Part 8 in a series about our trip to Alaska in late June through mid-July, 2011. 

We had planned to spend the 4th of July weekend camping so on Thursday afternoon, we headed south, towards Seward, to camp in the Portage Valley.  Nik had gone ahead of us to secure a campsite.  The remaining ten of us (Eric, Meggan and their five kids plus Dad, Ellie and I) drove down later in the evening into the mist.  Thankfully, the rain held off and Ellie got to enjoy her first campfire, made even more fun by her cousins!

I was exceedingly grateful to sleep in Eric and Meggan’s pop-up tent camper while Nik enjoyed sleeping in the tent with Grandpa, Noah, Jonas, and Ezra.  We were nice and warm in the camper but judging from the laughing that we heard coming out of the tent, they had more fun!

The next morning, we took a beautiful easy hike to a small lake next to a avalanche chute.

For lunch, we drove to Girdwood to eat at The Bakeshop.  We also bought a couple loaves of their amazingly delicious white sourdough bread, which I am craving even now, a month later.

(and yes, to my sharp eyed family members, that’s the good ol’ red Suburban, still going strong 24 years later!)

Ellie and Violet both fell asleep for naps just as everyone else was getting ready to go for a hike up to the Byron Glacier.  So they went hiking while Meggan and I stayed behind with the babies.

While they were hiking, it began to rain, just misting at first but then fairly steadily.  So around 8:00 pm Friday night, we started packing up and by 10:00, we were ready to drive home.  Thankfully, it’s as light at 10:00 pm as 10:00 am in the summer so packing up was easy, although wet.  We arrived home wet, tired, and very grateful to be sleeping under a roof, in a dry bed.