Back in Central New York

You might think we didn't go out and play this past weekend, since we didn't post any winter wonderland pictures -- but now we're back playing in Central New York!  Brian skied on Sunday at Osceola, the only place here with sufficient snow right now -- hopefully that will change with a snowstorm predicted for Christmas night or the day after.  We'll ski at Osceola again tomorrow.  Judy's making "felted" hats and mittens for Christmas -- we'll post pictures in a few days.  You make GIANT mittens and then shrink them in the washer down to a very dense "felt" that is warm and toasty -- so far the hats are two big -- they need another turn through the washer!
It's great to be back and seeing all of you CNY people!  We love being here too, and then our thoughts, of course, turn to -- SAILING!  Planning now for June-Aug.  Happy Holidays!  

Brian Skis ALL WEEKEND!!

Judy was in Seattle Thurs-Sat night, but Brian got some skiing in -- Friday on the Coastal Trail past the lagoon and out to Earthquake Park, a part of Anchorage that fell into the water in the 1964 Earthquake.  The trail had just been groomed, and he skate skied it.  Then he went up to his friend Carl's and worked on waxing skis.  Saturday he skied classical on fresh snow as it snowed overnight, and they take care of grooming the trails before anybody touches the roads!  He went in the evening and skied again, skate skied on the trails close to our house and ran into a drunk that on the return trip had curled up on the trail to go to sleep -- in the single digits.  Brian skied by and then called 911 -- there have been several people already who have been found dead in the city after drinking and then going to sleep outside.  He was at the airport at midnight to pick Judy up and we saw another inebriate coming home -- a Santa Claus trying to make it across  6 lanes of traffic who could barely stand up -- hope he made it!

Sunday was cold and clear!  We went to the Campbell Creek trails on the southeast side of the city, and the temperature (showing on our dash) went from 12 degrees to 5 degrees on the way over!  As soon as we started out (with just a little face showing!),  we ran into the moose that you see here in the pictures, almost right on the trail.  It was close enough this time that we weren't feeling like we could ski past her, but just as we turned around to go back and find another trail, she moved off to the side a little bit, and several of us scooted by!  You often get a little line at both ends trying to decide what to do.  People often have dogs too -- have you heard of "skijouring?"  I don't think we've had a picture of that yet -- being pulled by a dog while on skis.  It was another gorgeous day with fresh snow on the trees -- Brian picked this trail because they have mushing trails that intersect our trail, and he was hoping to see a dog team -- no luck that day. 


We finished the day with a party at one of the faculty's houses that Judy works with -- we were the oldest ones there, but a good outdoor group of people to talk too!  New ways of fishing, kayaking, finding out all of the places to go -- even the ones you have to fly into!  We're leaving on Wednesday night late to fly back to New York for the holidays -- so hope to see most of you while we're there! 

Living in Bear Country Talk Tonight

Went to a MeetUp Pot-luck dinner tonight with a speaker afterwards from the Fish & Game Club, talking about living with bears within the municipality.  Brown bears and black bears are not only outside of the city on the trails but also sometimes within the city due to salmon streams running throughout.  It was a pretty interesting talk -- and good company -- and we came home and turned on the television to find a show about the Adirondacks, beginning with the 90 mile canoe race, then the 46 high peaks and on to other Adirondack activities!  There are definitely similarities.  Brian says he is now going to go and buy bear spray for us, which most people carry spring through fall for hiking, biking, etc.  Of course, the bears are hunkered down now but we hear they wake up about mid-April, just waiting for those little moose calves to be born!  We saw moose tracks on the way into this business tonight where the talk took place, and they have plastic "sandwich" signs that they set out saying "Caution, Moose Sighting" like the signs that they put out in public bathrooms when they are cleaning or when the floors are wet!  This is on one of the busiest streets in town! 

