Fall Break

Fall break for the kids means road trip! We took off Friday morning after kennel drop off and headed down to Colorado Springs. Only 1 1/2 hours away but by staying in a hotel Friday night we could see all the sights we wanted to in one trip.

We started with Garden of the Gods which is a park with all the really cool rock formations. It wasn't what I expected in that the main part of the park was paved. Nice thing is that it wasn't croweded and the kids were able to find lots of rocks to climb on.

Ben

Michael

Next up: Cave of the winds. Now, all caves are cool and the kids had a great time but these caves couldn't really compare to the Lewis and Clark Cavern we went to in Montana. These caves used to make noise as the wind traveled across the openings but in the interest in tourism they have rerouted the opening and they don't make noise anymore. The kids took some time to "Pan" for rocks which of course turned into daming up the "stream" with their seive boxes. At least we were the only ones there.....

Saturday morning we headed over to the base of Pike's Peak to ride the cog railway up to the top. I didn't know what to expect but I enjoyed the ride. It took about 1 1/2 hours up and only an hour down. Some of the grades were 25% which a normal train or car can't make. We saw some Big Horn sheep but not much else in the way of wildlife. It was a nice day down at the base but it was 30* up top and with the 30 mile an hour winds it was only 10*.

Rocks at the top: small as they freeze and break most nights

Cog rail cars at the top
Michael leaning into the wind at the top

Fryeburg Fair

Left they boys (...and cats...and dogs) with Mike in Colorado and flew out to visit Mom and Dad and my sister and family. It was a great trip even if it was a bit chilly (and a bit rainy!). The colors on the trees were just starting to turn and weren't full but beautiful none the less. I was provided with a very comfortable pull out bed to sleep on, 2 dogs in case I missed mine, great food by all and some quality time with my sister.

Covered Bridge:


View from the back of the train.

Aspens

Okay.....just about my favorite time of year here in Colorado. Aspens turning green to yellow. Kenosha Pass is a great place to go and walk this time of year. Boys got out of school early on Friday and Mike took off work so off we went. Unfortunately 45 minutes into the mountains meant rain and we only walked about 20 minutes before the thunder and lightning came along.

Roxborough State Park

With the boys off from school, me off from work and Mike out of town it made sense (a lot of sense) to not sit home and listen to the boys fight. We headed south of town to one of Colorado's State Parks. We walked for a few hours and saw lots of weird bugs. Not a bad afternoon according to the boys.

Saturday

Home today. Got Mike to put up the new ski racks I ordered. Would seem the skis have been out in the garage multilpying somehow. Hopefully they won't jump out and trip over my feet when I walk by anymore.

While we were out by the garage we found some weird, large spiders. We had to move them away from the garage since they really weren't ones we wanted to find moving into our living quarters. Turns out they are Orb Web Weaver spiders or Cat-faced spiders which Ben thought very wierd.

Homer

Coastline of the western side of Kenai Peninsula. Accross the bay (to the left) is the first of several volcanos that lie on the other side:

Di and the boys on the beach:

We spent Friday and Saturday in Homer which is on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. We has a nice drive over, spent some time by the ocean before we arrived. Neither of us thought much of the town of Homer. It's all fishing and tourist which seem to go hand in hand here. It is also expensive...more so then any other town I've been to.

Saturday we time the tide and set out for a well known tidal pool area. We found tons of sea anenomes and a few starfish. Ben slipped off a rock and was wet to his knees and complained about the cold and sand all the way back to the car. We did get sun in the afternoon which was the first opprotunitiy we had to view the mountians across the bay. It is a beaufitul view.

Starfish:

Eagles on the beach:
Eagle prints on the beach:

The lupines are almost in full bloom. The flowers are everywhere, growing in masses along the road sides. It's been cool the whole time we've been here. I've heard in said by the residents in every town we've been to that spring is about 3 weeks late. Just our luck! We have lucked out with the rain holding...we've had overcast days but only one full morning of rain (this morning).
We have a midnight flight out of Anchorage this evening and will be back home in Denver at 7am Monday morning.

Seward

View of Resurrection Bay from our hotel:

Otter that lives by the rocks at the south end of town:

We headed down to the Kenai Peninsula on Tuesday morning. The drive alone the highway was beautiful, Seward (on the eastern side) is surrounded by mountains so the town kinda hangs on a small area of land. There is a great aquarium with native species and sea otters that live in the rocks right off the parking areas.

Di and Michael on the "Alaskan Explorer"

Wednesday we took another boat tour out into Resurrection Bay. This was a bigger boat (about 94'). We did get close to one of the Glaciers but it was a totally different experience then the last trip we took. The waters were colder and so there wasn't as much ice in the water. The glacier was active and there was quiet a bit of calving going on.
We saw a tremendous amount of sea birds nesting...at points there would be so many birds on the rock face it looked like a hive of bees. Both Ben and I loved the puffins...ungainly little fat things that only looked graceful when they were in the water.
We saw Sea lion rookeries, Orca and Humpback whales. We stopped to watch a Mom and baby humpback and when the Mom would dive down the baby would stay up top and play. He would roll over, stick his fins out and swoosh water with his tail and try and breach but with his fins up instead of this head. He wasn't very coordinated but I guess that's how they learn.
We stopped for a Salmon dinner on an island on the way back. The dinner was good and the beach had perfect flat, round stones that the boys spent the majority of their time trying to skip.

The "Alaskan Explorer" docked at Fox Island for dinner:

Thursday we went to Exit Glacier National Park where we could actually walk up and touch a glacier. One of the guide books that if you spend enough time in Alaska you get tired of seeing glaciers but not me. It's kinda like the Eagles that are all over and most people here take them for granted. Mike says the natives in Juneau don't really like the Eagles since they are scavengers and are a nuisance.

Family by Exit Glacier:

Kittywakes nesting:

Sea Lion rookery:

Humpback whale breaching:

Puffins nesting: