JulieOlsen.com || Alaska

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		Stacy took an internship with the Alaska Department of Law this summer so when I realized I had an upcoming free holiday weekend we decided a visit was in order. Four days and 50,000 frequent flyer miles later I was landing in Anchorage and we were on our way to our first Moose's Tooth establishment. The next four days were spent exploring the Kenai Peninsula by day and, well, it was always day. Every view was spectacular and the wildlife was pretty amazing too. All in all we saw a moose, sea otters, seals, dozens of bald eagles, dahl's porpoises, more tufted puffins then necessary and a lot of really big fish. The people were great too - very down-to-earth, active and friendly. Not to mention Alaska has the highest male to female gender ratio in the United States....
				The first day I arrived around 4 p.m., found Stace at work, and we went out to the Moose's Tooth for First Tap and pizza with her friends Betsy and Mark. I was on my 18th hour of daylight, with a few yet to go. (Photo by Mark)

				After a run on the coastal trail and a fantastic breakfast at Snow City Café, we headed south on the Seward Highway to the Kenai Peninsula, stopping to sight-see at Beluga Point in the Cook Inlet. Due to huge forest fires in Fairbanks and cloudy/ashy skies our views were pretty limited, but it was still breathtaking. Here's the not-very-good panoramic, taken with my not-very-good camera (be prepared to scroll).

				Our next stop was near Coopers Landing in the Chugash National Forest to hike the lower Russian Lake trail, which was an easy 6-mile walk through dense forest and open fields. At one point there was so much dandelion fluff flying through the air it looked like it was snowing. Fun stuff.

				Another view of Russian Lake from the trail. I would have traded just about anything or anyone in my life for a wakeboard boat at this moment.

				Our next stop was Homer Alaska, Halibut Fishing Capital of the World. They would probably increase tourism if the sign read "Homer Alaska, Home of good-looking-men-who-don't-know-they're-good-looking". We liked Homer.

				Case in point, Trevor Tyler. Note I'm standing in a pothole. Seriously. Note also that it's dark - turns out if you stay out late enough the sun does eventually go down.

				A pretty nice view of the mountains, but even more impressive once you realize it's taken from outside the room at the B&B we stayed at. From the hot tub. Life is hard. It's too bad we didn't get the local area moose in the photo.

				After a fantastic breakfast and hot tubbing we wandered down to the Homer Spit, which is a 5-mile long patch of sand in Katchemak Bay that functions as a cross between a commercial touristy recreational area and hard-core fishing village.

				First attempt at using the self-timer function on my not-very-good camera.

				Begrudgingly, we left Homer and drove up to Hideout Trail near Skilak Lake. We thought it was unusual that all the parking lots in the area were empty, but at the head of the trail we found a warning stating that a bear had been sighted recently on the trail. We took the bear spray and went anyway. Photo by Stace.

				The view was worth it.

				Second attempt at using the self-timer function on my not-very-good camera. Getting better.

				The view from the top of the hike, which was short, about 2.5 miles, but roughly 800' elevation.

				Five minutes later clouds came in. Stacy's photo of the same scene. We descended quickly, avoiding any rain, but did find large bear prints that were not on the trail on the way up. Scary.

				For the 4th of July we headed to Girdwood, home of Alyeska ski resort and Girdwood Forest Fair, held every 4th of July weekend.

				After checking out the fair we took the tram up the mountain and did some hiking. This photo shows the view of the Steward highway we were becoming quite familiar with.

				Before checking out the snow-capped areas, we ducked into the upper resort for warm soup. We were chatting away when a paraglider drifted by, about 100 feet from our window. Never put your camera away while in Alaska.

				The snow-covered mountain area was next. If you look closely you can see three people in the middle of the photo. It's so easy to lose a sense of scale up there.

				Stace and I playing on the glacier.

				Stacy announced she was going to strike a snowboarding pose and then promptly fell. We thought that summed up our snowboarding abilities well.

				When we returned that night it was still light out -shocker- so I took a few pictures of the gardens in downtown Anchorage. The flowers there grow really well in summer - I'm sure 20 hours of sunlight a day helps. After that we headed to dinner at the Bear Tooth Grill.

				Monday morning we climbed Flat Top, which is one of the more popular day hikes in Anchorage. It's a fun climb into clouds at the top but fairly steep and we were surprised to see everyone from 4-year-olds to joggers on the trail. Photo is taken at the top. As you may have surmised, it's flat.

				Going down was interesting. Due to the thick clouds we felt like we were lowering ourselves over the edge into nothingness.

				Attempting to get arty with the not-so-good camera. Not-so-successful.

				That afternoon we drove down to Seward for a boat tour of Resurrection Bay which is in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Photo is of Seward Marina.

				Before getting on board we wandered around Seward. Fishing tours are also very popular here and before long we came across this lovely display.

				Even more pleasant, it turns out the board is updated every 10 minutes or so at the end of the day with whatever catch is brought in. I guess now we know where all the big fish are going.

				These cracked me up.

				On the tour we saw some wildlife, no whales unfortunately but we did have Dahl's porpoises playing around us a few times. This sea otter came out to greet us shortly after we left the pier. Photo by Stace.

				We smelled, heard, and eventually saw, several rocks full of seals.

				Our tour guide and several of the older tourists on our boat seemed quite captivated with the Puffin bird. Particularly the Horned Puffin and the Tufted Puffin. After an hour of the tour guide discussing the nesting habits of the Tufted Puffin Stace and I discovered the ship's bar had Bloody Marys.

				Another panoramic. Done on automatic exposure which, on my 'special' camera, throws in the bonus northern lights-that-aren't-really-there feature. Get ready to scroll again.

				Toward the end of the tour thick, patchy clouds came in, providing great contrast with the green mountains. Photo by Stace.

				Sadly, I had to return to Wisco, but the next weekend Stace was able to go up in a float plane with a friend from work and fly north over Denali National Park. The photos are amazing so I added them — and with my poor memory, in a couple years I'll think I was there too! Photo by Craig.

				The lake where they landed the plane (above). Photo by Stace.

				Mount McKinley. Due to fog and clouds McKinley is only visible about 30-35% of the time, and that's assuming you've gotten yourself out to the middle of nowhere... by Alaska standards. Photo by Stace.

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