Kayaking in Kenai

Count-down:  35 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure!

Resurrection Bay Wikipedia Commons

The Kenai Peninsula lies to the south of Alaska’s most populous city, Anchorage, and extends into Prince William Sound on the east and Cook Inlet on the west.  Because of extensive glacial activity and plate tectonics, Kenai’s coastline is littered with deep fjords, some are 1000 ft deep.  

In 1980, Kenai Fjords National Park was established to help protect the numerous icefield and fjord environments.  Currently the park covers over 1000 sq. miles.  One popular excursion in Kenai is kayaking the fjords’ pristine waters to see sights such as the magnificent Aialik Glacier up close.  

Alyssa heard about this and exclaimed, “Wouldn’t it be so cool to kayak right over Killer Whales!”

My eyes widened and I gulped as I thought about kayaking in frigid water floating precariously above a 6 ton carnivore.  “Uh, yeah that would lots of fun.”

From Wikipedia Commons

Kathy :)

Family Journal

Count-down:  36 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

I’ve never been great at journal writing, but for this trip to Alaska, I have an ambitious plan.  I’m going to buy each of us our own special notebook and have everyone write at least a few words every day.  For Jessica, Alyssa, and me this will be relatively easy.  It’s the two boys I worry about.  Can I get them to put their thoughts down on paper?  I think I can get my husband to do it, but Ryan’s not too much into writing.  He loves reading. Persuading him to write though, is as difficult as pulling a bear away from a salmon stream.  I have to coax him the entire way.

For some reason, I have the desire to see this trip through everyone’s eyes.  We will all see places differently, notice little things the rest of us miss.  A smell, a color, the way the wind moves through the trees. Ryan might see things closer to the ground. What will Alyssa see in a glacier that I miss? How will Jessica describe the blue of glacier fed lakes?

I want to capture these thoughts and experiences.  

I don’t want the writing to become a chore though.  So I’ve decided, in addition to the notebooks (or maybe in Ryan's and my husband’s case, in place of), every day we will do a quick two minute video log, describing what meant the most to each of us that day.  

When we return home I want to put together all our journaling, videos and pictures into a media project that tells our tale of adventure.

Maybe it's because Jessica and Alyssa will be heading off to college in a year or two and Ryan is almost ten, that I have the need to preserve these precious last moments our five member family has together. I want to capture this beautiful moment in time and hold it forever.

Kathy :)

Icefields Parkway

Countdown:  37 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

On our way to Alaska there is a stretch of road 144 miles long (232 km) that parallels the Continental Divide and goes right through the heart of the Canadian Rockies.  Connecting Banff to Jasper, The Icefields Parkway, also known as Highway 93, traverses some of Canada’s most stunning vistas, (at least that’s what I’ve been told :))  In the summer, 100,000 vehicles a month travel this route.  

 I’m most excited about seeing the turquoise waters of Peyto Lake.  The color is caused by all the glacial rock flour(tiny particles of rock that have been ground to a flour-like consistency by the glaciers), that washes into the lake in the summer.  These particles are suspended in the water and reflect the turquoise color.

I have a feeling on this drive I will be snapping pictures every few seconds.  I know it’s silly to try to capture the beauty of a place like this.  It never works.  When I look at my pictures later, something is always missing.  The immense power of the landscape never comes through. But I will fill up my phone with pictures anyway.   

Here are a few pictures of what we will hopefully see on this route.

Captivating waters of Peyto Lake from Wikipedia Commons

Columbia Icefield from Wikipedia Commons

Kathy :)

Homer Spit

Count-down:  38 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

My husband told me we will be visiting Homer Spit.  “Homer what?” I asked.  I promptly googled it.  

I learned that a spit is a landform made by waves hitting a beach at an odd angle and moving sediment to form a thin strip of land attached to the end of a larger landmass.  

Homer, Al is at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula 220 miles southwest of Anchorage by car.  It was first settled back in the 1890’s when coal was discovered in the area.  Homer Pennock came in 1896 searching for gold with the Alaska Gold Mining Company, the town was named for him.  Gold was never discovered.  But for the town of  Homer, wealth came from the sea.  Homer is now the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.    

