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.
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!
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, 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!
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.
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
This is the old part of Saint Paul where the church, school, school district and city hall are located. It's a quiet island of around 450 people, mostly Aleut. I was invited there to work for the week and help folks out with Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.
This was my home away from home. The itinerant quarters are well appointed and real comfy. The view, when it wasn't too windy to see anything, included the cemetery.
The Saint Paul islanders are very friendly and warm. Faith, on my right, was a great hostess, organizer and buddy.
There were some chances to take a walk and explore a little. Children play alot of basketball, ride their bikes around and play ball outside when they can.
On my final day here i was able to make a house visit to see an elder and help her family sort out her benefits. ATV's are the way to go when the wind is brutal.
One of the health care providers.
This is the TDX wind farm. Or is it the city's?
This is the medication "vending machine." A doc at Southcentral Foundation okay's the medication and a pharmacist dispenses it. It's pretty cool.
This was a day off and after the 3 day training last week and associated prep work, Mike, Wally and I took off to hike at 9 am We hiked up to hidden lake. Didn't exactly go the most direct route, but had fun exploring just one more ridge until we found this little lake.
