Cordova Visit

I had the opportunity to take a 2 day trip to Cordova Alaska for work. Once the work was done I had several hours to explore and take a few pictures.

Cordova is a small town located on the east side of Prince William Sound with a population around 2200. Cordova is mainly a commercial fishing town, with the famous copper river red salmon coming from the mouth of the copper river located just a few miles east of Cordova. Most of the fishing occurs in Prince William Sound and the Copper River Delta areas. The fishing has improved since the Exon Valdez oil spill, which severely affected the Salmon and herring. There are no roads in or out of town, you must fly or take the ferry. The trip is well worth it.

Climate in Cordova can be a bit wet at times. I arrived to rain and left in the rain. I did have a few breaks that enabled me to acquire a few pictures.

The boat Harbor was full of boats.

The view from my hotel room.

I knew I wanted to take a drive out to Child's Glacier and the Million Dollar bridge. It is roughly 45 miles from town to the Glacier. The road is mostly gravel but in good shape. The road crosses several bridges as it weaves it's way across the Copper River. This is a really awesome drive as it crosses several different braids of the river.

The road out of town.

Some of the local scenery.

Taking this trip in the evening after a full day of work didn't do it justice. I could have spent a few days taking pictures and exploring. I will be back.

I drove for over an hour stopping and taking pictures. It was after 7 pm and I hadn't saw any other vehicles for some time. I knew I was getting closer to the glacier, but the water was flooding right next to the road sometimes within inches of coming over the road. A few wet spots in the road and I was about to turn back. I really was starting to get worried when I finally came to the campground area. As you get closer to the glacier it disappears due to the trees. When you turn down into the campground and it appears, it will take your breath away. Such an awesome place. Only one family camping in the campground so I had the place almost to myself.

I sat there for over 2 hours enjoying the view and trying to catch the glacier calving with my camera. I saw lots of ice fall, but catching it on camera was really tough. The ice would crack at times that was as loud as someone firing a gun. If you look at the picture below you can see the water splash up from a large chunk of ice that had fell off the glacier. This made waves in the water that at times would reach the bank on my side of the river.

 Wave heading toward the shore from ice that had fell into the water. There is no camping on the beach due to the risk of a large wave hitting the area. There was one wave that came 5-6 feet up the beach. I saw a video of a surfer who tried to surf one of the larger waves. Crazy!

A view of the Million Dollar bridge (Miles Glacier bridge) from the Child's Glacier campground. The million dollar bridge was built in the early 1900's for the railroad to bring copper from the Kennicott mine. The bridge got it's nick name due to the fact it cost over a million dollars to build it. This expensive bridge made it possible to bring over 200 million dollars worth of copper out of the Kennicott area. Sounds like a reasonable investment.

About to walk out on a 100 year old bridge.

A picture of Miles Glacier from the bridge.

I will return here to explore the area when I have more time.

some new pictures

Exit Glacier, Dave, Jen, Krista and Racheal

Out four wheeling, and yes that is Ashley stuck in the mud, we had to use the winch to get her out but she made it through the second time.

Krista 8th grade graduation dress and her 8th grade graduation dance dress

This is us on David's vintage snow machine and the other picture is David racing a motor cross course on the vintage machine. Lets just say he was a bit sore after words LOL. I did believe I heard the pharse "I am too old for this shit!" come out of his mouth LOL.

The Update SORRY IT HAS BEEN SO LONG!!!

So where to begin??? We have been really busy with Prom, School dances, end of school winding down, softball state for Ashley, Krista's 8th grade graduation, exploring, four wheeling and bonfires with the neighbors and the kid's friends.

Krista had her 8th grade graduation ceremony, man was it long lol, and the kids where bored to tears!!! I think it was more for the teachers than the parents and kids LOL. The parents were like, "We never had this as kids, why are they doing this again? Isn't this our taxpayer money paying for all of this???" the kids where like, "We have to do WHAT??? Do I have to???, I don't want to!!!" so kind of pointless LOL but hey we got a very pretty certificate and got to sit in a hot stuffy gym in dress clothes for 2 HOURS while they went through the motions of a mock graduation, fit for a graduating senior. OH WELL. It is over and she is "officially" a freshmen in high school. God help us!!! LOL They then had a formal dance to celebrate the end of 8th grade and I thought David was going to DIE as Krista looked gorgeous in her dress!! Probably gave poor Daddy a heart attack, with OMG I am going to have to lock her away until she is 25! LOL Poor David! Krista is dating a boy named Austin who happens to be a twin. Dave and I have been having a good time teasing her about him as 1) He is about 3 inches shorter than her so we have dubbed him the "shrimp" or the "lollipop brigade" you know from the wizard of Oz since we call Krista Oumpa Lumpa LOL, 2) He definitely is not the twin with the brains or athletic ability LOL so we teaser her telling her she is dating the wrong twin, kind of like the movie "TWINS" with Arnold Swartzenager and Danny DeVito where Arnold was the strapping, smart good looking twin and Danny DeVito got all the left over crappy DNA LOL, I know it sounds so mean, but it builds character in them LOL. Krista is getting in shape for x-country as she is going to try out for Colony's team, hopefully she will make it, if not at least she tried. She informed me today that she is going to try out for a sport for all the season's this year, I said great!!! I hope she does!

