Back in Alaska cont.

Back in Alaska continued

Back in Alaska (August 6-12, 2010)

We arrived in Kenai around noon on Friday the 6th with Mom and Dad Moravec. The weather was dreary with temps in the 50s. We took the remainder of the day to move into our new place. We are house-sitting for a couple who will be in South Korea this school year. The place is beautiful with a stunning view of the Cook Inlet and Mount Redoubt (an active volcano in the area).

On Saturday we toured Mom and Dad around the Kenai and Soldotna area and visited the National Wildlife Refuge and one of the local beaches; Sunday was spent hiking Skilak Lookout trail; and Monday was spent down in the town of Homer. We saw one Harbor Seal while down there, visited the local brewery and winery, and walked the beaches of the spit and the boat harbor.

Tuesday night turned out to be very exciting. Around 10:30 PM a cow moose and her two calves appeared in the woods next to our house. As we watched them they moved out into the lawn and walked by about 25 feet in front of us. It’s amazing how big they can get. On Wednesday, the four of us headed down the Seward to meet up with our good friend, Donna Hill (one of my Wolf Ridge buddies!). After having a bit of trouble with the car, we visited Exit Glacier and did the hike up to the Harding Ice Field. On the way, we spotted three or four marmots and seven Mountain Goats. Nature never seizes to amaze me. At the top of the climb, we were looking out at literally a field of ice. Even though the temperature was colder and glacial streams were running through the mountains, flowers were popping up and at one time I spotted a bumble bee buzzing from flower to flower. When we got back to our place on Wednesday evening the cow and her calves were hanging out in the woods again chowing down on some forbes. We are hoping they continue this evening ritual so that we can see more of them. On Thursday evening we spotted two Harbor Seals sitting out on a rock in the Cook Inlet. We spotted them from our deck and even though they were far away, they were there.

We are enjoying our visitors and the rest of our summer as it is dwindling fast. School starts on Tuesday for teachers…hard to believe.

More Pictures from Seldovia

The Village of Seldovia (May 26-28)

On Wednesday, May 26 we drove to Homer to get on the Seldovia Bay Ferry. The 1 and a quarter hour ferry took us on our second trip to Gull Island this Spring. We saw mostly the same birds we had encountered before except our first ever Tutfted Puffin sightings. We saw 3 puffins from the deck of our boat. After Gull Island, we headed for the small village of Seldovia(home to 264 friendly people and a few old crabs). The first evening we set up camp and biked around town. It was so nice out that we took an hour nap on the sand at Inside Beach. Near low tide we went out to Outside Beach on Otterbahn Trail. The trail goes through part of the Alaskan "Rain Forest." The trees are virgin timber and almost all Sitka Spruce. During low tide we walked through tide pools and saw a lot of different critters. Things we saw were: mussels, barnacles, anemones, limpets, and some crawly critters.

Thursday brought more nice weather. We got up and headed out on what turned out to be a 30 mile bike ride. Our trip took us from Seldovia to 5 miles past Jakolof Bay Harbor. Our hope was to make it to Red Mountain, but snow on the road caused us to turn around. Later we found out we still had 5 miles to go before we were to make it to Red Mountain. In passing we viewed the McDonald Spit. It is a lot like the Homer Spit just not as long nor wide. Mount Redoubt was in clear view many of times throughout our journey. That evening Rochelle experienced her first ever jellyfish while walking the harbor. In fact, they were all over in the harbor.

Friday morning, brought the annual chainsaw carving competition. We watched as the artists started on their large carvings that were to be completed over three days. At 11AM we watched the competitors complete in a 1 and a half hour quick carve competition. It was amazing to watch them create carvings out of 6 foot tall timber cuts that were about 3 feet in diameter. At 5PM the ferry took us back to Homer from our 3 day adventure "across the bay". On our journey back we were greeting by some mama sea otters with their babies on their bellies!

Sunrise/sunset data for Monday, May 31:
End civil twilight 12:44 a.m.
Begin civil twilight 3:21 a.m.
Sunrise 4:50 a.m.
Sunset 11:17 p.m.

A New Arrival (May 17-23, 2010)

We just finished our last week of school with kids. It has been an eventful week. I woke up to a phone call at 4:15 AM Alaska time from my dad letting me know that I was an auntie! Myra Ann Moravec, Wade and Rita’s brand new baby girl, was born Wednesday morning. Jon and I have been able to see pictures and are very eager to hold her when we arrive in MN in June.

The end of the week was fairly crazy as I ventured out Wednesday morning to go camping with another teacher and 23 middle school girls. We had wonderful weather and the girls were great! There were many birds: a pair of common loons (now in their summer coats), harlequin ducks, mergansers, and a couple gray jays who frequently visited our campsite in search of food. Of course, the girls obliged. We also saw a number of snowshoe hares in their gray coats. Every time we scared one up we saw its white bottom hop away into the woods.

On Saturday, we went clamming for the first time. We went to Clam Gulch, a beach located between Soldotna and Homer. The clamming has been down this year, but we did manage to dig up 9 razor clams in about one hour. Clamming is done when it is low tide. We went down to the waters edge and looked for “dimples” in the sand. These “dimples” are the air holes for the clams. As we started digging one up, it squirted a clear fluid from its neck. It caught us by surprise. Fortunately neither of us were hit by the flying fluid.

On Sunday, we ventured to Kelly Lake to hike a portion of the Seven Lakes Trail. From Kelly Lake we hiked to Hikers Lake. On Kelly Lake we saw two common loons, a pair of mergansers, and a pair of scoters. One of the loons seemed very upset with the other water birds and began flapping its wings violently until they left. As we got down to Hikers Lake, we spotted a yellow warbler, a yellow-rumped warbler, many robins and chickadees, and another pair of common loons who were cleaning themselves in the water. On our way back to Kelly Lake, we sighted two Bonaparte's Gulls dive bombing a raven. We also spotted a Barrow's Goldeneye. The bird variety was amazing today, the mountains were beautiful, and the aspen tree leaves are really coming in.

Moving Out (May 10-16, 2010)

I arrived at school on Monday and tulips were blooming in the school garden, the first tulip blooms we’ve seen this year. On Saturday Jon and I moved out of our rental house on Fireweed Lane and moved in with one of Jon’s co-workers, Sandy. Sandy has a house in Sterling, about 2 miles from Jon’s school. We’ll be staying with Sandy during the last three weeks before we head back to Minnesota. On Sunday evening, Jon and I walked to Izaak Walton Recreational Park. It is the confluence of the Moose and Kenai Rivers. The Moose River is brownish in color and the Kenai is aqua green due to the glacial waters from upstream. The contrast in color as they merge is absolutely beautiful.