Calling All Kids! Alaska On the Go Needs YOU!

I'm so almost there. Just a few more places, a few more tweaks, a few more long nights, and this thing is on its way to Editor.

In an effort to make this not only an informative exploration of Alaska with kids, but a fun read, I've decided to add one more cool feature - voices from kids, themselves.

Called "KidSpeak," and similar to to the ParentPoints concept provided by willing grownups, KidSpeak will be real-life, honest, and hopefully endearing accounts by kids about their favorite Alaska stuff. Any stuff is acceptable; activities, restaurants, clothes, airplanes, fishing.....my only requirement is that it comes from their precious little hearts and mouths. There is NO age limit; any child who can utter a sound is welcome to contribute (although mom or dad may have to translate for me).

Specifically, I need KidSpeak about the following subjects: 

Favorite activities when it's summer, winter, and in between

Fishing quotes

Wild animal quotes (favorite/non favorite)

Weather

Driving on road trips (strategies/tips from big kids would be great, too)

Favorite restaurants (anywhere in AK)

Cruising (day cruising, and multi-day cruises)

Interested? Send me your kids' quotables, their first names and ages, to: togoak@gmail.com. 
Deadline to contribute is Friday, September 28.

Danke!

EK

Perma-Wrinkles and My Support Staff

Nobody told me writing a huge book would translate into permenant wrinkles upon my forehead and around my eyes. In fact, nobody told me that when I write, I frown and squint and purse my lips as if I were sucking on a straw filled with sour lemonade. It would still be a mystery to me, and quite an acceptable one, in my thinking,  had my husband not taken a sneaky photo while I wasn't looking last weekend.

This past month has been full of words, and with an end of the draft manuscript of Alaska On the Go: Exploring the 49th State With Children in sight (I still can't believe I actually wrote such a volume of information about Alaska), I'm pounding the keys in an effort to ship this book to the prospective publisher by December 1.

Anyway, back to the perma-wrinkles. Our family took a few extra days off over the Labor Day weekend holiday to explore the way-back wilds of McCarthy and Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark, a long, long way from Anchorage. After eight hours of driving along first the Glenn, then the Richardson, then the ancient Edgerton highway(s), we arrived at a surreal example of how Alaska probably looked when miners and saloon owners held claim to much of the settled landscape. It was fabulous. We hiked, we mountain biked, we ate a lot, then we slept. Surprisingly in the midst of all this recreation and rest I found time to work, especially one rainy, cold day when I kicked my family out the door and spent a few hours with laptop, coffee mug, and an exceptionally personal view from the living room of Kennicott Glacier Lodge.

I was so involved in my feverish desire to finish "just this section" that I failed to notice my husband lurking near the doorway, bike helmet on head and smartphone in hand, repeatedly hitting buttons.

"Did you know you're cute when you're working?" he casually asked, flipping through photos he'd taken, like a talent agent perusing a portfolio. A muffled giggle from behind the door signaled an appearance by our son, 7, who is just beginning to think it weird that his mom and dad actually say things like that to each other. Ick. And Hardly.

Don't even ask to look.