It's Been a Whirlwind!

We arrived back in Anchorage (from the Crow Pass Cabin) last Wednesday afternoon and then had some good friends from CA, Ryan and Martha, arrive in Anchorage Wednesday night. They were here for only a short time so we were on the go quite a bit! We had a great time, though. Last Friday night, we stayed in a yurt overlooking the Eagle River. The sounds of the river were so relaxing. Cooper came along with us on this trip and, as usual, enjoyed all of the sniffs and smells of the outdoors. On Saturday, we drove down south to the Kenai River/Russian River area for a few days of camping and fishing. On one of our days of fishing, we caught sight of 4 bears!! Bears are known to frequent the Kenai River/Russian River area because they know that fish are being caught and they can find some carcasses. They also know that people usually have food in their backpacks. (In the past, fishermen left their backpacks/bags on the shore while they were fishing and the bears have gotten into them.) There are now rules that you need to wear your backpack and have your fish (that you've caught) on you at all times. That may mean hanging them from rope from your waist. Anyways, a grizzly bear and her cub were the first 2 bears to make an appearance. The little cub was, actually, pretty cute. They got pretty close to the people on the river but as long as you don't bother them they won't bother you. About 5 minutes later, 2 black bears came down to the river. This was only the 2nd time I've seen bears from such a close distance and, let me tell you, it gets your heart pumping. Our friends from CA were lucky to have seen both types of bears within minutes of each other. Overall, we all had a fantastic time and are now awaiting our final visitor of the summer--my sister!

Here are some photos of our latest adventure:


Our friend, Joe, performed at a local bar one night. While there, we ran into a local celebrity. If you watch "Deadliest Catch" you'll recognize the guy in the middle as Captain Jon.


Ryan, Martha, Me, Andy and Cooper in front of the yurt right before we started our 1.5-mile hike back to the truck.


This is one of the grizzly bears we saw at the Russian River. The little cub is behind the mama bear and, unfortunately, did not make it into the photo.

Crow Pass Cabin

We'd like to share our exciting news!! We're engaged!!! Yep, after our 5 years together, we have decided to take the next step. Here's how it happened:

We rented the Crow Pass Cabin for two nights (this past Monday and Tuesday). After our 3-mile hike in to the cabin, we ate some lunch and got our things unpacked. There were still a few snow piles around the area so I took Cooper out to play in the snow for a bit while Andy remained back at the cabin. On our way back, Cooper ran ahead to see Andy (in the cabin). As I was about 2 feet away from the porch, Cooper came out of the cabin with a new collar around his neck. I noticed the new collar and also noticed a ring hanging down from it. Well, that's when I realized what was going on started crying, pinching myself to make sure it was real!! (I have to say that Cooper played his part perfectly.) While Cooper and I were out playing, Andy also got out the champagne and spread paper hearts around the cabin. Each heart had something written on it (places we've traveled to, memories, etc...). It was so romantic!

I'm having some trouble uploading photos so I will post those later!

Quartz Creek Campground

My Dad is up from Wisconsin so Andy and I took him camping at Quartz Creek Campground. It was a great campground (minus the grumpy campground host), with clean restrooms, nice fire pits, and decent-sized campsites. The campground is located on Kenai Lake, which is a beautiful turquoise color. Cooper did a little bit of swimming but he just wasn't into swimming after sticks. A couple of weeks ago he hurt his right back leg. We're not sure what it is but are thinking he pulled something. We are waiting it out and just taking it easy with him so we can, hopefully, avoid a large vet bill.

Here are some photos from our camping trip:

Cooper spent most of his time chasing a little squirrel from tree to tree.


This is about as far as Cooper ventured out into Kenai Lake. It's a COLD lake.


Andy, me, and my Dad standing in front of Kenai Lake

Weekend Warriors

We have been doing a lot of biking this summer. On average, we ride about 8-10 miles a day. This last Friday, we drove about 20 miles down south on the Seward Highway and parked at Bird Point. Then, we got on our bikes and rode about 8 miles to a small town called Girdwood. Every year (around the 4th of July) they have their Forest Fair, so we enjoyed the typical fair food, live entertainment and beer garden. They also have a lot of vendors who sell great handmade (artsy) items.

On Friday night we ventured out to go king salmon fishing with our friend, Heath. Fishing started at midnight (there are so many fishing rules and regulations up here) so, at 11:30 p.m., after setting up our tent and getting on our gear, we walked about a mile through the woods (bear territory) and down to Sheep Creek. We claimed our fishing spot and, while other fisherpeople filled in spots around us, waited until midnight to cast our lines. This was my first "midnight" fishing adventure so I was pretty impressed with myself when I fished until about 1:30 a.m. Thank goodness for Rockstars and power bars!! Neither Andy nor I caught a king. I do have to say, though, that just listening to the intoxicated fisherpeople around us was very entertaining. Around 2:00 a.m. we started walking back to our campsite. It was dusk and made for some difficult lighting through the woods. Our friend, Heath, had a shotgun with him (not unusual up here) so we felt pretty safe. About 1/2 way back to camp we heard a gun shot from behind us. My heart started pumping a little faster and we picked up the pace a bit. Not a minute later, we heard a gun shot coming from up ahead of us. Okay, so now I was a bit more nervous. I don't think I could have even seen a bear if one was near us, due to the lighting. Well, we made it back to camp safely but the adventure did not end there. We got to bed around 3:00 a.m. and, just as I was starting to fall asleep, some other people in the campground decided to start letting off fireworks (even though they are prohibited). People were nicely asking for them to stop. That lasted for about an hour. Finally, some peace and quiet. Not so lucky. So now it's about 4:00 a.m. and some other campers decide to play their stereo as loud it goes. I'm not talking some soft elevator music; this was some hard core music. People were yelling for them to turn it off and have some respect for the other campers. Well, the people playing the stereo had obviously been drinking quite heavily because that didn't go over too well. Swear words were exchanged for a while, the cops were called, and all was silent again, about another hour or so later. So, I think I finally fell asleep around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. and then we got up at 9:30 a.m. to try our luck at fishing again. We didn't catch anything but I think I can say I've never had a camping experience quite like this one.

I don't have many photos to post right now. Here is one of Andy and I right before we started our trek down to our fishing spot at 11:30 p.m.



My dad flies in tomorrow so I'm sure we'll have some more photos to post soon.
I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July.