Alaska: Day 9--Dinner in Denali

Thursday, August 14th we headed north (about 240ish miles from Anchorage) on the Parks Highway to Denali. "Denali" is an Athabaskan Indian word which means "The High or Great One" and refers to Mt. McKinley the highest peak (at 20, 320 feet) in North America. This park was established in 1917 with 2 million acres and back then was called Mt. McKinley National Park. In 1980 it was renamed Denali National Park and Preserve and expanded to over 6 million acres. Just to give a comparison, that's about the same size as the state of New Hampshire. It would take a person 16 years to hike the entire park if they covered 1,000 acres every day. Whoa! That simply boggles my mind.

Around lunchtime we stopped along the Big Susitna River for a rest stop and sandwiches.

It rained on us significantly on our way up to the park. We knew the chances of getting rained on at any point in our trip to Alaska was high. It has rained all summer long. But what a bummer when we were going to be tent camping and on a bus tour into the park the next day. At one of our earlier stops, in the van with our kids, Jared offered a heartfelt prayer asking Heavenly Father that the weather would hold--mainly so his parents would have an enjoyable trip to Denali--their once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the park. We had the faith that if this was the Father's will, it would come to pass. There wasn't anything else we could do but go ahead with our plans and make the best of whatever came our way. And even if it did rain, we knew it wasn't because we lacked the faith.

We arrived in the Denali area around 5pm to find it was sunny and dry. The first thing we needed to do was check in at Riley Creek near the park entrance to get our campground assignments. We were hoping to set up camp before our dinner theater reservations at 5:30. Unfortunately, we got stuck in some construction traffic along the way and with a few additional stops, it took us longer to get up there than we had anticipated.

Jared and my dad went into the check post and the rest of us sat and waited while time ticked loudly away. There's nothing I hate more than being LATE for something. After about 10 minutes, my mom went to find out what was taking so long. Apparently, when it was Jared's turn to speak to a ranger, it was time for a shift change. Of course. So they had to wait for that to take place. Then someone goofed and gave us 2 campsites where you actually have to HIKE into the park to get to them. Not good. That clearly wouldn't work for us not to mention it isn't what we reserved. I know this was a Park Service mistake because Jared specifically told them when he made the reservation months ago that we would have a camper/truck and van to park in those spots. Regardless, the ranger told my dad and Jared they'd be lucky to make the 5:30 dinner because it would take some time to cancel the wrong reservation and find campsites to rebook us. Fabulous.

With this new information, Mom and I decided to divide and conquer. She and I (with the kids) would go get our dinner tickets and wait in line, so we'd at least have more than half our party there. The rest of the group would just have to meet us at dinner, hopefully not too horribly late.

When I got our tickets at 5:15, I was somewhat relieved to discover the doors don't even open til 5:30. I've been to this dinner theater before, but it's been over a decade. I was thinking it was first come, first served for seating and that you wanted to get in line early, but I noticed on the tickets that we were given table assignments, so we didn't have to rush for that either. My mom and I both breathed a couple sighs of relief as we unloaded the kids to wait for the shuttle.

Amazingly, the guys and Karole pulled up right as we were getting out of the van and we all made it to the dinner entrance together. Talk about a miracle. Jared informed us the Park Service was actually able to get us two adjoining campsites and fixed our reservation. Double "phew". We literally made it to dinner by the hair on our chinny, chin, chins and would no longer have to hike to bed.

If you are ever in the Denali National Park area (even if you're doing backcountry hiking and camping), I highly recommend, hands down, that you make reservations for the Cabin Nite Dinner Theater. I won't lie to you, it's expensive...VERY expensive (like $60 per adult and $30 per child--yeah, I know, I had to choke down the cost of this over the course of a couple of weeks), but it was soooooooooo worth it. I had been to this with my mom before I got married and it was fun then, but it was a blast with the kids.

