Friendship, Beauty, and Something Divine

This is an original picture by my dental hygienist taken from her home by Denali National Park. She is quite a spectacular woman, and she has both blessed and inspired me tremendously.  So far she has adopted and housed over 30 native girls who she found living on the streets. Unfortunately most of them were prostituting themselves for money. Seeing this, this kind hearted woman decided to do something about it and has helped rehabilitate many of these girls, most of which have graduated from college and some have even gotten PhD's!  Anyway, she took this picture after a morning of heart felt prayer regarding her "daughters". Can you see the face in the clouds? It still gives me goose bumps! God is watching!

 We welcomed our good friends, Aaron and Ashley Montero to Alaska. They made the long trip (via trains, planes, and automobiles) from Michigan to stay with us for 1 week. We really enjoyed having them visit us; so much so that we all shared 1 bedroom for most of the trip! Who says good friends cannot bunk together? I guess here is where I should clarify that we did have 2 separate beds. Regardless, we are very happy that they came and they very much enhanced our trip. 

Aaron, Ian, and I did the Lost Lake Run, a 16 mile trail run in Seward, Alaska. One could sum up the race as "breath taking" for both scenery and difficulty. Lets first comment on the trail. The first 8 miles were all up hill covering an elevation of 1800 ft. This was a challenge, but we finished. Aaron did beat us in record time (Yeah Aaron!) and Ian only beat me by a few minutes because I stopped to help an injured runner....really, Ian, that is the truth!

But, the scenery as I said earlier, absolutely did not disappoint. It was just unbelievable. Once you got to mile 9 you were in a high valley in-between mountains and the Lost Lake.  After all the pains I still think I want to do this again, especially because I can binge on pizza afterward. 

Here is the trail head of the Lost Lake Run. 

 Ian showing off those runner legs

Me, Ian, Ashley, and Aaron on the cruise ship. We took a 9 hour wildlife / glacier cruise starting in Seward, AK into the Northwestern Fjords. The 9 hours went by really fast and we saw a ton of wildlife and scenery. I think that this may have been the highlight of our time together. Although if you ask Aaron, it may have been his moose hunt. 

Yes, that is my now bald husband. We decided to shave off off his hair prior to our race. We thought it might make him run faster? Anyway, I actually like it very much and Ian is super happy that he now only has to shower once a week, its the wake up and go look. 

We saw tons of sea otters on our trip. I didn't take a lot of wildlife pictures because I didn't want to experience this though a camera lens. I like to say that my memories are stored in my mind. These little guys were so cute. They really enjoyed the waves from the boat and holding their paws in a praying type pose they twirled around and around. Very sweet. 

Behind Ashley and I is the Northwestern Glacier. Although it is receding at record rates, it is still a magnificent sight. At one point this glacier came out into the Fjord 10 miles! I do have to admit, though, that my "save the trees" mentality was kicking in big time as I watched big chunks of the glacier breaking off. Some may find the sounds and sight beautiful, I just couldn't stomach it personally. Mostly impart because I know that in a few short years, this glacier may not even be here. Such a tragedy! So......go recycle your plastics people and turn off your lights! 

Closer look at the Glacier

Views coming upon the Northwestern Glacier.

A Harbor Seal enjoying his iceberg. As we turned the corner into the Northwestern Fjord, this is the sight that we saw. It was just amazing....hundreds of little sea lions resting on floating icebergs welcomed us. 

On the cruise ship

Parts of the cruise took us by high waterfalls. You cannot make out the height of this one, but it was all the way up the mountain and dumped into the ocean beneath us. Again, just beautiful!

My attempt to capture a humpback whale. We saw several of these in the cove. It was hard to capture their fins because they were so fast, so all you get is this. 

The famous Puffins. We saw hundreds of these little birds on the cruise. At one point there was a hole flock of them along side the rocky mountain walls. So my pictures may not end up on National Geographic, but you can imagine a whole wall of these little guys. 

Found on an adjacent cove there was a large group of sea lions. These guys were funny. All you could hear was their grunting. I really liked watching them defend their territory, they are quite clumsy looking. 

This was by far my favorite part of the cruise. At one point we found a super pod of orca (killer whales). Apparently this is very uncommon. A super pod consists of 40+ whales. Our captain said that he had never seen anything like this and we spent  a lot of time just taking it in. Everywhere you looked, and I mean everywhere you saw these beautiful creatures.  They even came up beside the boat to show off. I definitely felt my heart stir while being with these whales and at one point thought about just jumping in to swim with them knowing I would die very very happy. Ian on the other hand discouraged this so I thought better stay on the ship for him.

I guess I should say that Ian and Aaron caught this large fish....but, in all truth it was plastic. This picture was taken in Homer, Alaska. After our cruise we took a drive down to Homer to visit this beautiful seaside town. The drive along the Seward Highway into Seward and then into Homer was amazing. There really isn't anything quite like it with all the cliffs, mountains, valleys, etc. I am really glad that we did the drive, and Homer didn't disappoint. We enjoyed walking along the spit and looking at all the art shops. We even visited ABI (Alaskan Bible Institute) where my parents come often. 

Just a friendly game of horseshoe. I think Ian won this one?

This is at one of our many stops. I am not sure where, but it was a great view. At one point, we found a small lake that Aaron decided to go swimming in.....he just HAD to do it despite our cautions about hypothermia. But, if you ask him, he would say that it was invigorating and well worth it. He made several memories like this, and very much added to our enjoyable time. Thanks, Aaron, for doing what all of us wanted to do, but didn't have the guts too!

Such a wonderful time with friends, nature, and God. Being in this kind of beauty you just cannot deny that something more divine exists. We are thankful to have an awesome creator, and wonderful friends to share it with.

Blessings and Love
Sarah

 ps. this adventure can be your adventure if you want! We have an open door policy to anyone who wishes to explore the great last frontier!