Every morning of the trip I took a wake up walk in parks of some kind, usually seeing people do their Tai Chi. This park was a brief of fresh air in otherwise oppressively smoggy Beijing.

The fun really began when the Intrepid Travel group of 12 met up, led by fearless and exceptionally well prepared Jack Yuan." The climb up to the wall was strenuous but we all made it. Here is most of the group catching our breath.

We all walked and took photos and marvelled at the history of the wall built over many years. Approximately a half of all Chinese were involved in its construction, which was designed to keep the Mongolian barbarians out of China.

Rose tree of Sharon in perfect bloom along with forsythia, dogwoods, apple trees, etc.

And people wanted to have a photo shot with a foreigner. Very friendly sweet people.

Incredibly impressive ancient buildings from the .. Han dynasty I think (206 BC - 220 AD)

dragons to protect all people inside the buildings and tile details.

Imperial Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is a huge expansive area to explore with hundreds of specialized buildings the Emperor's wife used for entertainment including dancing, acrobats, places for tea, to pray for harvest, watch birds, you name it and people built it.

The area is very hilly. Lots of people picnicking and families enjoying leisure time together.

Pretty lakes and people in imperial costumes.

Beijing

I started off this trip in China with a couple of days to chill out in Beijing.
Once I got the general lay of the land around the hotel, I ventured out to
the Imperial Summer Palace for a day and otherwise explored
around. People were very friendly and often wanted me to
be in their photos and they took photos of me if I asked.
Sign language worked.

CHINA trip

this is a link to info on my CHINA trip Apr 16-30th.

http://www.intrepidtravel.com/html/trip_home.php?code=CSB

Map shows the major sites I'll be exploring. China's huge - the area I'll see might compare to flying into New York City, taking a train to Chicago, another night train to West Virgina and then leaving from Washington, D.C. --- or something like that. To stay in touch, email me at jbalaska_8@hotmail.com as I hear the Chinese government allows access to MSN Hotmail but not other commercial servers.

Break-up is here -- April UGLY but encouraging

Garrison Keilor of Prairie Home Companion says that April in Alaska
is God's way of reminding us how bad a hangover can be. It's now in
the 40's and all the glaciers and rivers and snow berms are in
"break-up." Drab grey and ugly, really. But under all that snow is
grass waiting to green up in May.

The hills are alive with the sound of water, lakes on the
streets and constant dripping. That and the Canada geese
honking their way back to Anchorage is a joyous sound for
the winter-weary.

It's quite wonderful to be out walking again, as streets are walkable.
The trails are still mushy, but in May it'll be great to get back out
hiking on the trails.

trip to Juneau/end of March

This is view from 12F leaving Anchorage. Off in the distance is Denali
(Mt. McKinley)



















These are some of the mountains and glaciers you see going southeast
to Juneau. You just pray for no "unexpected water landings."


















This is a sense of the mountains surrounding the airport in Juneau.
The cleft in the middle is the Mendenhall Glacier that you see clearly
upon landing.

Morning moose

typical moose eating branches in Anchorage.
I shot this out the car window, cause it's still
too slick to walk around without killing yourself.

Spring Skiing at Kincaid Park 3/22/07

Conditions don't get much nicer than this! Alison and I met after work to ski Margeaux's Loop at Kincaid Park. It's around 30 degrees, sunny and a little fresh snow. Very pleasant spring skiing.

Eagles for spring

I took this on St. Patty's Day, March 17th. Today (March 21st) is the first day of spring. It snowed.
But look at these glorious bald eagles perched on a tree. I was with Jane Atuk on our way into the Matanuska Valley when we stopped on the road to get a shot of these stately birds. With the growing daylight (we're up to 11.5 hours/day), the migratory waterfowl are beginning to honk across town, always a very happy sound, and the eagles are back knowing the salmon will be running soon. Yippee! Another winter almost over.

Iditarod 2007 leaves Anchorage 3/3/07

The Iditarod Trail leaving Anchorage is right near my place,
so I watched some of the teams heading on the Last Great Race.
It's a little warm now for the dogs, but warmed up from -30 wind
chills to make it a decent spectator sport.













They're gone. May the best team win.

Funky Bundt Cake

In Sacramento I had gotten a red teflon (squishy) bundt cake
pan in the shape of a rose - or so I thought. This is experiment
#2 with it. It's heading over to Pete's - she's just back in town
after too long away. Gotta frost and decorate it.

February - Winter Fatigue

Seems like winter is endless. There are some colossal icicles around.
This is the back of the Alaska Club where I work out daily. Look in the
windows to see the group fitness room where we do cardio dance, pilates,
cardio-kickboxing and other forms of torture. I asked the owner if he
was gonna charge for ice climbing classes. Next day there were warning
signs around it -- it could definitely kill someone when it falls.









Dough for pita.














waiting their turnto bake.

















Voila! very good stuffed with tahina and felafel & tomatoes.

Craig and Joy Snider

And here's Craig and Joy - they'll be celebrating 25 years together in April. Joy will be recording more music in Nashville for the occasion.

Joy, Mom and me

Here's Joy's mom, me and Joy in front of their home.

California - early February

I made a trip to Sacramento (folsom to be exact) to spend a few days with Joy Snider. We figured out we had been roommates in Israel on Kibbutz Amir 34 years ago! It was a fun reunion. We did some music, church, eating out, working out at 24 hour fitness and a walk by the American River. It's almost sunset here at the photo.

late January skiing

It's always fun to ski at Russian Jack with June, especially when it's above freezing like today, January 28th. We've had alot of snow, so the moose prefer to use the tracks set by the Nordic Ski Club. Here's one we spotted taking a Sunday afternoon nap. He looked up at us but didn't care. Don't worry -- we had an escape plan in mind.

small group in cozy condo Jan 07

Here's Jan Wilson, Sally Brownsberger, Terry & Bill Keith. We're discussing "If you want to want to walk on water you have to get out of the Boat."

These days just getting out of the car and across the parking lot takes alot of courage. Our group keeps meeting, and tonight we honored Ed & Pete Nelson by enjoying some home made ice-cream made possible by their gift of the ice-cream maker. We miss them, but keep chugging along and await their return from Cleveland.

Others in the group are on the right: Keith Brownsberger, me (Judith), Rich Wilson and Sue and Glenn Moore. Anne, Hidur & Natasha didn't make it - but we'll hope for next time!