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!

A Fat Tire Bike Weekend in Hope, Alaska

Okay, once you have a fat tire bike, you have to use it!  But if you're nearly 65, it seems like a better time to learn to mountain bike would have been, say, 50 years ago?  There's a learning curve, it seems to me, about bumping over roots and rocks and hurtling down a trail that threatens to hurl you off on either side!  I'm out to inspect all of my bruises tonight!

Friday night was the warm up cruise again, on the new bike which we had just picked up the night before - a great deal and a decision to go with one chain ring, which presents less of a challenge to my brain when it's preoccupied with all of those decisions at once --- downshift? pick a path? try not to fall off when I hit that rock? get off and walk instead? Our Friday night ride, which I've done a few times now, is deceptive, as it's easy and fun! Unlike Saturday and Sunday turned out to be!

This is my new bike taking a rest on the trail.
I felt sorry for it, so I let it stop for a while. (I was dead!)

Saturday we headed down the Seward Highway in our Chinook to camp overnight in Hope, but we stopped first at the Johnson's Pass Trail - we checked that out hiking in the late spring, early summer, and even though we passed through two huge piles of snow from avalanches, it looked like a fun trail. It is striking, but what was most striking to me was how hard it was!  Lots of roots, very narrow trail, and scary for a beginner, which I would consider myself - Brian loved it!  I was way too occupied with surviving to take pictures here!

Then we headed over to Hope to the Resurrection Pass Trail, where we were on Memorial Day Weekend earlier this year.




We've loved camping in our 1977 Chinook - decorated very 80s style, lots of avacado green - but SO comfortable for two people - as long as you like each other!  We threw food together in the morning - one of the things that I like about camping is having great food with us.

We camped under a half moon with a great view out our window -- as long as you don't mind that it's fall, the leaves are down, and towards the end of evening, it has a cold look to it.  And it WAS cold overnight!

And we checked out the sunrise from our other window before we got out of the only warm spot in the camper - in bed!  




All in all, a beautiful day, even if taxing for me.  I'm off to inspect my bruises and turn in early!  Another week of work before we're off to play again . . . though Brian rides several times a week early evening, I'm usually tied up til too late.

Eklutna Lake on Fat Tire Bikes!

The weekends go fast, and they are going even faster through October . . . but we wanted to take some time for me to try out a fat tire bike and see if we could ride together on the many trails available in and around Anchorage.  We rented one Saturday night and tried it out first on the Campbell Creek trails and then on Sunday for a longer (2 1/2 hour) ride along Eklutna Lake.

I've never been a mountain biker, so it's taking some getting used to, but this was a very mild dirt trail with not as many ruts, and some very beautiful scenery to keep us company!  We've camped here before with out 19' Chinook, but we just came up for the day this time.

One of the things we like to do is when we finish, make tea or coffee right in the camper and relax before we drive home!






Brian bought his fat tire bike last year and enjoyed it especially through the winter when there wasn't enough snow to ski on.  He says it's actually easier to bike in the winter on the trails, as the snow is a softer ride than the roots and rocks!

We rented mine for the day and it looks like the decision is YES!  We ended up buying one that we found on Craigs List that was a small enough frame for me.

We wanted to get as far as Serenity Falls, but we ran out of time, and the trail becomes less interesting after you reach the end of Eklutna Lake. It's definitely fall, but still beautiful!

Road Trip! Denali National Park!

We were given a "road lottery" ticket for DNP that someone else won - a last minute invitation on a Saturday afternoon that had to be used on Monday, 9/19.  And we jumped!  We drove up Sunday afternoon and stayed at a tiny park created by the Healy Lions Club on Lake Otto just north of the park. We ended up in the park and ready to start at 8:30 am, and we drove 66 miles into the park -- it was beyond stunning, and the pictures won't do it justice, but we'll post some of them here.

It took us about 3 hours to drive the 66 miles into the Eileson Visitor Center, and we took a hike up the mountain opposite -- quite a bit of snow on the ground and an unbelievable view.  3 hours in and 3 hours out, but we didn't see even one animal!!  It was a trip not to be missed though for the stunning scenery - even for someone used to living here!

Meeting our First Two Grandchildren!

Our first granddaughter was born on May 4th to Colleen Manley and Ivana Indruh, our daughter and daughter-in-law.  Torunn is a beautiful little girl, and we've enjoyed getting almost daily pictures of her.  We visited them first, flying into Boston and driving up to Maine.

I was working on two different baby blankets before I left because our son Scott and his wife Tarah were ALSO expecting a child at the end of July.  It looked from pictures as though Torunn already had a lot of knitted blankets, so I knitted this one for Kora, who was born July 30.

Brian got to see Koralie the day before he left, soon after she was born, and to hold her, but I had already left to go to a training weekend in San Francisco on my way back to Anchorage.

More good reasons for visits back east!  We love getting pictures and are surely thinking about everything that we're missing!

July in Upstate New York

What we love about July is visiting our friends and family in Maine and upstate NY AND sailing on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.  We have our 32' Allied Seawind, Petrel, in Henderson Bay, and we managed 9 days again this year.  We started with a day of barely moving, anchored at 10 am and doing nothing more the rest of the day than reading and jumping in the water when we got too warm!  Then on to Kingston, Ontario and around the east end of Wolfe Island back to the American side of the St. Lawrence and back up to Cape Vincent.

One of the things we look forward to is what's become an annual dinner from some former sailing partners.  Jack Reale with his partner, Judy and John and Donna O'Hara.  We had a wonderful dinner at a tucked away place on Lake Ontario and look forward to seeing them every year.

Looking at the pictures, it's no wonder we like going back - and we always want more time to sail!