Denali tundra tour

We began our first full day in Denali with a tundra tour. I was gonna say at the crack of dawn. But with only about 4ish hours of a somewhat darkened sky at night that far north and so near the summer solstice, it meant we set off to spot tundra critters at 7 am when the sun had been up for hours. Lo and behold, the driver pointed out another great view of Mt McKinley off in the distance and told us (again) how lucky we were to have such a clear view of the tallest peak in North America. 

We started the critter spotting tour a bit slow with a lone caribou. I circled the caribou in both pics because you might have missed it otherwise. The day before, we had already seen several moose on the train ride to Denali, including a mama moose with twins. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to snap a pic of them. Further down the tundra trail, we began to see arctic ground squirrels, which I initially thought were prairie dogs. 

Finally, we were treated to the sight of a mama grizzly and her year old cub. We initially spied them in the brush. We were thrilled when they came closer to the road, eventually crossing over. Then they put on a show, scratching around looking for something to eat. They had beautiful fur and didn't seem fazed by the two buses full of us park tourists with our cameras, trying to get a pic or video.

Cruise tour began in Anchorage

We flew to Anchorage in the middle of June to begin our Alaskan cruise tour with Holland America, meeting up with our friends P and R for this big adventure. We only had one full day to check out Anchorage before heading to Denali on the fancy pants train, so we hit the ground running. One of my favorite activities was touring the Alaskan Aviation Museum. That's where we got to see lots of the float planes I found so intriguing.

Our train ride to Denali National Park on the McKinley Explorer the following day was amazing. We rode on the upper level with walls of windows to the beautiful scenery. After a whistle stop in Talkeetna, we enjoyed a tasty lunch in the dining car below. Our train tour narrator told us how lucky we were to be able to have such clear views of the highest mountain peak in North America at 20,310 feet. Covered in snow, I initially thought it was just a large cloud formation.  

Hill country flood 2025

We've lived in the Texas hill country since 1999. One big difference between our hometowns and the hill country is the soil. We were raised atop lots of dirt and clay. However, the hill country sits on limestone. I've always believed that's why it's so prone to bouts of flash flooding when the rain totals start racking up.

In 2022, we purchased a lovely home on 25 acres with almost 1100 feet of Guadalupe River frontage just west of Hunt, Texas, on the northern arm of the river. We enjoyed weekends up there, swimming, paddling, floating and catching the sunsets off our back porch. In the summertime, we'd see the kids at Camps Stewart and Waldemar as we drove the route to our place on FM 1340 off of Hwy 39 at the split in Hunt. I almost immediately dubbed this place Cliff House because it sits about 75 feet above the river. When we initially purchased the place and did a bit of updating, that included reinforcing and replacing boards on the stairs that led down to the water. I can't help but wonder how they fared in the raging waters.

Though we loved this quiet stretch of the river, it just wasn't convenient for our girls to visit and so we sold it after a couple years to invest that money back into our current lakefront home in northeast Texas. If we had been at that river house for the July 4th holiday weekend, we would have ended up trapped between several low water crossings and unable to evacuate since the road was washed out with debris piled a couple dozen feet high. And undoubtedly scared witless as the water rose to historic heights from our vantage point as it inundated the lower lying structures around us. It's a horrific thought, and I can't imagine what our neighbors down at the water's edge across from our Cliff House suffered when that tremendous wall of water came barreling through. There but for the grace of God, y'all. Our hearts are broken for all of the folks who are dealing with the horrors of the flood's aftermath. May the God of all that is good grant them comfort and peace through this tragedy.

Shelves done

Yesterday the dogs and I made the almost six hour drive to our lake house in anticipation of the fabulous 4th holiday weekend. First thing I did after unloading my SUV was make a haul at our local grocery store. I'll make a second grocery run later this afternoon. Then all that leaves is a final trip to the fancy market Thursday to get the "good meat" for barbecuing/smoking. 

