Denali National Park

Our Poser Moose

          Our day at Denali National Park was good but definitely not what we had hoped for.  The weather was beautiful, except you could no longer see Mount McKinley.  We discovered while on our tours, that Mt McKinley was only visible approximately 30 days a year.   We were very fortunate to have take pictures the day prior because we never saw it again the rest of the trip.  Prior to departing for our trip we did fairly little planning, choosing against our norm to be more spontaneous on this trip and hopefully profit from a more relaxed less time constrained vacation.  There were only a couple of things we actually planned and I will say the time constraints introduced by those events definitely negatively impacted other events that were actually much more enjoyable part of the vacation.  This fact, coupled with the fact that the "planned" events cost considerably more money than any of the other activities we participated is pretty persuasive to the idea of open schedule vacation time.

          We are not "tour" type people.  In general we opt to read up on an area and show ourselves around, unless a tour is required.  The one tour we signed up for on this trip has convinced me that is the plan we should stick to for all future endeavours.  When we ordered our tour online, it was much more built up and vaguely misleading about what we would get for our tour.  Let's start with the morning part of the tour in Jeeps.  We arrived for our tour, after having driven the 8 hours from Anchorage to Fairbanks the day prior and the hour and 45 minutes back down from Fairbanks that morning.  The Jeep tour was to be 5 hours down a road through Denali National Park.  We had been led to believe this tour would take us to places we would be unable to go without being on the tour-- wrong!  We could have simply driven our own car down the road at our own pace.  Aggravation number one.  Second, we arrived to find that the tour was booked in such a way that you had to share your jeep with total strangers.  The people who shared our Jeep were nice enough but it was a bit awkward driving along with complete strangers for 5 hours just stopping at scenic sites to take pictures.  There was nothing much historically significant to the area so pretty much all we were doing was driving and stopping to take pictures at different sites on a road we could have driven by ourselves.  Hmm.  Well lets just say, they sell that tour really well.  I did get some beautiful pictures, but who cant get beautiful pictures pretty much anywhere in Alaska!?  Halfway through the drive, Chris who had been driving quite a bit on this trip already, tried to trade off driving with the other man who had also signed to be a driver.  The man actually said, "No thanks, I have really been enjoying just going along for the ride".  REALLY? Now we just felt glorified chauffeurs.  The whole time I couldn't help thinking about how much money I had paid out for this craziness and I kept kicking myself.  But then, I thought, maybe the second half of the tour -the ATV riding- would make up for the dismal start.

Another Glacier from a distance.   

Shy Moose -- I was the only one on the tour able to catch her picture
It is amazing how quickly such a large animal can disappear

  

          After the Jeep tour, we walked around the town (both blocks) for a few minutes and checked out the locations to eat.  We stopped in the place that was recommended only to be ignored for so long that we left to find another place to eat.  The place where we ended up was actually pretty good.  We had an enjoyable lunch and then headed out for an action packed afternoon (2 hours) riding ATVs.  Again, the  company did a really good job of selling an afternoon of ATV trail riding.  It wasn't a bad time, however, nearly half the people in the group had never been on an ATV and had no business getting on one.  Almost the entire route was dirt roads not trails, we moved at an incredible slow pace (so as not to cause difficulty for those who were beginners), and we spent nearly half the time stopped, milling around at overlooks.  I had just really expected/wanted to ride ATVs and enjoy the ride so I was a bit disappointed.   I have no pictures of this ride because I didn't want to take my good camera out riding ATVs.  At the end of the day, we saw some pretty country, caught a glimpse of two moose, and had an enjoyable time together despite all the weirdness.  Oh yeah, we learned we are most certainly NOT tour people, and it will be quite sometime if not NEVER before we go on a tour again.

Sunrise/Sunset -- Not sure there was a
distinction between the two -- This was
at about 11PM

The sky over  the Alaskan Mountain
Range at 11 o'clock at night  The darkest
it got while we were in Alaska

After our time in Denali National Park we headed back to Anchorage and to what would turn out to be the most enjoyable part of our trip.  We made our way down to Seward Alaska.

