Alaska in Sunlight and Bloom

Hi, Everyone:

Sorry for not putting up another post about Kodiak, but Steve was at Drew and Sunny's wedding all of last week (as well as in town for his brother's high school graduation party), so we didn't get a chance.  Needless to say, our time in Kodiak was simply stunning and Steve had a lot of fun reconnecting with old Gimble and 515 friends!

Back to Alaska.  As every day passes, we come to realize just how unique this state is.  And last night was no exception.  Our friend from the synagogue, Abram, had proposed hiking Near Point last night . . . a mountain a little ways outside of Anchorage.  We were excited, but because of work schedules we couldn't start until about 7p.  We weren't sure we would make it to the top before dark, but decided it'd be nice to just hike for a few hours anyway.

What we forgot was that the sun is out LATE these days -- as in, last night it set at 11:35p.  So we had the unique experience of summiting a mountain at 9:30p last night, making it back to our car around 11:15p, and still driving home in bright sunlight!

Here's Tammy close to the top of Near Point. You can see that the sun is out and Alaska is now officially in bloom:

Here are some more pictures of the surrounding scenery (all of these pictures were taken between 9p and 9:30p):

Here's what the summit looks like from below:

And here's what it looks like from above.  Note that you can see Anchorage far off in the distance:

It was a pretty unreal experience and we're really glad Abram proposed it!

More hiking this weekend, possible Denali trip next weekend, ice climbing soon thereafter, and then we move into the visitor stage.  The summer is picking up here in Alaska!!!!