Alaskan Anniversary Adventure

As an avid John Denver fan, I'm embarrassed to admit that I never knew about his song "Alaska and Me."  I stumbled upon it while listening to a playlist on Spotify, and it quickly became an anthem of sorts as we built momentum for our trip to Alaska:

Here's to Alaska, here's to the people,

Here's to the wild and here's to the free,

Here's to my life in a chosen country,

Here's to Alaska and me!

We also brushed up on our Alaska wildlife trivia and began reading Sweet Home Alaska, a middle grade chapter book about the Palmer Colony in the 1930s.  We were stoked about our upcoming Alaskan adventure!

The whole reason we found ourselves enroute to The Last Frontier was because Eli's parents wanted to go on a family vacation to celebrate their 50th anniversary!  We were so blessed to be in the States during their golden anniversary and to join in the festivities of an Alaskan cruise.

How to sum up a cruise to Alaska, an adventure of a lifetime?  Memorable.  Of all the places we went and things we did during HMA, the trip to Alaska has been the most-mentioned experience on our lips.  And for good reason.  It was truly memorable, in a myriad of ways.

The beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, which surrounded us on all sides as we cruised along, is unmatched.  We didn't understand just how beautiful of a landscape it is.  The mountains really do meet the sea and the colors are somehow vivid even when the clouds hold back the sun.  The soul-filling calm and quiet scenery reminded us how big the world really is - there are vast wildernesses that are essentially still untouched, which left a mark of deep contentment within us.  When we hiked through a moss-covered deciduous forest, we breathed perhaps the cleanest air on the planet and caught a glimpse of heaven on earth.  In a word, Alaska is stunning.

The week was also memorable because of the cruise ship itself.  It felt like a cross-cultural experience, not only because of the novelty of essentially traveling on a floating city but also because of the opulence.  Coming from rural Africa, the cruise ship felt like we'd traveled to some other world or dimension or something.  We waffled between feeling starstruck, spoiled, and completely out of place.  Ultimately, we were deeply thankful for such an experience and our boys couldn't get enough of the all-you-can-eat ice cream and also loved riding elevators on a ship!

Now for a lot of photos!

We disembarked from Seattle and were granted a gloriously sunny day on which to take off.  Kai and I went for a walk in the morning and enjoyed seeing the Space Needle up close.  Our hotel was right across the street from it, and the park surrounding it provided a nice place to walk.

I wish I could've recorded the kids' reactions as we pulled up to the dock and first saw the ship!  They were nearly speechless.  It really is a huge ship and no one could believe that we'd be spending the week on board such a vessel.

The rare sunny Seattle day provided exceptional views of the city skyline and Mt. Rainier in the distance.  (I have to say, though, that our flight from Sacramento to Seattle had the best views of all - the Cascade Range was on full display outside our plane windows and we could scarcely believe all the stand-alone snow-capped peaks showing off.  Mt. Rainier is just one of many, many similar peaks!)

A couple "at sea" days gave us opportunity to explore and enjoy life on the ship.  We were amazed at how many activities were available to entertain passengers.  One activity the kids really enjoyed was making paper airplanes.  They learned several ways to fold paper airplanes and then participated in a competition in the atrium.  It was such a random but fun idea!

We mostly relaxed on "sea days" - playing games and watching movies.  We celebrated Mother's Day during the cruise and the one thing I wanted was to watch The Princess Bride with my crew.  Kai and Asa had never seen it before, and it was time!  They loved it, as well they should, and it has quickly become a family favorite which makes my heart immensely happy 😊

The food on the ship was its own experience.  Several restaurants were available to choose from, but we mostly ate at the all-you-can-eat buffet (read: kids are easier to manage at a buffet than a sit-down restaurant).  We maintained an "anything goes" attitude for most meals because trying to monitor your kids' food choices while they are literally running and skipping around a gigantic floating restaurant is too much to handle.  Which is why their plates sometimes looked like this:

Breakfast of Champions!

One night Eli and I enjoyed a date night at an Irish Pub.  We have fond memories of going to an Irish Pub most weeks during the med school years - a place called Molly Malone's that had trad sessions every Thursday night.  We would get something to drink and sit and enjoy the music as a way of starting the weekend early and connecting with each other after long days where we hardly crossed paths.  All that to say, the idea of going to an Irish Pub is always appealing to us, and the cruise ship had one!

The first place the ship docked was in Juneau.  It was a chilly, rainy day but that did little to dampen our spirits as we headed to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls to hike around. What a gloriously mossy environment!  We spent a few hours exploring the visitor center and hiking the trails.  The taxi driver who brought us from/to the cruise ship said he'd never had any other visitors spend as much time there as we did!  It was a paradise on earth - we had to stay and savor it as much as we could.

