I woke up this morning covered in mosquito bites and Brady has some lovely ones too. The bugs have been out in full force, especially on the Seward side of the peninsula!

We drove to Exit Glacier which is located in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Beau and I had hiked to Harding Icefield a long time ago way before kids and moving to Alaska. It was a hot day for Seward, 70s and sunny! We put the kiddos in the hiking packs and hiked up to Marmot Meadows. Such amazing views of Exit Glacier! When Beau and I had hiked it it was shrouded in clouds and we only got glimpses of it. This time it was spectacular! Brady and AJ did a tiny bit of hiking but were so pooped from getting to bed so late last night.

After the hike we stocked up at the grocery store and headed north up the Seward highway. We chose to stay in Portage at Black Bear campground. This has been one of our favorite spots to stay so far! It was stunning and so peaceful even thought the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance. The boys loved riding their bikes here. There was a water hand pump near our site and Brady loved pumping it to help us wash dishes and help AJ clean their bikes.

Before bedtime we took a bath in the freezing Williwaw Creek. Oh my gosh it was so cold because it is glacier fed! The boys thought it was hilarious when I was washing my hair in it. And I bet the elderly couple camping just a bit down the creek thought we were hilarious in the creek as well!

After the kids went down I went for a little walk along the Trail of Blue Ice. The golden sunshine on the glaciers was beautiful! I love being able to hike about at 10pm!

In the morning we packed up and headed out towards Seward. The drive along the Kenai River is stunning! We chose to stay the night at the Primrose campground which is about 20 minutes north of Seward. This campground is right on the Kenai Lake which is suuuuper cold because it is a glacier lake. That didn’t stop the boys though! They searched for washed up drift wood to be their paddle boards and “floated” on them near the shore. Their imagination is so great!

After a few hours playing through nap time, we decided to take a drive down to Seward in hopes they would nap in the car. No luck. We did ended up getting some Thai food for take out and ate outside in Two Lakes Park before doing a little hike. It reminded us a little bit of Abercrombie in Kodiak! (minus all the moss)

When we got back to our camper it was quite late and we thought that the kids would go right down to sleep. Nope! They were giggling and wrestling each other until 10:30 when Beau went in there forced them to sleep. Crazy kids!

Late morning we had to convince the boys it was time to pack up their bikes in order to start our journey northward. We ended up driving to Skilak Lake which is part of the Kenai River system. We stayed the day/ night at Lower Skilak Lake campground which was super quiet and secluded. Our spot was right on the lake where the boys played in the water for most of the day. The water was super clear and Arctic Terns continually flew overhead. It was also quite mosquito-y. I think we could have easily spent another night here it was so warm and peaceful.

Late afternoon we took a hike up Bear Mountain. Easy 2 mile round trip hike which provided spectacular views of the lake (which is huge) and some glaciers in distant mountains.

We arrived in Homer late morning to a beautiful sunny day although super windy along the shore. I had booked a spot at the Homer Spit campground and we had a beach front spot. To be honest, not my favorite campground. Super crowded and no privacy. (Actually, all of Homer was super crowded and I was shocked considering travel is more restricted due to covid). However, showers and bathrooms were super clean.We brought the boys’ bikes with us so they were obsessed with riding their bikes throughout the campground.

We drove to the quaint little historic downtown and had delicious (gluten free!) crepes at the Wild Honey Bistro. Brady looooves rhubarb so we ordered a sweet rhubarb crepe which he devoured and left only a few bites for the rest of us. We also visited Bishop’s Beach which had lots of neat rocks including volcanic rock.

Mid day all four of us enjoyed a glorious and much needed 2.5 hour nap in the camper. Did I mention glorious?! For dinner we ate at Fat Olive’s. Highly recommend. Delicious. And covid-responsible. Brady devoured half a pizza in approximately 10 minutes. AJ is possibly one of the slowest eaters on the planet but he chowed down a ridiculous amount of food as well. Beau keeps telling me just wait until they’re teenagers…

We ended the night doing a beautiful hike in the Eveline State Recreation Site. Highly recommend if you are looking for something off the beaten path/ kid friendly/ dog friendly/ peaceful. The fireweed is just starting to bloom in AK right now and the meadows in this park were dotted with bright pink fireweed flowers.

Today’s the big day! We officially left our beloved island of Kodiak Alaska to start our journey down to the lower 48. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. How fun!

All jokes aside, our ferry to Homer didn’t leave until 12:30 am (Sunday morning… and we were of course the second to last car to load) so we spent the entire morning playing with some of our favorite friends at Boyscout Beach. We will dearly miss the Ready family who have become family during our time in Kodiak. We’ve shared Thanksgiving dinners, New Years, numerous play dates and a couple Mom night outs together. I sincerely hope that we get stationed near each other again.

We departed Kodiak on the Tustamena (aka Trusty Tusty) which is the same ferry we arrived on three years prior. This time we had a cabin and let me tell you – sleeping overnight on a boat for sea sick people like myself is the best way to travel. Brady slept in the lower bunk and slept like a champ! Both boys were so excited to travel on the ferry!

My friend, Jen, had a brilliant idea that I start a blog to document our move from Kodiak Alaska to the Seattle WA area. (I miss her already btw!) So here we are… I’m currently at 10% cell battery setting up a blog in our pop up camper on the Homer Spit and probably draining our internet allotment for the month! Stay tuned for updates as I share our adventures as we travel through Alaska and Canada the next 3-4 weeks! Much love!