Mile High to the End of the Road: Catching Up

We once again fell off the blogging bandwagon (I have a good excuse, I swear) so here is a quick round-up of some adventures from the second half of our year.

Tyler came up for a 3-day canoe trip on the Swanson River Canoe Trails.
Mosquito nets were a must.

Tyler's way of dealing with the 22 hours of daylight while
camping-put the sunglass case inside of the sunglasses to sleep.

Some little Rainbows that actually fried up very nicely.

Grant & Tyler each carried a canoe between lakes while I carried
the big pack. Burly strong men they are.

Later in the week while I worked, Grant, Tyler & Hank climbed Alpine Ridge across the bay:

My parents then joined us:

Exit Glacier in Seward

Sea lions sunning on the rocks

Dall's Porpoise swimming alongside the wildlife cruise boat.

At the Holgate (?) Glacier

The glacier calves into the ocean (drops ice chunks)

More sea lions

Fishing for sockeye on the Kenai River

Bob & Barbara's boat that Grant, Mom & Dad went out cruising on.

Notice the nice interior that Grant re-finished last winter

Raft of sea otters

Halibut Cove

Sandhill Cranes in the backyard. Love how they look but they like to
chase Hank.

Fishing at the reservoir by our house

Huge Alaskan fish

Mom & Dad taking the canoe out for a spin

Next, Grant's parents and Uncle John came. I went to Colorado during part of this time for my dear friend Tiffany's wedding. Since Grant isn't much for picture taking, we own none from their adventures which included riding fat tire bikes on the the beach, hiking to Grewingk Glacier Lake, and fishing for halibut and salmon.

Our final visitors for the summer were Grant's buddies Shane, Chris (Jamo) and Kris.

Diamond Creek Beach for a bonfire

Grant paying up on a bet with Jamo over the Cal Poly-Colorado State
football game from last fall.

More canoeing

And fishing of course

The boys went and had some true Man Time across the bay staying at China Poot Lake cabin and climbing China Poot Peak. What happens at Poot Peak stays at Poot Peak apparently.

Next came fall which was highlighted by Grant going moose hunting in Sadie Cove with Mike. They were gone about a week and hauled out over 700 lbs. of moose!

View from our deck with the colors starting to change

Fireweed hike near our house

Moose Valley

Much nicer nights than last year's goat hunt

Mike with the 58" bull

Heart roasting over the fire

The head and antlers weighed about 100# by themselves

Hanging the quarters for a few days

Butchering day

And packaging it all up

A big boy who hung around our yard quite often. We even got to hear
him mating one night.

Quick weekend trip for some fall colors to Lake Eklutna north of Anchorage.

Later in the fall we made a trip to Colorado. It was much colder there than it has been here this year. We spent Thanksgiving with friends and made our first Turducken:

3 birds getting de-boned here

Layers: Turkey, stuffing, duck, stuffing, chicken, stuffing

And sewing it up

We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home and had some friends over for Christmas dinner. The following day, we went up to Girdwood for a relaxing mini-vacation and to try to find some decent skiing snow.