At sea

Serena called last night and she got on the crew ship at 8 a.m. and they went 6 hours out to sea to get to the barge that she will be staying on. When they got close to the barge a storm blew up and the waves must have been huge and it was pouring down rain and she had to do a transfer from the crew ship to the barge in a basket. Afterward the storm blew over and there must have been a really pretty rainbow. Now the barge is being towed 16 hours out to sea to where the platform is. She is pretty excited. Here she thought she could lose a little weight, but no way, the food is too good and there is too much of it. They can go down to the galley anytime and get whatever they want. I will try to keep you posted as to what is going on as she can call.

Out to sea

Okay everyone, if you are actually reading this, please pray that Serena's first day out to sea is a good one and that this job is what she is looking for at least for the time being. She called this morning at 6:40 to let me know that she and the woman going along for her first time made it to Louisana and would be getting on the crew boat at around 8:00 (no helicopter this time). If this job goes as planned they will just keep them on the ship and go on to another site so she is not sure how long she will be out there. Keep her in your prayers.

Rena's move in

Well we got Serena's stuff moved to Galveston last weekend and she is feeling much better about everything now that she has a place that looks a little bit more like home. She is excited about her job and especially excited about getting steel-toed boots, a flight suit, all-weather gear, a laptop, cell phone and I don't know what all. She may go out for her first observation as early as next week. We will find out soon. That is all for now. We will have to live vicariously through Serena from now on and see what it is like to live at sea for a few days to a few weeks at a time.

Home again

Well, we made it home again. The moose is staying in Alaska and getting stuffed. Won't get it until next April or May. We are tired, but glad to be back and glad to have had such a great trip. We had lots of fun and did lots of things we had never done before and won't do again so it was well worth it. Life will get pretty boring again now so unless something exciting happens or we go camping, my blogs will be few and far between because we are pretty boring otherwise. Thanks for coming along on our trip and I hope you enjoyed the ride.

WOW

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!!!!!! We both got our wish. I went back to Denali and after two trips into the park I finally got to see THE mountain. It cleared up for maybe 10 minutes and I just stood there and took pictures and then I got a call from Larry and he said we had a decision to make and sure enough when I got back to Marrisa's house he had a moose. What a great vacation this was.

Quiet day in Alaska

Here is a pic of me in the -40 degree house, but as you can see on the thermometer behind me it was actually -50 degrees and they had wind blowing in there.

We had a rather quiet day today and yesterday. We drove to Delta Junction yesterday and stopped and looked at a few of the lakes on the way over there and also drove down the Alaska Hwy for just a little way just to say we had done it. The Hwy is 1488 miles long from start to finish and this would be the way we would have to travel if we ever brought the camper up here. The only other way is to catch a ferry that crosses on the southern side of Alaska. Larry and Drew left to go hunting again yesterday afternoon but only saw moose and bear tracks, no actual moose or bear. They decided to leave after lunch today (Thur.) and spend the night at Gary's cabin (a guy Drew works with) which is close to Circle, Alaska. So after we came back to Marissa's house I dropped Larry off and went to the Chena Hot Springs to see the Ice Hotel. It was a pretty drive (about 2 hours away) and the hotel was pretty cool, literally it was 20 degrees inside so that everything would stay frozen. Tomorrow I am going to drive back to Denali and look around again and maybe, just maybe the mountain will show itself. If not then I will just have to plan on another trip up here. Thought I would share a couple of pics of Reagan and the other "wildlife" in this house. I almost forgot, a moose came right up behind Marissa's house yesterday evening and started to eat off of a tree right outside the yard. That was pretty cool to see. We don't even get deer that close to our house.

This is Clare. I think she is going to miss us when we leave. Even Larry has been opening the door for her to go in and out.

We went to Pioneer Park, which is where the -40 below house is, and Reagan stopped to smell the flowers. She is such a cutie and she really enjoyed the slide, as you can see.

This will probably be the last blog from this trip. When Larry gets back from hunting and I get back from Denali we will have to pack and get ready for the trip home. Unless Larry gets a moose or caribou or I actually get to see Denali. Then you may hear from me again. See you all in Texas.

Barrow, Alaska

Well that was quite a trip. First of all we got to sit in the Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse airport for 2 hours with the pilot telling us that we may not get to Barrow that day and they may has to unload the people going to Barrow or fly us to Anchorage. We sure hoped they would fly us to Anchorage in stead of unloading us because the guys would be able to come get us there whereas driving to Prudhoe Bay means at least 2-3 flat tires and a cracked windshield. But they finally deceided that we could go on and then we sure hoped they could get us back to Fairbanks because Barrow is not exactly the kind of place you want to be stuck at for a few days.



