June 28th & 29th - Wasilla area

June 28th – Thurs – Wasilla/Anchorage
I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast but we had too many electric things running – fireplace, hot water tank, fridge & microwave – so first we blew a breaker and even after we turned off all but the microwave it took a long time to heat the convection oven and we were late finishing our breakfast. We all left just after 9 to sightsee in Anchorage.
Pat wanted to go to a film about the 1964 earthquake here so we headed there first. We walked through a lot of pictures & text about the earthquake and then attended a 15 minute film where the seats shook when the earthquake hit. The quake and tsunamis caused an incredible amount of damage including Valdez sliding into the ocean and having to be completely rebuilt. Several blocks of downtown Anchorage sank and had to be rebuilt after scraping out the sand layer that liquefied and caused so much earth movement.
We walked several blocks of a couple of streets downtown and visited 3 gift shops that offered free gifts in our coupon book. We drove to an Ulu (curved knife) factory and then watched people fishing as we walked along a river – Ship Creek - and across a couple of pedestrian bridges. We had a little drizzle but otherwise it was cloudy and quite cool. We went to Costco for lunch and no one bought anything else! We went to a Best Buy where Rick got a Garmin GPS and then we drove back to our RV park.
We got together at Rick & Pat’s for happy hour and tried to figure out what we are doing when we leave here on Saturday. We all headed to home for dinner.

June 29th – Fri – Wasilla area
We all drove about 12 miles back towards Anchorage and to a trailhead for Thunderbird Falls. There is a wide 1 mile long path with a viewing platform over the canyon at the halfway point and a stretch of boardwalk just before the viewing platform for the falls. We were the only vehicle parked when we started the walk but we passed a lot of people near the end as we were going back and there were many vehicles in the parking lot. It was a lovely walk to pretty but uninspiring falls.
Next we headed to Hatcher Pass but ran into road construction and a closed bridge. We decided to just return to Palmer and a Friday farmers’ market. On the way we stopped at a viewpoint to take pictures of the Matanuska River and stopped at the Musk Ox farm but only Margo really wanted to take a tour so we carried on to Palmer.
There were a lot of vendor tents set up for the 10th anniversary of the farmers’ market and a trio of women provided music. We all had something to eat for lunch and wandered around. We discovered that an unusual colonization effort during the depression brought 203 families from Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin to settle in Palmer. A lot of items around town – museum, plaques, signs – provide a lot of information about this event. Pat & I enjoyed walking through a large garden by the museum and taking pictures of flowers.
After a brief stop at the park, we went with Rick & Pat to get fuel, booze and a few groceries at the nearby WalMart. Then we both did laundry before happy hour. Margo did laundry when we were shopping so they went for groceries and joined us – of course – for happy hour.
The clouds have cleared and we are getting to see the tops of mountains around us.
We are leaving here tomorrow and are not sure if we will get wifi for a few days so I will post the blog tonight.