Master's Classes + Morning Sickness = CRAZY DAYS IN JUNEAU!!!

Well, when Ben left for Juneau to finish up his Master's courses, he went in the hopes that they would be the same old dull lecture courses that he experienced through most of his undergrad.  Mostly because his wife was suffering from some of the worst morning sickness imaginable ("morning sickness" is really a kind way of describing it, it probably should have been called "every-waking-minute-and-sometimes-wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night sickness") and it would give him time to take care of her, work on his Master's portfolio, and still do well in class.  Apparently, when you decided to take classes focusing on how to teach at UAS in Juneau, they actually make an attempt to teach you how to teach.  You spend the day in class working on teaching techniques and giving presentations, and you spend the nights either working on the presentations, reading tons of material, writing papers, or reading tons more material.  So, between the insane workload and Rachel's "every-waking-minute-and-sometimes-wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night sickness", we didn't get out much while we were in Juneau.  This was truly unfortunate, because Juneau, a place known for having a weather pattern consisting of rain, drizzle, more rain, and finally a heavy downpour, experienced one of its sunniest and warmest Summers in 50 years.  Seriously, we heard from some of the old timers that they had never seen such a sunny Summer in Juneau.  However, things began to let up during the last week of classes, in both the school work and morning sickness departments, so we did manage to get out and have some fun during the last couple of weeks in Juneau.

Mendenhall Glacier and Ice Cave
We did manage to make it out for one real hike while we were in Juneau, and Luke wanted to check out the Ice Cave at Mendenhall Glacier.  It was pretty ambitious for Rachel's first hike after feeling well, and we had to stop and rest a few times, but she made it the 5 miles out, and it was smooth-sailing coming back!

Mendenhall Lake as seen from the trail.

Mendenhall Glacier.  'Twas a fine evening for a walk out to see a giant chunk of ice!

Ice cave?  Yup!

These little waterfalls coming out of the glacier
did nothing to increase our sense of security
when walking under many many tons of ice...
But they sure were perty!

Pregnant schmegnant!  She could still take on
this little jaunt!  Just not the cold cave...

What would you expect to find at the back of an ice cave?
Gushing torrent of water?  Sure!

Luke Segarra: Action Man!

What time is it?  8:00?  Hmmmm, we'd better get going...

Look closely and you will see that there are some useful
directions here among the graffiti...  Thank you US Forest
Service for your unparalleled thoroughness and clear
explanations and directions!

Going up and down the hills was often reminiscent
of, ummmm, climbing trees...

Alaskan Brewing Co.
Unfortunately only one of us could partake...  But we found some fun stuff!

















And a little random time spent checking out the old mining areas in the back nether-reaches of Juneau.  Driving the streets that go straight up and down and around hairpin curves reminded Ben of driving around old Deadwood.

Our Greatest Alaskan Adventure Yet!

We wanted adventure in Alaska, and there isn't a bigger one that we could have than this...

Two is always better than one...?

Introducing baby Bean Herrington!

A Hoover Visit - Part III: The Kenai Peninsula

In the business, we call this "sprint photography".  You set
the camera up on the hood of a pickup (hence the reason it's
crooked and not centered properly), hit the timer button, then
sprint up the small, steep hill between the truck and everyone
 else, and strike a pose.  We should probably just bring the
tripod next time...

After the exciting but exhausting Denali marathon, we only had one real destination left (well, four actually within that one overall destination): the Kenai Peninsula.  Since we spent a whole year surviving in a tiny apartment in the Moose Pass area, with only our next-door neighbors keeping us sane, we thought it necessary to show Kelvin and Kathy where we had lived, introduce them to the friends that we made while we were there, and show them the places that we had grown fond of after a year in one of the most beautiful locations in the world.  Our first stop was the Moose Pass area.  Well, actually we just drove straight through Moose Pass and headed on to Mark and Yoly's place, because that was much a much more meaningful location to us than Moose Pass.  We walked around Kenai Lake, ate some great food and simply enjoyed the company of good friends.  The next day we headed into Seward to do some exploring.  One of our first stops was the Seward Harbor.  It may not be the biggest harbor in Alaska, but in our opinion it is certainly one of the most beautiful.  As Mark Ifflander says, people often get off of the boat onto the dock and exclaim, "Wow!  How high up are we?!?"  Mark looks down at the water and replies nonchalantly, "Oh, about three feet or so..."

