Early start today to visit and explore the east side of the Kenai Peninsula and the town of Seward, Alaska.

If we thought the view was beautiful before, the early morning views were almost breathtaking.  The water on the lakes was so still, it was a perfect mirror of the mountains.  The whole area looks like a Bob Ross painting with thousands of happy trees and snowy mountain tops.

We are headed out for a combo trip of kayaking and hiking through Adventure 60 North.  To start, we are kayaking in Tonsina Point off the coast of Seward, Alaska.  Mike has decided that kayaking may not be the best way to spend a morning with his bruised ribs, so he skipped the kayaking portion and headed into Seward to scope out the town and grab breakfast.

The boys and I geared up and headed out to Tonsina Point. The beach was beautiful – Not a soul in sight other than us.  Thankfully we could wear rain pants from the Adventure 60 North so our pants didn’t get wet from the kayak seats.  We got on our spray skirt on – they fit over the kayak seat like a fitted sheet.  As cold as the water is you really do t want any splashing on you.

And then we were off.  It was amazing being on the water.  In the kayak, you could feel every wave and movement of the water but not really so it felt surreal.  Our guide, Blaine, was great.  This was his second season working in Alaska for the summer months – he moves to New Mexico and teaches skiing in Winter months.  He explained so much to us about the local plant and animal life as well as the history of Tonsima Point and Seward. 

We saw sea stars – a fatter and more aggressive form of starfish.  The seastars are the top of the food chain for crustaceans.

We saw 3 bald eagles including a massive nest, and a little baby otter who was just floating along on his back doing baby otter stuff.  We thought we saw a big ol’ seal, but it turned out to be a massive wood log just floating along… based on the amount of bird poop on it, it was basically a traveling perch for birds 😂 and we saved a bumble bee who ran out of steam while crossing the bay. We also stopped for a snack in the coolest place we’ve ever had cheese-its and goldfish 😀

It was a great way to start the day!

We headed back to the shop, changed out of our rain gear, and met up with Mike. The second part of our combo trip was a hike into the Kenai Fjords National Park with Blaine.  Honestly, we have never had a guide through a hike, and the only tour service we ever used in a National Park was the horrible Pink Jeep Tour in the Grand Canyon, so I was a bit skeptical.  So much so, that we decided to drive our own car to the National Park, just in case we wanted to stay longer or see something beyond what Blaine showed us.  I could not have been more wrong about Blaine.  He knew all kinds of stuff that we would never have learned on our own. He knew all the best turn offs/overlooks, plus, it was like having a photographer!

All along the trails were these signs with years marked.  Each marked where the glacier was that year.  Some years showed significant change and some didn’t. I can say, our hike to see the glacier would have been a lot shorter in 1917 😊

These hills/mounds are called moraines.  They were all along the trails and were hills created as the glacier moved along bringing rocks, soils, trees and whatever was in its path.

We are making our way to the Exit Glacier.  On top of the Mountain is the Harding Icefield. Several glaciers come off this icefield, although only the Exit Glacier is in an area that can be reached by hiking. Interesting note that it is named the Exit Glacier because it is the way an exploration party was able to “exit” the Icefield.  Unlike most National Parks, the Kenai Fjord National Park has one main visitors center and one main trail. 

Hiking with Blaine was like have a constant plaque with you 😁 Of course, he could have been making it all up and we would no way of knowing 😂

All the info just walking along with you… For example, this skunk cabbage, a favorite of bears 🐻

This looks like spinach but eventually grows beautiful flowers called pink pyrola.

This is glacier flour left over when the glacier grinds rocks into the fine powder.

We made our way up to the Exit Glacier Overlook. All along the way Blaine told us about the katabatic wind we would feel as we got closer to the glacier. Honestly we were all thinking it would be a slightly cooler breeze – WRONG! Imagine standing in front of an industrial fan that was blowing air out of your freezer! It was crazy! No breeze, no breeze, slightly cooler breeze, gale force freezer air!

We found (thanks to Blaine) moose scat and moose hair, which is hollow in the middle.

The glacier was amazing to see. The edges are blue because it’s pure ice. The gray shows sediment that has been picked up along the way. We talked a little about the blue color of the ice. It has to do with the wavelengths of blue versus other colors. One way Blaine explained it was if you went deep into the ocean carrying a bright red apple, the first few feet, the apple would be red. As you went down, the red wavelengths couldn’t go through the deep water or ice so eventually the red apple would appear blue. There was also a great display in the visitors center on this.

We walked down into the overflow area… but only so far! The overflow is where the run off comes in summer months. The overflow becomes dangerous when water filled holes in the glacier break loose and massive flashfloods fill the overflow area. Signs mark where it’s unsafe to go closer… giving yourself enough space to avoid a flash flood. Absolutely one of the coolest places we’ve ever had lunch!

