The 49th State

For the past couple of weeks I’ve either been traveling to, from, or within Alaska, the 49th state added to the United States in 1959.

I arrived in Alaska physically tired and a bit out of sorts from the long trip through four time zones. It was raining in Anchorage as I found my way to a couple of quilt shops and enjoyed a delicious dinner in downtown Anchorage before I checked into my hotel for the night.

Next day, I transitioned to Palmer, Alaska, only a little bit north and east of Anchorage.

I couldn’t escape the feeling that I had landed in an episode of the tv show ‘Northern Exposure.’ Palmer just has that small town Alaska ‘jive.’


Along the way, a short detour to Sylvia’s Quilt Depot in Wasilla, and The Quilt Cache in Eagle River. I lost count of how many quilt shops I visited during the trip - Several.

Time for some sewing with the Valley Quilters Guild.

Our first project was Stained Glass from ScrapTherapy, Scraps Plus One! . . .



Our second workshop is from ScrapTherapy, The Versatile Nine Patch, Elsa’s Prayer Quilt. Lots of twists, turns, and interesting techniques in both these projects. These lovely ladies seemed to have a great day creating.


Following the workshops and a lovely dinner with the group. I walked back to my hotel. While in Palmer, I learned that this part of the state is well-known for farming - who knew? (I didn’t) And they are especially known for producing some pretty impressively sized cabbages! Near the town hall, there is a vegetable and flower garden. Any one can wander in, but the produce is preserved for the local senior center. Some red cabbages coming along . . .

The pincushion flower goes nicely with a sewing theme. And such pretty color!


With a day or two before transitioning back to Anchorage, I asked the quilters in Palmer for some sight-seeing recommendations. Their response: Talkeetna, about an hour drive north of Palmer, where you can take a short sight-seeing flight around Denali.

Okay. Off I go. Another ‘Northern Exposure’ throw-back town.


Ooh, there’s a quilt shop here, too!

I tried very hard to ignore the fact that it was raining fairly steadily. Good soup weather. No surprise that I had a lot of seafood while I was in Alaska, and it was all delicious. This seafood chowder was at the Wildflower Cafe in Talkeetna.

Denali. Formerly known as Mount McKinley is an impressive 20,000 feet. People come to Alaska from all over the world to climb it. It takes three weeks to complete the climb. The flight around the mountain that was recommended seemed like a wonderful substitute for a flat-lander like me.

However, the weather was not in my favor.

No flight for me, but no worries. I was told the view of Denali from the back deck of the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge is amazing. So, I found the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, and the back deck. And the legend that shows exactly where to look to see the great mountain.

Um. Yeah. It’s there, but it’s behind the rain clouds.


Back to Anchorage, and of course the sun is shining by the end of the next day.

The Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters enjoyed a trunk show (I hope!), and their workshop was the Mix N Match Mug Mats from ScrapTherapy, The Versatile Nine Patch. Fun!



A couple future quilt advisors - two shih tsu puppies, brother and sister - joined the workshop. 

Moving again. This time to the Kenai (pronounced KEE-nye - I was only corrected once!) Peninsula. Had to stop along the Seward Highway to take a panoramic photo. Yes, more rain, but, even so the view was spectacular! The pictures just don’t do it justice.


Ultimately, I was headed to Soldotna, but took a detour to Seward on the coast. My goal: to see puffins. It was recommended at a quick stop at the Seward Chamber of Commerce to take a 6-hour cruise-tour through Resurrection Bay to some of the out-lying islands.


I wish I had a better camera for this cruise! I only had my cell phone, which takes good pictures but many of the critters were too far away to get a good image. And I was very nervous about dropping my phone overboard! (If there is something to worry about, I’ll worry about it!) I did have my binoculars, though! And my face was glued to them! On the cruise, I saw: sea otters (absolutely adorable!), sea lions, kittiwakes, a peregrine falcon, a couple humpback whales, harbor seals, and yes, I saw lots and lots of puffins! Goal achieved!

The tour boat also approached Aialik Glacier. We idled there, very close to the glacier for about 30 minutes or so, and listened while the glacier calved a few times. The whole experience really adds perspective and makes you feel so insignificant in this vast world! To provide an idea of scale. the boat I was on held a few hundred passengers. Not small. A similar-sized boat stayed at the glacier as we were leaving. This picture is from the back of the boat I was on. The little tiny red circle is around that other boat.

This is a huge mural on the side of the hotel from which the tour boat launched. The two puffins (a tufted puffin and a horned puffin) give you an idea of those we saw on the water. They sorta look like a cross between penguins and ducks. They are also known as sea parrots, perhaps because of their brightly colored beaks. I can finally mark them off my life list!

As the boat was coming back into the dock. This male bald eagle (identified to be male with 50% accuracy) seemed to welcome us back to dry land.


Thankfully, for most of the time I was on the boat, the rains held off, although it was cloudy. I made my way on to Soldotna where I would spend the next few days. With one more day off and a mind to find some souvenir sweatshirts for Dave and me, I headed south to Homer.

After yet another halibut lunch (I was in Homer, after all) I asked my waitress if she had any suggestions where I might find a sweatshirt. Without hesitation she recommended the Salty Dawg Saloon on the spit (a 4-mile long narrow stretch of gravely land that stretches into Kachemak Bay)


A peek inside and you are overwhelmed by thousands of dollar bills tacked to nearly every inch of wall and ceiling space. The tale is that some time ago a man came into the bar, ordered himself a drink and told the bartender that his friend would be by later. He tacked a dollar to the wall so the friend could buy a drink with the tacked dollar, from then on tacking a dollar bill on the interior of the saloon became a ‘thing.’ Could this concept be transferred to quilt shops?

In Alaska, there are yellow moose-crossing warning signs everywhere you drive. They look just like the deer crossing signs I’m used to, but they have a moose instead of a deer. I’d done a fair amount of traveling to this point, and didn’t see a single moose. . . until the drive back to Soldotna from Homer (in the rain of course!) There she was on the side of the road. I pulled over to watch her cross. A few minutes later her calf crossed the road as well. . . .

Further along that same stretch of road, I saw a second momma moose and two calves. They really do catch your breath with their size!

That evening I arrived back in Soldotna for another two workshops and a trunk show at the Kenai Pennisula Quilters Guild. Our workshop projects were Elsa's Prayer Quilt (below) and the Sneaky Peek Project Pouch, both from ScrapTherapy, The Versatile Nine Patch.

Everyone I met at the guilds in Alaska were such fun to be with. (Dani (in the middle) grinned like that pretty much all the time!) I truly feel that I have gained many more long-distance friends!

This short photo-journal of my travels does not even come close to portraying the vast beauty of this amazing state. I was a solo traveler for the duration of the trip, and as the driver and photographer, I was unable to capture many of the most beautiful vistas of the journey. Even if I had taken more pictures of the scenery, I’m not sure you can really adequately capture the feeling you get from the huge mountains, the quaint towns, the deep-down feeling of awe you experience when you see a humpback whale feeding, the adorable cuteness of a sea otter, or a ‘circus’ of puffins bobbing in the water. You have to experience these things for yourself.

A few years ago, my first encounter with Alaska was via a cruise to the inner passage—Juneau and Skagway, specifically. At that time, I heard several people say that the best way to see Alaska was from the ocean. And at the time, that made sense.

However, now that I’ve spent time traveling and visiting only a small portion of this huge but lovely state, I truly feel that the best way to experience Alaska is to get out and walk around in it, talk to its people, and experience its treasures.

Back to more stitchy subject matter text time. In the meantime. . .

Happy Stitching!

Joan