Potters Marsh, Whittier and Portage

Steven's Grandparents are up for a month along with his Great Aunt for two weeks and we wanted to take them to see some of the local sites. Steven took a couple of days off work and we headed down south. Every year the Andersons come up they like to go to Whittier for fish and chips at Swiftwater Cafe.
So on our way down there we stopped at Potters Marsh outside of Anchorage and walked up and down the boardwalks looking at the beautiful scenery.

Cruz enjoyed running up and down the boardwalk and letting out some of his energy.







After that we jumped back in the car(s) and headed to Whittier. We didn't wait long to go through the tunnel and when we did Cruz kept calling it a car wash. So Funny! So when we finally saw the light it was like we were driving into a white wall. The weather was sunny and slightly warm with a bit of clouds on one side and Whittier was completely fogged in and misting. We parked and set of to find The Swiftwater Cafe. I have to agree with the Andersons they do serve some delicious fish and chips!!!



After we ate we took Cruz across the street to visit Jolie the reindeer. She was so beautiful and still had the velvet on her antlers.



The fog was starting to lift a bit and I walked down to the harbor to take some photos of the boats and Steven let Cruz touch the water.




After we got some ice cream we decided we should probably head on out. Well we forgot to check the tunnel schedule and had to wait for about 35 min. Which usually wouldn't have been that bad, but it was foggy, rainy and humid and when I am closed up in a car in those conditions I can't get my ears to pop. Oh and Cruz really needed a nap.

After we surfaced from the "car wash" we stopped at the Portage Trail. Peggy really wanted a picture of the glacier. So the last time I hiked that trail was about 5 yrs ago and I didn't think there was much to it. Well Steven, Peggy and myself started up that trail just a hoofing it. We were passing everybody and I kept saying, "Oh, its shouldn't be that far." Well for a lady in her 80's and a 7 1/2 month pregnant lady a mile is a long ways especially if your speed walking. So we finally made it and took some pictures and took it easy walking out. I forgot to mention why we were in a rush. Steven didn't want to get caught in the rush hour traffic in Anchorage.



So it was a long day, but we got a lot accomplished and saw lots of pretty scenery. And we were exhausted, but it was worth it! I find that living up here the only time visit the local sites is if we have visitors with us.

More from the Festival

Moose Droppings Festival

Moose Droppings Festival, originally uploaded by Katie Cannon.

Over the weekend we drove out to Talkeetna for the Moose Droppings Festival and Steven's softball tournament. We got there to late to play in the morning game so we watched the parade and looked around at the booths. I stood in line for about 20 mins at the only working ATM in town to get enough money to buy an ice cream. As we were walking around we saw a group of friends from Church and other softball players we knew from Wasilla. Mainly we were waiting to see when the next game was. We finally found out it wasn't going to be until 8 pm so we looked at each other and said "Well let's go home." So we loaded up Cruz, the stroller, several bags of supplies, our jackets (even though it was almost 90*), the bat bag and ourselves and high tailed it back to Palmer. We had fun and Steven's team ended up winning the tournament the next day.

I'll post some more pictures later and if you want to see my flickr pictures I thing you can just click on the photo above and it should take you directly there.

Wedding Pictures

Recently Ant and I helped Jolene McDowell out with a wedding. Ant and I were in charge of the guys getting ready and we were kind of nervous being out on our own but we made it and got some great shots. During the wedding we were in charge of getting the small things that the main photographer doesn't have time to get. It was a long day but we had a lot of fun and took LOTS of pictures.

Jolene's blog: http://www.mcdowellphotography.net/blog/