We completed the hike, circling back to the visitors center. Had to get a photo with this erratic rock… basically a rock that the glacier moved somewhere that just doesn’t match anything else around it. Erratic rocks can have rounds edges, which means they rolled with the glacier and were smoothed out like a rock tumbler, or they can have jagged edges meaning the glacier rolled over them.

Between the 4 mile hike, the temperatures that reached 78° today, the kayaking, and the early morning wake up, we decided to head into the town of Seward and do a little exploring before grabbing an early dinner. Seward was a cute town, think of it like Asheville on a harbor.

Blaine told us about a great place for dinner, The Cookery, but he said to be there between 5-6pm. The Cookery didn’t take reservations and was that good. He wasn’t kidding. We got there right at 5, and there was a line! Thankfully, they were just opening so we walked right in. The food was clearly just caught and delicious!

The drive home was just as gorgeous, and it was crazy to see how much more green we could see today versus just a couple of days ago!

A quick stop at Three Bears for some ice cream, and we finished off a pretty great day with ice cream and a movie.

Tomorrow, we leave the Kenai Peninsula and head north toward Denali with an overnight stop in Talkeetna.

Staying in Cooper Landing has been an excellent starting spot for day trips. It seems like everything in Alaska is 1 1/2 hours away from everywhere else. We’re basically making a 5-pointed asterisk over the Kenai Peninsula. Today we made our way across to the western coast and down to the southern tip to Homer.

The drive was beautiful. We started with snow capped mountains, and then watched everything get flatter and flatter through the valley. You could still see the mountains (which we later learned are a volcano chain) across the bay.

Clearly we are not the first folks impressed by the view because there are traffic signs with a camera and yardage… translation, don’t try to take a picture while drive, pull into the parking area.

Onward to Homer… the views continued and we were stunned by the relatively large town of Soldotna. They boasted a Fred Meyer (like Walmart), Walgreens and Taco Bell. After where we have been, this was like Charlotte!

Speaking of Charlotte, Charlotte Stewart is staying with the fur babies while we are gone. Everyone is Alaska seems to have a dog, so we have been missing our babies. Thankfully, she shared some pictures today – more of Scarlett because Sampson doesn’t stay still.

We made it to Homer and Kachemak Bay. (If that name sounds familiar, it’s home to the show Alaska, The Last Frontier). Homer is a really cute town centered on and around the Spit. The Spit is a thin strip of land into the bay. The Spit has a huge dock and fish processing plant, lots of restaurants and funky stores. The dock and plant were eerily quiet today. We talked to a guy in one of the shops and he said he normally works on the docks but the fish just haven’t started running yet, so not much to do.

We had a great lunch at Captain Patties (thanks Holly)… literally couldn’t be much fresher. We also did a Little Rock skipping with someone the smoothest rocks. Boys noticed that the only other places with rocks like this was in Hawaii.

I think we checked out every little shop. We bought a few shirts, a sweatshirt, even a necklace with a little bit of Alaskan Jade. And of course, we had to check out the local ice cream shop – Spit Lick 😂

There was a nice monument to the fisherman and vessels that come in and out of the port. We recognized one f/v (fishing vessel) the Time Bandit and its crew from the Deadliest Catch.

Several times on this trip, the boys said Alaska felt like the edge of the world… well, today we found the End of the Road Park and Sign, so guess they were right.

And we loved the sign on the local theater

We had to stop at one more lookout on the at home. This view never gets old!

Since Soldotna had the first grocery store like back home, we decided to restock to get us through Denali next week. Man, it was nice to get everything we needed at one time!

We made it back to our little Cabin, and made dinner that now can include a fresh salad (thanks Fred Meyer’s Grocery!) and frozen Screamin’ Sicilian pizza. We finished dinner off with homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk and a movie.

Tomorrow we head over to Seward to explore the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula with a little coastal kayaking and a visit to the Kenai Fjords National Park!

The plan was to end today with cooler full of rainbow trout, but instead we ended with sore legs from a couple of beautiful hikes. Pivot and Adjust!Michael and I researched hikes and found a few close by that we could all do. (Still keeping things easy to moderate for Mike’s ribs.)

