Flight seeing Mt. McKinley!!!

Well, what a day we had yesterday. Our plans were to arrive in Talkeetna, get Jack and Alexis on a flight seeing trip and Marea and I were going to try the high speed river boats. When we arrived, Jack proceeded to order us 4 seats on the plane! I was in shock. I have never been on a small plane before and I was so scared. The story evolves from there. We got on a little Cessna 185 with a young pilot named Eric. He was very nice and very cautious and I was still really scared! LOL We got our seats (a five seater airplane) and took off. I was still really scared but all seemed well and I started to enjoy the flight. We got close to the mountain when Eric noticed a noise in the engine that he didn't like and told us we would have to go back to the airport. Okay, that really scared me, but he assured us that there was nothing serious, just concerning and we were fine. Whew! We made it back and landed. Got to our new plane with an older pilot named Rick. Rick had flown in the Navy for 20 years and had been with K2 Aviation for 10 years, assured us we would be fine and something going wrong with the airplanes were very rare. We were soon laughing at this statement because our next plane wouldn't even start! He said in 10 years he didn't know of a family who had been moved off two different planes. I was beginning to question whether the Lord was trying to tell us to leave the airport and go to the riverboats! LOL We cautiously got on our third airplane and all seemed well again, until we had taxied a little bit near the runway and Rick announced that he had to get off the plane and screw on the oil cap that was sitting on the top of the plane! Jack and Marea continued to laugh, but the humor of the whole thing had left me by that time and I was ready to get OUT of the plane. I didn't and boy am I glad I didn't! Rick took us on one of the most amazing adventures I have ever been on! The pictures will explain most of it!
Getting ready to head up in the air on the FIRST airplane!
Our third aircraft was named Big Fart Sky Goober. Okay, no comment.
The shadow of our plane.

Our first and far away views of Denali (Mt. McKinley) with it being on the right side.

Neighborhood moose adventures

Here is a little story in photos of a young bull moose (what we call a spike in the neighborhood) and a neighbor's dog. They seemed to be just having fun with each other. Had the bull moose decided he was tired of playing I am sure he could have done some real damage to the dog. But from what we were able to see, they just enjoyed playing with each other.

Sights on the Major Marine cruise in Seward

A 'wall' of Black Tailed Kittewakes. They were everywhere!!
I didn't get many good photos of the pod of Orcas we were able to follow for about 45 minutes. We got to see them breech and they actually cornered themselves up near a beach, but seemed to be having a blast jumping and swimming.
Stellar Sea Lions sunning and swimming. The sounds they make are just too cool!

I can't seem to edit this duplicate picture out of my post. Sorry about that.
One of my new favorite birds, the Horned Puffin. Usually we see lots of these in Seward, but there were very few yesterday. I just love this picture.

We have been on numerous cruises out of Seward but had never got to view the Mountain Goats. Yesterday they were everywhere! They were pretty far away so this picture is fully zoomed in and then edited and cropped so the quality isn't too good, but hopefully you can see what he looks like. Pretty beautiful!

Sights from the Alaska Train

We have family visiting and one of the wonderful things to do here in Alaska is get on board the Alaskan Railroad and take the train to Seward. The ride is amazing. You relax aboard your rail car with huge windows and wonderful young adults narrating and pointing out wildlife. There is a bar, a dining car and bubble cars for better viewing. Although it is relaxing it is a bit long. 4.5 hours each way (in what would normally be a 2.5 hour drive), but I can't complain. It was spectacular. Most of my pictures don't do the sights justice, but hopefully you can feel a little bit of the beauty of Alaska through them.

There is a huge glacier behind the train. The color shot was nice, but the black and white just seemed to fit my feelings as I watched the front of the train out my middle window.

Once arriving in Seward, the most popular thing to do is to board one of the many cruise boats for a 3-8 hour cruise of Resurrection Bay and the beauty and majesty of God's creation. Our chosen cruise line this time was Major Marine and this was our catamaran 'The Star of the Northwest.' Included in our 5 hours cruise was an all-you-can-eat Salmon and Prime Rib lunch along with commentary from a National Park Ranger. The weather was surprisingly beautiful in Seward where much of the time it is rainy and windy. We had very little wind and a few clouds, but overall it was just beautiful.

The river is rising

Click here for the previous river picture. Click here for the river just as the ice was breaking up. Click here when it still had ice and some snow cover and click here for the river in the winter. I will keep talking pictures of the river as it begins to rise and flood during the summer.

First Alaskan adventure of the summer

Richard, a dear friend and fishing buddy to Ralph and I, privileged me with a trout fishing trip to the lake using the beautiful wooden canoe he built himself. What an evening. I was able to put out my 'gone fishing' sign and join Richard at a local lake just behind my friend Nancy's house. There were no trout because of something being done to the lake, but the evening was beautiful and I was able to conquer my fear of deep water combined with little canoes! LOL Richard taught me to paddle and turn and I was even able to relax enough to do some trout fishing. We are hoping the water calms down enough by the end of the week to go again and actually catch some lake trout. I also got a bonus of beautiful bird watching while rowing. Here is a grebe and a goldeneye. Wish I could have gotten a little closer, but was happy to get these pictures.

Back to Alaska!

Back to Alaska. Guess what? Summer arrived while I was in MN. The days are LONG, the sun has been shining some and the temperatures are much better. We are running in the 60s and 70s now and the sun sets around 11:30pm! Here are a few pictures of my flowers. I have a limited ability to grow anything, so I just do the basics here in our yards. I love my logs for the plants.
Along with arriving home came Kyle much anticipated driving permit. He has started driving in our area and is doing well as long as he is driving the automatic. LOL
Of course no return to Alaska would be complete without getting the fishing supplies loaded into the car! Can you tell I can't wait to start catching fish??

The MN TWINS!!

We had am amazing treat while we were in MN. Not only was Sunday, May 27 Military Appreciate Day at the Metrodome enabling us to get in free, but our friends were able to get the Navare suite to sit and watch the game in! We had such a wonderful time. These pictures were taken in the suite.

This one was taken from some of the seats we had in the park.
I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the ceiling of the metrodome. Pretty cool place.

A few more MN happenings...

Curtis and Kyle playing on a friend's moped, in the pizza parlor parking lot.
The rides at the Mall of America. Beth and Kyle with some friends.

Kyle at the MN airport, with his buddy SNOOPY.

A couple more...from the MN Arboretum

MN wildlife

While at the MN Arboretum we saw this family of Canada geese. Aren't they adorable?
This one was sitting on her nest.