Alaskan Adventure 2010, Part 2

Here are a couple more pictures of Denali:

Our day in the park was so beautiful!

After spending a day and a night in Denali National Park we traveled to Anchorage, and from Anchorage to Whittier, where we embarked on an afternoon cruise in Prince William Sound to see some glaciers:

This is Surprise Glacier, which we saw calve! (Calving means it loses a chunk of ice into the water.)

While in Anchorage, we also hiked up to Thunderbird Falls. So pretty!

We had a great time on the trip, spending time with family and seeing new sights. Thanks to Sheri for hosting all of us and planning the trip!

Bob and Emily (Mike's brother and sister-in-law) traveled with us to Alaska, and they've just posted an 8-part series on the trip on their blog. Bob took some amazing pictures that you can see on their blog: http://bibbidibobilyboo.blogspot.com/

Alaskan Adventure 2010, Part 1

The parts of Alaska that we saw last week were so beautiful. There was rainforest, taiga, tundra, and boreal forest. There were moose, sea otters, seals, and all kinds of birds. We had a fantastic time with half of Mike's family (Sheri, Nick, Bob & Emily) and we missed the other half (Garth, Rachel & Jacob). It was light for 21 hours of the day! We arrived at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 3rd and were totally disoriented by the weird twilight (it looked like maybe 4 or 5 in the afternoon).

Here are some favorite pictures, from our various stops along the way:

Mike loving his kettle corn at the Fairbanks farmer's market
At the Alaska Pipeline near Fairbanks
Downtown Fairbanks (check out those hanging baskets!)
Some of the Terrys at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks (hanging baskets again)
Mike with Santa at North Pole, AK
Mike riding a salmon at the Salmon Bake (yum!)
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Library
Sheri's dogs, Zeus & Ziggy, rode around with us a little in the Yukon
We took a Riverboat Discovery Tour on the Chena River. Beautiful!
We saw this racing dog team while on the river. They're Iditarod champions!
Our riverboat tour stopped in a (replica of an) Athabascan Village. Here's one of the cabins. The sod on top works great as insulation.
This old Polaris replaced a dog sled team. But, some of the dog sledders told us that dogs are much better because they don't break down or run out of fuel.
After spending a few days in Fairbanks, we went to Denali National Park. Mt. McKinley, aka Denali, aka "the mountain" was visible, but I didn't get a great picture of it (see above). At 20,320 feet it's the highest peak in North America!
Fireweed in Denali.

More on Denali, Anchorage, and glaciers in the next post! Coming soon . . .

For even more photos, see our Alaska 2010 set on Flickr.

Soup of the Day

This is Mike, making my debut as an official blogger on Adventures in the Midwest. I know you've all become great fans of Melissa's blogging style, so I hope I don't disappoint you, our faithful readers, this week. If you're interested in new and interesting food, I think you'll like what you're about to read.

Melissa and I love to try new recipes, and the soup recipe we attempted a few days ago turned out so well, we knew we needed to share the goodness. When I first tasted this soup, I immediately thought about my parents and brother, who are currently freezing their @*$es off in Alaska. Mom, Dad, Nick, and other culinary adventurers out there, I hope you like the "Easy Mulligatawny Soup" from our Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped apples (2 small)
1 cup chopped carrots (2 medium)
1 7 1/2-ounce can tomatoes, cut up (we used a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes)
1/2 cup chopped celery (1 stalk)
1/3 cup long grain rice (we'll probably use twice this amount of rice next time)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup raisins
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley (dried works too)
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground mace or ground nutmeg (we used nutmeg)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey

Instructions:
In a large saucepan combine chicken broth, apples, carrots, undrained tomatoes, celery, uncooked rice, onion, raisins, parsley, curry powder, lemon juice, pepper, mace or nutmeg, and 1 cup water. Bring to boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in chicken or turkey; heat through. The recipe says it makes about 4 main-dish servings, but we found that it made closer to 6, probably because we added the extra tomatoes and a little bit more of a few other ingredients than what the recipe calls for.

If you like vegetable soup, apple cider, and chicken curry, you're bound to enjoy this invigorating combination. It's great for a cold autumn or winter day.

Bon appetit!