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Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Z-man, baby Sam and I hopped in the truck and headed out towards our friends Matt and Shanna's house. They had invited a group of their friends over for a Memorial Day BBQ. I'm glad i'm on that list. Here is everyone spread out in the backyard trying to stay in the sun. 
Here is Matt and Shanna and their son Sean. Sean and Zach got along well, and were seen running around the backyard and playing in the sandbox together.
A word on the food. Matt is originally from Texas. There is one thing that admittedly Texans know how to do . . . and that is BBQ. Matt is no exception. Therefore, I never miss a party at Matt's house. Typically, Matt and his friend Mike start the day before preparing the meat. They marinade, BBQ, skewer, fillet and smoke many different types of meat. Each party has something different to offer. This go around they prepared tri-tipped steaks, pulled pork BBQ, baby back ribs and pork shoulders. In addition to this excellent main course there were tons of side dishes, deserts and beer. Everyone brought something different to contribute to the festivites. Halfway through the party, I noticed people were moving slower and slower as their bodies struggled to digest their food. I am not going to need to eat until Wednesday!
Zach wasn't as interested in the food as he was in playing. Here he has discovered the new sport of slide bowling. I got nominated as the "pin resetter", but wasn't able to play. Unfortunately, the play fort on top of the slide was too small for me. Especially after eating. So pin setter it is. 
MMmmm . . . Nobody wears a chocolate brownie like the Z-man. I almost needed to hose him down just to get the sticky chocolate off his hands and mouth. If only we could harness the energy given off by toddlers on sugar. Brownies and cookies are a heck of a lot cheaper than $4 a gallon gas. What a great alternative fuel for the future!
Here is Dave at the airport, out on the 9:30 Alaska Airlines flight direct to Chicago. Come back soon, there is lots more to explore! Have a safe flight.
Well, I made a few calls to friends for suggestions, and came up with a hike on Matanuska Glacier. The glacier is about two hours and fifteen minutes from our house, and for the most part accessible by car. We ate some lunch at the house and then headed off. We got going kind of late, around 2, but rest assured in the fact that it doesn't get dark here until around 11:30. Plenty of time to have fun. The above picture is taken from a scenic pull-out just before the glacier turn off. This view give you the idea of just how big the glacier really is. 
The Matanuska is a beautiful valley glacier twenty four miles long and four miles wide descending twelve thousand feet to the terminus. It is the largest glacier accessible by car in the state. Matanuska Glacier is "active" and expands around one foot (30 cm) per day. An unusual feature of the glacier is the presence of a weather hole, making the weather unusually clear and sunny. If it is going to be nice anywhere in the state, it is probably going to be at Mat glacier.
Here is Zach standing in front of the glaciers terminal moraine. A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a moraine that forms at the end of the glacier called the snout. Terminal moraines mark the maximum advance of the glacier and the present boundary of the glacier. Zach doesn't care about all that science stuff. He just enjoyed the sunny weather and throwing countless rocks into the water. 
Here, Dave and I are standing on a precariously balanced rock somewhere on the moraine. It was actually harder to get up on than it looks. Now, a little bit more about the glacier. Access to the Matanuska Glacier is on private land. So once you get close, you stop at a little house, pay $15 bucks a person to get in, sign your life away and then drive through the gate to the parking lot adjacent to the glacier. You can also camp at the glacier too. Some friends of ours and us did this last fall, right as the colors were changing. It was awesome. Back to the glacier, once at the parking lot, you get on a trail to the face and follow orange traffic cones for about a quarter mile to a picnic bench. Some of the older and slower travelers stop there. Our group went a little bit further, but with a 4 year old in tow, still kept it pretty mellow. There is just a ton of cools stuff to see on the glacier. Streams, blue ice, caves and underground rivers, it's all there. Be careful though, glaciers are very dangerous to the casual hiker. Before going too far, better strap on your crampons, bring some ice tools and rope up. Those that don't and hike too far have sometimes paid the ultimate price.
