Alaska | Ok Send Us All

💗Heading back to where it all began. Alaska here we come!!!! 💗

It has been a mission of mine to take my kids to all 50 States. We are checking Alaska off the list. STATE #47 and I’m so excited!!! Leif and I met in Kodiak Alaska 16 years ago and to be able to take the kids back to where it all began for our family was a dream come true.

We have friends stationed there who graciously put up with us for a week while we got out and explored Sitka and the beautiful surroundings.

One of our 1st stos was to check out some local wildlife at the Fortress of the Bear just outside the city. It is a safe haven for orphaned bears who otherwise would die in the wild.

Edgecumbe Volcano overlooking Ella on Sandy Beach AK

We all went fishing off the local dock after dark as that is when the squid are most easily caught. All the kids caught dinner…. Squid….. Calamari…… the sweetest part of the night was Ben teaching Ella how to gut the squid!! The kids and the dads all helped prepare it. Freshest Calamari you could possibly taste and it was delicious.

We had dinner with a Tlingit tribe member whose family had a few Totem Poles along the Totem Pole trail in the Sitka National Historical Park. He was very informative about the complexities of the different tribes and clans in the Native Alaskan culture. It was fun picking out the different clans represented as we walked the trail.

We spent some time hanging out with some of the injured and rehabilitated birds of prey at the Raptor Center. Most of these can not be release back into the wild unfortunately. But it was exciting to be up close and personal with these beautiful birds of prey.

We hiked up by a gorgeous waterfall where Ronan took us up on the ‘Alaskan Challenge’!

OUR BEST DAY EVER!

We spent an hour on the beach watching a pod of whales bubble feeding as close as 40 feet from shore. I seriously can not believe how amazing it was to see and hear these wonderful creatures as they fed and swam so close to us. Their noises reverberates throughout the entire Sitka Sound and gave me chills!

It was girls day and we went discovering an abandoned native cemetery where Princess Thom was buried. We stopped by St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral and saw all the intricate decoration.

It was really the icing on the cake to be able to help Joe celebrate his 11th Birthday here in Sitka……… it was a jam packed day of fun! His awesome parents let him skip school………Birthday Breakfast Pancakes, boys went shooting, Frozen Yogurt, whale sightings and an evening spent on the dock catching Squid.