Salmon and Souvlaki

Part 15 in a series about our trip to Alaska in late June through mid-July, 2011.

We woke up Thursday morning to beautiful weather.  We had a leisurely breakfast of ham, cheese, and egg English muffins cooked on the fire (only gourmet camping meals for us!)  Then we were off for our day’s destination:  Seward (only a short drive away).

First stop: Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park

We took a nice, easy hike along the old moraine and then up to the active moraine above toe of the glacier.

We enjoyed the small beauties of the hike along with the main event.

At the top!

This area was so recently uncovered that it was still completely bare rock with no vegetation growing at all.  Sort of reminded me of how I picture the moon would be.

(Proof that Ellie did indeed climb her first glacier – on her father’s back.)

After our fun glacier adventure, we drove on into Seward and beyond, to Lowell Point because Noah wanted to try some surf fishing.  The wind was so strong that Selah, Ellie, and I stayed in the Suburban and the guys went out to fish.  The fishing didn’t last long but isn’t this an awesome picture?!

We ate dinner in Seward and then us girls killed some time outside the sporting goods store while the guys chose a new knife for Noah.  Selah took these pictures for us!

She really was upside down.

And with that, we headed back to our campground, full, happy, and glad to be together.

To be continued…

Part 14 in a series about our trip to Alaska in late June through mid-July, 2011.

Dad, Noah, Selah, Nik, Ellie, and I decided to go on one more camping trip to end our vacation in style.  Although originally planning to do a multi-day trip to Glennallen and McCarthy/Kennecott, we eventually came to our senses and decided that a 7-hour trip with a 9-month old didn’t sound like fun.

Instead, we drove to Kenai Lake and camped at the Trail River Campground.  I’d been there a couple times before and my third visit did not disappoint.  We stayed for three days and two nights.

The drive down was gorgeous and we found the perfect spot to eat lunch – on a rocky beach next to Six Mile River.  (Rachel and I white-water rafted this river a few years ago!)

We found a perfect campsite – just across the campground road from the lake.

Ellie loved the beach too!

She loved the beach so much that she refused to go to sleep for her afternoon nap.  So Nik wore her in the Ergo until she fell asleep and then she took her first nap in a tent!

Our first night’s dinner was delicious grass-fed burgers, cooked over the open fire, along with carmelized onions made at home before we left.  Gourmet!

Noah had fun practicing his army crawling skills in the bushes.

After dinner, Nik, Ellie, Selah, and I took a walk along the lake shore.  The driftwood was awesome.

Ellie fell asleep for the night (or so we thought) on our walk back.  So we had a little nursing in the tent and she was set for the night.

Half an hour later – surprise!  Time to play!  I think she was a little confused by the bright light in the tent and thought that she had just taken a nap.   Instead, she stayed up until 11:00.  Doesn’t look very sleepy, does she?

This picture was taken at around 10:30 at night.  I love the long-lasting light of Alaskan summer nights!

To be continued…