Month: August 2017

Hi everyone!  I can’t tell you how thankful we are that Samantha and her friends, Josh and Ryan were able to come visit us.  Coming to Alaska takes a good amount of effort and time, and we are so thankful for our visitors.  I miss Samantha so much, I have never been away from her for this long, and knowing I am so far away from her in time and miles is a little frightening sometimes too.  So having her and her friends here for a week was truly wonderful.

And then there’s the weather…..they say this is one of the wettest and coolest summers in recent memory around here.  It has pretty much rained almost every day for weeks now.  Every once in a while we get a day or two of no rain.  We’re not looking for sunshine – even a day of overcast is nice as long as it’s dry!  You may remember from my last post that Steve and Bill set up a tent site for Samantha and her friends at the RV park in Portage.  We thought they would enjoy a space of their own and having a campfire.  Never quit raining long enough to have a campfire!  No smores!

We didn’t let the rain stop us from having fun.  I took them out for a day of kayaking in Prince William Sound, in Whittier (wet, cold, beautiful, fun!), while Steve stayed home with Gerry.  We got in a couple of really nice hikes, too.  We did about 4 miles total at Crow Pass and about 3 miles at Byron Glacier.  Samantha was determined to do everything in spite of her leg and constant pain and she did fantastic.

There’s something about being up in the mountains, away from everything but the big sky, clouds and nature that just is inspiring.  And, on our way to Crow Pass, where the trailhead is at the end of a several mile long dirt road, we saw a bear!  This is how you want to see a bear – from the car, but still up close enough to really see him.  Gerry started barking when he realized the bear was there – I was afraid the bear would charge the car, but he was too busy eating berries.

We took the kids to Seward for a day, hoping we may drive out of the rain, but alas, the rain followed us.  But they visited the Sea Life Center there, we did some tourist shopping for gifts and had lunch.  The Blueberry Festival was in Girdwood while the kids were here and we actually got several hours of no rain that day so the kids could go enjoy the festival.

The RV was cozy with all 5 of us and Gerry, but it actually is very comfortable.  Having 1 1/2 baths really helps when we have company, and the kids didn’t seem to mind the sofa bed and air mattress.  We ate lots of seafood, and everyone got to try crab legs for the first time (yes, even Samantha took a bite, with Josh’s help!)

We didn’t have the “big” camera out during Samantha’s visit, too much rain.  So I just have cell phone pictures to share with you below, plus a couple of videos.

Experiencing the mountains, glaciers and the vastness of Alaska is an experience all in itself, and I think they were pretty amazed.  Josh and Ryan, thank you for being such good friends to Samantha and for coming to visit us!

Samantha, you are beautiful and an incredibly special young lady.  We love you with all our hearts and are so glad you were here to share a little of this amazing journey with us! 🙂

Kayaking video:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkgJo7zlDmlhsO7oe

Byron Glacier hike video:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkgG2c-CapN8GEvnK

 

 

Howdy everyone!  I know I’ve been slow in providing updates, I’m sorry.  It’s been a whirlwind of visitors which is great.  We dropped my sister Laura off at the airport and literally drove around the airport to the arriving level and picked up our friend Bill.  We coordinated the departure and arrival flights to make the driving back and forth to Anchorage as efficient as possible.  Timing worked out great.

We moved back to the Portage Valley area on Laura’s last day, and we stayed there all during Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit (post on Samantha’s visit coming soon!)  We really enjoy the Portage area, it’s beautiful and there’s lots of good hiking near by, not to mention the great Alpine Bakery and the ice cream store in Girdwood I told you about before!  Girdwood is only about 12 miles from the Portage Valley RV park we stayed in.

We had rain for the first 3 days of Bill’s visit…we drove to Seward one day and found sunshine!  We hiked Mt. Marathon again that day, we really enjoyed doing that hike again, it is so beautiful there.  We then had a couple of nicer days in Portage and hiked Portage Pass again.  These two hikes are some of our favorites anywhere so far.  It was so nice to be able to share them with Bill – I think we have become a little immune to the beauty that surrounds us, until we share it with someone like Bill who is experiencing it for the first time.  It helps us remember how spectacular our surroundings are and to not take this experience for granted!

