We took our time and explored a different route between Anchorage and Seattle this time. We went through Banff and spent a day in Calgary before entering the US through northern Idaho and swinging through Moses Lake for a day on our way to Seattle.

Just some random photos from this summer that didn't end up in other albums!

Our good friend, Heidi, came to visit for a week in July. It was a ton of fun to spend time with her again! We girls did some crafting but also made time to sightsee (Heidi and her husband visited us the first October that we were in AK so they got to see snow and not much else). Thanks for using your vacation time to come see us, Heidi! And thanks Garrick for watching the girls so Heidi could get away!

We took advantage of the long 4th of July weekend by exploring part of Alaska that we'd never seen before (but that doesn't require a plane/boat to access). We left on Thursday and stayed the night at the historic Copper Center Lodge. Refreshed after a night at the B&B, on Friday morning we drove down to Valdez before heading back up Chitina and down the 60 mile gravel road to McCarthy. We camped at the Kennicott River, just short of McCarthy, and spent Saturday exploring McCarthy and the old mining town of Kennicott. Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast at our campsite and then made the long drive (about 8 hours) back to Anchorage.

We've been having beautiful weather already this summer so we planned a weekend down to the Kenai Peninsula where we stayed at our favorite campground, poked around the town of Homer, and did some razor clamming at the aptly named Clam Gluch.