Last Sledding Adventure in Alaska

We are preparing to leave Alaska.  I have loved all of the amazing adventures and activities we have been able to experience here!  I am a little sad to leave it and leave a couple of families who have been amazing friends to us (even before we got to Alaska!  We were so blessed that their assignments from the Air Force brought them to the same base as us again!).  On this day all of our stuff was packed up and taken away by the movers, but we ventured out to the sledding hill at the elementary school for one more day of sledding.

 

So glad Nate could come out and sled with us!  Can't believe we have known this great kid since he was two years old!

In the background is the Mt. Spurr Elementary, where Ben and Will went to school.

Salmon Run

Big thanks to our friends the Tonks' for letting us know about the salmon on base.  The fish ladder gate was closed so that the base wildlife people could count how many salmon were swimming into six-mile lake, so we got a good look at them!  So much fun to see the salmon run!

 

Caught one jumping!

 

Green Lake Canoeing

A nice warm day for some fishing and canoeing! This is Green Lake on JBER.

 

Look what we found!

Portage Glacier

We set off to do the boat tour of Portage Glacier under cloudy skies and threats of rain.  I almost turned around, but pressed on.  So thankful we kept going!  The sky cleared as we got closer and it ended up being beautiful!  Portage Glacier is located near the tunnel that take you to Whittier, AK.  The boat tour is only an hour long, so I thought it would be more enjoyable to the kids than some of the very long boat tours where you can see several glaciers.  The glacier was just beautiful and we got up very close to it.  They even had a chunk of the glacier ice that had been fished out of the water for us to touch!

 

The glacier is comprised of three smaller glaciers that merge together as they come down.  The black line in the picture is where the sides of two glaciers met,

Every time we passed this motel I said we should stop there one day and take pictures of the kids running away from the eagle like it is attacking them.  This time we finally did it!

A surprise sighting of mountain goats! I wasn't even looking for them, but one came into view down very near to the highway.  By the time we turned around to go back and take pictures, they were further up the mountain.  I did get a few good pictures though!

Cookout with Friends!

We have been so lucky to have the Tonks and Kramer families with us in Alaska!  They were great friends in Oklahoma and our friendship just continued in Alaska.  We planned a cookout to celebrate the Fourth of July and a park on base.  I love seeing all these kids together!

 

Islands and Oceans Visitor Center

Before leaving Homer, AK we visited the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor Center.  I was small, but we enjoyed the displays.  There was a short video to presentation to watch as well.  There was also a short walking path to explore.

 

View from the center.

Silly boy!

View on the walking path.

 

Homer, AK

We have enjoyed Alaska so much and seen so many things that I never dreamed we would see!  The last weekend in June, we took an overnight trip to Homer, AK.  Our hotel was at the very end of the Homer Spit.  Homer is located at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula and the spit is a 4.5 mile long piece of land that sticks out into Kachemak Bay.  We had hoped to see starfish along the coast, but the low tide was not low enough the weekend we went.  It was still fun though!

 

Checking out stuff along the beach.

These flowers are in the same family as bluebonnets, so they remind me of home!

We saw tons of eagles!  This guy perched on a low building, so I took tons of pictures of him and inched closer and closer hoping to get a nice close up before he flew away!

Gorgeous views!

When I made the hotel reservations, the lady mentioned their pool.  I thought, "Awesome!  The kids will be so excited!"  She forgot to mention it was a "Endless Pool."  The kind for exercise.  The boys liked it anyway.