Our Second RV Trip for Spring Break Went North

We enjoyed the first trip so much to Turnagin Pass that we decided to go north, still with the idea of checking things out - gas mileage (not good news!), dishes etc. needed, where to store things, and so on. Plus we had so much fun we wanted to do it again and for longer! We were also hoping for Northern Lights, which we didn't get.

We thought we'd be able to pull into Denaliview South, but the parking lot wasn't plowed out, so we continued on and ended up in the new state park just north of there on the east side of the road - probably not supposed to be there overnight, but there were people there for the cabins, and no one challenged us. We had a great snowshoe there up a "Curry Ridge" with spectacular views of the Alaska Range and Denali all of the way up and down, about 6 miles round trip.

What a Day - Denali out the entire time! 

"Moose Steps" - you don't want to mis-step into one of these! 

We had a nice snowshoe the next day too from Troublesome Creek, and then a visit on the way home with our good friends Klaus and Laura in Trapper Creek. What a great week, and a beginning of having the RV become our "home away from home." We plan to live in it for 3 months June - Sept!

Early Spring Fun!

We began spring break fun with a fat tire bike ride under the full moon after I had a writing retreat with 10 women and a wonderful weekend of writing together.

Chester Creek Trail under the Full Moon 

Thank you Patti Clayton and everyone who attended the retreat for a weekend of inspiration!



Brian and I took our "newest" RV out for some winter camping and to try it out for our longer stay coming up this summer. We went south for one night staying in our favorite big parking area at Turnagin Pass - we had company - another skier overnighting just in his car! We snowshoed the first day, then skied on our backcountry skis the next.

Someone had left a very nice snow cave but we chose the RV overnight! 

Fresh baked muffins in the RV the next morning! Just like home! 

The next day we were skiing/exploring the area, which was
just beautiful and pristine - instead of going up like we did snowshoeing, we stayed lower, but still with some ups and downs.




When we finished, we moved the RV up to Portage and skied out to the glacier - unfortunately, it had gotten cold and windy, and Portage Lake was quite icy out to the glacier.   We didn't wait around long, and the entire way back was into the wind (whine, whine, whine!)

Fur Rondy Time and the Iditarod

We didn't do a lot of Fur Rondy events this year, but we did do the Fat Tire Bike ride with about 500 other bikes, and watched some of the sprint dog races. And of course, the beginning of the Iditarod Ceremonial Start!

We found Marilyn & Steve at the Finish Line - Marilyn is a traveling nurse that we met last year, and we've enjoyed spending time with them - they're back again this year! 

Fat Tire Bikes Heading Down the Trail! 

We missed the fireworks this year though we heard they were wonderful - we had tickets to the Anchorage Symphony, and we had already given our tickets away once this season. And we have really good seats! The sprint dog races are always fun to watch and take place the Saturday before the Iditarod start.



It's always fun to watch the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, and several people from the university have parties along the trail - which is right in back of their houses! It was cooooolllllld, but we were ready for it! We're complete with mink and beaver hats here!

2017 is off to the races!

I'm going to start with Feb. 11 here at home, ready to go out and run to the store before dinner guests arrive, and here's what we see!  I guess we're not going out THAT door!

So we took pictures for a few minutes then snuck out through the garage in the car - texted our friends to watch for the moose as they arrived.  Ten or fifteen minutes later, we arrived back home, and the moose was now attached to chomping on a tree right next to our driveway.  We couldn't decide whether to try to drive into the garage and hope she didn't follow us in, try to scare her off, or ???  We hit the garage door opener, and she took off down the street.  They are MASSIVE -- and known to hurt, even the "urban moose" who are fairly used to people.  You still want to stay away - when our guests came, she was back across the street.

We made homemade pasta last night for the first time since we've lived here - 6 1/2 years now - the pasta machine still worked, and I tried plain and spinach pasta with 3 different sauces - so we had "little plates" in order to try everything.  I think they weren't "little" enough judging by how full we were - arugula pesto, roasted red pepper sauce with buttermilk, and red clam sauce.  It was fun to do, and I hope we don't wait another 6 years to make it again!

Okay, back to January - we went to upstate NY for my mother's 90th birthday, and all 6 of her children were able to be there.  We had a quick stop in Waterloo first and got to babysit one of our granddaughters, 5 months old - we took her for a long walk in this picture, and she is super easy to babysit for -- and VERY cute!  We also got to have dinner with Brian's two sons and their wives, and Brian was able to be at the inspection for Al and Sarah's house they just bought.

And then the birthday!  Judy's mother is in incredible shape for 90 years old.  Still living in her own house but thinking of selling for something smaller - she has a big big lot and flowers, trees, bushes, lawn, etc. to care for.

And then back to more skiing and fat tire biking.  Judy came back from New York with a bad cold that lingered for nearly 3 weeks, so Brian got more of that in, but we're both back out now! This weekend was cold but beautiful, and it's warming up - probably more than we want! Come on February - give us some more winter!

Mid-Winter in Alaska - Looking Back and Ahead!

Wow!  We just noticed that we haven't entered anything here since October.  Very bad.  We've had a busy winter for sure -- Judy was in California for a conference in November, then we were both in Mexico in December for a Year-end course with the Wisdom Course Area of Landmark - Los Cabos. After that kick start to ending one year and beginning a new one, we spent Christmas with our friends (and former landlords for the first 4 years that we lived in Anchorage) who now live in Juneau.

So first things first - Mexico - great temperatures, wonderful course and a gorgeous room with a swim-up just off our patio - it was great to slide in the water right from our room, and temperatures perfect for me - sunny but not too hot, high 70s to low 80s.

We weren't back long before we were headed to Juneau for Christmas -- and we loved spending it with our friends!  The weather was change-able, but we skied a couple of times, hiked, ate wonderful food and played pinochle every night!

And then home - for some great skiing and fat tire biking over New Year's before we headed for New York for Judy's mother's 90th birthday!