Here we are on the glacier. Zach did well maneuvering on the slick surfaces. Dave enjoyed walking around all of the weird features on the glacier. Me, I had no fun at all. Yeah right, I really enjoy showing visitors some of the sights in Alaska. Mat glacier is definitely up there on the list of great destinations.
This is a piece of glacial ice Dave found just under the surface of the moraine. The cool thing about a lot of glacial ice is that it has no air bubbles. It is just really clear, more like a hunk of glass than a piece of ice. 
Trace Atkins is a big country star, 6 ft. 6 to be exact. Some of you may recognize him from the Celebrity Apprentice. I didn't watch the show, but I understand he made it to the final two. He has several songs on the radio right now. "Your going to miss this", "Ladies love country boys", and Zach's personal favorite "I got my game on". 
Here are the three of us at the start of the concert. The Sullivan Arena was near capacity, nearly 8000 people. That's not a lot for lower 48 venues, where 60 - 80 thousand is not uncommon, but for here that's a lot of people. Part of the reason is, we typically don't get many shows up in Anchorage. On many circuits Anchorage is part of the "over seas" tour. If something comes to town you had better get your tickets early, or else wait another few months for the next act. Elton John tickets sold out in 55 minutes, so they added a second show. Those tickets sold out in 58 minutes. Sad songs say so much!
Here is a view from our seats. Not too bad. You could see ok. The sound was crappy though. The last concert I attended at the Sullivan was a Metallica concert. I remember the sound quality being much better. I asked someone about this, and they told me that Metallica was one of the only bands to ever fly up a sound technician a week before the concert, and then design the speaker set-up around the arena. The result was excellent sound quality. Next time we'll get seats on the floor where you can hear better, or just stick to Metallica concerts. 
Despite the poor audio, we had a great time. County music is not Dave's favorite, but even he enjoyed the show. Renee and I were trying to remember the last concert we had been to together. We came up with a Jimmy Buffett concert before we were married. That is over 11 years! Time flies. In the future, we'll take the time to enjoy more concerts like this one in Anchorage. Yeeee Haaaw!!!
Here is the DEC Solid Waste crew. From left to right: Sandi(Juneau), Deric(Soldotna), Me, Karin, Stephanie and Lori (all from the Anchorage office). I thought that this class was much more interesting than the previous class, "Chemistry for Environmental Professionals". Everyone learned a lot about groundwater migration and contaminants. The instructors really tailored the class to the Alaskan climate. There was a lot of material to cover as the class lasted 3 days. 
Sandi and I sat next to each other during the class. Certainly never a dull moment around Sandi. The time went quickly as we covered a lot of material, although after lunch there were a lot of bobbing heads present in the classroom. One noticeably absent character this go around was our Italian friend from American Somoa, Barbara. Barbara made the Chemistry class a lot more fun, as we learned all about Somoa and the piggeries. I saved her a student manual on groundwater investigations. Barbi, just say the word and it's yours, it's a good read if you are having trouble sleeping!
All work and no play right? Well the rulers on the table represent the DMZ between Sandi and me. If you were caught crossing the line with no permission, the penalty was you lose an inch of height on your chair. Run out of chair and your on the floor. Luckily, it never came to that, although Sandi was noticeably shorter than everyone else on our row. 
Here is the group studying hard. I set the camera to "remote" and took this picture during the lecture. I forgot to take the beep off, so I think that it was a bit of a distraction to hear a "beep, beep . . ." for 15 seconds before the picture clicked with a blazing white burst from the flash. You can tell how important this blog is, I risk disrupting important environmental training put on by the federal government to bring you these stories. Your welcome!