Another day we docked in Skagway and enjoyed a long excursion with multiple activities: a train ride up The White Pass, meeting a family that has participated in the Iditarod and now raises sled dogs, and gold panning.

The train ride was a combination of a scenic ride and history lesson.  Our tour guide was fabulous!  She was "in character" and told stories from the Yukon gold rush, explaining how miners climbed the very pass the train was now chugging up.  Such fascinating history!

The scenery was stunning, with plenty of waterfalls along the way because of recent snowmelt.  But there was still plenty of snow at the top of the pass, which we saw for ourselves when the train reached the turnaround point.  It was actively snowing when we got there!  In May!  What a treat!

The sled dog experience was so fun.  Learning about how people train for the Iditarod (and the dangerous perils they face during the race) was eye-opening.  These are the hardiest of Alaskans!  I kept thinking of Iron Will (which we recently watched with the boys for the first time, which they loved, because duh, and also did you know that the movie was filmed in northern Minnesota very close to where we lived in Duluth???  So fun!).  The Iditarod racer told a couple memorable stories: 1) he once started hallucinating on the trail due to severe lack of sleep and saw his 3rd grade teacher in the trees, and 2) a friend of his suffered a serious medical condition when he got freezer burn in his eyes because a blast of wind shot ice shards (created by his breath in the scarf around his mouth building up condensation that then froze in the freezing temperatures) into his eyes.  Yikes!

At any rate, we learned a lot.  Namely, that we won't ever aspire to race in the Iditarod!

The highlight for the kids was meeting a new batch of puppies.  These specially-bred pups were beyond adorable and will grow up to be sled dogs.  We got to see a demonstration of the adults pull a sled around a track and their energy was impressive.  This particular breed of dog loves to run and pull more than anything else, hence why they're bred to be sled dogs!

If you haven't seen Iron Will in a while, let this be your encouragement to rewatch it!  It stands the test of time.

After that, we learned about gold-panning and were awarded a chance to pan for our own gold.  It's not the most intuitive process, but everyone ultimately came away with tiny slivers of gold.  We were all impressed with how much the gold was worth in the current market!

Another one of our "sea days" was cruising around Glacier Bay National Park.  Because we were spoiled with seaside staterooms, we had perfect viewing from our balcony.  How to describe the snow-covered mountainous terrain where the only thing sometimes separating the mountains from the sea were glaciers?

Majestic.

Grand beyond words.

Indescribable.

But Kai knew how to describe it, and I stand with him: "This is where mountain dragons would live."

We were outside for a long time because of the scenery, but it was quite chilly and we needed to bundle up.  Thankfully, the ship provided complimentary blankets on the top deck...which also happened to be where the free soft serve ice cream was.  Kai and Asa would not listen to my explanation that eating ice cream in the freezing cold air would only make them colder.  They simply bundled up like hobbits and enjoyed their sweet treat!  Grandpa Horn was crazy enough to join them 😊

I love these moody photos.  The clouds were indecisive (as you can see comparing the photos above with those below) but it meant we got to see the glaciers in varying light, all of which was beautiful.  Blues and grays have a calming yet mesmerizing quality to them.

Here are the grownups!

And here's the whole crew!

And because I can't resist a couple more photos...  Where mountain dragons live indeed!

Towards the end of the week we finally saw sea otters!  They were floating right beside the ship, cuddly and content.  We saw them many times and it was such a treat to add this amazing animal to our "life list."

At the end of the week we docked in Ketchikan and attened The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show.  Half the fun was watching our boys cheer for the lumberjacks!  The emcee split the audience in two, each side cheering for one team of lumberjacks.  The competition was great!  It had all the typical lumberjack events - chopping logs, sawing logs, scaling trees, etc - and it was a lot of fun.  I mean, can ya really go wrong with red-flannel-wearing lumberjacks around?

We couldn't have asked for a better time in Alaska.  The combination of the people and the place made for a perfect week.  The best part?  Knowing that Tim and Sandi were happy as we celebrated them together.

Their marriage has always been a marvelous example for us, a demonstration of steadfast love and commitment.  They have modeled how to be faithful partners to one another and devoted parents/grandparents to their children/grandchildren.  They have kept their gaze fixed upon Jesus and have pointed each other back to Him for the past five decades.  We are humbled and honored to call them ours, and we praise the Lord for their unswerving love and loyalty to their faith and family.

Fifty years is a long time.  Fewer and fewer marriages seem to make it that far down the road, but this marriage has stood the test of time and we are all the better for it.  The trip to Alaska was a celebration that Tim and Sandi have stayed the course for fifty years, overcoming hurdles and obstacles along the way as they remained side by side, leading the way for others to follow in their footsteps.

Fifty years is a long time, too long of a time to be summed up in a one-week celebration, but I suppose the communal joy of our week together in Alaska encapsulates their legacy of love as much as anything can.

