Yesterday, we went on a hike in Hope, AK.  Hope is a quaint Alaskan town on the southern side of Turnagain Arm.  We would've liked to show you pictures of our hike, but we forgot our camera.  We forgot our food.  We also forgot to take our extra water.  We hope you enjoy this beautiful picture of the drive back to Anchorage from Hope!

A Quick Bike Ride

 

We saw a little sunshine outside, so we decided to get outside and take a ride on our favorite trail in Anchorage.....the Tony Knowles Trail.

We got nice and close to a Bull Moose right along the trail.

A weekend on the Kenai

The Salmon run has started, and the fishermen are out in full force, so are the fish hooks.  A good part of the ER's business up here is removing fish hooks, you can see why.

It might be summer in Michigan, but we cooked our meal with a 35 degree wind in our face in Homer, AK.

The Homer Spit

Ninilchik

There are a few of you who have been to Ninilchik.  You all know how rare it is to have sunshine.

The beach was packed with people digging for clams.

Bear!

On our most recent trip down the Kenai Peninsula we took a hike to enjoy this view.  We saw the signs warning us about bears, but we went anyways.

I'm standing right where we first saw the bear....about 35-40 feet away.  She didn't notice us and was walking towards us until we said, "hey bear, go away!"  (sounded good then.... kinda sounds dumb now.)

We figured we would wait to get any pictures till the bear was at a safer distance.

Earthquake!

So, apparently there was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake at 11:06 am Thursday. Trish and I didn't even feel it. In fact, I slept right through it. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait for the next one.

A Taste of Spring

April showers bring May flowers, but not till the middle of June in Anchorage.

Denali National Park

 On our days off, we went to Denali National Park. They say the average person has to be at Denali for three days in order to see Mt McKinley once. We had the privilege of seeing the mountain all three days!

In order to see Denali, you have to take the national park shuttle buses. Our tour was 11 hours long and we traveled 170 miles round trip.

 Mount McKinley (the small white patch above Vickie's head) is about 90 miles away

The views looked fake

 Along the road there was an abundance of wildlife, including this family of bears.

 At Wonder Lake, Mount McKinley popped out a bit. It is still about 30 miles away.

 Alaskan sun bathing

We hiked to the top of Mt Healy where it offered more beautiful panoramic views. We feel so privileged to have the opportunity to see all of this beautiful creation!

"I wear my sunglasses at night..."

taken about 4:30 am

taken after midnight

One of the strangest phenomenons is the 24 hours of daylight. Some of the things you encounter... not realizing you are eating dinner at midnight, waking up in the middle of the night and thinking it is time to get up only to realize its only 3 AM, having friends over well into the "night", and looking for an open bakery... at midnight! In order to know what time it is, you definitely need a watch!

Beluga Point

Work

Although we post pictures of all of the fun things we do, I thought we should post of the real reason we are up here... working! Kurt has really been enjoying Providence Hospital ER. Due to being one of the only hospitals in the area, he gets patients from all over Alaska, the Yukon Territory, airplanes flying over the north pole, and even Russia.

A day off... on a glacier

 We went to Matansuka glacier for a hike. This brown part is really just a bunch of ice.

 Seth and Kurt had crampons where they felt very confident in climbing the steep parts. They even thought these crampons would take them to the top of Mt. McKinley! (At the ER, they see people coming in with frost bite and losing limbs because of climbing Mt McKinley. But, they talk like it might be fun one day to climb the mountain... boys will be boys! Vickie and I would rather not take care of "stump husbands")

 As you all probably know, Kurt has an affinity to throwing stones wherever he goes. Well... Kurt found a friend (Vickie) to throw stones with. There were these random crevices on the glacier where it was very fun to see how deep it went! It's cheap entertainment to humor Kurt and Vickie!

 

 The day was warm and sunny. We thought it might be chilly standing on a bunch of ice, but once again, Alaska surprised us.

  

The glaciers usually look blue. The cleaner the ice, the bluer it looks.