Matanuska Glacier

I've always wanted to walk on a glacier. Even with my numerous hours spent exploring the inner workings of Glacier National Park, this dream has seemed to elude me. Thankfully, Alaska has several glaciers with in a days drive of Anchorage to help make this a reality.


For me, birthdays are about doing things, not getting things. So I've been planning a trip to the Matanuska Glacier off the Glenn Highway for some time now. In an effort to "do something I've never done but [have always] wanted to do" yet again for my birthday this year, the day I had chosen to make this particular drive was going to be August 26th. Then I found out my husband had the opportunity to head to Tok on a hunting trip that week. Not wanting him to miss this adventure, we found ourselves with nothing to do and decently good weather for a change. So after lunch we gassed up the Subaru & headed north.


The drive is beautiful and I was happy to do it again in broad daylight and was much, MUCH less stressed, as this was the last section of my disastrous drive into Anchorage w/ the U-Haul.

Sadly, the only way to quickly reach this magnificent hunk of ice is by paying a fee of $20 per person to pass through the private land that blocks access to the glacier. As much as it pained me to part w/ this money to explore nature, it was well worth the experience and I'd recommend anyone hesitating on this part to bite the bullet and do it. You won't regret it once you get out on the ice. As far as the guiding services go, save the money & equip yourself with some crampons and pickaxes as we did and the average sturdy footed hiker will be plenty fine for trekking across the ice. After paying our fees, we passed through the gates and headed down a dusty road.


It only takes about 5-10 minutes to hike to the glacier itself. Thankfully we were equipped with some amount of our own gear and quickly left the crowds behind to delve deeper into the inner workings of this beauty. We spend a couple of hours slowly & carefully meandering around Matanuska Glacier, including finding numerous waterfalls and lakes. Yes, glacier water tastes as good as they said it would.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like most of us who aren't extremely gifted in one thing or another, I've had to work (sometimes hard) for most things in my life. Although I am a huge believe in the fact that things happen for a reason and will sometimes allow something not going as planned to ultimately sway my course, I've never been afraid struggling along to get what I want either.

I worked hard at basketball in high school. I usually never walked away w/ the MVP trophy (although once I did!), but Most Improved Player had my name on it year after year. Despite A's coming easy for me in high school, college was a different story. I was usually putting in significantly more hours of study time than that of my peers. And although my ultimate career dream is for me to be working with animals, I've spent the last few years breaking into the medical field to take home a bigger paycheck and ultimately dig myself (& now my husband too) entirely out of all debts by my 30th birthday.

A combination of being newly married to a very picky eater and taking advantage of all that Anchorage has to offer, which includes MANY rainy days, has brought me to dusting off my cooking skills and revamping my personal recipe book. I love to cook, so this challenge has been a fun one. Baking however, is a completely different story. Having always wanted to bake like my grandmother, but never having the time (or nerve) to start is no longer an excuse. I've spent the last few weeks tackling a few smaller baking challenges. Early this week I decided to tackle a more difficult one, my maternal grandmother's gob recipe. Patience may not be one of my strong suits, but thankfully this lesson in patience and practice is a tasty one! 

My husband is also tackling a new challenge. He bought a violin while on his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, but it's been sitting in it's pretty little case ever since. Tuesday night I surprised him with his first violin lesson. He's got a natural ear for music. Which I'm grateful for because it means he's already progressing quickly and the sound of someone learning to play a difficult instrument is much more tolerable in our house.

Bad News Bears

I was having a (really) bad day yesterday & I always say sushi always makes me feel better. So last night Brian took me out for sushi. We were sitting at the bar talking about the days events when the sushi chef started making something special from an orange. Mesmerized, we stopped our conversation and watched him craft an adorable teddy bear from a seemingly plain orange.

He was a little thrown off when I started crying when he presented the simple gesture as a treat for the two of us to make the day a little better. I had to explain that they were happy tears & how much his kind gesture meant.

Tell people you love them often.

Hug & kiss often.

Use kind words often. You never know when such a simple gesture [like a teddy bear orange or taking them to a dinner you don't really care for but know that they love] could help turn someone's day around.

Oh, and don't forget to smile.

Kayaking Otter Lake

Once again the rain prevented us from adventuring out Saturday afternoon. We had spent the morning wandering around Anchorage's downtown market but headed home as the nimbus clouds started rolling in. We spent a lazy Saturday around the house doing lazy Saturday house things, like napping.

Sunday morning I woke up to the sound of rain. I love sleeping in in the rain, but when I'm ready to get up and play in the Alaskan wilderness, I was slightly depressed to wake up to this noise. After spending the morning baking biscuits I cleaned myself off and declared it was time to go play in the rain as it was now only a drizzle rather than a downpour.

By the time we changed & readied ourselves the rain was scarcely even there. We set out for Otter Lake - a small lake in the woods on base -  to rent a couple of kayaks. If it's going to rain we might as well be doing an activity where we're going to get wet anyways, right? Thankfully, by the time our vessels were set to go into the water the rain had stopped and the sun was even peeking through the clouds from time to time.

Point Woronzof

Cheap Entertainment

Life [in Alaska] is, as the phrase goes, good. Our little family is coming together nicely w/ the addition of Bucket, as is our house w/ the new furniture. While we're enjoying exploring Alaska as much as time allows, we're also adjusting and enjoying married life with each other. Sometimes, at the end of the work day we're both too exhausted to head out to explore. More recently, on these nights we hang around our house and usually find ourselves being entertained by Bosco & Bucket.

The first day we brought Bucket home, both critters were out of their element. Bucket quickly adjusted and is thriving in her new home. She's definitely a part of our family. It's only been in the last 48 hours that Bosco has fully accepted Bucket as a member of his family.

He might have been forced into it a little at first.  This afternoon I put Bosco's collar on and he got excited as he usually does when his collar goes on because it would normally mean we're about to go somewhere fun, but was quickly disappointed as I tied a lump of string to his collar. A herding dog that follows me everywhere but is still slightly terrified of kitten + string tied to his collar + a kitten = an afternoon of laughs.

Ultimately, I think my hysterical torture plan worked in bringing them closer together because this is how they were snuggled up while we ate dinner.

Yes, I think our little family is coming together nicely.

Byron Glacier

The sky was overcast and threatening rain but after taking Saturday to relax for the first time since arriving in Alaska both Brian & I were itching to get out an explore. So we packed up the Subie & headed south.

Our destination today was Byron Glacier. I've been dying to touch a glacier and was pretty psyched to get this close to Byron Glacier. However, this particular glacier is considered a 'hanging glacier' and wasn't safely accessible with the minimal amount of gear we had brought with us.

The trail is a short jaunt down a well maintained path along Byron Creek. The alder and cottonwood forest disappeared at almost exactly 1 mile, leaving us at the base of a mighty snowfield with wonderful views of Byron Glacier.

This seemed like the perfect place to explore the ice caves of the ice field and soak ourselves in the frigid and freshly melted ice of Byron Glacier.

Only after our (mostly my) feet were beginning to cramp from the coldness of the waters did we retreat back down the trail. Before heading home we quickly toured the Begich, Bogg Visitor Center on Portage Lake and photographed this tiny iceberg floating alone.