Mountain "peeks", a super-sized igloo & Berry Pickin'

Our Florida to Alaska trip's final leg, (as we passed Denali Park) did not give us very clear skies, but the clouds broke, allowing some dashes of sun, and some of the beauty seen within a few miles of the interpretive center was revealed to us.

 We decided that we'd save the deeper 4-hour bus tour (required to see the interior of the park) for clearer weather, (if we are lucky later this fall). But for now, here are some mountain shots originating near Denali, and a few more, as we worked our way southwards toward Anchorage.

Reddish flora is called Fireweed... very common in Alaskan photographs.

As you'll see below, even Alaska is not without oddities from the 1970s. Somebody, at one time, invested in their dream of creating a super-sized Igloo-shaped retail operation. Who knows what else was included, and I'm hoping that, in respect to Native Americans, employees didn't have to walk around in mukluks and fur hoods back then !

 We're not sure if any person or anything is going on in this weird structure today. If any of you have an interest in digging up the rest of the story... that would be, uh, groovy!

Abandoned? Nobody really even wanted to get their car near it this day. Will there be some kind of future resurrection?


It's an over-sized curiosity for sure, sticking out like a sore thumb on a road that cuts through uncommercialized pristine wilderness...

BACK TO REALITY:
When we made it to brother Mark's home, we worked on settling in for awhile. Here is brother Mark and sister Layli, at Thunderbird Falls, a little north of Anchorage.

Once we had a little weekend time, Layli and I headed up towards Flattop Peak, just 20 minutes east of Anchorage, to hike and berry-pick. Even though Layli is shown doing all the picking below, I tried to produce at least about 1/3 of her production.

The berries? Moss berries. Others call them Crow Berries. They are the dark blue with a subtle sweet taste that today, a step or two sweeter than the blueberries which were more on the tart side this season.

We brought many cups worth home, "heavily" filling one Target shopping bag, and today, Layli has fully converted them to 8 Moss Berry jelly jars.

 She's used to making it all: raspberry jam, and a new concoction, raspbarb (raspberry-rhubarb); however, it was not a first time for her to make the Moss Berry flavor, either. I've tasted the 2011 batch, and it tastes perfect, and unique. Even though the raspberries, rubarb and mossberries are all "Free.99" around here', Layli figures she has still has about $1.99 per jar in the other materials, including  container costs... and a lotta labor of love expended in Mark's kitchen.

Soooo.... while all that berry-picking was accomplished, we had great husband and wife hiking conversations, and I was able to take some nice photos of the mountains above our "berry fields forever".

 The sloping fields above are where the Moss Berries were picked.

 Temperature was around 65°  this day. We spotted rabbits mostly; no moose sightings today, though rutting season was approaching. (We've seen two moose wandering through Mark's neighborhood already.)

Turning to the east, here was our view westward toward Anchorage, third weekend of August, 2011...

So... the blog will grow, if at a slower rate, because we haven't captured all the beauty down the Seward Highway and the Kenai Penninsula yet.

Catchya then????

B&L