2010 Peters Family Holiday Letter

As we approach the end of 2010 I am left in awe at how fast this past year has flown by! The family and I have done our fair share of traveling this year, although Lauren probably has us beat for total mileage flown! Mom and Dad have been flying back and forth to the Arizona pad as much as they can to escape the rain, and what is now frigid cold.

Over Labor Day weekend Cousin Jonathan visited Anchorage from Seattle. Since it was his first trip up to the big AK we did all sorts of rugged Alaskan experiences to show him what it’s like. Mom and Dad rented a mini-van (yes, Jonathan, E.J. and I put up with being seen in one of those for a few days) and we painted the town! To our benefit, the weather was cooperative and that made the trip better than ever! We checked out the Alaska State Zoo, took in the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, drove down to Portage Glacier, and because Dad and never been, we drove through the tunnel to Whittier and saw absolutely nothing that is Whittier! (What a little place that is!) It was an eventful and fun filled weekend with the family in town! After the fam left, Kelsey and I took Jonathan on a hike up Flattop Mountain for his last day in town. He loved it! We did however miss having Lauren around, and look forward to having her come home! Wait... is she coming home??

E.J. finished up his senior year and graduated from Thunder Mountain High School in the first graduating class. Before graduation he had the opportunity to fly down to Utah with a buddy for skiing in February and then on to Colorado for Spring Break and a visit to Rocky Peters' for MORE skiing! He has taken several trips up to Anchorage to visit me for some male bonding. Now that ski season is in full force, E.J. has been skiing and teaching lessons to the youngsters eager to learn the epic runs on the mountain in Juneau. He has also been filling in as a substitute teacher at Riverbend with Mom, which keeps his cash flow coming.

Lauren… well, she has fled the country for the second time this year. In May, Lauren flew to Panama to visit Aunt Dee Dee for almost three weeks. In Panama she got to see Aunt Dee Dee’s farm, and the coffee that they grow there. She also did some horseback riding and saw lots of animals. She also volunteered in Panama and worked with the kids teaching good hygiene! (Yes, she even did the lice check!) She is currently in Argentina and attended college for a semester this fall – after completing a Spanish Immersion course this summer! Her classes were in Spanish, and I cringed when she told me she was taking Philosophy – in Spanish! She is staying with her friend Belu, who came to visit us in Juneau two years ago, and of course – she has made lots of new friends! If all goes as planned – she should…stress should… be home by mid January!

I’ve been pretty busy this year too. After I finished the Spring Semester, I decided to knock out a few extra classes over the summer. Reality set in when I discovered I didn’t like five-week classes! Fall semester is complete and I’m fully enjoying winter break in my NEW place. Dad bet me I could not go a year without buying clothes, and I was able to save enough money to buy a condo in south Anchorage (Independence Park – fitting!) and I absolutely love being in it! It’s a great place with 2 bedrooms, and all new tile, carpet and paint. It has a fireplace, too! I’ll be flying home at the end of the year to visit the family before I start up school again in January.

O! And Mom and Dad sold the house after what seemed like forever without any offers. They are downsizing to a condo – can you say wow! It won’t be too long before they make their way a bit more frequently to the sandy beaches… wait, the hot dry desert of AZ! Time really is flying…

We hope the holiday season finds you well and wish you the best in the New Year!

Sam – and the rest of the Peters gang!

The 2010 Zombie Half Marathon - Sam is sore!

Over the past 10 weeks, I was supposed to be training for another half marathon. I successfully completed about 6 of those weeks, and got super busy with school, or just found other excuses not to keep my running going. I signed up for this half marathon about 2 and 1/2 months ago, and was very excited to do it (I'm not big into Halloween though, and therefore did not dress up). I ran with 500+ fellow runners; some dressed up, some did not, and had a really good run.

(Yes, I ran with Elvis; be jealous!)

I did start to feel my lack of training around mile 10, and had to do a bit of a 'feel better walk' to get myself going again. I finished in 2:30:37, which was about 18 minutes longer than my best half time, still under my goal for half assing my training.

The starting temperature at 10:00 a.m. when the race started was 30 degrees; or super cold. I am glad I dressed warm. When I crossed the finished line 13.1 miles and 2 and 1/2 hours later, it was 32 degrees! I was very appreciative of my gloves and cold running attire. I stayed warm throughout the race which was great.

It was awesome to see how many people turned out to run in October, and dressed up at that. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to hopefully doing the marathon next year.