Anchorage

Imagine my surprise when I opened up my "Anchorage" draft blog and it was a blank slate. Wow, I really thought I had actually begun writing this blog a few days or maybe it was weeks ago. It seems every day things come up that I want to blog about but the time just eludes me. Well, at least I'm getting another segment of our Alaska trip (July) into the books now that it is October.

We arrived in Alaska after a truly enjoyable and relaxing day. It was nice to talk and hang out with Chris in the Delta lounge, travelling stress(kid)free through the airports, and sitting in first class for the long flight to Anchorage. It was also nice to have the opportunity to read a book. I so rarely get to enjoy a book these days. I actually only took one book with me, "Gifted Hands" the Ben Carson Story, and was over half way through the book in the first two hours of the flight so I put it down to save for the flight home. It really is an amazing book, detailing an amazing life story, and some incredible insight into the American Dream. My first impression of Alsaka: Such beautiful country if you can overlook the slums that make up nearly all of the city/residential areas. Anchorage is not a beautiful city and I kept wondering where all the newer homes were. I had flashes of images from my trip to the Dominican Republic ( a third world country ) during high school. There were piles of trash everywhere, and half built buildings etc. . . It was a bit disturbing. Such a tragedy that a beautiful land like that is marred by unkept areas and piles of trash dumped anywhere and everywhere.

When we arrived in Anchorage we were surprised with a lovely upgrade in our free rental car, as we were given a Chevy Tahoe to drive for the week. I'm not a huge Chevy fan, but it sure was nice to drive around in comfort rather than in the compact car we had originally selected. We Valet parked the car at the hotel and checked in. We decided to leave most of the bags (especially the hiking and camping gear) in the vehicle rather than toting it all up to the room for one night. After getting freshened up we headed to dinner. It felt like midnight but with the bright light outside (Alaska had 20 hours of sunlight per day during the time we were there) it seemed like it was 1700, and in fact it was 2100. Talk about getting your system completely messed up. We had dinner at a place in town that Chris had gone to on several previous business trips: Glacier Brewhouse. Even being 2100 on a Sunday night the place was PACKED and loud. The food was pretty good as was the service, but it was so loud and not at all what I wanted after a long day of travelling. In keeping with being in Alaska, we tried to eat things that were not readily available at home or were supposed to be "good" in Alaska. Chris had the salmon and I had Haddock. We ate and went back to the hotel to crash.

The hotel room was comfortable and we slept well, I was thankful for the black out curtains on the window. At this point I didn't realize just how awesome those curtains really are. Trust me, at other locations I was painfully aware of the need for those curtains. We slept til we felt like getting up and then packed up and headed out for the day. We were headed out about 0930 to go for breakfast at a place that came highly recommended: Snow City Cafe. Unfortunately we didn't get to breakfast until after 1000, as the valet parking attendant LOST our car. It turned into a big ordeal as they actually switched our vehicle for another and then couldn't figure out which car was whose. It cost us a bit of strife and some time and our valet parking for the night was free (imagine that) We were shocked to get to Snow City Cafe (a breakfast place) and find the line out the door. The place actually takes reservations for breakfast. Fortunately they have a to go counter where you can order coffee while you wait, and they have awesome coffee. So we drank our coffee and waited for a table. The service was good and the food was great but the food was in HUGE quantities. There is no way I could have ever eaten it all. It was one of those times I regretted not having a fridge or a couple kids (even a dog)to take the leftovers to. It seemed like such a waste. After breakfast we drove down to the bay to take a few pictures, and then headed north out of town towards Fairbanks. Fairbanks is quite a haul from Anchorage but we had time and nothing to do but see the sights.

