The eagle near the mountain goats.
Here is a better shot of another mountain goat.
Puffins were EVERYWHERE on our cruise! It was so much fun to see them.
Nearing the end of our cruise. Kat and I were trying to take a picture of ourselves when a nice gentleman offered to take our picture. It was so warm and just perfect outside. Notice the BLUE skies...a rare thing for Seward, AK.
As we approached Seward again we were able to get a nice shot of the Alaska Sealife Center
Kat and I chose to cruise with ReNown cruises. This was our ship. It was a wonderful cruise. Here you will see some of the wildlife we were able to see.
Sea Otters are everywhere in the Seward area. Isn't he cute?
This was the most amazing experience. Dall Porpoises started swimming with our ship. These were right near the bow. I was actually hanging over the bow getting these pictures of them in the water. Amazing!
What does this look like? Kat and I both called it Lion's Rock.
This is a nanny Mountain Goat with a baby. It is hard to see and a little blurry, but hopefully you get the picture. It was WAY up on the mountain. Near it were two eagles. The naturalist on our cruise told us the eagles will actually knock the baby goats off the mountain and have them for dinner. We were so glad this momma goat was doing a good job protecting her baby.
This was Kat's birthday! I planned our trip to Seward on the train and the cruise ship for this special day. What a day we had. Here is Kat getting all settled in on the train for a wonderful birthday!
Here was her birthday breakfast on the dining care of the train. We had eggs and reindeer sausage! It was great.
The Alaska Train and a beautiful glacier. Lots of fireweed in bloom right now.
As we arrived in Seward I pointed out Mt. Marathon. Each year on July 4th, crazy people come here and race up and down this mountain. The record is 1 hour 42 minutes, with lots of scraps, bruises and some broken bones. You can clearly see the trail they take.
A fishing charter boat had just arrived back from what looked to be a really good salmon day! Those are some big silver salmon.
Okay, so Kat and I go to the Wildlife Conservation Center and see all these bears right? Soon after that we left and headed to the Portage Valley. It is a beautiful valley with lots of places to stop and look around. We decided to stop at a salmon viewing area. We were a little too early for the salmon in that area, but we decided to stop and enjoy the view anyway. As we were walking up to the lookout boardwalk I was getting a little nervous about black bear. We were, after all, in BEAR COUNTRY. I wasn't too nervous to go ahead with our walk though. As we were enjoying our view from the salmon viewing area, things started to get interesting. It all happened so quickly we weren't sure what was going on! We heard a large splash in the water to the right of us, we turned and saw something big and black in the water. Kat backed up into me, I grabbed her shoulders and neither one of us could actually form words! Soon the laughter began because we quickly realized that the thing we just KNEW was a black bear, was alas a big, beautiful...black LAB! We laughed and we laughed and we almost wet our pants and we shook a little because we were really scared! Had it been a black bear I am sure we would not have known what to do or how to act. It would not have been pretty! So, Kat and I will forever tell our black bear story for all to enjoy!
After our 'bear' encounter we stopped at another stop. Here is Kat reading the BEAR WARNING sign posted at the stop. Evidently a young black bear had been stealing food from the picnickers and was probably going to have to be shot. WE got back in the car and left! LOL
Another site on the way to Portage Valley was the fishermen lined up on the banks of Bird Creek! You can tell the salmon are in at Bird Creek!
The picture below is the Portage Glacier Cruise boat. It was a little cold, can you tell? The glacier was extremely blue due to all the cloud cover.
Here are a set of moose twins near our house while Ralph's brother was here. Aren't they just so adorable?
While Kat was here we got to enjoy this bull moose just near our mailboxes. He kept getting closer and closer to our car and I had to keep backing up! I got some better pictures of him, but I really loved this one. It was about 11:30 at night so it was starting to get dark!
This is the view we all see from the fishing hole! What a hard life huh? Well, someone has to do it!
In 1964 Alaska was hit by a 9.2 earthquake (the largest in the US) that shook the area for more than 4 minutes. During the earthquake, much of the area near the coast fell anywhere from 6-14 feet. Because of that and the tide and tsunami that came in afterwards, much of the town of Portage was destroyed. The town has since been moved many miles inland, but there are a few cabins that remain to show the devastation. There are also 'pickled trees'. The tree's root systems were inundated with salt water which has preserved them. They will take many, many of years to actually die off. I don't think I have a picture of the trees, but the next time I am along the Turnagain Arm I will get some pictures of them.
Check out these caribou! The picture below are of some of the Elk.
The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is a wonderful place to take visitors. They will have an opportunity to see our native animals in their natural settings. Every time I go I am reminded of how much I do NOT want to run into these animals unless they are behind fences! LOL These grizzly bears were having a great time playing together on this beautiful Alaskan summer day.
He played too hard and had to rest.
This black bear was just relaxing in the shade.
Okay, I don't want to brag but as Kat and I were cleaning our fish after her first day of fishing I happened to notice the difference in sizes of our two fish! LOL Okay, maybe I do like to brag! LOL
After Kat had been here for a few days we had to say goodbye to my mom who was here with me from June until August 2nd. I don't know what I would have done without her here with me. She is an amazing woman and Kat and I were both so very sad to say goodbye to her. See you in November Mom!!
While Kat was here I got the privilege of singing with my trio from church. We sang for a retreat for all the Interact Missionaries and it was just wonderful to be able to sing with these talented ladies. In case you are wondering what we sang, it was 'We All Bow Down".
So, if we weren't fishing we were sight seeing! Here is Kat looking at the great waterfowl at Potter's Marsh. It is an important marsh for migrating birds. Click on the link for more information.
We continued on to the Portage Valley. More about this in a little while. I will tell you all about our bear story, but I need to show you the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center first.
Well, Kat finally made it up to Alaska. I thought she would never get here! We had a wonderful visit. The next few blog entries will be of her visit and then Ralph's brother's visit which came on the heals of Kat's visit. Enjoy Alaska through mine and Kat's eyes!
This is what fishing was like Kat's first time to the river. She joined right into the combat fishing line just like a professional. WE thought there were lots of fishermen there at that time. As you will see in the next few pictures, we were wrong. The lines continued to grow and grow and even got worse when Ralph's brother was here. BUT...we all caught plenty of salmon! Who says we can't 'Alaskan combat fish' with the best of them!?
Kat's first fish. One medium and one well, little one??
Here she is in the line the next day. See her in her pink jacket (my pink jacket?)
NOW...that is more like it. This was her BIG fish! Nicely done Kathleen!
THORPE-ESTRADA, KELLY Age 36 of Highlands Ranch, CO died Aug. 6, 2007. Beloved mother of Marly and Milo. Daughter of Sheila and Pat Thorpe, sister of Tom. Time of service is pending. Please go to www.Newcomer Family.com for more information. Memorials may be made to the Kelly Thorpe- Estrada Memorial Fund in care of Grand Mountain Bank P.O. Box 749 Grand Lake, CO 80447 Attn: Tim Thorpe.
This is the obituary of Ralph's niece. Please pray for Ralph's family as they deal with the tragic death of Kelly. She was murdered by her husband who then killed himself. Join with me in praying for the Lord's comfort for our entire family.
Now how about that? I think after catching this fish, Ralph will be ready to be back in Alaska catching King Salmon! LOL He said he was the only one to catch anything and THIS was it! What a hoot!
Ralph was able to take a fishing trip in Kyrgyzstan a couple of days ago. Here are some photos of the area. Isn't the cowboy great? Ralph says the cows and goats roam free around the streets and the houses are just horrible, little shanties. A good reminder to pray for the Kyrgyzstan people.
