North to Alaska!

So aside from all the things that I haven't blogged about lately (Silas' 1st birthday, Leif's 10th birthday and probably Skadi's 7th birthday, life in general, camping this summer... the list goes on) we spent nearly 2.5 weeks in Alaska this summer!

I am not sure the last time we had that much time off. I was drastically worried that I wouldn't be able to disconnect from work. And, of course, that things would completely fall apart while I was gone. What if this or that. Truth be told I work with some terrific people, nothing fell apart and I only had about one phone call with a colleague who totally gave me an out not to call him and to continue ignoring work. But I called.

So we flew to Anchorage and it wasn't awful with the three kids. The older two kept themselves easily occupied. The delay out of our local little airport resulted in us having to full on sprint to make our connection and no real dinner. But oh well.

We spent our first few days at my FIL's and step-mother-in-laws house on a little lake in the foothills of Anchorage. Fabulous place. The kids got to fish for trout in the lake:

Leif and grandpa with his 16.5" trout. House record.

Skadi with her 15" beauty!

 

 

After a day of recovery from travel in Anchorage we packed up and hit the road jack!

 

 

 

Turnagain Arm - so pretty. Some of the largest and most dangerous tidal swings in the world.

 

We were Homer, Alaska bound. We stopped first at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center which is truly a wonderful place. Way back about 6 years ago we went there it was a lot less built up - like a chain link fence between us and the grizzly bears. Now it is much more built up and truly an amazing place.

 

 

 

 

Skadi and I hit the gift shop while the boys sought reprieve outside. Skadi is ALL about gift shops. Seriously the highlight of her trip is to hit a gift shop. I bought for Leif a little vial of REAL Alaskan gold. It stayed with him the.entire.trip. In his pocket. Moving from pants to pants. Seriously best $8.99 spent.

 

 

We arrived down at Homer, Alaska and stayed at a very unique little "hotel". I guess you would call it a hotel. The rooms were built into the bluff - dug out of the earth, lined with cement and an amazing view. We stayed in "the Bear's Den". The kids loved it and I wish we would have had another night in this unique hotel and in Homer. I love Homer, Alaska. Skadi and I scored sweaters and Silas scored a new and appropriate hat.

 

 

Skadi thankfully was able to keep herself occupied while waiting for us. Should you ever be in Homer, look for a Pay to Park box where she autographed it.

 

 

Quintessential Homer

 

 

The following morning we loaded stuff for a month or more into the truck (I learned to pack well) and hauled it all down a horribly steep dock to the water taxi for our 2 night trip over to Kasitsna Bay with my MIL.

 

 

 

 

 

On the water taxi to Kastitsna Bay

 

 

 

 

Hans' favorite weed - Fireweed and our daughter.

 

 

 

Our digs for two nights in Kastisna Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With grandma!

Something special to someone.

Not the best clamming we ever had...

Bald eagles everywhere. There were 9 on this spit.

 

This eagle loved to harrass the seagulls and steal their catches.

 

I loved this picture of Skadi and an eagle on the beach.

 

Sea kayaking

Skadi hauling her boat in.

Hans and Leif

 

We had a fabulous couple nights in this beautiful place and met the way too early water taxi with our few months supply of things and ferried it all back to Homer.

 

(This is the part where I will just skip the whole 5 days worth of gastroenteritis cycling from Skadi to Silas to Leif to Hans to my MIL and finally to me. You can just pretend that I went into gory detail about this wrinkle in our trip when you look at our next lovely set of pictures.)