Kayaking in Whittier

As promised here is another post. This weekend adventure was a kayaking trip to Whittier, AK. For those of you not familiar with Whittier (which I am assuming is the vast majority of my readers), it is a very tiny coastal fishing town about an hour away from Anchorage. So we left on Friday night with the idea of camping both Friday and Saturday night. Well, the camping part didn't work out on account that I couldn't light a fire on account of it just being so dang wet, even though it wasn't raining the ground and wood were soaked.               

So the most interesting thing about Whittier is that in order to get there you have to drive through a 3-mile long one-way tunnel.

Not only is this one-way tunnel shared by in-bound and out-bound traffic (at half hour intervals), but it is also shared by the train system.

So after our sleeping experience (which involved freaking out every time the wind blew because we thought it was a bear) and my failed campfire experience we started our guided kayaking tour of the Passage Canal, which is essentially an arm off of Prince William Sound.

Here is a nice picture near the Kittiwake Rookery, where literally thousands of seabirds nest for the season (no we did not get pooped on by the birds, although it was a major concern for me).

The guide was nice enough to take some photos of me and Christina during the tour.

There was also a cruise ship that had come in during the night. A point worth noting is that the Passage Canal (which isn't really a man-made canal at all, but just an inlet) is exceptionally deep and very secluded. So during WWII the port of Whittier was actually a very strategic supply port for the Pacific Fleet,

And finally this building, I'm not entirely sure what the name of this building is but it serves as the primary housing for the vast majority of Whittier's approximate 160 residents. So yeah its an efficient system I guess, but it is kind of weird.

The Beginning of the Alaska Adventure

 First and foremost I want to apologize to everyone for being such a poor blogger. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. I promise to keep up on my blogging posts. So without further ado may I present to you our first post from Alaska.

As many of you know Christina accepted a position with the Residency Program in Anchorage, AK at Providence Hospital. Prior to moving up here I interviewed and accepted a position with Engineered Equipment Company of Alaska (EECA). My primary function there is to provide sales support to the outside sales reps, essentially I find information pertinent to the variety of products we sell. But enough of the boring stuff, we have moved to a very beautiful part of the world and are beginning to experience many of the wonderful activities that this gorgeous state has to offer.

For those of you who do not know, Christina's sister lives in Anchorage as well. A couple weeks ago Scott (Deanna's husband) and I took their oldest son David out to catch a real Alaskan Salmon in Ship Creek, which is located literally right in Downtown Anchorage. Even though the day was disappointing for Scott and I David actually caught himself and Pink Salmon. Needless to say he was very exciting at his accomplishment.

Last weekend Christina and I met up with one of Christina's old friends from High School and went on a gorgeous hike just outside of Hope, AK, which is located on the Kenai Peninsula (located about 1.5 hours from Anchorage). Here is a photo from the beginning of the hike looking out at the inlet.

No hike would be complete without taking Knox our dog along with us. You can see here he is just beginning to get a little tired. Let's just say the hike for us was about 12 miles, but for Knox it was probably closer to 20-25 miles.

Here we are very near to the end of the hike. It almost looks like we are standing very near the water, however what this picture doesn't really show is the steep drop off right behind us.

Just another shot of the beautiful scenery.

On our drive home we decided to stop by the town of Hope, AK. This picture pretty much sums up what is in the town. After talking to one of the many fisherman about what was working in the local rivers we decided to grab a drink at the world renowned Seaview Bar.

Saint Louis

So back in May, Christina had an ER rotation in O'Fallon, IL, which just so happens to be right outside of Saint Louis, MO. Kasey decided to take a long weekend to visit with her and drive back to Des Moines with her. Here are a few photos of our adventures.



Within minutes of landing at the airport we grabbed out bags and headed for the Anheuser-Busch brewery to take the tour where we saw the Clydsdales and of course took advantage of the free beer at the end of the tour. It is a very impressive facility.









Of course I think its against the law if you don't visit the arch if you are visiting Saint Louis. It's a really big arch.... that's about it. It's pretty cool to stand right next to it and look up, it gives you a crazy sense of vertigo.