In the vein of John Denver:

Here's to Alaska, here's to the parents

Here's to saluting an anniversary

Here's to the milestone of reaching fifty

Here's to Alaska memories!

California Dreamin'

We had the great joy of spending a week in California back in May.  Our trip was twofold: to visit our dear friend Chris, who was one of Eli's roommates at Bethel and one of the groomsmen in our wedding, and also to visit with some of Eli's aunts and uncles.

First, to see Chris in sunny southern California!  We only had a quick weekend to spare, but it was amazing to spend time together after not seeing each other for many years.  We ate good food, explored the area, and laughed a lot as we reminisced and made new memories.

When I think of southern California, I typically think of the hustle and bustle of LA, but there is incredible natural beauty outside the city.  We added another national park to our list when we hiked around the Santa Monica Mountains.  We were gifted with a beautiful day to explore such a glorious place.

We also made our way to the Pacific Ocean!  The first ocean our boys ever saw was the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, and during our last HMA they saw the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of America.  The trip to California marked their first time seeing the Pacific Ocean - Ocean #3!

We were prepared to go swimming and enjoy a morning at the beach, but a strong wind was coming off the water, whipping sand everywhere, and it was crazy cold for a day at the beach.  Did that stop Eli and Chris from going swimming?  Not in the least!  They ran right in and took the cold plunge, laughing all the while.  The rest of our crew drifted no farther than dipping toes in the water.  It was not the beach experience we expected, but it was a memorable beach experience nonetheless.

After the weekend in southern California, we drove several hours to central California where Eli's aunt and uncle live.  Another aunt and uncle flew out from Georgia to spend time with us too, and one of Eli's cousins also lives in the area so it was like a mini family reunion!

We enjoyed time around their house, which is in a peaceful neighborhood on a beautiful lake.  We were so thankful for the chance to visit and reconnect.  (Notice that Eli is looking up at his uncle - it's not every day that Eli has to look up to someone!).

Asa was a huge fan of the paddle boat.  He would've spent the whole day paddling around the lake if we'd let him.  The first time I took him for a ride, I declared it as a Mother/Son Date because, well, it was special time together and we took our time and really enjoyed it.  That li'l stinker of mine, however, refused to call it a date because, ahem, there were no treats involved!  I learned a valuable lesson that day: no Mother/Son Date is complete without a treat!  (And really, who can argue with that logic???)  So we went for another paddle boat ride later in the day after a treat was acquired.  Thank goodness Aunt Laurie had M&Ms on hand for us to take around the lake!

Kai and Eli also enjoyed the paddle boat, but they didn't enjoy any M&Ms along the way.  They have yet to learn the rules of parent/child dates!

Our kids were reintroduced to cornhole and even got some beanbags in the hole (it took a while, but they got there).

And we went for rides in their Slingshot!  We felt like superheroes driving around in this thing.  What a joyride!  Literally!

We spent one day going to Yosemite and back (see previous post about Caleb's birthday).  The weather couldn't have been better, and although the park was busy with tourists it wasn't overwhelmingly so, meaning that it was an ideal day to be at Yosemite National Park.  We couldn't have planned it better if we'd tried.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if there are rocks to climb, boys will climb them!  The stunning beauty of the falls couldn't distract them from Priority One: scrambling on the rocks.

Exploring the national parks has always been, and will always be, a Life Win.  I completely agree with the notion that the national parks are America's best idea!

The next day we had the privilege of going to the Sacramento Zoo.  We never tire of visiting zoos because we never tire of seeing wildlife.  Some people have asked if we can't stand zoos after seeing so much wildlife in the wild - and truly, the African savanna can't be beat - but the answer is no!  We love zoos!  Besides the fact that they have animals there we'll never see anywhere else (like this okapi and these red pandas!), zoos are also vital for rehabilitation and conservation efforts.  And if there's one thing our family is passionate about, it's wildlife conservation!

Lastly, we enjoyed an evening at Eli's cousin's house.  Good food and good conversation were the themes of the night!  Furthermore, Asa got to try on our cousin-in-law's Air Force pilot helmet and was positively tickled.  This is the stuff little boys' dreams are made of.

What a marvelous time we had in California.  I feel like a decent part of our life during HMA is to ride on the coattails of others and be blessed by their blessings.  Beautiful homes were shared with us, extra groceries were bought for us, favorite local joints were shown to us, and time and energy were gifted to us.

Truly, whatever God has blessed you with, those blessings are meant to be shared with others.  That's the principle the people of God were founded on.  God said to Abraham that he would be blessed and also be a blessing, and we want to be people who perpetuate that principle.  However God has blessed you, allow those gifts from God to be a blessing to others and thereby bring light into your corner of the world.  As recipients of so many people's blessings poured back onto us, I can testify that it does indeed spread the Light.