Bald Eagles resting on Homer Spit from Wikipedia Commons

  

Homer’s spit is 4.5 miles long and plunges into Kachemak Bay. Originally it was larger but an earthquake in 1964 sank a large portion of the spit.  Currently Homer Spit boasts the longest road into ocean waters in the world.  Despite being only 19 feet above sea level and susceptible to storm swells there is even a cute little restaurant on it, called the Salty Dawg Saloon, built in 1897.  I hope we get to eat there!

I hope everyone is having a great time A-Zing!  I'm learning a lot and laughing often.  :)

Kathy 

Glaciers

Count-down:  39 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

Ailik Glacier in Kenai from Wikipedia Commons

I’ve always been fascinated with prehistory.  My favorite animals when I was five were Brachiosaurus, T-Rex, saber toothed cats, and Wooly Mammoths.  There was so much mystery and magic thinking about those giants walking the Earth.  I wished I had a window through time to watch them..

A glimpse into this wild past can be had through Earth’s lone survivors of prehistory. 

Glaciers.

Ten percent of Earth’s land is currently covered by these frozen rivers of ice that still carve magnificent masterpieces through the planet’s crust.  

In 2007, an almost perfectly frozen baby mammoth emerged from the ice in Siberia after nearly 40,000 years.  Some glaciers have held fast to their secrets for hundreds of thousands of years. What other secrets might be locked away in the depths of glaciers?

By drilling into the ice and taking core samples, scientists have begun to discover what has been hidden.  Like tree rings, the rings of ice can be examined to give us clues to the past.  Tiny air bubbles trapped from the ancient atmosphere tell us what gases were present, temperature variations and the types of plant life that existed.  

I’m excited to have the chance to see these magnificent links to our past before they are gone.  There are still over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska that hold about 75% of the state’s freshwater locked inside.  But many of them having been making a steady retreat.  In 1794 when Captain George Vancouver explored the Gulf of Alaska almost the entire area of Glacier Bay was covered with ice.  By 1916 the 4000 foot thick glacier had retreated 65 miles and continues its retreat today.  

Other facts about glaciers:

The Antarctic ice sheet is the world’s largest glacier covering 98% of that continent

Glaciers are often blue because their super compressed layers absorb all colors in the spectrum and reflect mostly blue

The Malaspina Glacier in Alaska is about 850 square miles, almost size of Rhode Island.

Kathy :)

To read more about glaciers check out these sites:

Alaska Public Lands Centers

Glacier Bay National Park

National Snow and Ice Data Center

National Geographic

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.

E is for Eagles!

Count-down 41 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

Wikipedia Commons

When I was little my mom used to read me a book called Keeko, where this little Native American boy falls from a cliff and his friend Mrs. Eagle catches him on her back, flying him to safety.  I was enchanted.  Anytime I saw a large bird in our yard, I would run to it thinking I could coax it to let me ride its back.  I wanted to soar among the clouds with it.  I never caught one. It wasn’t until much later that I realized I was probably too heavy for a bird to fly with me.

If I could choose to be any animal I would be an eagle.  To surf the wind currents high above the trees and gaze at the beauty below.

Breathtaking.  

Maybe I can’t be an eagle, but in Alaska I should be able to see a lot of them.  Currently there are around 50,000 Bald Eagles in Alaska, which is the largest population in America.  Every fall, around 3,000 Bald Eagles congregate at a preserve in Haines, Alaska.  They meet there because of a strange phenomenon where warm water seeps up to the surface of the Chilkat River keeping it from freezing which allows salmon to run late into the year.  The eagles come to feed on the salmon.

 

Fish is the main dish in their diet, though they will eat other small mammals and carrion when fish are scarce.  They can only carry about 5 lbs worth of food but have been seen swimming with heavier fish by paddling with their powerful wings.  I’d love to see an eagle swimming!

Bringing fish and other prey to their young in the nest sparked a Native Athabascan myth. It says the eagle delivers people from famine by bringing salmon, sea lions and even whales to shore.   They do this to repay a prince who thoughtfully shared his salmon with an eagle.

If I get the chance, I will share a salmon with the great bird as well.  

To read more about eagles check out American Bald Eagle Foundation and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Have a great weekend!

Kathy :)