Roar of the Lion

Hey everyone, just thought I would post some pictures from our annual trek to Oak Creek's Lion's Fest. As usual we enjoyed sweet corn, beer, brats, and cheese curds (the first ones we ordered actually tasted like cheese turds). Our fun began by running into the weenies that run around Miller Park and trying to get Vince to take a picture with them. He was right for being scared that this picture would be posted online and would haunt him the rest of his life. The carnies (small hands, smell like cabbage) as usual lured the kids into their impossible meth induced games with their cheap shiney swag made in China. Uncle Tommy was suckered twice into the basketball free throw game which he lost $10 bucks on. Even if his shot was on I don't think that ball could have fit through that mangled rim. Ryan was the human weed wacker with his new light saber that he won. The light began burning out by the end of the night and I'm not sure if it's from everyone he wacked with it or because it was made in China. Alissa won a big pony "Silver" from one of the carnies (I'm sure he's retooling the game so that never happens again). Over all it was a fun evening and even though we like to joke about the carnies we love it when they come to town. Nothing says fun like beer, brats, cheap toys, and unsafe rides. Until next year.

Here's a picture of me with my favorite brother-in-law
(yes Todd, I wrote this on purpose to see if you were paying attention.) :)

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Today we left Alaska and made it safely back to Milwaukee. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the sights. I think our trip can be summed up with the phrase "planes, trains, and automobiles". We certainly saw a lot of Alaska by all three modes of transportation.

On the way I home I had the opportunity to sit in the "jump seat" behind the pilots on take off. It was an interesting experience to watch them do their job and listen in on their chatter with air traffic control. It certainly makes me appreciate what they do as it seemed like a whole different world and language.

It was a good trip, but we are happy to be back home and return to "summer" for as long as it will last.

Even though the trip is over, stop back and check our blog every now and again. If something exciting happens in our day to day lives we'll be sure to blog about it!

Choo Choo!!

Today was another relaxing day with nothing on the agenda other than to catch the train at 4:45p.m. After all the excitement from earlier in the week, it was a little difficult for me to just sit back and relax. Upon leaving the lodge we headed into the small town of Talkeetna for lunch. I enjoyed a Caribou sandwich. It tasted a whole lot like a regular hamburger.

Nothing too exciting happened on the train ride home other than a moose sighting. You would have thought the train just won the lottery by the way everyone reacted.

Tomorrow we are heading out early to head home. I have finally included a picture of our clown car as well (the picture was taken at 10:00 tonight).

Mountain . . .What Mountain?

Thank goodness we took the flight to Mt McKinley yesterday! Had we not seen it yesterday, I wouldn't have believed that there was a mountain anywhere in the vicinity of our hotel. We had a very grey, dreary day today, as it rained most of the morning. We used our down time to relax and sort through pictures. In the afternoon we took a walk around the property where the most interesting thing that we saw was an unusual mushroom. Exciting, I know.

For dinner we had an excellent meal. I had halibut and Tom had Alaskan King Crab. That was about it for the excitement today. Tomorrow we have the morning at the lodge, and then catch the train back to Anchorage in the afternoon.

Click . . . Click . . . Click

This morning we headed to the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge via train. The train ride was about 3 hours long and not overly impressive. Shockingly, only two pictures were taken on the ride. Once we arrived to Talkeetna, we decided to take the 1 hour ride to the lodge instead of staying in the small town.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and sunny. Once at the lodge we sat on the deck and looked at the amazing view of Mt. McKinley. Upon reading our Alaska guide book and viewing our excursion options, we decided to go for it and take a Mt. McKinley flight seeing tour (good thing Tom is a little looser with the wallet than I am, or I would never experience these amazing excursions).

Here is where the title of this blog entry comes into play. Tom was so overwhelmed by the view, that he took over 300 pictures on the flight alone. Thank goodness the morning was slow for picture taking. We'll be spending a lot of time going through the pictures and whittling them down. We're staying two nights at the lodge and not sure yet what we'll be doing tomorrow . . . probably editing photos. :)

Snap, Crackle, Pop

The weather was good today and our boat tour of the Kenai Fjords Peninsula and glaciers was a go! Along the way we saw Bald Eagles, Puffins, a Humpback Whale, and Sea Otters. Perhaps the most exciting thing however, was the Aialik Glacier. The glacier gave us the title of this blog entry. As we maneuvered close to it you could hear what almost sounded like thunder. However, it was the glacier ice breaking free and crashing into the water below. It was pretty amazing and I was able to catch a couple of the bigger break aways on video. Someday when we figure out how to upload to You Tube we'll include a link.

