[2010 Alaska]

Day 60: Sunday, August 1st Palmer to Valdez

We said goodbye to our last Wal-Mart for a while in Palmer this morning before we headed back on the Glenn Highway towards Valdez.

[2010 Alaska]

Day 59: Saturday, July 31st Palmer, Alaska

We spent the night at Kepler Bradley State Recreation Area on Matanuska Lake. Brooke had another chance to be in a boat.  We rented a canoe for an hour.  Scott paddled with her for a half hour while I watched the sleeping Cody and then he watched Cody and I paddled.  Since Scott paddled with her first, Brooke was like a student with a substitute teacher when I came into the boat, “That’s not how we do it normally.”  According to Brooke I didn’t paddle the right way and I apparently didn’t put the boat through the lily pads just the way Daddy did either.  All in all she had a great time on the water and she’s even starting to get the hang of paddling.

[2010 Alaska]

Day 58: Friday, July 30th Eklutna Lake to Hatcher Pass

Eklutna Lake

Eklutna Lake

[2010 Alaska]

Day 57: Thursday, July 29th - Goodbye Anchorage Again

Last night was a first for us.  We stayed at our not so favorite city campground Centennial Campground in Anchorage.  We arrived shortly before 11 pm after Brooke’s Alaskan Train Adventure arrived from Seward. It was really late for us, but here was only one train a day from Seward to Anchorage and it left at 6 and arrived after 10 pm.  What was even more ridiculous though was the noise coming from the campground.  Scott went over and kindly asked the gentleman who was playing his music really loudly to turn it down, and he did, for a little while.  Keggers usually aren’t quiet, and this one wasn’t an exception.  Apparently it broke up at 2pm when the police came by.  We’re still not sure why someone would host a kegger at a campground, but it made for another disjointed nights rest.

[2010 Alaska]

Day 56: Wednesday, July 28th: Iditarod Trail and Alaskan Railroad

The hike for today was along the Iditarod Trail.  It gave me another chance to try out my new boots which I have been loving.  The part of the trail that we hiked on was mostly flat, sometimes wet, and a lot more overgrown than I expected.  I’m curious what the same part of the trail looks like when the sled dogs hit the snow.  There were some wet parts that Brooke had to be carried over (the picture below on the right) and the bugs were pretty tenacious again.  Thankfully right before we were going to turn around the trail opened up to a picturesque river.  Scott and Brooke were able to get in Brooke’s daily dose of river rock tossing and attempted rock skipping.  Scott was able to get quite a few stones all the way across.  It was neat to try to imagine all of the history, hard work, and snow that encase the trail in the winter time.

[2010 Alaska]

Day 55: Tuesday, July 27th Seward- Sea Life Center and Dinner Cruise

We went to the Sea Life Center in Seward today. While at the Sea Life Center Brooke fell in love with the bird observatory.  The birds gave her a sprinkler shower as they cleaned and preened themselves. We learned a lot about birds today.  The puffins make their nests in holes in the rocky shore line.  In the exhibit we were visiting there were forty holes in the observatory leading back to the researchers. Puffins don’t fly very well, but they are amazing to watch under the water.

[2010 Alaska]

Our Favorite Camp Meals

Breakfast

Cereal

• Granola
• Kix
• Chex
• Raisin Bran
• Cheerios

Pan Fried Granola

• Oat Meal
• Brown Sugar
• Butter
• Raisins
• Nuts

Pancakes

• Flour

  read more

[2010 Alaska]

Scott’s Cooking Corner

[UPDATE] We have since moved on to using a chuck box.

[2010 Alaska]

Day 54: Monday, July 26th Heading to Seward Day II

We spent the night at our newest favorite camp spot at Hidden Lake.  The spot we had before was taken, but we camped across the road.  Thankfully there was a pavilion close to our campsite for Scott to cook breakfast in.  He had to take the tent down in the rain though.  Quite humorously we listened to the country song “Rain is a Good Thing” as we cruised out towards some partial sun and back to Highway Number One or the Sterling Highway.

[2010 Alaska]

Day 53: Sunday, July 25th: Heading toward Seward

We camped on a Homer hillside overlooking the spit last night.  Scott will laugh at me mentioning this, but I was a little taken aback when I went to pay for our site and found a post that noted that a bear had been spotted in the campground just four days prior.  For the most part bears want to be away from people, so when I saw that it concerned me that it might be a bear that associates people with food.  Most campers are responsible and respectful and clean up after themselves, but there are a few out there that make things dangerous for the rest of us.  It really took me aback because I have tried, in the best interest of enjoying this trip and not worrying myself into an early grave, to think that close bear encounters are rare.  It didn’t help things knowing our camping neighbor had no vehicle to store his coolers of yummy food in.  I’m going to go back to thinking bear encounters are rare now.  Back to our regularly scheduled post…