Steve and Bill found a gym in Anchorage and went to work out a couple of times.  I know Steve was glad to have his work out buddy again!  We ate tons of great seafood and the guys took advantage of the sauna at the RV park too.  It’s a really cool sauna, rustic and heated by a wood fired stove.  It smells great inside and feels fantastic after a long hike.

We rented a tent campsite right by our RV for Samantha and her friends – Bill helped Steve set up the tent which was a much longer process than expected – they said something about the instructions not being very good….but I suspect it may have been the blind leading the blind…. 🙂

Good friend, good food and good hiking….what more can we ask for?  Thanks Bill for making the time and effort to come out to visit – we loved having you!

Hi again!  Sorry for the delay in posting – we’ve been busy with a visit from my sister, Laura, and still dealing with spotty internet.  I am writing this post sitting in a parking lot in Anchorage while Steve and Bill work out at a gym.

We moved from Seward over to the other side of the Kenai Penninsula, to the Kasilof area.  Kasilof is about 1 hour north of Homer.  Homer is at the southern tip of the Kenai Penninsula, and is known for fishing – some of the popular TV shows about Alaska fishing are based on boats that go out of Homer.  We (I) thought it would be a nice place to hang out for a couple of weeks while we had some visitors in August.  I was wrong.  We were pretty unimpressed with the general area.  Not nearly as pretty as the other areas we’ve been in, very flat and coastal plains.  In Kasilof, only very distant mountains were visible – there are 2 rivers, the Kenai and the Kasilof that run through this area and are huge Salmon fishing rivers.  So lots of fishing charters around.  And in Homer, which is boardered by Cooks Inlet with mountains across the bay in Kachemak State Park (that was pretty), the town was not very attractive, at least compared to what we have seen elsewhere.

I was very, very distraught as we drove from Seward (beautiful) to Kasilof where we had a 2 week reservation at an RV park.  It got less and less pretty as we drove, and Laura was coming in 2 days!  I had been sending her all kinds of pictures of the beautiful scenery and wonderful hiking in the mountains and now we were parked in the middle of flat land and no mountains!!!  Crap!  We talked about moving, but we had booked this bear viewing trip for Wednesday, Laura’s last day in Alaska, and the tour went out of Homer, which was still an hour south of us.  If we moved anywhere, it would be even further away, and we had to report in for the tour at 6:30 am and drop Gerry off at doggy day care even earlier.  I called the bear viewing tour place and our tickets were non-refundable since it was within 30 days 🙁  So we stayed in Kasilof and made the most of it, looking forward to the bear tour, which was a boat ride out to Lake Clark National Park, which is only accessible by boat or plane, then go to bear viewing area to watch them catch salmon in the rivers, which would be fun to see.  A great day on the water and wildlife viewing – how Alaskan!  I’m going to jump to the end of this part of the story – THE BEAR VIEWING TRIP GOT CANCELLED 2 DAYS AHEAD DUE TO EXPECTED HIGH WINDS!!!  AND THEN THERE WERE NO WINDS!!! BUT STILL CANCELLED!!!! 🙁

We moved back to the Portage RV park we liked so much before on Laura’s last day, and are staying there for Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit.  Sorry Laura, we tried!!!  We did have a great visit and did lots of fun things.  And really, we are lucky and grateful to be on this journey, I am not complaining!

We took a small plane (very small, 5 seats) taxi to Seldovia, a cute small town across the bay from Homer.  We did a nice hike there and had lunch in town. The flight back and forth was absolutely beautiful and we saw 2 Orca whales on the flight back.  Gerry did great on the flight, didn’t bother him at all.  Lots of pictures in the attached link from this trip.

We took a water taxi one day to Kachemak State Park across the bay from Homer and did a great hike to Glacier Lake – beautiful glacier and lake, with huge chunks of ice that had fallen off the glacier in the lake.  Had lunch by the lake and while we were on the water taxi back across the bay, Steve helped our boat guy stop and pick up some kayaks.  We also did a couple of hikes closer to Kasilof which were pretty flat but pretty through the woods – we saw salmon in the rivers swimming up stream and trying to jump the rapids.  Amazing how they do that.

We also spent a fantastic day in Kenai Fjords National Park over by Seward.  It was a 2 hour drive each way, and we took Gerry back to the doggy day care he had been to before there, which he loved.  We spent the whole day hiking the Harding Icefields trail which was amazing.  A very challenging hike but worth it.  We also got to see mountain goats up close while on the trail.

