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2010 alaska

Day 62: Tuesday, August 3rd: Blueberry Lake to Wrangel: St. Elias National Park

This might be the most beautiful day we have had yet in Alaska.  The sun cleared out the lingering clouds this morning and revealed a gorgeous mid to high sixty degree day.  Brooke went bike riding around the small but picturesque campground.  We went looking for blueberries, but didn’t find any.  The Milepost says they are in season here in the fall.  We are headed back north on the Richardson Highway.

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2010 alaska

Day 61: Monday, August 2nd - Valdez

Scott’s fabulous breakfast of French toast was enjoyed along the Valdez waterfront across Prince William Sound from where Brooke caught her first fish.  I should also mention that breakfast was really a brunch since we started cooking at 11:30.  At three in the morning Scott, Cody, and I all awoke to sirens, trucks racing along the highway behind us, and a guy running through the parking lot shouting.  We didn’t really get back to sleep until around five.  The funny thing is that no one else heard a thing.  Thus we didn’t even leave the tent until after 9:30.  We then spent some time watching the people fishing where Brooke caught her first fish and then we watched the large commercial boats reeling in a large catch.

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2010 alaska

Day 59: Saturday, July 31st Palmer, Alaska

We spent the night at Kepler Bradley State Recreation Area on Matanuska Lake. Brooke had another chance to be in a boat.  We rented a canoe for an hour.  Scott paddled with her for a half hour while I watched the sleeping Cody and then he watched Cody and I paddled.  Since Scott paddled with her first, Brooke was like a student with a substitute teacher when I came into the boat, “That’s not how we do it normally.”  According to Brooke I didn’t paddle the right way and I apparently didn’t put the boat through the lily pads just the way Daddy did either.  All in all she had a great time on the water and she’s even starting to get the hang of paddling.

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2010 alaska

Day 57: Thursday, July 29th - Goodbye Anchorage Again

Last night was a first for us.  We stayed at our not so favorite city campground Centennial Campground in Anchorage.  We arrived shortly before 11 pm after Brooke’s Alaskan Train Adventure arrived from Seward. It was really late for us, but here was only one train a day from Seward to Anchorage and it left at 6 and arrived after 10 pm.  What was even more ridiculous though was the noise coming from the campground.  Scott went over and kindly asked the gentleman who was playing his music really loudly to turn it down, and he did, for a little while.  Keggers usually aren’t quiet, and this one wasn’t an exception.  Apparently it broke up at 2pm when the police came by.  We’re still not sure why someone would host a kegger at a campground, but it made for another disjointed nights rest.

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2010 alaska

Day 56: Wednesday, July 28th: Iditarod Trail and Alaskan Railroad

The hike for today was along the Iditarod Trail.  It gave me another chance to try out my new boots which I have been loving.  The part of the trail that we hiked on was mostly flat, sometimes wet, and a lot more overgrown than I expected.  I’m curious what the same part of the trail looks like when the sled dogs hit the snow.  There were some wet parts that Brooke had to be carried over (the picture below on the right) and the bugs were pretty tenacious again.  Thankfully right before we were going to turn around the trail opened up to a picturesque river.  Scott and Brooke were able to get in Brooke’s daily dose of river rock tossing and attempted rock skipping.  Scott was able to get quite a few stones all the way across.  It was neat to try to imagine all of the history, hard work, and snow that encase the trail in the winter time.

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2010 alaska

Day 55: Tuesday, July 27th Seward- Sea Life Center and Dinner Cruise

We went to the Sea Life Center in Seward today. While at the Sea Life Center Brooke fell in love with the bird observatory.  The birds gave her a sprinkler shower as they cleaned and preened themselves. We learned a lot about birds today.  The puffins make their nests in holes in the rocky shore line.  In the exhibit we were visiting there were forty holes in the observatory leading back to the researchers. Puffins don’t fly very well, but they are amazing to watch under the water.

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