We start the day nice and slow. Our Dolly Varden Cabin has a room with 2 full sizes beds and a queen size Murphy bed. Since Mike and I are always up first, we took the Murphy Bed. I have to say it’s pretty cool pulling the bed out of the wall 😀

I was too sleepy to finish the blog last night, so while I finished the blog this morning, Mike fixed a delicious breakfast of grits and bacon. I did not realize until later that I looked like the crazy lady with my bed head. Between Mike’s cuts and black eye and my crazy hair, we were quite the sight 😂

After breakfast was finished and cleaned up, we were off to hike the Russian Lakes Trail. The hike was gorgeous! And the weather was crazy… if the sun was out and no breeze, it felt like 60 degrees. If the clouds came in and the breeze started, it would drop to 40 degrees. Of course, we found lots of plaques about different disaster, and even info on limited fire burns specifically for moose. Who knew moose prefer young birch, aspen and willow trees? And of course, these two had to find a way to make some kind of competition – pull ups on a bridge in a forest? Yes, please.

We can add tiny little brown mouse to our animal check list.

Thankfully, we didn’t see any live bears, but we did see some scat.

We made it to the Falls… not a waterfall but more like a series white water falls. Either way, it was beautiful, and definitely worth the hike!

We went a little further to see the sport fishing area… which was a tiny trail down to the water’s edge for net fishing and catching salmon.

Of course, 2.5 miles in means 2.5 miles out…

We made it back to the car just in time for the opening of the latest Mom’s Cafe location at Russia Lakes Trailhead.

After our late lunch, we decided to try another trail Michael found – Skilak Overlook Trail. It was supposed to be a beautiful overlook of Skilak Lake.

We started the trail with no problem and then about a quarter of a mile in, we saw a pile of bear scat. Not just scat, but fresh scat…

This trail was much more narrow with dense woods, so it was much harder to see through the woods compared to the last trail. We went on for about half a mile and then decided, after bruised ribs and stitches, we didn’t want to risk an up-close encounter with a bear. So we headed back to our car, and checked out the overlook in a bear free environment!

Plus we learned (from a plaque) that bald eagle come back to the same nest year after year adding to the nest each year. Bald eagle nests can weigh up to 2,000 pounds!

The drive back was just as pretty so here are ever more landscape pictures 😉

When we got home, we decided to go ahead and bake the cookie batter we got yesterday so they would be ready tonight after dinner.

We found a local place for dinner, the Cooper Landing Brewery. Great little place with homemade beers, and pretty good food – well, we guess it was all good. We all got chicken wings and fries, and they were good 🤷🏻‍♀️

We walked down to the water at our cabin when we go back, since it still daylight at 9pm. Seriously, these pictures are from almost 9pm!

With sore legs (well at least the adults have sore legs) and full bellies, we are in for the night with a movie rolling and heavy eyelids 🫩🥱

Tomorrow we head down to bottom of the Kenai Peninsula to check out Homer, Alaska and any other adventures we find along the way.

Today, Alaska tested the overly planning permanently positive Clark Griswold in me…

Not surprisingly after our midnight return home, we slept in a bit and enjoyed coffee in our little cabin. The boys were asleep when we got home – sleeping well I might add because it took banging on the door, doorbells and repeated calls to get them to open the door for us 😂 – so we caught up over coffee and breakfast bars. They had dinner at the Dirty Skillet again, and told us how good the steaks were (I’m sure they had nothing on the Dairy Queen chicken strips we had in Anchorage 😂), and we discovered that both boys thought the other left the tip for the waiter last night. So we added “stop by Dirty Skilket” to our open days empty agenda. Otherwise, this is an open day… another little God provision after the Rafting/ER day before.

We said goodbye the little cabin in Hope and headed to the Dirty Skillet.

The Dirty Skillet is down a short dirt road with cabins built all in the woods and a “Lodge/Office” in the center by a little pond. The pond is where the boys were canoeing yesterday. We had planned to stop in the Lodge this morning to look for an ornament, so we headed there to find Roman the waiter or at least leave an envelope for him. Search was not needed because Roman was working in the coffee shop inside the lodge. He was shocked that we came to make his tip right. We stayed for coffees and saw our waitress from the first night, the owner and several other members of waitstaff sitting around a table with guitars and music. They were playing and writing Christian songs. Apparently the waitstaff all live in the cabins nearby rent/utilities free for the 4 months that that Lodge and Skillet are open. Lots are recent college graduates just looking to fill a summer, but some are what they call permanently seasonal employees who go from one area to the other. Alaska in the summer, Colorado in fall and winter to work at ski resorts. We stayed a while and enjoyed our coffee and really relaxed Sunday morning with music.

Back in the car, we decided to take the long route to Cooper Landing, and check out Whittier, Alaska via the longest tunnel in North America. I checked in with my new travel buddy, ChatGPT, and asked for a map with interesting stops along the way… 4.9 seconds later…

The views were again just breathtaking. If 17 and 18 year old boys are putting down their phones and looking at the landscape, you know it is phenomenal.

