Back To The Heat

We finally made it back to Arizona. Our last month in Alaska was cram packed with action. We drove to Valdez so Nate could go fishing. Valdez is a little port town were the pipeline ends. They have a few claims to fame....the pipeline, the large earthquake, and the huge oil spill that killed all of the marine life. It is a beautiful city. Nate was able to fish and catch his first salmon. He was so excited, like a little kid on Christmas. Its actually a pretty funny story, but its Nate's, so I wont spoil it and let him tell you all.
We traveled down to Homer and Seward Alaska. Which is on the Kenai Peninsula. They are know for their salmon fishing. We went on an ocean cruise and saw porpoises, sea otters, a whale. Then we went on a halibut charter boat and caught four huge halibuts. I caught the biggest one on our boat that weighed about 40 lbs. Then we started our journey home.
We packet up the cooler full of halibut bought a map of the US and Canada and started the drive. We stopped one last night with Nate's friends in Wasilla and played paintball with them. The next night we stopped in Canada somewhere in the Yukon Territory. To sum up the next couple of days....we went to a natural hot springs (it was hot), we saw lots of animals (buffalo, deer, elk, owl, moose, bear, and others) we saw the northern lights, and eventually we made it to civilization and Seattle.
In Seattle we went to a Mariners game and then drove and saw Mt St Helens. We drove along the Oregon coast and spent the night in the redwood forest. We saw trees that were over 300ft tall. It felt like you were driving through an incredibly narrow and tall canyon, because the trees were so close together. We continued down the California coast to San Fransisco. Saw some of the sights downtown there and then got back on the road.
From San Fran we drove east and camped the night just outside of Yosemite Nat'l Park. The next morning we went through the park and took lots of pictures of tall cliffs. We were pretty disappointed when we went to one of the longest waterfalls and there was barely any water on it, it looked like someone had there garden hose hanging off the cliff (i guess its better in the spring). Then we continued south to Sequoia Nat'l Park and saw some other big trees. Then we cruised to Temacula and spent the night at my brothers house.
We woke up and went to the beach with my family. They are fun to spend time with. Maddi and Bryce loved that Nate helped them surf, and Nate was pretty excited to be back up on the board himself. The next morning we got up early and finished the drive home.
Overall it was a big adventure. I read two and a half Harry Potter books out loud to Nathan because we didn't have a radio in the car. I would have read more but it got to hot in Cali to keep the windows up and we didn't have any AC, but the car made it home. that's the important part and we sold it here for a $100 less then we bought it. Its good to be back.