BEAR! My New Four Letter Word.

We heard there was a cafe in Hope, AK with the best breakfast ever. Hope is an old gold town that is barely alive today. So we left early to get breakfast and passed beautiful scenery a long the way. Breakfast was not the best ever, but we enjoyed reading about the history and listening to the locals chat. At the Hope cut off on the Seward Hwy, we passed a young grizzly out in the wild. It was amazing to see a bear in the wild. We watched him for awhile then continued on our drive to see the Russian River on the Kenai Peninsula.

At the Russian River we found a trail that fishermen were using to go to the river. While we walked we sang to alert bears to our presence...Bluebells, cockleshells, easy...BEAR! What? Did someone across the river just yell bear? Then more urgently...THERE'S A BEAR! A fisherman was in the river waving at us to go back. We all froze for an instant, then turned on the trail and RAN. Here is a picture I took just before we first heard BEAR!

Running back to the car I was looking out for the bear, watching for the trail and thankful our children were good runners. They stayed right with me, poor Hailey saying over and over "I'm so scared". Boone was last in line because he has the shortest legs - and Eric was going to throw him to the bear for a little treat if needed. Back at the road we were joined by fishermen who had been on the riverbank all waiting to see where the bear would go and if they could spot it. Although they were talking big about not being afraid of bear, we noticed none of them went back to the river. While we ran I thought about the dinner conversation we had the night before at a friends house. The host had worked on a man whose face on been mauled off by a bear at the Russian River. Back in the car Eric and I laughed although I was still shaking. How's that for adventure? We then drove to Jim's Landing where there is a rocky beach to see the river. Again pictures can not convey how beautiful this area is.

Last we drove towards Portage Glacier and visited the animal conservatory again. The drive was so beautiful. Lest you think all the family enjoys the view - the kids watched a movie and played games.