We made it to Portage Glacier and Lake and the Begich Boggs Visitor Center. It was absolutely beautiful and COLD with an arctic wind off the water. The Visitor’s Center was named after 2 members of Congress were presumed to have died in a plane crash coming to this area. The Visitor’s Center overlooks the lake and the glacier which is little hard to see now because it has receded about 3 miles.

We were also fascinated by the poles along the roadways. A little research later, we discovered that these are snow markers. The Portage Valley gets enormous amounts of snow, and these markers show where the roadway, guardrails and ditches are.

In case you’re wondering why glacier water is so blue, here’s what we learned: As glaciers slowly, they slowly grind up rocks into an extremely fine powder called glacier flour or rock flour. When this lands in water, it is so fine it is suspended in the water, and then sunlight hits these. The flour reflects blue and turquoise wavelengths more effectively than other colors. (Thanks ChatGPT 😉)

As the rain came in we decided to head to Whittier. The only way to get to Whittier by road is through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It is a one-way alternating tunnel that runs each way every 30 minutes. The tunnel is 2.5 miles long and literally goes through a mountain, under water, through another mountain and then welcome to Whittier. (Little bit unsettling for those of us with Claustrophobia to think that not only are we in a tunnel, but in a tunnel under water)

Whittier is a tiny fishing town that according to Michael looks like you are at the edge of the world. We explored the town (about 45 minutes of walking)

We grabbed lunch at the Saltwater Cafe. This may be some of the freshest we have ever had. The “restaurants” are like little shacks with seating for 18 people on barstools.

We headed back to the car – making sure we timed our departure with the tunnel traffic, and off we went to Cooper Landing. Our new home for 4 days (Four nights in one place???) is in a clearly just completed area but has the greatest name ever – the Dolly Varden ♥️ The cabin still has that “new car” smell. But what it didn’t have was a washer and after the ER adventure, I need some clothes washed. Car unpacked, the boys went to explore the lake and grounds and I unpacked Mom’s cafe.

While the boys were gone, I got a phone call from Captain Jason about our rainbow trout fishing trip tomorrow. He said due to the cold weather lingering the fish really were not biting. He had gone out on his own and then again with another guide, and got maybe 2 fish in 4 hours. I don’t know what you know about fishng trips, but they are not cheap. I told him about Mike’s injuries and that we were doubtful he could cast or reel in fish and absolutely could not a rocking boat. In light of everything, Captain Jason offered to cancel the trip and refund our money. We were blown away that he would offer this! Although my overly detailed planning is getting crushed, we are taking as another God provision to us. So if we, or anyone we know, is ever looking to fish in Cooper’s Landing, Alaska, Captain Jason is the honest fishing captain that we will use!

We have a grill at the Dolly Varden so off we went carrying our bag full of dirty clothes, to find a grocery store and laundromat. This proved to be more difficult than expected. Alaska is remote. These little towns have Sheetz-sized convince stores, think a mini-truck stop, called Three Bears Alaska. These stores have a little bit of everything, including showers and a laundromat. We put our clothes into washers and walked around the corner to the store. The store/prices/inventory were crazy! Inventory wise I will give grace because it was Sunday night so maybe trucks come on Monday. And the prices are probaably reflective of location and shipping costs. The store was too funny though. For $16.99 you could get a container of olive oil or a machette. 🤣 They did have a MASSIVE alcohol section so maybe that makes the limited selection easier to bear 🤣 We grabbed some steaks for dinner and bacon for breakfast and all the fixings and went to check our clothes. Washers were done so we loaded the clothes into a dryer. Mike stayed with the clothes and boys and I ran back to the cabin to unload groceries. Wrapped the potatoes, salt & peppered the steaks and scooted back to pick up Mike and the clothes.

When I tell you those steaks, potatoes and green beans were delicious, they were outstanding. So much so, that I forgot to take any photos. 🤦🏻‍♀️

So now we are regrouping for tomorrow… Thankfully there are lots of great hikes around here, so we will find lots to do. Whenever things don’t work the way you plan, I always tell the boys: pivot and adjust. Practicing what I preach now so that’s what we are doing. We have bear spray and picnic stuff so the hikes will be great!

Today started out nice and slow with coffee and soccer… and ended with a trip to the ER in Anchorage. We are all okay – just a bit of excitement on Six Mile Creek.

The Champion’s Cup of soccer was held today. Think of it like the Super Bowl of the Premier League. After a bit of tech work, we were able to watch the game. It was an awesome game – overtime and then ultimately decided by penalty kicks! Neither of boys’ favorite teams were playing but a team they both really don’t like lost, so it was awesome!