Back Country Ski from Peter's Creek Trailhead

Of course we started at the bakery again for the most delicious scones (rasberry with lemon zest) and coffee.  We woke up at 8:50 am, it's still dark, and had promised to meet people to ski at 9:45, about 40 minutes away.  We were meeting a MeetUp group to go to a trail that we were unable to find on our own a week ago - it wound up the mountain enough to get to the trailhead that we're unlikely to go back if it has snowed much without a 4 wheel drive or chains!  From the start, we headed up and up and up - a lot of climbing!  It was a beautiful day, and one of the people with us was ski-jouring -- being pulled by a dog in harness while on skis - big sport around here.  Eventually the other 3 people added skins to their skis to make it up the rest of the way, and we decided to turn around and take another loop back!  We still had a 3 hour ski, which felt like plenty by the time we got back, and some great downhill on the way!  Now it's another trip to REI on Monday to check out the price of skins!  You have to have the right equipment to play, wherever you are!  It's skins or dogs, and we choose skins! 

Skiing on the Chester Creek Trail Near the Apt.

Skied diagonal today on the trail just a few minutes from our house.  We got fresh snow last night, just an inch or so, but the temperature warmed up into the low 20s.  It's been unusually cold here this week and was down below zero at one point!  Today was sunny and the multi-use trail was in good shape for bikers, walkers AND skiers!  We can ski all of the way to Judy's office, which includes going through tunnels under roads that the municipality shovels snow into and skiing over a bridge over a major highway to get there.  On the way back, and you'll see from our pictures that we're skiing with another couple -- our landlords, Mary and Lance Mearig, we had company on the trail -- a moose!  She was pretty content with whatever she was finding to eat under the snow, but we did wait a while to make sure, and two bikers were waiting on the other side!  We skied on within 10 feet of the moose!  You never know when you're going to see one. 

Last night we went to the "Wild & Scenic" Film Festival put on by the Alaska Marine Conservation Council -- short films intended to raise consciousness about environmental issues - it was entertaining.  Before that we went to the Snow Goose Restaurant for drinks, which is a micro-brewery, and tried the Gold Rush Ale and the FishOn IPA.  We were wimpy about the cold this week, and we're going to have to toughen up.  When we drove home Wednesday with it 1 degree out, we still saw people riding their bikes home on the trails.  Their bikes!!!  Flying back to NY one week from Thursday -- really from Wednesday, as we leave 12:30 am early Thursday morning.  Hope to see many of you over the holidays! 

Skiing - The BEST Birthday Present

Headed north today about an hour to Hatcher's Pass again, where we skied a couple of weeks ago - two different trails today though.  Both were groomed for skating and diagonal.  Independence Mine is the topmost trail and you see snowboarders hitching rides up in the back of pickups and taking off from the side of the mountain on the way up.  It's about a 20 minute (or less if you're faster) climb up the trail, then an outer loop (more climbing) and an inner loop, the only fairly flat terrain - it was a good workout - we had our diagonal skis. Some serious training going on there - mostly skaters!  Two of our pictures were near the top and don't even nearly show you how gorgeous it is!  Great descent back to the car for a warm up and a snack, then we drove about 1/2 way down to another trail, Archangel, which is more nearly level and also beautiful going back into the mountains.  We only skied about an hour, but the trail is groomed as at least a 15k, so we'll have to go back and try the whole thing.  The trail at the bottom, Gold Mint, is the one we did a few weeks ago, ungroomed, on our backcountry skis.  You'll see our moose picture - saw four moose on the side of the mountain as we drove down on our way back to Anchorage!  Had a great day and now we're headed out to dinner!

It's Snowing Again!

Several days of freezing rain - Yuck!  Unusual, we're told, for that to happen.  The University closed at noon on Monday and didn't open again before Thanksgiving, so Judy had the whole week to work at home.  Also took up knitting again - a hat and two scarves so far with scrap yarn we brought with us!  For a couple of days before the rain started, a fog had rolled in and that mist froze overnight all over everything -- it was just beautiful but we kept forgetting to take pictures -- not like an ice storm, because it was a very fine frost over the trees.  For three days, there was so much ice on the streets and sidewalks, it was almost impossible to walk -- they don't salt here and barely plow -- they put some sand or cinders down, but not on all side streets -- it's different! 