My Bike Ride on Power Line Trail

Power Line Trail is a trail that Kelsey and I have been using for quite some time this summer to take Chili walking, and access other hiking trailheads. I am a fan of biking the pass until you can't bike anymore. There is a point in which the trail goes into a pretty steep mountainous hill which makes it quite difficult to bike up. The bike ride in is pretty intense. There is a 1,500 foot elevation gain by the time you get to the hill that I was talking about. It's a great ride down though.

I rode about 2 and a half hours in, hiked up the hill, and could have kept going. The way the trail is built, makes it possible to follow the Seward Highway to the little town of Indian. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling to good about carrying my bike up the hill with me. :) So, after hiking the hill and checking out the views from the top, I rode down in about 45 minutes. Great ride!

It was an absolutely beautiful day, and to my surprise the trail was not over populated like it usually is. I met a really cool porcupine, and had an awesome time riding the trail. It's really nice to just plug in your earbuds in and just go.

Labor Day Fun!

Monday was the last day that we with my parents in town. We finally got to kick them out! I was even more thrilled that I didn't even have to take them to the airport because they had rented the mini-van! Just kidding. It was a very fun weekend with the family, and it's always a bummer when they have to leave. Although dad, mom and EJ left that day, we still had one more day with Jonathan!

After we said goodbye to the fam, we decided to get our Alaskan-ness back on and hike a mountain. We needed to give Jonathan one last amazing piece of rugged Alaskan adventures so we took him up Flattop Mountain. Kels and I even brought Chili. He did really, really well heeling and not getting all up in peoples faces. Several comments were thrown our way about how well trained he was, and how beautiful his coat was.

The weather was gorgeous! We made it all the way to the top in about 2 and a half hours, and made it down pretty quick. The three of us decided that a salad was in order for dinner after all of the crap we had eaten over the course of the weekend!

So pretty much all this post is saying is that we had a good time hiking Flattop, and we're going to post a lot of pictures showing you just how legen-wait for it-dairy that it really was!

Sunday at the Fair!!! (Kelsey's first time)

After being deprived of going to the state fair for 23 years, Kelsey finally got her fair experience. And she 'freaking loved it!'

This was Kelsey and I's first non-mini-van ride of the weekend. Because there were so many of us going, we had to take two cars. Kelsey, Brian, Airica and I rode in Airica's car, and the rest of the family went in the van. The fair is in the Palmer Fairgrounds. The main point of these fairgrounds is just for the state fair.

This day of the fair was sponsored by some of the mining companies, so we got mining hats as we walked in. And we started of the Fair experience with rat gambling, where you bet a quarter on which color whole the rat will crawl into. Sam actually did pretty well, he made $20! We then decided to do all the rides first, and then eat later. We did a few rides, and managed to get Papa P on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Yes, he's a screamer! And we're pretty sure everyone at the Fair was very aware of it.

Most of the time we were at the fair we were all spread out because we all had different agendas. While mom and the rest of the adults checked out all the booths, us kids were hanging out and doing the rides. We did all meet up for the SBS Lumberjack Show though. It was very amazing to see how fast and precise these guys were at cutting the trees. They were amazing with the axes, chainsaws and just climbing straight up the logs.

Airica and I did the bungee jump slingshot. They sit you in that little chair and launch you into the air. It was simply amazing! I can't wait to do it again. Airica had a couple of 'what the hell am I doing in this chair' moments, but after it was done, she loved every bit of it just as much as I did!

After all the rides we decided to eat. Oh my gosh, eat we did. We started off at Dan's Tacos which you can only get once a year only at the fair. They are SO good. Right next door they were selling Corn fritters and the 6 of us we split two orders of them. A couple of booths down, they were selling curly just about everything that you could think of, so we ordered a plate of curly fries and doused them in nacho cheese and ate on our way to the chocolate covered bacon. Before you knock it, let me tell you... it was pretty damn good; yes, a little out there, but pretty good. Kelsey really enjoyed the elephant ear that she was eating up before we could finish the bacon.

We didn't stop eating yet. It's pretty intense, I know. In the next 3 hours, we managed to eat an oversized Denali Cream Puff, cheesecake in a cone, and Brian and I split a brat from the 5th Avenue brat guy down town on the way out of the fair.

After 8 hours at the fair, we drove home took naps, and got ready to go out that night! We started at McGinly's Pub downtown (which is becoming our regular spot to eat and drink good beer) and ended the night at the Woodshed watching a bunch of drunk people try and sing karaoke. It was a very good night.

