Fourth of July Hiking

Blogging about the Fourth of July on September 9th. Whatever.

On the 4th, we went to Thunderbird Falls. Kyle and I had never been there but one of the girls at work told me it was a good little hike so we went. It was nice. Short. Not that hard. Ok, it could barely be called a hike, it's what I call "walking through the woods."

Anyway, here are some pictures...

Kyle and I in front of the falls.


Thunderbird Falls.



David took his shoes off to get in the water. I don't remember if someone dared him or if he did this on his own free will.


Aaaand then Kyle had to help him get his shoes back on.


Just some trees.

Hiking in Denali

I really am going to try to keep up with this a little better!

A month ago (One month ago to the day, actually. I remember because we were on the way to Denali when the news came through that Michael Jackson had passed away) we went to Denali. Kyle and I only stayed one day because he had to work on Saturday. Kelly, Andy, and the boys stayed the whole weekend, though.

This is the trail that we hiked. It was gorgeous. Extremely hard, but gorgeous. Definitely an all day hike.

The next two are just some nature shots...

We came across two moose, just hanging out in the middle of the trail. We patiently waited for them to eat and go on their way, all the while taking pictures of them.

Moose tracks!


Kyle and I about halfway up.

We didn't go all the way to the top because it looked like rain. As high as we were and as high as the top was, though, it would probably have snowed.

Glacier Cruise

On the first weekend that Kyle's family was here, we drove an hour and a half down the Seward highway to Whittier for a glacier cruise. We had to reschedule three times (once because Kyle had to work, once because I had to work, and once because of rain) but when we finally got a beautiful, work-free day!

I do not get motion sickness, I get headaches. Really awful headaches. I was fine until the last hour or so when I wanted to sleep in our booth from a combination of sheer tiredness and headache. It was all good, though.

I don't think these pictures need any explaining...

Flat Top

A few weekends ago, Kyle and I went on our first hike! We went to Flat Top, about 20min. from base, still in Anchorage. If you come up to see us in the summer (or spring/early fall) and you want to hike, we will def. take you here.

Kyle took this...obviously.

The view...I thought it was so cool that you could see Elmendorf!




There was still a lot of snow up there! All of the snow elsewhere has been gone for over a month.

And some pictures of us...

There's just a little too much crazy in here.

People up here are crazy.

I was watching the Soup on Friday night, like I do every Friday night, and they were talking about a show called "Stranger Among Bears." This guy (in Alaska, no doubt) lives with bears. Seriously. And he talks to them and hits them if they try to get rough with him because bears aren't supposed to get rough with people. (Which reminds me of a few weeks ago, the morning show I listen to at work was talking about a lady that got attacked by a tiger. They talking about how everyone was like, "The tiger went crazy!" and the guys on the radio were like, "No, the tiger defended itself. It's a tiger. That's what tigers do. If it jumped on a bike and started riding it, then they could say it went crazy.") Anyway, who lives with bears and hits them?

We hear things about hikers or people jogging in the woods coming across a bear and instead of turning around and going the opposite way, they keep going forward. If the bear messes with them, they try to fight it. Like, fist fight it. These people need to be institutionalized because there is no way you're making it out of a bear fight in one piece.

Moose are also not to be messed with. When we found out we were moving up here, Kyle was freaked out. He told me that someone in his class told him about a guy who lived up here. The guy hit a moose with his car. The moose walked away and the guy died. (Of course, he told it in a very dramatic way. Kyle is dramatic.) I don't know if that story is true, but I would not want to hit a moose with anything. The baby moose that I saw a few months ago was the size of a Clydesdale horse. Baby moose = Clydesdale.

Tina was telling me about a drunk (there are a lot of drunks and homeless people here) that they saw a few years ago. He was taunting a moose and saying that he was "at one with nature." It's amazing that he didn't become "at one with a pair of moose antlers."

This is like saying that Polk City is awesome.

This weekend and I, Kyle went to Alyeska in Girdwood. It's about an hour south of Anchorage on the Seward Highway. The drive is nice. Girdwood? Not so much. It makes Polk City look like a decent town. It's almost what is referred to up here as "bush living." That means that you have to either travel to Anchorage to do your shopping or get things delivered.

At least I got some good pictures out of it all!

The rest of these were taken on a pull-off off of the Seward Highway.

Sail away

When Kyle's family comes up in June, we're going south on a glacier day cruise. Kelly emailed me a few links for us to look at and decide if we want to go to Kenai or Prince William Sound.

So we were looking at them and I was reading off the differences to Kyle when the following conversation took place...

Me: Which one do you want to do? I think Kenai would be more fun because there's more wildlife down there.
Kyle: No. I want to go on the other one. I don't want to see animals, I want to see ice. I want to stare at ice.
Me: Come on, which one?
Kyle: Prince William Sound. I like to stare at ice. In fact, I think I'm about to go stick my head in the freezer and look at the ice trays.
Me: Funny you say that, I was about to tell you to go do that.

We're going to Kenai (I hope!)

Don't believe the hype

We've been looking (ok, I've been looking) at some tourist-y websites lately. One of them was sent to me by Kelly so we could look at the different day cruises and see which we liked best. After we looked at those, I continued to look around the site to see what they said about Alaska because the site was said to be written by Alaskans.

Clearly they are in a different part of Alaska that we are.

They recommended hiking boots for day-to-day wear. Yes, hiking boots are a good idea...if you're hiking. Day-to-day you can wear whatever shoes you want. I wore flats yesterday.

They also recommended wearing layers in the summertime. Seriously? Layers in 60 degrees? I'll be wearing a bathing suit. I haven't worn layers in months. Kyle hasn't worn his thermals in weeks and has worn short sleeved shirts for the past month or so. (Short sleeves to work all this past week.)