It started snowing during the night last night - at 1 am it was still raining, but we woke up to SNOW!!  A walk to the best bakery ever for scones and coffee, then continuing on to the Westchester Lagoon.  Pictures here from our morning walk along the trail from our house.  Brian is at the top of the stairs that we walk down to get to the trail, and Judy is on a small bridge along the Coastal Trail. We walked to the end today, up 5th Ave. to downtown, then back to 12th with a stop at the grocery for cinnamon for the applesauce we started before we left.   We'll have dinner tonight at our landlord's, Mary and Lance Mearig, just downstairs from us.  We're bringing applesauce and stuffed mushrooms -- and wine, of course!  Maybe we'll start with that now! 
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and to your families and friends!  Tomorrow is Judy's birthday and we'll be off to find enough snow to ski in!  Stay tuned! 

While Waiting for Snow!

NO NEW SNOW YET!  Forecast was wrong and we mostly have hard crusty snow everyplace - and not enough of it.  But we hiked in a new place on Saturday and actually they had a little more snow and there were people skiing - not easily it didn't look like!  We hiked for 2 1/2 hours on a hard-packed snow surface up towards the mountains and on narrow paths through forested land - very pretty and a sunny, though very cold day.  It's been unseasonably cold here and in the single digits at night (until Sunday, it warmed up to 20s again).  Here are a couple of pictures of Brian on the trail we were hiking.  We hiked back on the Powerline trail, which is a wide and open trail that runs along the mountains for quite a ways.  A guy passed us on a bike with the fat tires that must have had a really WILD ride back down, as it's quite steep in parts, and another guy on skis (same wild ride) and their 3 dogs having a ball racing after them. 

Sunday we had heard there was more snow at Eagle River and "excellent" conditions, BUT -- we drove to Eagle River, which is just about 20 minutes north of us and then another 12 miles back into the mountains to the Eagle River Nature Center.  We're still exploring where all of the trails are - there are just about a million of them! We had a good time there and it is just gorgeous -- it is a multi-use trail though, and they haven't had new snow though they've had some since Anchorage did.  Still, it was so walked on that the trail wasn't that great.  We skied for about 1 1/2 hours, checked out the 2 yurts and a cabin that they have available for rentals - it's one of the prettiest trails that we've ever seen.  The last trail that we were on was less used, being further away, and it was pretty good, especially for skate skiing.  But we hurried back to hear a talk on the Iditarod Historic Trail, which one of these trails was a part of.  The Crow Pass Trail was a part of a trail that was carved out to carry mail by dogsled from Valdez, where it would be brought in by boat to the port, to Nome, way up in Northern Alaska, where there was a pretty good-sized city and no access to regular mail through the winter months (which there were a lot of!). 

So when we got home, we had to look up Nome to figure out why so many people would live up there!  It turns out that was another gold rush story.  (I had figured fur trade, maybe?)  In 1898, three Swedes discovered gold there, and within a year or so, 10,000 people had come to try their luck, living in tents anyplace they could set one down and as close to the river to mine as possible.  The history of Alaska, between the gold rush years, the native Alaskan tribes and the infrastructure that was built during WW II, is pretty fascinating!  Hope you enjoy the pictures of Eagle River that we've posted here too. 

First Skate Ski and a Hike in Girdwood

Brian skied on Saturday - no new snow and off and on a little combo rain-snow.  We tried diagonal but couldn't get the wax, so Judy went to buy yarn (somewhere along the way to moving we lost her skating poles, and she'd already been to yoga!) and Brian switched to skate skis.  An hour and a half later, he decided that was a pretty hilly course and the people here are in darned good shape!  Sunday we got up and ate pancakes (ala James Beard, spare no calories - sour cream and butter), went grocery shopping and drove to Girdwood, which is about 40 minutes away to hike or ski - it turned out to be hike, though we did see a few hardy souls skiing in and out - it looked painful, they hadn't had new snow either, and it was hard, crusty, and had been walked on - a lot. The hike was beautiful though - you'll have to trust us on that one - we had the camera, but discovered we hadn't put the memory card back in the last time we took pictures off for the computer.  We put our Katoolahs on about 1/2 way in, which helped a lot for footing - those are mini-spikes that slip over your boots - very popular here and with good reason - they get a lot of icy conditions, and they don't use salt on sidewalks or roads.  The Winner Creek Trail, where we hiked today, begins at the Alyeska Hotel Resort, a downhill ski resort, and continues about 2.5 miles til you get to a hand tram that can take you over a creek -- we didn't go across, but the trail that continues on was a part of the old Iditarod trail, before it was moved to its more norther location now - it begins in Anchorage and is quite the event we hear - we'll find out this year!  We're reading about Fur Rendezvous, which begins at the end of February and includes the Iditarod and the Anchorage Tour-a-thon, which Brian is thinking of registering for - they already have 1,000 registrants for this ski race in March!  http://www.anchorage.net/1259.cfm (look up Anchorage Fur Rendezvous).  Back to work tomorrow!  We'll try and get pictures next time, and snow is predicted for the next two days! 

