Fur Rondy Weekend Feb 2010

What can I say? Fur Rendezvous served the purpose of getting trappers together in mid-winter to compete in winter sports. We still have this crazy winter carnival and do fun things as a cabin fever reliever. It lasts a couple of weeks and gives us all a chance to shake the crazies out. This banner goes across the main street of Anchorage.

We walked around downtown to see the Fur Rondy Parade and to a park to watch snowshoe softball. There were some catch costumes.



















The sled dog races began at noon on Friday and Saturday and the dogs were ready to pull.

F Bar J and some other groups' horses were in the parade. Such beautiful animals and good sportsmen and women.

As usual, it's fun to watch the sled dog races downtown Anchorage.

This is a group of people that work together and play snowshoe softball together too.

memphis 2/10 susan's messianic bat mitzvah

it was really great to be able to travel to Memphis to be with Susan during her special celebration weekend.

I'd never been to a messianic bat mitzvah before, especially for a person who's also celebrating a 60th birthday!

David Miller's awesome, so proud of his mom's accomplishments as she is of his. Good luck in law school!

A treat and surprise for me was to stay at the cat-free but love-full home of Anna and Brant and their four bright girls.


Almost two Jasmine.

The hoe-down on Saturday night was a blast - very good idea Susan.

Feb 2010 - Juneau and Dave home!

I spent a few days in Juneau to do some seminars and have meetings.
Julie Dyar is a most capable Medicare
counselor and she did most of the public seminars, YAY, you go girl!

The weather was warm in Juneau and it was a treat to walk on the sidewalk and be able to see it! No snow and ice, what a novelty! This was the view from my hotel window.

We were on a couple of radio stations including Capitol Chat. That was fun!


2/11/10 The best part of this week was getting back to Anchorage and meeting up with David at the airport. Here's David and Ryan showing off their star wars gear. It's nice to have Dave home for a few days before he's off and running again.

alaska ski for women 2010

Alaska Ski for Women, a fun event where hundreds of women join up for a day of fun skiing and wacky costumes to raise funds for a worthy cause - prevention of domestic violence this year.
This team of monarch butterflies was the all time best in my opinion.

There were people dressed up as airplanes, little red riding hood and the wolf, chicken and egg, you name it and someone invented it. The team i was on dressed up as shimmery, glittery northern lights and called ourselves the glitteratskis.

Temps were warm. This photo shows shaina, margarett, veronica, me, quianyu, dela and eileen.

Women took over all the bathrooms in the chalet and there were lots of fun props for us all over the trails. There were extra rolls of toilet paper hanging from a ski pole in the stalls. thanks to the clever lady that thought that one up!

kauai vacation Jan 2010

John, Mike and I went to Kauai for a 2 week vacation from Alaska. We spent two weeks hiking, snorkeling, boogey-boarding at the beach, enjoying sunsets and more hiking, enjoying waking up to good local coffee sitting on the lanai in Poipu crater. We were there for two weeks.


i especially enjoyed the tropical botanics. these are bougainville that we saw in reds, pinks, violet, orange and lots of other colors. Other great things to view and enjoy included banyan trees, breadfruit trees, betel nut and coconut palms, anthurium, birds of paradise, bamboo, you name it and it grows on Kauai.























we had great views from the napali coast hike, the south, west and all over as we explored, went fishing, hiking, etc. I do think Kauai is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.










Mike and I volunteered our time at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens where we met Karin, Junior and Ellsworth, volunteering or working there. We trimmed pritchardia (fan) palms.












Jim and Kwei arrived for a five day vacation and joined us for some beach hiking, kayaking the Wailua river, finding the fern grotto, a dip into a frigid swimming hole and Lauau fun. It was a much-needed sunshine and warm weather break! Here's the five of us doing what we did real well - having fun!



















Kauai is the oldest volacanic island in the Hawaiian archipelago. These are taro fields below.

Here we are the three musketeers: John, Judith and Mike