Not a Chevy Tahoe, but what Valet parking brought to us

As we left town we chose to drive onto Arctic Valley Road on base property. We were over at the base to drop off Chris' suit for our "nice" dinner later in the week. It was a really pleasent drive and we took many pictures and were able to get an awesome view down over the city of Anchorage. So far lots of plant life, mountains, water, and beautiful views, but no wildelife, but the trip had only just begun. As we drove north, from over a hundred miles out Denali became visible. It was a beautiful sight to watch all day as we got closer and closer. It is so enormous. We also passed a place called Thunderbird Falls. I am a huge Waterfall lover so we determined that when we came back down from Fairbanks we would hike to Thunderbird Falls. One thing we noted and thought was pretty cool, was there was a bike path as wide as a car nearly the entire length of the highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks. As we got closer to Denali they had a couple of view points for picture taking. We got out and took a few pictures (we had no idea how special those pictures were, and if we had I would have taken more).  The day was filled with amazing sites.  We saw our first moose (they were not very plentiful), and a river that is incapable of supporting life.  After driving all day, we finally arrived at the Bed and Breakfast in Faribanks. What a beautiful cabin.

Anchorage from Arctic Valley Road

Valley picture from Arctic Valley Road

                                                

Part of the Alaskan Mountain Range

Alaskan Moiuntain Range

Funky old abandoned builing on the way to Fairbanks

Alaskan Mountatin Range

Alaskan Mountain range

River that contains no life -- Too much silt as it is run off from Glacier

Our first Moose and she didn't look very healthy

 More of our first Moose sighting

 We determined to stay in a Bed and Breakfast because it is actully cheaper to stay in them than most hotels in Alaska. That was another shock. It is incredibly expensive to live in or visit Alaska. We dropped our stuff at the B&B and headed to dinner at what would turn out to be one of my favorite meals of the entire trip: Silver Gulch. It is out in the middle of nowhere, and from the outside it looks like a big metal warehouse. The area it is in is not exceptionally nice and I would actually call it the "back-woods". I kept asking Chris if he was sure we were going to the right place, and at one point I think even he was concerned, however he answered that he new it was in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough there it was. Despite its exterior, it was amazing on the inside, dinner was AWESOME and I wished I could eat there every day. After dinner, we went back to the Bed and Breakfast to get rested for our busy day of sight seeing in Denali National Park the next day. Unfortunatley, as beautiful as the Cabin was there was an enormous window (you will see in the pictures), and it let TONS of light in all night long. It was one of the worst nights sleep I got the entire time we were in Alaska. These things, combined with the other guests being horribly loud and rude at all hours and the hot water never getting any more than luke warm (who wants to use a jacuzzi tub filled with cold water?) all led to the night at the B&B being a bit of a disappointment. However, there was a redeeming quality, the daughter of the B&B owner was wonderfully nice. She packed us two brown bags of snack/breakfast foods for the next day since we were not going to be there for the meal. There were bagels, and homemade cookies, and bananas, and granola bars, and bottled water and orange juice and more. It was awesome to have those snack bags with us that day.

Our room in the B&B

View from the B&B

Flowers  at the B&B

The B&B

                     

One of my favorites!

Stage One: Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa

      As I stated before, we had a wonderful, if not long, drive to Ohio.  Olivia's bladder cooperated and we drove straight through with minimal stopping.  I was so glad we decided to drive up on Thursday and and spend a couple days resting in Ohio before embarking on our trip.  It was an enjoyable weekend.  With no holiday to contend with we were able to just hang out.  We found out at some point, I believe on Wednesday or Thursday, that my brother Stephen would be having surgery to remove a cyst on Friday morning.  So, that morning Dad picked up Stephen's boys, Mom and I packed a picnic lunch, we loaded all the kids and bikes and headed to the park/lake.  After Mom and I walked with Olivia, and we fed all the boys, we left the boys with Dad and went to the store to do "girl" stuff.  More specifically, we went to pick out the finishing touches for a couple dresses that grandma is making for Olivia.  Mom has made her two already, and Olivia absolutely LOVES the dresses she makes.  As a matter of fact, yesterday she said to me "I wish you could sew dresses like Grandma".  Well, I do too, and I'm trying to learn, but. . .  there are only so many hours in a day and Grandma (my teacher) lives 12 hours away.  That night I picked up Chris from the airport and Mom, Dad, Chris and I all went out for dinner at the local Irish Place.  It was a nice meal with adult chatter.  We bought the kids pizza and left them at Mom and Dad's place.
        On Saturday, we had an awesome breakfast, courtesy of my Mom, who loves to cook breakfast.  We went to the bikeway alog the river on Saturday and Zeke ran while the Caden and Olivia road bikes with Chris walking next to/near  Mom and I, and Dad rode his bike.  Mom had a 7 mile walk to do in prep for walking the AF Half Marathon (that is another story).  It was a a really enjoyable couple of hours. The next morning Chris and I saw everyone off to church and then loaded up our bags and drove to the airport to head for Alaska.  During the planning stages, as you will remember, Chris had decided not to use additional miles and upgrade me to first class.  I was totally bummed.  He gets to ride first class all the time and I have never gone anywhere first class.  Anyway, Saturday night before we left, he got a message from the airline that despite asking to have his name removed from upgrade eligible, he had been upgraded to first class.  Personally, I think God had his hand in that. . . .  So, rather than remove himself, I was pleasantly surprised the next morning by first class travel to Alaska.  I must say, it is the way to fly.  The airports were so much easier without kids in tow, and using Chris access to the Delta Sky lounge was wonderful.  It  was the first time (other than when I was part of the crew) in a long time, that flying was an enjoyable experience.  After a very long day, we arrived in Alaska.