It's a very close and personal interactive show--you're eating dinner in Fanny Quigley's 1930s Roadhouse and learn about what brought people to the park/Alaska and what it was like back then. 95% of the people attending these shows are people with either gray hair or no hair...senior citizens touring the park. So our kids got a LOT of attention! And they LOVED every minute of it. They were totally engrossed. Oh, and the food was incredible...all-you-can-eat sweet glazed salmon, seasoned red potatoes, corn on the cob, baked beans, biscuits, BBQ pork ribs, salad, and blueberry cobbler. De-lish.

We were assigned to table F. If I recall, there are tables up to Q and each table seats 12 people. We were escorted to the very front right table by the piano player and stage left. We couldn't believe our luck! Cooper sat on the end of the table closest to the stage, so he got a front row seat. Jake was right next to him, facing towards the stage.

Each actor was the server of a table (and several more) and while we ate, they took turns singing songs to the crowd, acknowledging birthdays and anniversaries and having us sing songs with them. Karcyn loved the singing and music. It totally held her attention.

There were two girls in the performance that started to show a real preference for our boys. We were right up front, so I'm sure, being that this was an interactive show, that had a lot to do with it, too. One girl was named "Amber", in a red dress, with curly hair. She waved to Cooper a couple times and he just sat there, like a lump on a log. I guess he wasn't sure what to do. We told him it was okay to wave back her.

Then the girl in the yellow flowery dress, named "Mary" came over to our table and serenaded Cooper first, then Jake. This was Cooper's response to the attention:

And this was Jake's:

The lady working the bar in the back was named "Kitty". She introduced herself and showed a playful preference for the men in the Roadhouse. Her character was very flirtatious. She said for $1 she'd kiss any gentleman on the cheek. You were supposed to dangle the dollar bill over the head of the man and call "Here, Kitty, Kitty" and she'd come.

Jared suggested we do that to Jake. Sounded like fun to me. I don't know where he got the dollar from, my parents or his, but when we were done eating, I dangled the dollar over poor unsuspecting Jake. He even helped us call "Here, Kitty, Kitty" having no idea what we were calling her for!

Kitty came over to Jake, put on a fresh coat of lipstick and then laid a big 'ol kiss on his cheek.


And then he was left all in a daze! What a good sport!

During the show, Amber (whom you haven't seen yet who is also in a red dress) would every once in a while throw Cooper a wink and a smile or a little wave. She and Mary wanted to give him a little kiss on the cheek. But he wouldn't do it. At one point, Amber actually came down, as part of the show, and sat with Cooper on his bench. Then during her dance with another guy, they all stopped, including the piano. She looked at Cooper and yelled from middle stage, "Hey Cooper, stop winking at me!" I thought that was so cute that she'd involve him in her act.

After the show, Amber came down and tried to convince him to give her a kiss. And he said: "No touchy!" as he ducked away from her--which is kind of ironic because he's kissed a girl in his primary class several times once before. Maybe he prefers women his own age.

Coop finally agreed to give Mary a small peck. She felt so privileged.

As we were getting up from our table, Amber came over and told us, somewhat impressed, "Cooper was totally winking at me during the entire show." We were stunned. I didn't know he knew how to wink. So we asked Coop, "Do you know how to wink?"

Apparently he does. Future lady killer at work.

We asked Amber and Mary if we could get a picture of them with the kids. They said they'd love to and I didn't catch it, but Amber stole her kiss from Cooper when we were getting them in place.

As we were walking out of the cabin, the young girl who was the pianist named R.J. stopped my mom. She asked if we were LDS. Mom said yes. R.J. told her that when she saw us walk into the cabin she said to herself, "I bet they're LDS." Then she saw Cooper's BYU sweatshirt and that cinched it for her. She's also a member and I thought that was pretty cool.

This was, without a doubt, not only worth every penny, but one of the major highlights of our trip. It will be a dinner that's hard to forget!

And to our great joy and relief, we left Cabin Nite and were greeted by the sun. The weather remained dry so at least we wouldn't be setting up our tents in the rain.