It Has Been Too Long!!

I can't believe it has been a year since we updated this blog! We are terrible.  Needless to say it has been a very busy year full of fun and hard work.  Please enjoy our "Year in Review"....I promise next year will be better :)

For our 2nd anniversary we spent an amazing weekend in San Francisco.  We walked all over the city, ate amazing food, and took in a baseball game.  We can't wait to go back!

Getting ready to walk over the Golden Gate Bridge!

Psyched for some food from the food trucks!!

The beautiful home we stayed in in the heart of the city.

We are making the Smith River Float a yearly event.  In 2013 we were lucky enough to snag a last minute permit  through a friend of a friend.  We launched  May 6th and spent an awesome week on the river with great food, amazing weather, and old friends.  We are already looking forward to next year.

Getting the boats ready to launch! It was a beautiful day to be on the water.

The Drakes enjoying the splendor of the Smith.

Sunset Cliffs.  Absolutely beautiful, and one of my favorite places to camp on the Smith River.

Now....for the REALLY good stuff! I have been so excited for my 10 year class reunion and my first trip back to Alaska since moving to Montana to start college.  I couldn't wait to show Garrett where I came from and have an Alaskan adventure with my man!

 Go Malemutes!!  The 10 year class reunion...I can't believe that ten years have passed. I had the opportunity to help plan the reunion with some other ambitious classmates.  We spent a night aboard the Riverboat Discovery, reminisced over drinks at the Boatel, and had a family picnic full of laughter and many memories.

One of the attractions we made sure to take in was the pipeline! We drove out to Fox for dinner and stopped at the pipeline on our way back to town.  It was a beautiful evening despite the mosquitos.

We had to do some touristy stuff too!  We headed to North Pole and met Santa himself at the Santa Claus House.

 Painting West Valley's rock as a part of the reunion festivities...took me right back to 10th grade.

Walking around downtown Fairbanks, taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

Mt. McKinley from the train.  We were so lucky to be able to see the mountain.

Talkeetna!! We spent the afternoon driving up from Anchorage to spend the afternoon in Talkeetna.  We ate and drank at the West Rib and around the charming downtown before heading to my aunt and uncle's cabin to spend the night.  The scenery and ambiance of the cabin were unmatched...but so was the tenacity of the mosquitos! Worst mosquito experience EVER!!

 Our final destination on our trip was Seward! We drove from Anchorage to Seward on a fishing mission.  Because we were trying to save a little bit of money, we slept in the back of my aunt's minivan before waking up at the crack of dawn to catch some fish!  Halibut and rockfish were the catch of the day, but Garrett also scored a HUGE lingcod....one day too early! We love Seward and hope to go back soon.

The lingcod...sadly we couldn't keep him!

My halibut! Yeah, baby!

Glacier National Park - 08/2012

Several months ago, Scott (a co-worker/friend) asked if I wanted to go backpacking with him in Glacier National Park at the end of August and without much thought I said yeah, I was in.  The trip was a Point to Point hike, starting in Two Medicine and ending in Saint Mary, a total of 33+ miles over 3 days and 2 nights.  Scott's sister, a student at UM (boo griz), was also planning on coming along, but at the last minute she had to cancel because of an orientation class she had to attend in Missoula...but who was she kidding, a degree from UM is a joke to begin with and she missed out on an awesome weekend.

So our hike was scheduled to start on Friday morning, but Scott and I were invited to play some poker with the TD&H Big-wigs after work on Thursday, so we decided to stick around Great Falls and do some gambling.  The games were going pretty well for me as I was in the final 3 player left (11 people started the night)...by this time it was already pretty late and most everyone there had to work the next day so we decided to call it quites.  Of the 3 people left, me and another guy had the most chips, so we decided to give the "small stack" his $20 Buy-In back, and split the remaining $200 between ourselves.  So Scott and I were finally off for Glacier at ~10:00 pm with an extra $100 in our pockets.  We made it up to Two Medicine by about 12:30 am, found a camp spot and decided rather than pitching a tent, we'd just hop in the truck bed and catch some zzz's under the topper.