First Ski!

We skied on the Gold Mint trail at Hatcher's Pass today, the first ski of the season - November 7th - this might be one long season!  We took our back-country skis, but it ended up that there was actually plenty of snow and it had been rolled and tracked further up at Independence Mine and another trail we stopped and checked out.  We chose to check out a lesser-used trail that also used to lead to a gold mine, now just an up and down, mostly up going out, scenic trail into the mountains.  It's always a thrill to be out the first time on a beautiful day!  We ran into a snowstorm on the way back..  Hatcher's Pass is said to have the first snow for skiing close to Anchorage and may have been good even last weekend.  It is just outside of Wasilla (yes, Sarah Palin's Wasilla) about 45 miles north of Anchorage.  Last night on a walk from our apartment back to Westchester Lagoon, we started up a path back to our neighborhood and saw a moose on our right on the path up ahead.  We decided she was far enough to the side and not terribly interested in us, so we continued on.  It was just getting dark and fortunately Brian all of a sudden saw two more on our left and much closer!  So . . . we decided to take a longer walk than planned and let them have the use of the trail.  One of the ones on the left looked much smaller, as much as we could see in the dusk, and that's a definite rule of thumb not to get between mother and calf! 

Moose on the Loose!

Brian was helping a friend work on a house yesterday, and when he came back out to the truck, backed up to the garage, he had company -- a big female moose (cow) standing right on the side of the truck!  The moose was not one bit concerned about Brian and just stood there while he decided to go back in the house!  Where's that camera when you need it!  It snowed on Monday night, and Tuesday morning the ground was covered -- very pretty to have the first real snowfall.  The temperature is in that in-between stage where it can be more like rain, but snow is predicted in the next few days.  We tend to not get big amounts at a time, I guess, but more consistent light snowfalls.  Went to dinner last night at the same place that Judy's Search Committee took the two of us when we were up here in March -- who knew we'd be up here and at home just 6 months later.  We walked up to the downtown restaurant to meet a friend and took a long walk home, walking her home first.  It was a beautiful night, and we love being able to walk to places right from our house -- a couple of wine bars, many restaurants, and the Coastal multi-use trail close-by.  Soon there should be ice skating on Westchester Lagoon! 

Saturday in Anchorage

We weren't as ambitious this weekend.  It's dark til nearly 9:30 in the morning, so some of us especially tend to sleep in!  We had coffee at the Fire Island Bakery a couple of blocks away (and great scones and foccacia!) then walked to West High School where they were having a big ski swap, only to find out we were too early -- long, crispy walk anyway!  Went back later by car, but it was more of a downhill swap than Nordic, and the cross-country stuff was pretty picked over by the time we got there.  Next weekend there is a swap with the Nordic ski club.  Went to our first social event -- dinner at Carl and Diane's and met two other couples -- and what a dinner!  Courses started with Salmon Tartare with Sweet Red Onion Creme Fraiche and champagne and went on from there -- way beyond great -- a real treat.

There are more than 100 km of skiing only trails in Anchorage, and 1/4 of those are lit!  This is besides the multi-use trails that you can also ski on.  Four of the Olympic skiers in Vancouver were from Anchorage, and many of the trails are world class for racing. More about that when we start skiing! 

