Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Alaskan Fireweed: I thought this was so cool. Amber explained it blooms all over throughout the summer. When it flames out and goes to seed in an arc of burgandy, yellow or orange, then it’s six weeks until winter. I saw one or two blooms, but patches of the flamed out ones painted the roadside…
This might be my favorite thing we did. We hauled their raft upstream, floated down to their dock to pick everyone up, then floated down over some whitewater rapids. Amber volunteered to stay at the cabin with the four-and-under crew, who expressed a preference for napping and watching cartoons. I had woken up in the…
Tonight we are back from Alaska, feasting on silver salmon WE CAUGHT OURSELVES in the Kenai River. Sort of. This fish was swimming upstream last Saturday. Our group required three boats. Our boat had the youngest kids and highest likelihood of having to come back early. “I hope we come back last with the most…
“This is a cool place you live, Titus.” “Yeah, it seems kind of normal—seeing a moose on the playground, picking blueberries, seeing people walking around with guns. You know why they have guns? Bears.” “Wow this is so pretty!” “Yeah! I almost never get to see stuff like this! OH WAIT. Maybe I do.” —Joy …
Mushrooms are so FALL. And they were everywhere I looked in the Kenai Peninsula. Red berry bushes, golden birch leaves, and MUSHROOMS. Amber had a book about wild Alaskan mushrooms. Constantine wanted me to read it to him, so I did my best to do a dramatic, entertaining performance of fried chicken mushrooms, orange delicious…
A canyon rim hike along the Kenai River with six kids and six adults is quite a procession. We made enough noise to alert anyone and everything to our approach. Luke still brought the bear gun. So no kidding, there we are—we look down and see bear claw scratch marks on the rocks. All along…
Luke and Amber are the best possible Alaskan hosts. If we just decided, “hey, I know! Let’s take a trip to Alaska!” … 1. I wouldn’t know what to do. 2. I wouldn’t know how to do it. 3. I wouldn’t be able to afford it. Take fishing at the Russian River for example. I…
