2010 HOLIDAY WISHES

2010 -- OUR YEAR IN PICTURES

Trip to McNeil River to camp with and view the grizzly bears

Up close and personal -- the bears came right up beside our viewing space. This bear is about 5 feet from our chairs.

A view of Mt. Illiamna (volcano) from our bear viewing space. There is an eagle flying in the sky, lots of seagulls, and bears in the river.

Junior Iditarod at Willow, Alaska with NFL great Larry Csonka. Larry has a TV show on Versus called NAPA's North to Alaska. The episode that he filmed at the Jr. Iditarod will air on June 5, 2011. He will also have an episode about the World

Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks that will air on Feb. 6. I posted pictures of us at this event a couple of years ago. Larry lives in Alaska now and travels around doing shows all over the state.

Four Wheeler trip to the Knik Glacier

Hawaii with Melanie




Hiking Diamond Head

At Pearl Harbor

Hawaii - snorkeling with the amazing fish!

Sitting by a waterfall along the Seward Highway



Camping and hiking along the Blue Ice Trail - lots of glaciers to view along the 4 mile trail

On the boat viewing Portage Glacier

Visit to the Elk and Buffalo farm (one of Doug's producers)

White water rafting Class 3 & 4 rapids on Six-Mile Creek. Colleen almost flew out of the raft!

Halibut fishing

Watching people pan for gold at Crow Creek Mine - Girdwood Alaska

Hand Tram across the gorge. Two people fit in the basket and you pull yourself across the deep gorge with the rope.

FAMILY PHOTOS

Audrey Elizabeth and Sean Douglas - Parents: Dan & Mary

Audrey - Age 4

Sean - born Aug. 25, 2010

Cynthia Rose and Thane Finley - Parents: Matt & Stephanie

Cynthia - Age 3

Thane - born Nov 11, 2010

Dan & Mary ---- Chris & Melanie ---- Matt & Stephanie

Malones

Kelly, Jane, Pat, Mary, Bob, Colleen, Tom

Winter Trails Day January 9, 2010

Views from our house a week before Christmas. These pictures are of our backyard.

A gorgeous December sunrise.

Tailgating - Alaska style. These folks are watching people sled down the hill at Hatcher Pass.

It's a family affair. We saw several babies in sleds being pulled behind their parents, and kids on little bitty skis.

We tried cross country skiing and snow shoeing. You can see what a beautiful day it was!

This moose was across the road from where we took oue picture (above).

This video shows some of the activities at the Winter Trails Day at Hatcher Pass. There was cross country skiing and snowshoeing. A local sporting goods store provided all the equipment. The local ski club provided instruction for skiing. They had hot chocolate and cider and snacks for everyone. They also provided warming barrels. But the day was so nice, not many people used them.



This little girl and her mom went down the sledding hill on their tube. About half way down the hill, a girl about 10 years old was stopped in their path, so the mom bailed off the tube so they didn't hit the girl. This little girl in the picture finished the ride by herself. She tried to get off, but she was on her back like a turtleon top of the tube. She was light enough that she really sped down the hill. Fortunately the bottom of the hill went uphill in the other direction, so the tube slowed down and someone was able to catch the runaway tube.

My brother Tom sent this picture that he took in Omaha on Saturday. Thanks Tom, for reminding us why we moved to balmy Alaska!!!! Saturday in Palmer brought partly cloudy skies and a temperature of 54*. On Sunday it got up to 60* and lots of sunshine. Saturday afternoon we took our camper to Hatcher Pass (about 25 minutes from our house)and stayed overnight. We are currently watching the baseball playoff game in Colorado. B-r-r-r-r!!!


Armed with our bear spray, we hiked two miles up the Gold Mint trail. We met several hikers coming back down the trail as we headed up. When we returned, we were just one of two cars left in the parking lot. We passed several beaver lodges and beavers dams. We didn't actually see any beavers.


There are hundreds of little streams and waterfalls that feed into the Little Susitna River. It was running fast because the mountains had had LOTS of snow on them. We had Chinook winds on Friday night and Saturday that melted almost all of the snow on the peaks. Three days ago, the peaks you see in these pictures were completely covered with snow.



Little Susitna River --It was right below our camper. We could hear the river all night.

When we got back from our hike we started a fire and

sat by the fire for a couple of hours.

This is the view we woke up to on Sunday morning.
Again, note the absence of snow on the mountains.

The river is down a steep hill behind our camper.

Sunday morning we walked up the road about 1/2 mile and looked back on our campsite. Our camper is the one on the right. The other camper pulled in about 11:00 PM Saturday night. The vehicle on the left came on Sunday morning. Three guys got their bikes off the trailer and headed up the trail on their bikes. The building on the left with the green rook is an outhouse. The trail starts right behind the outhouse. There is also a large sign with bear warnings and wanring about being prepared to go off hiking (having water, adequate clothing, etc.) We saw lots of moose tracks along the raod on Sunday morning.

View of our valley from the Hatcher Pass road.

When we arrived home, one of our resident eagles was in the tree. They sit in the tree three houses away from our house. Note the blue sky and complete lack of snow (or termination dust as they say here in Alaska.)