Although the weather was good, the open ocean was somewhat rough. So rough that many of the tourists were using barf bags. I'm happy to report that although Tom looked pretty green, he never had to use the bag! One of the deckhands told us that the swells were 8 to 10 feet and was some of the roughest she seen the tour go out in. We were all happy that we endured the rough water to see the amazing sights at the Aialik Glacier.

This evening we drove back to Anchorage and tomorrow we're off to the train depot to take a train to Talkeetna and spend 2 nights at the Princess Mt. McKinley lodge.

Seward Surprises

Yesterday, August 18th, was full of pleasant surprises. Besides knowing where we were spending the night in Seward, we didn't have any other concrete plans. We left Anchorage in the morning and headed south to Seward. In Anchorage, we were somewhat unimpressed with the scenery, but the drive to Seward was spectacular. We weren't disappointed with the many picturesque mountain views and even a mama moose and her baby. For those of you who told us to take lots of pictures, you certainly won't be disappointed. After downloading them we discoverd we took over 300 pictures yesterday alone. Of course we'll whittle them down. :)

We arrived in Seward around 1:00p.m., so it was too early to check-in to our hotel. Not having any plans we headed to the tour centers and visitor center to see what we should do. One of the employees mentioned a Helicopter and Dog Sled tour. Tom jumped on that right away. I was a little more leery (mostly due to cost). In the end we just went for it. What an experience!!!

It was my first time in a helicopter (I have to say it is a much different feeling than flying in a plane). After a short trip up to the top of a mountain we were dropped off on top of a glacier to the base camp. Here during the summer (late May to late August), two guides live with their 57 dogs. It was pretty chilly and reminded us of what is right around the corner in Wisconsin :(. Mushing the dogs and being able to ride on the sled was pretty awesome. It felt like a true Alaskan experience. Riding behind the sled felt a lot like water skiing. After our experience with the dogs we waited for the helicopter to come back and get us. The weather was starting to turn windier, colder, and rainier. I was starting to get a little nervous that the helicopter might not be able to come back and get us and we would be spending the night on a glacier. Luckily this did not happen. Our ride back on the helicopter was amazing.

You would think this would be enough fun for one day, but after we were done with the tour we went on to explore Exit Glacier. This was a very nice hike and up close view of the foot of a glacier. That was about it for our sight seeing for the day. After a nice dinner we came back to view the videos and zillion pictures we took. Tom was so excited by the pictures that he was falling asleep as we were looking at them . . . hopefully the same doesn't happen when we get home and show you!!!

Today we are planning to take a full day cruise of the Gulf of Alaska to see more glaciers and wildlife. The weather might be bad and the trip might not go, so who knows, we could be in for more surprises today!

Clown Car and Revele

We've made it to Alaksa with no problems. So far everything has gone to plan . . .well almost. When we were getting our rental car, we decided to stick with what I originally reserved, which was an "Economy Car". Looking at the car classification guide at the counter it sure looked like it would be approximately the same size as a "Compact Car". We went with it. When we went up to the garage to pick it up, we were somewhat shocked that the Chevy Aveo looked like a car you might pile 12 clowns in and laugh as they all tried to get out. It's quite small. Only 1 of our suitcases fit in the back. We're going to stick with it. Last night we headed into downtown Anchorage and ran across some bears. No big deal. We spent the night at Elendorf AFB. Pros: Cost $28/night. Cons: Woke up to Revele at 0700. I guess that's ok since we are excited to get on the road. We will be heading to Seward today, hopefully we will be able to take a glacier boat cruise to the Kenai Fjords National Park. More to come . . .

Alaska Bound!

Hey everyone, it's the sarge here with my first and probably last post. I say last because once I show the wife how to blog I will probably be banned. Anyways, I really didn't want to torture anyone with our everyday lives but some friends of ours started blogging and we felt left out. If I had hacking $killz I would simply take down their site but now we've been forced to compete and create the illusion that our lives are more exciting than theirs :)

Speaking of exciting, we are flying up to Alaska and will be touring the 49th state this entire week. I don't think we would normally visit Alaska but our favorite uncle decided to pay for the airfare so we couldn't pass it up. We will be flying into Anchorage and while we're there we plan on visiting Denali National Park and the small town of Seward which is right on the Gulf of Alaska. I don't know how much we will get out since it's suppose to rain all week but as long as we don't run into any large animals it's all good. I brought my nunchucks and running shoes just in case any wildlife that threatens our vacation. Well it's getting pretty late here and I have to finish packing. Make sure to stop by later this week for an update and possible photos of our Alaskan adventure.


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Before I leave though, I just wanted to thank you for stopping by our private little idaho here. If you feel you like a part of you has died while reading this I don't blame you. The amount of time you wasted here can not be refunded....................it is gone forever.

SARGE OUT!!