Valentine’s Baes

February 14, 2018April 22, 20182 Comments

In another two months our bearded dragon Casti’el will be turning two and up until this morning we – along with the council of two different veterinarians – have been under the assumption that Cas was a boy. That all changed this morning when she surprised us with a clutch of nearly 40 infertile eggs. I’d like to point out that a normal sized egg clutch for a beardie is between 16-24. No wonder she’d put on so much ‘weight’ over the last few weeks despite our best effort to keep her active and slim. Thanks for keeping us on our toes little guy… ehm, lady. That’s going to take a little while to get used to.

Dog Sled Adventures

February 5, 2018April 22, 20181 Comment

Knowing we were heading out of Alaska and into Montana for at least a month or so in the New Year my in-laws postponed Christmas until we got to their house. We arrived in Montana precisely three days after leaving our home in Anchorage & unable to wait any longer, my father-in-law declared that night to be Christmas. Although we were exhausted, we happily exchanged Christmas gifts with the family. My father-in-law surprised my mother-in-law and myself with a 12-mile loop through the Stillwater State Forest in the basket of a dog sled. Due to circumstances beyond our control it was nearly a month later that we cashed in our unique gift certificates, but the time spent with my mother-in-law and the dogs was completely worth the wait.

www.dogsledadventuresmontana.com

Goodbye Alaska

January 13, 2018April 5, 20182 Comments

I knew this day would come eventually. It’s been pretty much written into our story since before we even got to Alaska. Eve as the years ticked by here the inevitable goodbyes always seemed so far away.

The day after New Years the movers came and packed up our host. The took most of our belongings to port and shipped them back to the lower 48. Three days ago we packed up the Jeep, hugged our friends goodbye, and set our sights on a place far, far away.

We managed to knock out the trip in less than 72 hours – a feat I would not again recommend – but I also wouldn’t recommend driving in -35 degree temps either.

A few snaps from our last few days in the house and our travels through Canada.

I’m going to miss you Alaska… but damn it feels good to be home.

Merry Sithmas

December 25, 2017March 8, 2018Leave a comment

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the annual Bennett family Christmas card, so without further ado I present to you:

Come to the Dark Side… we have cookies!

Veteran’s Day

November 11, 2017January 20, 2018Leave a comment

My niece, Karley surprised her Uncle Brian (with whom she is thoroughly infatuated with) with this drawing for Veteran’s Day. We, even my seester, had no idea she was drawing such a thing, and all our hearts were immediately melted into puddle from adorableness. Thanks for remembering your Uncle Brian on Veteran’s Day!

Studio Bucket

October 25, 2017December 31, 2017Leave a comment

I’ve been helping a friend sell some stuff on eBay & set up a homemade DIY studio (thanks Pinterest!). A box is a box is a box’ according to the wise words of Bucket cat and she couldn’t resist the urge to sit inside the box while we were in the middle of the shoot. She’s so darn photogenic.

31st Anniversary of The Incident of 1986

August 26, 2017October 25, 2017Leave a comment

Thirty-one. Whoa. When did you sneak up in here? Pleased to meet you — I do believe we’re going to get along just fine…

With an impending trip to California looming in the not so distant future I decided to keep my birthday adventure this year a little more low key than usual. Low key is not to be confused with less an adventure, just a more mellow one. Thanks to my friends who showed up to help me mark the occasion and eat a (literal) boat load of sushi.

Portage Pass

August 5, 2017August 26, 2017Leave a comment

While the tiny town of Whittier, Alaska is only 60ish miles from downtown Anchorage, it requires a paid pass through the longest highway tunnel in North America. The 2.5 mile tunnel is a one way tunnel and shares its time with the Alaska Railroad, meaning traffic only flows one way at a time and is occasionally paused for the train to use the space as well.

I’ve not spent much time in this town, only having really explored it once a few years ago, Brian & I set out with Kratos to complete a short hike through Portage Pass that we’d been hearing so much about.
After having trekked (and down and up and down again) this short trail, I can’t believe we haven’t spent more time on it’s dirt pathway to heaven. Hopefully we can make a trip up here again after the snow has fallen for another unique view, although I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the lake completely freezes over and we can walk straight up to Portage Glacier before we depart Alaska.

Final Farewell

July 25, 2017August 24, 20171 Comment

It’s been a revolving door of friends and family the past few years but now that Heather & Chris are safely on a plane headed back to the lower 48 I can [with great sadness] say I’ve said my final farewell to my Alaskan visitors.

Even though I’ve tried to remember, I can’t honestly tell you the last time I saw my cousin Heather. One of us was probably in high school – although with us being 4 years apart I’m not sure which one of us that was.

The weather seemed to hold out for the most part (a rarity this time of year in Alaska and something that seemed to be even more rare this summer in particular) and I think it’s safe to say they had a pretty good trip and got to experience a good chunk of Alaska. They slept in a different bed almost every night, traveled several hundred miles and still managed to squeeze in some quality time with Brian & I, not to mention an impromptu camping trip. We’ll be stopping in to visit ya’ll in PA soon enough! xoxo.

Dip Netting

July 4, 2017August 18, 2017Leave a comment

According to my calculations I’ve been a transient in Alaska for exactly 3 years and 25 days. It’s always been a known fact that my time here was (most likely) going to be cut off at some point or another, so I’ve tried my best to experience Alaska to the best of my ability. Despite all my adventures here it was this weekend that I firmly believe I became a tried and true Alaskan after dip netting the Copper River. (Don’t worry Montana, you’ll always have this girls heart) To fish this river one usually employs a boat to avoid having to navigate the steep cliffs and raging current, but wanting a true Alaskan experience, we chose a different route.

Brian’s Army buddy Scott flew in to town to visit his brother who was stationed at JBER just two days before. Brian is not known to be the most outright adventurous person, there is one person – other than myself – who can talk him into crazy adventures, it’s Scott. So when I learned that Scott was coming into town I knew to expect an adventure and got excited for his arrival.

The four of us took off for the little town of Chitina (pronounced Chit·na by Alaskans) where we parked our vehicles, loaded up our gear onto our backs and took off down an old mining trail for our destination. About 5 rough and tumble miles down river Scott took us down an even gnarlier path through the tree to the cliffs directly above the river. Here we set up shop for the night and got to fishing.

The boys made quick work of it and by morning we were already packing up and heading back down the trail; except this time we have about 70 lbs of fresh salmon fillets to add to the weight on our backs.

We had strategically taken two vehicles so that the boys could return to Anchorage and I could set out to explore one of the few unexplored (to me) , drive-able sections of Alaska. I made a quick trek into Wrangell – St. Elias National Park as well as explored the town of Valdez.