McNeil River Part II

Just for you to see how close we actually came to some of the bears, rather the bears came close to us, here are a few of our McNeil River Bear Sanctuary pictures with people in them.

McNeil River People Pics

McNeil River Bear Sanctuary

Finally, I have gotten to editing all 2000+ of our photos from our spectacular trip to McNeil River Bear Sanctuary in Alaska this past July. It took a while, but hopefully it is worth the wait to see these pictures. It was an amazing experience and we are excited to possibly go again in the future. We've uploaded our favorites to our Picasa Web Album, click on the picture below and enjoy!

McNeil River Bear Sanctuary 2007

There are more pictures on our Picasa Web Album, click on the picture below.

Nov 2007 Floor Remodel

Flooring Remodel

We have our new bamboo floor installed! It was quite a long time coming, but we are super happy it is done. It looks and feels fantastic to us, although Guapo is missing the carpet.


Old carpet, main room


Old carpet office and entryway


Old carpet on stairs with Guapo looking on


Main room as you enter the house


View of main room from the stairs landing


View of main room from upstairs


Office

Fishing Day 1

Count...Fish 1, Us 0. Or was it Fish 1, Us 2?? Needless to say fishing on day one consisted of highlights such as free lunch, a long drive down Funny River Road (nothing too funny about it dead ending without any signs) and seeing a black bear and a couple moose.





We were hoping Dad and Matt would bring in the Kings, but it seemed that they were not really in the river. While they were on the charter, Doug and I went to see the Alaskans dipnetting at the mouth of the river...they were catching a couple salmon here and there, but not too many.


Dipnetting at the mouth of the Kenai


Walking in the Funny River are there any bears out here??

Catch of the day: Holly again reeled in the most "fish"...if you can call them that. Technically I caught a 'salmon' and a river 'halibut', which until yesterday I never knew existed! The salmon was a little smaller than regulation size and the halibut was dead. We think the halibut probably somehow swam up the river and died in the freshwater because of the amount of flesh still on him. But he was clearly decaying when Doug cam to my rescue to take the rotting, putrid carcass off my hook, and the fish fell apart completely. The worst of all was the rotting fish smell that lingered the rest of the time we were on the river!


Salmon

Dead Rotten Halibut Carcass

What Matt came here for

What Dad came here for

Land of Gelato

Gelato in Marsalforn, Gozo on the promenade by the ocean

Gelato at the World Champions in San Gimignano, Italy


There is just something so nice about having a bowl of gelato (basically ice cream)in a warm Mediterranean breeze - ahhh - I miss it so much! Our Alaskan friend Jenn, Dan and I began our gelato tour in the sleepy town or Marsalforn, on the island of Gozo in the country of Malta. We each had a couple scoops, and I think this is where we discovered hazelnut gelato...YUMMY!!! Just like frozen Nutella. I'm pretty sure we had a few more gelatos in Malta, but unfortunately no pictures of them. As we moved North to Tuscany, Italy, Jenn and I were determined to have 'the day of the gelato', allowing ourselves one scoop only at each gelato stand we could find and then moving on. What gave us this idea was that in San Gimignano, they claim to have the 'World Champions of Gelato'. So Jenn and I decided we would be the judge. After about 3 gelato stops, Dan spotted another one and asked if we wanted to try it. I never though it was possible to say no to gelato, and I'm sad to say my stomach just couldn't say yes, I was all gelatoed out!

NOTE: My favorite turned out to be from the town of Montalchino, although Certaldo was a close second. While the World Champs were good, I have to say I did not agree that they were the best. I think we will have to plan another vacation there to really decide!

Hiking and Half Marathons

Us on our way up Bird Ridge


Dan on Bird Ridge with Turnagain Arm


Holly strides into the finish line after 13.1 miles!!


Wow - okay, so it's been forever since we've written on the good old blog site, and even though we haven't loaded our pictures from Malta and Italy yet, I am so excited to write about this!! Today...I did the longest run I have ever done - the Trent Waldron Glacier Half Marathon in Anchorage, AK. Dan and I have been enjoying as much as we can about living in Alaska this spring, and we've been hiking weekly on Bird Ridge as well as running with a team once a week too. Dan wanted to do this half marathon to qualify for a race later this summer (which he did!) and I just wanted to see if I could really run that far. It was actually a great day to do it with cloudy skies and 60 degrees F.

We will do our best to post some pictures of our fantastic trip to Malta and Italy before we head off on our next adventure in June to sunny Colorado!

Ski Train 2007

Dan and I went on our first Ski Train Alaska - what a total blast it was! Such a random occurrence where a bunch of skiers buy tickets to charter a train from the Alaska Railroad and travel to Curry, AK (North of Anchorage). They dropped us & our gear off and we cross country skied around the area for a few hours. On the way back the Polka Band came out and had the whole train rocking. It was a great time with fun friends...and we even made a few new ones!



Ski drop off in Curry, AK



Train arriving back to Curry to pick us up



Self Take with Alaska Railroad



Kristin & Eamon (on her back) and Holly skiing up the river near Curry.



Holly holding sheet music for a Polka band member...after he realized he was on the wrong sheet!