Saturday with the family - Tour of Alaska day

We woke up super early after our night out on the town to go play tourist for the day! We packed lots of pb&j's and other goodies, and headed out to Portage Glacier. We all went together in the minivan (yes dad, brilliant idea). The weather wasn't very cooperative with us, so we didn't go on the boat out to the glacier, but we did check out the visitor center and walked out to the viewing creek and watched the spawning salmon.

When we got done at Portage, dad got some wild hair to drive through the new Whittier tunnel because he had never been. Not much going on in Whittier... we turned around after we ate lunch. Although, there was a pretty big waterfall that we all enjoyed. We also got to look at the old burned down housing units that were lost in the 80's, and the new ones that have replaced them. That's about all there was too see there.

On our way back to Anchorage we stopped by the AWCC - Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We couldn't have timed it any more perfectly. When we pulled in they started to feed the grizzly bears. It was really cool seeing the bears fight over frozen salmon fillets. They guy throwing them in the cage missed, and accidentally threw it at my aunt. It was classic. The caribou that we saw made lots of random screeching noises at us and played around with his antlers on the ground. It was great to see the animals in their habitat, rather than at the zoo; much more entertaining.

After an exhausting day, we ordered pizza from the Moose' Tooth Pizzeria and Pub and had a nice glass of cold Apple Beer! A great way to end a long and eventful day!

Friday with the family!

My family came to visit Kelsey and I for Labor Day Weekend, and we were SUPER busy. Mom, Dad, E.J., and my cousin Jonathan from Seattle came for a weekend full of fun. Friday was the first day of crazy awesomeness. This being Jonathan's first visit to Alaska we wanted to take him to as many Alaskan activities as we could; so we took him to the zoo. Only half of the animals there are from Alaska but we still had a good time. The snow leopard was out for once, and made all sorts of funny faces at us. The tigers were also running around their ginormous cage and giving people a good show. It was one of the best trips to the zoo that Kels and I have had so far; and it was very good that Jonathan got a good show by the animals as well!

On Friday night, mom, dad, Kels, Jonathan and I hoped in the minivan that my parents rented and drove to Mad Myrna's (one of the local gay bars) for the Friday Night Diva Variety Show. We met up with my Aunt Bev and a few other family friends as well. It just happened to be Coronation, and since Jonathan had never been to an Alaska drag show, we were all really into it. Dad gave us lots of singles for the performers. I got Jonathan up on stage, and yes, I ended up on stage too (sadly, not for the first time...). After the show we all danced our booties off and had a good time!

....and we may have paid for it in the morning.

P.S. - Dad, did you ever get your card back from the bar? Just curious...

The Zoo

Erica's realtor had a customer appreciation day, so she brought us along and it just happen to be at the zoo. We got a free lunch of BBQ goodness, and then we were able to walk around the zoo and see everything for FREE!

Sam was excited because he after years of going to the Anchorage zoo, he finally got to see the Tigers that live there. They were taking a nap at the time, but at least they were doing it outside.
The petting zoo was closed, so I wasn't able to play with any animals, but they seem to enjoy calling out to us, like they thought we had food.

Luckily it was also a really nice day (at least for the kind of summer we've been having this year), so it stayed pleasant, and we were able to see all of the animals, and none of them were hiding. I even got to see a baby brown bear and musk ox.

On a side note, Sam and I also got a dog! Sam's parents sent the family dog Chili up to live with us, and is staying at my place and we both take care of him. He's 8 years old, but acts like a puppy and has tons of energy. He's a good hiking companion, and Sam is working on getting him used to a leash so he can take him on runs with him. He's an Australian Shepard mix, and he likes to eat all my food. We took him up to Power Line Pass the other day, and he loves to be off the leash, which he is getting better at....unless there's other dogs around.

Camping/Portage Glacier/Parade/Pilots Game

The 4th of July weekend was a very busy, but extremely awesome weekend. Airica, Mikey, Kelsey and I drove out to the Kenai Peninsula and camped in Hope. It's a very small town with a population of less than 150 people. It's great for camping and has several good hiking trails and is only an hour and a half out of Anchorage. We arrived in Hope at about 10 o'clock Friday night and set up camp. We had two, two person tents that were perfect for the four of us. Mikey turned them into 'Hotel Eureka Glacier' by folding the tarp over the top of them to keep them dry in case of the rain; the weather didn't look like it would hold for us.

We barbecued lots of hot dogs, and roasted many marshmallows that we put into smores. The weather held for us all night, it only sprinkled for a little bit after camp was set up. After dinner we invited the neighboring campers over to join us for a while. We had a lot of fun. One of the guys was a graduate from UAA with a Justice major... it was interesting to talk about the professors and share some of the same kinds of stories.

In the morning we had a wonderful breakfast of poppy seed muffins and cherry strudels. We sat around the bonfire for a few hours before taking camp down and checking out by noon. On the way back to town we stopped by Portage Glacier to check it out and walk Airica's dog Jake on the beach. We hung out for about 20 minutes checking out the glacier and walking around.

Sunday morning Kelsey and I woke up early and drove downtown to check out the 4th of July Parade, and all of the festivities taking place in the park strip. There were many good floats in the parade, and Kelsey would probably like to mention that she really got a kick out of the man walking the reindeer on a leash ("Only in Alaska").

We went to the Anchorage Pilots/Bucs game the same night for some college baseball and fireworks. The Pilots and the Bucs are teams that recruit college students to come play for during the off season. The games were fun, and we ended up being part of a whole cheering section with some people we met that night. The four us are pretty loud, and we were recruited by another group also cheering for the Pilots. It was a double header - so we ended up sitting with the other group for the second game so we could be as loud as possible. It was a very good time. Their were also fireworks that followed the games. They were pretty good as well.

We had a very exciting and eventful weekend. We were pretty exhausted by the end, but it was well worth the great time we all had.

Bike Ride on Coastal Trail

The Coastal Trail has one end that starts downtown, and the other Kincaid Park and runs along the coast (hence the name). This is one of those trails that everybody is Anchorage knows about and uses often for running, biking, dog walking, or other outdoor activities that require a path. It also runs along the Alaska Railroad, and adds to the scenery when a train happens to go by, which it did while we were there.

We went yesterday for a little bike ride, thinking the weather would be cooperative for the afternoon. After we pumped up Sam's tires, we started down the trail. Everything went smoothly until we started hitting hills, and as it turns out, Kelsey's bike isn't really made for anything with more than a 10º angle. Not to mention the bike is not really meant for long distances, and it didn't take long for the hard seat to leave its mark on her bum. Needless to say, Kelsey will probably have to invest in a trail bike of sorts when she's not doing social work anymore. Sam was patient though, and didn't leave her in the dust.

We stopped to take a break at Point Woronzof, when it started to rain. Neither of us was very prepared for rain, so we decided to turn around, so we only managed to get 5 miles into the trail (but I figure 10 miles total of bike riding is pretty good). By the time we got back we were thoroughly soaked, and Sam had to get to bed because he worked at 1 am (GROSS!). I will probably try to borrow somebody's bike for the next time we do the trail.

Hidden Lake Trail

Hidden Lake Trail has been a hike that I have been wanting to do for a while now, and finally got the opportunity yesterday afternoon.

Hidden Lake Trail is another trail in the Chugach State Park. It's located very close to the Flattop Mountain Hike. We had to hike about two miles into Power Line Pass to get to the Hidden Lake trailhead. Power Line Pass is a pretty easy hike that a lot of people use for many different types of activities: biking and running are pretty popular, and in the winter, cross country skiing and snowshoeing as well. In between Flattop Mountain and many other surrounding mountains, it has many beautiful sceneries. Hidden Lake Trail is a 2 mile hike.

Yesterday, when we hiked up the trail, it was very wet, and the rain didn't seem to want to let up. With all of the rain we got, the trail was very muddy. When we got to the Hidden Lake trailhead, to our advantage, the rain stopped. In order to get onto the trail, we had to cross the bridge over a stream in the pass. Immediately, the trail went up hill; longest and most intense 2 miles of our lives. The trail was muddy, slippery, and the wind was pushing us all over the trail.

We made it up the first hill, and for as far as we could see, the rest was very flat. We got over the mountain, and were pretty secluded in between a few other mountains which cut out most of the wind. We hit the bottom of a creek which was still covered in snow, and to our surprise, the trail started up hill again, for the rest of the hike.

We hiked up 3 more hills, 2 of which, to our dismay were covered in snow. They were fun coming down, well, for me, but Kelsey took them pretty slow. The hills were pretty steep, and after each one, we kept hoping we would see the lake. When we arrived at Hidden Lake (if you could really call it a lake), I insisted that we kept going because what we were looking at looked more like a puddle than anything. I called mom and dad to see if they could tell me if what we were looking at was really the lake. After much deliberation, and a picture sent to mom, she told me that was it (She told me "it was probably hidden for a reason"). We sat down for a bit, ate our pb&j's and apples before heading back.

Going back was much easier, as it was all downhill which only took us about a third of the time to get back to the parking lot. We're still pretty sore this afternoon, but the hike was totally worth it.

We give this hike ***- because the lake is really a puddle, but the hike is adventurous and fun.