Road Tripping from Arizona to Utah to Colorado

July 21, 2018

Every move matters. We make choices every single day and oftentimes we think that that’s all those choices are….daily trivial decisions that are only for a moment. Tomorrow will be back to ground zero - a blank slate. And there’s some truth to that, but nothing truly starts over. Yes there’s “always tomorrow” and “ a new day with no mistakes in it”, but at some point in my life I decided to believe that every day builds upon the other…that there are few truly meaningless choices. Making lifestyle choices like the ones Phil and I have made is not all for funsies. It’s a series of choices that are leading us…we want to do more than listen to God. We want to obey him. To stick our toes in the water…to make the leap. To trust and let Him run wild with us. It’s amazing. It sucks. It’s too hard. It’s so much fun. It’s stressful. It’s freeing. I feel the need to reiterate this in most of my writing not only to try and explain some of our crazy and heart to anyone who might actually be reading this, but for my own personal reminder. Let me tell ya’ some days I need the reminder more than others.

June 12th, after 6 months, we left Alaska. It was a bittersweet season, full of so much good and too much bad. We never thought we would be there that long, but boy I am glad we were. Every day it felt like we needed to be there and to spend as much time with my beautiful family as they are all going through so much of the downs of life right now. I think we’re all hoping that they’re all just getting it all over with at once. All I can say is wow, my family (i.e. my parents are super heroes) is so strong and I love the crudderola out of the whole crew.

We flew into Phoenix, Arizona to trade in our old car and get our new rig…I can call it that…a rig. It’s a beast. We just decided on a name…Snowflake. 5 points to whoever can guess the color ha.

After we signed on the dotted line and traded the dealership an arm and a leg we chugged off into the stunning South West sunset. We had 5 days to get to Colorado for a mini family reunion with Philp’s side of the family.

Day 1 we spent hiking in Sedona, Arizona, eating Thai food in Flagstaff, scouring the local Walmart for necessities (i.e. air mattress) and camping under the stars in the back of our truck.

Day 2 we made it to Monument Valley where we drove the full 16 mile loop, searched for wifi for Philip to upload some files, then made our way to camp in the Valley of the Gods in Utah for the night. I don’t know exactly what time it was, but I woke up in the middle of the night and have never seen the stars and Milky Way so perfect. It was almost hard to go back to sleep.

Day 3 we spent being amazing parents and fulfilling Little Phil’s dream of going back to the Dinosaur Museum in Moab, Utah. This time we spent hours and hours there and enjoyed every single video, 4D aquarium, dino exhibit that they could throw at us. After this we got dinner and ice cream in Moab and then headed to our campsite for the night at Slickrock Campground.

Day 4 we were dirty and wanted a real bed for the night. We did 5 miles of hiking in 100 degrees (thankfully one of the hikes included lots of swimming) and then we were off to Grand Junction, Colorado - our traditional stopping point for this route. Coffee stop at Kiln, we checked into our hotel, the Phil’s took a swim, I took a nap.

Day 5 Showered and organized we oaded up and made the stretch to Winter Park Colorado where we would spend the week at an airbnb with the rest of the Leclercs!

I’ll post separately on our week with the fam bam, but for now here’s some shots I love from the week before.

Peace, joy, and all that sincere & fluffy stuff,

Allie Esther

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Exploring Alaska: Historic Ghost Town and Gold Mine!

May 15, 2018

Alaska is full of so many remote relics that remind us of some of the most hardy, resourceful and gumption filled people to have lived. People who hiked over snowy mountains. They forged rivers. They lived without so many of the things we might call "necessities". Part of me is very much inspired by their tenacity, pioneer spirit and courage. To be honest though there is another part of me that is baffled by how and why anyone would choose so much pain and hard, hard work all to just barely survive! From the isolated locations full of danger to the primitive lifestyles...to the lack of connection with the outside world I just don't think I could do it. (Even if gold, or copper as is the case of Kennicott Mine, was involved).

With that said in the case of Kennicott they did amazing job quickly setting up the town so that it would be lacking very little - they had a store, hospital, school, homes with indoor plumbing. Hard not to admire people that make an area as remote as it was and make it home. I just love walking through the old historical buildings that have been so carefully rehabilitated and learning more from these incredible pioneers. We spent a good part of our time reading their letters and looking at the beautifully preserved artifacts that were left behind.

Little Phil was so cute filling our his Jr. Ranger book!

The smell of the musty wood and the sound of the creaking hardwood floors as my boots shuffle from plaque to plaque where pictures of wrinkled faces and twinkling eyes greet me as if they know something I don't. And yet here I am, the one reading how they ended up, yet still feeling, if not knowing, they've got the upper hand on me. We have a staring contest old Silas and me. He wins, I admit defeat and move onto examine another weather worn face. These people were really remarkable! If just a tad bit crazy. I'm wishing that I could have just an ounce of their grit!

The drive to McCarthy is truly one of a kind. I love the sound of the gravel as we plug along at a steady 35 miles per hour for miles and miles. We realized that if we went straight there we'd get there later much later than we'd like and wouldn't have much time to look around so we decided to stay at the Copper River Princess Lodge which is about half way to McCarthy. As per the usual the Princess was so enjoyable and I'm so glad we chose to stay there. They are known for choosing the best spots for their lodges and the Copper River lodge is no exception...oh and their restaurants are always so good!

It was a much better plan as far as time of day goes, but when we arrived to the walking bridge and the shuttle that takes you into McCarthy we found out that it was the LAST day of the season to go to Kennicott! Close one! We did end up missing out on taking the last tour of the actual mine itself so that's on my list for next time.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest national park in America and it is also the least visited. If you don't know much about the park then jump over to this NPS page and prepare to be impressed! It's over 13 MILLION ACRES. Next time we visit we want to get in the air because the park is SO huge and is mostly undeveloped so seeing it from the sky would be such a great way to see some of it's most iconic sights!

We ended our trip...or I should say our last couple hours before getting back in the car for the 8 hour drive home...walking around McCarthy and grabbing an amazing meal at The Potato! If you go to McCarthy make sure to go...there were 6 of us and we each LOVED the food!

Watch the video to see a compilation of our time in Alaska this past fall - including gold mining in Hope (post on that coming soon!) and meet our bus driver Cosmo and few other awesome locals who made us pour overs! You'll also get to see some of the most beautiful drone footage of gorgeous Kennicott Mine that we took from private property inside the park (thank you to the guide service for letting us hang out on your land!).