Day 1 - ~14 Miles: 

We awoke to rain.  I had that stomach dropping feeling like I forgot something and then it hit me...sure enough, I forgot all of my food for our hike: breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 3 days.  So Scott and I were scrambling to find extra food.  Luckly Scott had an extra dehydrated meal and I was able to find a little trading post in East Glacier where I could pick up some additional food.  Our initial plan was to catch a boat ferry up Two Medicine Lake, then hike over Dawson Pass to Pitamakan Pass and down to Atlantic Creek Campground, but since we got a much later start then intended b/c I forgot all my food, we had to forgo the Dawson Pass route.  The day was a mix of wind/rain/sleet/hail/snow...which actually isn't too terrible to hike in, except for the fact that I didn't have great shoes on and my feet got soaking wet, causing some nice blisters to form.  We didn't have any wildlife sightings, although we did mistake a burnt stump in the distance for a little black bear.  When we finally got to camp, we set up the tent and then proceeded to make a fire to get dried out.  The evening was actually very nice as the weather moved out and we had good company around the campfire.  But, there was some collateral damage to my right shoe as I was trying to dry it out by the fire that resulted in some burnt leather & rubber...needless to say, that is the last trip those shoes will be making.

Day 2 - ~ 11 Miles:

Day 2 started out great, getting up and over Triple Divide Pass in the first 3 miles of the hike...after that it was all downhill (literally) to our next camp.  While filtering water on Day 1, Scott's purifier went ka-put, so we were forced to rely on bumming other people's filter for the rest of the trip.  About halfway to our next camp site, we ran into a group of guys that were pumping water out of a little stream and decided to stop and ask to use their filter.  While chatting, they said a little ways down they ran into some moose on the trail, so keep an eye out.  Sure enough, not more than 10 minutes later, Scott and I came up on two HUGE bull moose...deciding that we were out weighted by oh say 1,000 each, we went bushwhacking to avoid the massive animals.  Once back on the trail, we made good time to the next campground, Red Eagle Lake (head).  The rest of the day was spend sitting around B.S-ing and enjoying the scenery.  As dusk set in, sure enough a even BIGGER bull moose comes walking through camp on his way to the lake for an evening drink.  We admired him out in the lake for some time, where he was just munching on plants and taking some pretty healthy drinks of water.

Day 3 - ~ 8 Miles:

Our final day was just a nice easy hike out to Saint Mary, relatively flat the whole way with a net elevation loss of ~800 feet.  The majority of the last day was spent hiking through an old burn area from approx. 10-15 years ago (?).  When we finally arrived in Saint Mary, we headed over to the visitors center to wait for the park shuttle to take us back down to Two Medicine where the truck awaited.

All in all the trip was really good...I'm thinking that a Glacier backpacking trip may have to be a annual thing.  Its so close to Great Falls and truly is one of the prettiest places I've ever been.  Thanks Scott for inviting me :)

Looking Back on September 2, 2010

It is hard to believe that Garrett and I are approaching our 2 year anniversary in just a couple of days.  I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite photos from that day.  The next post will include pictures from our anniversary trip to San Francisco!

SLACKERS!!!

Ok...I have to admit, we went into this blog fully intending to update it all the time.  Turns out, we suck at it.  We haven't posted since the beginning of the year, and now summer is almost over!!  I would like to sincerely apologize for that.  To try to get back into the swing of things, I will post some pictures of our summer so far!  I will do my BEST to update this more frequently

 Garrett and Kaitlin Green River 2012

 Green River 2012

The voyage begins! Green River 2012

Ginberbread House "Contest"

Well, a little over a month ago (maybe even more) Kirsten and Seth had the great idea of challenging Kaitlin and I to a gingerbread house making contest.  I must say, they really stepped it up and made an awesome looking Barn.  I can only hope that the actual barn that is currently under-construction at the Meyer/Drake house turns out half as good as their Gingerbread Barn.

After looking at the pictures of the Gingerbread Barn, Kaitlin and I have decided to respectively concede in the contest.  Kirsten and Seth, you win.  Your Gingerbread Barn blows our sad attempt at a Gingerbread Treehouse out of the water.  Nice work!

For anyone who would still like to get online and submit their vote for "Best Gingerbread House", you're more than welcome to, but I don't expect it to be even close.  Submit your vote here.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The BARN

The TREEHOUSE

Our New Truck!

Kait & I got a new truck yesterday. We sold the Nissan Frontier that I had been driving for the last 6+ years last week and decided to pull the trigger on a new (used) truck.

It's a 2009 Toyota Tundra and we are looking forward to many great years of truck ownership with it.

Ouch