Fourth of July

Summer of 2008 in Anchorage has been the coldest summer on record. But we got lucky for the Fourth and had one of the nicest days of the year; the temperature cracked 70 degrees for the first time in ’08.

Our house was incredibly full and boisterous that weekend due to all of our visitors. First, my friends Adam and Crystal were up from SF for a quick weekend. They wisely elected to skip the full house and get a hotel. Second, my friends Kelly, Eric, Jenica and Glen were also up visiting and they crashed with us. Finally, Callie’s brother and his girlfriend were also visiting. Everyone arrived the night of the 3rd.

The Fourth started with a huge family-style breakfast. Adam made a run for more food and I cooked up scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, and as much coffee as people could handle. Callie and Jeff took turns spelling me on the cooking as we all crowded around our table, which groaned under the weight of all the food. (Lila had left late the night before to go clam digging on the Kenai Peninsula.) We also had to appropriate every chair in the house and a few of us ended up sitting on side tables that got dragged over to act as benches. It was probably the best breakfast we’d had there all year.

After the eats, Adam and Crystal took off for Seward. They were going to check out the town and then go to Homer and bear watching out in Katmai National Park.

The rest of us headed out for some quick activities before our afternoon BBQ. Kelly, Eric, Jenica, Glen and I went for a quick hike out in Campbell Park. The park takes up a sizeable part of central and eastern Anchorage and connects with Chugach State Park. Because Campbell Creek runs through it with a rather sizeable salmon population, the park is home to a number of Grizzlies. We made sure we carried our bear spray and made lots of noise.

It was actually hot as we hiked and a bit humid. Not conditions that I was used to in Alaska. We finished our hike without bear-related incident and headed back to the house to start party preparations.

I began setting up, getting the keg on ice and getting snacks out while the rest of the gang made last-minute runs for more party supplies and grabbed food for their planned trip to Denali National Park. Callie and her brother got back and soon the place was all set.

The BBQ ended up being quite a success. I manned the grill and cooked up burgers, salmon burgers (the ones from Costco were pretty tasty), veggie burgers, and hotdogs. Judge Wolverton showed up on his mountain bike and introduced us to the “AK Surf and Turf” which was a burger made of one beef patty and one salmon patty. Very tasty.

It was nice to really be able to use our house’s backyard. It was a perfect size for a large BBQ and people made the most of the nice weather. A good number of our friends and friends of friends showed up, Kelly brought her parents and people from the neighborhood stopped by our place.

As the party began to wind down, we moved the party to Mike Baylous’s place down near Ship Creek. The group of us that got there first organized an impromptu football game using a water bottle. As others arrived we got the bonfire started. Rob and Katy showed up with a table pedestal that they found in the “free wood pile” down near the creek. It wasn’t until late that night that everyone decided to head home.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/FourthOfJuly#