxes, but we saw everything from:

 

Roslewski (they got it right!)

Roslawski

Roskaski

Rowleski

Rowlaski

Slolewski

Return to Reality

The flight back from Alaska was extremely long.  For some odd reason, almost every return flight from Alaska is a "red-eye"/overnight flight.  So our departure time was 10:30 p.m. with a morning arrival.  Our arrival in DC was not without its problems.
First, I left my sleep mask in the seat pocket on the airplane.  Though I quickly realized this after deboarding the plane, the airline personnel were less than helpful in retrieving it for me.  So there went my $35 Tempurpedic sleep mask.
Second, we waited over 40 minutes for the first suitcases from our flight to start coming off the luggage belt.  Needless to say, our luggage was NOT among the first suitcases that came off the luggage belt.  So, a little more than 50 minutes after landing, we finally retrieved our luggage.  We will NEVER purchase tickets on US Airways again for perosnal travel.
The third flaw to our arrival plan was transportation.  My sponsor to my new assignment, Capt Marc Adair, had dropped us off at the airport.  We had left Russ' truck at my work parking lot at Bolling AFB.  Well, Marc's wife had her baby earlier than expected, so Marc was on leave.  My new supervisor, Lt Col Karen Cox, said she'd come pick us up at the metro near Bolling.  For some reason, we could not find each other.  After three phone calls and her saying she was at the metro without us seeing her, Russ finally started walking to the base.  (There were no cabs to be had at this metro.)  Keep in mind he was dressed for 50-degree Alaska weather and it was already in the 90+ degree mark.  On top of that, the area surrounding Bolling AFB is in the slums of DC.  We were both very greatful he wasn't mugged on his trek to the base.
So nearly 3 hours after landing, we were finally on our way back to the base lodging office.  We were wiped out, me especially since I'm incapable of falling asleep on an airplane.
Fortunately, our vacation had gone much better than our return to DC.

Earthquake Park

After all the hikes and searches we'd made looking for moose, we finally saw some up close on our way to the airport.  We stopped at a place called Earthquake Park.  (I'd seen some documentary shows that included information on this earthquake, which was the second strongest recorded earthquake in history.  It's kind of eerie walking along paths where homes once stood.)  Right off a trail by the parking lot were two young moose, who didn't seem at all phased by our presence. 

 

About the biggest response the moose gave us was looking in our direction, likely a result of the camera flash.

It was a great end to a great vacation. 

Seward Sea Life Center and Exit Glacier

It's true, some men are capable of change!  The reason Russ and I were laughing so much was when we were at the aquarium in Virginia Beach, Russ and Chad had reached into the water to touch something when a sign had been clearly posted NOT to touch.  The aquarium staff member, not to kindly, had mentioned no one over the age of 10 had failed to read the sign before Russ and Chad's arrival.  So here at the Seward Sea Life Center, Russ DID notice the sign and managed to keep his fingers out of the water.  I'm so proud of him!

 

 

We saw seals, birds, Alaskan king crabs and more at the Sea Life Center, but I didn't think you'd be too interested in seeing a bunch of photos on animals.  So back to us...here we are at one of the outdoor exhibits of the Sea Life Center.  It seems wherever we went in Alaska, there was always an impressive natural backdrop for our outdoor photos.

 

 

After the Sea Life Center, we stopped at the Exit Glacier State Park.  You can sort of see the glacier in this photo ... it's the white blob above my head.

 

From this photo you can see how much the glacier has receded.  There was a park ranger who explained that just in the last 2 years the glacier had receded the length of a couple football fields.  Some new trail markers were set up so we could get pretty close to the glacier.  (And I managed to do this without injuring myself.)

Kenai Fjords Tour in Seward, Alaska

We had a hectic drive getting to the tour boat on time.  We'd been told it was approximately a 2 hour drive to get from Anchorage to Seward.  So we left 3 hours prior to the "dinner cruise".  Well, with summer construction, the 2-hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive.  (And since we pre-paid for the non-refundable tickets, we had a great incentive to get to the boat before it departed.)  We arrived at the marina and ran to get on the boat, which departed less than 2 minutes after our arrival.  (We'd been the last passengers to board.)

 

While it was very cool and foggy at the beginning of the tour, we didn't feel very cold.

 

 

As you can see, we were aboard the Tanaina.

