Quote:
Originally Posted by brightonwoman
DH has an interview with Chugiak tomorrow. It's only a .8 position, but it would have benefits (and the pay cut would qualify us for some aid which would help us make the bills). They emailed and asked if he'd be interested, and he said sure, so then they scheduled the interview...I'm guessing that a lot of people are not interested because it's not full time. Anyway, that's a ray of sunshine for me today. A .8 job with benefits is a long shot better than no job, or than subbing.
Thanks MamaToni for the link. DH said he's checking them all every day still, so we'll just see what turns up.
I feel like I'm carrying on my own conversation here and not really responding to anybody. Sorry, I'm reading, I just haven't had much to say about the topics...
I DO have a question for folks though!!
We want to take our family summer road trip up the center of the state this year. We'll probably leave about as soon as school gets out (last of may or first of june). We're thinking a couple of weeks, though it's flexible. We want to see Denali NP, Fairbanks, and it's my understanding that there's a visitor's center for Gates of the Arctic NP too, right? We don't want to do any heavy hiking with our littles, and we can't afford fly-overs or anything, but we'd at least like to hit the visitor's center. We were thinking it would be cool to see the midnight sun--can anyone tell me how long the 24hrs of daylight lasts there on the edge of the circle? As in, is it just on solstice? Or does it last a week either side? We have to be back here by the 21st, so we can't actually be there on solstice, although I imagine we could still be there on the 18th or 19th or so. We tend to be fast road-trippers though--we just get in the car and go and go. We tend to see things fast and then keep moving. We like to see lots of things en route and take detours too though. Our preference would be to do some kind of loop rather than go out and back on the same route.
Aside from the parks, I don't really have a good sense of what we should see/do up there--any recommendations of places to see (or places to skip)? What about places to camp/avoid? The kids will be 10, 3.5, and 8m.
tia
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Fingers crossed on the Chugiak interview!
I'm so psyched you're coming into the Interior this summer! I'm sure that between all of us Mamas, we'll come up with a zillion ideas.
Camping...we love Montana Creek. It's so clean and the portapotties are neat and maintained, the river is a lot of fun for all the different ages, too. We stay there a lot.
We also like Chatanika, but it's a non-maintained campsite from what I've read, so you even have to bring your own TP, I think.
It's still a really fun place to stay (to me), with campsites and little fire pits and my kids love that river, as well.
We've stayed at Bird Creek on the recommendation of friends, and while a beautiful, beautiful spot, there is no water for the kids to play in (it was all gross and stagnant), and the flies were amazing. Plus there were several bear scares last summer that I remember. Still, it's very pretty and the sites are nice, as long as you don't go on an overcrowded weekend.
All the bluegrass festivals should be happening around your travel time. They're a lot of fun to go to, but they can be SO expensive. I graduated in Anderson and know most of the town, but I don't go to the Bluegrass festival there because it would cost the better part of $100 for our family. Ugh. (And I don't think that's counting their camping fees, either).
The RR up here does a kids' day where they can ride free...you might look that up on the AKRR website. They also do cheap railroad tickets from here to Denali Park and back for Alaskan Residents. It was a little hot and stuffy to me when I took one of the kids, but fun for her. Brad took the boys and they enjoyed it, as well, but it IS a long train ride for little ones.
There's a ton of stuff to do up here regarding solstice...but it sounds like you'll be travelling during all the festivities.
If you plan to go to church while you're vacationing, my best friend is always saying she doesn't know enough (or really any) LDS homeschoolers, and her husband is their bishop...I could introduce you!
I'm so excited for camping season myself!
love, p