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Whilst working on Saturday morning I decided to throw myself off a ladder for something to do I did manage to find the only place in the steel storage building to do this where I wouldn’t crack my head on a 4-wheeler, filing cabinet, or metal trolley, and also landed flat on my back as opposed to something silly like on a shoulder or ankle where a break or dislocation would have been an odds-on favourite to have happened.

Okay, so I didn’t exactly do it on purpose (and apparently the precedent was set by needing to get drunk before falling down and suing the school…). As I was stepping off the ladder onto the upper level of the building, the ladder slipped away from under my other foot, sending me 8 feet or so onto the wooden boardwalk below. Over an hour at the clinic today (ten points for guessing it’s not open over the weekend, though at least there is an emergency call out available if it had been serious) and all I got was some ibuprofen and told to take it easy, which is about all I was expecting, though the doctor that checked over the details back in Bethel did suggest going into the hospital if it get’s worse or doesn’t ease up in a week or so. Which was nice. Hard for them to done anything else really, as nothing is broken or obvious signs of problems other than swelling + bruising, and they were very nice whilst checking me out.

I might be going into Bethel in the next week or so in an attempt to get out of the heavy lifting business anyway- more on that one as things pan out. Could get Subway whilst I’m at it! In other news, Kat’s half-sister Cheri` sent through a care package containing 36 Twix bars

After having a photo selected for the Schmap! Edinburgh guide, I’ve now had two photos included in the guide to Anchorage The first was showcasing the shuttle bus the zoo operates from downtown to the zoo which is a pretty cool deal as it wasn’t exactly the easiest place to find otherwise! The original photo can be found here on Flickr, and the photo in the Schmap! guide is here

This second one is of a dall sheep within the zoo, a pretty good closeup given the camera I had at the time! Here’s the Schmap! page with the featured photo, and the original on Flickr. One of my friends on Flickr also has a photo or two listed which is pretty cool.

The mail has been a little hit + miss the last few days with the weather a bit rainy, so Photoshop Elements hasn’t arrived yet - looking forward to touching up the photos from our trips around Anchorage from a couple of weeks ago when it does as really want to get the photos online I’ve also just redesigned iainfoulds.com, the side-arm with a selection of prints available for purchase.

The last few days have slowly been easing us back into village life after our vacation. It’s been nice to see the teachers coming back and meeting the new guys. Everyone is back now, with Pam and Dan are out again in Bethel for a couple of training days. Frank + Mark have me working on taking down the outdoor basketball court which is kinda sad in a way - the court belongs to the tribal council who are charged with then reconstructing it, however the way things work out here, that could take some time meaning the kids now have even less to do around the village. But, playing out well after curfew until midnight and then starting again at 5a.m (no-one knows how they get up that early when standard wake-up time is closer to midday!) means it’s kinda been brought upon themselves, and there’s a new steel building waiting to be built where the court is currently sited so Frank wants it gone.

We had the power out for 5 hours or so this afternoon as the new airport gets their electrics hooked up which is kinda cool. At least the generators wound themselves back up again and power came back on okay Kat has been busying herself at school over the weekend getting her classroom ready - they have a couple of inservice days at the end of the week before the kids start back on Monday. I think all the kids are struggling with such a long summer without fish camp to go to and could do with getting back into the swing of school schedule! The weather has been pretty warm too, though it’s meant a ton of tiny no-see ‘ums that fly right through the bug mesh on the windows Give some fantastic bug bites…

Yup, back to normal!

No problems with our flights back to the village, in fact we showed up at Yute Air for our charter and they pretty much took the bags right onto the plane and then got us in the air. Always amazes me how quickly things happen when you’re paying extra as opposed to sitting for hours waiting on a scheduled(ish) flight But, we’re back, all the food we brought back made it okay, and remarkably none of our bags or boxes were searched. Sure that’s a first! Mia seems to think life is great with getting to lie on the couch and the bed again. Guessing my parents got out of Anchorage and into Vancouver okay, haven’t anything to the contrary Can sleep in tomorrow without having to think about where we have to drive or visit and just relax a little.

We got Mia picked up fine this morning, got the rental car dropped off okay, and then checked in and through security in under half an hour. Always nice to go to the customer service check-in counters for oversized stuff or animals as always seems more relaxed away from the main island of check-in counters. Bit annoyed as one of our boxes was 32lbs, then the cooler was 58lbs, and we were charged $50 for overweight bags. I did try arguing the point of the combined total weight which is what they fuss about due to fuel costs, and the $100 we were being charged for a dog anyway, but figured I may as well have just tried talking to a wall. But, at least the TSA guy checking over Mia was friendly - his daughter is married to one of Elena’s sons who is the school secretary, and he lived in Bethel himself for quite a few years back in the 70’s.

