Meet the Rams!-Alaska, the Final Chapter

First of all, thanks to all of you who are following our blog. We have readers from Florida to California, from Texas to Minnesota, and even a couple in Anchorage! This has been kind of fun, and certainly a lot more fun than drafting waiver of subrogation clauses in leases (but that's for another day).

This is the last post about our Alaskan adventure; it covers the best part of the trip- the part after the cruise when we met up with Steven and his fiancee, Tammy Ram.  Before we blog about that (is that the right verb? "to blog?") a few words about Steven and Tammy:  Steven and Tammy met when they were both students at U-M. They became engaged last month when Steven "popped the question" after they had climbed to the top of a mountain right outside of Anchorage. While they are intelligent, educated, well mannered, and generally show good judgement, they both bleed Maize and Blue, and even took up some of their precious packing space for their Alaskan adventure with a couple of goofy hats that have Wolverines on them so they would have something to wear at the U-M bar in Anchorage during football games. While Steven was at Harvard, Tammy was teaching in Quito, Ecuador. It was both of their ideas to have a big adventure when Steven got out of law school, which is how they wound up traveling across the country and living in Anchorage for a year. We couldn't be more thrilled to have her as a part of our family. They have a great blog; if you have time to read another fun travel blog (including a post about their engagement which received hundreds of hits) check out www.moosespotting.blogspot.com

Here's Steve and Tammy! 

After Steven picked us up at the cruise line dock, we met Tammy and then continued in two cars to Seward.  There were too many for all of us to fit in one car and it didn't make sense to take two cars through the Whittier Tunnel. The Whittier Tunnel was originally a train tunnel through a mountain on the way to Whittier; as car traffic picked up the train began transporting cars through the tunnel; then the tunnel was rebuilt as a train and car tunnel, but only one lane. It is the second longest car tunnel in North America and the longest combined rail/car tunnel in North America.  Since cars can only go one way through it, a computer directs traffic; traffic has to wait until the tunnel is cleared in one direction to go in the other.

Going through the Whittier Tunnel

Once we picked up Tammy, we headed to Seward in the Kenai Peninsula. Seward is located on Resurrection Bay, another beautiful postcard scene:

We had a picnic, and then sent the kids to play in the park.

Seward is the home of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which is a combination aquarium, rescue,  and research facility. There was a lot on display; we were particularly glad to see the see lions and puffins since we hadn't seen any on the cruise.

Puffins also swim underwater like penguins 

We then took a hike up to the toe of Exit Glacier in the Exit Glacier National Park. It was particularly interesting because every so often there would be a marker on the hike with a year on it; the markers represented where Exit Glacier's foot had been in that particular year. It was astounding how much the glacier had receded just since 1960; the distance between the 1960 marker and the toe of the Glacier was probably over a half mile.

Exit Glacier

On the Way Up 

Rest Stop

At the foot of the Glacier 

The next two days, while Steve and Tammy worked, Ruth, Alan, Danny and Leah spent some time doing things that Ruth and Alan had done this past April. It was amazing how much things had changed in the 90 days between the trips:

Alan at Portage Glacier- nothing to do with comparing trips but just to show that he was there too. 

Portage Glacier in April

Portage Glacier in July

Alyeska Ski Resort in April-note the people skiing  (the season ends June 1) 

Same view of Alyeska Ski Resort in July- note the parasails in the bottom right. 

Our favorite grizzly bear in April at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Same Bear in July 

The day before our last day, we returned to Girdwood, a small town right outside of Alyeska, to go white water rafting.  It turned into more of an adventure than we thought- we hiked a mile and a half through a rainforest; the guides then inflated the rafts using an oversized bicycle pump; and we climbed down a steep embankment into the river for a gorgeous ride.

Having fun in the rapids at the end of the ride 

We also hung around Anchorage- shopping, biking.......

Ruth and Alan on a tandem with the Alaska Mountain Range behind them 

and of course engaging in the local pastime of taking pictures with most Alaskans' ex-favorite, Sarah

 As I've mentioned before, we had a lot of good luck on this trip; one more example is that Mount Denali (aka Mount McKinley) was clearly visible from Anchorage which is 3-400 miles away.  Here's a shot of it from Anchorage's Earthquake Park

Why is it called both Denali and McKinley? The Mountain (the highest in North America) was called Denali by the natives; a reporter dug for gold in the area and when he returned to the United States he wrote an account in which he called the mountain "McKinley" after the presidential candidate; it was politically motivated but it stuck. Alaska has been trying to get the National Park Service to officially name it "Denali" but the move is blocked every time by Ohio congressmen (McKinley was from Ohio) See http://www.enotes.com/topic/Denali_naming_dispute

On the last day of our trip, we were fortunate to be able to spend the day with Tammy's parents, Jeff and Michal, and her sister Natalie, all of whom had just arrived to go on their own 10 day adventure with Tammy (Steve, alas, still had to and has to work). We had a great day, and spent it hiking and eating (of course). We are so very fortunate and happy to have all of them join our family, and we hope they feel the same way.

Here's a few pictures, introducing the Rams to all of our friends:

Jeff, Tammy, Natalie, Ruth, Danny, Steven, Michal, and Leah 

Same group but with Alan sticking his head in 

Arriving at Mt. Baldy, where Steven popped the question 

view from the trail along Mt. Baldy 

We could use this in the wedding album! 

Top of the Mountain where Steven proposed 

That's all we have from Alaska, except to thank the two people without whom I doubt we ever would have experienced Alaska the way we did: Thanks to Steve and Tammy for allowing us to share their adventure!

Where will the next chapter of Alan and Ruth's Excellent Adventure lead? It's a little up in the air right now but we will hopefully post soon; we remain very happy and excited to be able to do this at this time in our life!