Warming the House

We had our house warming party on Friday evening. I had Friday off, so I was able to spend the whole day straightening the house in preparation for our guests.

We invited folks from our works as well as a few other friends, including our neighbors.

I took a photo of the kitchen and dining rooms in their pre-party state since they looked relatively tidy...

Tess's flag football season is in full swing. She gets a lot of play time on the JV squad and is enjoying the season. She like playing defense best as she enjoys pulling flags off the opposing team.

Stephen heads off on a moose hunt this evening. He and a fellow from his office are driving up to the area around the Denali Highway to try their luck this week. They plan to return next Sunday. They have a decent chance of getting at least one moose if not one each... In addition, that area is FULL of grizzlies, so they're hoping maybe to get one of those as well, if it's feasible. Of course, they'll be hiking in to their hunt site which means any game they take will need to be carried back out to the truck on their backs. 1000 lbs of moose meat will take several trips.

There's so much construction in downtown Anchorage this summer, I hardly had a chance to get into Town Square Park to admire the flowers. I finally did last week and took some photos of the pretty blooms.

In political news, you may have heard (hard not to have) that our own Sarah Palin has been added to the Republican presidential ticket. Most folks in Alaska were stunned to hear this. I don't think we were stunned because we didn't think she was worthy. We adore her as a governor. I think we were stunned because most things Alaskan tend to be ignored in the national arena. So to suddenly find Alaska all over the national news is a little different for us.

It seems like anything you hear about Alaska outside of Alaska pertains to either tourism or oil. Who knew we had vice presidential candidates in our midst as well?

Hatcher Pass Tour Guide

Mr. Marmot at your service.

This little fella stood perched by the side of the road on our way up to the Independence Mine Historic Site at Hatcher Pass.

It was like he was saying, "Hey, you there, take my picture!"

We obliged, although we weren't even sure what sort of varmit he was until asking at the visitor center. Turns out, he's a Hoary Marmot.

In addition to Mr. Marmot, we saw several Arctic Ground Squirrels feathering their dens for the winter as well as one paraglider leaping off the pinnacle at Hatcher Pass.

Bad Hair Day

See yesterday's post on our visit to the Alaska State Fair...

Alaska State Fair

Stephen & I took the girls to the Alaska State Fair today. Alicia had a dance recital at 3pm on the Colony Stage.








After her performance, Tess took off with a bunch of her buddies.

We met Herb & Sandy Gregory (our friends from upstate NY) at the dance performance. They're in town with Herb's brother Del and his wife, Kathy from New Mexico.




The Fair is a busy place with terribly ineffective cell phone service. So it was hard to track anyone down if you weren't with them the whole time. So once we split off from the Gregorys, we didn't catch up with them again until we'd left the Fair and stopped by their campground in Wasilla...

The weather started out rainy, but turned out to be pretty decent by the afternoon and evening. Alicia hadn't gotten her nap earlier in the day, so she finally zonked out just before 7pm in the stroller. At that point, Stephen and I were able to look around at some exhibits and demonstrations and really enjoy the Fair.

By the time we left, our feet, legs, and backs were killing us, but it was a good experience overall.

First Day Report

A couple years ago, on the kids' first day of school, the bus was held up by a moose loitering in the road.

Yesterday, the police closed down the trails near the high school "because of a brown bear feeding on a moose carcass in the area".

It's always something...

Tess had a good first day of school and enjoyed playing in the JV flag football game. She seems to be sufficiently pleased with her classes.

Donald claims to have had a lousy first day of school. He had to restructure his entire schedule and has basically not gone to any of his real classes yet.

Whew!

It's that wonderful day of the year again... Back to School Day!

This year we have a senior and a junior. Both were eager to return to the halls of academia this morning. Or at least the halls of "hangout-emia". Whatever...

Tess has her first flag football game this afternoon. She'll be playing on the JV squad. They've actually already played a couple of games. But because we went to CA, she didn't have enough practices (you need 10) to play in the games.

Also, our friends from NY state flew in yesterday. For those of you who might be following their journey, they arrived safely! I'll be meeting them this morning before they pick up their rented RV and set out on their Alaskan adventure.

Alicia May will be dancing at the State Fair this weekend. She can't wait. The Fair is always fun. We may be the biggest state with the biggest heads of cabbage, but the State Fair is still a manageable size with just enough events and distractions to satisfy fairgoers.

Aspirations

Alicia May and I were discussing her career options the other day.

She's decided that when she grows up, she wants to be a "Daddy".

Trip Report & Photos: Southern California

We're back in Alaska. We had an uneventful direct, 5-hour, flight back from LA this morning. It was nice to get home around the mid-day for a change, instead of close to midnight... We were able to swing by the grocery store and pick up some essentials on our way home from the airport.

At the house, we watched some more of the Olympics and our neighbors stopped by as they arrived home from their weekend fishing trip down on the Kenai Peninsula. They brought us some nice fresh halibut, which we fried up in some yummy beer batter for supper. It was really scrumptious. And I'm not a big fish fan... But halibut fish and chips are hard to beat, especially when it's fresh.

Here are a few photos from the trip along with a brief synopsis:

We spent the first weekend in the LA area including Santa Monica, Hollywood, Dodgers Stadium for a home game, and Palm Springs for dinner. We stayed the night with our Aunt Dorothy in Banning (near Palm Springs).

Sunday evening, we drove south to San Diego and spent the week in that area. Our time there included visits to Old Town, Coronado, Seaport Village, the USS Midway, Horton Plaza, the Children's Museum, UC-San Diego, and Sea World.

Soaking up the Sun

We've been enjoying our stay in sunny California.  Every day has been perfect weather!  

I've been diligently slathering sunscreen on Alicia and myself.  So far we only have a few stray spots of sunburn.  

Today's our last day here.  We went to Sea World yesterday and then drove north to Aunt Dorothy's house in the desert.  We watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics with her.  

Today we are headed to LA to explore a little and stay in a hotel before our early morning flight back to Anchorage.  We plan on soaking in a little more sun and warmth to tide us over till the next time we travel Outside. 

Southern California visit

We are in San Diego now.

I'm attending my conference while the family enjoys San Diego's perfect weather and sites.

We flew into LAX on a red-eye Saturday morning. We visited the Santa Monica pier straight from the airport. Alicia played in the sand, Tess played in the surf, Donald played in the arcade. Aunt Dorothy and our cousin, Freddie (aka Al) met us at the beach.

We spent Saturday night in Banning at Aunt Dorothy's. We had dinner in Palm Springs at the Blue Coyote. Great mexican food...

Sunday, the guys went to a Dodgers game and LOVED it. The girls went to Hollywood and had fun exploring the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theater area.

We're here in San Diego for the rest of the week. We plan to go to Sea World and the Zoo as well as plenty of beach and pool time.

Photos to be posted later...