So, just hanging out for another half an hour or so before we can start boarding to fly out to Bethel. Hopefully won’t be any delays like last time (though wouldn’t mind the free beer…), and Kat has now just realised her boarding pass is in her jacket pocket and the zipper has now stuck Crisis over, just got it sorted! Guess she’s coming with me after all.

The last few days we were up in a nice log cabin along the Nenana River around Denali National Park which was a great experience. We had a very early morning for the full day, 13-hour tour into Denali and to Kantishna Roadhouse, but was amazing to see so much wildlife! It was kinda sad the bus driver seemed to keep missing the fact Denali was clearly in a view though (a very rare occurence, only 20% of visitors get to see it) and would stop the bus to show a ptarmigan flapping away that no-one got to see. The terrible road conditions and converted school bus without the aid of suspension really didn’t help, and the park ranger greeting us and welcoming us to the “last great wilderness” seemed ridiculous when the first time we stopped inside the park was more like a bus terminal with over a half a dozen buses already parked up herding visitors around and serving lukewarm tea + coffee along with cookies and fruit out the back door…

But, there were some fantastic views of the Alaska Range:

And also views of some of the mountains around Denali lit up in the morning sunshine (which turned to rain by mid-afternoon on our return trip which wasn’t too bad):

The driver finally stopped the bus so we could get a shot of Denali which was pretty cool. Not quite as a clear or distinctive as the flightseeing tour Kat + I took a couple of years ago, but still nice to see although the swirling cloud make it difficult to distinguish in this scaled down photo:

Just as we were taking photos of Denali, we noticed a bear down at the bottom of the valley, so headed down to see how close we could get. It was the second or third grizzly bear we’d seen, and this one really gave us a show! We got a ton of photos as it came to within 40 feet or so, and then wandered along the road in front of us as if leading the way! The driver had to radio in to check what she should do! It finally got off the road where we saw it stand on it’s hind legs before pouncing and chasing after a ground squirrel. Very cool!

We went on to see another couple of bears, though none quite that close, along with a caribou with a fantastic set of antlers before we passed Wonder Lake and headed to the Kantishna Roadhouse, by which time the weather had closed in and the views were over, but we’d got the best of it anyways. After a quick lunch, we then went out panning for gold in the creek where we all ended up with a small sliver of gold (no-one even suggested they might have been planted there…), but a fun experience:

After a long haul back along the park road, we came across a couple of moose very close to us, and again one of them crossed right across the road in front of us and gave us some fantastic close-up views. The mist just added to the atmosphere:

The day after we had a bit of a rest day without too much planned, so Kat + I headed on a little hike up Triple Lakes Trail where we got some fantastic views of the little lakes up in the hills:

This morning we got an early start and started heading back down towards Anchorage, calling in at Talkeetna along the way which was a cool little town where all the downtown area was still small log cabins and no brick-built structures in sight which was really pretty:

Kat’s choice of activities was to check out the Sun Dog Iditarod kennels, home of musher Jerry Sousa who took us on a tour around the kennels, gave a talk and introduced us to the puppies, and also took us on a sleddog ride around the woods with the dogs pulling us on a trailer kinda thing.

It was pretty fun, and was cool to get pulled around by sled dogs, who really had a ton of power! It also broke up to the drive to Anchorage, though we were still in town by 2p.m. Gave us plenty of time to get all the food we wanted to pack the cooler and a rubbermade box, and also mailed off some more food and bites + pieces. Kat + I are heading out in the morning to get Mia and then flying out to Bethel around 12 noon, with a chartered Cessna 207 to take us back to Tunt around 3p.m. Hopefully everything will go okay! Mam + dad don’t leave until a little later, flying down to Vancouver for a couple of nights around 2.30p.m

Overall, it’s been an amazing trip with so many highlights. No-one can really decide on a ‘best moment’, just a list of their favourites! Sure once we all get home and just let it all soak in and go back over photos it will start to hit home just how much we’ve done.