After the game, Leo went for a run that he said was absolutely gorgeous and the 45°weather was perfect but hard due to altitude. He’s gotten so tall, he is having to duck down under some of the beams🤪

We made sandwiches at our little cabin and then headed for our adventure day – whitewater rafting on Six Mile Creek at AK Flow. Since Hope is so tiny, we walked the 100 yards from our front door to AK Flow 🤣 Thankfully, they were prepared for rafting in frosty temperatures with dry suits that were latex internally with an additional shell keeps water out.

As we talked to the guides, we found out that all 3 were originally from North Carolina and were all graduates of Appalachian State! Small world! Suited up, we headed out. On the van ride over to our drop in, one of our guides was saying how low the water was because the snow melt had just started. This bit of information will be important later but for now, not a bad place to raft…

And we looked like a super hero squad in our dry suits.

We got a briefing on what to do and how to raft, and did a quick swim test in our dry suits and learned to pull each other into the raft… again, a bit of information that will be important later.

Six Mile Creek is made up of 3 canyons. When the water is low, the canyons get more difficult as you go along. When the water is high, they get gradually less difficult. In we went to Canyon 1. If this is the easiest one, holy moly! The canyon is crazy narrow and since the water was low, huge rocks are sticking up from the water and the sides. First rapid – wow! I almost fall out backward but able to get back in with help from Carter (our new friend and raftmate who is stationed in Anchorage) and Leo. Rapid 2, the flow pushes our raft into the side of the canyon and Mike slams into the rock wall! We pull into an alcove to check him and after a minute, he’s ready to go. Mike moves to the left side of the raft where Leo and I are so he doesn’t have to row as hard, and Michael and Carter handle the right side.

Rapid 3 really narrow, but we make it through. And then Rapid 4… boom 💥 we hit the rapid! Leo and Mike are thrown out. Mike pops up, there is blood everywhere! He has face planted into huge rock. Aeon, our guide, and Carter are grabbing him. When Leo pops up, Michael grabs Leo’s leg and I grab his life jacket. Thank you Jesus for protecting them both and for the helmet Mike was wearing!

We pull into another alcove and Aeon and Scotty, the owner of AK Flow, take over. After making sure Mike was okay concussion-wise, no loss of consciousness, nausea and pupils were good, they started cleaning his wounds. It was clear from the start that we were going to need more than bandaids and steri-strips. Thankfully, we were between canyons so the creek was pretty calm as we floated down to a put out spot where another guide was waiting with the van.

We said goodbye and thanks to our friend Carter, and climbed into the van. It’s a tradition in rafting for you to sign the van, so Michael signed for us all: “my dad left his blood at swim check 2” 🤦🏻‍♀️ (swim check 2 is location where Mike and Leo went in).

We walked back to our little cabin, changed clothes and off we went to the Urgent Care. Sometimes we talk about living way out, away from cities, but today we learned why that’s not a great idea. The closest open Urgent Care is in Anchorage… 90 miles away. I’m so thankful that the boys are older. We were able to let them stay back, watch the NBA game and then walk (because remember how small Hope is) to dinner. Our guide from today lives in town and gave us his cell phone number in case boys needed him tonight. (Aren’t North Carolina folks just the best?!?) So the boys are taken care of, and we are headed to Anchorage.

We get to the first urgent care at 6pm, Mike walks in and the lady abruptly tells him they close at six so they can’t see him. She gives us the name of another urgent care about 10 minutes away and off we go to that. This second Urgent Care was wonderful! The nurses, receptionist and doctor were so kind. The receptionist and I were trying to find a pharmacy in the direction we were headed tomorrow while the doctor cleaned the wound.

Unfortunately after cleaning the wound, the doctor said Mike needed internal sutures and they cannot do that at urgent care. They called Anchorage General and Providence Regional Hospital for us to check wait times. Providence Hospital won with a 2 hour wait (AG was 4 hours). But of course, we found the positive and had them laughing before we left.

The ER waiting room was something… actually no, it wasn’t. It was every ER, in every city, in every state. We masked up so we didn’t spend the rest of vacation with stomach bug.

Meanwhile, the boys walked back to The Dirty Skillet for dinner. When I texted to see how they were, they sent me a picture – somehow they ended up in a canoe??

Then I texted back and said send me a picture from dinner…

We clarified that I wanted a picture from dinner not OF dinner 🤣 so I got this

I further clarified that I wanted of a picture together and no dumb faces! And then I get this…

Then I gave up 🤪

Back in the ER, the wait was only about an hour, and then it was time to go back to another waiting room to wait. Maybe 15 minutes later, they called Mike back. Xrays were clear – No fractures just a whole lot of soreness. Thank the Lord! After some anesthesia, they cleaned the wound really well, and put in 8 stitches.

At 10:13, we walked out the ER.

Key takeaways… so thankful boys are older and we didn’t have to bring them with us. The almost constant daylight means that even at 11pm we aren’t driving home in the dark. We walked in the ER, and we walked out of the ER. Mike is okay with what’s likely a scar and cool story. And we are so thankful for God’s protection today!!!

I can’t even begin to think what tomorrow will hold but right now, we just want a hot shower and some sleep 🥰

Collectively, we have decided that today may be the greatest first day of vacation ever! Partly because we didn’t know what to expect from Alaska but mainly because we just had the best day. Due to the time change, we started the day early. Some of us woke up earlier that others, but all of us were dressed and downstairs at the hotel breakfast by 7:30. After breakfast, we loaded up and hit the road. This trip we are trying to alternate between planned activity/adventure days and open days. Today was an open day. Our only objective was to end the day in Hope, Alaska.

First Stop: the Ulu (oo-loo) Factory. The Ulu knife is a traditional Alaskan knife with a curved blade. The factory was great and by factory, they mean half the store is the guy actually making the knives that you can watch, and another employee showing how to care and maintain your ulu knife.

They also sold the greatest coffee mug ever – I think with this I could finally be a one cup of day coffee drinker 😂

We also got to see the Alaskan Railroad Train and Depot. We tried to work in a train ride on this vacation but with our car and the stops we wanted to see, we just could not make it work.

And then, it was off to Walmart to stock up, as well as a stop at Cabella’s for bear spray. You should have seen the people looking at us taking a selfie in Walmart parking lot.

Then it was off to the first stop of the day (provided by my new travel buddy, Chat GPT). Along the way, the views had us all in awe and then Michael spotted our first bit of Alaskan Wildlife…

We made it to Earthquake Park. According to the plaque 😁, on Good Friday in 1964, a 9.2 Earthquake hit the area in and around Anchorage. The quake lasted over 4 minutes with ongoing aftershocks. They said the blast had the force of Mt St. Helens. While the quake was centered about 80 miles east of Anchorage, the damage including 9-foot waves in San Franscisco and larger than normal waves all the way to Honolulu. And we know this is all correct and true, because they are commemorated on a plague! 😀

Thankfully, Earthquake Park was connected to Tony Knowles Trail that runs along the coastline. According to Chat GPT, it was a gorgeous easy trail along the coast that showed the rolls of hills caused by the Good Friday Earthquake. Say what you will about AI, but Chat GPT has been spot on so far in Alaska.

We also found the cutest thing along the trail – a Dog Stick Library! Feel free to borrow and return as needed ♥️

As we were walking, Micheal, now known as the Moose Spotter, said “Stop for a minute.” We did and off to our right was another moose. He was just wandering around, eating and just doing moose stuff.

MOOSE P

We also met the nicest Alaskan ladies who were out for a walk. They wanted to know all about our trip, and what we thought of Alaska and the weather. – It’s a little chilly about 45 degrees but the wind makes it feel so much colder. Definitely the chilliest Summer Vacation we have had. Back on the road, we recharged at a local copy shop, Sip.

We drove the Seward Highway. According to the everything we read, SewardHighway is one of the most scenic drives in US. And they were not kidding. As beautiful as this is, the pictures do not do justice to how stunning this place is.

There were several recommended stops along the Highway. The first one was Beluga Point. If the tide were in, we potentially could see some beluga whales. It was low tide when we visited so no whales, but the low tide did allow for some excellent pictures and walks along the water.

Traveling on, look what we found… Mom’s Cafe now serving Alaska! Thankfully we “borrowed” an unoccupied campsite to enjoy a non-moving lunch 🥪♥️

The views continued as we made our way to our next stop, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The center takes in animals who are abandoned, injured or surrendered by land owners. There were all kinds of animals including a wolverine! Seriously, who has ever seen a wolverine in real life (and lived)?!? If there was any question that wolverines are dangerous, the wolverines and the grizzly bears had the same amount of electric fences around their enclosures! And this guy was intent on the whites foxes next door!

Then we headed over to the Muskox pasture. I have to admit until today, I had no idea that Muskox existed. We did learn that the qiviut (the fur under the top coat of fur) is considered the warmest fabric in the world. I guess if you’re living outside in Alaskan winters, you better be covered by the warmest fur!

We headed over to the grizzlies next. The 2 biggest bears were orphaned after their mom was killed and the little one, Hugo, was abandoned by his mom because he had porcupine quills in his face. Porcupine quills have hooks on them and animals cannot remove. So when a baby animal comes in contact with a porcupine, the mothers will often abandon them because they know they can’t help. Watching them just sit and wait for their meal was so cute. You wanted to cuddle them up… until you remembered they could rip you apart.

Next up were the black bears who I swear were posing for pictures… at least until the side by side pulled up with the blue buckets. The zookeepers told us that the animals know what the blue bucket means… food!

