July 28, 2013

Today was a beautiful day! We thought we'd get out, take a hike, and enjoy the peace and solitude. Unfortunately, it seemed as if everyone else had the same idea. We drove up to the trailhead for Thunderbird Falls. This is a nice two mile round trip hike. Upon nearing the parking lot trailhead, it was obvious that neither peace nor solitude would be found here. There were cars everywhere! The parking lot was full and people had parked along both sides of the road. We decided to leave this hike for another day and so we headed down toward Mirror Lake.

This 62 acre lake is about thirty minutes north of our home.

 Mirror Lake State Wayside Park was full of people out sunning and swimming. We drove up to the boat launching area.

It was much quieter here with only a handful of others enjoying the beautiful scenery.

 This lake has a maximum depth of about 10 feet and is supposed to be only 6 feet deep in most parts. We had no tackle or else we would have tried to catch something. There are trout and grayling in this lake.

Instead we just walked around, played in the water, and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings.

 We topped off this great afternoon by treating ourselves to burgers on the way back to Anchorage.

Back in Alaska

I returned to Anchorage late last Sunday night and it's taken me about a week to get readjusted to being in Alaska, the cool temperatures, and the long days of sunlight. Today we got out and about.

We took a drive down to Beluga Point.

 It was very windy, as always, but the wind was not bone-chilling cold as it is most of the year. There was just a hint of snow left on some of the mountains across Cook Inlet. There will be much more snow on them soon enough.

On the way back toward town, we stopped at McHugh Creek.

We walked up the trail and checked out the area for a bit.

We took several pictures from the upper area but since we had no bear spray we decided to explore the trails further on another day.

Seward Weekend comes to an end

After lunch and a rest, we decided to drive back into town to pick up a few supplies. The road is tricky, to say the least.

One side of the narrow gravel road hugs the side of the mountains. There is no shoulder on either side of the road. There were a few small rock slides that had happened earlier that day but we were able to drive around them. Our travel was safe and we were able to walk around downtown on that cool afternoon. The harbor area is quite a beautiful area.

We decided to stop at another spot on the bay and fish on the way back.

The wind had picked up quite a bit. We both got lots of nibbles and bites, but neither one of us was able to pull a fish in!

The weather was also working against us. It was cold, around 38, and the wind was really whipping our lines. The wind was gusting at 40 miles per hour at times. Hours later. when it became hard to stand up in the forceful wind and Greg's fingers became numb from cold even in gloves, we packed it up. It was dark when we got back to the cabin so we called it a night. Of course, Greg once again won the Yahtzee games that night. The next morning, we packed up and headed for home. This rest stop just out of Seward shows the amount of snow still on the ground in places.

My car hides behind the piles of snow pushed from the road. Across from that is fallen snow still higher than the log rails that were about 3 feet high. Farther down the road we caught a farewell glimpse at one of Seward's beautiful mountains behind us in the distance. 

We had a great weekend.

 

 Here in Anchorage we have a chance for 1-3 inches of snow Friday night, May 17th, and more on Saturday. Any measurable snow will break a record here. This will be the longest snow season on record, I think since they've been keeping records from like 1917! Wow!

We will be taking a break from the blog as I must return to Tennessee. See you in the late summer.

Seward Birthday Trip Day 2

Remember to click on the pictures to make them larger.

Woke up to a beautiful start to our Saturday morning. It was sunny and the temps in the upper 30s. The winds were relatively calm. After a quick breakfast, we grabbed our gear and set off on the short walk to the beach.

We found a gorgeous place to fish and Greg began to get the new gear ready.

We set about how to properly use these spin cast combos and possibly catch a few fish. It took awhile just to get used to trying to reel in left-handed as most all the reels we've previously were closed faced (meaning the line is hidden within the reel) and you reel with your right hand. Greg said I was doing really well with my new Lady Shakespeare that he got for me a couple of days ago.

 He even tried to say this was part of my birthday present. Well, that and my Alaska sports fishing license! There better be more presents! I'm sure he was only kidding.

We fished in the pretty spot for a bit but only caught seaweed so we moved down the beach. After fishing for more than 3 hours we were fairly comfortable with the new gear but alas, not a single bite.

 It was really hard work as you can tell by this picture.

We eventually decided to go have a bite of lunch and plan our new fishing strategy.

Early Birthday Trip

We left Friday around midmorning en route to Seward.

The drive was beautiful as always. It seems even more so this time of year when spring is starting but the mountains are still covered in snow. We drove to our cottage that we had rented for the weekend.

 It was a nice 2 bedroom with full kitchen and bath and most importantly... near the beach.

What was even better is that thanks to our Northern Lights coupon book, with its buy 1 night get 1 night free coupon, we stayed the whole weekend for $91.

We got settled in and drove into town and ate at the Apollo. We really enjoyed it and of course, ordered the same thing we always do. The service here is always outstanding. We went back to the cottage and after a fiercely fought battle of Yahtzee, called it an early evening.

April showers... of snow!

We haven't done much lately.

 Even though we got 1.3 inches of fresh snow today, the weather seems to finally have turned the corner. There is still plenty of snow still on the ground from the winter. It is starting to slowly melt.



Last weekend we did get out and walk around downtown for awhile. We certainly enjoyed the sunshine. Right now the sun rises at 6:15 am and sets around 9:45 pm., that's a little over 15 hours of sun a day!










These are the sculptures the museum added last year.










These present a different view of some of our local animals.









Maybe the statues represent these wild animals that live within the city limits of a big urban area.

We are planning a trip to Seward this weekend. Hopefully, we will have some interesting pictures by the end of the weekend. The gray whales are migrating through that area so maybe we'll get lucky and see them.

Spring? Not yet.

 It seems that winter won't let go of us here in Alaska. After a nice sunny week with highs in the low 40s, snow returned again this weekend. It keeps coming back just like Jason on those Friday the 13th movies. We decided to get out for awhile Saturday afternoon and make the best of it.












 We probably ended up with close to 10 inches before the snow stopped Saturday night.

But the story doesn't end there! A new winter weather advisory kicks in tomorrow morning.

This advisory has predictions of possibly 12 to 18 inches of new snow before Tuesday morning.

 For now we are leaving our box of summer clothes under the bed!