Yesterday we drove back up from Homer to Anchorage, and then today was a shopping day for Kat + I whilst my parents wandered around downtown and relaxed a little. We got a bunch of stuff shipped back from Walmart including a bunch of dog food for Mia, and also mailed back about 15 bags of cereal in a couple of rubbermade boxes via USPS to keep us stocked up for a little while! It was a lot of stop + starting around town all day, but productive. As we were packing up the cereal and dried foods at Carrs, we were right under the approach path for the general aviation traffic coming in to Merrill Field which was pretty cool under the blue skies we’ve been experiencing (temperature in the 70’s all day today ):

Tomorrow we’re driving up to just outside Denali NP where we have a log cabin for three nights, including the full day Kantishna wilderness bus tour through the park on Saturday. Given the current weather, it should be great as it’s due to stay clear until Sunday/Monday, and staying in a log cabin in the area should be an experience too. Coming back down to Anchorage on Monday we’re stopping off in Talkeetna for the Sun Dog Iditarod kennel tour which Kat is really looking forward to!

A fairly short drive from Soldotna down to Homer today, though we took our time and stopped off plenty of times along the way as the weather was just glorious and gave us stunning views across the lower Cook Inlet to the Alaska Range:

Since we got into Homer around lunchtime, we headed straight onto the spit to find lunch and wander around. It was a very weird little place with a bunch of gift shops to keep mam + Kat happy! We weren’t the only ones enjoying the day in Homer, there were three bikes parked up that had obviously had a little bit of a ride to get here:

The small boat harbor was jam packed with fishing boats, and it was fun watching a stream of the fishing charter boats coming back in and seeing the fish being processed right on the docks. Again, the great weather made it even better:

And of course one shot of a classic building along the spit, an old water tower now serving as a lighthouse - the Sawlty Dawg Saloon:

Tomorrow we’re driving back up to Anchorage for a couple of nights before heading further up to a log cabin around Denali National Park which should be great, especially if the weather continues as it has been the last few days

Today we had a fairly easy day without too much driving since we were just heading over to Soldotna/Kenai, but we did stop by Exit Glacier, just within Kenai Fjords National Park, to hike the trail up to the glacier itself.

It was a really nice walk through the trees and up to the glacier, though there was still quite a bit of water coming down the river leading away from it, so we couldn’t make it along to the tongue of the glacier, and then due to unstable ice and rocks the trail leading up to the edge of the glacier was roped off just short of being able to touch it too. Was still a nice walk, aside from the mosquitoes, and cool to see a glacier right up close.

Tomorrow it’s just another fairly short drive down to Homer to check things out down there, and this evening we sat outside in the sunshine making the most of it, so maybe the weather is looking up Kat + I headed to Cold Stone Creamery which was fantastic, just like the Subways of ice cream! Their servings were way too big, but delicious!

Yesterday we headed out with Kenai Fjords Tours on their wildlife glacier cruise and it was just fantastic! Again, we got very lucky with the weather which although was a little overcast, the rain held off and blue skies appeared towards the end of the afternoon. This was our boat, the Chugach:

Just after leaving the habour we came across three sea otters just hanging out eating on whatever they’d found at the bottom of the bay. The captain recognised them as being regulars that hang around causing trouble, and they seemed very okay with the boat getting right up to them.

Further on by No Name Island, a large group of Stella Sea Lions were lying on the rocks along the shore enjoying the sunshine. Again, they didn’t seem too bothered by the boat, and let us watch them for quite some time:

After passing Bear Glacier and Pederson Glacier, we then came upon the massive Aialik Glacier:

This was very impressive, and with clearer weather than last year at Portage Glacier, Kat + I were also very impressed. Quite a few chunks were calving off, and you really got to see just how blue the glacier ice is. We managed to get a cool group shot of us all too:

Heading back towards Fox Island, we came across humpback whales for the second time - we’d seen them going out to the glaciers, but they seemed a little shy. This time, one came up not more than 30 feet from the boat as I was standing at the side and surfaced a couple of times right next to us. It then headed away a little before diving down beneath the water:

We ended up seeing a total of five humpback whales, including a cow and a calf (which were very shy so we only got a couple of glimpses!), but it really was just fantastic to see them. Mam was very impressed and said it made it worth the trip just for that! An hour stop at Fox Island gave us a nice 15 minute park ranger talk about the Kenai Fjords area, along with a delicious grilled salmon dinner. We all would definately recommend the option of stopping at Fox Island for the salmon dinner as it was a nice end to the day.

Overall, it really was an amazing day, and just like the railroad ride, for $130 a person, a well-worthwhile trip. The weather was kind to us, we just have the Denali trip for it to stay nice for now Today we’re walking up to Exit Glacier, then driving round to Kenai, before heading down to the halibut fishing capital of the world, Homer, on Tuesday.