Denali National Park

Cody and I took a mini camping vacation to Denali National Park last week. It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Anchorage and we set out Tuesday morning after I got home from work (made for an awfully long day, but it was worth it). We checked into the campground and picked our campsite, after scouting out several, of course. The campgrounds were great, and ours was right by the bathrooms, but away from any traffic noise. We decided to check out the park and visitors center and took the opportunity to drive as far into the park as we could (15 miles). It was rainy and overcast but we were determined to see as much as we could, so we did an easy hike before heading back to make dinner. Luckily the rain held while we cooked and ate, and we decided to check out one more hike before it got dark (which wasn't until after midnight). Horseshoe lake was my favorite: it had awesome views and an amazing backdrop. And although it rained all night, we thankfully stayed dry in the tent. Morning temps were about 45 degrees, bbrrrrr.

We caught a shuttle bus the next morning, and while it was awesome to ride further back into the park (66 miles) it made for a very long 8-hour bus ride. The rainy/overcast day did make for excellent wildlife viewing: we saw moose, caribou, grizzly bear, foxes, arctic ground squirrels, and a golden eagle. Our bus driver was helpful and we were able to see the amazing wilderness that makes Denali so unique. It was much too cloudy to see the mountain (statistics say it's only clear enough on 1 day in July). We headed back to camp exhausted. Later, we grilled again and checked out the town of Denali and all the tourist buzz.

Thursday morning we packed up and headed to check out a few last things on our list, and unfortunately, seeing a view of the mountain didn't make the cut, although it was clearing up as we left the park. We decided to stop at the scenic viewpoints on the drive south to see if we could spot Denali and we did! It was really amazing because even seeing the tip, it made the fore-mountain range look like mere hills. We drove on to Talkeetna, a 'major' tourist town. It was a cute little town and we decided to do dinner at the West Rim  Pub, which had been on Man vs. Food (don't worry, we didn't try the challenge). We finally made it back to the apartment, much to the happiness of our lonesome cat. Enjoy the pictures (side note: the screen of our camera is completely busted, so I'm not able to change settings and such, so I apologize if the pictures aren't so great...)

Proud of our B70 find

Already getting in to the cooler

Starting our hike at Savage River

And it only went up from there

Carved by glaciers, nbd

Cody having a Bear Grills moment- deciding where he would set up camp

mmmmm, dinner

Horseshoe Lake overlook

Beautiful lake

The lake was infested with beavers, who had dammed the entire side of the lake

Moose on our way into the park

Crazy dynamic landforms

Polychrome Pass- one of my pennies: "I survived Polychrome Pass"

Big green bus

Enlarged to show BEAR- center picture, right where the grass meets the gravel bed- he was sorting out soapberries

Bull Moose locked antlers and died of starvation- sad but cool

What we should have seen (minus the captions)

What we did see- apparently the mountain makes its own weather. hmmm

Caribou

Picture courtesy of some nice Missourians- they wished us luck in the Big10

We found a trail from our campground to the river

Searching for firewood

Add caption

Found some antler wood, so naturally...

Lingonberries for mother

Sled dog Skeeter for other mother

Beautiful view north of Denali

On the way back we hiked through this...

To get to this...

Denali! (center, peaking from the clouds)

Talkeetna

The afterglow of dinner

Fish Lake

Well, I think that's enough pictures for now. We certainly had a great time. I'm thankful that Cody was able to get a couple days off work. We look forward to the coming month and seeing everyone that's making the journey to the Last Frontier!

Coming Soon: Denali Pics

All: I'll begin sorting through our pictures from Denali, however, splitting cameras/shooting whimsically leads to long organization.

Also, if you are receiving a mangled/mutilated wedding invitation: my apologies. The USPS decided to go crazy on handling. I received a few returned invites in sore condition (the good part is on the inside, anyway :)

6 Weeks and Alaskan Wildlife

With only six weeks until the wedding, we're definitely feeling the heat. So far, we've gotten about 35 invites out, and my goal is to work on them more this weekend. I switched to nights this week, so there were a few days that Cody and I didn't even see each other in passing. He has a few more busy days at work (the weather is being quite kind to the Alaskan golf industry). This weekend is a championship tournament, so Cody will surely be ready for our mini-vacation to Denali next week!

