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September 27, 2008
Bumps
We spent the evening with our friends Max and Courtney who are also expecting, within two weeks of us!
Here is a photo of the girls, sorry it was dark out, and I took this photo with my phone, so no flash.
your host for this episode : dan; 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2008
Tiger Pics
many of you are demanding pictures of "the bump", so here are a few. there are certainly dozens more that could be added from our trip to alaska, but we haven't gotten through all of them yet... but these should keep you from breaking down my doors!
18 weeks and 3 days - 16 July, at home
20 weeks - 27 July, at home in the Brickyard for a pizza party
22 weeks - 10 August, at Kirk Park on Lake Michigan with friends
24 weeks - 24 August, at "Angel Rocks" and then Chena Hot Springs not far from Fairbanks, Alaska
24 weeks and 1 day - 25 August, at the Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks
24 weeks and 3 days - 27 August, at Polychrome Pass inside Denali
24 weeks and 6 days - 30 August, at Reflection Pond beneath Denali
25 weeks and 5 days - 5 Sept, on Lake Hood, hours before takeoff to return to GR
your host for this episode : carrie; 10:22 PM | Comments (3)
The "Babymoon"
at 24 weeks pregnant, dan and i (and Tiger) hopped on a flight bound for alaska on frequent flyer miles for 2 weeks. into fairbanks and out of anchorage. hiking, hot springs, camping, rain, rain, rain, some frost, wild blueberry and wild cranberry picking and then making PANCAKES with those... and a base to summit view of Mt McKinley (aka Denali) for 1/2 a day! that was certainly the most breathtaking.
do you know much about alaska? i sure didn't before we went. denali park and preserve is the size of Massachusetts. and it's not the biggest park in alaska. huge. and there's one road: 95 miles long, most of it one lane and unpaved and perched on the edge of one mountain pass or another. we stayed at wonder lake at mile 87 for 2 nights by a very fortunate turn of events {the dufus we made the reservation with for 28/29/30 aug at igloo creek at mile 30-something wrote it up as 29/30/31 aug so when we showed up on the 28th and our bus driver (who Grew Up in GR by john ball zoo!) noticed our ticket was for the next day, we went and got "bumped" to an employee site at wonder lake - which was where we really wanted to be anyway but were told that it was "full"...} and hiked 7 miles one day [pregnant - let me remind you] mostly in a drizzle and always under overcast skies. the 2nd evening the rain quit and things seemed to lighten up ever so slightly and by 3am the sky was Clear, the stars were out, and so was the mountain. nearly everyone else at the campground there at Wonder Lake was/is a professional photographer (aka: pro-phos) - didn't know that was a pre-req! - and at 3 they started making their way to various vantage points for the twilight and then sunrise pictures.
when we woke up at 7 we were in fog. it rolled up off wonder lake (behind us and below us a bit) around sunrise but you could sense that above the fog there were clear skies. so we ate breakfast, and made our own way to a vantage point above the campground, bushwhacked through some underbrush with our bear bells on, and stood in awe of the majesty of the Mountain, and in ever More awe of the Creator of that Mountain. there was still frost on the berry bushes and i'm happy to say that we Never saw a bear or a moose while on foot. praise Jesus bc i think i would have wet myself.
so yeah, it was gorgeous. simply gorgeous. covered in snow, surrounded by fall foliage (and it was the 30th of August mind you), and just majestic. by about 9 there started to come some small clouds in front of the face, and by 12, when the first buses from the entrance would have made it to a vantage point around 50 some miles in, the face was again completely obscured with only the base and the very summit showing itself briefly now and then.
our way out of the park that day on the bus was also incredible. we saw caribou grazing withing 30 yards of the bus, a wolf munching on a moose kill, Several grizzlies - one of which crossed the road in Front of our bus, two wolf pups (already large but not yet full grown) walking In the road, and - just when i had given up - two bull moose having a go at it in the road in front of our bus. not serious, but like a couple of brothers wrestling or something! there was a Mob of people with big lenses and several of them dangerously Close to the animals (moose are more dangerous than bear, btw). we were quite afraid that they'd get trampled. the parks department is pretty adamant about people using the buses, but pro-phos somehow get special permission to drive their private vehicle in. see, if you stay On the bus, you're not a separate entity to the animals. they know the bus is a) not a threat and b) not a food source, so they leave it alone... but if you're outside of your vehicle, they get confused.
our two days in seward (on the coast just south of anchorage) were spent in the rain. the town is situated on the end of a fjord and supposedly the fjord is Breathtaking when the sun is out - which we're told happens at least 2 days per year ;) we were planning to camp, kayak, hike, and take it all in that way, but instead of setting up camp in the rain, cooking in the rain, ending up with wet socks because there'd be no place to dry them out in the rain, hiking in the rain, and kayaking in the rain and High Seas, we opted to upgrade our reservation at millers landing and splurged on a "camping cabin": an 8x12 structure With a front porch, bunks, and a Wood Stove! we could stand up inside to get changed, light a fire to dry out our socks and coats, and be on the front porch enjoying what we Could see of the fjord without being in the rain. and we also opted for a boat cruise instead of a kayak trip to see the wildlife. we saw a harbor seal (actually in the harbor!), several sea otters, a passel of sea lions who'd managed to haul themselves out onto a rocky outcrop, puffins, rare kittiwakes (which look remarkably like a charlevoix seagull), mountain goats (yes from the water - that's how steep the fjord is!), and supposedly 2 hump back whales. but at that moment, there were too many people around me getting sick (even dan was a bit green) and they only showed their humps and a little flip of tail fin and Everything was grey (because of the rain and fog, remember?) so i couldn't vouch that they were really whales!
so anyway, the rain made us relax. forced us to really. see we're not good at that. it's raining again today, that's why-come i can write this, because i'd rather be in my garden. or at the farmers market. or Something other than inside. but me and Tiger are sitting here just bringing you all up to speed while dan is off playing paint ball and riding dirt bikes in the woods with friends.
click below to be taken to our photo album on picasa. or just watch it here. be forewarned: there are 379 photos. but these are the good ones of the 1500+ that we started with.
your host for this episode : carrie; 11:28 AM | Comments (1)