Harriman Fjord

So I could write a book about this trip! To begin with, we wanted to do something fun for Kari's 30th birthday. Originally we had thought about climbing Mt. Rainier but when it came down to it we wanted to do something Alaskan! So we got online, did some research and found a Kayak expedition into Harriman Fjord in Prince William Sound. We found the trip now we just needed a guide or someone to show us the way. After a tone of research we found the best possible guide! His name is Ryan Collins with Paddlers Realm http://www.paddlersrealm.com/ ...he's the best! Anyhow, Saturday we all met at our place, Ryan came over gave us some pointers and dry-bags to pack to depart the following morning. This trip consisted of Kari, Rachel, Rachael, Erin, JT, myself and our guide Ry-dog "screen savor". ok
Day 1: We all met at the Carrs, drove down (in the pouring rain) and dropped the gear off for the boat. The ride was about 1.5 hours and I couldn't believe all the gear fit into the kayaks. We kayaked about 8 miles to our first camp which was a black sand beach below Cox Glacier. This was phenomenal, the sound of the ice caving off reminded me of thunder!
Day 2: We got up, packed up and paddled through a bunch of icebergs to a beautiful waterfall. This was a bigger day, I think we went 12 to 14 miles. We found a little hike to an old cabin and reached our second campsite called "viewpoint"...the name says it all!
Day 3: We did a day paddle to Surprise Glacier hiked up on a waterfall, and watched this massive tidewater glacier from up close! At one point we paddled through a slushy which was super cold. That night we made dutch oven peach cobbler for Kari's birthday, sang to her and had some candles.
Day 4: We packed up and paddled out to a really nice beach. At the beach the sun came out and we all laid on the sand and just enjoyed it. We got to our camp a little early but that was fine because we all just wanted to relax
Day 5: Packed up paddled to another hike to an old mine. Then we paddled out to our pick up and drove home.

We had all types of weather, great company, and amazing natural wonders.

Homer of a weekend

Well this Friday Kari and I went for a trail bike/run, then did some preparations for our upcoming weekends kayak adventure. Friday was one of those amazing days in Alaska where its warm with not a cloud in the sky...these types of days will make leaving AK super hard! Saturday we went to a birthday party for Neil and had some very tasty hamburgers (thanks Neil and Emily).
I also wanted to include a couple of pictures from our trip down to Homer AK with Kari's parents. We ended up having great weather, a few rain showers and some wind but nothing that terrible. The drive down was enjoyable and we saw a bunch of wildlife like moose, otters, bear, eagles, rabbits, and most important halibut. Steve and I went for a 1/2 day charter and caught our limit (2 each). We were about an hour and a half out, and on the way out we had 4-5 foot seas which made the ride a little bumpy. A few people got sea-sick and lost their lunch...but not Steven and I. We were catching "chickens" in the 12-20lb range and ended up having about 35lbs of meat. This was a super fun trip!
We stayed 2 nights, the first night Kari and I slept on the beach, well actually we slept in the back of the 4-runner, and the second night we stayed in the little apartment above the charter and had a nice BBQ on the beach. This truly was a Homer of a weekend.

Bear

Kari's parents came into town and we went out and enjoyed some of the nature that Alaska has to offer. We really didn't have to go far! On Friday we were sitting in our living room and I noticed a big black bear crossing the street. She was just taking her time enjoying the weather. After she crossed the street I noticed a cub that ran back into the woods. It was a fun little treat to be able to see a big bear right outside our window. BEAR...BEAR...BEAR. Kari and I jumped in the car and found her digging into a neighbors trash looking for something good to eat; Momma was hungry.

One thing I forgot to mention about our weekend at Big Lake was this amazing wetsuit that I got to sport. I was able to squeeze into it and barely got out of it playing in the water. I decided to do a quick photo shoot to show off the goods!!! Dang I make this look good. Ha!

Just another weekend

This was a typical Alaska weekend. It started when I decided to put the last piece of diamond plate on the back right corner of the Jeep. I had a nice hole that I'd repaired a couple of years ago and it needed to be dug out and completely cleaned out again...I hate rust! I ended up breaking about 8 drill bits, and had to drill out a couple of rusted bolts. We'd made plans to go out to Big Lake with Rick and Cathy on Friday so I really had to get it completed because I'd taken Kari's 4runner into the shop...that's another story. So at about 1am Thursday night I got it done.

Big lake was great. We spent the evening with Cathy and Rick and stayed up late woke up late and built a shed. I did some tubing on the lake (water temp was a balmy 61 degrees) and Kari relaxed and studied. We had a great time even though the sun wasn't out and we got a little rain. The view from the hot tub, company, and food was amazing. Kari even made sticky buns, yum!

Mayor's 1/2 Marathon

Last night we had a pre-race spaghetie feed with some friends in preparation for the big race. This morning we woke up at 7am to get ready for the race and saw that it was raining outside...lovely. Actually it didn't rain that much and was perfect temp for running 13.1 miles (which actually turned out to be 13.5 according to my Garmin GPS). Kari kicked butt with a time of 2:20 and I ran a 1:31 (a couple minuites slower than I wanted). I ended up taking 40th overall so not to bad...mile 9 I got a bad cramp in my right calf which slowed me down a little. Prior to this point Kari's farthest run was 10 miles...WAY TO GO KARI. She had a tough few weeks with the 12k, the tri, and the half...time to go camping, fishing, and climbing!

Kari's Tri

Kari sure kicked butt on her Tri. The course had a few serious hills in it but she powered through them. We were a little worried that it would be raining, but the weather held and she was able to breeze through it!

Hello

Ok, so I likely have nothing good at all to say but at least I can share with all those who live far away from us some of things we've been doing. I personally have an aversion to these types of things becauase the can end up sucking time. So to stave that I'll likely post weekly updates as opposed to the play-by-play in our life (I just don't have that type of commitment in me). So with that I must begin by braging about my wife.

This past weekend she participated in her first every Triatholon. No, wait she kicked butt in her first ever Triatholon. This was a sprint race up in Wasilla Alaska.

After all the preparations, waiting on deck for her swim time, and the push off from the pool wall she was 2 mins. faster than her goal time. Way to GO KARI.