Steph's Travel Adventures

My New Home

2011-10-28T09:47:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post some pictures of my new place. Though I am just temporarily here, it's a home for me. In exchange for house and dog sitting, I get a whole house to enjoy. Up above is a picture out the back deck. On clear days, I am blessed with a beautiful view of Mt. Redoubt and the other mountains across the inlet.

Here is the kitchen and the resident dog, Lincoln in his favorite place. The garbage can looks a little silly on the table, but some furry friends made some poor choices and now it must remain high out of their reach! :)

And here is Lincoln! What a silly looking doggie! His ears always flop this way and that. Him and Oliver are best buds!

Here is an extension of the living room. They have huge windows to show the view of the mountains and all the beautiful colors.

Lastly, here is my bedroom. I am happy to have larger than a twin size for the first time in my life since both dogs decide to curl up with me each night. Still never seems big enough though because they both try to squeeze themselves as close to me as possible no matter what. I'm fortunate to be able to live here and there's much more to it than shows in the picture. I finally get a garage to park in (which makes mornings so much more nicer when you are not scraping ice and snow off the car), there's an indoor hottub, and little workout area too.
Now you all need to come over and visit because there's definitely room for some guests!

Hiking around the peninsula

2011-10-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a ton of hiking since I arrived up here and I wanted to put up a few pictures of some stellar hikes. I found a hiking group through MeetUp online and they take me to some awesome places and hikes that I never knew would exist. We also do some regular favorites and even when it's not the best weather, we always have a great time.
The picture above is the Hope Point trail. That's definitely a difficult trail as you are going up, up, up for 2 and a half miles but it offers great views of Anchorage, Cook Inlet, and the surrounding Chugach Mts.

This picture here is from the Weible Mine trail near the Hope cutoff road. I never knew this trail was here, so it's another hidden gem. Very boggy, but leads you to an old mine and a series of pretty lakes.

This picture here is another fabulous hike. Definietly off the beaten path, this is called the Tern/Jerome Lakes Mountain hike. When you are at the intersection of the Sterling and Seward highway, this is the mountain you are staring at while sitting at the stop sign. There is no trail up this mountain so the first 45 minutes or so are some bushwacking through alders and tall grass till you get up to more of the tundra and then up to the ridge. We (or shall I say, Oliver) saw a black bear, picked some late season blueberries, and got some fabulous views from the top. Not your average hike, but a good one to do.

This is taken from the Seven Lakes trail in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge system has a good number of easy to moderate trails that are well traversed and offer some nice views. I didn't get to go the whole way on this trail, but it was such a beautiful day and I am glad I decided to do this one. The lake I am standing by is Hidden Lake.

Lastly, this is another common trail with a little twist. This is the Carter Lake trail. We went up the incline of the normal trail to the lake, but then took a right turn and decided to bushwack up the side of the mountain. We made it about half way to sit and eat some lunch, pick some delicious blueberries, and view the lake from a different perspective. I'm usually a fan of if there is a trail to use, to use it, but it was fun to step where maybe no one has ever been before. I've ton a ton more hikes since all of these so hopefully I will get some more posted as time goes on...

Until next time, cheers!

Byers Lake Camping

2011-09-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend, I took a little roadtrip to a campground called Byers Lake. I found this campground while on a search for a place to stay with good views of Mt. McKinley. Though the weather was not so cooperative, I did take a drive up to the national park where the fall colors were stunning and I could escape the rain. I also stopped at the Denali kennels, a place I cannot remember the last time I went to. It was pretty cute visiting all the sled dogs lounging around. At Byers Lake, I was able to rent a canoe for an overnight and boy did Oliver have quite an experience in a boat for the first time. I had a good time on my few days off and it reminds me how I need to get out camping way more often than I have...

Peterson Bay Field Station

2011-09-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

I was offered the opportunity to take a field trip to Peterson Bay Field Station which is located across Kachemak Bay from Homer. We went with McNeil Canyon Elementary School's 6th grade class to do some nature hikes, tide pools, campfires, yummy meals, and marine life discussions. Not only were the tide pooling explorations incredible, but I saw more blueberries then I ever have in my life. I got up early both mornings just to go out and pick them before the kids got up. I think the best part was seeing all the varieties of sea stars. It was definitely an awesome experience and I hope I can get back there on my own time for some more exploration, berry picking, and hiking. Oh, by the way, there was tons and tons and tons of bear poop and one of the pictures was one of the biggest piles I have ever seen in my life!