Here is Sandi and I at 2:15 on Thursday while everyone else is still in a windowless classroom. Wait, I thought the class was a full 3 days? Well, don't tell anyone, but Sandi and I played hooky for the last half of the third day to try out for the reality game show "The Amazing Race"http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race12/. We informed the instructors before we left and almost had one of them with us. They were actually very supportive, although I had to promise to share a portion of the $1,000,000 if we win. We waited in line at Bailey's Furniture for the audition, only to find out that we had not filled out the appropriate paperwork(the story of my life). We got some supplies and rushed over to my house to tape a quick 3 minute interview. The completed interview can be seen on You Tube under AlaskaDug. The Video turned out good and I was able to mail off the application before the deadline. Wish us luck and maybe you'll see Sandi and I competing for $1,000,000 as we race around the world. 
Here we are under the pavilion. Renee did a great job of planning the food and beverages. In all, there were around 32 people. That includes parents and kids. 32 toddlers would be a bit much, even for the Zoo. 
Here is Zach and one of his school friends, Jacob. This picture is reminiscent of Adam (best friend from High School) and myself in our younger years. Zach had a great time running around with Jacob and his friend Tristan from school. Zach also terrorized the Zoo with Ian, Nora, Jack, Sean and Lucas. 
Here is Zach sucking the frosting off of his #4 candle. He did a pretty good job of blowing out the candle, aside from the spit from blowing too hard. No one really noticed, and I stayed away from the left side of the cake. I don't know who started the practice of a sugar filled cake for birthday parties. Although, it was fun to watch the kids get more and more wired as the sugary cake coursed through their veins. I'm glad that Renee decided to do the party at the zoo rather than at our house. At least the kids could run around at the zoo and burn off some of that energy. 
Here is Zach, Jacob and Ian howling at something. They were pretty wild while running around. It's a good thing that the animals had cages to protect themselves from these kids. At one point, the kids started howling in front of the wolf display. It was weird how every single wolf came running out of the woods to within feet of the kids. I guess the wolves were wondering what pack was on the loose at the Zoo. I tried explaining to the kids, that not all animals at the zoo appreciate loud noises and the frantic running around of little feet. They really didn't take notice, I guess sugar has an effect on hearing too. In the end, it all went on without a hitch. Everyone was very full from the excellent lunch. Zach got a ton of presents, had fun with his friends and the parents ended up with the same number of kids as they started with. Who could ask for anything more?
The last one. After about an hour opening presents, Zach was all smiles. What a great 4th birthday! Thanks to everyone who sent presents and/or attended the party. Zach is already looking forward to next year. And if you ask him how old he is now, he usually says that he is "almost turning five". Now that is looking ahead.
Here is Renee talking about the christening gown that Baby Sam has on. Zach did really well in front of the crowd and baby Sam did not cry. When Zach was Baptized, for what ever reason, the minister picked him up to put the water on and he started screaming bloody murder. It lasted pretty much the entire Baptism, until the minister put him down. Talk about getting the holy spirit! Sam's 15 minutes in front of the alter was different. He was nice and calm, looking cute for the crowd. The only hitch came when the minister went to put the holy water on Sam for the Baptism ritual. Opps . . . somebody forgot to fill the water thing. Luckily there was some behind the alter and Zach was able to get it, help fill the holy water bowl thing, and it all looked like it was suppose to happen that way. 
Here is the gang with the newly Baptized Sam. Joanne is the Minister that preformed the Baptism. I don't really attend Church that often, and am not very familiar with all of the rituals, so I did a little research on Baptism. Here is what Wikipedia had to say about it: 
Now, the mother-of-all garage sales is the one at Kempton Hills. Kempton Hills garage sale daze is huge. Just walking around, I saw at least 60 houses with all sorts of treasures for sale in the garage and spilling out into the yard. We got there at quarter to 8, but it looked as if people had been shopping at least an hour before that. Parking was scarce and we had to park about a quarter mile away from the neighborhood. 
Here is just one of the many sales we walked to. I was just overwhelmed with all the "stuff" available for penny's on the dollar. 
