Road Trip! Denali National Park!

We were given a "road lottery" ticket for DNP that someone else won - a last minute invitation on a Saturday afternoon that had to be used on Monday, 9/19.  And we jumped!  We drove up Sunday afternoon and stayed at a tiny park created by the Healy Lions Club on Lake Otto just north of the park. We ended up in the park and ready to start at 8:30 am, and we drove 66 miles into the park -- it was beyond stunning, and the pictures won't do it justice, but we'll post some of them here.

It took us about 3 hours to drive the 66 miles into the Eileson Visitor Center, and we took a hike up the mountain opposite -- quite a bit of snow on the ground and an unbelievable view.  3 hours in and 3 hours out, but we didn't see even one animal!!  It was a trip not to be missed though for the stunning scenery - even for someone used to living here!

Meeting our First Two Grandchildren!

Our first granddaughter was born on May 4th to Colleen Manley and Ivana Indruh, our daughter and daughter-in-law.  Torunn is a beautiful little girl, and we've enjoyed getting almost daily pictures of her.  We visited them first, flying into Boston and driving up to Maine.

I was working on two different baby blankets before I left because our son Scott and his wife Tarah were ALSO expecting a child at the end of July.  It looked from pictures as though Torunn already had a lot of knitted blankets, so I knitted this one for Kora, who was born July 30.

Brian got to see Koralie the day before he left, soon after she was born, and to hold her, but I had already left to go to a training weekend in San Francisco on my way back to Anchorage.

More good reasons for visits back east!  We love getting pictures and are surely thinking about everything that we're missing!

July in Upstate New York

What we love about July is visiting our friends and family in Maine and upstate NY AND sailing on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.  We have our 32' Allied Seawind, Petrel, in Henderson Bay, and we managed 9 days again this year.  We started with a day of barely moving, anchored at 10 am and doing nothing more the rest of the day than reading and jumping in the water when we got too warm!  Then on to Kingston, Ontario and around the east end of Wolfe Island back to the American side of the St. Lawrence and back up to Cape Vincent.

One of the things we look forward to is what's become an annual dinner from some former sailing partners.  Jack Reale with his partner, Judy and John and Donna O'Hara.  We had a wonderful dinner at a tucked away place on Lake Ontario and look forward to seeing them every year.

Looking at the pictures, it's no wonder we like going back - and we always want more time to sail!

Catching Up-Where Have We Been?

Looking at my blog and seeing I haven't posted since April was a little shocking!  What have I been doing?  A trip out east again during the month of July, then back to Anchorage the first of August to get in some hiking, fishing, picking blueberries!  My sister Christine and her husband Michael visited us the first full week in August, and even with way more rain than usual, we managed to have a good time.  We weren't able to go out on Kakwik, but we went to the Matanuska Glacier and hiked and stayed at Sheep Mountain Lodge.

It was great to have visitors and especially to see my sister! And I've wanted to go to the glacier ever since we moved to Alaska. We've especially been enjoying our little Chinook camper!  And, we hope Michael and Christine come back to visit soon.

Towards the end of August, right before Labor Day weekend, we had a chance to go out on a halibut charter again - and we came home with 22 lbs. of halibut filets.  Took the charter out of Ninilchik and had a beautiful spot overnight with our Chinook camper before going out at 7:30 am!