Driving to Alaska August 2011

2011-09-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

I am having some difficulty uploading pictures so I will attempt to do that after all the text.
Next journey was my drive to Alaska to start my 10 month long internship with the Kenai Fish and Wildlife Service. I, with the help of my parents, got my cousin Jeffy to tag along (and my doggie Oliver too!) so I wouldn't be driving 5000 miles alone. We headed out on August 4th and arrived in Alaska 7 days later without a hitch.
It was a beautiful drive as we passed through Chicago, the Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada, and then even up to Fairbanks just for the heck of it. No car trouble, decent weather, and beautiful sights made for quite a nice trip. I decided however, next time I make this journey, whenever that may be, it's going to last 3 weeks instead of one. There's just too many things we didn't have time for or just drove right by that deserve a visit.

I've been really behind...

2011-08-28T21:02:00.001-07:00

So I have been incredibly behind on my blogging on here. Thought I would bring this thing back to life so I have another place to cronicle my adventures other than facebook. Since I have not done an entry since May 2010...not sure where to start. I think I will do some from summer time in Seward and then start documenting the drive back here and my adventures around my new home.

It was definitely a beautiful couple of weeks for the 4th and I decided that made up for all of last summer when it rained, rained, rained.

We did the usual trails, including, but not limited to, Mt. Alice, Mt. Marathon, Flattop Mt., Falls Creek, Caines Head (0vernighter), and Mt. Marathon waterfall. The overnight at Caines Head was very nice and even though we didn't make it out to Fort McGilvray, it was a fun time nonetheless. My next overnight cabin rental will be Lost Lake. Get ready people!

All in all, it was a beautiful time in Seward this summer and the weather did not dissapoint.

CHICAGO

2010-03-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

The city of Chicago, Illinois
February 19-21, 2010

So my parents and I took a little weekend trip to visit my sister in Chicago. I had only been there once before and traveling to semi-new places is always a nice adventure for me.

On Saturday, we got our day public transportation passes and started to head into the city to do some sight-seeing.

We first went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. I have to admit, that place creeped me out. A lot of the pieces of "art" were so random and out there, I wasn't too impressed. Good thing they saved the better stuff for later on the higher floors. Here are some pictures of the displays.

After the art museum, we traveled around the city and made our way to the Lincoln Park Zoo. I do enjoy a free zoo, even though they always make me sad. Such large animals in such small cages...

After the zoo, we did a bit more traveling and saw the weird "bean" statue. I was a bit mesmerized by this creation and took a lot more pictures then I have on here. We need one of these things in Cleveland/Akron.

For the evening, we had the awesome deep dish pizza for dinner and then headed over to see an improv comedy show called "Whirled News." It was an entertaining weekend and as I say for most big cities, they are always fun to visit but I could NEVER live there...

New England Adventure

2009-11-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

October 12th-15th, 2009

I always had this urge to do a fall foliage tour before...couple that with the fact that I have this day by day calendar of the "1000 places to see before you die" where White Mountains National Park came up on a day in September, I therefore began planning an excursion to the New England area.

I decided to bring along my long-time friend Ashley and her furry companion Tucker. Though it was my hope to leave by 4am on Monday morning, I assumed we'd be behind schedule from the beginning.

I reserved a "rustic" cabin atop Black Mountain in New Hampshire for 3 nights so we could be one with nature and enjoy the scenery every chance we got. The description on the website said it would be a 1.3 mile hike up 'moderate grade' in order to reach the cabin. When we finally reached the trailhead at 7pm on Monday evening, it was pitch black dark, and I had some fears about the potential wildlife that may be joining us on our hike. Nonetheless, I grabbed my flashlight, we put on our terribly heavy packs, and started up the trail. After an hour of tiring climbing up what I would call 'steep' grade, we still had not reached the cabin. Being an avid hiker in the wilderness of Alaska, I knew we had to be close and I wasn't really too worried. It wasn't until we were going on 2 hours when I started to panic. 1.3 miles could not take that long, could it? After calling some people with no avail, I told Ashley that if we didn't reach the cabin in the next couple minutes, we'd have to do some serious considering of what to do next. Thankfully, not a few minutes later, we reached the cabin and were welcomed with a bunch of firewood to warm our cold and sweaty bodies.

