We started our morning by packing up and walking over to breakfast at Kava's Pancake House, where Zadie again was excited to see that she could get bacon with her kid's breakfast meal. (Not a vegetarian, that one.) Next, we visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center. This place was very cool and informative, with a stage in the center, a movie theater, a lake surrounded by replicas of native homes, and a "hall of cultures" with artists, vendors, and artifacts. We arrived right as a dance performance had started, with singing, drums, and about 7 dancers, mostly young women. While everyone else watched that full performance (which Zadie tired of after a few songs), Zadie and I watched a movie about how kayaks and canoes were made by hand (wow). We then all toured the villages outside to walk through the six replica homes showing how various native people lived in the different environments and cultures of Alaska.
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| Balance alone... no. I'm not even trying the two foot kicks. |
Next up, we were all excited to see our RV. This was the first RV trip for us, and I wasn't quite sure how we'd like it, honestly. We originally started looking at RVs because car rental alone was going to be close to $3,000 (WTF!), nearly as much as an RV. I thought it might be a little tight after a few days, but it ended up working out great. I'm so glad we went the RV route. It was convenient to have food and a bathroom everywhere, and we loved the freedom of our boondocking nights.
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| RV pickup day |
We rented from Great Alaskan Holidays and went with a 28 foot Forester RV with two slide-outs, enough space for the 6 of us. The girls slept over the cab, Bill and I in the back, and Jim and Mary each had a single bed converted from the couch and dining table. I was surprised by the amount of storage space in the RV - interior cabinets were everywhere, so much so that we didn't even use any of the storage compartments underneath the RV. We had a shower though only used it a couple times, instead showering at our campgrounds. The kitchen had a fairly large fridge with a freezer, a 3 burner stove, and a microwave/convection oven combo. We ended up using the microwave only at campgrounds where we could plug into electricity so we didn't have to run the generator, but nearly all the other electric ran off the battery.
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| Morning coffee in the RV |
We were even able to make s'mores when it was too rainy for a campfire!
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| Though we did set off the smoke detector... |
I was also worried that it'd be difficult for Bill and Mary to drive, but they both picked it up quickly. No bumps or scratches throughout the trip, and Mary even expertly executed some tight 3 point turns. Ready for #vanlife!
The only thing I didn't love was that we didn't have good views for everyone in the back while driving. There were two seat belts at the table near a big window, but the other two were on the couch across from a small window where it was hard to see the beautiful scenery unless you twisted sideways. Fortunately, Zadie mostly just wanted to play on a phone while we drove, so we stuck her in the back and rotated through the seat next to her. Her "fun drawer" filled with great travel activity birthday gifts from Mary was a life saver too. She made approximately 100 pipe cleaner bracelets and "charms" during the trip. :)
After we picked up the RV, we hit up Walmart to stock up on groceries. Inflation + Alaska = $$$, but it was cheaper, healthier, and so convenient to have many of our meals in the RV. We made breakfast every day, lunch most days, and dinner about half the days. We bought more food than we ended up needing, but not by much.
After stocking up, we headed southeast to the Quartz Creek Campground in Cooper Landing, on Kenai Lake in the Chugach National Forest. It was still raining when we arrived, so we made dinner and enjoyed our first cozy night in the RV.