Their packing list includes light winter cap/gloves/scarf. Cap? You might want one. Scarf? A light one might be good. Gloves? I don't even know where my gloves are. You don't need them unless you're coming in Dec. - Feb. If you come then, I'll call you an idiot.

I realize we haven't spent a summer here but Anchorage is like any other city, I promise. It's not some wilderness destination. In the summertime, it's known as Los Anchorage (like Los Angeles, get it?) There are lots of places to hike and explore but if you're hanging out in the city, you don't need this stuff. It's like going to Tampa on a chilly day. (Anchorage is pretty comparable to Tampa.)

So there. Bring your normal clothes, hiking boots if you so wish. And lotion. I don't know if it's this dry in the summertime but I've gone through more lotion this winter than I normally do in a whole year. (I'm only slightly exaggerating.)

Why we are not coming home until Christmas

A lot of people have been asking me this recently. "When are you coming home?" I tell them, "Christmas." Then they get all, "But we miss you!" and make me feel guilty. I really do miss everyone and I really do want to see Kristen's baby but here are the reasons we aren't coming home until Christmas...

1. My boss is about to pop. She is set to have her (first) baby any day and then she will obviously be going on maternity leave for a few months. Aside from her, there are only 5 of us that work in the coffee shop. If I were to take a week off to go home, I honestly don't know what would happen.
2. I'm taking two summer classes and two fall classes at the University. If everything goes as planned, I'll graduate Spring 2010. I really want to get this degree done. I would have finished last fall but, you know, the wedding and moving and all got in the way.
3. Kyle's family is coming for a few weeks in June and his grandparents are coming in August.
4. It costs a small fortune to fly from AK to FL and back. If even just I were to go home this summer or something, Kyle would be the only one going home for Christmas. (Which may work because I don't know what we're going to do with the cats while we're both gone. Putting them in the kennel also costs a small fortune.) (I'M KIDDING AND I'M COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. I'm leaving the winter wonderland that is Anchorage [ahahaha, I'm killing myself over here] for Florida.)

So there you have it. A full explanation as to why I'm not going to get to see the baby before Christmas. (Yes, I really want to see this baby.) But we really do miss and love everyone! I'd like to say we miss the weather but I went into our garage today and it was 70 degrees in there and I was like, "Good LORD! It's hot in here!" I'm telling you all, 30 degrees feels dang good.

Adventures in Snowboarding

On Saturday, I went snowboarding with Kyle and some of his friends. Kyle kept saying that I was probably going to have to switch to skis or just go get a sled. I was determined to make him eat his words.

And I did.

So I can't turn or stop correctly, but I can ride it straight like nobody's business.

I also took some pics...

I like to call this one, "No, I have not colored my hair since we've been here." Also, I'm not going to bother straightening my hair before I go snowboarding anymore because snow gets all over my hair and melts. When my hair gets wet, it gets curly. My hair was really curly by the time I left Hillberg.


These were (obviously) photoshopped (or GIMPed since I have GIMP and not photoshop because it's horribly expensive.) I almost had to edit them because everything was reflecting blue off of the snow.



These two are Kyle's board.

Kyle and his friend whose name I can't remember.

And I had to go inside to warm up with some coffee.

Code Orange is pretty serious

This is Mt. Redoubt. It's 100 miles from Anchorage, across the Cook Inlet. This picture was taken from across the inlet, about 3hrs. south of here in Kenai. [Photo by J. Warren.]

It is set to erupt any day. Actually, the DJ on the station I listen to at work used the phrases, "any minute" and "sooner rather than later."

Volcanos up here don't spew lava like those in Hawaii and elsewhere, they erupt gasses and fumes. A place downtown is giving away gas masks because when this volcano erupts, Anchorage will be covered in volcanic ash. The volcano was stimulated by the 5.7 magnitude earthquake on Saturday. The epicenter was a hundred miles or so from Anchorage but I still felt it, the couch shook. Kyle was asleep and didn't even know we had one.

We're actually very excited to be near a volcano eruption. I don't think we'll be able to see it erupt, though. We're a little sad about that. You can read about it on ADN here and here.

Totally unrelated

Now that it's warmed up a bit, the cats don't mind going outside so much.

Click here and here to see videos of the quarterpipe that Kyle built in the back yard.

Saturday was Kyle's 21st birthday. Conveniently, the Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival took place on Saturday. He went with a friend and the friend's girlfriend. Why didn't I go? Because you had to be 21 to get in. No exceptions. Also, I don't like beer so I wouldn't have paid $30 to go sample a bunch of beers anyway.

After the festival, they met up with some people in their squadron at Moose's Tooth, a local pizza place. (Their DD was Michael, who is only 19.)

Did he indulge? Yes. Did he overindulge? No. He indulged to the point where, when he got home at 12:30, I heard him yelling to Michael (who was in the same room as him), "I'M-I'M JUST GONNA GO UPSTAIRS FOR A MINUTE BECAUSE SHE'S UPSTAIRS AND I JUST WANT TO SEE IF SHE'S ASLEEP AND TELL HER WE'RE HOME."

He then stumbled up the stairs, hiccupping, to let me know they were home and to show me the birthday hat he got from another guy who was also celebrating his 21st birthday. He had a good time.

Frozen trees

Kyle told me that his mom really wanted to see pictures of these trees. He hounded me every day for three or four days to take them.

I had a day off earlier this week so I took them. When I talked to Kelly, she said she didn't know what he was talking about and she didn't remember saying anything about wanting to see these trees.

Turns out, Kyle just thought she'd like to see them and decided to hound me for days on end.

Anyway, enjoy the trees!