Not Enough Time

82 hours of driving.

It sounds like a long time.  Especially when you're confined in an RV with 5 people:  two teen girls, a ten year old boy and two parents.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but like the rest of life, the time together went much too quickly.  

Our first campfire in Laird River Hot Springs, BC Canada

We had never driven an RV before, and that first day driving from Forest City, Iowa to Missoula, MT started off anxiously as my husband learned from experience how to handle a 28 foot vehicle that filled almost the entire lane.  Within an hour he was driving comfortably.  It took me a little longer to feel comfortable driving the behemoth but eventually I did too.

It took us seven full days to drive from Iowa to Alaska, 3575 miles (about 510 mi/day).  Before the trip, we had planned to fill the driving time and the hours in the evening after we stopped with journaling, family video logs, playing card games and guitar, reading, talking and writing a collaborative book which we had brainstormed.  We did do some of that but many nights, by the time we had done some sightseeing and eaten our campsite dinner, we collapsed from exhaustion.

There was a lot of singing while driving.  We blasted all the kids' favorite bands like Pink, Cold Play, My Chemical Romance, and One Direction.  It's one of the best sights of a trip to see your kids singing their hearts out together.

The drive itself was amazing.  Once we got into the Canadian Rockies, around every bend was a breathtaking view.  So I took too many photos that of course could never capture the reality of the immense beauty, but it made me feel better to try.

Grizzlies

Our first bear we saw was a huge thrill.  It was a big black bear grazing on the hillside near the road.  We pulled the RV over and watched it until it wandered back into the woods.  He didn't seem to even care we were there.  We saw a total of 16 bears, 3 of which were grizzlies, but all from the safety of our giant vehicle. Interestingly, all but one of those bears we saw in Canada.


 In Alaska, we saw two moose, some Dall sheep, lots of Bald Ealges, seals, and sea otters.  We also had the privilege of witnessing a humpback whale breaching not more than 100 yards from our boat on a wildlife cruise.

View from Homer Spit

I think my favorite Alaskan towns were Homer Spit and Juneau, but I loved everyplace we went, which also included Valdez, Seward, Anchorage and Ketchikan.

We were able to see a number of glaciers whose compacted ice reflected an intense blue color.  Many times I felt like a character in a fantasy world seeing landscapes that my mind did not think possible. Unfortunately, most of the glaciers are retreating rapidly and many had signs marking where the glaciers had been in previous years.  By the time our kids have their own children and journey back to Alaska, there
may not be many glaciers left.  

Aialik Glacier, Kenai Peninsula, AK

At the airport, when the kids figured out we were going on a cruise

Maybe the best part of the trip was the surprise.

We hadn't told the kids that for the last week we were getting on a Princess Cruise ship heading to Vancouver.  We also didn't tell them that their Grandma and Grandpa McKendry were meeting us on the ship.  But Grandma and Grandpa had a surprise of their own for us.  They brought with them my parents as well!  We were all surprised and thrilled!  It was great to end our trip with the whole family together.

Dinner on the cruise together :)

Three weeks have never gone so fast.









I hope you have all had a wonderful summer so far!

Kathy :)


And don't forget to head over to the WRiTE Club at DL Hammons.  The bouts have begun and there have already been some great pieces.

Glacier Bay

Family Time

Count-down: 40 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

Sibling bonding in Colorado

In this frantic world of work, school, sports, and music lessons, there isn’t much left for family time.  When we are all together, many times each of us is interacting with our own electronic device.  I’m just as guilty as the rest of them.  I’m on my laptop writing, Jessica is on hers either writing or checking the latest gossip on Facebook. Ryan is playing iPad games. Alyssa is on her phone checking the latest posts on Instagram and my husband is reading on his iPad or listening to his latest Coursera course.

Sure, we go on occasional hikes, take the puppy for walks, and try to eat most dinners together, but after a full day we tend to retreat to our own little projects.  And that’s a good thing.  We can’t always spend quality time together.  

But what I am looking forward to most about this Alaskan Adventure is the time we’ll be spending together.  Total immersion in this adventure together.  No one can run off to their room and hide behind their closed door.  We’ll essentially all be in the same small space for three weeks.  Not every moment will be fun, but every moment will be memorable.

I want to be present in every moment.  Not thinking about past stresses or future problems.  To share everything that Alaska offers with my family.  To look back from the front seat of the RV to see our three kids singing and doing choreographed hand motions together to Nelly’s song Just a Dream and remember that moment forever.  

Kathy :)


Oh and I wanted to do a quick shout out to my daughter Alyssa who just started blogging again.  If you have time she would really appreciate a visit at Life is Good.

An Evening Out

Our little town holds a huge festival every Memorial Weekend. There are parades, food vendors, carnival rides, live music, hot air balloons races and a 5.25 mile run.  Saturday night we hung out on the field to watch the balloons take off.

I guess flying balloons is a risky venture and of course everything depends on the wind.  Sometimes they have to cancel the flight at the last moment and send everyone home.  But we came prepared.  We brought a blanket and our books to read (of course Jess brought her laptop and kept editing).  We sat and enjoyed the beautiful evening around us.  The rest of the crowd was getting restless as the sun sank further into the horizon.  Inexperienced parents brought their new babies and young children thinking it would be fun to sit and wait for hours before anything happened.  As the event's organizers announced that the wind gusts may cause cancellation, many people decided to leave.  The frazzled mother next to us had had enough.  She and her husband packed up and left.  I looked around and thought about all the people who left.  For them, having an enjoyable night depended on the balloons flying and as the prospects of that dwindled all they could focus on was getting out of there before the rest of the crowd, maybe they could still salvage the rest of their evening.

That's when I realized that I didn't care if the balloons flew or not.  We were all there as a family, sitting outside relishing the unhurried time together.  That was where the fun was.

Ten minutes later they announced the balloons would fly...and the crowd cheered.  We were rewarded with a fantastic spectacle of 6 balloons launching into the darkening sky.    

Here's a short video of Ryan being a hot head! :)


Have a Happy Memorial Day!

Kathy :)