Here is Renee with a . . . Zebra print? I don't remember this coming home with us, but anything is possible. It is funny the different approaches taken to garage sale bargain shopping. I take the search and destroy approach. I don't really know what I am looking for. Don't really need anything, but I'll know what I want/need when I see it. I enjoy going house to house, doing a quick once over, and then bam, on to the next sale. The whole process can take under a minute. I'm looking for big ticket items. Chainsaws, snowmachines, snowshoes, camping gear. Guy stuff.
We both had our way of looking for treasures. With so many houses to cover, it was best we split up. By the end, Renee had her share of bargains, and I had found the above ski set-up for the Z-man ($3). It was a great day, tons of stuff to see and good start for the Alaska garage sailing season. 
The Fins, Feathers, Fur, Food festival is a fundraising event put on by the Alaska Chapter of the American Association of Drilling Engineers. Each year the event raises between 10 and 15
Here is Renee working the Halliburton booth. This year Halliburton served up some delicious halibut soup and topped it off with awesome bread pudding. Their luau theme brought out the islander in many and despite temperatures in the high 50's, grass skirts and flip flops were the preferred attire.
This years Fins, Feathers, Fur, Food festival (they need a shorter name) had around 20 companies participate in the event. Each company picked a theme and a food item. Coupons are handed out, allowing one to cast their vote for the "best" food item. "Gold" coins are used as the voting method in the dessert category. This years event even brought out some familiar (and unfamiliar) super heroes. A fit looking Mr. Incredible and the boxy looking SPE boy? make an appearance and spend a few minutes with an adoring fan.
What would a festival be without a jumpy castle. Zach remembered this part of the festival from last year. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, he was asking about the jumpy castle. Needles to say he had fun!
Does it get any better than this? Here is Zach, all jumpy castled out. He visited the circus clown and got a balloon sword, then got his face painted with a picture of a big spider(of course). It is nice that the weather is finally getting nice enough to enjoy outdoor activities and festivals like this. I am looking forward to a nice long summer!
This is the Z-man flying his first kite. The wind was perfect! He won this at the festival with a little help from our friend Dustin. To win the kite, you had to throw a dart and pop a balloon. Sounds easy enough, right? Well the first round Zach stood on the counter, throwing at will and having everyone ducking for cover. He didn't even come close to hitting a balloon. The second round, the person behind the counter suggested that Zach come behind the counter and stand in front of the balloons. Point blank range so to speak. Well, he eventually hit one. Wow, Zach won his first carnival prize! He was shown the prizes that he was eligible for by popping one balloon. Zach, seeing the prizes, zeroed in on a fun looking kite. Unfortunatly, that kite was in the two or more balloons popped prizes catagory. Well, that cute face is going to get him far in life. He got the kite and lucky for him, had the perfect afternoon to enjoy his spoils. Way to go Zach!
Here is the official Birthday hat provided by Ms. Jenny, at Zach's daycare. Although Zach's birthday isn't until Sunday, the daycare party with his friends is almost as important as the actual event.
Here is part of the gang getting ready to infuse a daily ration of sugar. I am not sure how the teachers are able to keep their sanity after a sugary birthday binge. The kids are always wired as it is. Everyone was anxious, but no one ate until told. Zach was serenaded with the traditional "Happy Birthday" song , as only a room full of pre-schoolers could sing. Several of the neighbors cats could be heard in the background. The teachers then said "ok, you can eat", and the carnage began. There was frosting and bits of cupcake wrapper everywhere. Someone in the back was crying because he was not given a cupcake due to allergies. I was told countless times that the cupcakes were Spiderman cupcakes, then someone discovered the the wrappers too had Spiderman on them! A couple more questions about why I was so tall, or why wasn't I wearing Sketcher, then the napkins were opened by several kids and displayed like flags. In all, the entire scene lasted maybe 5 minutes. Everyone had a great time. Zach will hopefully remember the fun he had with this great early birthday celebration. I don't think that I would ever want to go back in time and be 4 again, but it would be nice to experience that level of excitement and joy. Especially, when all it takes is a cupcake with Spiderman on it to get there!
