Glamping, being tourists and having some fun.

Last fall my husband visited friends of ours in PA and convinced them to fly up their son for a couple weeks to spend some time here. Joey is 14 this summer and our godson. We had a blast! We played "tourist" and did some mini adventures. I took pics of most things and for some reason didn't take one photo at the Matanuska Glacier where I took the kids one day. Stupid!

Here's a photo of where we were hiking, taken by someone at "Over Yonderlust". We were able to walk out onto the glacier on this section. There aren't many glaciers that you can access and actually walk on. It was a little creepy but very cool. Take a jacket even if it's 80 degrees in the parking lot...

We climbed "the Butte" in Palmer. That's the Knik glacier behind the kids. It was a fantastic hike and so warm.

Hubby agreed to take two days off of work so we could go "camping" and yes that's in quotation marks because "real" Alaskan's don't go in campers and motorhomes. Someone called it glamping but I refuse to use that word... I managed to find a lady with a motorhome with 9 seatbelts in town to rent from. We didn't have room for us all in our van to go anywhere, so this was our one family trip. We headed down to Seward for 2 nights.

Here is a shot in the motor-home.

Little miss "fluffernutter" having some quiet time with the books she brought in her neat and tidy suitcase.

The handsome men-folk and bonus baby.

Very nice camping spot on the end and with the tent spot we got a bona-fied firepit.

We were fortunate enough to have my sister and her hubby decide to join us last minute. They have 4 boys. Despite the fender crusher bender on the way down and the 2-year-old who was potty training and the colicy baby, they had a great time too.

Time for another change of clothes!

We had our fair share of hiccups as well:

The day we got to the campground we turned on the water pump in the motorhome. Unbeknownst to me someone had tried using the sink in the bathroom and left the water faucet on and the sink plugged. My 5-year-old nephew said to me, "your motorhome is leaking" and pointed under the rig. Then Joey stepped into the hallway and his socks were immediately drenched. The whole motorhome was carpeted, including the bathroom, argh. We had to keep drying it out the whole time we were there, fortunately we brought lots of towels!

We also had another big and nasty "incident" but I think I have filled my blogging-about-poop-quota for the year already, so I'll spare you.You should say, "thank you" now. I'm serious.

We stayed at "Stony Creek Campground" and by stony creek, they weren't kidding. Very silty glacier creek with a cell tower was what it was, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, that's what counts.

The cell reception there was amazing and they even had Wi-Fi...I could have done with out those, we could have even hooked up to cable!!! What? We jokingly took many photos of each other facebooking on our phones around the campfire and uploaded them to facebook where we were fiercely ridiculed as we should have been...

Not right camping.

While in Seward we visited the Alaska Sealife Center.

And my girlfriend showed us all her's and her dad's fishing boat.

On the way home we stopped at the Wildlife Conservation Center. We saw brown and black bears, wood bison, muskox, eagle, porcupine, owl, arctic fox, moose, caribou, white tailed deer, elk and many other cool creatures you find in Alaska. It's a really fantastic park and if you're headed down to the Keani Pinnunsula, I highly recommend it. The prices are affordable and you can drive around there if you don't feel like walking.

Farmer feeding his woodland bison which were thought to be extinct.That is the coolest job.

Hugo the bear, she can even do some tricks.

They have an amazing walk way right up near the black bears. So cool.

After we got home I took the kids up to Independence Mine located in beautiful Hatcher Pass. It was another amazing and warm day and they have added many paths I didn't know were up there. They have a nice little free museum, pictures, and they have been cleaning up the old fallen buildings and restoring some of them.

View of half of the restored and fallen buildings below us.

Behind us is the small train track they used to cart the ore out of the mine.

We stopped at the Little Su River for a photo op of everyone. Sus is simply trying to keep her eyes open, the sun was bright. :-/

We had so much fun with Joey and last night I took him to the airport where I escorted him through security to his gate and I got to get a pat down on the way there...grr. We were so happy that we got to play tourist and be forced to get out and see more of this amazing place. It's so easy to get caught up in the needs of the home, especially for me, and I forget to go out and play.

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