Tag, You're it!

Two of my blogger buddies have tried this one, so here's my attempt!

All you have to do is click on "comment" down below and post a memory you have about me. Any little memory is good - it doesn't have to be anything major!

If you have a blog, I'll go to your blog and post a memory about you! Even if you don't have a blog, you can still post something....you don't even have to "log in", you can just post anonymously (but sign your first name so I know who you are!!)

Okay, that's about it - have fun!

Bye Alaska

Here's one final picture from our trip. I know you have probably had enough of the Alaska pictures already! All in all, it was a great trip. Now, the countdown begins until our next vacation....whenever and wherever it may be! (Not soon enough!)

Girdwood, Alaska

If you ask the kids what they did in Alaska, the first thing they will probably say is, "We got to play in the snow!" Keep in mind, they have never seen real snow. We had some flurries a couple of winters ago, but hardly any stuck to the ground.

We got to play in the snow in Girdwood, our last stop before the airport. The Alyeska Ski Resort is there and we had heard about a tram that would take you to the top of the mountain, where there was a restaurant and a nice view. The possibility of seeing snow was one of the main reasons for stopping, and it was definitely worth it. Aaron ran around like a maniac, slipping and sliding in the snow. Mia was a little more cautious (weird, I know!) and held daddy's hand most of the time.

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

On our final day in Alaska, we checked out of our B&B and had about nine hours to kill before having to be at the airport in Anchorage (our plane didn't leave until 10:30 Alaska time). It's only about a three or four hour drive from Homer to Anchorage, so we made a few stops along the way.

The first stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. There were many different kinds of animals there. Some had been rescued (like the eagle above, whose wing had to be removed after being shot). Some animals were there because they used to be native to the area, but had disappeared, and they were trying to reestablish herds (such as bison).

It was a nice place to stop, not like a zoo at all. Low fences surrounded everything (except the bears, who had an electric fence!). We stopped for about an hour or so and it was good to get out of the car and stretch our legs.

Whale Watching

It was rainy and cold on our last day in Homer, so we decided to take Aaron whale watching! It was going to be a NINE hour boat ride so we left Mia with my parents and they took her to some museums and lunch...plus she got a nap. That worked out better for everyone - no way would Mia have had any fun sitting on a boat for that long. It was only a 65 foot boat, too; not much room to wander.

We spotted three whales, but only saw one up close. It is not easy to get a good picture of a whale when you are on a rocking boat, but I did get one snapshot of its tail! (It was a humpback.) We got to see him spout lots of times and dive three or four times. This really wasn't the best time in the season for whale watching so I'm glad we at least saw that. We went whale watching in Hawaii once and saw NO whales (also not peak season) so this was an improvement!

**Note: I feel very silly, but I just realized I could make the pictures BIGGER on my blog by clicking one button. Duh. I wish I had made the pictures bigger on my previous posts, but no way am I going back and changing it now!!! At least I can click on them if I want to see them larger...live and learn...

Bishop's Beach, Homer

As is usually the case with kids, the simple things are as enjoyable as anything else. One of their favorite activities in Homer was skipping rocks on the beach (on Kachemak Bay). It was a rocky beach so most of the time was spent searching for the perfect skipping stone and collecting some interesting ones to bring home. We knew the next day it was going to rain, so we tried to play outside as much as possible that day.

Victorian Heights B&B (Homer)

The last stop on our trip was Homer, Alaska. There we stayed at the Victorian Heights Bed and Breakfast and it was definitely our favorite! The owner has two children almost exactly Aaron and Mia's ages (they were out of town so we didn't get to meet them) and she had an awesome backyard for kids to play in. The grown ups liked it because of the fantastic views (click on the picture from my parents' room above to really check out that view) and the fantastic breakfasts! I'm talking creme brule french toast, lemon-thyme scrambled eggs and the best pancakes ever made out of oats and whole wheat flour. Yum!!

Stay tuned for more Homer adventures...

**edited to add: I just noticed that the picture of the view from my parents' room is crooked. I can't blame the camera for that one! I guess there's no future for me as a professional photographer!

Kenai River

After leaving Seward, we headed for Homer. On the way, we passed through a town called Cooper Landing on the Kenai River. Kenai Lake, the Kenai River and the Russian River is where lots of people go fishing for salmon. We were there a couple of weeks before the salmon fishing would really get going (the kings were supposed to be there, but the silvers would be a few more weeks). The water in these rivers and lakes was so beautiful it didn't even look real! My mom said she's seen rivers this color in the Alps in Switzerland, but I had never seen anything this color before.

When we stopped to take these pictures I saw, probably 20 feet away from me - at eye level - an eagle flying over this bridge carrying a fish in its talons! I didn't have time to take a picture (it wouldn't have come out very good anyway) but I just watched it. Amazing sight!

