Aggies in Alaska

Tuesday, July 25 - We decided to take a break from unpacking and planned a day in Homer. It's about an hour and a half south of Soldotna. It was a bit more of a gray day with some cooler temperatures. But it turned out to be just fine because we did a bit of hiking, and it was nice not to have the blazing sun overhead. We started out going to the Kilcher homestead. It's the site of a popular Discovery Channel show called Alaska: The Last Frontier. It's about two brothers from a family of original Alaska homesteaders. One of the brother's daughters is the singer Jewel. Here's the link to the show -  Alaska: The Last Frontier Our tour guide was actually one of the brothers' six sisters, Sunrise. The whole family grew up in a log cabin put together by their father, Yule, who came over from Switzerland, and worked the land in order to trade for other things and/or sell their goods to make money. It was a very interesting history lesson. All of the stuff in the h...

The moving truck arrived on Saturday, July 22 with all of our stuff. The guys were super friendly and professional and had our stuff unpacked in no time. But it definitely filled up our garage and left a mess. We started unpacking right away. We've spent a few days over the last week or so getting things unpacked and settled, so the new place feels more like home. Once we got through with the boxes, the garage improved greatly. We still have a stack of boxes to get to my school and some trash got get rid of, but overall it's an improvement. Barron and Dean also spent a couple of evenings using the chainsaw to cut up some firewood from the dead trees in the backyard. And our first home-cooked meal was tostadas! Nice and easy after long days of unpacking.

On Friday, July 21, we officially made it to Soldotna and our newly rented duplex. We drove through Anchorage and had to stop to get a chip in the windshield of the FJ repaired. I got my only chip right at the beginning of the last day and didn't want it to spread. We drove past Girdwood and along the Sterling Highway on what is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 most beautiful drives in America. We unpacked the trailer once we got everyone settled and then enjoyed a beer, a shower, a trip to the grocery store, and dinner out at a Mexican food restaurant. I know! Can you believe it? They actually have some pretty darn good Mexican food up here. The dogs even loved their new backyard! Shout out to Mike and Sheila Cook! They happened to be on vacation in Alaska as we were making the road trip up. They stopped by the rent house, took pictures and made awesome videos, and sent them to us while we were on the road. It was awesome! They even left...