Ayakulik River Days 3 & 4

Ayakulik River Lodge...continued!

Vic watching Tom and Dennis fillet our fish.

 

My first sockeye!

The kids made a little fishing pole and hooked salmon eggs to it and little tiny fish would swarm the hook.  The girls really had fun with this.

Vance's monster Silver!  It took him awhile to reel that one in!

Here they come again.  This time we sat back and just watched them pass by us.  They really cared less that we were there.

If you click this picture bigger you can see the bear on the right peaking his head around the side of Lane.  This is hilarious to me for whatever reason.

The kids just sitting on the bank of the river watching the bears.

The bears came back over by the lodge that same evening.

These sweet girls were not afraid of the bears at all!

Michele and I looking au natural.

The beach, we didn't get to spend much time on it because it required crossing a river to get to it.  But this is where the plane landed and took off.  There was pumice stone laying all over the beach.  I put a bunch in my pockets and gave it out at my MOPs group spa day to be used as a foot scrubber!

Goodbye Ayakulik River Lodge!!  This was a once in a lifetime experience!  I couldn't really put the experience into words.  It was a beautiful place with so much wild life, deer, eagles, bear, seals, etc.  The company was great, Vic, Vance and Michele and family and the staff, Tom, Amy, Wes and Dennis were all great fun to hang out with!  The day we took off to come home it was really, really windy.  The plane had to land in a little village called Ahkiok so we could switch planes and he could go back for the rest of our group.  It was so windy that it took three tries to land.  Every time we would almost land, a gust of wind would pick the plane up and we'd have to go back up and approach again.  Lane and I were throwing up in the back of the plane, it was crazy!  That was quite an Alaskan experience!

Ayakulik River Day 1 & 2

In August our family had the incredible opportunity to go to the Ayakulik River Lodge which is on the other side of Kodiak Island.  My sister Michele's father in law Vic, had some connections to the people who run the lodge and really want to take us and Michele's family there before we move back to the CA.  He said it was probably the most beautiful place he'd ever been and I think he might be right :)  The only way to get there is by helicopter or by a small plane with tundra tires on them, which we took.  The little fixed winged plane landed on the beach next to our little piece of paradise for the next few days.  The picture above shows the back side of one lodge, in the distance to the right is a fish and game cabin, and to the left is another lodge.  The Ayakulik River runs right into the ocean just to the right of the picture.

The fishing was amazing.  I was fly fishing and flossing red salmon... and I don't fish well.

Michele and Vance took their three oldest kids and we took Lane and Estelle.  The little ones stayed back which I was very thankful for!  Estelle and Hazel did lots of creative things.  Picking wildflowers and arranging them in a Miller High Life can was one of those things!  The staff at the lodge was so great!  One of the guys Dennis, made the beer can vase for them, as well as helped them pick the flowers. :)

There was a family of bears that came around atleast once or twice a day.  A mama and her two (2nd year) cubs.  Right after we flew in they came down the river right in front of the lodge.  We were so excited!  They are not real aggressive bears and they are used to the people there and mostly that those people do not try to hurt them.  One day Michele and I were walking down the trail to the other lodge and we spotted them walking toward us on the same trail.  We slowly turned around and walked back up the way we came, just to give them their space.  And then we quickly got our cameras to snap some pictures!

The 2nd day they started fishing by the wier (the wooden structure in the background, used to count fish).  It is amazing to watch them fish and run and play with each other!

Lane caught a nice red!  We have salmon coming out our ears!

I think Reese liked that I was fishing with him and actually having fun!

These girls... they had a lot of fun together, and Hazel was quite patient with Estelle's shall we say "moments..."

Where the river runs into the ocean, just as the sun went down.  Pictures do not do this place justice!

One of the cubs playing with a buoy.  It was so cute, reminded me of a puppy playing with a chew toy.  Only much bigger...

Got some good, up close shots.  They are amazing and full of personality!

Mama got a fish.

Our haul one of the days and our fun group!  Vic was such a great sport to hang out with all those crazy kids!

Willem got to be a pro at netting those fish!

Lane loved hanging out with his cousins and doing lots of fishing!

This place was amazing! All the food was provided and prepared for us.  3 meals a day and yummy snacks.  The food was so incredibly good too, and best of all, Michele and I were pretty happy that we didn't have to prepare it!

Bear Viewing Trip

We had an amazing opportunity to go bear viewing in August.  We have lived here for almost 3 years and I had only seen one bear and the kids hadn't seen any.  We left Ingrid with a babysitter and we headed out to the Katmai Peninsula on a float plane.  The flight was beautiful.  We were flying over a beach and I looked down and there were two bears running along the beach.   I was a little nervous that when Estelle saw bears that she would get scared, but she really didn't seem to care.

 The first bears we saw were the two behind us in the picture below.  The one bear next to the seagull was the laziest little fisher.  He just hung out on the shore and watched the fish swim, his head moving back and forth, back and forth.  Every once in a while he'd take a swipe at one.  The other bear was running all over the river catching fish.

 They were so close at times.  These bears are quite used to human just standing there taking pictures of them so they could care less that we were there.  Of course we respected their space, but if they came nearer to us we just kind of hung back and let them do their thing.

 This mom and her first year cub were my favorite!!  Look at that little one standing!! It was the cutest thing.

 This guy was quite the fisherman!

 We saw a total of like 12 or 13 bears the 2 hours we were out there.  It was amazing, I really don't have the words to describe it.

 It started raining quite hard toward the end.  Estelle doesn't really like to be wet or cold.  But we all had a great time.  It is certainly something I will remember for the rest of my life and hope the kids will too!

