Alaska – Geeky Girl Engineer

Framing a cross-stitch with fabric

Posted on December 9, 2021 by geek

With the exception of my really big cross-stitch projects, I don’t frame them. Very often I finish them by putting them on a patted mat board that I then finish with a ribbon to hang them. I really like doing this in particular for holiday and seasonal cross-stitch projects as it makes it easier to take them down and store them until I want to hang them again.

While I was in Alaska on vacation this summer, I bought some wonderful cross-stitch patterns designed by an artist there of Alaska flowers. One pattern was fireweed, and another pattern was forget-me-nots. I loved stitching patterns that represent and remind me of a place I have visited, in this case Alaska. While there, I also found some wonderful fabrics that also showcase Alaska. Fortuitously, I found some fabric printed with fireweed and forget-me-nots, so I used those fabrics to frame the cross-stitch projects.

I just sewed some simple blocks to frame the cross-stitch patterns. I then sewed a back sort of like I was making a pillow. I just didn’t put a pillow in between the front and back. I then sewed a sleeve to the top, put a wooden dowel through the sleeve, and tied a ribbon to hang it.

Fireweed cross-stitch framed with fireweed fabric

Forget-me-not cross-stitch framed with forget-me-not fabric

Alaska Railroad Denali Star

Posted on July 3, 2021 by geek

We took Alaska Railroad’s Denali Star to get to Denali from Anchorage and also took it back to Anchorage. The route is just gorgeous. It goes along mountain creeks, glacial valleys, river gorges, and lakes. I was also somewhat obsessed with the clouds and the atmospheric features on both trips because the mountains were creating incredibly interesting skies. Note: the photos below are a mix of photos from the trip to Denali and the trip back to Anchorage. Also, some of the photos below include the Nenana River on which I went rafting. Also, a different view of the Hines River, featured in the photo at its confluence with the Riley River, can be seen in my photos from hiking in Denali National Park.

As this is my second round trip on Alaska Railroad, with the trip to Seward being the first, I highly recommend paying extra for Goldstar seats if you are a photographer. Besides the free meals and glass-dome ceilings on the cars, the Goldstar cars also have an outside platform passengers can go out onto at anytime, which obviously makes for much better photos. Also of note, there is an Alaska Railroad employee pointing out places of interest along the journey and letting you know when you might want to get a photo. I found it very helpful, but for reasons that are beyond me, on the Denali trip, they kept pointing out gravel pits as points of interest. I’m a geeky engineer, and even I can’t figure out why they think we all find gravel pits incredibly interesting.

Denali seen rising above the clouds beyond the Susitna River near Talkeetna

Susitna River

Pond next to the Indian River

Hurricane Gulch

Summit Lake

Nenana River

Confluence of Hines Creek and Riley Creek (my photo on another blog post of Hines Creek was taken from that foot bridge on the right)

Denali National Park Hiking

Posted on July 2, 2021 by geek

One day in Denali was completely full with the bus tour and with rafting. We planned another day for hiking, and the hiking in Denali, just around the visitor’s center is wonderful. We didn’t have time to do much hiking, but based on the maps, you could spend a couple of days hiking just on the trails. Then of course, you could spend lots more time doing off trail hiking. Right now, so many wild flowers are in bloom that the trails are full of color. The trees are green, and it is just wonderful.

Bike Path back to visitor’s center

Trees lining the trail

Hines Creek

Arctic Ground Squirrel in the parking lot

Spruce Grouse (hen with two chicks in the front)

Hedysarum alpinum (Alpine Sweetvetch)

Chamerion angustifolium (Fireweed)

Denali River Rafting

Posted on July 1, 2021 by geek

While in Denali, we went white water rafting down the Nenana River with Denali Raft Adventures. I am a chicken, so the McKinley Run, which was class I and II rapids, with two class III rapids was more than enough excitement for me. I have now decided I am good with class I and II, but I really don’t need the class III. I sat in the back and took photos with my iPhone, which I then held stuck into my life vest when the water got a bit to turbulent for me. [This is why the water looks fairly calm in most of the photos below as when the water was a bit too rapid, the phone was in the life vest.] They provided dry suits, like the SCUBA dry suits (but without the BC vent), which was good because the water was cold, and everyone got splashed at least some. In any event, the rafting did provide wonderful views from the river. There was some wonderful geological features that I could admire from the river besides the river itself, which is a textbook case of a meandering, eroding and depositing river. The river also cut through geological layers and a fault that was visible, so that was fun to see.