Then we headed back to see the moose. These guys tend to wander into traffic and get hit by cars. One of these guys did not want anyone else to get any attention!

There were reindeers and more black bears along with bison who ran in a pasture so large we decided to drive there instead of walking.

Ornament for the travel tree purchased and then we were back on the road headed to Hope, Alaska. The views continued to be amazing, a little different but just as beautiful.

Our little cabin in Hope is so cute!

Hope, Alaska is a tiny town on the Kenai Peninsula. When I say tiny, I mean TINY! Population is 162 and a Main Street that is dirt 🤣 Before our trip, we watched a YouTube video on Hope, Alaska and discovered it is a big wedding destination for nature-loving folks who want to start their marriage in Hope. The town started as a gold rush town and the prospectors wanted to give the town a name. To pick the name, they decided they would name the town after the next person who walked off the boat… off came a 17 year old prospector named Percy Hope… and Hope, Alaska was born! There’s a social hall, public toilets, an old cafe, and gift shop open most days.

Off the main Highway is the Dirty Skillet. The Dirty Skillet was supposed to be a great dinner destination so off we went… with 3 restaurant choices, we figured the number one had to pretty good 😊

Dinner was fresh caught and grilled halibut, and it was delicious. Clearly the apple crisp with homemade ice cream dessert was wonderful as well.

Someone may have had cold feet throughout dinner because they wore flip flops in 45° weather… but that same someone was warned about the temperature before we left and said “oh no, I’ll be fine.” After dinner, we headed back to our little cabin, and passed by Creekbend Cafe and Acres. We read that they had great breakfast sandwiches and coffees. But we did not know they also are a live music hotspots in Alaska. In fact, tonight and tomorrow a group the boys know is playing – Buffalo Traffic Jam. So after tomorrow’s adventures and dinner we’re headed down to a free concert! Seriously, what are the chances?!?!

Tomorrow is our first adventure day, but it’s going to be pretty hard to top Day 1!

It’s here. State number 50 – Alaska! It is hard to believe we are almost done with our quest to visit all 50 states before Graduation. Technically, Michael graduated last week, but we are still counting this as success. The travel notebook is ready, the check list is done and the Browns are on their way!

An early afternoon departure out of Raleigh made for a leisurely morning to finalize all our last minute things, and then were off!

To avoid some of our prior close-call/sprints through the airport, we arrived today with plenty of time. It takes a full day of travel to get to Anchorage – RDU to O’Hara, and O’Hare to Anchorage. So we grabbed a snack/lunch in Raleigh, and jumped on the first leg of our travel day.

We made it to Chicago! Quick layover and we were right back in the air for our 7-hour cross country flight to Anchorage!

Once we crossed into Canada, the clouds cleared, and the topography and scenery were amazing! It was so gorgeous, it looked fake!

Someone may have gotten annoyed with me leaning over to take photos🤪

The interactive maps on the plane were really cool… see Mt Macon on the map, see Mt Macon out the window.

WE MADE IT! Welcome to Alaska! NUMBER 50!!!

Bags + 1 cooler ✔️ Rental Car ✔️ (Seriously, if you aren’t an AARP member for discounted car rental, you’re crazy!) and we were on our way! Not a bad backdrop for a city.

And it’s not Mom’s Cafe, but maybe it’s a satellite location?

Alaska is 4 hours behind East Coast Time. Our 8pm arrival was midnight to us, and our 9pm dinner was 1am to us. And some of us do not adjust as well to the time change.

By the time we finished dinner, it was 10pm here (2am at home). This is 10pm in Alaska.

I for one am looking forward to seeing how much Alaska we can pack into 20-22 hours of sunlight every day! Some people are not😂 We can do some serious Clark -Griswold-vacationing with that much daylight!!

Last day of this view and couldn’t resist one more picture

One thing we have forgotten to mention throughout this trip is the State of Hawaii’s love of “Speed Humps” versus Speed Bumps. The hump is definitely more gradual than a bump, but we have cracked up each time we saw them… guess gradual is more vacation-friendly 😂

We made it to the airport and were SO thankful we were not on Hawaiian Air today. They were having crazy computer issues so no online check in and nothing could be done ahead of time. Tempers were HOT and the line was awful!

Then we got to TSA and were again thankful for God’s provision that we had the CLEAR screening ahead of time (TSA Pre-check). Actually, we bought it last year when we were about to miss our flight out of LaGuardia. LaGuardia is the Walmart of TSA: Only open one TSA lane on Holiday weekends. Later, we did find out that the TSA delay was partially due to this being a training day for the drug sniffing dogs who were smelling everyone who went through Maui on July 5th. (The dogs were really cute in their little uniforms.)

