it was 8:30 as we took in the view of the Knik Arm coming into the Cook Inlet.

it's getting dark
alot earlier every night







and there's snow visible now on the peaks. 

Kito, Jane and I went blue berry picking on Wednesday evening
this week during a brief break from the rain. See Kito sitting
on the tundra? He was a great berry spotter/announcer and we
all three filled our ziplock baggies with blueberries, crowberries and
low-bush cranberries. The evening air was fresh and delicious after
all the rain. The views from Arctic Valley are magnificent.














Here's Jane, one of the original hunter- gatherers. She's as happy as a clam kneeling into the wet tundra with her fish-delish rain pants. Jane got the most berries, by far and I just had to frame her with the misty mountains in the back.




















What can I say?

This is downtown Cordova, a fishing town on Prince William Sound.
I flew there in the early a.m. and back to Anchorage in the evening
after a productive work day.

 

alaska update

alaska update
You probably know that I love water aerobics classes at the Alaska Club.
Debra and I met through the class and make it a habit to follow up the
Saturday morning class with a strong coffee at Kaladi Brothers.
If we're lucky there are views of the sunshine from the mountains as we yack and catch up with our very exciting work weeks and condomania. Here's a picture of Debra and I doing what we enjoy on Saturday a.m.

it's nice to have Dave, Ryan and Matt around again.

Toll house marble squares and home-made ice cream

made a big hit on Friday night.

The 10 Anchorage AFS students for school year 2006-07 met up for an

afternoon of exploring downtown Anchorage, using the bus system to get

around and ending up at the annual welcome BBQ. Back Row (l to r) Melanie,

Nico, YY, Lukas, Orjan, Yin Yin. Front Row Ai, Sayuri, Silvia, Eduardo.















Here the students and host siblings stop at the log cabin of the Anchorage

Visitor's Center. It was a rainy day, but they all got to know each other and

had fun.

This is Aiwaran aka "I." She arrived after a long journey
from Bangkok to Japan, Japan to Seattle and Seattle to Anchorage.
She arrived with 6 other foreign exchange students from South America,
Europe and who knows where else. I will act as a liaison for "I" and her
host family, making sure that the lines of communication remain open
and everyone adjusts well. She's very eager to have alot of adventures.
She stayed with me one night before her orientation and had dinner and
breakfast with me. She has never felt air as cold as 56 degrees F, but
is bright and adaptable and I'm sure she's going to have a wonderful year.
I'm so fortunate to have these bright international kids in my life!
And what would any of us do without friends?
This is June and Linda who fearlessly went hiking and berry picking with me this afternoon (August 12th) up in the mountains that were completely socked in. We yacked our fool heads off while picking blueberries, crowberries and low bush cranberries. We got wet and chilly, but it was glorious. We saw a big moose, a bunch of friendly dogs and apparently were almost charged by a moose and her calf, but they veered off at the last minute, some other hikers reported.
Here's we're showing off our bags of berries.
It's just the beginning of the berry season, so I look forward to going back for riper patches in the next couple weeks.