Alaska Friends Visit and a Barn Raising

We hosted visitors for 10 days in the beginning of February. I snapped a few pics of our everyday living together, but mostly we just enjoyed each other's company and forgot about documenting much. The weekday mornings were pretty quiet with schoolwork busyness. The afternoons of nice weather drew the kiddos out to explore the neighbor's landfill/ treasure pile turned fort, the pond's wildlife, and the trampoline. We also stopped in at the local Wildlife & Parks museum and aquarium for some Kansas nature education.

The farmer and the dell...hi ho the dairy-o...

photo books of old adventures

art time: painting feathers or trees.

face painted animals

Then came the "barn raising". There was some prep-work to do first, such as planting posts and building rafters. On Saturday some friends came to frame it up and put on the roof. It was all wrapped up by early afternoon.

making cinnamon rolls for the masses

break time

lunch time

A few weeks later...the finished product.

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Last, but not least...Date Night!

Valdez and Worthington Glacier ~Alaska Trip Day 41

We spent the night north of Valdez at a turnout beside a river. The next morning we walked the auto-tour of Solomon Gulch Fish Hatchery. The weir caught so many salmon trying to go up the stream that didn't exist (because they originated from the hatchery) that it was a stinky decaying mess. Gulls screamed all over and it was so sad to see the wasted masses. We watched the fish that did manage to swim up the ladder waiting for the gate to be lifted for entrance into the hatchery.

Next we drove into the town of Valdez. The small boat harbor lured us to walk the docks. The locals and weekenders were snagging salmon right and left. Off the dock, in their boats, right on the bank, it was fun to see them reel in such heavy loads, then scoop up the fish with a net to knock on the head.

Trails in a town? This brushy overlook trail took us up a bluff for a higher view; a little piece of wilderness worked in amongst the paved streets.

We ate lunch at one of the parks with a playground so the children could run. The town was so quiet! Most of the people were out at the waterside with fishing poles in hand.

The sea also brought painters out to its shores. This gal lived a couple hours away. She taught homeschoolers acrylic painting and was trying her hand with oils today.

The road we came in on is the one out as well. We stopped for pictures at Horsetail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.

Another stop for Worthington Glacier made a very worthwhile visit! We climbed a short distance past the lookout and information signs and actually touched the glacier!!! Others crossed the creek and walked up underneath the ice, but we were thrilled to just feel the icy breeze, taste the cold glacier, hear the rushing water, and see the blue-cold mass up close.

Wrangell Mountains

Seward ~Alaska Trip Day 36

Soon after leaving Exit Glacier, we saw a black bear near the road! A vehicle behind us went roaring past and scared it off into the underbrush, ruining our chance at observing the bear. Down the road we spent the night at a turnout beside the river, met Fahrah, and saw bear tracks in the sand. 

Arriving in Seward, we drove out to Lowell Point, via another road between mountain and sea. Then we stopped at the waterfront park playground and path before boarding our Kenai Fjords wildlife cruise catamaran.

At least 6 chunks of this glacier fell into the sea as we waited, watching

sea otters chillin' on their backs in the sunshine

For 6 hours we felt the sea breezes, watched humpback and finn whales blow & roll, listened to sea birds screech, heard the boom of a calving glacier, glided past floating sea otters & puffins, witnessing God's superb creation! (Oh, and we met Emma, the gal working in the galley, who is from Pratt!)

Back at the boat harbor we walked the docks spotting orange & clear jellyfish in the water and watching the charters weigh & fillet huge fish.

The girls and I visited the Alaska Sea Life Center until closing.

Fun touch tanks with starfish, sea urchins, and anemone.

"Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee"...

This is the Alaska I imagined!