Seward, Alaska

Seward is a very neat place to visit. We only stayed there two nights but we did quite a bit of stuff there! This is a very long post, so if you want to read it in order you might want to start at the bottom and make your way up here! I should have put these different outings in separate posts, but now that I have realized that I am too lazy to go back and change it. Anyway...we had a great time in Seward. These top two photos were taken on Seward's main street that had most of the shops and restaurants.

We also visited the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward. The kids had a great time here pretending to be the captain of a crabbing boat, watching sea lions being fed and looking at king crabs, eels, fish, otters, seals and all kinds of other sea life. Seward also had this fantastic public playground for the kids to let out their energy. The playscape was awesome and right by the water with super mountain views all around. Nothing like that at home, that's for sure.

We stayed at the Seward Windsong Lodge and the kids really loved it because of all the walking paths throughout the property. It had a restaurant we could walk to - in the picture above you may be able to see some water across the street from the restaurant. Just a couple of hours after we took that photo, a mother bear and her cub were spotted fishing in that water. One of the guests took a photo of them and the hostess showed it to us. Now, I don't want to get too close to a bear, but I would have been thrilled to see it from the deck of the restaurant! Oh well - maybe next time!

After having lunch (halibut, of course) and checking into our lodge, we headed 6 miles away to Exit Glacier. This glacier has receded quite a bit in the last few years. There are signs along the walking path to the glacier that have the year that the glacier was at that point. We took a nice little paved walking path that ended quite a ways before you got to the actual glacier, so we had to walk across this big, rocky open space with streams of icy cold glacier melt water going across it. The trick was to make it across the streams without getting your feet soaking wet or falling over into the little streams! I made it all the way (but did get wet up to my ankles on the way back). Not a big deal, but I only brought one pair of shoes, so I had to dry them on the heater in the room that evening...

Anyway, we made it to the glacier and took cute pictures of the kids holding up bits of ice that were constantly falling off of it. AFTER we were done and on the way back to the car, we noticed the signs that said something to the effect of, "Danger! Do not go past these signs due to danger of chunks of ice landing on your head!" (Or something like that!) Anyway, we were not right under the big icy cliff, but on the sloping side so I think we were okay.


The next day, we checked out of our hotel in Anchorage and headed to Seward in our rented minivan. We had heard that this was a beautiful drive and it did not disappoint.

The first part of the drive mirrored the train route we had taken the day before (see the tracks behind Aaron). We stopped and took some scenic pictures of the mountains and some moose by the side of the road. Luckily, the few highways they have in Alaska are very well maintained and have lots of turnouts for taking pictures and to let slow moving vehicles get out of the way of the faster ones.

26 Glaciers

The train stopped in Whittier, Alaska. This is a TINY town with hardly anything in it. Supposedly the 200 people who live there all live in this one apartment building. I've been told it gets down to -50 degrees Farenheit there in the winter and gets huge amounts of snow, so maybe that explains the small number of people who live there!

Why did we go there then, you ask? Well, it is the starting point to the 26 Glaciers Cruise! This was a four hour cruise through Prince William Sound that took us by at least 26 glaciers. The Klondike Express was the name of the boat. (There's a picture of the Klondike Express above - note the huge Princess Cruise ship behind it! Whittier is also a point of origin for them.)

The most exciting part of the cruise was Surprise Glacier, the glacier pictured above. We got to see it "calving", which is when chunks fall off into the water and make a big splash and sound like thunder! I felt like I was in a National Geographic special. The kids thought it was pretty cool, although I think the significance of it was a little bit beyond them. It was pretty surreal to be on a boat in the middle of snow capped mountains, floating by big floating pieces of ice and looking at glaciers. This may have been my favorite part of the trip, but don't hold me to that!

In addition to the glaciers and our fish and chip lunch, we saw lots of sea otters playing in the water, seals, eagles, birds and many waterfalls.

The Alaska Railroad

I've switched layouts! Anyway...after our 7 hour flight from Houston to Anchorage, we went straight to bed (we arrived at night anyway). The next morning we woke up and met the 10 am train going from Anchorage to Whittier. It was about a 2 hour train ride that went mainly along the coastline of the Turnagain Arm. This was our first real view of Alaska and it was pretty awesome. We saw our first of many bald eagles, Dall sheep and beautiful mountains with snow still on top. We could also look out of the big windows in the dining car. (A note about the pictures - we just have a little digital camera so most of our pictures really don't do the actual scenes any justice! Especially if the picture required any zoom whatsoever! But hopefully the pictures will help us keep what we saw in our memories and give you an idea of what we saw.) Oh, and you can click on any of the pictures to see them larger.

Obligatory Moose Picture

We're back! We had a great time in Alaska. I highly suggest going there if the opportunity ever arises! I have TONS of pictures, and it will take some time to go through them, but here is a picture of a mother moose and her baby. We took this picture looking out the window of the bed and breakfast where we stayed in Homer, Alaska. (We took it through the window and there was a screen on it, so the picture isn't very good. I have others, don't worry!)

As I go through my pictures I'll post more...