Montana Visit to Ruth - May 2010

I had the chance to see Ruth's new digs in Bozeman so we spent the long Memorial Day weekend there and exploring Great Falls MT. What a beautiful state!

We hiked up high to Lewis and Clark Caverns and wended our way down and around on an excellent walking tour of stalagmites and stalactites. It was very fun.

Tranquil, beautiful scenery everywhere you can look in Montana.

Cheryl and Tom Zimmerman and Cheryl's mom met us at the point where LEwis and Clark had to portage a huge distance around five separate water falls. This is now the site of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center which made the expedition seem very real.

It was a good visit. see ya next time Ruth!

bike ride from indian to girdwood May 15, 2010

we had a meetup to ride indian to gird which was very scenic, windy and chilly. We had lunch at Chair 5 and then rode back to the cars. we left around 10 and got back to cars around 4 pm, so it was fun, full day.















We had the opportunity to portage our bikes over an avalanche that covered the bike trail. you never know what your adventures will bring in Alaska!

shorebird festival in homer

we went to visit Anne Marie in Homer over the same weekend as the shorebird festival. We had a fun beach walk, rode bikes, ate good food, had a good visit with anne marie, met john and barrett and enjoy anne marie's hospitality greatly. What a magical place!

























These sandhill crates were apparently scoping out a suitable nesting spot.




















this is the volcanic mountain Augustine from across cook inlet.















kayaking in kachemak bay
















a moose in anne marie's yard














There's an otter in the water doing what he otter.
























jim and jude in picturesque homer

May fun in Alaska -- bear on Potter May 6, 2010

We had a close encounter with a big black bear on the Potter trail (aka turnagain and johnson). This is the four of us including Jake, the dog.























We got a big surprize when the bear charged Jake, the dog.

















But not too shocked to catch a photo. Thankfully, everything worked out okay.

April 8, 2010 snow hike evening

The Thursday evening hike with our fearless leader Toshi (left)
took us from Prospect Heights trailhead to gasline, Alder trail and
others on the hillside of Anchorage. We all enjoyed the spring
snow-hiking conditions and the occasional post-holing, but helped
each other through it.



















This is a good view of flattop named for obvious reasons!
We had a perfectly clear spring evening for hiking.



















This is O'Malley peak and False O'Malley just behind the spruce tree.
the broad expanse is known as the ballfield which has a great
moon-scape kind of terrain
that's fun to hike through after the steep gully up to it.

March 29, 2010 - Seward's Day off!

Seward's Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. state of Alaska. It falls on the last Monday in March and commemorates the signing of the Alaska Purchase treaty on March 30, 1867.[1] It is named for then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, who negotiated the purchase from Russia.






This is Mike and I enjoying a spring hike.






























That's a ptarmigan in the tree. It turns white for the winter and then morphs into the color of branches to hide itself during the summer. I also spotted a couple of wolves today in the trees pouncing on little critters.

March 2010 - Iditarod and Ruth's visit

March always brings the ceremonial start of the Iditarod to Anchorage. We watched some of the teams as they prepared to go over their first urban overpass by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.


Ruth arrived for her "spring break" just in time to see our new 16" of snow and to be in single digit temps. So much for spring! But we do "spring forward" tonight so we'll be enjoying longer daylight now until the summer solstice in late June. YAY! Below is the welcome home fruit tart.

It's time to get serious about replacing the sliding patio doors to the mountainview deck. Maybe we'll get that done today, but there are so many other fun things to do! We're toasty here with the new boiler and water heater all installed. Just in time for a winter storm and then summer.

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!