Here is a view of the arch from our hotel.














Here is the old city center, or capital building or something of those sorts. It was a cool looking building so I took a picture.












We also visited Schlafley's brewery in downtown. Their beer is much better than Budweiser's. We like the atmosphere of small brew pubs and they tend to make much better beer than the huge commercial guys like Bud, Miller-Coors and all the others.


Anyway, it was a very fun (and very short) trip to Saint Louis.

Mexico

In my attempt to catch up with my blogging I've had to get out of order with my postings. Anyway, in June Christina and I went to Cabo San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula Mexico. My previous experience with Mexico was at five years old when I went to Tijuana when we visited mom in San Diego. Cabo was a blast, it wasn't the tourist season so we didn't have a ton of people hogging up the beach.






Here is a photo from our last night in Cabo, we did a dinner cruise where the ship went along the entire beachline, including the world famous arch.













Famous Arch!










Of course no trip to Cabo would be complete without a visit to the Famous Cabo Wabo bar.














Here we are on our kayak trip. My oar broke about a hundred yards out, which was frustrating because then only one person could paddle us out to Lover's Beach and back.













A beautiful Mexican sunset.












One thing that impressed us the most during our time in Mexico was the food. There was a ton of great food (at pretty reasonable prices). We had steak, fresh seafood and good Mexican beer.














Here was a view from the street. The beach was filled with restaurants and bars.












This beach is right near the famous arch, we kayaked to the Lover's Beach and then walked about a hundred yards to the Pacific side of the peninsula. The waves were much too strong to swim on this side. But it was a very beautiful beach.











Here we are having a margarita at one of the beach side bars.










This was the swimming pool at the hotel we stayed at.

New Additiion to our family!

So I know it has been far too long since my last post. However, I am not giving up on this whole blogging thing. So, as most people know earlier this summer Christina and I found a dog on Craigslist (for free!). It did take us a couple of days to give him a name, but sticking with the K theme we settled on Knox. He is mostly black lab with a bit of weimaraner. So, without further adieu we present Knox the Dog:;






Here is a sleeping Knox on one of the first days after we got him.

















Here are some more Knox shot, including him playing with his friend Callalilly the white Husky puppy and Zookie the Lab/Collie mix.


















Of course you can't have a blog about pets without mentioning the lazy cats.





















The picture on the right is from when Christina and I took Knox for a hike at Ledges State park about an hour north or Des Moines.










I like to think of this last one as Knox's hunting pose. Maybe one of these days I can get him to some birds.

Fairbanks Reception

So after our adventures in Hawaii we went up to Fairbanks, AK to hold a reception. We got to have some more of Margret's delicious carrot cake again. Also, there was a reenactment of our first dance, plus many gifts.






This a a beautiful frame set we got from the Chairells. It is a gorgeous frame with our wedding invitation and another frame for us to put a wedding picture of our choice into.













Here is a nice, handy tool set we received from Lance Cheeny. In just a few weeks these tools were going to be put to good use on the basement.







Lastly, here is a photo of the beautiful quilt that Lisa made for us. All in all the Fairbanks reception was a great time had by all.

Honeymoon!

I know it's been long overdue (again!) but here are some pictures from the Hawaii Honeymoon. As you can see I am now only 6 months behind:


Here we are at a beach.... we went snorkeling. I got really sunburned... and yes mom I did put on the strongest SPF sunblock ever half hour and everytime I got out of the water.














This was just us walking around the resort one evening.










Us snorkeling at the beach just outside the hotel.














The last night there we went to a Luau (Hawaiian word for overpriced dinner with dancers). It was pretty cool actually and the flame thrower dancing guys were pretty intense.











We couldn't help but put up a picture of these penguins. They reminded me a lot of these ducks at a lake I used to fish at growing up. It's like these penguins were just looking for a hand out.













This is us out for sushi one day for lunch. We actually have discovered our liking for sushi since we've moved to Iowa. Go figure.












Some more of the local wildlife just outside of the resort.











All in all it was a great trip and we had a blast.

Up next: Fairbanks, AK reception followed by: The Storm of the Century... stay tuned!