The Beginning Revisited

Hi, All!

This past week has been a ton of fun; both Tammy and Steve's families were in town and we had a great time showing them around Alaska.  Pictures and stories to come soon.

In the meantime, we wanted to tell you about an exciting event that happened last week.  As some of you may know, this year was not Steve's first time in Alaska.  In 2001 he traveled with a group of 20-or-so soon-to-be high school seniors and staff on a bus trip through Canada and into Alaska.  The trip had us spending a lot of time backpacking, kayaking, and simply exploring the state.  Steve fell in love with Alaska from that trip, and decided to return.  Hence, our year here!  (If you want more information on the trip, it's run through Tamarack Camps in Michigan: http://www.tamarackcamps.com/Programs/TeenAlaskanAdventures.aspx?S=SP&P=AA&PP=TV)

Fast forward to last week, ten years after Steve's initial journey here, the Tamarack Trip 2011 came to visit.  The group went to a baseball game in Anchorage, and we decided to go say hello.

They pulled up in the "Blue Lakes" bus as Steve remembered, although in the last 10 years the bus has become more modernized.  You can see the Tamarack Camps bumper stickers in the lower left hand window.

The campers and staff decided to dress in funny costumes for the game.  They must have increased the attendance five fold!

One Anchorage Bucs fan (the baseball team here) stopped by to say hello (and to presumably find out why all these people were dressed so strangely).

It was really awesome to get to see another generation of Tamarack campers experiencing the trip that essentially led to us being here.  We're hoping they continue to have a great trip and we look forward to hearing all about it!

A Bear-y Awesome Visit from a Bear-y Awesome Friend!

Hi, Everyone:

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been a bit busy enjoying the summer sun.  We wanted to let you all know about an amazing visitor we had last week!

Steve's good friend Neha came to visit Alaska from the warmth of DC.  She described the unimaginable 95 degree weather (plus humidity) they have been getting out East.   This certainly puts our complaining about the apartment getting too warm into perspective (the temperature outside is about 65 these days).

Anyway, we started the visit by shooting up to Denali National Park for 4th of July weekend.  This was exciting because we got to cross another thing off the bucket list (visit Denali), and we got to do it with an awesome friend.

Denali National Park is 6 million acres, which is larger than the state of Mass.  Basically, it is huge.  But one of the coolest things about it is that you can't drive a car more than 15 or so miles in.  To get further into the park, you have to take one of the Denali buses.  This helps control traffic, and makes it so wildlife are not afraid to get close to the road.

And get close they do.  From the very get go we saw a moose standing by a sign.  As we headed further into the park, we saw caribou and birds.

But on the way back, we saw the star of the show.  The bears came out!

This bear started about 200 feet away and then moved closer, and closer, and closer until it walked right up to the bus.  Then it crossed the street like it wasn't a big deal, and kept on walking.  It was pretty awesome.  We were really impressed by the discoloration around their eyes.  Pretty sweet.

Then we drove back from Denali on the 4th, with Tammy playing as many songs on the iPod as she could think of that had a U.S. state name in it.  Hooray 4th celebrations!

That night, the fireworks started at midnight because of the perpetual light.  It is definitely a weird experience going to bed (in order to get up for work the next morning), and hearing the crashes and booms of fireworks until at least 12:30.

After coming back from Denali, Steve and Neha hiked to an ice field down by Byron Glacier.  You may remember this hike from back in September, when we went to Portage with our friends Rebecca and Henry, and we all had a lot of fun sliding down the ice. 

The views from this hike are pretty awesome.  You can see the glacier in the distance (in the mountains), and then, because of the ice field, you get the opportunity to throw a snowball in July.  Really put Neha's 95 degree weather in perspective.

 

You can get a better sense of the glacier, as compared to the ice field, here:

Then Neha and Steve went to check out the Animal Wildlife Conservation Center.  Last time Steve went, he saw 3 bears from a bit of a distance.  This time, it was feeding time!  The bears came right up to the fence (literally 2 feet away), and walked with Steve and Neha for a good 50 feet along the fence.  It was somewhat terrifying, but amazing as well.

That's a lot of bears!

Finally, Neha and Steve went for a short hike along Portage Lake, where pieces of glacier that had calved were floating.  It was pretty awesome.

That's all for now!  Thanks again to Neha for coming out here and for making last week so amazing!  We had so much fun getting to share this great State with such a great friend.

We'll try and update again in the next few days with some more of our adventures.  Hope you're all keeping cool!