My mom, Grammy Cricket, paid a visit to Alaska on May 20th and stayed with us for 3 weeks. Thankfully we had some wonderful weather while she was here. Not only did Bill and I get some much needed outside projects done around the house; but we also made several visits to the park with Sara's cousins (Denali, Sandia and Elsie). We also were able to go to "Music in the Park" in which Sara got to see her old music teacher and dance outside in a park downtown with Grammy and her cousins.
We of course made a visit to the weekend market in downtown Anchorage for Grammy to pick up souvenirs and to check out the local attractions.
Mom was also able to visit with some friends of hers that reside in Anchorage and go out to some wonderful restaurants. She also had a weekend adventure with Sean and his family by traveling down to the Kenai Peninsula, while his wife, Sarah, attended some meetings for her corporation. Mom had a great time playing with all the girls and seeing a different part of Alaska that she has not seen in years.
We ended her stay by visiting the Alaska Zoo and seeing all the animals, particularly the new tigers and baby brown bears. Overall it was a fun visit and we hope that Grammy had a good time.
(Sara & Grammy at the Zoo)Since Grammy went with Sean's family down to Kenai; Bill, Sara & I went North to one of our favorite campgrounds for our first camping trip this summer to Montana Creek. What a beautiful weekend it was.
Within the first 2 hours of arriving at the campground we had a little bit of excitement. While Bill was setting up things at our campground site, Sara and I made a short walk to the creek to throw some rocks and play. After a hour worth or playing we started to head back and got onto the main path/dirt road back to the central part of the campground when Sara squeezed my hand and said, "Look Mama, Bear". Sure enough it was a black bear right in our path. We literally walked right up on it. It was no more than 20 feet away when we saw it.
Black bears tend to be on the skittish side, but this one showed no signs of backing down. Not being able to get around it we backed off and went back to the creek. I must say, I was incredibly proud of our daughter since she did everything she was suppose to. She remained calm, did not yell, held my hand and did EVERYTHING she was suppose to.
Walking back to the creek, I noticed Bill walking up the bank out of the corner of my eye. I was so relieved to see him. There was quite a commotion at the front of the campground and he would find out that there was a bear. Of course the campground was fairly empty and Sara and I were the only ones at the creek. He climbed over a very large boulder rock wall to get to us. The three of us were able to wave down a car that had driven down to take pictures of the bear and to scare it off. They were kind enough to give us a ride so we could get back to our campsite safely. As we drove by the bear it ran up a tree in a matter of seconds and just looked at us. What a beautiful animal.
Apparently the bear visited the campground several times that afternoon getting into "empty" trash cans. The campground hosts scared it off several times, but still it came back. The state troopers were even called in and brought guns with rubber bullets to scare it off. It turned out the bear was a "mama" and had at least one cub with her. The state troopers said Sara and I were extremely lucky and also talked to Sara and expressed how proud they were of her for listening to her mommy and remaining calm.
So there you have it folks, our first and hopefully last bear story of the summer. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me and even if I did I would not have taken a picture. The campground host managed to take a couple shots, which I will attempt to scan and post at a later date.
In the mean time we have also been fortunate enough to go camping again; this time at Eagle River. Thankfully no bears:) We plan to go out for the fourth of July on a five day trip and even another 3-4 day later in July. So keep your eyes out for more updates and pictures of our adventures.
(making sandcastles at Montana Creek)
(more camping fun, playing in the dirt)After returning home from camping and sending off Grammy Cricket we decided to take Sara to our local chocolate factory, the Alaska Wildberry Factory. In all the years I have lived here I have never ventured to their outside park located right next to the factory. Turns out they have reindeer that you can pet and feed. Sara was so excited! She got to meet two reindeer and feed them dandelions for about an hour.
(Sara feeding the reindeer)
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