Sunday hike on Turnagain Arm

Tonight (Sunday) we have a lot of peanut butter cups and Snickers bars for trick or treaters, but only 1 group has come to the door -- uh-oh!  Neither one of us needs to eat those, and if you put them in the freezer, I've discovered they only taste better!We went for a milder hike today along the Turnagain Arm Trail -- we'll try to put in a map -- it starts south of Anchorage running along Cook Inlet, and there are four trailheads.  The trail was originally built in 1910 to carry a telegraph line and later provided an access for workers constructing the Alaska railroad.  The tracks run down below, alongside the road.  The Chugach State Park renovated the trail in the 1980s - it's a 9 1/2 mile one-way traverse if you do the whole thing.  Turnagain Arm boast the second largest tidal bores in the world - tidal bores occur in bays and inlets with extreme tidal fluctuations.  The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia is the only one larger.  In a tidal bore, according to the guidebook, "the incoming tide builds to a flood that overpowers the outgoing tide.  The resulting tide resembles a wall of water ranging from several inches to several feet high."  We hiked what was said to be the highest part of the trail, though only 950', from Rainbow to Windy Corner, about 4 miles round-trip and mild up and downs after the intial climb up.  It started snowing on the way, and we took a couple of pictures that show the mountains appearing through the fog - we'll see how well it shows up!  The high point of this hike, other than the views across the water and the mountains in clear weather, is the Dall sheep that inhabit these craggy slopes - though we haven't seen them yet!  We ran into a young guy in the Air Force who is on his second stint in Alaska, which he loves, with a big tripod and a tent who was headed up to wait out the sheep, who he said will come down further as it starts to snow.  He intended to set up his tent and spend about 3 hours up on a level grassy spot waiting for them!  A bald eagle flew over as we were talking to him.  He told us in the winter we can come back and they'll be all over the lower trails.  It was a pleasant hike and will be a great place to bring anyone who wants a milder day, beautiful views across the water, and not the more strenuous climbs.

Greetings from Alaska: Flattop to Ptarmigan Pass

Greetings from Alaska: Flattop to Ptarmigan Pass: "Lots of climbing and lots of moose sightings today! A long hike today, seven hours, with a quick elevation gain to Flattop Mt., the most-cl..."

Flattop to Ptarmigan Pass

Lots of climbing and lots of moose sightings today!  A long hike today, seven hours, with a quick elevation gain to Flattop Mt., the most-climbed mountain in Alaska, and then continuing along a ridge to two higher peaks, unnamed, all of the way to Ptarmigan Pass -- then you drop down for "the easy part" to the lake, partially frozen, that you see in one picture, and then to the Powerline Trail, an mostly flat and maintained trail back to the trailhead.  We saw 30 bull moose along the Powerline Trail in an hour and a half walk back!  Some were quite close to the trail, and we shared a picture here -- this is not taken with a telephoto lens!  The bull moose are evidently through womanizing (otherwise known as rutting), and now they're just hanging out together!  This was a spectacular hike, and one that includes some scrambling -- you're almost always exposed and it's always loose footing -- with a long way down!  At least you can pause and catch your breath since every step is a scenic overlook!  The people and the dogs with us are from a MeetUp group. 

Hike from Basher Rd. to "The Dome"

Saturday afternoon we took a hike that started just up the road from the house where we were house-sitting - that finished on Friday.  Basher Rd. dead-ends in a trailhead that was about a 3 hour hike, some of it pretty steep, pretty views from the top out over Anchorage and Cook Inlet or toward other peaks in the Chugach Mts.  We didn't start til 3 and came down at 6 to end up having wine at Carl and Diane's -- Brian's friend -- she had been on a day flight with a friend up to Denali and had a wonderful clear day flying.  Sharing a couple of pictures from that hike -- Brian says we saw more dogs than people - everyone in Alaska has at least one dog, it seems -- and they all go hiking! 

