Glacier's and Halibut

On June 11th we went on a four-hour tour around Whittier, Alaska. We saw many glaciers, with runoff from them to the water below. It was beautiful to look around the inlet and see streams of water running down every crevice in the mountains, even where there was no glacier. It was quite cold - remember, we ARE in Alaska (but it's June)!


When we were near one of the glaciers, we heard a large piece break away and fall into the water. This is called 'calving'. We saw several bald eagles soaring in the area - what majestic birds they are.

Whittier is about 60 miles southeast of Anchorage and the only way to access it by land is to go through the train tunnel. There is a rotating schedule for cars entering Whittier, releasing cars (exiting Whittier) and trains. The cost is $12 to enter Whittier, but they let you out free. You really have to plan your trip, otherwise you could be stranded for quite some time. We took this picture as we were waiting to leave. The tunnel is 2 1/2 miles long.

On the 12th of June Garth scheduled a halibut charter leaving from Anchor Point. The charter he was on lost his reservation, but he was able to find one leaving at 1:00 p.m. He returned around 7:00 and had a wonderful time, but only had 17 lbs. of halibut. They clean and package the fish for you. Well, it's a start on filling up the new freezer we bought. We ate some fresh halibut when we got home Saturday and it was delicious!

We spent the night Thursday at Ninilchik Point Overnighter. This is the view from our cabin window. That is a volcano across the water and there are several along that range of mountains.

The cabins are advertised as "homegrown" log cabins. It was VERY clean but VERY rustic. The people in the cabin next to ours brought their catch of the day and cleaned it themselves right outside the cabin. I watched a young eagle (not 'bald' yet) flying around them hoping someone would share with him. He was really big and I watched him for a long time as he was watching them. We saw quite a few bald eagles in the area of Anchor Point and Ninilchik - must be good fishing for them, too.

Friday morning we got up really early to go back to Anchorage (180 miles) so we could attend the two morning sessions at the Temple. What a perfect way to end our latest Alaska experience.

The Month of May

We had the most wonderful month in May. We started out visiting Michael & Melissa in Urbana, Illinois. As you can see, marriage, work, school and church agrees with them very well. We had so much fun sightseeing and just being with Michael and Melissa and seeing where they go during their daily lives. Melissa love's her work and schooling at the University of Illinois/Champaign. It was fascinating for us to have her give us a tour of the very large, very old library on campus. We also toured other libraries on campus and in town. She has writen more about our visit on her blog. We should have taken more pictures, but didn't. Michael's job at the Freestar Bank, campus branch in Champaign is also going well. They are doing so many things in Illinois to make this a wonderful experience for them.

Of course we had to have a reason to go "outside" and our reason was Robert's graduation from the University of New Mexico on May 17, 2008. We were not able to attend Emily's graduation in December, so it was great to have them both in cap and gown for pictures. We are so proud of Emily and Robert for their hard work the past four years!

Grandma and Grandpa Brough came from St. George for graduation. It was so fun to celebrate this wonderful occasion with them.

The rose garden on the UNM campus is one of Emily's favorite spots.

One more picture - the graduates and proud parents. We spent five days in Albuquerque and loved being there with family and friends. The Monday after graduation, Robert started a new job with First Federal Bank.

Garth returned to Fairbanks after graduation and Nick and I continued our vacation. We flew to Phoenix so we could see my nephew, Jordan, return from his mission and visit with Don, Nancy & the nephew's in Gilbert. The only family member I didn't see on this trip was Zach, who is in Brazil on his mission. We drove with Grandma & Grandpa to St. George and spent a few days there. We ate dinner at Brian & Kim's new home and saw all the cute nephew's and niece there.

We went to the St. George visitor's center to see a very moving exhibit by Angela Johnson.

Memorial Day as we were growing up was a fun time to get together with aunts, uncles & cousins that we didn't see very often. We always had new summer clothes to wear and mom always worried about us climbing on headstones or walking on graves. This Memorial Day was different - it was a time to share with my son, Nick, some family history and remember those ancestors so long gone. My brother, Mark, Mom, Dad & I, along with Nick, visited the Garland, Utah cemetary and the Fielding, Utah cemetary.

Nick and I spent several days in Avon with Mark, June & the four great nephew's there. We were able to see Mike and Melissa two more times before we left; they were in Cache Valley for Melissa's brother, Nick's, graduation. On our way to catch the plane for Fairbanks, we were able to visit Joye, Kim, Kylie, Janalyne, Cameron & Makayla (Jesse was at work).

Our family time in May ended with a visit from Rosie & Craig Parker, Garth's sister and brother-in-law. Garth spent some time with Rosie & Craig before Nick and I returned from our trip. We had such an enjoyable time with them. The Parker's took a trip through Denali Park and visited friends in Anchorage (President & Sister Owen's of the Anchorage Temple Presidency who are their neighbors in Boutiful Utah). Our families are wonderful!

