Quick - It's Summer!

 We think the official date of summer for Anchorage was July 20th! It's been a cool and rainy June and first part of July, and we left to take our quick before summer's over RV trip to Seward on a rainy day on the 19th - we checked out Exit Glacier, found out it's a national park so no dogs allowed. We still did a bit of a hike and were shocked and outraged at how much the glacier has retreated since we moved here in 2010. 

We checked out a couple of campgrounds for future trips, spent 2 nights in Seward on the beach (at $40 night, outrageous but gorgeous), and did some hiking around town (and reading!) 

Then off to Ptarmigan Creek trail and a very wet and brushy 7 mile roundtrip hike to Ptarmigan Lake. Note to self - do it earlier in the year before so overgrown - and maybe not just after a rain! 

And then two trips up Flattop, one last week with Trek, Kira's dog father (front side) and the other yesterday (back side) with our good friends from Palmer, Alys & Pete (no pictures taken yesterday.) 

A Day in Bratislava, Slovakia

 I couldn't do justice to a two week trip with one blog entry, and we spent an entire day in Bratislava, Slovakia, which we traveled to on the Danube by boat. From Wikipedia, Bratislava is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000—approximately 140% of the official figures.^[5] Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia at the foot of the Little Carpathians, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital to border two sovereign states.^[6]

The city's history has been influenced by people of many nations and religions, including Austrians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Romani and Slovaks.^[7] It was the coronation site and legislative center and capital of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1563 to 1783. 

Today Bratislava is the political, cultural and economic centre of Slovakia. It is the seat of the Slovak president, the parliament and the Slovak Executive. It has several universities, and many museums, theatres, galleries and other cultural and educational institutions.^[9] Many of Slovakia's large businesses and financial institutions have headquarters there.

It was a long, very hot day, but such an interesting city, and we had a tour guide for the first hour. The last two hours I rested in the coolest place that I could find, first with Chinese tea and then a cold glass of white Austrian wine while we waited for the return boat! 

Vienna - My Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing

 I know! Can you believe it? Why am I in school again? But what a program to be in - I want to elevate my writing and be publishing fiction and creative non-fiction - and this program has me in Europe for 2 weeks each of three summers - Vienna first (July 1-15, 2023) then Dublin and in 2025, Barcelona! 

I was able to fly over on Condor direct from Anchorage to Frankfurt, (9 hrs), then a short flight Frankfurt to Vienna on Austrian Airlines, about 90 minutes. We stayed at the Hotel Johann Strauss, which was lovely, and classes were a short 2 blocks away.We had four or five local speakers/exhibits, and we did work ahead of time in film, poetry, non-fiction and fiction of Vienna/Austria. I was already interested in Vienna at the turn of the century and leading up to WWII, and I had been waiting since 1994 to go and see the work of Egon Schiele after seeing an exhibit in Washington D.C. totally by accident -- The National Gallery. 

Loved early morning walks after a good European breakfast, while it was still cool, and seeing parents walking their children to school-or accompanying them on their bikes or scooters. Then a decaf cappuccino in a cafe on the way back to the hotel, and I was ready for the day! 

Classes 10-12 and 2-5, including a couple of excursions and a boat trip on Saturday down the Danube to Bratislava, Slovakia! I also went to the Leopold Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Albertina and the Belvedere Museum on my own and to a Mozart concert. I loved Vienna and was even able to have dinner with old friends, Tomas and Stefanie! They took me to a lovely little Austrian restaurant all in German and got me acquainted with the local food! Wish I'd taken pictures! Sorry! 

I did take pictures around town though, and I think that I took one of breakfast too! 

It was a fantastic two weeks, and I'm going to love this writing program - low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at Cedar Crest College - online except for summer residency! 

Visitors!

 I forgot the visitors in the last post! First, my daughter, Jessica, her guy, Steve, and their friend, Marina came for 8 days, and we spent some time in Anchorage plus an overnight in Talkeetna. The time goes so fast! It was Jessica's birthday too, and they enjoyed Talkeetna, zip lining and hanging out in town. 

Then, just a week or so later, Brian's son, Scott, wife Tarah, and our two beautiful granddaughters, Kora and Brie came for two weeks! They graciously let me out the door to go to Vienna a week in (another post), but we had such a good time with them out in a larger RV that we rented to go to Denali, many playground trips, and a journey out on the boat for shrimp and to Seward to the Sea Life Center. 

A good time was had by all! And we'll be seeing them soon again in upstate New York! 

Summer Camping and Visitors!

 We didn't get out in our RV as much as we would have liked this summer, but we were busy with visitors -- and very important ones! We did make it to the Johnson Pass Trail for a hike, just before it got too brushy and to Hope up to the Couer D'Alene Campground where we biked up into an Arctic Valley and then the idea is to stash the bikes and continue on foot up the mountain to an old mine and an arctic lake that still has ice in mid-June. However, they still had too much snow and avalanches that blocked our way, first stashing the bikes early and then not being able to proceed after hiking a while, even on foot. We did see a moose and her calf on the way back! And a couple of horsewomen trailered in after we were back--it turned out we knew the same people in Palmer, our friends Alys & Pete from Palmer, who also have horses. 

We also have been enjoying biking with Kira in the bugger. She loves it and stands the whole way, looking around--we like having her with us, and she's unreliable for running alongside. 

A Long Winter and Time with Special People!

 I'm sorry to see that I've let two years go by without posting anything, especially since last year we had a 30 day trip in our Chinook around the Gold Rush Loop -- up to Chicken, across the Top of the World Highway and over to Dawson City, then down through the Yukon and British Columbia to Skagway. We took a ferry to Haines, then drove back through Haines Junction and the lower route. More on that for another post. 

In the last couple of years, Brian has had a couple of medical emergencies, and my mother died in March of 2022. That also had an impact on how much got done and posted. For my children, their father's mother died, too, this year, so they've lost both of their grandmothers who they were very close to. My children were the first grandchildren who lived in the same town as both grandmothers, and they doted on both of them. I, and they, were very lucky to have two such wonderful women in our lives. 

This year, once Brian had recovered from his bout with Pylomyalgia Rheumatica (Inflammation- Autoimmune-terrible stuff-look it up) we were able to move on and cross-country ski in the absolute best winter we've had here in Anchorage in the past 13 years that we've been here. And that's saying something! So much snow, such mild temps, often in the low 20s, perfect for outings. 

And, we had unbelievable Northern Lights show up this year right from our back deck, which has never happened in all of the time that we've been here. 

We also had a great first-time visit from my son, Colin, who arrived in time for Fur Rondy week, got to see the fireworks, ski with us, fat tire bike, make a trip to Talkeetna, and see both the sprint races (dogs) and start of the Iditarod. 

It was a loooong winter, but we didn't mind, and in May, with the snow finally gone, we got to visit our friends, Mary Mathisen and Lance Mearig in Juneau at their home on the water - whale sightings right out their living room window and a couple of good (wet) hikes! 

There was a lot of card playing on a very rainy Memorial Day weekend and a lovely time spent with friends we see too seldom!