Tanner Crab at Orso's!

We had tickets for a special reception tonight for the Kodiak fishermen (fisherpersons!) and the Tanner crab coming in from Kodiak.  We bought 10 lb. last year through the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, and again this year, a seafood version of community-supported agriculture!  Tonight was the first time they tried this with wine and crabmeat h'or d'oeuvres.  Crab legs, crabmeat salad on rolls, crab-stuffed mushrooms, etc.  We met a couple who have 3 planes and want to trade time on Prince William Sound with us (on the boat we just bought with partners) for time in the air!  Gotta love this place!

Double Digits -- Finally!

We were delighted to find that it was finally above 10 degrees today for skiing - well, it was 11 degrees!  We've been kind of lazy, finally tiring of the 0 and below weather and having a hard time pushing ourselves out the door!  This was also supposed to be a big activity time for the Northern Lights, and Friday night, as it was perfectly clear, we stayed up really late, drove several miles north til it was really dark, and parked for awhile, hoping they would appear -- but, no such luck!  Now it's overcast and snowing again, so we won't see anything tonight.

Today we went back to the Campbell Airstrip Park and skied on groomed trails again - we haven't skate skied in a week or maybe even two!  It snowed the whole time, and probably an inch and a half or more just while we were skiing.  Then home to turkey soup and turkey sandwiches on Judy's first time sourdough biscuits!  (We should have taken a picture of THEM!)

IMPORTANT BOAT PICTURES -- Brian is now a co-owner of another boat, a 30 foot Sundowner Tug on Prince William Sound named Kakwik.

Pictures of the inside:

Brian and Carl are working on the engine which needs repairs now, but hopes are to have it on the water come April (or May) in time for shrimping!  This is a boat with a LOT of room, plenty of sleeping room for 4, and lots of wonderful little bays to explore -- more than we could ever get to!  Not the kind of water you would jump into even mid-summer (glaciers too!) but drop dead gorgeous, and you travel with lots of sea life -- otters, seals, sea lions, porpoises and even whales!

We'll be traveling back east for Judy's son's wedding in less than 2 weeks, weather willing!

Back to work preparing for classes to begin!

It's been a week of preparation and a continuing week of snowfall in Alaska -- sorry New York skiers!  We skied over the weekend, and Brian continued skiing this week, but Judy got too busy with the week before classes and preparing to take over a new role 1/2 of her time at UAA as the Associate Dean of the University Honors College.  And . . . we've been waiting for our Amaryllis to emerge from its cocoon -- we've been growing it since WAAAYYY before Christmas, and we actually thought you maybe can see it grow, it grows so quickly and so tall.

In the last couple of days it really began to emerge, and I wish we had taken a day by day picture as it began.  The picture above is from Tuesday.  Today, Thursday,  it is fully emerging, and it is glorious!

Waiting for dinner to be done, and then we're going for a walk tonight.  We're supposed to get 10 inches of snow altogether by the time it stops, and it's fairly warm here -- 11 degrees, we call that warm this year!
Judy's been going to Pilates many mornings trying to get some workouts in since night doesn't always work now, and Brian's continuing to build his contracting business.  I'll have to try to put his business card on here -- it's really great.

We have only three weeks from Friday before we're headed back east for Colin's and April's wedding -- it's coming up so fast now!  We're looking forward to the wedding and to seeing our friends and family again!

Skiing Campbell Airstrip trails off Basher Rd.

Cold, cold, cold.  We've gotten out there, but we were looking forward to double digits, which we finally almost got to today by the time we finished skiing.  Had a wonderful ski with our back-country skis, which basically were used today on a single track trail that's not groomed, just skied in.  Beautiful woods, and it seemed warmer than the 5 degrees than it said when we started.  Not too many people on the trail, and as many dogs as people, which is usual for Alaska!

Yesterday we started out to ski at the end of the day, but as we got over to the parking area on the right-hand side of Basher Rd., to skate ski on the groomed trails, the temperature gradually dropped until it was -4 degrees when we parked.  I had to say no, I was so tired of skiing when it was so cold.  We drove back to the trails by our house, started to skate ski, and after about 10 minutes, Brian skied back and said no himself - too cold, skis too slow, more work than fun!  

After dinner, we bundled up completely and walked downtown for coffee at the Cake Studio, then along the Coastal Trail and Chester Creek Trail back to Valley of the Moon Park near our house -- probably 1 1/4 hours or so altogether, not bad for 0 degrees or below!    Now we're off to walk downtown for an 8:00 show of 2 silent films (Buster Keaton!) with the Anchorage Symphony live!