Ain’t no Sunshine on the Weekend (April 9-11, 2010)

After a beautiful Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when we were in school, we saw no sunshine this weekend. Friday after school we went for a walk around our neighborhood and came across a fleet-footed snowshoe hair who was barely beginning to turn color. Something had spooked it in the woods and it ran straight toward us only to veer off about 7 or 8 feet in front of us. On Saturday we woke up around 8 after the sun had been up for an hour already. We went to the Kenai Beach and walked about 2 miles one way down the beach. It was fairly low tide so we saw a lot of mud flats and came across what appears to be the remains of an old railway on the beach. Rochelle also got 4 pages of her capstone finished on Saturday while I watched the Master’s Golf Tournament. On Sunday it almost rained all day. We took in a new hike/walk on the beach across from the Kenai Beach. There we encountered 3 harbor seals and a jaw that used to belong to a rather large mammal. Today, Rochelle finished 5 more pages and is officially past the half way point. Hope all is well to those reading this!
Rochelle and Jonathan

Sunrise on April 11: 6:58 AM
Sunset on April 11: 9:16 PM

Happy Belated Easter! (April 3-4, 2010)

We had a short but nice Easter weekend. We got out for a couple of hikes and were given beautiful weather. Saturday we hiked through the National Wildlife Refuge and encountered a bull moose about 15-20 feet away from us. No antlers right now but we could see the stubs on its head. The snow was pretty much gone this weekend. Various greens were sticking out of snow patches.

We enjoyed some King Crab legs on Easter Day followed by a hike along the beach at Captain Cook State Park. While there we stumbled across a large rock that we have never seen before. The rock had an almost flower like pattern on it, it reminded me of wallpaper. The tide was low creating a muddy but fun environment.

Sunrise for April 7- 7:10 AM
Sunset for April 7- 9:05 PM

More Pictures from Spring Break

More Spring Break Pictures

Mark and Kelly! Spring Break 2010 (March 13-21, 2010)

Saturday:
Mark and Kelly arrived at 6:30 AM at the Kenai Municipal Airport. After taking Mark and Kelly to the landfill to see the many eagles, we drove out to Captain Cook State Park to walk along the ice lodged beach. That evening we were fortunate to take in a junior A hockey game, the Kenai River Brown Bears against the Alexandria Blizzard (Mark’s former team). Alexandria won!

Sunday:
Happy Pi Day! (March 14, 3.14) Celebrated with a homemade blueberry pie! We went hiking along the Upper Kenai River Trail to enjoy the beautiful aqua colored water. While there, we spotted a river otter on a sheet of ice rolling and digging in the snow. At one point it looked up at us and wagged its tail like a dog before sliding into the river.

Monday:
Drove down to Homer where we took in some extreme tubing! The weather was gorgeous as we soaked up some vitamin D from the sun. We stayed over night on the Homer Spit in hopes of going King Salmon fishing the next morning.

Tuesday:
Winds were too strong for fishing so we spent the morning walking the spit. We viewed many eagles both near and far. Found interesting shells and discovered a 6-legged starfish. We spotted a Common Loon in it’s winter coat and a sea otter. We also saw the “Time Bandit” from Discovery Channel’s hit show, “The Deadliest Catch” leave port.

Wednesday:
The four of us went hiking/snowshoeing/bushwacking/snowshoe hare hunting at Egumen Lake. We spotted and stalked four or five snowshoe hares while there.

Thursday:
We hiked the Hidden Creek Trail to Skilak Lake. The trail was very quiet and peaceful. We saw what we think to be a Tundra Swan in the distance. In the evening we went down to a “new” beach, the Nikishka Beach in Nikiski. It is well known in the area for its agates. Unfortunately, there was so much ice it was hard to find any.

Friday:
Drove to Anchorage were we dropped our visitors off.

The week brought many moose sightings, good food, and great company! Thanks for coming up Mark and Kelly!

Snow and Wind on the Peninsula (March 5-7)

Well, the Iditarod was this weekend in Anchorage and we were looking forward to attending. Unfortunately the entire Peninsula was under a blizzard warning. We headed out on Friday afternoon to drive up to Anchorage, about 45 minutes into our drive we reached the mountains where a snow and rain mix began pelting our windshield. Soon the blacktop wasn't even visible due to the fact that about 8 inches of slush and ice covered the road. So, with regret, we turned around and headed home. Better to be safe than sorry. We were able to watch the Iditarod on TV Saturday morning and got to see Blake Freking from Finland, MN leave the starting line with his team of dogs. We are both currently recooperating from colds but are looking forward to spring break coming up in a week.

Our visitors from Hinckley, MN arrive in 6 days! Safe flight you two.

The Snow is Back! (February 27-28, 2010)

On Thursday morning we opened the door to go to our car and were pleasantly surprised to see about 3-4 inches of fresh, fluffy snow. For the past few weeks we had been thinking that spring had already arrived with the warm temps and grassy patches in anyone’s yards. This fresh snow allowed us to get out and do some skiing on Saturday after a long time away from it. As I was setting out down the first small decline, I turned my skis to make the sharp right to stay on trail and spooked a mama moose and her calf. I think I scared them as much as they scared me. I stopped and watched mama go up into the woods and the calf continued down the trail. Eventually, the calf stopped and mama met up with it. At this time Jon came down the hill and got to see them as well. As we began to ski a bit closer the calf took off down the trail and mama moose followed. They are amazing creature, but even more amazing when you get to see those long legs running.

Kenai was under a tsunami advisory on Saturday morning. With the magnitude of the Chile earthquake, they had the entire south Alaskan coast under an advisory. A tsunami advisory is just asking residents not to go in the water or near it. It means a possibility of stronger currents and bigger waves. I don’t think we experienced much if any effects of it.

Looking forward to Mark and Kelly coming in 12 days!