Alaska- I love living here (photos)

a sign at the fair

Saturday, our family went out to the Forest Fair in Girdwood. Girdwood is a tiny resort town with a strong art community that's about 36 miles away from Anchorage. The drive is incredible with the inlet on one side, and mountains on the other for most of it. Then when you get there, you're in a valley between mountains.
Forest Fair takes place in the woods of course, a trail in a wooded area lined with local artists, food and with 2 stages. It's very crowded with people dressed in tie dye, handmade colorful skirts, kilts and lots of embroidered details. I'm afraid I didn't get photos in the fair because well.. I was busy! Enjoying food, art and music.

Kids play area right outside the fair grounds.

The fair has few rules to remember.

We wandered the paths, looking at things and sharing snacks so we all got a taste of the various foods. The family favorite was Talkeetna Spinach Bread. A nice crusty bread spread with a garlic-y spinach spread and cheese and roasted until hot and melty.

 Rogues and Wenches were on the main stage, much to the delight of William. Most of the performances we catch by them are happenstance. They are at a fair or show we go to. I think it's time to start paying attention to where they play. Both Turnip Girl and William enjoy them a lot.

William and the Turnip looked carefully for something to bring home. William was fascinated by an artist who made things out of scraps of hardware, pipes and other salvaged materials. He picked a little dog statue that was made with pipe, a faucet and other pieces and parts.

The Turnip checked out every tie dye booth in the place. She loves tie dye, hers, other peoples, tie dye just makes her happy. She found a thermal long sleeved shirt in various shades of blue, standard spiral design that she loved.

I got a cup from Silverbear Sundries that you know will wind up being a prop in earring photos later this year. I also got a couple bars of soap from her. She had a FB special, if you mentioned you saw her announcement she would be at the fair, she gave you a lip balm. Since my family all loves her lip balm, we mentioned.

Remember that part of the road that I said looked like the path to fairyland when I was a kid? Click on these photos for larger views.

On the way back we stopped at Bird Point, which is a viewing area on the highway. It's one of the places you can view whales if you're there at the right time. There were sparrows darting around, and we spotted this nesting pair of ravens. This is taken at max zoom, they were pretty far away. I used Michael as my tripod.

Lichen! I asked a friend who really enjoys some of the detail in the macro shots I take if she liked lichen. She said "Lich'en? I love'en!"

This photo hasn't been resized or cropped. So if you click, it's huge. I hope you like it. It really is that beautiful.