Mariners Baseball

Ryan and I stole away from camp Friday night to catch the Mariners game, up in Seattle. We had a great time together, experiencing alittle "man-time" watching the Ms paste the Royals, and enjoying the sights and sounds of Safco Field.

Black Lake Bonanza

Lisa has four very close friends from her high school days at Nampa Christian. Summer, Jerusha, and Missie have all stayed in contact with each other through college, marriage, over-seas residence, child rearing, and career pursuits. Their company has always been a comfort to one another.

Jerusha's husband, Greg, is the program director at Black Lake Bible Camp in Olympia, WA. The four friends decided that they wanted their kids to get to know one another better, so they took their families to BLBC, and shared the days together while the kids had a ball in the day camp. Everyone was pleased with their experience... especially the moms, who enjoyed the time to catch up and relax in fellowship with one another.

The 11 kids made for fast friends and had a blast running as a little pack throughout the camp.  This may become a tradition.

The Last Frontier - Finale

Our last days in Nikiski were cool and wet... but good.  

We spent time down on the beach and in the water fishing with the family, followed by relaxing times of fellowship.  

Ryan picked the 36 lb. King Salmon from the net.

 

 The kids enjoyed the relaxed schedule and the opportunity and freedom to play.  

 It was a simple existence and one that these Kinnamans needed more than we had realized.  

 It was sad to leave our friends behind when it was time for us to return.  We are grateful for the opportunity to have seen some place new. 

We finally saw moose while we were leaving for the airport in Anchorage.

 But we are even more thankful for the encouragement and rest that we received from simply spending time with friends.  

 We came away from out Alaska adventure truly blessed.

The Last Frontier - Part 9

Once again, we woke up ready for adventure.  Our second day in Seward was spent on a boat.  We took a tour out into the Gulf of Alaska.

The scenery was beautiful.  We saw whales, and a sea otter on our way to Fox Island...

We ate...

Lunch was all-you-can-eat salmon and prime-rib, with sides of king crab and corn on the cob.  While we feasted, the kids were awarded Jr. Ranger badges for completing the Ranger workbooks they were given while we waited for the trip to begin.

We finished the tour and saw puffins, sea lions, and a whole bunch of beautiful scenery...

 

 
And the kids caught a quick nap on boat ride back to shore.
That ended our time in Seward.  We were packed and ready to head back to Nikiski for a bit more fishing.

The Last Frontier - Part 8

When we came down from the trail to Exit Glacier, we stopped to read the sign at the trail head. I want to point out that it mentions that if a brown bear attacks, play dead unless it begins to eat you...then go ahead and fight back.

On our way back from Exit Glacier, we noticed that a number of cars were pulled over near a bridge about a half-mile from town.
We got out of the car and saw a mother brown bear with two cubs. As she strolled along the river, she reached in and pulled out a fish for the cubs to eat. We had an exciting evening which was capped with a trip to the creamery where we learned that Alaskans consume more ice cream per capita than any other state population in the U.S. (we were just trying to make our bear-sighting that much more authentically Alaskan)

The Last Frontier - Part 7

We strolled through town and ate a great meal following our time at the Sea Life Center. They we went for a short drive out of town to Exit Glacier, which is the access point to a GIANT ice field up in the mountains.

We hiked 1.2 miles in and back...

It is so amazing to see these glaciers up close. Part of the fun though, was making the memory of having all hiked it together. I was a great time and we talked and took pictures the whole way.

The Last Fronteir - Part 6

Saturday we drove back across the Kenai Peninsula to Seward. Once again, it was a beautiful drive, but the kids wouldn't have known it, they were *POOPED*. Seward is a quaint little touristy town, which had been major port of Alaska before the great quake of 1964. It reminds me of Newport, OR... just colder.

We visited the Sea Life Center and the kids had a great time.

The highlight for me was Woody, the Sea Lion. He weighs 2,200 lbs (give or take a few), and was highly interactive. He spotted Abby alone by the window and got her attention, then preceded to do tricks for her. When the rest of the patrons figured out what was going on, they completely crowded around her. I was so mesmerized that I didn't hear Lisa telling me to film it. He was great and made a vivid and lasting memory.

To be continued...

The Last Frontier - Part 5

We had a few more days of relaxing and hanging out with Brent and Nichole and their family before heading across the peninsula to Seward.

We spent a little more time fishing and the kids played on the beach in the driftwood forts.  We were given the tour of the town and ate halibut hamburgers at a Kenai mainstay, The Burger Bus.

Friday evening Brent built a campfire down on the beach.  We had all the comforts of home with all the fun of camping out.