 

It's amazing how one's appearance can change so much in an hour.  We were pretty frozen by this point, even with the added extra layers of clothing we'd brought with us.

 

This picture was taken after dinner, so we'd had a chance to warm up a bit.  You can see the glaciers in the back ground.

On thing photos don't capture is the noise.  It was very eerie hearing all the creaking and breaking of the glaciers with huge ice chunks falling into the water.  The splash in this picture was caused by a chunk of glacier the size of a small house falling into the water.

We also saw lots of wildlife -- otters, bald eagles, dolphins and a smack of jellyfish, something neither of us had seen before.  It was a great cruise, but I'm glad we took the shorter cruise rather than the 8-hour excursion.  I would've frozen on a trip that long.  Plus, after an hour or so, all glaciers tend to look and sound alike to the non-scientific eye.

Denali National Park

Driving to Barrow, Alaska, the most northern inhabited settlement in the United States, was not an option.  So we settled on a more easily reachable location -- Denali National Park, which was only about 3 hours away from Anchorage.

Charlie advised us to take the "shuttle bus" that takes hikers and campers to various sites throughout the park rather than a tour bus.  The shuttle was a little over $20 per person where the tour bus was $75 per person.  (The seats weren't the "luxury" type that would've been on the tour bus, but they were comfortable enough for our needs.)  The driver for the shuttle bus was also an excellent tour guide.  He pointed out the various wild animals, hiking trails, mountain peaks, etc., along the 8-hour roundtrip ride.  We saw grizzly bears, caribou, moose, big horn sheep, foxes and more along the route.

 

The shuttle made plenty of stops where we could get out and stretch our legs as well as get some great pictures of the scenery.

The route's elevations changed dramatically throughout the ride.  We'd go from being several hundred feet high and then down to river banks.  By the time we arrived at the point closest to Mt McKinley, the storm clouds had covered the peak.  So we don't have any pictures of Mt McKinley.

Why am I sitting by myself?  On the trip out, my window was along the mountain sides.  So I didn't notice how narrow the road (wide enough for only one shuttle bus most of the route) was and how steep the dropoffs were until we were headed back to the park's visitor center.  At that point I was more than content to sit on the opposite side and be oblivious (as much as possible) to how close to death we were if the bus went off the narrow road.

At first you might think this picture was unintentional.  But Russ took this photo of the drop off from the "edge side" of the roadway.  Now do you understand my concerns?

 

Here's a picture of a post card I had purchased that shows what Mt McKinley looks like without clouds obscuring the view.

 

 

 It was around midnight by the time we got back to our motel just outside Denali National Park. We didn't use a flash with this photo of the view outside our motel room. That's about as dark as it gets this far north this time of year.   

 



Once we retire from the military, we can see ourselves living in Alaska during the summers.

Back to Denali National Park

We went back to Denali National Park in the morning, going to some hiking trails that were close to the visitor's ceneter.  (As you may have guessed by the photo of the sharp dropoff and mention of the narrow road, personal vehicles are NOT allowed to drive past a certain point in the park.) 

It was a little colder than I'd expected.  My gallant husband loaned me his jacket.  (What a "manly man!")

It was still pretty chilly as we remained in the mountains' shadows during our early afternoon explorations.  So Russ avoided the temptation of reaching into the creek to feel how cold the water was, though he wanted to.

 

We went back to the visitor's center to warm up a bit and look at all the exhibits we'd missed seeing yesterday in our scramble to catch the last shuttle bus of the day.  Have I mentioned before how much Russ loves looking at maps?  It doesn't matter if it's an ancient map, road map, air chart map, etc.  He could spend hours reviewing the details of a map.  As this was a topographical map, he wanted to spend a lot of time looking at it. 

 

By the later afternoon the sun was out and I was warm enough to explore some more.  Though you can't really see the moose in the picture below, we had a great view of it on the other side of the lake.

 



Here's a better photo of the moose getting a drink of the extremely cold water.  (Yes, Russ could no longer resist the temptation and had to feel how cold the water was.)

To summarize our Denali adventures, we had a great time and would go back again.

Eagle River Nature Center

It was great having our very own tour guide (Charlie Howell) giving us ideas for around-the-town activities.  After exploring Thunderbird Falls, we headed over to the Eagle River Nature Center.