Pre-Alaska

           Our Alaska planning was probably the worst planning I have ever done. At first my heart wasn't really in it. The trip was a last minute replacement to a trip that we both really wanted to go on which was already a replacement trip for our originally planned vacation to Ireland. Although, Alaska has always been a place I have dearly wanted to go, I was bummed about the other trips, and so busy that it was hard to find time to sit and think through options to determine a course of action. The few times Chris and I sat down together, it seemed we were not on the same sheet of music. It wasn't that he wanted to do things different than I wanted to do. It was more like nothing seemed to appeal to him. The only thing we could agree on was eating. We both love good food. So, early on in the planning process we settled on where we would have dinner every night of the trip, even to the point of having reservations 3 of the nights. We also chose, in advance, one breakfast place as it was recommended by a friend. Our choices for eating dictated where we would be and thus our activities and our lodging selections. We were able to use Chris' airline miles and some vouchers from delayed flights to get our flights virtually free. I was a tad upset when he wouldn't spring the extra miles to upgrade me to 1st class. I have never flown 1st class, but since he flies ALL THE TIME, he is automatically upgraded nearly every flight (or at least whenever possible). ** pay attention because this will come up again later ** We were also able to use his Rental Car miles for a free car, and his hotel points (Marriott and Hilton) for all but 3 of our nights there. The other three nights we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast, and at a Army MWR facility. The only other thing we planned ahead was one tour which was supposed to be 5 hours of off road jeep excursion and 2 ours on ATV's, which really turned out to be an abysmal disappointment (more on that later). We did learn from our one tour, that they sell you way more than they give you (which we really already knew) which is why we really aren't tour people to begin with and won't ever make that mistake again.

            As our trip to Alaska approached, I resolved, if nothing else, to relax and leave the busy hectic life behind. Unfortunately, Chris' work schedule dictated that I essentially do all the preparation in the weeks prior to our relaxing vacation. I had to prepare: Our bags for 7 days in Alaska to include hiking gear, camping gear, and clothing for a nice dinner out. I also had to pack for 3 kids to go to my parents house for that time, and prepare the house, yard, Russell, and the dogs, for the rest of us to be gone for 14 days. Additionally, I had to make running clothes for us to take with us to D.C. after Alaska, as Chris, Zeke, and I were to run/hike 100.1 miles between 1 and 11 Aug. Of course, I couldn't do ZERO school work with the kids, over a two week period, just 5 weeks into our school term, so I had to determine what I wanted to take with us and organize all of that too. All in all this meant a lot of packing, sorting, cleaning, lawn work, pool prep, shopping etc. . . By the time I got up to drive, straight through, from FL to OH, just me and the three kids, three bikes, and all our packed stuff. . . . I was truly ready for that vacation. Miraculously, and thankfully, it was the most uneventful and stress free long distance drive that I have made in a very long time.

