On July 3rd Oscar finally went for his first real swim. He went in and retrieved his tennis ball. It was a very exciting moment for us! Previously he was scared of the water and has only been gradually getting his feet and belly wet but never going in to the point where he couldn't touch the bottom. Today was finally the day! Now we just have to start having him retrieve dummies in the water. He is such a smart dog and we have really enjoyed training him.
On the 4th we left early (relatively) to go down to Seward, AK to watch the mountain marathon and enjoy the ocean. Traffic wasn't bad on the way out there because everyone else had left Friday night. We did see a horrible accident along the road and I think there was at least one fatality from it. So sad.
We arrived in Seward and both Garrett and I took a deep breath in and smelled the salty sea air! It is one of the BEST smells in the world! Nothing like it. We brought Oscar with us because he had never been to the ocean yet. He did well walking through all of the people until we arrived at the food tents. There was so much food scraps and garbage on the ground that he wanted to eat EVERYTHING! We quickly moved to another part of the street where it was cleaner.
Garrett and I decided that we would stop and get some food for lunch and we ate at the American Legion. They were selling half-racks of BBQ ribs with beans and cole slaw for $10! It was such a great deal and the food was delicious!!! From our table we could watch the mountain marathon runners running up the mountain. That is a crazy race! It is all uphill for the 1st half (literally up a mountain) and then a steep decent down so everyone finished with dirt all over their butts and legs and backs from sliding down the mountain. I told Garrett we should try it next year...he didn't think that sounded like fun. :)
After lunch and watching the men's race, we walked down to the beach and enjoyed the sea breeze and the 80+ temperatures. Oscar enjoyed the ocean but didn't go in past his legs because the waves were pretty big. He did like drinking the saltwater and eating the seaweed.
Seward is such a beautiful community nestled in amongst the mountains right on the ocean. It reminds me of home but with much less rain. The ocean is also a turquoise color from all the glacier runoff.
Garrett and I stopped and got some pasta for dinner at a small diner in Seward and then a milkshake from the ice cream parlor near the marina. The food was good and the ice cream was very refreshing. We packed up and headed back to Anchorage to beat the Sunday rush of people on the road. There was still traffic when we left but we were going the speed limit rather than puttsing along. We met up with our friend Matt Thibodeau for a bon fire and then down to the ball park to watch the fireworks at midnight! I have to say, watching fireworks when it is still somewhat bright out isn't as cool as when it is actually dark.Sunday we went to mass and then a tailgate party with the other young adults from church. It was so much fun with BBQ and Frisbee. It was a fairly mellow day with a few errands to run in the mix.
Monday, Garrett headed back to work but I didn't head back up to Fairbanks until Wednesday morning. So, Astin Bush and I took Oscar and our roommates dog up Rabbit Creek Trail to the Lake. It was a GREAT day for a hike with temperatures in the mid 80's. The view was beautiful as most of them are in AK. Astin and I failed to bring any bear spray or gun because she had never heard of any bears on that particular trail. There was too many people. Luckily we didn't run into any this trip either, but we did see a fresh pile of bear poop about halfway up the trail. At least we had dogs with us to give us fair warning if a bear did come around. There were some pretty dense parts of the trail too where you couldn't see through the brush on either side. A little nerve racking, but we survived. :)
When Astin and I arrived at the lake we were so hot as were the dogs. After we got about 2/3 the way up the trail it turns in to alpine and there is no tree cover or shade. We brought plenty of water for ourselves and the dogs but it still was HOT. Astin had been up the trail the week prior and said there was still ice on the lake...not this week! There was still ice on the mountains behind the lake, but not in the water. The water was a beautiful blue teal color and as clear as ever! Oscar immediately jumped into the water and swam around to cool off. He is getting much more brave. I decided that we had hiked all the way up, it was hot, I may as well dive in. So I did, soon followed by Astin. The water was FREEZING and almost took your breath away. We didn't stay in long but as soon as we got out we warmed right back up in the heat of the sun. It was a great way to descend the mountains...wet!
Tuesday I hung out with Natalie and we took Oscar to the dog park and to the tennis courts. He enjoyed going in the brush behind the courts to find more tennis balls that people had lost. I think we found like 10 of them. It was a great 5 days of being home with Garrett and friends. Only another 2 weeks before I am back again!
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