DMB, Seattle and Portland...Here We Come!!!!

After not being able to go last year to our yearly trek to The Gorge to see the Dave Matthews Band play their annual 3-day concert extravaganza, we are SOOOO pumped to be going again, and we leave TONIGHT! And, we also are driving down to Portland, Oregon to visit my cousins Casey and Annie, who came and visited us last March, when we raged on Alaska's mountains together! Should be a great time. So stay tuned for pictures when we come back....but in the meantime, enjoy some pics from previous years!

View from the back of the lawn at the Gorge, the awesome Columbia River
Ben in front of the Columbia
The ever popular Space Needle from the greatest city on earth, Seattle!

If you haven't heard of The Gorge Ampitheatre, check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gorge_Amphitheatre
If you haven't heard of the Dave Matthews Band, shame on you! : ) 

More Visitor Pics

Lisa's Aunt Diane, Lisa, Lisa's Mom, Ben, Ben's Mom and Dad at Hatchers Pass
Lisa and her mom at Portage Glacier and Lake, freezing!
Waiting on the train to head down to Seward
We stuck our heads out the window of the train to catch the engine crossing the bridge over Mirror Lake.
 

Some more Denali Park Favorites...

Ben and I feeding a reindeer in Talkeetna
The beautiful Polychrome Pass in the Park
An awesome shot of two male caribou about to face off!
The magnificent and jaw-dropping Denali, aka Mt. McKinley
 

the love birds

Ken and Cheryl, Ben's parents, enjoying Denali Park :)
 

I'm gonna be Auntie Lisa!

For those of you who don't know yet, I'm going to be a real aunt come next January!!! My sister Amber is pregnant, and even though we live about 5000 miles apart, I'm so excited and am going to try to be the most kick-ass aunt ever!!!! We'll find out in about 2 weeks if she's going to have a boy or girl...stay tuned!

Her first ultra-sound, can you tell if its a boy or girl?
 

Termination Dust!!!!!

We had our first Termination Dust (first snow of the season) on Saturday!!! And yes, this is very early, WAY to early for me! Some of you probably have heard of the crazy flooding we've had lately. Its been raining for the last 8 days straight, but FINALLY, it cleared up today. Still its cool though, this whole summer has been really cool and short. But we do have all our favorite winter sports to look forward to!
If you look closely on the mountains, you can see spots of snow.
 

An influx of visitors...

The whole gang showed up to visit us this summer... all at once! Parents and cousin and aunt and uncle! We had a blast and it sure was nice to see everybody! I am going to post some random shots from their visit, the sheer randomness of which is bound to urk some people (i.e. Lisa ;) We stopped at Portage Lake to check out some icebergs...
We went to Homer for some halibut fishing, it was a blast and there is more to follow.
A mirrored lake on the train down to Seward, how awesome was this trip, we will be sure to hop the train again this winter for some backcountry advetures!
 

Here is a big bull we ran into in Campbell Creek, right in the middle of town. Moose abound on the parents visit, they even walked right down our street and in our front yard! 

Sled dogs rock! The train to seward.
Cubby.
Kaena.

A Great shot of me and my Cousin and my mom on our way up to the park. Sure was great to see everybody again. Mt. Mckinley is hidden by clouds in the background, but still a great shot.
Diane and Charlie livin it up at Matanuska glacier!
Lloyd and Shirley looking alaskan on the way to the park.
 

here is a shot of Kaena sleeping peacefully twisted 180 degrees. Our dogs are special they are made of silly putty. A great shot that my dad took on the Halibut trip of Ileamna Volcano I think... nonetheless a beautiful picture!
The conductor and his wife on the train to seward, my cousin Mat and my dad went on to take the train back from Denali NP, they are train going professionals!
Another awesome shot of the whale we got to hang with in Resurection bay!
 

Alaskan Grizzles at fish creek, the binoculars got us close enough to these guys to want to get back on the bus. My dad got into the whole denali experience so much that he sprouted a set of antlers of his own!
This is a shot of Horseshoe Lake, at Denali NP, couldnt have been prettier. What a privladge it is to see all these wonderful things.
Lisa and I after running the trail to get there.
 

This is the Gang in Denali NP, we went up Healy overlook trail a ways for the view. We also took the bus into the park a ways and saw a ton of wildlife, in a truly wild place. Here is a shot of a wolf that walked right down the road.
Denali (Mt. Mckinley) from the north side, we have got to that lens cleaned.
some bear shots through the binoculars.... too close for comfort.