I'm Back. New and Improved

So, I started this blog a while back primarily to allow my extended family, who live a considerable distance from us, the opportunity to know what was going on in our lives. At the time I was not a Facebook user and I love to write, so it seemed the perfect outlet to share. Eventually, I succumbed to the pressure and opened a Facebook account. Having a Facebook account led to shorter more frequent posts and easy photo uploading. I even suggested my Grandmother get an account, and she did. After a while, pretty much everyone I cared to share with was on Facebook and it seemed to diminish the need for a blog. Gradually I wrote less and less until finally resulting in a couple years worth of inactivity. Recently I realized that although I post quite a bit on Facebook still, it does not function as a record or a diary of sorts like this blog once did. I miss being able to look back and read about what we were thinking, feeling, and doing at a particular time.
I also missed writing. I love to write and for a time this blog offered me an outlet. There have been many things I desired to write about, AND HOW, in the past couple years. There just isn't the format or the space on Facebook, to properly express some things. All this brings me to today, and the revival of my blog. It will not look exactly as it's original intent. This time, I will endeavor to use this as an outward expression of who I am. That being said, my children and our little home school are a big part of my life so I am sure they will continue to be a big part of this blog.

Remember Live Life
You can sleep when you are dead.

Next Blog: Alaska

Better Late Than Never-- Fourth of July

Ok, I know that could double as the permanent title of my Blog because it seems I am always playing catch-up. I am going to try remember all the wonderful events of our July Fourth Weekend. It really started the Monday before with Chris, Russell, Caden, and the two Daschunds (Balou and Mischief) driving the truck down to the house in Florida. We needed the truck in Florida for when we were down there for the rest of the month after the holiday. First, we decided to pack some more boxes to take down to that house. We have been slowly going through things and sending them back to the house in Florida in preparation for moving back down there permanently in a couple years. Then, we decided it would be a nice time for Russell to go along with Chris to keep him company. As we planned we realized that since we were leaving from my parents house straight for Florida, we would have all the dogs with us. NOT a great combination for a long trip and stopping at someone's house (with no fenced in yard). So, we decided Chris and Russell would take Balou and Mischief with them and our friends in FL graciously agreed to watch them for 4 days -- until we were able to get down there. At the last minute, Chris offered to take Caden with them because he is such a good traveller. So it was settled. Chris drove down with two dogs and the two boys and then flew back up to Dayton, while I took two dogs, Zeke and Olivia and met them Dayton.

The travel plans went off without a hitch and we were all settled in Dayton on the evening of 1 July. We had a wonderful Saturday hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, and a great Sunday service at Grandpa's church (although I must say, I am not one for the military recognition services - It makes me feel awkward to stand up in front of all those people just because I served in the military) This year we started off our Fourth of July Celebration with a race. Chris, Caden, Zeke, Aunt Kristi, and I all ran the Vandalia Freedom Run 5K. It was a great flat fast course. Chris ran with Caden and Zeke and I ran together. Well Chris ran with Caden and Zeke ran off and left me. LOL. Caden finished the race in an amazing 31:46 and Zeke ran a 24:18. After the race we went back to my Mom's house and Chris slow cooked ribs on the grill and all the cousins played. It was really an enjoyable time. Towards the end of the day we celebrated Toby's birthday and ate lots of yummy cupcakes. My only regret being that at their new house we can't set off our own fireworks anymore. We did watch some from the bedroom window but it just isn't the same.

Unfortunately, as always seems to be the case, we were on a pretty tight time table. The next morning we had to leave headed to Florida on "vacation". Zeke and Caden road with grandma because we were all gonna stop at Great Grandma's house first and then we were gonna head on down leaving grandma to spend some time at her mother's house. Traffic was a nightmare, but we finally arrived and were able to spend a bit of a whirlwind visit with great-grandma before heading south. We finally arrived in Florida early in the morning of the 6th, but what happens in Florida is a topic for another Blog . . . Soon I promise. . .

