Family Visitors

My mother-in-law, Erica, and Nick's brother Erik and his wife Amy came last Thursday to visit for the weekend. It was a blast! We rented a car on Thursday and Friday so we could go see some sights since Nicholas has our car all day. On Thursday we went on a hike that was way steeper than we thought it was going to be. But Erica is a pro so she had no problem :). Me, on the other hand, had a 20 lb kid on my back and there was no way I was going to make it! Ethan and I turned around and let everyone else enjoy the hike.

Then on Friday, we drove from Anchorage to Seward, about two hours south, stopping at various sights along the way. We read on the internet that that drive is one of the top five prettiest drives in the whole country. It was absolutely amazing!

This is in Portage, a small town along the route to Seward. All these icebergs have broken off a huge glacier set back in the mountain. You can't really tell in these pictures but the ice was so blue!

This tunnel went straight through the mountain from Portage to Wittier. It is the longest highway tunnel in North America. It is only one way so they only let cars go through every half hour, and the train actually uses this same route. You can see we are driving right on the tracks.

Scenic pictures on the drive

On the way back to Anchorage, we saw this mama moose and her two babies (you can only see one) on the side of the road so we stopped to snap some pictures. Amy and I stayed by the car with Ethan while Erica and Erik ventured in for a closer look. They apparently got too close because the mama charged them off the hill! They barely made it to the car when she stopped chasing and turned around. It was so scary!

Saturday, Erik and Amy flew home and we no longer had the car, so Erica and I and some of my girl friends walked to the open market downtown. I didn't get any pictures of it though. On Sunday, as an incentive, Nick's manager took their whole team and wives on a whale watching cruise. Erica served as Michael's wife :). Michael is Nick's little brother who is installing as well up here. It was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my entire life! The pictures don't capture the half of it. Everything was straight off a post card and so pristine!

The trip really was fun until we headed from the inlet into open water, the only place to see whales. Nicholas and I were so sea sick! I threw up 3 times! The first time was straight out of a movie, right over the side of the boat. We did see some Killer Whales but for some reason Blogger won't load my whale pictures! It was really cool.

The biggest glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. It goes from the ocean all the way up that canyon for 11 miles

My friend Meagan Allen and my cool little guy :)

This sea otter was just swimming by himself pretty close to the boat.

Just gorgeous