Seward - Day 2:

Day 2, we woke to a steady rain and wind. Good thing Nancy talked us into hiking the Glacier yesterday. Today we planned to visit the Alaska Sea Life Center. The Sea Life Center is a beautiful facility overlooking Resurrection Bay. The facility is primarily a research center but is home to a number of locally represented species of fish and mammals. We spent a couple of hours exploring and then headed for lunch. The restaurant overlooked the Seward Boat Harbor and we watched a active Sea Otter having lunch at the same time. You can see from the photos, he was having a great time.

The remaining photos are a sampling of the local flowers and animals we saw at the sea life center. The Puffin was one of Nancy's favorites.

Weekend Road Trip:

Well, actually the weekend ended up being Monday/Tuesday. Anyway, we took a couple of days for a trip through the Kenai Peninsula to Seward, AK. Our main goal was to look for bears, hike to a glacier and visit the Alaska Sea Life Center.

The weather was overcast but the rail held off for the first day. After a beautiful drive (no bears) we arrived in Seward. Quick stop for lunch and we were off to Exit Glacier. The walk from the visitors center to the glacier is about a mile. Mom did pretty well but as you can see from the photos, we finally wore her down. The trail has some pretty good hills and loose rocks to navigate. All-in-all, she did pretty good. Hope you enjoy the photos. More to follow for day two.

Prince William Sound

This past Friday, we took mom on an excursion to Prince William Sound. The day started with a train trip from Anchorage to Whittier lasting about 2.5 hours. When we arrived in Whittier, we boarded the 26 Glacier Cruise ship for a day of sight seeing. The ship is so named because the route passes 26 Glaciers during the 5 hour trip. We finished the day with a 2.5 hour train ride back to Anchorage. The train trip travels from Anchorage to Whittier along the Cook Inlet and Turnagan Arm with stops in Girdwood and Portage, AK. The boat ride turned out to be really nice. Mom was able to view Glaciers, floating icebergs, Eagles, Sea Otters, Seals, Humpback Whales and Orcas. It was a long day but worth it. I have attached some photos; hope you enjoy them.

Well, Mom finally made it to Alaska. (2) airplane rides and 4,300 miles later we arrived. As you can see from the photos, we're not kidding. Careful packing a some smiling faces along the way.

Will update with more photos soon.

Beautiful July 4th in Alaska. Actually, we have had a beautiful week. Every day has been in the High 60s - Low 70s and plenty of sun. Much better than last year. Spencer had a friend over and we decided to drive to Potters Marsh; a wet-lands area that borders the south side of Anchorage. This is a marshy area with a long board walk stretching along 2 sides and set up for wildlife viewing.

You couldn't ask for a better day for a walk. We saw a bald eagle and its nest; various species of birds, fish and flowers (Lillys). The notification sign indicated that there had been beaver, muskrats, minks and moose in the area; however, we did not see them today. I have added a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Close encounters with the Moose Kind; Part 2 :)




Nancy and I awoke this morning to a couple of overnight visitors. Looking out the kitchen window, Nancy noticed a mother moose and her baby sleeping on our new lawn. From the looks of things, they had been there most of the night. Gotta love mother nature.


Anyway, we attempted to scare them away. We went out on the deck and yelled and clapped our hands. The mother moose just looked at us and the baby ran around like he was having fun. Next I tried to scare them away with the sprinkler. The mother moose went over to the sprinkler and appeared to take a shower and drink. After a bit she got annoyed and tried to bite and stomp the sprinkler. Spencer woke up and told us to get a plastic bag and make noise. This finally drove them away for now. Hope you enjoy the photos. Nothing like standing face-to-face with a 1200 pound moose and yelling "shoooooo".

Spencer attended a local basketball camp hosted by the University of Alaska-Anchorage. The camp was called Kendall Jump Camp. He had a blast and I finally got the basketball goal put up at home for him to practice. He picked it up very quickly considering it had been a year since he last played organized ball.