Here are Marrisa and I at the Top of the World. The temperture was about 36 degrees and the longer we were there the more the wind picked up. They took us on a tour of the town (not a whole lot there), but they do have the schools set up well for the kids with indoor swimming pools, tracks, basketball, etc. so that they can do sports in the winter, too. The tour guide said the coolest winter he could remember was the temp. was -40 with a wind chill that made it feel like -90. Buuurrrrr!!!!! That was the only day he could remember the schools being closed. We also got to see a baby gray whale that would swim up and down the coastline just off shore scratching the barnacles off of himself. We got to see him blow his spout and come up once in a while, but of course I could never get a picture when he did that, but it was still pretty cool to see one so close.

Well here it is!!!! Believe it or not WE DID IT!!!!! Marissa and I have now got bragging rights over anything that any of you all could do short of a space walk. We were first told that there wasn't time, but the driver kept assuring us that he would get us to the airport in time so we changed as fast as we could and ran down to the beach (remember that is was 36 degrees and the wind was blowing) and ran in. The driver told us it was a gradual desent, but he lied. We took a few running steps in and the bottom just went away and down we went. There is an official watching to make sure you are fully submerged and when I came up he claimed the top of my head had not gone all the way under (I know it did) and I had to go under one more time. We honestly can't remember if it was cold or not because it all went so fast, but I think the water was warmer than the temp. out of the water. But I tell you what I have not ever had anything so salty tasting in my life. And no, I did not drink it, but when you have it on your face some gets in your mouth just because it is on your lips. We thought that he had taken the other people on the tour back to the airport, but I guess they wanted to see it, too because they were all there and now there are pics of us on peoples cameras from Chicago, Australia and Illisnois. We got applauded when we walked into the airport and got razzed some that they were sure we had not gone all the way under and should do it again. My niece and I now have a bond and share something that I will never share with anyone else and I think that is pretty cool. Maybe someday my girls and I will come back and do this. What do you girls think?

I also get to tease my sister that Reagan calls me Oma even though Marissa keeps telling her that I am Aunt Janie. We finally got her to start trying to say Oma Janie because no matter what we tell her I am Oma. The way we figure it no kid can have too many omas.

Larry and Drew have not had any luck yet. They did see a cow moose, but no bull moose and no caribu. They will go out again this evening, but time is running out. I told Larry I had done my part by jumping into the Artic Ocean now it was up to him.

That is all for now. We will see what kind of trouble we can get into today.

Later.

Alaska critters

Here are the critters we saw on the bus ride. Thank goodness we weren't hiking when we saw the bears. We were taking a 2 mile hike when we saw the sheep. Still can't belive we were hiking in Denali Park. Who would have ever thought we would be able to do that?

Denali National Park

Here I am again. Happy Labor Day to all. We are back from Denali and we managed to hit the fall colors just right again. It was beautiful. Of course THE mountain (Denali) has alluded me so far, but there are still a few days left and I may see it yet. The first few pictures are from the flightseeing trip we took and even then we only got to see odds and ends and bits and pieces (hey, that is an old country song) of Denali. Since it makes it own weather system it can be clear everywhere else, but not on the mountain. We did get rained on every afternoon, but they were short showers so it did not ruin anything. As you can tell from the pics I think anyone would have to be crazy to try to climb anything in here. There is nothing but snow, ice, glaciers and more snow and ice along with cliffs and narrow ledges, etc, etc, etc.


The scenery was outstanding from the plane. There were seven people on the plane and it was full so you can tell how small the plane was. We all had a window seat.



The bottom photo is of one of the many, many glaciers that are in the Alaska range. It is just incredible to think that this ice is millions of years old and still frozen and creeping along. No telling what is still buried in there.

Well, here is all we saw of Denali when we were on the bus ride in the park. This is from the best viewing point in the park and this is only the bottom half of the mountain so you can just imagine how big it is. This is the most I have ever seen of it and that was pretty incredible. Talked with one young man who has lived in Alaska for nine years and has only seen it once so I will count my blessings to have seen this much of it.

After our drive in the park we went south towards Anchorage and after about 40 miles we turned around and were presented with a rainbow over the mountain range. It rained on us and there was even a little bit of slushy ice mixed in so the mountains were getting their first dusting of snow. I thought the rainbow added a very nice touch to the drive.

I will send another blog with pictures of the critters we saw on the drive in the park. This was all that this one would let me download.