Cody's 24th Birthday

Cody and I celebrated a low-key 24th this weekend. We thought about taking a drive down the Kenai, but opted for not, since the weather wasn't great and we were both a little drained.

Someone was kind enough to get a few of his favorite beers after a long day of work on Saturday

That same someone was mean enough to capture how he rang in his 24th birthday...sleep on the living room floor, glasses still on

For Cody's first Alaskan birthday, we made homemade bear claws, after which we discovered my strong aversion to almond extract

Ready to open his loot

From his parents

From his soon to be in-laws

Immediately had to discover all the tools

I told Cody if he cleaned the bread machine, we'd see if it still had what it takes....

The finished product: homemade honey wheat bread (My grandma sent this bread machine with us on a trip back east some years ago, and it's been sitting in the basement at home. My mother was elated when I finally took it with me.) Cody doesn't think we should ever buy a loaf of bread again...

Cody and the homemade banana cream pie he requested: turned out to be delicious: custard was just the right consistency, with delicious banana flavor, and LOTS of whipped cream (sound advice from my sister, Erin)

Later Caillat decided to try out a basket we'd set aside for the wedding... she camped out there for a solid 10 minutes

Rainy Day Housekeeping

Today was a very rainy Tuesday, but I can't complain because it made for great sleeping weather. I worked on some of Cody's birthday shopping/wrapping. Even though he always says there's nothing he needs, I always end up coming up with more than a few ideas for him. If the weather and work allows, we're hoping to drive down to Cooper Landing on Sunday to catch the tail-end of the salmon run (pun intended). We're hoping to spy a few bears too, from a distance of course.

Just wanted to share this link with you all: Anchorage Area Bear Sightings

It's amazing how close this wild animals get to human interaction!

And as promised: here's an awesome Thai Chicken Pasta recipe Cody and I were brave enough to try (the interesting ingredient combo almost scared Cody away, but it turned out delicious!- would be great with bean sprouts for a little crunch)

Taste of Home's Thai Chicken Pasta

(We combined the ingredients over the cooktop, rather than the microwave.) Enjoy!

Below are the board games we currently have, just in case anyone was wondering:
Outburst (new and older edition)
Racko
Sorry
Clue
Life
Monopoly
Left Right Center
Farkle
Catch Phrase
Yhatzee
Apples to Apples (plus expansion pack)
Battleship
Pit
Uno
In a Pickle

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!