When we awoke the next morning, we were greeted with 3 inches of snow on the ground as it continued to come down. I don't mind cold weather and I had slept relatively well, it was just going back down the hill that worried me in the slippery conditions. We headed back into town in the afternoon to see what there was to do. We got some advice from the ranger station, showered, and drove around the town a bit. We knew it would be a good idea to head back up the mountain earlier than the previous night and believe it or not, it took us only an hour the second time.

Though the second night spent in the cabin was a bit more rough than the first. I could not keep the fire going and was incredibly cold throughout the night. I decided that we'd spend the next night in Vermont instead and we'd plan our day in the morning of all we wanted still to do in NH. As the next day arrived, we packed our things and said goodbye to Black Mountain Cabin. We were let down as the Mt. Washington Auto Road was closed because of ice and decided to drive to Maine just to say we were there. We then went on a little hike to a waterfall and shopped in the cute downtown district. From there, we headed off to Vermont to stay somewhere close to our next destination: The Great Vermont Corn Maze.

The corn maze was incredibly awesome. I'd say it will probably be the best corn maze I'll ever take part in in my life. AWESOME.

After we left the corn maze, we made our last stop before heading home at the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory. Filled with our free samples and a bit of sadness for saying bye to New England, we headed home.

One day I will be back again. Hopefully earlier in the season!

Kennywood

2009-11-10T10:54:00.000-08:00

Mid-September, 2009

My friend Willy acquired some free tickets to the amusement park, Kennywood, in Pittsburgh. Though I was mid-hike when I got his phone call that said to meet him at his house as soon as I could, I had to put on my jogging shoes and get going.

I had never been to Kennywood before in my life and growing up around some pretty sweet amusement parks like Six Flags, Cedar Point, and Geauga Lake, my standards were pretty high. You can imagine my anti-climatic surprise walking into such a tiny park with what they called "roller coasters."

Regardless, we had some fun screaming down the little hills, standing in line for the Noah's Ark debacle thing, and going out afterwards. Though too bad Kennywood, I doubt you'll ever see my face again.

Penn State vs. Akron U

2009-11-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

So I'm definitely behind on this blogging thing. Here's some of the things I've been doing the past few months...

September 5, 2009

So my dad told me that the Penn State vs. Akron game would have pretty cheap tickets; therefore, the night before, I decided we were going to make the drive out to Happy Valley to fulfill one of my dreams of seeing a Penn State game live. We took along my buddy Allison, a current Akron zip, and embarked on the 4 hour drive to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. The weather was beautiful, though freakishly hot sitting in the largest college stadium in the nation.

It was awesome seeing Joe Pa on the field and then driving by his house after the game. I really wanted to get some 'peachy paterno' ice cream afterwards, but the line to the custard place was over an hour long. Lame! Regardless, Penn State trampled Akron as hoped and it was a beautiful day for football.

We of course had to get a picture at the most photographed location on campus - the Nittany Lion statue! Go LIONS!

the FEST

2009-08-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

the FEST

Wicliffe, Ohio

August 9th, 2009

So each year St. Mary's Seminary holds the FEST which is a day of fun, music, mass, and unity. I had never been before as I feel like since my days in Youth Group I always had a conflict that weekend. Well, this year, I was able to attend with St. Hilary's and it was a lot of fun. It definitely was the hottest day of the summer I think with temperatures over 90, but that couldn't take away from the great music and awesome closing mass and fireworks celebration. Not to mention the large amount of free kiwis I acquired...mmm! If you've never been, I highly recommend attending as it is a great event for people of all ages. I even got to see wonderful Brandon Heath play live! I took a couple of pictures for your enjoyment...

Alaska 2009

2009-07-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

June 28th to July 5th, 2009

Each summer my family joins together to vacation in Alaska. We are so blessed to be able to share this time and beautiful place together. I've made a vow that one day I will live in Alaska because I can't imagine being anywhere else really. We always do some pretty cool things.

This summer, we went on some of our usual hikes like Mt. Marathon (which I race up on the 4th of July and everyone should witness such an event some time in their life), Tonsina Point, Exit Glacier, and we even were able to get out to Caines Head to see the old Fort McGilvray from world war 2.

