Alaska

Here are some photos from before and during my train ride starting in Seward at 6 PM to when I arrived in Anchorage at 10:30 PM. It was a beautiful ride with great views of glaciers, icebergs, rivers,lakes, mountains, sunsets and I even got to see some beluga whales in the cook inlet. In Seward we got some awesome photos of an otter that was just snacking close to us when we were down looking at the boats at the dock. Enjoy

Today ( or yesterday Thurs the 30th) was my last day at work. I really will miss working there. Song and Robert were great to work with. Song's cooking kept me well fed and even tested my daringness. Since I've worked for her I've tried frog legs, dolly (another kind of fish), clams, and many other spicy Thai dishes. It was a great summer job since I only worked 4 days a week and had plenty of free time. If they're still open next summer I'll be up here in a heartbeat, just to be in Alaska again. Here's a couple pictures of took of us after work tonight!

Here's a few pictures from Cooper Lake. I went up to the Lake on Wed because the weather was so nice and I wanted to try and get some color before I come back! Unfortunately the cold wind was stronger than the hot sun rays!! But the veiws were gorgeous anyways.

First there are some pictures from the amazing sunset yesterday at about 9:30 PM. It was the most purpely, orangey, pinky cloud sunset ever. I had to brace the strong winds from the moving car as I stuck my head out the window to get photos! There are also a few pictures from the Palmer Alaska Fair. My Sky Diver friends jumped into a couple of the events while the fairs going on! Unfortunately my camera doesn't hold many pics and the batteries died so there's only a few. Has anyone heard of Elephant Ears or is that just an Alaska name? I pigged out on all the normal fair desserts like a candy apple, cotton candy, dippin dots and an elephant ear! Healthy day huh? I even left the fair with a stuffed monkey (named Captain Danger, and of course he's a skydiving monkey) and a flower balloon! Plus I saw a lot of cute little bunnies, pretty flowers of all variaties and giant vegetables.

Here's a hike that me, Mom, and Riley took on Aug 21st. The hike was said to be an easy to moderate hike but was actually petty steep and rocky! The weather wasn't so great for the hike, especially once we started gaining altitude it got super windy and the skies looked like they were going to let loose on us. So we stopped and ate a little snack then turned around and headed back down the trail. The views were awesome, but we didn't spot much wildlife, which makes it a little uneventful. We were even prepared this hike, Mom's fannypack isn't just a fannypack, it was carrying a gun as a precaution for an encounter with a bear! Maybe next time we'll see more, it could happen it is Alaska.

Today I got an early start and heading up to Anchorage where I meet up with my friend Tom (who is a friend from when I went skydiving) and we took off together to Palmer. Are destination was the small Palmer Airport where Tom's Dad(who's a private pilot) was waiting for us with his plane. We got a private plane ride to Lake George that sits right next to a cascading glacier. Tom's Dad also named Tom Sr. took Tom to the glacier landing strip first and then came back and flew me over! The views were amazing, it sure was a once in a life time experience! It took about 30 mins to get to the glacier. . .we passed by many glacier, and icebergs and rivers, lakes, murky water and amazing mountain scenes. Once me and Tom were at the lake, there was a canoe with life jackets and we set out on Lake George. We canoed around for about 20 mins cruising feet away from icebergs. We had just passed by an iceberg and were about 5 mins away when the iceberg tipped on it's side with a large thundering noise and the bottom portion that was under the water was all of a sudden above the water very visible and very blue. It was the most amazing thing to watch the iceberg bob up and down in the water, we hurried and rushed back over to the iceberg and snapped some more photos. We attempted to canoe the whole length of the lake but it was big and I'm not quite in good shape for paddling that far. But we were close enough to hear the calving glacier. The thundering noise carried the length of the lake. We got back to shore safe and sound and one by one we were caravaned back to the palmer airport. It was a beautiful day for the excursions and even though we were by freezing water and frozen icebergs i was only wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans!! I'm so appreciative to Tom for inviting me along because it's something most non Alaskans don't get to do unless you pay big bucks for it!

Today Mom, Riley and myself went on a little moderate hike to Skilak Lake. It was a pretty hike through some burnt forests full of mushrooms and wild berries. We finally reached a pond area and were watching fishing jumping while Riley tossed rocks into the water. We walked a little further and got a grand view of a peninsula separating a marshy pond and Skilak Lake, with the mountains rising up in the distance. We enjoyed the vie and as we were walking away noticed some droppings from a moose and then what looked like some from a bear that was quite fresh. At once Mom looked up and there across the marshy pond was a bear looking right at us! We rushed to get a camera and take pictures. I snapped a few good ones but the bear was walking through tall weeds and away from us. We walked back to the other pond near by and Riley peered around the bend to try an get a glance at the bear again when he say the bear swimming in the pond to our side! Riley yelled out "The bear is swimming over here," and at once all three of us turned on our spot and darted the opposite direction down the trail. Mom was very nervous the whole way back, thinking we would run into another one on the way. Me and Riley thought the whole thing very funny and would of liked to stay and get another photo of the bear, but the last thing mom wanted was to see either of us get malled by a bear. All in all the day was pretty eventful, I wanted to see a bear and the idea came true!! Hope you enjoy the pictures

Mom, Me and Riley took the 3 hour rafting float down the Kenai River. (Which is the river that runs in back of their property in Cooper Landing.) It was a perfect day for the trip and full of information from the tour guide.

Friday Aug 10th we took the couple hour drive down to Homer. It's a beautiful drive where we actually pass by the 3 active volcanoes in Alaska, St. Augistine, Illiema, and Redoubt (A.I.R). Remember as well that all this volcanoes we passed are across the cook inlet and in no way are we in real danger from them. We spent the day looking around at the shops, getting some pizza and watching some fishermen fillet up the catch of the day!! All in all a another nice day in Alaska. Enjoy the pictures.