Wrangell-St Elias / Kennecott - McCarthy 4th of July (07-04-2023)

 

Happy 4th of July!

Our plan is to catch the 9:00am shuttle to McCarthy and spend the day taking in all the holiday festivities.

First, breakfast.  The Lodge has a nice breakfast buffet; eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, fruit and pastries.  I particularly enjoy the cinnamon rolls.  We have time before the shuttle, so have a last cup of coffee outside on the porch.

The shuttle gets us to McCarthy by 9:30. Festivities start at noon.  We use the time to explore the town.  Main street is 2, maybe 3 blocks long, depending on how you define a block.  It is a dirt road with potholes that still have water from yesterday's rain.  The shuttle lets us off at the end of town near the river. 

There is a short path to the river so we take it to check the view.  We notice a birdhouse on a tree by the riverbank.  A sign on the house states it is for a tree swallow or a violet-green swallow.  I've seen tree swallows at Potter Marsh. Birders I've met at Potter Marsh tell me that the violet-green swallows are seen there, too; however not yet by me.  I am excited that it looks like I will get to see them here.   And I do!  I take my gaze from the house to the sky and there are several of them darting about.  BB and I stay long enough to see them come and go from the house.

We see pretty flowers and parade preparations as we wander up main street.

The McCarthy-Kennicott Historical Museum is open. It is an interesting local museum with historical artifacts and photos from the early days of Kennecott and McCarthy.

This sign in the Museum gives a preview of today's activities.

We find one shop open; an art shop.  Lots of pretty artwork, but not in my budget right now.  I did like this quilt....it has moose!

We come to The Potato, a restaurant at the other end of Main Street.  We stop in to check out the menu, get a drink and use the INDOOR restroom.

As this sign implies, dogs are everywhere!  This is not a problem for me.  

Dogs even allowed in The Potato!

We head back down Main Street and find a great spot to view the parade.  It is on a bench directly across from the announcers.  You will recognize the announcer in the white cap as Neil Darish if you watched the reality show Edge of Alaska and/or know any McCarthy history.

We share the bench with a couple traveling through Alaska in their RV.  I am impressed that they drove the RV down the McCarthy Road!  We trade stories on where we've been and what we've done.  BB and I asked them if they drove the Top of the World Highway. We are interested in driving it but wonder about the condition of the road. This couple drove it in their RV and said it is a better road than the McCarthy Road.  Top of the World Highway here we come!

I am sitting on the bench watching the crowd and I see Lois, one of the Pilates instructors from the Y.  I catch up with her to say hello.  We don't talk long; I don't want to lose my spot on the bench.

A woman scoots in next to me on the bench.  She apologizes for crowding me by saying her daughter is singing the national anthem at noon and she wants to take pictures.  She is a nervous mom.  BB and I say encouraging things.  Her daughter does a great job signing the anthem.

The anthem is sung followed by announcements and a list of the day's festivities:

Parade

Paper Airplane Toss

Best Dog Trick on Demand

Potato Sack Race

Pie Eating Contest

Nail Pounding

Three-Legged Race

Egg Toss

Tug of War

All activities are open to anyone who wants to participate except for the paper airplane toss which is limited to children. There is no cost to participate.  Most activities have 3 or more heats in order to handle the number of participants.  The crowd is friendly and does it best to encourage (sometimes egg on!) the participants.

The parade goes down the street twice.  Announcer Neil explains the tradition.  Apparently in earlier days when McCarthy had a parade everyone was involved in the parade.  No one was left to watch.  One year a spectator shows up.  The parade participants are so excited to have an audience that they go around twice. 

PARADE

PAPER AIRPLANE TOSS

BEST DOG TRICK ON DEMAND  

(the on demand requirement made this one hard!)

POTATO SACK RACE

PIE EATING CONTEST

(the judges made it more interesting by having contestants jump on one foot and twirl around)

NAIL POUNDING

(there was a heat for children under 5!)

THREE-LEGGED RACE

EGG TOSS

(the dogs enjoyed cleaning up the broken eggs)

TUG OF WAR

Festivities were over mid-afternoon.  We head to The Potato for a late lunch and INDOOR potty break.

Time to head back to the Lodge.  We catch a 4:00pm shuttle which gets us there with time to look through the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark visitor center. I get another stamp for my passport.

We relax with drinks on the Lodge porch and then call it a day. 

It was a fun filled day!

Sal