Still Winter

Two weeks ago we woke up to six inches of snow and here is Monty wondering why there is more of that white stuff all over when just yesterday it was almost gone! During the past two weeks we have had five or six snowy days but the snow is usually gone by the end of the day, along with some of the accumulated snow of the past six months. Well, this morning it is snowing again and we expect to receive two inches of snow. Yesterday I was amazed at all the grass I could see as I drove around Fairbanks. It is coming down really hard and, believe it or not - it's BEAUTIFUL this morning. The temperature was 35 degrees as I drove home from seminary this morning so at least it is 'warm' today.

It is probably hard to tell from the picture, but Monty has lost 26 lbs. since October. We are really proud of his hard work.

This is just a picture I took during the winter. The trees were so beautiful with all the snow on them.

In Alaska we have 'break-up', which is when the snow melts and the ice on the rivers break up. It was fun to watch the snow slide off the roofs of our condominiums. Our Homeowner's Association even posted notices on everyone's garage to "Beware of falling snow." They cautioned us to not park our vehicles directly under the roof and not to let children play there. I heard the snow fall several times and there was a layer of ice under the snow that came down too. It was very dangerous!

Nick is just about done with his semester at the Tanana Valley Community College. He has taken classes in Philosophy and Sociology. He is registered for fall semester at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. His plans are to study Political Science with a minor in Economics. It has been so warm lately that all of the ice sculptures have melted.

We purchased a web cam and over the past few weeks have enjoyed chatting with Jacob and Rachel from England. It is wonderful to have access to technology so we can see each other as we talk and it is FREE.

Technical Difficulties

You all get to benefit from my learning curve! Click on the half-picture, then click on "slideshow" at the far right of the Photobucket page to see the show. Robert, are my quotations in the "right" place??

Ice Festival

A few weeks ago we attended the Ice Festival here in Fairbanks. My camera freezes when trying to take pictures outside, so we are sharing pictures our friend, Jim Wherry, took for and of us. You should check out the Tula Belton 2008 Photo Gallery on www.icealaska.com. Next year we plan on attending at night with a better camera.

Ice Festival

Photobucket Album

Seward, Nebraska (Oops, Alaska)!

The picture above is a beautiful church, which looked so quaint nestled against a backdrop of cloud covered mountains, pine trees and snow. Last weekend we traveled to Seward, which is 125 miles south of Anchorage. We had a 6 hour drive to Anchorage where we stopped to wander the mall and browse at the bookstore for a couple of hours. We ate dinner at the Sourdough Mining Company. The picture below is a white-faced sea otter who was floating on his back as

our cruise boat motored past him. Please click to enlarge the picture - he is cute.





Garth and Nick enjoyed breakfast at this restaurant, famous for it's made-from-scratch breakfasts.



Before going to Seward, I logged onto Map Quest to check mileage and motels. I was so happy to see a Super 8 Motel in Seward (thinking prices would be somewhat reasonable there). I gave Garth the phone number (funny, it was a 402 area code) and he called, asking to make sure this was Seward he was calling. He booked a room for two nights and we relaxed knowing we had a place to sleep. We didn't see a Super 8 as we drove through town, so Garth pulled up here at the Hotel Seward to ask directions. The very nice young woman at the counter said there wasn't a Super 8 in town, she called the number we had and we all were surprised to find out we had reservations in Seward, Nebraska! (Sounds like Alaska) They were kind enough to cancel our reservations, without penalty. We had a lovely room at the Hotel Seward for a very reasonable price - we highly recommend them if you are in the area. Be aware, however, that our two queen beds room for $69 in April is $200 a night from May-September.




We booked a 4 hour Wildlife Cruise on the View Finder. It was a cold, snowy day but there were 30 adventurous people on our cruise. We enjoyed visiting with Don & Gay - longtime Alaska residents who had lots of stories to tell.

We saw black and white porpoises (look closely, he's down there somewhere).

We passed several large rocks with sea lions enjoying the snowy day. There were lots of birds on the rocks, too.

Here are two bald eagles perched on this rock. We passed one a little earlier high in a tree, just watching us drifting by.

I didn't get pictures of the hump back whales we saw - well, we saw the hump back and the tail as he dove back down into the water. It was a very fun trip. We drove back up to Anchorage and spent Saturday night at Fort Richardson. Driving was a little hazardous on the way home because I insisted we take the snow tires off the car. We had had such lovely weather in Fairbanks that it seemed silly to keep snow tires on to get chopped up from the rocks still left on the road. We could have won the dirtiest car award when we got home!