Ashley made it to Prom in Kodiak, but not sure she was very happy with David and I as we made sure she had absolutely NO alone time with Mark, we don't need any issues before we can get her graduated and into college LOL. But she looked very beautiful in her dress and Mark looked good in his tuxedo. Ashley's softball team made it to State, but unfortunately lost the very first day and were out, OH WELL there is always next year!! Ashley is officially a SENIOR, good god we are not old enough to have a senior in high school, well at least I am not LOL Dave most certainly is LOL as he is 41 this year, I am only going to be a meer 37! LOL I keep reminding Ashley that remember don't repeat my mistakes, I got pregnant with you at 18, so lets not repeat that one and she should graduate high school, go to college, graduate college, get a good job, LIVE, HAVE FUN, THEN she can get married and have kids, but not before Dave and I are in our 60's LOL. We tell Krista the same thing LOL. She fully agrees but we will see! Her and Mark are still dating and will be going to college together in 2010 at University of Alaska Fairbanks so who knows!!! Personally Dave an I are hoping she meets somebody new and has some fun! I just remember making my mother a grandmother at 41, Dave said there would be a murder LOL. I told him I would help him bury the body! Ashley is being introduced to the "adult" world this year as Dave and I told her she needed to get a job and pay her car payment, gas, and insurance for her car this year. What she doesn't know is that Dave and I are taking the car payment and insurance payment and putting it in a savings account and will give it to her for graduation to get her started. She has to keep the job through volleyball and the school year. I know that sounds harsh but there are alot of kids up here who do it, and they manage just fine. If her grades start to slip then we will have to talk, but she only has two classes that count for graduating next year the other classes are all teachers assistant classes so not too worried. She is working as a waitress at a mexican food restaurant, which happens to be our favorite one in town lol so we look forward to going and bugging her LOL.

David is working his new summer schedule which we LOVE!! He is monday-friday, so far he and I have not gotten to take advantage of the that since the girls keep scheduling crap for the weekends. OH WELL!!! Some day we will be able to do what we want to do LOL. David is going to Kodiak for a couple of days for his new job, so I am sure there will be some delay of some kind and he will have to get stuck there and will just have to do some fishing and beer drinking LOL. The girls and I have a bet going that he won't be home before Friday, that he will find some reason to stay, he says he will be home Wednesday night, we will see LOL.

As for me I of course have been doing my jobs, you know chauffeur, softball coach, secretary, activities director, maid, laundress, dog poop picker upper, Gardner/landscaper, mechanic, cook, jailer, counselor, drill instructor, oh and yeah my regular job of Pharmacy software LOL. I think all the other ones fall under the category of "MOM" job description is other duties as assigned!!! I would like to reapply for job of millionaire trophy wife/sex goddess, but don't think that job is currently open in this house hold, OH WELL!! I honestly am doing good, trying to get my butt into shape by walking, so far it is hit and miss but I am averaging about 3 times a week so not too bad but need to get out there every night. I have also been helping Dave with "my treasure" for those of you who don't know I picked up this broken four wheeler perfect for the girls and we are fixing it up. We are almost done too, we are very excited so then we will have 4 four wheelers and we bought two more snow machines off of craigslist (you know our obsession with craigslist lol) we picked both snow machines up for $1000.00 and they are in brand new condition so it was a really good deal. We now have enough for the whole family to be able to go this summer.

Dave and I have been pondering what to do with the house and yard, there are so many things we would like to do.
-Build a shop
-put in a circular drive with access to the back yard
-dump a couple loads of topsoil and level out the yard
-plant grass in the backyard
-put new carpet in the house
-take out the steamer shower and put in a bar downstairs
-put up a fence

We also struggle with,
-need to buy a new trailer to haul our toys
-buy a bigger truck preferably a 1 ton
-buy a camper so we can go camping
-buy a truck for Krista since I informed her she is NOT getting my truck when she turns 16!!
-bring Dave's nova up (need the shop to be able to do that LOL)

Soooooo many things and just never enough money LOL, OH WELL. I think we decided that we were just going to live with everything the way it is for now and then look at things again next year LOL, pick one project and accomplish that for the year. We bought the house and snow machines so that is enough for one year LOL. Unless of course the money fairy visits us and drops oh about $250K in our laps LOL, hmmmm don't think that is happening anytime soon, if ever LOL.

Well better run!! I have my "duties" to perform, you know laundry, dinner, pack david, take the dog for a walk, nag the girls to clean their rooms, the norm!! LOL

We miss you all!!!