Summer in Alaska

It was good to be home! Just in time to welcome “longer days” and the ice going out of our lake. On Mother's Day, the ice disappeared and the loons returned. This was an unusual Spring here on the lake. Although I had never seen an arctic tern on the lake, we had 50-75 terns in May. We also had swans, a belted king fisher, and a white winged scoter, mergansers and a king eider show up at the lake.

The biggest highlight of our summer was the early arrival of our new grandson. Brecken Carter Downs was born on June 23rd at 10:28 am. He weighed 7lbs. 8ozs and was 20 inches long. It was a wonderful experience to be there with Lalanya and Jeremy when he came into the world. He looks so much like his Daddy, but he has his Mommy's beautiful lips and long eye lashes. We are in love and feel so blessed. It is so hard to believe that he is 3 months old already.

Our niece, Chelsea, had a beautiful baby boy named Lexin in June.  They came down to visit us and gave us a chance to spoil him.

In spite of the weather, Bob and I had a fun summer, flying and camping. West Swan Lake is one of our favorite places to go  and relax and have a picnic.

One of our more memorable trips was to Twin Lakes in Lake Clark National Park. We re-visited Richard Proenneke's (One Man's Wilderness:An Alaskan Odessey) cabin that he built at age 52 and lived in for 30 years.

Since we left our 5th wheel in WA state, we bought a tent and decided to rough it. We went to Eagle River, Nancy Lake, and Talkeetna. Talkeetna (“a drinking village with a climbing problem”) is home to several air taxis that ferry climbers to Denali. We visited the hangar of legendary bush pilot, Don Sheldon who pioneered glacier flying on Mt. McKinley.

In late July, our friends from Hawaii arrived in their 5th wheel by way of Maine. We met Steve, Katherine, and Daniel last summer when they flew their plane from Maine and kept it on our lake.

They loved our beautiful state so much, they bought the lot next door to us and will build a home next summer. I could go for that lifestyle--Hawaii in the winter and Alaska in the summer. We had lots of great times: flying, fishing, hiking at Lost Lake, and many barbeques.

Steve's friend, Michael from NH came for a visit. One of our trips was to Packer Lake on Kalgin Island. Not only was the fishing good but we were enterained by a cute little resident fox.

We all flew up to Ptarmigan Lake and caught lots of fish. Mike taught me how to fly fish and I now have the “bug”. He even left me his fly rod to get me started. Thanks Mike!

In August, our cousins', Mike and Anne Downs from Montana, came to visit. We had not seen them in 26 years and we had a lot of catching up to do. Anne's hobby and passion is genealogy and she brought 2 hand-written scrolls, longer than our house and a box of notebooks on the Downs family. Thank you so much for sharing and for the notebooks.

Between sets of company, we helped our son Eric and Holly move into their new house. We are so happy for them and know how much they are enjoying their first home.

We had the pleasure of being grandma and grandpa on a couple of overnights watching two of our favorite little people, Rylan and Colbie Broyles. For those of you who may not know, their Mom, Randi Marie, donated her kidney to Bob six years ago and is like a daughter to us. Rylan calls Bob, Pappa Bob and calls me Poppa. He is hilarious!

On August 19, our friends from Canada, Harvey and Carol Robb and John and Linda Wilson, arrived in Seward on a cruise from Vancouver.

What a fantastic 10 days we had, mostly laughing. The highlight was our trip to Denali. For three glorious days, we saw Mt. McKinley in all its splendor.

That is amazing since the “mountain” is only completely visible less than 50 days out of the year.

It is hard to see the summer go, but we do love the fall and enjoy our hikes around the lake. Before long, we will be off on new adventures: the Pacific Northwest, New York, and Hawaii. Stay tuned!