Guide says this is referred to as neapolitan rock due to the geologic layers

Floating down the river

Dormant volcano in the background

On the right of the photo, river erosion of the left side of the shore is visible

Deposition of a sand bar is visible on the right side of the river

Denali National Park Bus Tour

Posted on July 1, 2021 by geek

From Anchorage, we took the train to Denali for the next leg of our Alaskan vacation. We took a bus tour of Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour, which takes goes about 60 miles into the park from the visitor’s center. The bus driver was pretty good about stopping whenever wildlife was spotted. Unfortunately, most of the wildlife is pretty far away or hidden behind trees. Good for the wildlife, but bad for taking photographs of the the wildlife. I took numerous out of focus photos of caribou, several moose behind a tree photos, and an impressive number of photos of far away bear sides or butts where you can barely identify them as bears. The tour also stops at several gorgeous overlooks including the last stop of Stony Hill, which provides impressive views of Denali.

Teklanika River

Toklat River

Denali from Stoney Hill Overlook

Polychrome Overlook

Bears

Caribou

Hedysarum boreale (boreal sweetvetch)

Castilleja elegans (elegant Indian paintbrush)

Anemone parviflora (Small-Flowered Anemone)

Anchorage, Alaska

Posted on June 29, 2021 by geek

I have been in Anchorage for several days now. I don’t mean to criticize, but downtown Anchorage is an area in serious need of revitalization. It has a few nice small parks and green areas. It has lovely trails, mainly following Ship Creek and the bay. It has a couple of lovely larger parks with trails. Downtown has some wonderful restaurants and some nice shops also. However, the downtown area as a whole needs revitalization.

Alaska Railroad

Anchorage Information Center

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

Ship Creek

South of town is Potter’s Marsh, a wonderful place to bird.

Potter’s Marsh

Just north of the airport is Earthquake Park. At least part of the park, near the water is where homes used to be, but the homes sat on a cliff and were destroyed in the 1964 earthquake when part of the land slid into the water.

Earthquake Park, looking downhill at the area that in 1964 slid into the water

Earthquake Park

Kenai Fjords Cruise

Posted on June 27, 2021 by geek

From our train trip to Seward, we then took a cruise from Seward around Resurrection Bay and Aialik Bay in Kenai Fjords National Park. It was an amazing six hour cruise around gorgeous scenery. There was beautiful tree-lined rocky shores and numerous glaciers. We also saw several humpback whales, harbor seals, a sea otter, and numerous birds, including puffins (one of my favorite birds).

Thumb Cove

Puffin

Humpback whale, mother and calf

Sea otter

Near entrance to Aialik Bay

Aialik Glacier

Harbor seals in front of Aialik Glacier

Humpback whale

Skee Glacier

Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic

Posted on June 27, 2021 by geek

We arrived in Anchorage a few days ago, and yesterday we took a day trip to Seward to take a cruise to Kenai Fjords. To get to Seward, we took Alaska Railroad’s Coastal Classic Train from Anchorage. The route was gorgeous. We traveled along the coast of Turnagain Arm before cutting across through glacial valleys where the Kenai Peninsula connects to the main part of Alaska. We traveled along the Placer River including through several tunnels before then traveling along the Trail River. The trip was worth the train ride alone, even if we had nothing to do in Seward. Along the way we also spotted sheep, moose, and lots and lots of birds.

Turnagain Arm

Placer River

Spencer Glacier

Placer River

Trail Creek

Upper Trail Lake

Lower Trail Lake

Juneau, Alaska

Posted on June 23, 2021 by geek

I have been in Juneau for several days now, and I have had a chance to walk around historic and not completely historic downtown quite a bit. Juneau reminds me of many older cities where they still have some of the historic buildings, which in many cases have been restored and repurposed, and they have new buildings mixed in with the old ones. There is a Main Street, but the main street seems to be more Franklin Street, although with so many shops closed because of lack of cruises, downtown is slightly not normal. However because there are no cruise ships, Juneau is easy and pleasant to walk around, as in not crowded, and you can actually stand on the docks and look across the water to Douglas Island. Near downtown, Juneau has a seawalk, which is nice walk to view the water and tidal flats. Ravens are everywhere, but bald eagles are not as easily sighted.

Old Alaska Electric Light & Power building

Looking down Seward Street

Sealaska

Franklin Street

Docks

Seawalk

The Whale Project

Looking to Juneau from Douglas Island across Gastineau Channel

Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area

Posted on June 22, 2021 by geek

We spent the say at Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, which has lots of hiking trails to see the area. Some of the trails are to provide good views of the glacier, some are for hiking in the woods, and some are few viewing the salmon and the bears when the salmon are spawning. There salmon were not here yet, but we got really lucky and saw a momma bear and her two cubs. The visitor’s center has photos and a film that shows just how much the glacier has retreated. One of the trails we hiked on also has markers showing where the ice used to be, and the retreat of the ice is incredible. The area is lovely, and one thing I liked was how basically anything that was not moving was covered in lichen and moss.