Our Trip to Alaska 2009

Don and I had a wonderful Alaskan vacation with Bob and Gail. It was great spending time with them. We flew to Anchorage and took the train to Denali. We did an all day bus tour of Denali National Park where we saw lots of wild life. Gail did the animal count. I'm not sure if I have it right, but it was something like 26 Caribou, 9 Moose, 6 bears, 1 fox and a few dahl sheet that mostly looked like a spot on the mountain. We did manage to see the top of Denali briefly. It was a treat to see it. As it turned out, we saw it again from Anchorage just as we were getting ready to fly home. My favorite animals were a mother grizzly and her two cubs. They were adorable.

After touring Denali Park we went back to Anchorage, got a rental car and went to Seward where we stayed in cute two bedroom cabin at Lowell Point on Resurrection Bay. It was nice to be right by the water. We did a cruise of the Kenai Fjords, visited Exit Glacier, went to the Marine Wildlife Center, did a drive over to Soldotna and Ninilchik on Cook Inlet where we saw Mt. Redoubt Volcano that erupted in March and closed the Anchorage Airport. We enjoyed hanging out together in Seward. The guys went fishing on our last day while Gail and I shopped and discovered some delightful places in Seward.

I haven't figured out how I can just post a few pictures since I took close to 700 pictures. But, I am going to try and just give you a taste of our trip.

DENALI
Here we are getting ready to board the train to Denali. The train trip was good, but not as scenic as the train trip from Vancouver to Banff that we did last year. But, the animals that we saw in Denali

Here Denali just peeks though the clouds. I think that only about 10% of the people that go to Denali actually see the mountain, so I was thrilled to get a peek of it.

In Denali park we had the opportunity to become our favorite animal. Yes, we are Moose.

Here is the Denali Cabin that we stayed in. Yes, we are pre-drinking. It stays light in Alaska so late that we often didn't have dinner until 8PM.

This is probably my favorite photo taken in the park. Can you believe that this is a wild grizzly bear and her two cubs? Grizzly's are easy to spot because of that bump on their back. They were playing right by the road.

Here is Mr. Fox. I was excited to see him hiding behind bushes.

This is Mrs. Moose (or Mr.) crossing the creek bed.

We saw herds of Caribou in the Park. I think we saw 26 Caribou in all.

Our trip in Denali took us all the way to Kantishna. We had lunch here and could either watch how sled dogs were trained or pan for gold. The sled dogs were really fun to watch. I've never seen such motivated dogs. The dog trainers 7 year old daughter was helping hold the dogs. When the dogs were allowed to take off, they did so with gusto.

SEWARD

This is a wonderful waterfall that Gail and I discovered right in town. It was right next to Two Lakes hiking trail. I just loved this spot. We hiked around the two lakes while the boys fished.Here is the harbor in Seward. This is where everything happens in town. At least our fisherman husbands seem to think this was the happening place.

Here is the big catch aka dead fish. Bob and Don did an all day fishing trip on a small boat. They had a great time and caught their limits of Halibut and Salmon. They had it shipped home, so we will be eating great fish. I can hardly wait for the Salmon. It arrives tomorrow.

Just as we were getting ready to head to the airport, we discovered two eagles in the tree above our cabin. We discovered them because it appeared that Mrs. Eagle was squaking to Mr. Eagle about some domestic problem. Check out the shot of Mrs. Eagle flying off when she just couldn't take it any more. Isn't it amazing what we read into animal behavior.

This is fireweed. You find it everwhere. Most of it was almost finished blooming. While we were in Seward it, some of it started to go to seed and suddenly silky hairs appear on the bloom. It is very common in Alaska, but a stunning plant.

Here is the cabin that we stayed in at Lowell Point. It was very cute and comfortable.

Gail on the deck of the Lodge overlooking Resurrection Bay. We love this spot. It was just across the street from our cabin.

Gail, Bob, Don and me on our hike to Exit Glacier. Exit is also part of Harding Icefield. And this is a free National Park. What a bargain!

TOUR OF KENAI FJORDS

This pictures gives you an idea of how big Holgate Glacier is.

We saw some eagles, but not as many as I thought we would.

We saw lots of wildlife, but I just loved the cute little otters. They were everywhere, including right off the deck of our lodge.

Here we are at the Holgate Glacier with is part of the Harding Ice Field. Yes, it's cold.

This was a rather cool day with a bit of rain, so Don, Bob and Gail are all bundled up.

Great Kenai Fjords scenery

OUR DRIVE TO SOLDOTNA AND TO COOK INLET
Looking down on the town on Ninilchik. Lots of Russin influence here.

