Warning: This is a sales pitch

Warning: This is a sales pitch. If you are weak in the receiving end of the persuasion department, and are not looking for a trip to Alaska, do not continue viewing and reading this blog entry. If you are the least bit interested in a vacation .... come on up and we'll take you to this fabulous place that it is about half an hour away from our home. It is absolutely heavenly.

Lilacs. Picture taken out of my 2nd story dining room window. They are blooming!!

This is the spot where we dropped kids off in the winter time to sled down the mountain. A whole different view this time of year!

Hiking up to the top of the mountain.

Tia waits for Mom. I had a whopping headache ... a bit too much elevation change in a short period of time. Probably a bit dehydrated as well from all my coffee drinkin'.

View of the lower lake. It still had some ice on it.

We have 3 Finnish teens here with us for 5 weeks. Mika, Riku and Sami hiking. I've never been to Ireland ... hope to someday go. This so much seems like what it would must look like there.

God's beautiful creation.

The upper lake after hiking to the top.

Jari showing Mika how to get down the mountain the quick way!

Are we acclimated? Tanks ....

and flip flops. So maybe the flip flops weren't such a good idea. Was a bit rocky in places, but the moss was foot delicious on the way down. Tia and I came down most of the way barefoot. Where else can you walk down a mountain side barefoot and have it feel awesome on your feet?!

A beaver dam we spied. I wish I had some way to show you how big it really was. We saw another even larger one and wondered how many years it took those buggers to build it!

On the way out of Hatcher Pass Recreation area is a river (don't know what it's called) full of snow runoff. Winter time photos here would be awesome. We never stopped there during the winter. Will have to next season.

Tia did some water testing and found it to be a bit chilly!

Our 4th of July was spent at an evening bbq and bonfire at Jay & Joanne Laulainens. Then we headed to fireworks ... which don't start until 11:30 pm for a very good reason. They were better than expected. It probably helped that the clouds rolled right on in and made things a bit darker ... the temp was a wonderful 68 degrees ... and it even rained a bit. We were back and forth between being in the car and out of the car ... forgot the umbrellas. The Finns were wondering why we were going and what we were going to see. In Finland they shoot them off on New Years. I said "here too", but we went just to experience it ... and had fun!

Tomorrow we are going to Whittier and to a glacier that you can touch. Don't know how long Jari will have weekends home to run with us and I'm not sure how much running I'll be doing when he's gone .... may as well enjoy it while we can!

P.S. Mom ... the road isn't that bad up the mountain. No steep drop offs anywhere. You'd survive it just fine!