Alaska State Fair

The Alaska State Fair is going on now in Palmer.  I made a trip to Wassilla to visit with my cousin, Denny Teal, to celebrate our birthdays together and we decided to make a day trip to check out the fair.  Palmer is only about 15 miles from Wassilla so it's an easy day trip to make.  Before I got to Denny's place I stopped at the store picked up a nice looking rib eye steak, a pound of Alaskan King Crab, a salad, a loaf of sourdough, and some pre-mixed margarita's.  It's time to celebrate our birthdays since we haven't been able to celebrate together in about 35 years!

After consuming our feast and downing a couple of drinks, we decided to call brother/cousin Paul and his wife Dottie in Juneau.  It's been about 30 years since I've spoken to him and we had a lot of catching up to do.  Dottie is a great woman and it was wonderful to speak to Paul,what a great time we had!

The next morning we lazily got ready to head to the fair.   The Alaska State Fair is not anything like the Minnesota State Fair; but it is very nice and much bigger than I expected it to be.  They don't have all of the different food on a stick like they do in Minnesota; but they have great food like halibut taco's, salmon chowder, ice cream, and reindeer sausage.  The booths are much more interesting and contain more items that are made in state.  I was able to pick up some Fireweed Honey, a native Alaskan Kuspick, and some birch syrup.

They also have some nice buildings that contain items that have been made and entered into the fair for judging such as the largest produce, prize animals and homemade items such as bakery, jams, clothing and wood working.  These items were really fun to admire; but I do have to say I missed the butter sculptures that are done in Minnesota of the Dairy Princesses.

Denny in front of the prize pumpkin

That's a lot of coleslaw!

Denny in the horticulture gardens

Denny and Alaska's most famous bear

I don't know of too many state fairs that have this kind of view

I don't think I'll ever take these mountain views for granted!

After munching our way through the fair, we headed home for the evening and relaxed.  The next morning I headed back to Cantwell.  I always hate saying good-bye, but Denny and I hope to be able to connect once more before Roger and I head back to the lower 48.

On my way home, I couldn't help but stop and take a couple of pictures of Hurricane Gulch and of the colors changing in the Alaska Tundra.  Both areas are just beautiful this time of year, we are so lucky to be able to be in Alaska and see the changing of the seasons.  The seasons change here so fast and are so different than in the lower 48.

Hurricane Gulch bridge

Hurricane Gulch - Wow, it's high on top of this bridge!

The Alaskan Tundra near Cantwell what beautiful color!

More of the colorful fall Alaskan Tundra