Campground near portage.

The Zach in all his glory.

Nicole lovin life.

A parting shot, the majestic and so regal nama, living up to his name

Climbing on the Seward Highway

Just minutes from the town of Anchorage Kevin and I found some spots to climb. We headed out about 8 or so one day after work. We were there for the best time of the day. Sunset was about 10:30 on this particular day and we made use of every last drop of the nuclear reaction as it made its way to earth.

It was fun to watch the tides as they came and went from the bay. Turnagain arm is one of the largest tidal changes in the world. Hard to beat the view.

The big fall.

AHHHHH!!!

The next move.

Me on the wall. Bliss like this is hard to find.

The setup.

Climbing outside is better.

Kevin on the real rock tour.

A tree who is confused about which way is up and where the ground is...

Perspective is everything.

There are moose among us!

I think tate pics speak for themselves here..... Alaska rocks!

WOW!!! Check these guys out!

Check out this video: Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo



If these guys are ever ANYWWHERE WITHIN DRIVING DISTANCE OF YOU, you better get your butt down to one of their concerts! Ben and I just went to their concert up here in Anchorage (actually, their first stop in the USA!) and were completely blown away!!! This video will give you a little bit of an idea of what they are about. Seriously, the second best concert from a band I've ever seen! (of course number one being Dave Matthews :) )

Beautiful Alaskan morning!

Ben went canoeing down Portage River yesterday with some friends during a bright and sunny summer day, unfortuneatly I had to work. But I drove down to meet them all for some good camping and fun. Unfortuneatly, again, I had to work this morning, but it was just gorgeous out, I wish I had the camera with me! A totally clear morning, excepts wisps of fog hovering over the rivers. So these webcam shots will have to do to show you the beautiful morning Alaska got to have.

Portage Valley GlacierMajestic Mount McKinley

Halibut Cove Paddling Trip

halibut cove

Lisa and I took a quick trip to Homer to enjoy the great summer weather and spend some time exploring Halibut cove in a kayak. We had a blast. We got to paddle with porpoise and sea otters and see the oyster farms in the bay. We also ate at this restaurant called Saltrys, it was outstanding. You had to get there by boat cuz it was on an island. The whole town including the restaurant was on stilts. The tides really played a huge part in the people lives of this area, changing up to 30 feet. The lagoon had a raging river of a tide that we battled to get back to our campsite. The views were amazing and the quiet peacefulness was refreshing. What a great place to experience.

A spontaneous weekend in Juneau

juneau

So Alaska Airlines dropped the amount of miles it takes to fly within the state of Alaska to 10000, so we were sitting around trying to think of something fun to do for the weekend and we jumped online and grabbed some tickets to Juneau. We had always wanted to go so we just went. It was a blast, Juneau had a ton of character and we loved every minute of the trip. Except for maybe ther restaurant at the top of the tramway, kinda crappy, but the trails and views from the top were excellent. We didnt have time to find a place to stay before we left so we just scoped it out when we got there, ended up staying in the oldest hotel in town, back from the mining days. It was cool, cheap and even had a good band in the bar that night. We walked the city and checked out the mendenahall glacier, which was really huge. We love the downtown and ate at a really good place called Wild spice. Mongollian style grilling with an alaskan twist. We also went on a tour of Tracy Arm, it was the highlight of the trip. They told us there was no room on the boat that we didnt make reservations in time but we showed up early in the morning anyway hoping for a cancellation and got on.... Glad we did boy. There were whales and waterfalls and puffins and seals and calving glaciers and sea green waters and we couldnt have had more fun. Check out the pictures and if you ever get the chance to visit Juneau do it.

An epic journey over crow's pass...

Crow's Pass

Though these pictures are neat they definitly do not capture the spirit and grandure of this great hike. Walk the miles if you ever get the chance...

I included captions and approximate locations of most pictures on google earth. Check it out. It was a great hike that we will never forget. 27 miles over a mountain pass with every kind of extreme weather and terrain. Some of the highlights included glaciers, 2 black bears and 2 very large bull moose who made it clear that they were not city dwellers but the real wild deal, frozen water crossings flinging rocks down slippery river beds, new canyons bieng carved by glaciers and streams, mud slicked descents through head high grasses in the heart of a bear superhighway... Sound extreme? Welcome to Alaska.

Day at the Dog Park

Took the puppies to the dog park the other day, man did they wear us out! They sure love it though....especially the swimming part. If you see close enough to the last photo, you'll notice Kaena drinking as she swims, now thats multitasking!

Dipnetting for Salmon

A few weekends ago, Ben and I ventured down to Kasilof on the Kenai Peninsula to try our hand at dipnetting. Its a way of fishing that only Alaskans are allowed to do, so to say the least, it was quite the redneck showing! Either way, we had a lot of fun, especially after Ben built his own dipnet after seeing it would cost $140 to buy. We got down there just in time for sunset, slept on the beach then woke up early, 4am early, to say good morning to the fish!

A great sunset shot, with a sundog in the sky, and a boat coming in after the long day.

Ben whittling his own club/bat to knock the fish silly!

Some birds playing in the surf

The fishermen lined up waiting for a fish to swim in their nets, and the birds waiting for the guts after theyre cleaned....eewwwww!

FISH ON!!!! OR IN!!!!!

Some action shots of the fisherman at work!

Dipnetting in Kasilof

When the tide went out in the morning, all the boats were grounded and doing an erie tilt

Redoubt volcano in the background of some of the early dipnetters across the river from us

On our drive home, we were so so so tired, we stopped by this lake to take a nap....almost hard to fall asleep with the view!

The beautiful reds Ben caught...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!