Nate's Family Vacation Part 2 Seward

It may seem like we did the same stuff with my family that we did with Nate's and truth be told we did do some of the same stuff but, not everything was the same.  On Saturday we woke up in Homer and made the drive to Seward to go on a wild life sea cruise.  This has to be one of the funnest things that I have done in Alaska.  I love sea life so to see it out in the wild was breathtaking to me.  We got the all you could eat prime rib and salmon dinner.  I know most people would be thrilled with something like that but since prime rib is my least favorite cut of steak and I don't like sea food it was lacking for me.  The rest of the meal was only okay to me and so not worth the money spent on it.  The rest of the time on the cruise ship was spent walking around at our own leisure doing whatever we wanted. The crew was very good at showing us the wildlife when there was some to be seen.  The captain also showed off his impressive sailing skills by pulling up to rock as close as he could.  There was also a Jr. Wildlife Officer program that the Ella participated in.  There was a book for her to fill out and in the end she got a badge and a certificate saying she finished the program.  The crew was also very good at answering any questions that you had.

A lot of the time was spent sailing.  Ella and I spent most of it on the top deck.  It was a very warm day with a slight breeze so it was refreshing to be outside.  Ella got super comfortable so comfortable in fact that she feel asleep in my arms for part of the cruise.

The highlight of the cruise for me was when we encountered 3 killer whales and 2 humpback whales interacting with each other.  The wildlife advocacy program has very strict rules about when it is ok and not okay to encroach on the whales habitat.  The captain followed the rules and we got lucky because the whales decided to come toward us (which is okay) instead of the us going to them (which is not okay).  There was a baby killer whale that was a big time show off.  He would shake his tale at us and splash around the water for us.  I took maybe 200 pictures of the whales that day.  These were the best ones.

After the cruise we all jumped into the cars and made the last leg of our journey home.  Everyone was staying in Eagle River where Nate's family found  a rental house for them to stay in.

Nate's Family vacation- Homer Alaska- Part 1

 Nate's Family arrived in Alaska on the 23rd of July.  We were all so excited about them coming the whole family went to meet them at the airport.  After they got all of their luggage we headed to my house to hang out for the night.  Of course we had our favorite dinner (Moose's Tooth Pizza).  People gradually left for their hotel except for Grandma Swenson and Tessa who stayed the night at our house.

The next morning we went headed south to spend three nights in Homer. We took 3 cars and people switched off between them.  Nate drove one, David drove one, and Tiago drove one. Our group made the usual stops along the way.  The first stop we stopped at was a hiking trail by Beluga Point.  It is part of an inlet where you can see more land on the other side.  Nate had the people in the other car convinced that the small piece of land was a part of Russia (at least for a little bit). It was awesome.  We learned in the end that some people didn't appreciate the what they call lying and what we call joking around. Amongst other things we joked around about was seeing wild life.  That was fun too.

 We also stopped at the Kenai River so that everyone could have a potty break and so that everyone could see just how beautiful it was.  People skipped rocks and walked around for a little bit.

 We finally made it to the rental house and what a beautiful house that was.  There was a main house with a small apartment attached to the bottom. Nate and I along with 3 of the kids plus Haley and Tiago stayed in the bottom apartment.  It was a nice little place to relax.  The view was gorgeous.  We were right along the ocean and got to wake up every morning to the wonderful ocean breeze.

The first day in Homer all we did was drive down to the Spit and look around there.  We watched some halibut be fillet and went shopping in a few stores.  They some of us stopped at the grocery store for food.  We also found a seafood restaurant to have dinner at.  I was not a fan of the food there.

The next morning Pam, David, Haley, Tiago, Tessa, Matt and Rachel all went halibut fishing.  Nate and I were lucky enough to babysit and sit around the house all day with my kids, Liam, and Grandma.  I did go with Nate, Ella, and Grandma to drop the people off at the port.  And then later I went with them to pick them up and watch them fillet the fish.  It was a long day at the house.  Nate took Grandma and the girls to the spit to walk around for a bit. 

The next day we all headed to the beach to walk around for a bit.  Then we went over to the spit to have some lunch.  It was overcast and very chili that day.  We decided that we would just have whatever we wanted for dinner that night so Nate and I ordered our family the biggest pizza you could possibly imagine.  It was huge.  I did sneak to a bakery and get some of my favorite treats from there. 

 This is the view from the balcony.  It was gorgeous.  What a beautiful piece of property we were able to stay on.

At the end of the spit is a hotel called Land's End.  On our last night in Homer Tessa, the big girls, and I went to the end of the spit and took some pictures out there.  This is the girls with the mermaids.