The day time temperatures were perfect for all the outdoor activities we had - low 70s.  We always wore pants during our hikes to keep from getting bitten by mosquitoes and ticks.  (Remember how large the leaves were at Thunderbird Falls?  That should give you an idea of how big these pesky insects are.)



I couldn't decide which was better to admire, Russ or the scenery?  Since I'm only in Alaska for a short while, I better get back to admiring the scenery.

 



The mound in the water on the left side of the picture is one of many beaver dams at the nature center.  The water was so clear it perfectly reflected the scenery behind it.  Gorgeous!

One downside of all the beaver activity is that the trails often get flooded when new dams are built.  We all managed to make it across the planks without falling into the water.

 

 

 Russ and I are with our friend Charlie Howell in this photo on the banks of Eagle River.

 

This gigantic tree looked like it had been hit by lightening at some point.  With more than half the tree trunk missing, we could only guess how old this tree was.  It was so big the three of us couldn't reach all the way around it.

 

This is another great place to spend a couple hours or a whole day if you're in the Anchorage area.

Thunderbird Falls, Alaska



I've been stationed in Texas and became a Texas resident.  Texans are very proud of "everything is bigger in Texas" sayings.  I have to admit, I'd never seen tree leaves this big before in Texas.  Look at it!  This one leaf is bigger than both our hands put together.  And I may have mentioned how big the Alaskan mountains are.  There are dozens of mountains in the Anchorage area that are more than 6,000 feet tall, even though the base is at sea level.  That's like being in the Colorado Springs area with the 13,000 - 14,000 foot mountains, that start at a base of 7,000 feet.

Alaska needs to come up with its equivalent of "everything is bigger in ..." saying.

 

 

 We climbed up this lookout tower to get a better view of the falls.

 

Then Russ, Charlie Howell and I all hiked to be closer to the base of the falls.  We could feel the spray in the air.  It was so incredibly peaceful even though the noise from the waterfall was quite loud.

Russ and I even managed NOT to fall in when we got on the river bank to get a picture of Thunderbird Falls in the background.  If you're ever in the Anchorage area, I highly recommend this easy hike.

Exploring Eklutna Lake and Elmendorf AFB

There are so many places to explore right in the Anchorage area!  I finally discovered why so many people would take an assignment to Korea to get a guaranteed follow-on assignment to Elmendorf.  The Anchorage area is absolutely gorgeous (in the summertime).

 

We started the morning out at Eklutna Lake, which was only a 15 - 20 minute drive from Elmendorf AFB.  The lake had miles of groomed hiking trails that were easy/safe enough for me to go on without injuring myself.  (Or should I say re-injure myself since I seem so adept at getting hurt?)  We had a fantastic time exploring on the various trails.  Oddly enough, we only saw a handful of other hikers during the hours we spent here.

 

 Russ demonstrated his "rock skipping" skills and even managed a few throws with six or more skips.

 

 

Here's my handsome hubby staying out of trouble even though the drift wood looked really tempting to build something.  (Isn't driftwood just a larger version of Tinker Toys?)

 

 

After Charlie got off work she met with us to explore Elmendorf a little more.  Of keen interest to Russ was the air park for personally owned aircraft.  Elmendorf has a grass runway plus a lake for seaplanes to take off from.  An interesting factoid Russ taught me was that Alaska has more aircraft per capita than any other state in the country.

 

 

After admiring the air park, we went in search of moose, which freely roam the base.  This picture of Charlie will forever be etched in our memories.  (No, the security forces did not see her clearly unbuckled while she was sticking her head out the window.)  I'll have to save this for her retirement photo montage.

 

We didn't see any moose on base during our adventures, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

Around Anchorage AK

We didn't have a set schedule of what we were going to do while in Alaska, but we wanted to stop by and visit our friend Angie "Charlie" Howell, who's stationed at Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage.  (She and Russ had both been stationed at Travis AFB in the Bay area of CA as air traffic controllers while Charlie and I were both assigned to the Military Equal Opportunity Office at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo TX.)

This picture was taken on Elmendorf AFB.  The salmon had just finished the spawning run a week or so earlier.  That would've been pretty neat to see.

 

 

These next photos were taken at Chugach State Park.  It's amazing how tall the mountains are considering Anchorage is at sea level.

 

Due to the mountain heights (and cooler temperatures), there was still plenty of snow by the time we visited.

Rest assured, Russ did NOT peg me with the snow ball in his hand (though he wanted to).