Kenai and Soldotna

This was a tag along trip…dad worked while the girls played.   Doesn't seem fair, but it makes it a bit nicer for him to have us with him and nicer for us to be with him! 

After dropping Dad off at work bright and early, Amelia and I headed to the visitor center.  It houses a small museum, which Amelia found very entertaining.  

There is a nice walk that we did the year previous to the Old Town Kenai with little eateries and interesting homesteads, but since the weather wasn’t all that bad we opted to head back to Soldotna where we were staying and get to the best playground EVER in the center of town, before the rain began again! 

Amelia Earhart

 Having the rest of her cookie that we picked up in Girdwood on the way to Kenai.  YUM..a definite bakery stop for any trip to the Peninsula.

This playground is simply amazing.  All custom built by the community.  You can read about it here:  http://www.soldotnacommunityplayground.com

There is a river walk right from our hotel to the park, but I wasn't sure how high the river was to the boardwalk, so we opted to drive.  Good thing as we took a peak from the playground area and it was almost to the walkway...I would have definitely turned around...rivers rise quickly! 

After watching a dog catch a frisbee over and over again much to Amelia's liking, we headed to lunch and then back to the hotel for a nap.  

Glad we did the playground early as the winds picked up and although not as windy as at our house (this was a blustery breeze), it would have deterred us from the playground. We picked Dad up and after an hour or so dip in the hotel pool...we headed to dinner at St. Elias Brewing Company for yummy pizza, sandwich and a couple handcrafted brews (Amelia had her own brew of milk). Delicious.

The next day we headed to the Kenai Beach early in the AM as once again the weather was iffy.

I was a bit afraid it would be too windy down by the water, but once bundled up it was very enjoyable.

We have been digging for dinosaur bones in our sandbox ever since we went to the Alaska Natural History Mueum, so it seemed even more likely we would find some here!

When you don't have a shovel...use your feet.  If you notice, we had to change boots once I realized she was all about getting down and dirty.  Luckily I packed the car with the essentials.

Lambie joined the brown boots back in the car.

This pic sums up our road trip.  

On the way home thru the pass just before reaching Portage...the snow was mixing with the rain at the top.  I told Rob to hurry and get down the hill.  If Amelia hadn't been sleeping in the car...she would have been ecstatic!