reunited!!

I'm back in Michigan!!

After a long summer of traveling for volleyball camps (July 5- August 18) I have made it back to Michigan in one piece. It is so nice to be home with Mikel again and do normal things like laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner. It's not that I love doing these things in general but it's nice to be home and the time and ability to do these things for myself!

I can't complain about the summer I've had... I was able to work a lot of volleyball camps, work on a project for school and see a lot of family along the way. Mikel was in Michigan for most of it but did make a trip to Idaho to see family and friends and a trip to Las Vegas to see Jesse and his brother. Now we are reunited and it's been great!!

School starts September 2 so we have a little more time before the madness begins!

Seward boat tour

My last day in Alaska I went on a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords to see wildlife, beautiful landscapes and lots of animals. I took about a million pictures but here are some...



One of the six humpback whales we saw...
Puffin...
Sea lions...

More humpbacks...
Otter...
Very cold girl...

Porpoise...





After the cruise, which was about 5 hours long, we did a little hike/walk to Exit Glacier...

If you didn't know the temperature, it reminds me of Kauai...


Pretty, pretty, pretty!! Now I'm in Chatsworth, CA working my last camp of the summer!!

the end of the road in Homer...

Today was the last day of camp here in Homer; time has really flown by on this trip. It's sad but when I'm doing camp, I never know what day of the week it is, I just keep track of days by what day of camp it is (day 1, 2 or 3).

Before camp today, Mike was asking some of the parents what we should see in our last day here and they suggested a drive out to the 'end of the road' to see some more glaciers. It was so pretty and I got to take a bunch of pictures.

Here are some of them...




After the drive we stopped by a museum so Mike's son could walk around for awhile. I did a little mini hike outside and took a couple pictures, nothing too exciting...




This trip has been a lot of fun but every time I see something I wish so much that Mikel could be here to see it because he would LOVE it! Tomorrow morning we head to Seward to go on a cruise to see more glaciers and animals and then fly out of Anchorage tomorrow night. One more camp in Chatsworth and a little family time squeezed in and I will be back in Michigan!! I am excited for life to get back to normal when I get to see Mikel every day and be in my own home with a car to drive, mail to check, a nice bed to sleep in, a closet to hold my clothes instead of a suitcase and a fridge full of food instead of a restaurant menu! I definitely can't complain about working camps- it's a great job and I get to see a lot of cool things and do something I love- but after this summer schedule I'm ready to get back to a normal daily life!

Homer, AK

After our first day of camp today (which went really well), Mike, Riley and I headed down to the spit in Homer. Homer is apparently the halibut fishing capital of the world (or at least I read that on a sign) and there are tons of boats and fishing tours and little touristy shops down by the water.

These are some pictures from our afternoon...





We had heard one of the captains from the Deadliest Catch was in town and we actually saw him. They were selling shirts, sweatshirts and all sorts of stuff and people were taking pictures. I just took a picture from a distance; I wasn't about to pay for a picture!!


After we spent a couple hours at the spit we headed to the house of one of the players from camp. Her dad looked familiar when he introduced himself this morning but I couldn't place him. After listening to him talk tonight it turns out his name is Geo Beach he is/was the host of Tougher in Alaska, a show on the History Channel. He also is a journalist and has done lots of other things. They had a beautiful house, cooked a wonderful salmon dinner, and were super nice!

Another good day in Alaska!

alaska day 1...

After a long first day in Alaska, I have taken A LOT of pictures but am short on sleep. Mike, his son Riley, and I left Boise around 7 last night after camp and flew to Anchorage, getting in around midnight. We went straight to a hotel to get some sleep and then headed out in the morning.

Our first stop wasn't planned but Riley saw a bear in the water so we pulled over to check it out. There was a bunch of people fishing here, I think it's called Bird Creek...
I took TONS of pictures of the bear but these are a couple of the best. It wasn't very big but it got pretty close to some of the fishermen on the bank.


Our next stop was at Portage Glacier where we saw the glacier that has receded a lot but was still beautiful and impressive.

From there we took a short little hike out to Byron Glacier which was sooo beautiful!





So pretty!!

Our last stop before Homer, where we are coaching camp, was in Soldotna. Mike has a friend, Pako, who he used to run camps for and she brought fishing poles for Riley and Mike to fish. They spent more time un-snagging themselves from rocks than actually attempting to catch fish; neither of them caught any fish and Mike actually broke the pole he was using (don't even ask) but they had fun and I had fun watching!



Lastly, Pako took us by her brother-in-law's cabin in Soldotna so we could see. It's absolutely beautiful and this is the view from the back deck...
An awesome first day and now I'm in Homer. I'm sure I'll have many more pictures to share and hopefully after tonight I won't be so tired!