Here are a few pictures from the past week or so:

We spotted a lady moose on a drive around the fancy houses overlooking the Turnagain Arm (we picniced at Potter's Marsh, deciding to try a new place to eat when neither one of us felt like cooking- Winky's Wings, 4+stars by Cody's rating)

Cody's spotted a pair of bear cubs on the course today... luckily mama bear was nowhere to be seen or heard

We discovered a fantastic lakeside trail located within Anchorage

We added a beaver to the wildlife count here in AK... it's swimming between two trees there, branch in mouth

Beavers' handiwork was visible all around the lake- there are even signs warning about the number of aggressive rodents living in the lake

Scoping out walking sticks for Grandpa

Engagement Pictures

Our engagement pictures are published! Some can be found on Facebook, or through our photographer's website:

http://www.karapennington.com/blog/engaged-emlyn-cody/

If you'd like to see all the pictures, just let me know and I'll share that website.

Sunday Funday

After working almost 48 hours straight (Callaway sponsored a 24-hour event at the course from Friday 6:00pm- Saturday 6:00pm), Cody took today off to relax and catch up on sleep. But surprisingly, that didn't really happen. After church, we enjoyed homemade apple streusel muffins (I couldn't sleep last night-- perhaps my body is anticipating my upcoming switch to nights) ...rated 3.5 stars by the taste tester himself and then we caught up on our netflix. Later this afternoon we headed to downtown Anchorage, since we hadn't been there since Easter Sunday. We took in some touristy shops and the Anchorage Market... all quite enjoyable. The area is all very neat and the atmosphere is perhaps the best part...

Our carefully plated breakfast this morning (I really think the melmac is a nice touch...)

Puffins exist!

The Anchorage Market, held every Saturday and Sunday through mid-Sept

Cheesin' at the market

Stylin' in a Floyd Turbo (Cody doesn't buy it that 'Floyd Turbo' is the actual name)

TWO pennies in one day!

Wait for it... we found a third penny press! All with different designs...

Rough design for boutonneires

We worked on a few wedding details tonight too... assembled the bouquet and centerpiece/pew decorations too. We're working on deciding on parts of the ceremony as well... so we welcome any volunteers for participants. Otherwise you may become volu-'please help us out's. :)

Fourth of July

Although fireworkless, Cody and I enjoyed a lovely Independence Day. We rang in the day with a late showing of Transformers (in 3D, of course). We emerged from the theater at midnight, only to be greeted by the sun. On the drive home, some of the streetlights weren't even on. Perhaps we will be missing all this sun come December...

Stylin' in our 3D glasses

Midnight in Anchorage, Alaska

Cody only had to work a few hours yesterday, so we headed downtown to catch the city's festivities. The parade was impressive, or at least the half we saw. We lunched there as well, trying some local fare (spicy reindeer bratwurst and a gyro). We finished up the day with a little shopping. We did find Cody a pair of black shoes for the wedding (on sale for $31, plus we had a gift card, so only ended up paying $6!). Now, it's just getting him to wait until the wedding to wear them. Our main objective was to buy a grill, which indeed we did. Cody insisted on a charcoal grill, so now we had the latest technology inside in our carport, woot! I'm very excited to enjoy a few steaks and burgers soon!

Enjoying the parade

We spotted a Nebraska family!

AF band of the Pacific... had an awesome Ray Charles/Louis Armstrong- inspired vocalist

Just a man and his new grill

Caillat didn't really like her outside time...

Our 4th of July feast, including corn on the cob (50 cents each! ekk!)

Cody and I have taken to playing board games in the evening. As it stands now, I'm winless in Sorry!, but the reigning Monopoly champion. Will keep you all updated on the tallies...

Quite the Habitat

Just a day in the life of the cat:

Hunting birds...

We discovered she is quite the car cat...

Enjoying the passing scenery when we picked Cody up from work last weekend

Then she enjoyed some sock basket time

Ever begging for running water...

The now grey-black chair: proof of her near-constant occupation

Enjoying evening cuddles on her favorite blanket

And finally, it never takes her long to position us to meet her knee cravings

Alright, and just to show we're not crazy cat people: proof of our interaction with society:

We volunteered at Habitat for Humanity this week  (Cody was able to arrange his schedule to take the day off, so we were able to accompany other St. E's members at the construction site). I am now more educated in setting foundation footings and pumping cement, not to mention arranging J-bolts before said cement sets. Whew. The project includes building seven homes (four separate buildings) and we were able to set the footings on the last house, and help pump the cement into the sides of the single-family house. We're looking to help again on another St. E's day in a couple months. (The families are set to move in at the beginning of '12).

Modeling our safety attire

Setting those J bolts!

Recovering from his cement-hose holding duty

Enjoying the sunny afternoon more than the cloudy morning