Alaskan Summer - Our Second Summer!

Now that our second summer is over (yes summer defnitely is over here!), we will finally get around to posting some highlights. Thanks to everyone who made the trek up to the land of the great north!

To kick-off a most wonderful summer, the Salt Lake City Burians came to visit. We had a great time with Carson, Cindy and Steve. The weather was record-breaking warm and we went to Denali National Park. North America's highest peak, Mt. McKinley (aka Denali at 20,000 feet) was in full glory (it's only visible about 30% of the time!). It would be a lie to say that "oh, it's always this nice in late April." The Burians must be living right! On that trip, we saw ptarmigan, caribou, Dall sheep and even a wolf.




Then, we completed a 26-mile bike ride around Eklutna Lake on Mother's Day. Hope, though pulled by Nic on her trail-a-bike (kiss the person who invented that if you see him - it's awesome!!), managed to ride 26 miles and pedal her third of the bike for 5 hours. By mile 20 Nic and I were exhausted and we weren't talking much. We had seen a bear on the ride up near a loud, running stream and the best way to avoid bear encounters is to make noise. Hope pulled her weight and sang the Great States song about 50 times, in honor of each of the 50 states. We rewarded ourselves with malts and ice cream cones when we got back to the trailhead!

For Memorial Day, the Brandes bunch from Colorado came over! It was so much fun to see our nephew Sawyer! Nic and Hope were able to spend some fun times hiking with Will and Becky and little soy sauce as Hope has nicknamed him (Hope LOVES soy sauce, so it's really a loving term of endearment).
Will and Hope at Flat Top:Can you spot little Saywer in the backpack with Becky and Will?

A few weeks after Will, Becky and Sawyer left, we tried our hand at digging razor clams. We loaded up Dora and went to the Kenai peninsula. Below is Jolie and Hope with the clam gun. Again, such amazing weather and scenery!

We did have some rainy days, and one of those was Father's Day. We hiked up near Arctic Valley ski area. It snowed at the top! We had fun bouncing on the tundra (it's really bouncy - who knew??).

To start off Hope at Camp Grandparents, Jolie flew with her to Vermont for 4th of July. We saw fireworks over Lake Champlain from Cedar Cove's large windows. It was our third July 4th in Vermont. I only stayed a few days, then I was back to Alaska to help with some of the wildfires in Fairbanks. Nic was already working on some of the fires there. Hope went to the North Hero summer camp and made some new friends. After about 10 days in VT, Pam flew with Hope to New Orleans to start session 2 of Camp Grandparents with my parents. This is Hope's third summer at Camp Grandparents - and she loves it. As long as the Grandparents are offering sessions, we'll sign her up!

Above, GramPam is rescuing Hope's tube.

Then, the Troxclair Clan arrived in tow with Hope from the deep south. Jolie's mom, Judy, Aunts Rose, Maureen, Suzanne, and Bernice and Uncle Ken descended upon Alaska! We had a great time visiting and cooking and exploring Homer and Seldovia. Nic and Ken did a halibut charter and we are enjoying their catch still. Judy and Rose

Ken and Bernice

Everyone took lots and lots of photos.

Beach in Homer



And finally, here's a picture of the other days in our summer. Poor, deprived Hope having to make toys with cardboard boxes.

When Hope was visiting the Lower 48 Jolie and Nic took advantage of our Alaska residency and went dipnetting. Our family was allowed up to 75 fish. We did not quite get that many, but we do have a couple nice size ones in the freezer for this winter. It is not a quiet, solo, wilderness experience. Think county fair/carnival crowd. Quite the mix of Alaskans.
Continuing our subsitence gathering we went blueberry picking again this fall. We are getting better at finding the right spots. The tundra changes colors and the ocean and sky make for some great scenery in the fall.