We made it through and grabbed lunch while we waited to board our first flight. I couldn’t help but snap some airport pictures because they are such a beloved moment in our travels 🤣

Even spotted Maui, the demi-god from Moana 😀

One more technically Hawaii pic, and we were off…

We left Maui at 1:30 Hawaii time, and landed at 9:44 West coast time. We watched a lovely sunset on the way and then Hello LA

Back on the mainland, we had 1 hour to grab a snack/dinner. Then we are off for our first overnight flight. Thankfully, we snagged exit row seats for a little extra leg room.

And since we saw the sunset may as well get the sunrise as well 🤪

Not sure I’ve ever seen the sunset and sunrise in same 24 hours… so can mark that off a list.

Bags picked up, car loaded and we are headed home… but not before picking up the one thing we couldn’t find in Hawaii…

Since Mom’s Cafe wasn’t in Hawaii, not a lot of stats for this trip other than mileage. This trip definitely wins as lowest mileage ever!

Maui 314

Hawai’i 454

Oahu 209

Kaua’i 57

Total: 1,034 

And that’s it… just one more state to go 🥹♥️

One more morning with this view 🌺

Based on my alleged snoring last night, and my perfect sleep score, I think my body likes vacation 😊 Wonder if I could get a doctor’s note to stay on vacation permanently… for medicinal reasons? 🤣

We said goodbye to the Grand Hyatt and made our way back to the LiHue airport. The view never gets old… there is literally every shade of green on this island.

One flight back to Maui, and one more day in Hawaii and we’re headed home.

A quick flight and we were back in Maui. We are staying in the Wailea section of Maui tonight. It’s about 20 minutes closer to the airport, plus it gave us a chance to see a different part of Maui. We were planning to ask about fireworks for later tonight, but the hotel was one step ahead:

We grabbed lunch at the outdoor lounge while we waited for our room, and added bonus we got a 4th of July picture from Charlotte of sweet Scarlett (Sampson wouldn’t be still long enough for photo 🤪)

I think the boys are a little worn out because once we got in the room, no one was terribly motivated to do much of anything 😀

It’s a different view in Wailea versus Ka’annapali but still beautiful

We headed out for an early dinner so we could be back for the fireworks. Our bartender earlier suggested a place in Paia, so we headed that way. The drive over was gorgeous as we made our way along the coast.

The recommended restaurant was too crowded so we wandered around a bit, and found a really neat place, Ohana’s. Great food and singer/band who was hilarious!

We went in search of some ice cream for dessert, and found the cutest food truck area. We also found Reefs Real Fruit Ice Cream. Oh my word – It was awesome! It was hard dip vanilla ice cream, missed with fresh fruit and then blended until smooth. It was a cross between soft serve and milkshake consistency and WOW was it good!

We hurried back to hotel to change and get ready to watch the fireworks from the pool. Because none of us have ever watched fireworks from a pool before 😁 Added bonus, the drive back was just as beautiful!

I think Hawaii may have saved her best sunset for last…

We watched the fireworks while sitting in lounge chairs in a pool in Wailea, Hawaii. That’s a pretty perfect Fourth of July 🇺🇸

One more sleep, and then we start making our way across 5,000 miles to home. We have had so much fun, but I think we are ready for home.

This may have been the laziest vacation day we have ever had. It went against every Clark Griswold instinct in me. Other than eat, we did absolutely nothing and it was wonderful!

We slept in and made it down for the biggest breakfast buffet we have ever seen: Pancakes, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Cereal, Yogurt, All Kinds of Fruit, Miso Soup, Fried Rice, Shrimp, Salmon, Seafood Ric, Eggs Benedict, Omlet Station… I cannot think of one thing the buffet didn’t have! It was pricey, but since it was brunch, I doubt we will need lunch. Plus, I’m fairly certain they lost money on these two…

As we waddled back to our rooms, we saw a little tiny Jesus ♥️

Mike and I decided to set up on the beach for a few hours and boys hung out at the pool. The waves and currents were a little less rough today, so the boys tried swimming in the Pacific Ocean for a while. The water is gorgeous, but man! These waves are CRAZY! We napped and read, and napped some more. Someone (me) may have napped so hard that their snoring woke them up. 😴

After a few hours, we headed up to pool to join the boys. Of course, we had to get a fruity drink and just enjoy being lazy together.

The boys headed for the gym for another soccer run, and we watched The Meg. (Glad we aren’t going on a boat tomorrow. 🤣)

We dressed up for dinner tonight at Tidepools here at hotel. Thankfully I remembered to get a photo, because all 4 of us are rarely dressed up together.

Dinner was delicious and was the perfect capstone to our time in Kaua’i. We will update the favorite island contest tomorrow, but I’m betting there is a new champ.