We cooked seafood almost every night during Laura’s visit – crab legs (twice!), scallops, shrimp, salmon, halibut.  It all has been delicious and so fresh.  Much better than what we get at home.

We were on the lookout for wildlife, but didn’t manage to see any bears (tour would have taken care of this!), and only the backend of one moose in the woods.  But we did see eagles, the whales, and swans.  We did see a lot of bear scat on one of the hikes, but didn’t run into a bear which is a good thing!

Having Laura visit meant so much to me.  It has been hard being away from her, we’ve always lived in the same place.  And this is the longest I’ve gone without seeing her.  This adventure has been great and I’m so happy we are doing this, but I do miss family and friends back home so much.  So even though the location wasn’t the best, the time spent together is what counts and my heart is happy 🙂

We had dinner with Michael and July in Anchorage when we took Laura in to the airport.  Michael is Steve H’s son, and lives in the Anchorage area.  So nice to catch up with them and we’re hoping to be able to get together at least once more when we’re making the trips back and forth to the airport.

So that’s my update for now – Bill is here now (has rained since the minute he got here 2 days ago….hoping for a break in the weather soon), and Samantha, Josh and Ryan get here on the 16th.  Then Guy comes in on the 25th.  Family and friends to share this great adventure with – life is good!

Lots of pictures and a few videos in the links:

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkTOQgkfsZk539bFN

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkVPoBIx_bfJtqYbj

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkWRECBG9VvnIAYCF

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkX7YV65Yzkn_schS

 

Hello again!  We have been in Seward, Alaska for 3 days now – Seward is a waterfront town; a lot of fishing charters and tour boats go out of the port here.  There was a cruise ship in port one of the days we were here.  We’ve had a little sunshine also which is always nice.  Our first day here we saw Sea Otters – they were so cute – swimming right in front of a park area right in town.  Pictures are in the link below.  We also saw an Eagle as we pulled into the RV park.  Didn’t manage to get a picture of him, sorry!

We went on a great hike yesterday to Mt. Marathon, I have several pictures and a few videos in the attached link from the hike.  We also went kayaking today.  We took Gerry to doggy day care so we could go kayaking, he seemed to have a great time and fell asleep as soon as he got into the truck.

We really enjoyed the hike on Mt. Marathon – it was about 6 or so miles, and it took us 5 hours.  It was pretty challenging, but worth it.  I know we post a lot of pictures from hikes – it’s one of our favorite things to do.  I imagine a lot of the pictures are starting to look the same and you may be wondering why we keep doing it???  There’s something about the challenge of the hike, getting out into nature and reaching the top of the mountain (small mountains) that is exhilarating and energizing.  At the beginning we are always saying (or sometimes thinking to ourselves) – is this trail too hard for me?  Is it going to be this steep all the way???  What’s around that bend?  If Steve can do it I’m not going to give up! 🙂 Are we too old for this stuff???  Then you settle into the hike, enjoy the scenery and fresh air, get to the top or the end of the trail and think “wow – life is good”.  The perspective you get when looking out onto a valley below or the next mountain range is amazing.  We find it inspiring and hopefully you are enjoying sharing it with us too.

Kayaking was fun and we enjoyed seeing the landscape from a different point of view.  They took us by a small boat out to a nice cove where the water was also smoother than in the bay (Resurrection Bay).  Then we kayaked for about 1.5 hours.  We were in double kayaks, Steve did most of the hard work of paddling, I was in back and in charge of steering with these peddals that are in the floor of the kayak.

Tomorrow we leave here for Kasilof, which is on the west side of the Kenai Penninsula (we’re on the east side on the Penninsula now).  We’ll have about a 3 hour drive tomorrow.  We have a reservation at the Kasilof RV Park for 2 straight weeks – the longest we will have stayed any one place – hope it’s nice!  We’ve learned not to expect much when it comes to RV parks, at least in the places we’ve been so far.  The spots are very close together, are mostly large gravel parking lots with hook ups.  But, we have great views many times, including where we are here in Seward.  I’ve included a couple of pictures below of our current set up and the view out one of our windows.  Not complaining!

My sister comes in this Friday for a visit – can’t wait!!!

Link to hike pictures and videos:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkQG4QOqe3cH9XyEy

Link to Seward and Kayaking:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkRsmqoYJtV0sSpz2