Our 37th Anniversary pictures taken in Soldotna. This is cute little town with a great quilt store.

Here is Mt. Redoubt. I was glad it wasn't erupting.

FOOD

I was ready to post this blog and then I realized that I went on a trip and I didn't post anything about food. We had some pretty good food. We also had some pretty bad food. I didn't take pictures of that. I wanted to include some pictures of the food that we had. We mostly ate fish, both salmon and halibut, because that is what is nice and fresh in Alaska. Oh, I included the lemon because we paid $1.49 for a lemon at the store. I'm so used to a lemon tree in the backyard, that I couldn't believe that anyone could charge that much for one lemon. Oh well, we were on vacaction.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY LUCY

Little Miss Lucy is Two years old today. This is her one year old picture. Down below is Lucy about a month ago. The picture was taken by Jess's friend, Michelle and I just love the enthusiasm and excitement it exhibits. It also gives you a good idea of how much our sweet little baby has grown in a year. You are wonderful Lucy and we love you. Happy Birthday!

Oh, I just added this picture that Jess took of Lucy last week. Our little Lucy loves the water. Maybe she will be a river rafter.

Tahoe 2009

We had another great trip to Tahoe. We have been going to Tahoe with the same families for over 20 years. My two sisters, Mary and Sue came up and spent an overnight with us. We had a great time. They hadn't been to Tahoe before so Don and I got to be tour guides and Mary and Sue got to see what our Tahoe vacations are like. Paula's daughter Karen also joined us with her two adorable boys, Jack and Miles. We played lots of croquet and took walks to the Lake which was about 2 blocks from our place.
Croquet in the back yard.

Sue and Mary with me at the Lake.

Mosaic Art Show

Linda, Cris and I spent hours of time this summer creating our mosaics. It's pretty amazing because all three of us finished our works of art today. Cris and Linda were my mentors. This is their 3rd year of doing it. I think that every year they get better. We worked in Cris's backyard. She has a perfect place to do this. She has spent the past year breaking bottles and tumbling them. Cris and I both used a lot of glass in our projects. If you have a chipped plate or broken bottle of unique glass (not basic wine), we would love to have them for next years project. We also use tiles and marble. Yes, I am addicted to this art form. Since we usually work together, it become a wonderful social and creative endeavor.
We plan to have an open house art show on August 2nd to show off our work. If you would like to come, just let me know.

Erica & Brett's Wedding

These pictures speak for themselves. Erica and Brett had a wonderful wedding. Erica was Laurel's roommate and Brett is Laurel's boss. Needless to say, Laurel was very involved in the wedding. The wedding was at my church, First Pres. Berkeley and the reception was at Piedmont Community Center. What a great celebration.

Mary & Lucy visit the Bay Area

Maryn, Lucy and Parents came for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a blast. Since I really love photos, I will tell you what we did mostly with pictures. I have posted lots of photos on facebook, but if you don't check out facebook, this will be a great way to stay updated. We played at home a lot. We played with barbies, bears, water play, picking veggies, taking walks, going to the boat. We had a trip to the Tilden to visit the steam train, merry-go-round and the little farm. I think the highlight of Maryn's trip was a visit to the Jelly Belly Factory.


Here we are on D B's boat on San Francisco Bay. My friend Helen, her son Paul and his girlfriend's parents from Paris joined us on our cruise of the bay.

Here we are at dress up time. These are very old dress up clothes from Laurel's young days. In fact, Lucy is wearing a costume from Erica Smylie Douglas's very young days.

DB, Jess, Mayrn and I took a walk by the boat. Maryn got to play and also see how grandpa traps bait near his boat.


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We did take time to have hot fudge Sunday Treats. Lucy really liked them and so did Maryn.

I found a moment to get a family picture. I love family pictures.

It's water play time. Doesn't it look like he is squirting those precious little girls.

Here we are at Tilden Park... Riding theTrain.

Here we are at the Little Farm





Here is the Merry-Go-Round.

Aunt Laurel tried to visit as much as she could. The girls love their Aunt Laurel.

Here is the grand finale.... Our trip to the Jelly Belly Factory. Maryn just loved this. It is pretty fun with lots of free samples. Jess discovered the wonderful cold stone ice cream flavors. Oh my goodness... They were wonderful.



It was so much fun to have the Portland Ballanti's visit us. We had a great time. But, now I know why I was so tired. We did so much while they were here. Jess tells me that Lucy took a 4 hour nap today. She is trying to recover from so much fun. I hope I didn't wear you out with pictures. I have hundreds more if you want to see them.