Our 6S Full Life

Alaska SeaLife Center

After our visit to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center we headed to Seward. Here we visited the Alaska SeaLife Center, another place we saw on Alaska Animal Rescue. Again we were excited to see a place we saw on the show.

The center is not very big compared to other aquariums we have been too, but what it had was informative and interesting. It is particularly useful when the aquariums is well labeled, and this one was. It is great to stand by a tank and be able to name what is inside.

The touch pool was amazing! They had a ton of Alaska sea life in there. It was a bit chilly but Alaskan waters are not known for warmth.

We visited the aviary which was a personal favorite of mom. We stayed and watched the birds get fed from the tank below as well. It was entertaining to watch them dive and swim for their dinner.

The kid’s favorite thing was the green screen where each child took a picture of themselves, some goofier then others.

After our time at the center we headed out and walked the one Main Street of Seward and enjoyed dinner back at our beach view rental. We ended the night by playing at the park on the beach and watching an otter play in the water.

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

In preparation for our big Alaska trip we have spent some time watching documentaries on Alaska. One of which is Alaska Animal Rescue, has become a family favorite. Since we were driving from Anchorage to Seward we put in a stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It was a wet rainy day but the views were still gorgeous.

Everyone was excited to see this place we had been watching on TV all year. The center did not disappoint and we saw all of the animal stars of the show. C was thrilled as we were walking and one of the human stars, Howie, (his favorite) drove by and waved.

The experience here is great and all the animals were out and about showing off even in the rain. We saw bear, bison, moose, reindeer, porcupines, wolves, foxes, Sitka deer, owl, and a bald eagle. It was a totally fulfilling experience.

Now that the kids are older we get photos too.

We at lunch in the car and stoped in the gift shop before heading out. To our surprise Howie was out front and C was over the moon to talk to her. She was the nicest person and had a conversation with him and let us snap a picture. I am sure she gets it a lot but she made his day and maybe even his whole trip. Yay for tv personalities who are just as kind on and off the screen.

After our celebrity run in we headed back to the car and on our way to Seward.

Anchorage

The plan was to land in Anchorage at 10:30pm, stop at the store, and head to our rental. Unfortunately the airline had different plans. We ended up with a ridiculous connection in Denver and a 5 hour unexpected layover. We landed long after stores closed and everyone was finally in bed by 2:30 am.

We started our first day in Alaska a little later then we expected but we still got in everything we wanted to. Starting with the Alaska Museum. This was a great place to start especially the Alaska history area. We left with a better understanding of the people and history of the state.

The kids loved the discovery area and planetarium. they went back multiple times to explore the different exhibits. Earthquakes, auroras, volcanos, and animals were just a few of the topics covered in the different hands on experiments.

Andon loved this in Taiwan, 7 years later still enthralling.

After the museum we had some delicious pizza at Hearth Pizza. Great service and delicious food left us ready for a walk around downtown but it was fairly wet and we were feeling tired from our late night. We decided to visit Star the reindeer and head over to Potter Marsh.

At Potter Marsh we walked the boardwalk and enjoyed the many birds. We even saw a bald eagle nest with two young eagles and an adult. Glad we got new binoculars for the trip.

After the marsh we visited the Greetings from Alaska mural and then went home to eat and rest. It was time to catch up on our missed sleep and hopefully start the next day a bit less exhausted.

Visit All 50 States – 6S Life Goal Accomplished!

In 2015 we traveled for the first time as a family of 6. That trip was in our van to Oregon and Washington. This was the start of our 6S Family Adventures, and we set a goal to show the kids the great diversity of the US by visiting every state. We have traveled by plane, train, our van, rental cars, and our favorite way to travel, in our second home, the RV. 8 years later we flew into our last state Alaska!! It is amazing to have reached this goal. We have seen so much, learned a ton, and hopefully helped our children to see how amazing travel can be.

Now that we have conquered the US, we are setting a new goal. Our next travel adventures will include all the continents. We already have two down and have started planning for the other five. The kids are getting older and will soon be moving on with their own lives, but we think they will come back for travel especially if we are paying.

Crater Lake

We are nearing the end of our Northwest trip. Our last stop was Crater Lake National Park. It is a long drive from the Olympic coast to Crater Lake. To make it easier we broke the drive up into two sections. Our first stop was at the Colombia Riverfront RV Park. Even though it was just a one night stop over this was a beautiful stop. We had a river view campsite and the kids enjoyed the large grass area and river boats.

The next day we drove to Broken Arrow Camp on the north side of Crater Lake. This camp was not waterfront but it was great in its own right. The sites were large and the weather beautiful. We enjoyed our last night around a campfire reading, drawing, playing, and telling stories. Since it was our first clear night in a remote place we set an alarm and woke everyone up at 1:30am to do some star viewing. The interruption of sleep was well worth the beautiful night sky. Every kid should see the Milky Way as often as they can.

We set a new alarm and awoke at 7 to get an early start. The plan was to drive through the open rim section of Crater Lake, enjoy lunch at Rim Village, and then drive until we reached home. our first stop was the Pumice Desert, a “dead soil” area due to the large amount of pumice rock from Mount Mazama’s eruption 7,700 years ago. We were surprised to find some very hardy pioneer plants working to reclaim the area. Maybe it will be full of trees in another 7,000 years.

We drove the rim from the north entrance to Rim Village stoping at every turnout for views and photos. It is an amazingly blue lake the lack of access has kept it clean and undeveloped. It is easy to see it as the native Americans did hundreds of year ago. Since there was still lots of snow many of the trails were hard to follow and the road was not open all the way around. We enjoyed our time there and hope to make it back someday and get down to the water.