Last night I stayed up late, unpacking the rest of the decor I schlepped from the hill country house so I could get the new living room shelves set-up for everyone to enjoy. Oh sure, it's mainly for me to appreciate because I was tired of looking at them all empty and sad. Today I've got our sweet hanger Tom putting a fall painting collage on the wall in a guest room, plus adding other things here and there. I also had Tom hang one wall of the dining room decor so it's looking wonderfully fishy in there. As soon as I get the platter frame back from the place where I ordered it in a couple weeks, the other fishy wall will go up and I'll finally be done with the dining room. Stay tuned, y'all!

Back in the lower 48

Our trip to Alaska was amazing, but I'm whooped, y'all. After a delay in Denver last night, we didn't pull into our driveway until almost 2:00 am. But I'm in lake house mode for the upcoming fabulous 4th holiday weekend with the girls and their SO, so no time to lounge about and chill. Because I opted to have clothes laundered aboard the cruise ship, I only had a hill of them to wash today versus the usual mountain. This morning I took the dogs to be groomed, made a cleaners run for the husband, gassed up the car and then loaded it with boxes I packed pre-cruise to bring yet more decor to the lake house. Whew!

The views from the plane while flying over Canada and Alaska were amazing. Truly. It's yet another example of God's creative energies, this diverse planet He created for us to enjoy.

I'm happy to be home, but I gotta admit I miss the beautiful Alaskan vistas and cooler temps we left behind. Plus watching the float planes. I was so intrigued by them throughout our time up north. All in all, we had a memorable trip with our friends Paul and Robin. Stay tuned for some Alaska posts when I can get around to it. The scenery was stunning and we saw a lot more wildlife on this itinerary that took us farther north than our first Alaskan cruise back in 2014 with the girls. 

 

Ready to explore beyond the shore

Finally, y'all. I took delivery of our boat when I was at the lake last week and I'm thrilled. Oh sure, it's over a month later than what the sales guys promised us on this custom build. But whatever. I'll finally be able to break out my captain's hat for some cruising.

Since our last lake house had a boat cradle, I was unsure about storing it in the slings that are more common at this new place. Local boaters swear by them, but they just seem so flimsy to me in comparison to a solid boat cradle. And so in addition to having the boat delivery guys fill 'er up with ethanol free gas en route to launch her, I had them help me get our patriotic red, white and blue tritoon safely docked. We hoisted it out of the water and then I got a lesson in how to attach the cover to keep it clean until we can get back up there for a fun-in-the-sun 4th on the water.

 

 

Tomorrow, before the crack of dawn, we kick off our eleven day land and cruise tour vacation to the last frontier. So be prepared for a slew of Alaska posts when I get home.

 

Feathered trespassers

Our terriers have always been avid squirrel hunters. At the lake, it appears they have shifted their focus to waterfowl, namely ducks and herons. And when I say they, I really mean little white dog Finn. He becomes highly incensed when a duck or heron dares to land in our yard. That also extends to the dock/boathouse, and is the reason I had to ring up our fence company to create a dock gate to keep the dogs off it.

As you can see in the video above, Finn will bark his fool head off even if the critters are in neighboring yards. It seems he considers the whole southern shore of our golf community as his, so the trespassers are given immediate and often ongoing notice that they need to clear out. FYI, our large yellow dock storage closet will FINALLY get painted gray this week to match the trex decking.

I'm happy to report that our new lake house built-ins for the living room and office were finally completed. Now I just need to finish transporting shelf "pretties" up there to get it decorated. One thing I did get done on my most recent trip was putting out some red, white and blue July 4th decor. I forgot to take pics of it all, but here's a bit of what I did.

 

Forget ducks in a row, y'all. I was on the back porch one afternoon and spied this row of geese bobbing across the water. A gaggle of geese! I believe it was a family group consisting of a mated pair and their almost grown goslings. Though I've seen lots of ducks on/around our property, this is the first time I've documented some geese.