Catching up - Weather, weather, weather!

Rain, rain, rain - it's been an incredibly rainy time in Anchorage -- and right after I told everyone that it really doesn't rain in Anchorage - in the two years that I'd been here, I'd never seen a downpour or even a steady rain.  It's a very dry climate here, and mostly when it's overcast or "rains," it's a drizzle or even a mist.  Not this year!

We've hiked a little in the rain or walked in between the drops, but it's not been really inspiring.  Brian's been working on a job for a couple of weeks, and Judy's work has been busy, so it's been easy enough to mostly work and fit in a little recreation along the way.  We've been yearning to go out on Kakwik, and the weather just hasn't been conducive.  Brian's friend, Carl, pulled the shrimp pots - the season was over on 9/15 - and I don't think we have NEARLY enough shrimp in the freezer!  We drove down to check on Kakwik on Sunday and had a very rainy and windy trip.  There have been high winds here along with the unusual storms, sometimes up to 100 mph or more -- not directly where our house is, but not far away.  Some homes have had power outages several times.

Saturday at least was one of the last days for the Farmer's Market - next Saturday will be the last of the outside markets at least!  Beet greens, swiss chard, celery, potatoes, carrots (potatoes and carrots are absolutely wonderful in Alaska!), even tomatoes (some unusual growing techniques here for fresh tomatoes), leeks!  I could take a picture of the potato-leek soup, but we've eaten it all!  Oh, and the Matanuska sharp cheddar cheese, which is expensive but only made about 20 miles from here and delicious! I'll miss the Farmer's Markets and always long for their return in May.

Brian was supposed to go fishing this week on the upper Kenai, but there has been so much rain and flooding that no boats were allowed on the water, and the trip was cancelled.  We missed out on the silver salmon this year, and we're hoping the Copper River reds last us through most of the winter.  We thought we would get more, and weather (high water) had even interfered with THAT fishing in May.

We joined a new workout routine, not really a gym, but a circuit-training place for skiers, and it is a tough 1 1/2 workout twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday after work.  After all, it's only a little over a month away probably to ski time!

Lastly, David Shipler, Pulitzer Prize winner is here this week to talk about his book, The Working Poor - great to work at a university and have access to so much!

Catching Up to Fall

The last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy as we settle back into life in Alaska, especially since Judy left over Labor Day weekend for a quick trip to see Jessica in southern California!  Brian did a long hike with Lance the same weekend up Wolverine.

Jet Blue flies to Long Beach from Anchorage direct between Memorial Day and Labor Day and very reasonably, so it was a good trip, even though it was 1 - 7:20 am, so very little sleep!  We made the most of the weekend with a trip to Ojai to see my sister and her family, shopping at a wonderful Farmer's Market in Santa Monica (oh, the tomatoes and the basil!), a night at the Hollywood Bowl for a concert, and a day at the beach.

In Ojai, we got to see my niece, Piper, playing with Emy Reynold's in The Emy Reynold's band at a coffeehouse in town.

I wish that I had taken more pictures in Ojai, but -- short trip, and I even made a huge batch of pesto while I was there to freeze and take back to Alaska with me.  We were just there overnight and then, back on the road to Santa Monica.  That night, there was a concert at The Hollywood Bowl, a huge, open amphitheater, celebrating 100 years of Paramount.  They had the symphony playing movie themes and huge screens playing the film clips at the same time - very fun.

And as if that wasn't enough, you can bring in a picnic, bottle of wine, etc. and have it while you're watching and listening.  A beautiful night, as you can see!  Each day we had taken a walk along the beach, but Monday, before I left to come back to Anchorage in the evening, we spent several hours at the beach, me reading of course! It's a beautiful beach and has a bike trail right up the middle that goes for maybe 50 miles?  These were taken from up above, as there are stairs down to the beach level.

A great vacation spot - thanks Jess!  Back to work and into a Wisdom on the Web Weekend this weekend, but we managed to fit in a great bike ride out the Chester Creek trail, where we could see all of the damage from the storm last week - trees down and uprooted, etc.  Leaves all over the multi-use trails . . . and two moose munching it up right on the side of the trail, big as life -- or bigger!  The storm was said to be more powerful coming off the Bering Sea because it was so much earlier than usual - more usual in winter.

Shrimp season is over, so whatever we have in the freezer will have to do til spring - hope we get one more trip out on Kakwik at least - though she won't come out of the water since it's salt water here.
Time to get Brian up and get both of us to work!