Housesitting (and animal sitting) in "Stuck-Again Heights"

We're up in them thar hills -- house and cat and dog sitting for Brian's friend Carl - the house looks down on the city of Anchorage and the area that he lives in they call Stuck-again Heights for reasons that you can imagine -- no snow yet though!  They did see 3 bears down the road in the park just before they left to go to New York.  The cat, Picasso, and Krishna, doggie, have been keeping us company this week - sometimes very early.  The house is beautiful, and Carl built it himself, also all of the cabinets and shelves.
You drive through a park that has a lot of hiking and skiing trails to get here, and in the winter, also the "mushers" (dogsleds).  The stream that runs through it has salmon so often bears during August, Sept. and sometimes into October.  We'll be going back to our apartment tomorrow and have a full weekend of hiking planned -- Friday night full moon hike, Saturday morning Nordic ski swap then hike up in Eagle River, and Sunday, if we're still moving, a 6-7 hour hike with the Meetup group.  Posting pictures here of our animal friends and the house they shared with us this week -- their parents will be back tomorrow afternoon!

Was it cold on the ferry?

Answering another question with a picture!  Brian was comfortable outside during the day - lights inside went out at 9 pm, and that was pretty much bedtime!  Here is a picture of Judy joining Brian for the last 4 1/2 hours on the trip.  Judy flew to Juneau (1 hr., 20 min) on a Sunday morning and did some hiking (and shopping) in Juneau - took the bus downtown from the hotel where I stayed.  Juneau is a very pretty town, old mines on the hiking trails, very picturesque downtown, steep streets, called little San Francisco.  Met Brian Monday morning at about 5:30 am - we hadn't seen each other in 7 weeks!  The ferry took off about 6:45 am, and it docked up in Haines, where we drove the U-Haul off and began the road trip around noon.  Judy laid on the deck on a deck chair for part of the journey, but you can see both she and other people are a little bundled up!  Brian recommends the ferry trip to anyone coming up -- you could fly to Seattle or even Vancouver - check out the Alaska Marine Highway on the Internet! 

Judy's new job

Several of you have asked about my job.  It's been great, a lot to take in to learn about a new community and a new university - about 16,000 students, compared with 1800 at Hamilton, and most of those commuters as opposed to a residential campus.  Here is a link for a couple of articles that the campus newspaper wrote about me and my job over the last few weeks.  http://kasenna.uaa.alaska.edu/~tnl/?s=Owens-Manley&x=22&y=13&=Go (This didn't post as a direct link, but it works if you copy and paste in your browser).  The university is very committed to community engagement, and some of the faculty have great projects that they've started with community partners - they're great to work with.  There is a Civic Engagement Certificate program that began two years ago that I am Chair of and will teach in - students can register for it along with their major and have it on their transcript when they graduate - a commitment to have done a body of community-engaged work through their time in college.  It is 27 credit hours, but not in addition to what it takes to graduate, just by their choice of classes.  I have a faculty appointment in the School of Social Work. 

I'm still getting to know the community and probably will be for quite a while.  I've been to a Rotary meeting and will probably join again, which is, of course, a great way to get integrated into the community.  Brian and I are sharing one car right now.  We belong to a Meet Up group, and we've been doing some hiking trips with them.  We miss everyone, AND - we are so enjoying being here at the same time!

Hiking Byron Glacier

We met the "Adventurers MeetUp Group"  this morning for a glacier hike about an hour south of Anchorage, near Portage Lake.  Byron Glacier is a hanging glacier.  There is a massive snowfield, which you'll see in the pictures, "a permanent feature built up of the hardened avalanche snow of many previous winters." (Hiking Alaska - A Falcon Guide).  We got to put on our new Kartoolas when we got to the snowfield, and we each took a ski pole, since we didn't have hiking poles.  They came in handy for crossing the snowfield and for the little bit of actual "blue ice" we crossed up higher.  Not everybody went that far, and we were hoping there wasn't something the people from New York didn't know but should have!  There were definitely very deep crevasses you would not want to slide into, and Brian reviewed the self-arrest technique for us.  It was another gorgeous day, unbelievable really.  The blue ice doesn't show as deeply in the picture, and it was quite a sight. You'll see 3 guys climbing with ice axes up the face of the glacier - we only went to the base of that wall.  We were gone about 4 hours hiking by the time we got back to the car.

