It would have been hard leaving Alaska with the incredible eighty degree day and bluer than blue skies yesterday.  This morning was much more fitting of most of the weather we have had and of the thought of leaving Alaska.  What makes it easier is thinking that the first frost up here is less than a month away, and when it gets dark in Chicago at five o’clock in the middle of winter Alaska will have sunlight from about ten to three.  I have a hard enough time with the limited sun in Chicago.  I frequently request to move near the equator mid winter and Scott requests Alaska.  If the lack of sunlight and the negative forty degree days haven’t deterred  him from living here full time then the average cost to heat your home has.  Obviously it depends on where you live, but in Fairbanks they are currently fighting to get natural gas to heat their homes.  They are using heating oil right now, and it is pricey.  One gentleman we spoke to said he spends about $4,000 to heat his very modest home each year.  We decided Alaska is best enjoyed for us as snow birds.  That is of course if we had endless resources to constantly travel.  We can all dream…

The roller coaster of the Alaska Highway reminds me that the same permafrost and frost heaves that cause the road to look like a washboard also cause the trees to be shorter.

This is where we stopped to eat lunch.  It warns us not tent camp here between July and August due to the high amount of soap berries that are a bears delight.  They are called soap berries because of what it makes the bears’ scat look like.

We haven’t had many campfires on this trip and Brooke was ecstatic not only to have a fire, but to also have hotdogs and s’mores over the fire.  In the Yukon they have free firewood in their provincial campgrounds.  While getting firewood I ran into the campground hosts from our campground in Denali at Teklaneka.  They are also on their way home with a stop in Kenosha for a family reunion.  We had fun chatting with them about their experience in Denali.

Scott was roasting some perfectly toasted marshmallows.  This is Brooke’s “Oh my!  They are that good!” face.  I was worried about her eating s’mores right before bed, but she nibbled on this one s’more for at least a half hour and then decided she was too sticky to go any further.

We decided to try to walk off some of our sugar and went down to the playground and lake.  We had stayed at this campground on our way up, but I didn’t get to enjoy it (I was getting Cody to sleep) like I did this time.  It was so incredibly peaceful out on the end of the pier.  I could have stayed out there all night.

Scott and Brooke were having fun rocking the pier.

Brooke is very careful about how many kisses she gives out a day, but Scott negotiated a kiss for a horsey ride back to camp.

You know you have been enjoying the Alaska midnight sun too long when your three year old asks, “Mama, why is it dark?” when you go to bed.  Not only did we lose a time zone leaving Alaska, but we are also traveling further south and it is getting later in the summer, so we had to break out our headlamps for the first time in a long time.