Thursday, Friday & Saturday

So I'm a few days behind on these posts - Sorry!!

Thursday...

Wednesday had been such a long day that we decided to take it easy on Thursday. Originally our plan had been to drive to Talkeetna to see Mt. McKinley up close but that would have meant a 3hr drive each way with very little to do in between trips. Oliver has been having such a good week, and we have seen McKinley from Eagle River & Anchorage all but two days (only 1 in 4 people who visit Alaska get to see her at all) so we didn't want to push him. We spent the morning at the cabin - playing in the living room, watching toons, keeping watch for any Moose that may wander into the yard and just enjoying time together and the scenery out the window!!

The views from Jason & I's bed in the loft

After nap time we went looking for Moose. We headed to Kincaid park (where we saw the momma & baby in 2012) - that park is known for the high moose population, as well as black bears. We only saw one moose (WAAAAAY back in the woods) and at least 6 piles of bear skat (BUT NO BEARS!!). According to a man that we talked to just Wednesday night there had been a sow with THREE cubs - but we saw nothing! :( I have determined that the animals are hiding from me this year.

On the way out of the park a bull moose wandered right out into the road in the front of us. I wasn't as quick with the camera as I wish I had been but I did get this shot...

From there we headed back into downtown and went to Snowgoose for dinner. It was DELICIOUS as usual!!

They were so good that this is all that was left when I remembered to take a picture

Jason had a seafood linguine and Oliver and I shared Caribou meatloaf (YUUUUM!!)

Friday...

I have lost count but I think on Friday we saw our 30th & 31st Glaciers for the week. We drove North East farther than we have ever gone before with a goal of getting to the Matansuka Glacier. It was a beautiful drive (could have stood to see a few more guardrails in some places though) and seeing that Glacier at the base of those huge mountains was beautiful - this one seemed out of place as it wasn't near any huge bodies of water but it feeds a river that snakes it's way all the way down near Anchorage.

We walked a path that took us closer to the glacier - I took the path - Oliver insisted on "climbing the mountain"

Oliver did lots of "exploring" along the path

We took Oliver back for a late nap. When he woke up I fixed a salmon dinner (again trying to attract a bear with the grill but I had no luck)...

We finished the evening with an attempt to watch the sunset over Reflection Lake but we were too late and we missed most of it. But Oliver got to throw rocks in the lake again which he loves.

Saturday...

We spent Saturday morning walking around downtown Anchorage and shopping at a few of my favorite shops then we went and had lunch at Snow City. We have never had lunch there before - only breakfast but it didn't disappoint one bit!

After lunch it was nap time and packing time for Jason and I. Everyone who travels knows that typically packing to come home is A LOT harder than packing to travel to your destination but we must have done something right because packing was a breeze (even with all of our goodies we bought to bring home).

After dinner that consisted of random leftovers we headed north towards Reflection Lake again (a lot earlier than Friday night). Sunset over this lake was the PERFECT ending to this amazing week! I will just post a few of the 300+ pictures that we took that night (that's what happens when we each have a camera in our hands). Enjoy...

 Not only did we see an awesome sunset but we also got to see our first porcupine (or has Oliver says... "pork-pine")

Isn't he cute?!?

There are not words to describe beauty like this!!

Sunday was CRAZY! We were taking a 12:45am red eye out of Anchorage with a connection in Portland that consisted of a 4hr layover. I was sooooo worried about Oliver but he was amazing - he slept for the entire 3.5hr flight to Portland and 2.5hrs of the flight into DC. Once we boarded the plane in Portland the pilot informed us that there was a fire in the control tower in Chicago so that airspace was closed - so what should have been almost a straight shot across the country from Portland to DC turned into us flying over Denver, Kansas and even Nashville before heading north into DC which added and hour to our flight. It was a REALLY long day but again Oliver was AMAZING - we received so many compliments from the passengers around us about him which felt really good because traveling with an almost two year old was the scariest part of this trip!

We're still in love with the great state of Alaska and plans haven't changed... we will one day own a house up there! Now to begin planning/saving for the next trip - hopefully I'll be spending my 30th birthday in an Iditarod dog sled! :)

Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers while we traveled!

Wednesday on the Water!

I'm posting this late because yesterday was a pretty long day and by the time we got home and ate dinner I had no energy to go through the 750+ pictures that I took! (I know - it's a problem!)

Wednesday morning we woke up to frost on the ground... it was beautiful and we keep talking about the fact that "cold" here is NOTHING like cold at home - it's really weird.

We headed south enjoying the beautiful views once again along the Turnagain Arm. It was even prettier that morning due to low clouds along the Cook Inlet.

The dead trees in this pictures were killed during the Good Friday Earthquake - the quake caused the land here to drop 10ft which allowed in salt water killing a lot of the vegetation.

We made it to the tunnel to Whittier with a little time to spare (this tunnel started as a railway tunnel and when they decided to make Whittier a town they determined that it made me sense to share the tunnel with the railroad rather than blast a new one so it is open for 15minutes every hour in each direction - pretty cool). Whittier is ITTY BITTY and was created by the Army if my memory is correct - there are still some buildings from the war in the little town. And during the Good Friday Earthquake that pour town was nearly destroyed but the tsunami that came up the Prince William Sound. All touristy stuff closed at the beginning on September so we didn't get to check much of anything out - we waited in the car until it was time to board the catamaran. This was a 5hr cruise that would take us to 26 Glaciers and whatever wildlife would be spotted along the 145 miles traveled. Here are just SOME of my favorite pictures...

The tunnel...

The little town of Whittier and the glacier that it was named after

It was just a touch windy!! :)

We got to see (and hear) a few pieces calve off of the glacier - I caught the smaller one on camera from start to finish. The noise was thunderous even from the "small" pieces that fell. What an amazing experience!

The crew pulled up glacial ice to make margaritas with!!

My glacial margarita!!

 I think this is one of my favorite shots - the little guy was playing right in front of the boat and it just shows you how crystal clear this turquoise water is!

The cruise was 5hrs (12:30-5:30pm) so we were a little worried about Oliver not getting his nap and being super cranky - we shouldn't have worried - he passed out and slept for over 2hrs right there on the bench! :) He's such a good boy!!

After we left Whittier we stopped for a little bit at one of my favorite places - Potter's Marsh. Oliver loved running down the decks and looking at all of the birds, etc. Then he and daddy started playing chase which just thrilled him even more!

From there we picked up Moose's Tooth pizza to-go and headed home for a late dinner and cuddles on the couch!

Oliver & I's lasagna pizza - DELICIOUS!!

As I was typing this today (Thursday) we experienced our first Alaskan Earthquake - it was a 6.24! It was very similar to the Mineral Earthquake that we had in Virginia 3 years ago but still a little scary - lots of shaking and me watching the mountains to see if rocks were falling! Oliver was confused about what was going on but other than that it didn't phase him.

Hope everyone has had a great day - we have been relaxing today and just enjoying the house, the views and letting Oliver play and run around the house.