Homer might be a little bigger and out on the spit, but Seward Harbor is still our favorite...

We had to make a stop at the Alaska Sea Life Center to check out the fishies and seals and what-not.

It still boggles us just how fat Woody is...

Fully wild or not, they are still tun to watch...

 

Not sure why, but this guy would sit there, upside
down, for minutes at a time...

Of course, because of it's proximity and the fact that you can't go to Alaska without stopping to check out a glacier, we made a brief stop at Exit Glacier to check out a giant piece of packed snow that doubles as perhaps the most erosive force on the planet.

Exit Glacier from a distance.

A bit closer...

The Hoovers in their majesty!

And there she be!

After a couple of days in Seward we headed over to Homer.  We took a walk on the beach, checked out the Homer Spit, visited some old friends of Rachel's grandmother and checked out their shortwave radio station, and Rachel's grandmother still has some land back there that we had to make a small pilgrimage to (to be honest it turned out to be not so small, and we have no idea how they made that drive in to town every day for work while they lived there).

A socked-in Katchemak Bay greeted us...

We've never been able to get over all of the eagles.

Homer has quite a harbor, but it's no Seward...

We didn't realize we would need bear suppression
to get out to the homestead.  Based on the signs
all over the camper though, it was a "better safe
than sorry" situation.

That's more like it.

A Hoover Visit - Part II: Denali

After showing the Hoovers around the Anchorage/Wasilla area a little, we set off to see one of the most distinctive and touristy sights that Alaska has to offer.  However, it is so popular for good reason.  After all, even though Montana, which is a place that we both love, is known for its "big sky" (which Ben finds funny because with those mountains sticking up the sky is actually smaller than it would be in, say, Nebraska), Alaska is the true state of "largeness"; it is the largest state, has the largest wilderness areas, and of course has the largest peak in all of North America, Denali (by the way, if you are in Alaska, don't call it Mount McKinley, it's Denali).  Denali National Park was the next target on the Hoover marathon vacation.  In the afternoon we made the three-hour drive to stay in a small cabin, and by the time we got there we were a little apprehensive about the fact that there was no way we were going to get a full night's sleep before we spent the whole day touring the park, and then make the drive back to Wasilla.  However, we were also energized by the incredible view of the mountain that we were greeted with on the way to the park.  Ben actually thought that he was seeing huge clouds over the mountains, but they turned out to be Denali itself!  After a mere four and a half hours of sleep, we got up and headed down to catch the shuttle because a reliable source (Dan Trice) told us that if we wanted to see the wildlife, then we wanted to be on the first shuttle.  He was right about that.  However, we were also told that in all likelihood we would see either the mountain, or wildlife, but not both.  Well, we definitely saw both!  Although we were definitely exhausted by the end of the day, and were sick and tired of sitting on a bus (the tour ended up lasting 12+ hours), we were satisfied in the knowledge that we received a very thorough initiation into what the park has to offer.  However, Ben also spent a fair amount of time staring at the peak with eyes envious of all of the climbers making the summit that day...

Yup, totally thought that white mass above the mountains on the right was a bunch of clouds...

Such a happy tree!

Lookin' pretty good considering we were all incredibly sleep
deprived and it was about 5:00 AM!

Doll sheep on the mountain!

Doll sheep in the valley!

Ptarmigan!  That's Alaskan for "chicken" and "delicious"!

Fox!  (And a pretty one, too.)

And the mountain looms ever in the background.

Caribou!  Alaskan ungulates are so goofy lookin'...

Big Mama Moose!  Hidin' in the willows!

Still in their finest Spring felt!

These skulls were found in this position.
Apparently one moose, as it was fighting with
another over the fine lady moosies, not only
stabbed the other in the eye, but got tangled with
him and was unable to get away.  So, they both
died.  Bummer for them, but I bet there were some
happy bears that Fall!

Everyone likes a bear!

He was a little guy!

And lazy too!

"I'm just a bear, lookin' for food..."

As close as we got, but still oh so far.  Ben looked on with envy as more than 200 hundred climbers attempted to make the summit that day.  The day before was considered a 4-star day for viewing the mountain, and today was definitely a 5-star day.  We just got really lucky!  Oh, and the next day the mountain was socked in and completely hidden...

A parting view that same day.  That's it!  Denali!  At 20,322 feet, the tallest peak in North America (and still growing)!