Here Zach is showing a triumphant 4. Most of the kids in his class are 3, although there are a few that have turned 4 already. Zach will soon be moving to the 4 year old classroom. It is hard to believe that only 4 years ago, Renee and I were in Texas, anticipating the arrival of Zach. Time really does fly.
We are back in the saddle today. I have not floated a river with Ed, or anyone for that matter, since leaving Alaska in 02. The weather leaving Anchorage was awesome, by the time we got to Portage, less than stellar, but by the time we got to the put-in on the Kenai, it was somewhere in between. The clouds and scattered showers had no effect on Zach. Here he is, doing what little kids like to do best, throw rocks. I enjoy throwing rocks too, for that matter. 
We're off. I took this picture standing on the shore, while the crew floated 200 yds down the river before picking me up. If you don't take the time to get at least a couple of these shots, everything is from the boat. Now about the boat, this is Eds third boat. This one is 14 ft. long and slightly narrower than his other boats. Ed and Georgia, as I mentioned earlier, fly their raft and gear to some pretty remote locations, to float some pretty out of the way rivers. So when flying gear in, weight is everything. This new raft, while only slightly smaller that the old raft, is really light. The raft itself weighs in at just over 100 lbs, the rest of the gear adds up to right around 100 lbs as well. Another advantage to being light, is that the raft is extremely maneuverable. When you are floating in 7 kts of current, deciding which channel of the river you want to go down, you had better have a boat that can turn on a dime.
Here is the crew, just happy to be on the water. Now a little bit on the Kenai. The Kenai River is located on the Kenai Peninsula in south central Alaska, about 2 and a half hours from Anchorage. It runs 82 miles westward from Kenai Lake to its outlet in Cook Inlet. The Kenai River is the most popular sport fishing destination in Alaska. The reason for this is that you can drive your car to most of the fishing holes. Other rivers with more fish, are way more remote. The Kenai is where you can see the famous Alaskan "Combat Fishing" taking place on the banks. Each year there are two runs each of king salmon, silver salmon,red salmon, plus a run of pink salmon every other year. The world record king salmon, which weighed about 97 lbs, was caught here in 1985. The Kenai is also the home of trophy size rainbow trout and Dolly Varden. The king salmon fishery is not as prolific as in other Alaskan rivers, but the Kenai is known for its large fish. A typical king in the second run, beginning in mid-July, weighs 40–50 pounds with considerably larger specimens not uncommon.
With so many fish, and a lot of pressure from fisherman, the Kenai has to be one of the most highly regulated bodies of water in the country. You can use motors on the upper part and the lower part of the river, but only a max horsepower of 35, you can get away with a 40 horse, but it had better be detuned. Two stroke motors are banned this year, unless it is direct injection. Driftboats can be used on the entire river, as can rafts and Kayaks, but fishing from the shore is strictly prohibited, except in designated areas. Then there are the regulations on the type of bait, size of fish, and escapement of fish above the weir. On top of all that, one must either stand shoulder to shoulder with 10,000 other fisherman at the Russian River Ferry, or jump in the mix with all of the guide boats, commercial fisherman and private boats. All of this is too much for me. I usually go "fishing" at the Fred Meyers grocery store. There, I know I'll get exactly what I want, and I won't break any rules in getting it.
Here we are eating lunch. Ed and Georgia brought fixins for sandwiches. The beach had plenty of rocks for Zach to throw, and we even saw the sun poke out for a little bit.
Well, it was a great day on the river. Zach earned his first "river miles", and as you can see, it took its toll on him. He is the orange blob on the park bench in the lower right hand corner. He fell asleep about 30 minutes from the take out. Georgia was a trooper and held him while he was sleeping. I am looking forward to the next big raft adventure, it was good to be back on the water. Thanks Ed and Georgia!