We also went on a road trip to the city of Soldotna since we never really drive much anymore. Johnna grabbed the Milepost and started flipping through the cities we could drive to in a couple hours (they are definitely limited) and came up with Soldotna. I felt like we were in New York City with the McDonald's, Taco Bell, and intense shopping area. You can tell we are sheltered in our little 2600 person town. Funny thing is, Soldotna doesn't have too many more either.
We also took a little kayak trip out to Caines Head where we saw the old war bunkers and forts. With the exception of the rough water we hit, we had fun seeing more sea otters then I have in my life.

It is always a great time in Alaska, I can't stand leaving, and I encourage everyone to get out there someday (especially to come visit me when I eventually live out there!). Though they always say: when you are traveling around, better make Alaska the last place you go because you will never want to go anywhere else. :)

Steubenville Youth Conference

2009-06-25T15:00:00.001-07:00

Steubenville Youth Conference
Franciscan University of Steubenville
June 19th-21st, 2009

So I am a volunteer for my church's high school youth group throughout the year and each summer they attend the Steubenville Youth Conference at Franciscan University. I had never attended this conference as a teen myself, so the whole experience was new to me. It was a great time to sing a lot of praise and worship songs, have a powerful adoration time, and celebrate with over 2000 other youth from all over the United States. It was a wonderful time away and I encourage all others to give it a chance. Here's a couple of pictures capturing the events...

2009-06-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

ALIVE Festival 2009
Canal Fulton, Ohio

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

So my buddy Beth and I won these free tickets to the ALIVE festival this year via Willy's photo scavenger hunt contest on the radio. Anyways, I could only go there on Thursday evening and lucky for us, the rain held out the whole night. We got to see a few cool bands, manned Willy's station's tent and attempted to answer questions, and got some good food to eat. I was saddened that the water slides and other events were closed for the day, but it was a nice time nonetheless. Next year it will be more than an hour away at Atwood Lake...sigh! Here are a couple of pictures:

First-timer

2009-06-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I decided (with some prompting by my lovely friend Whitney) to start a blog. I didn't think my life was too exciting to read about, but we'll give it a shot. I've decided to creat a blog that documents my traveling adventures. Maybe it'll get to the point where I will just travel somewhere so I can blog about it! (let's hope not though...)

My first entry is all about the trip I spent in Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah with Whitney and her new hubby Aaron.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009- Sunday, May 31st, 2009

So we cooked some awesome meals almost every night. Salmon, stuffed pasta shells, quesadillas, and so many awesome desserts. Aaron not only helped but cleaned up afterwards too...the perfect man!

Everything was so delicious and I can't wait to be able to cook as well as Whit!

Whit is an awesome artist and I'm forcing her to paint me a pretty geometric print dealing with the stars/constellations. I need to get married so I can have my own personal, one-of-a-kind paiting!

We went on some awesome hikes and were really blessed with pretty much beautiful weather the whole time. I've never experienced seeing snowcapped mountains and the temperature being over 70 degrees (I'm obviously an Alaskan); so it was kind of a reality check for me that that actually exists. I decided that I HAVE to live somewhere that I can see mountains on a daily basis. I think the western U.S. is calling my name!

Some of the hikes we went on were the famous "Y Mountain" at BYU: approximately 1000 feet incline to a large cemented Y on the side of the mountain. Definitely awesome and something I would do weekly as a fabulous work out. We also hiked to Bridal Veil Falls, a beautiful and big waterfall more into the canyon area of Provo. It was very refreshing and picture perfect. Lastly, we hiked to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City where Brigham Young stood and mapped his perfect city from the lookout point.

As I said, we baked some fabulous desserts and I got Whit and Aaron to try some of my hometown favorites like rhubarb crisp and banana bread. Everything was so scrumptious I know I gained at least 5 pounds eating all that!

The day before I headed out to town, we went to Salt Lake City. We made a pitstop at IKEA (a first-time visit for me...wow!) and then toured around the city, saw the historic Temple Square and surrounding buildings as well as actually went into the great salt lake. Though the salt lake experience was kinda creepy, it was a memorable time. Temple Square was a beautiful place and I'm sad I didn't get to see Whitney and Aaron's big day there last summer.

I had a SUPER trip and can't be more thankful for Aaron and Whitney's supreme hospitality. They fed, entertained, and were more than happy to be around me every waking minute for 5 days. I can't wait to visit again wherever they end up and also to repay them on their must-go trip to Alaska.
Until next time...over and out from Steph's Travel Adventures.

Next stop: Steubenville, Ohio for the Steubenville Youth Conference, June 19th, 2009 to June 21st, 2009.