Alaska - Day 2 - Denali Backcountry Adventure

Denali has only 1 90 mile road into the park. After 15 miles, only authorized vehicles are able to continue on. Too see the park, you must arrange a tour. Our tour was arranged through Denali Backcountry Adventure and would represent an all day narrated bus tour (or safari as we affectionately called it) to see wildlife and hopefully see Denali mountain. On our trip, we were blessed with amazing weather. Denali was in full showing all day for multiple viewings throughout the journey. The drive was scary at times with a very narrow dirt road at crazy heights and no guard rails. Our wildlife spotting included some bear cubs and their mother, lots of caribou, a moose, and lots of varieties of birds including swans and golden eagles. When we arrived at the end of the 90 mile road, we enjoyed a nice lunch, some gold panning, and rock tossing along the river. It ended up being a very long day (15 hours) and we all took various naps throughout our journey.

Bear cubs on side of road...


Caribou herd grazing in the valley...


Denalit Mountain view from visitor center...


Along the road...


Ansel Adam's Reflection Pond...


Afternoon enjoyment at the "End of the Road" included lunch, gold panning, and river fun..


Presley was the only one okay showing her afternoon nap on the blog. Each of the Pergandes has a picture of them "napping" along the way. Thanks Presley for helping us capture the moment!

Family Vacation and Anniversary Celebration in Alaska - Day 1

The Pergande crew was ready for a much needed vacation after having to cancel our spring break this year during Ron's cancer treatment. We were ready to celebrate Ron's end of treatment, Mom and Dad's anniversary, and check out a couple more of National Parks. We chose Alaska. It's a hard place to get to and it's an awesome time of year with literally 24 hours of sunlight.

Our adventured started on June 26th with arrival in Anchorage. After picking up our car for the week, we started our first night with halibut and chips at Humpy's Great Alaskan Ale House.





The next day we stopped by the famous Alaska Wildberry Company to see the world's largest chocolate fall, buy some souveniers and made a quick trip to the Anchorage overlook at Flat Top Mountain (where Canyon took some crazy panoramics).




We then headed to Denali National Park, where we will spend the next 3 days and hope to see Denali. We checked into Denali Cabins, our home for the next few days and then headed to the National Park for a little exploration.

Tournament Wins

Canyon is in the midst of his baseball season and Presley is in the midst of her soccer season. Both teams recently took home some "metal". Canyon's team took 3rd place in the Prior Lake tournament and qualified for both state tournaments. Presley's team won the championship in the the hometown Prairie Cup.

Bob and Carol Celebrate 50 Years of Marriage!

The extended Kohls family gathered together in old family reunion style to celebrate Bob and Carol Kadow's wedding anniversary. The crew included Granny ("98" years old), The entire Kleeves crew, all the Kadow cousins, the Pergandes, and Kim. What a great weekend with great activities including a fish boil at Nettles, a delicious catered breakfast, frisbee golf, euchre tournaments, corn hole games, cribbage playing, a live band, pizza from Community Crust, surprise visits from Ron and the kids and bonfires and camping! Fun weekend!

End of School Year Highlights

As the school year winded down, we have some end of year highlights...

Presley's 7th grade class had an end of year picnic at Staring Lake. Mom grilled the hotdogs and Dad came to play some tunes for Presley ands some of her friends.



Canyon had ceramics this past quarter and he came home on the last day of school with some amazing pottery, including this vase...



The kids got straight As for each quarter of the school year. Instead of going to to dinner after each quarter, they opted to "save up" and get new phones at the end of the year. They were ready to go the first day after school ended to go straight to the Apple store!



Ron flew to Chicago to walk with his colleagues in a walk to support cancer research. Pretty cool how is company is continues to show support!



Mom and Ron got a night out at the Twins for a GPA event. Great seats, beautiful night..



Mom and kids enjoyed our a nice afternoon of foot golf. Canyon came in first, Presley second, and Mom last.... Fun regardless of the score.

Memorial Day Camping - Lake Shetek State Park

Our annual Memorial Day camping tradition continued this year. This year we invited a 3rd family to join the Holjes and Pergandes on their annual camping trip. We traveled to southwest Minnesota to Lake Shetek State Park. We were absolutely blessed with amazing weather and a ton of fun activities. The three families were spread across to two camper cabins, a tent (Ron and Trisha) and 3 ENOs (hammocks). I have tried to capture some of the best highlights of a really fun trip!

The new hammock station and our new fun yard games...




Exploring the state park on bike, on foot and on canoe...





Playing volleyball and catching our first fish after 10 years of trying.




We also explored the local sites including Lake Shetek Monumenut (marks the graves of victims of the Dakota Sioux Conflict), a bike ride along the Casey Jones State Trail into the town of Currie, a visit to End-o-Line Railroad Park and Museum and ice cream at the only local restaurant.







End of camping celebration photo with the entire crew...



And keeping the trip going, a few of us stopped on the way home by Jeffers Petroglyphs, one of the world's oldest historic sites with 5,000 ancient rock carvings made by ancestors of the American Indians...

Some Memories from May

My girlfriend, Lynette, from my Chicks with Wicks group, invited us over for tea and dessert on weekday evening to help celebrate our pal Allison's birthday. We weren't really really sure what to expect but it was such a lovely evening catching up as friends at a beautifully set table, with delicious tea, and tasty treats.



Presley participstes in a service and leadership organization called National Charity League. This picture is from the end of year social when her class went out for bagels and to a movie.



We were also excited to see a couple of out town pals who made there way to Minneapolis in May. Our pal, Elaine, was in town for a hockey tournament with her daughter. And Mom's UCLA pals, Ben and Jonathan, came to town to catch a Twins game and to see another UCLA pal, Thad. Game got rained out but we had a nice afternoon catching up at a local brewery!



Presley had her end of year choir concert at school. While the concert was very nice, what was most surprising was seeing my "little" girl looking all grown up.

Canyon First Season in High School Baseball

Canyon played baseball for the Freshman A team this year. It was his first official sport in high school. The team had a short but fun season. Canyon played predominantly catcher and third base. Have a couple of pics getting ready for the season with his batting coach, "Coach Ron", one with his team coach (and math teacher), "Coach Fogarty", and one from the end of season barbecue at a local park. After this short season, he now transitions to 15AAA summer ball.