Griswold Strikes Again: Alaska Style

Last week we boarded a ferry and headed to the mainland.  I had a cardiologist appointment in Anchorage, so we thought we'd make a trip out of it.  We'd never taken the ferry as a family so we thought that'd be an adventure.  The trip to Homer took about 14 hours because we had two stops to make on the way.  So we loaded up into the old explorer and headed out.  

The kids had fun on the ferry and there were some beautiful views!  It was HOT and our little cabin inside was roasting.

The Russian Orthodox Church settled many parts around here and this little church was at our stop in Ouszinkie.  

I am so glad that we brought the playpen!  We popped that right in the middle of the bunks and Ingrid could play in there.  Sleeping was a different story though.  By the morning my back was killing me from wrestling with Ingrid during the night and sleeping on that terrible bunk.  But it was an adventure... right?!

We got into Homer at 7:45 am and took the 3 1/2 hour drive up to Anchorage. We got to see one of Lane's friends who is spending the summer in Soldotna, so Lane was excited about that!  Then we stopped in Girdwood and hiked a cool little trail that Reese and Lane did last summer but I had just had Ingrid so me and the girls stayed behind.  It's a 1 mile trail to this hand tram that goes over a gorge.  You get in a cart and pull yourself across the gorge over a big creek/river.  Lane and I did it this time while Reese watched with the girls.  It was really fun and just like most things in Alaska, beautiful.

We headed to Anchorage and stayed at a fun hotel with a pool.  Ingrid loves swimming!  Lane got to do the batting cages in town, they saw a couple movies, I got to shop, and we ate at our favorite restaurants.  Ingrid slept great there because we had a two room suite so she had her own space. I had my cardiologist appointment on the 17th. I am so so grateful at the healing that has taken place.  I want to go into that in another post.  But... I continue to improve!  Last October my heart function was 10-15% and last week it was 45%.  My heart has gotten smaller (that's a good thing!) and best of all, I feel good!  Praise God!  So she'll see me again in December!  That appointment was out of the way and I went on enjoying my vacation!  That afternoon we went car shopping and eventually bought a car and so now we had two cars that we need to bring back home.

I was on the way back to hotel with the kids while Reese was finishing up the car deal and that is when the trip turned Griswold (as in Chevy Chase's Vacation movies...).  We've had a Griswold family vacation once before.  Back in Christmas 2008 when a freak snow storm hit CA and it snowed our entire drive from Southern Ca up to Northwest WA, whiteout conditions, closed highways, no hotel rooms, frozen doors, a sheet of ice smashing into our cars...  Here's the link to a little of that story.  Griswold Number One. 

I was driving through Anchorage when I got a call.  It was the Alaska Ferry calling to tell me that my June 21st Ferry had been cancelled.... but never fear they rebooked us for the July 8th sailing (2 1/2 weeks away...).  WHAT!!!  We live on an island in the Aleutian chain people, we can't just drive back home!  I was super nice to the poor man on the other end of the line (note my sarcastic tone).  I pulled into a parking lot, got off the phone with him and called Reese.  By this time both Lane and Estelle were crying and Estelle exclaims "We are TRAPPED!"  I say to Reese, "Cancel the whole car thing! We can't even take the car back!"  After a few choice words, Reese calmed down too and always being the voice of reason, said, "Just calm down, I'll get back to the hotel and we'll figure it out." I made a couple phone calls trying to figure out some options.  I had a couple people who me and the kids could possibly stay with etc.  The next day was spent making lots phone calls.  We finally decided to park the cars in Homer with a transfer company who will store and load our cars on the ferry on July 8th and we bought plane tickets to fly home.  We still had plans to drive up to Denali National Park... but the wild fires were posing a risk.  I was afraid we would get up there and then they'd shut the highway down and we'd be stuck... because you that's kinda how the trip was going.  But we decided to go for it, cause that's how we roll.

Here is a good action shot of what was going on on the side of the highway. That wildfire was burning 650,000 acres.  But a pilot car brought us through and we arrived safely in Denali National Park.

It was totally not what we expected!  Really pretty and we stayed at a place called The Crows Nest.  It was a cute little cabin.  Ingrid didn't go to sleep real well.  I had to put her in her car seat in the car for awhile so she'd fall asleep and then carry her to the cabin!

 My three cuties by the park visitor's center

 Mt McKinley!  We were able to see it on the way in.  I heard that it's like a 50/50 chance that it's clouded over and you can't see it at all.

 We went on a little trail and saw one of the forest service cabins that the park rangers use during the winters while patrolling the park.  We were only there for a really short amount of time, but I am so glad that we saw that park.  The views were spectacular!!

The day before we flew home we had to drive from Denali to Homer which ended up being a 12 hour day in the car.

 It started out looking like this....

 And ended up like this.  Her brain hurt...her words.  Ingrid did beautifully though.  Why? Because she is a wonderfully laid back baby and she had her big sister to entertain her!

We spent the last night at a quaint old house turned hotel over looking the beach in Homer.  But, old house equals thin walls, which meant Ingrid couldn't cry it out in the playpen.  So Reese got to drive her around that night! 

We are back home... without cars.  Reese has a truck that seats three.  He's borrowed a car from work that we can all fit in, but I'm not allowed to drive it, so he is shuttling us around for the next two weeks which means I've got lots of time at home!  I've organized the playroom, our storage closet and my dining room hutch so far this week!  These Griswold Family Vacations!!  Wouldn't trade these memories for the world!