We (or at least Judy) like to start Sunday with coffee from the Fire Island Bakery at 14th and G St. -- it's hard to walk by the other things they make there, but their coffee is great, and it's the only day that I drink it -- still decaffinated though!  Back to work tomorrow for one of us - Brian gets some more time to settle in -- and read comments on our blog if any of our followers sent us any!  (Hint, hint - we'd love to hear from you!) 

From Rendevous Peak

This is termed an "easy" hike in the Alaska guidebooks but is just over 4,000 feet and a 1500 ft. elevation gain overall.  There is snow in the hills, and the final 600 feet up to the peak of Rendevous was a little slippery - we wound down the south side of the mountain following a trail under a chair lift of the Arctic Valley Ski Club, a privately owned and maintained downhill ski resort.  We found 2 guys and a dog at the top who took our picture for us, and now we're home having a glass of wine and appreciating the pictures from the top.  It was a clear day, and you can see Denali, which is 250 miles distant in the Alaska Range very clearly.  We are in the Chugach Mountains, but on clear days you can see the entire Alaska Range. 

We're wearing hats and gloves now.  It was sunny today, and we didn't wear them part of the way, but it's getting chilly here!  We're looking out at a beautiful sunset over Cook Inlet right now - we took another picture from the top looking out over Anchorage, and you can see the Inlet in the picture.  Water on the western side, mountains in the east (and north!).  It was a great afternoon - the glacier is up for tomorrow.  

Saturday in Anchorage

We're still getting set up for life in Alaska.  After a 8 am yoga class (just getting light now at 8 am), we went to REI and Alaska Mountaineering & Hiking to get "stuff!"  It turns out that you need Kahtoolas in Anchorage for hiking before it gets too late in the fall - they are microspikes, a little like crampons but lighter and lesser for footwear traction - good on ice or icy packed trails or maybe on a glacier, which is where we're going tomorrow for a hike.  Also better wind pants for biking, which some people do year-round here with heavier tires or even "studs" on bike tires!

It's a beautiful afternoon here, and between the blue sky and the mountains, we've got to go and get outside!  We might go do the hike again that we tried to do last week -- the wind was gusting so much when we got up to the pass that we could hardly stay on our feet!  And . . . we still don't have any pictures hung up on the walls, but I'll take the indoor pictures and post when we do.  In the meantime, I'm putting a couple of pictures on that we took on a routine hike that we often do after work from our house to Westchester Lagoon on the multi-use trail.

Brian took several pictures when he was on the ferry from Bellingham, Washington to Haines, Alaska - Judy joined him for the last 4 1/2 hours on the ferry by flying to Juneau.  The drive from Haines to Anchorage is really spectacular -- just when you think you've seen the most stunning vistas, here comes another one.  There's a book written about Haines that Judy just finished reading - "If you live here, you know my name" by Heather Lende.  Very interesting small-town rural Alaska.  So more pictures of the trip that we DIDN'T get entered along the way!  The guy with Brian in the picture is Lino -- originally from Mexico and living in LA -- he was ALSO driving a U-Haul that was on the ferry with him, transporting furniture to a buddy in Fairbanks.  Lino wasn't as impressed by the mountains -- yeah, yeah, yeah -- more mountains, more water!  Peter Molesky kept Brian company on the long drive from Utica to Bellingham, then flew back from Seattle once Brian was on the ferry.

It's beginning to look like home

Judy said that she was going to begin a blog when she got here, but now that Brian is here, it may actually happen.  Brian got here September 21st, after his cross-country trip in a U-Haul, 3 days on the ferry to Haines, AK and then 800 miles to Anchorage over land again.  It's pretty land -- mountains and water all around, and wonderful trails throughout the city for biking, walking, skiing (not yet though!).  It turns out that Brian has a friend here that he was friends with 23 years ago in Whitesboro! We have an apartment in the "downtown" area of Anchorage, which is a city of about 280,000.  People have asked us many things about the weather, the time difference, whether we have stores here . . . Anchorage is a city!  Yes, we have Wal-Mart!  We also have the symphony, museums, REI, great yoga studios, a planetarium, etc.  And, Brian says, yes, and when you're driving back from WalMart here, you're looking at these gorgeous mountains -- and you might hit a moose!  Where else can you say that!  Alaska has it's own time zone - one hour earlier than California.