Pictures from the Chena Hot Springs camping trip

Sorry these are so late in getting posted. I guess the time to upload to the Internet is late at night. Hope you enjoy.
The group: Damian, Nija, Holly and myself, Kevin took the picture. Nija and Holly slept on way there.

Montana watching me roast a hotdog. Hanging out by the fire: Bill, me, Nija, Damian and Montana in the back. Hanging out at the campsite: Kelly, Holly, me and Nija

Walking across the airstrip. Me and Kevin in the hot spring pool. Kevin being lazy in the tent.

So what have we been up to lately?

Well lets start with a few weeks ago. Kevin and I went with our friends Holly and Montana into the park and backpack camped into the back country. It was a ton of fun. It was my first experience with packing everything you would need for an over night tent camping trip into a pack and then carrying that pack into the wilderness and camping. We rode the bus all the way into the park as far as possible which is Kantishna "the end of the road". It's 91 miles into the park. We took off up a mountain and hiked 3 miles up the mountain until we found a clearing that overlooked the Alaska range which includes Mt. McKinley. It was absolutely gorgeous. We set up camp and stayed for the night. We woke early the next morning to the rain coming down. We packed up and hiked back out to the road. We then came back home. We were all really sore from all the uphill hiking but it was so much fun that none of us really cared.

Last week Mom and Bryant came up for a visit. They were here for this past week and we enjoyed showing them around. We got to see some moose up close and personal while out driving around, it was pretty cool. Except for the part where we were almost run over by and moose then we almost ran into it while the truck behind us almost run over us. It was exciting after the fact when we realized we lived through it.

Yesterday we hiked up Mt. Healy which is right behind the hotel property. It was about 7 miles round trip. It was a fabulous view.

I hope to be able to upload some pictures soon from all our exciting adventures, so stayed tuned.

This week we are going down to Wasilla to spend a couple of days at the State Fair. We also hope the skydiving thing will work out this time. I will update when we get back.

Guess what? . . . . It's August!!!!!

Last week we took our "weekend" and went camping with some friends to Chena Hot Springs Resort, about 60 miles north of Fairbanks. The resort is really nice and the campground is nice too. They actually have an in ground pool and hot tubs in addition to the hot spring fed pool. We had a great time relaxing and visiting with some friends. They also have a museum at the resort that we visited. The inside is made completely out of ice. Even in the area where they make the carvings their "tool bench" and tables are made out of ice. They have a bar inside that even the stools are made out of ice. The only kind of drink they serve is an Appletini because any non-alcoholic drink would freeze before it could be served. It is even served in a martini glass made out of ice. There are four "bedrooms" inside the ice museum that you can rent for the night for only $600. They also have an alter where they hold wedding ceremonies.

We also went to North Pole, Alaska which is also near Fairbanks. We visited Santa's House while we were there and saw some of his reindeer. Santa was there and we had out picture made with him. We got to see where Santa keeps all the letters that boys and girls send to him each year. He keeps them posted all over the walls. It was really cool.

We had a great time and can't wait for our next adventure. We plan to go to Wasilla the first week of Sept. for the Alaska State Fair. While there we plan to fulfill our quest that we didn't get to do last time, skydiving!

I have tried twice to upload pictures and the connection keeps failing when I click upload. I will try again later, but if I can't get them pics on, I have several loaded on my facebook page so check it out. If we aren't "friends" just send me a friend request then you can see them.

Until next time. . . . .