The world is Different through Olivia's eyes

Olivia is an amazing little girl. Every day she amazes me. Today, Zeke and I took her with us on our weekly hike. This meant that I had to carry her on my back in our hiking pack -- It isn't that she wouldn't walk, because she would walk every mile with us. It is that her 12 inch legs don't walk that fast and we don't have all day. So thankfully she still only weighs 23 pounds and up into the pack she went. Of course she loves to talk and has so much to say. We had many conversations on our 7 mile hike along the Appalachian Trail today. Some of them made me laugh out loud and others left me amazed. She started out pointing out all the big boulders to Zeke so that he wouldn't trip (which he did frequently anyway -- I think size Nine feet are just more than a ten year old can handle --LOL) . She was also sure to remind Zeke to be careful around the logs that fell down because snakes like to hide under them, and she admonished us for not bringing walking sticks with us. As we walked, she was sure to say hi to every person that passed us , and as "how's it going". Of course well before this she had already told us the number and gender of every approaching person, and was sure to comment as to wether they had a walking stick with them or a dog. At some point she actually seemed to be categorizing hikers as those with dogs and those with walking sticks. She even made a comment that people with dogs carried leashes and didn't have walking sticks. She was also sure to tell each and every dog walker that she liked their pretty dog. And noted quite happily when one of them finally said thank-you to her. "See mommy -- he said thank-you -- That's the first one" (first to say thank you that is).

I did have to explain to her at one point that the people passing by did not need to hear everything about us. Right after she started talking to a man and his two sons as they approached. It went something like this " We just walked to where the cars are parked down there, and ate a snack. I shared my jelly bean with Zeke and Mommy, but now we are walking back to our car fast because mommy needs to pee." Ok -- TMI. Thankfully she got the point when I talked to her and after that she limited her conversations to Hi -- how's it going -- I like your dog. She did comment very loudly at one point after a guy with no shirt on passed us --" EWE -- he had no shirt on and his ninnies were showing -- thats yucky" and she almost commented about the very LARGE topless man that passed us but I saw him approaching as the EWE came out of her mouth and managed to stop her from saying anything potentially embarrassing.

At one point I wondered to myself. What would Olivia do if she found herself alone and on this trail. So I asked her. "Olivia, if you were lost out her on this trail standing right here and mommy and Zeke were not with you, What would you do?" To which she answer: Hmmm "cry" . I laughed out loud. I believe it too. Then she decided she wanted to try to sound out and spell words so we spent a few minutes sounding out and spelling D-O-G and C-A-T and M-O-M.

The most remarkable thing about Olivia on the trail is her amazing attention to detail. She pointed out every White Blaze along the trail and the two Blue Blazes. She pointed out a turtle she saw, and the triangle shaped leaves on a vine and the heart shaped leaves, and the red mushroom, and a whole host of other amazing little details that we passed in the forrest. We will have to take her with us more often just so we can enjoy the trail through her eyes.

The Boys have Run Amuck . . .

The second week of June Olivia spent the night at a friends house and the boys and I got up at 5 am to head to Quantico. I signed the boys up to run the Marine Corps Run Amuck race. For the boys over 10 (Ezekiel and Russell) it was a 3.5 mile run with 10 obstacles, 3 mud pits, and 2 PT stations. For Caden, it was a 1 mile run with obstacles and one mud pit. I was so thankful to have decided at the last minute NOT to take Olivia. She would have been bored and miserable the entire day. It was a great experience for all of the boys though. There were 3,000 runners in the BIG race, and Zeke and Russell beat almost 2500 of them. Zeke was not too happy with his race. I was not running and being unsure of the obstacles I told him he had to stay with Russell (not the runner). They did well, but Zeke was upset that he was unable to run out on his own and put up a better time -- Oh well, there is always next time. Caden did awesome as well. He ran his entire race in just over 10 minutes (obstacle and all). It was the first race he had to run by himself since usually in the "fun" runs one of us runs with him. He was so determined and made me very proud of him.

Everyone is looking forward to the next race. 4th of July the whole family is running the Independence Day Run in Vandalia Oh. Caden and Russell have been running 2 miles together almost every day. Caden has even run 3 whole miles without stopping. Caden decided he wanted to run the big race this time. So, Russell(being NOT a runner LOL) said he would push Olivia in the jog stroller and run with Caden. They keep a steady 10 minute pace for 3 miles -- Not bad for a 5 year old. Olivia is just happy when Russell sprints every now and then because she likes to go fast and feel the wind in her face. LOL.