late fall in mid October

The birch leaves are still hanging on for dear life while the snow
creeps down the mountains surrounding Anchorage. My winter
tires are getting put on today.
 

Lilly and I out for a walk to collect leaves while we babysat and played.
 

Happy Fall. Time to collect samples of all the colors and iron them in
wax paper.
 

Autumn 06 Anchorage

Ah, Autumn is Alaska. Alas, it's sad but inevitable, so why not enjoy
the natural beauty? You can see the termination dust on the Chugach.















Better view of the top 2,000 feet of the Chugach in snow with nearby
Chaney Lake near my condo.

















 

Greg and Tammy (Jackson) Heimbuck met me in Denver for dinner
tonight. What a treat to see Tammy. It's been almost 5 years since
she left Anchorage. They're a great couple enjoying Colorado Springs.

 

It was great to have a reunion with Jack Cahn, first cousin that I haven't
seen for at least 20 years. Ellie and I had lunch out with him and Barbara
and then relaxed in a coffee shop over lattes and conversation, as comfy
as cats in the sunshine. I'm grateful to have had the chance to reconnect!

 

Here's a fuller body shot of us both. Not bad for pushing the mid 50's eh?
Comment if you like it! (Boulder Creek behind us). I head to Denver later
today.

 

Boulder Sept 16, 2006

Ellie Halpern and I hikin around Boulder. We've known each
other since our Milton days and will be celebrating her birthday
tomorrow. It's early fall here in central Colorado.

 

at Rich and Jenny's in Charlotte

David and I had fun visiting Abby, Richie and Jenny.
Here's Rich crooning about the south.




















David was introduced to real finger lickin' good southern food
at the Chicken Box: fried okra, hush puppies, fried chicken, collard
and turnip greens, mac n'cheese, sweetened ice tea. He is incredulous!




















Here's David and Rich just before we hit the road back to DC on Sunday 9/3.
















Richie and Jenny, still young and in love.

the road trip to Johnson City TENN

David flew in to DC and the next day we drove our rental car out of
Union Station for a road trip to Johnson City, TENN, where I lived
in the early 80's. Below is my former "cottage," which someone
bought and greatly improved. New roof, new siding, carport, the
works. The town and countryside is every bit as lush and beautiful
as I remembered.

















We shared the driving in a red Chevy Cobalt. Dave, the burgervore.
















This is by Wautaga Lake in some of the first sunny
minutes of the trip thus far. Yippeee!! sunshine to
drive to Charlotte in. Too bad for the slow traffic and
holdups in Boone.















I had missed the beauty of Appalachia. Seeing corn grow,
horses, cattle, kudzu - it was fun to see again.

Lesley Navin and I always get to try out a DC restaurant. This was
at Teaism, a good pan asian place. We powered walked thru' the
National Gallery of Art first. I hope the new house and all related adjustments go great for you and Dave.

Lainy, Ellen and I spent a day and night together in Crawford. What did we do for entertainment? Ate, watched movies and slept and yacked our heads off. It was great to be together, for sure.
















I got to the Hyatt Capitol Hill on Aug 27th and somehow got involved in an Ethiopian wedding party by the Capitol. The bride & groom are on the left. The groom's oldest brother came from Adis for the wedding. Best wishes!



















Aunt Selma and I had dinner at her place in Chevy Chase. 'Also got to see Paula for a visit. They're all well. Selma, I have great confidence you'll have a publisher for your new book on modern art.

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.