Spring comes to Anchorage!

It was surprising how fast the snow disappeared!  Within two weeks, it seemed like, we went from these tall snowbanks that completely covered the bench we brought with us to Alaska for our yard to sitting out on it (south-facing yard!) on a sunny evening.  Judy was very ill with the flu this past month - not the WHOLE month, but it's surprising how disruptive that was and how long it's taken to recover from it - so we haven't brought you up to date on what we've been doing for awhile!  Daffodils and tulips are blooming, buds are about to burst, and nearly every day has been blue sky, sunny and 50-55 or so - VERYpleasent!

Spring has brought new things to take care of . . . the semester's almost done at UAA, so lots to finish up there.  Brian has been working on Kakwik, our new Sundowner tug owned with two partners, trying to get it in the water - and it's due in probably at the end of the week!  Next chore - bottom paint!  Launching in Prince William Sound at Whittier, stay tuned!  And come up and go out on it with us!

Shrimp for dinner tonight, fresh out of Prince William Sound, our first of the season - we have this picture of them put on to briefly come to a boil, and we MEANT to take a picture when they were peeled and on the plate, but they disappeared too quickly!

And, we've been doing some traveling.  Judy had a chance to lead a couple of community meetings for public feedback on the Chugach forest, subbing for another professor at UAA, so we both flew to Cordova on April 24th overnight (you can only get to Cordova by flying!) and Judy flew to Valdez on April 26th overnight (you can drive to Valdez, about 6 hours from here).

This is a picture of Cordova's harbor - Valdez looks much the same except much more dramatic mountains rising straight from the harbor. Very fun to see two more Alaskan communities, each of which was quite different. We loved hearing from the people who lived there about how they used the forest and the Sound and the different recreational opportunities they took part in - Valdez has the extreme skiing championships, and there were several young people who came out - self-proclaimed ski bums, but also interested in getting a hut to hut system built for the Chugach.

Tickets back East for June 21st, back in Utica on June 25th til July 31st -- about two weeks of that will be sailing on Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands!