First Adventures for The PeTeRsEns

Craig and Suz (Brett's mom and dad) came to visit us! They arrived on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at about 9:45 pm. They had quite the time getting here - the plane they were supposed to be on was cancelled almost the minute they arrived at the Idaho Falls airport. They rushed them on to a plane headed to Seattle that was leaving within moments. Had they not made it to that flight they would have had to wait until the next day to fly out. Someone must have been looking out for them.

Wednesday, I had to work but Brett did not. He showed them around the Juneau area for a bit until they got word there was room for them on a whale watching tour. They were in the downtown area so they stopped by my work for a light snack and to pick me up so we could all enjoy a beautiful day of whale watching. Craig and Suz really enjoyed being out on the boat and being able to see the whales. We were able to see orca whales (which does not happen super often) humpback whales, sea lions, eagles, and seals. Of course, here are just a few pictures of that adventure.

Wednesday night we had a Seafood FEAST! We had dungeness crab and coconut halibut and everyone ate so much our bellies hurt. After dinner, we headed to the Mendenhall Glacier to take some pictures and see if we could spot a mama bear and her 2 cubs that have been hanging out fishing at the glacier for the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the mama bear moved out of the area but we got some great pictures of the glacier. We were just about to call it quits and go home for the night but Brett decided to stop and check out the beaver pond just off the road. So we were checking things out when all of the sudden a cinnamon bear wondered across the road and headed straight for us. It sauntered right past the car and into the stream, not even batting an eye at us. It was a pretty great experience and Suz was still talking about it this morning when we woke up. I think they enjoyed that.Yesterday, we got to join Brett on the job and went for a tour to Glacier Gardens, Mendenhall Glacier, and MaCaulay Fish Hatchery. Craig got some great ideas for his garden at home at the gardens, the bus almost left us at the glacier and there were so many fish at the fish hatchery we could have walked on water.

Last night we went to Hot Bite and grabbed a burger for dinner and then walked the docks at Auke Bay. After we went to the Shrine of St Therese. Here are some of our favorite moments of the day yesterday:

This last picture is our favorite - Craig and Suz staring into a romantic sunset on the beach, rekindling their love.

Fun times with family

This past week my dad and my sister's in-laws came up to visit us. We had so much fun spending time with them and showing them around Juneau. It was a very full house for a week, a very busy week but very fun. Brett's parents have decided that they will coming up to visit us next week so it will be fun to do it all over again. Of course, I took tons of pictures to document the week. Here are a few of some of the fun things we did:

We ate a Dungeness Crab Dinner the first night

We had a campfire on Outer Point, North Douglass - enjoying the sunshine!

We of course HAD to go fishing

Morris's catch was as big as he is!

Reelin' in the big ones...

We rode up on the tram and this is the view of downtown from atop the hill

Lady Baltimore is the eagle that is at the top of the tram

Orca whales that the boys saw on their fishing trip

Dax was a trooper the entire week and was cute as can be the whole time.

4th of July in Alaska

So it's been awhile since we updated our blog on the happenings of Alaska and so much as happened since our last post that we want to share that i'm going to give you a brief list of some of the great events that happened.

*Megan and Zach went out for their anniversary and left Dax with me and Brett. He was having some "tummy time" and I look over at him and he looks like this:

He had puked and rubbed his face all over. It definately had us laughing.

*Brett and I had the oppurtunity to go for a helicopter ride on July 3rd. We rode up to the Mendenhall galcier, landed on the 2nd shelf of the glacier and did some glacier exploration for about 30 minutes. It was such a clear day that we got to fly right through the Towers above the glacier. Basically the towers are HUGE mountains that poke up right behind the glacier. No pictures or words can describe how breath-taking it was to fly through those huge sheer rock towers. We had a blast exploring the Glacier and can't wait to get my dad up there. Here are some of the pictures from our helicopter adventure:

*Juneau has the fireworks at midnight on July 3rd (or 12:00 am July 4th) every year. They do it at that time because it's about the only time that it's dark enough and it's become tradition. They also shoot them off on a barge in the middle of channell so people are lined up down the bridge, the docks, the streets - everywhere! Downtown is packed on the 3rd and 4th and those provides some awesome people watching. Our favorite was this guy:

He was being really loud and shouting a lot. When the float planes would take off he would cheer really loud and then jump off the dock into the channell. He was jumping off at low tide so the water was quite a long way down, making quite the splash. This guy also told me that I had a nice shirt, which is now a running joke inthe house that I always have on a nice shirt. This guy wasn't the only one providing us with lots of entertainment but he was our favorite.

We also had the priviledge of seeing ex!!Governor Sarah Palin and her family walk through Marine Park where a community BBQ was happening and some bands were playing. Heaven forbid she stop to talk to anyone or be friendly to the people of Juneau but she did make her token appearance in what looked like jogging clothes. On a side note we're so happy that she resigned! There are a couple of different rumors of why she did it but we don't really care. We don't think she has a shot at presidency and she's out of office in Alaska. Hooray! :)

Here are some the pictures from the fireworks:
On July 4th Megan, Zach, Dax and Brett attended the Juneau parade and again got to do lots of great people watching. Meanwhile, I was at work wishing I was at the parade with them...

*On Sunday, July 5, some local came to eat at the cafe. He wasn't even sitting in my section of the cafe and I wasn't even his waitress. The other waitress I was working with had a bunch of food for different tables come out at the same time. To help her out I dropped off an order, which happened to be to this gentlemen. I politely asked if he wanted any steaksuace for his steak, he did so I took some to him and told him to enjoy his meal. After he was done eating he brought $10 up to me and a comment card, I was a little confused why he was tipping me because I wasn't even his waitress but I was busy so I said thanks and brushed it aside. Later, I read the comment card he had written and on it he put "Chelsea - great friendly service and a nice bottom". We all had a good laught about it for the rest of the day and we occasionly will bust out with a nice bottom comment to each other.
*Monday Brett and I went for a hike on the East Glacier trail, we both found out just how out of shape we still are... Dang it! :( Pictures from our hike:

*Tuesday was my day off and the weather has been awesome here (80's and 90's) so I had to get out. I usually don't go very far by myself because I'm scared of the bears but I decided that I would be fine and headed out the road to bike the Hebert Glacier trail. It's a 4.7 mile one-way trail that leads right to the Herbert Glacier. It's an awesome bike trail and I've been wanting to do it for a long time. So I finally did. It took my almost exactly an hour to do that entire ride - there and back. But it was so peaceful being out there by myself. The trail is awesome and the view of the glacier is beautiful. I still don't think that pictures (as life-like as they look) do the forest, the mountains, the glaciers, or anything else in Alaska true justice. This place really is absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to be able to share it with my dad next week! Yeah! I just wish that I could share it with everyone - and pictures are just going to have to do that for now. Here's a picture of the Herbert Glacier:

Other than all of the above we've just been working and enjoying our time here in Alaska!