Denali & Alaska Range over the frozen Susitna River

Denali from the sky

I made a short trip to the North Slope this week and although it was cold (-46 degrees F), it was clear. I had a beautiful flight up and a spectacular flight back today. I'm lucky the route of the plane takes us just East of Denali, and I was super fortunate to have a window seat! The pictures don't do it justice. Top is Denali, middle are some of the glaciers pouring off Denali, and bottom is Sultana (Foraker) on the far left and Denali (McKinley) on the far right.


It's been pretty cold in Anchorage the past few days and Dan ran the 5K Frostbite Footrace this morning at sub-zero temps to help kick off Fur Rondy! Yup, it's the wonderful time of the year for the Iditarod (start is March 3rd) and we're looking forward to all the events that are coming up over the next week.

Sunburst

Hooray!!! We finally made it back to Sunburst! It was a great day, even though the snow wasn't too spectacular. The sun even came out to pay us a visit! Dan used his splitboard again but it turned out to be the day for snowshoeing...the cleats on the bottoms of my snowshoes carried me up the mountain really well. Our friend Kyle turned out to be an awesome telemark skier and showed us how to carve turns. And I even got a lesson in snowboarding to make me use both edges of my board - I had 5 consecutive turns before crashing fantastically! We had a great day in the fresh air...if only we could get paid to do this!!

Sun glorious sun!

I am still a Colorado girl at heart...I will never get used to the darkness! Last Saturday was so beautiful. After I drug Dan to the University to go swimming we went around town to enjoy the lightness of day. We're over 8 hours of daylight now, but don't really notice it unless the sun is actually out. This was the first time I really got to see the sun streaming through the windows at our house - el Guapo seemed to enjoy it too!

Laundry Room Home Repairs (planned!)

Wahoo - I got a 'new' laundry room! Well, not really new, but it's no longer a damp dark place in the basement that I hate going to. We painted the sheetrock walls happy yellow, painted the concrete floor with epoxy and added some pretty nice 'looking' cabintery. I say looking because Dan had to do a few modifications to them to make them not fall over - they didn't come with back support! It was a good prep experience for the epoxy floor and now we know how to do it for the garage this summer. Now when I do laundry I'm automatically happy because it such a bright room!

Unfortunately I don't have any 'before' pictures, only the 'after'!

Ice Dam Home Repairs (not planned!)

So a couple weeks ago I woke up on a snowy Monday morning and got ready for work. I came downstairs to do the daily ritual of walking the dog and convincing him to get the paper for me when I realized that the cardboard box in our arctic entryway looked wet. 'That's funny', I thought to myself, 'I don't remember the box being wet last night'. I slowly looked up to the ceiling and had to rub the sleep out of my eyes to fully realize the bubble of warped drywall above my hear that was just waiting to break. So I did what any good wife would do, I woke Dan up to fix it! :) Just kidding!! I did wake him up but I helped to determine what the problem was and stop the leak. What happened is the liquid barrier that is on the roof had a breakdown near the sunlight, and water found a way into the roof and soaked through the insulation and then into the drywall. We were able to pull off all the wet drywall, pull out and dry the insulation, and put heat trace on the roof to give the water a place to drain to other than inside the house. No real damage was seen and we just need to replace the vapor barrier and re-drywall the ceiling.

Ski for Women 2007

My favorite thing about Superbowl Sunday? SKI FOR WOMEN! We had a ton of fun this year...and I was so happy to be back in AK to participate in it again. Ski for Women is a charity ski 'race' that raises money for non-profit organizations that support women's health and development. The 'race' is a fun event, most everyone dressing up in costumes and skiing silly for 4 km. One of our friends Jill even dressed up as a Chinese dragon with a friend - what a great costume!

Everyone must be part of a team or have at least one partner, and my partner this year was Abbey Volf. I'm super excited that she did the race (it was her first one ever!) and even more excited because she had fun - that's what it is all about. Dan and Abbey's husband, Kyle, skied around to cheer us on with cowbells in tow (the race is for women only) - it was great to have them cheering at the finish line too.

Summit Lake Backcountry

A few weeks ago we went backcountry skiing with four other friends near Summit Lake, Alaska. It seemed like a great day - sunny and clear in Anchorage, but as soon as we got to the Kenai it was almost whiteout conditions. I was really excited to get back on my snowboard until I realized I forgot my snow jacket, whoops! Good thing Olivia had an extra one (and I had brought my down jacket, but you know how effective, or not, down is in a really wet environment!). Dan tried out his splitboard for the first time and fell in love with it! Skinning up the mountain looked so effortless so I will have to try out mine next time we go! Neither Dan or I had hiking poles so the trip up the mountain was labored, but thanks to a gift certificate from Mom & Dad we both now have telescoping hiking poles! We are ready for Ski Train in March!

Sun & (more!) snow in the Far North

Wow - this winter has been awesome so far...we never dreamed it could be this beautiful and snowy! We had some pretty cold temps this week, and got a break from shoveling, it dropped to -20 degF at our house for a couple days this week, and then yesterday the sun came out and it warmed up to 30 degF. We went for a beautiful morning ski with our neighbor Kristin and even got some sun on our faces! Today it got a bit chillier and is now snowing again, maybe another few inches will add to what we already have? All the better for skiing!!


Dan traveled out to St. Lawrence Island last week for a small work assignment in the village of Gambell, located only 50 miles from the Russian Federation. He didn't think he would be so close to Russia so soon!

All else is well in AK, nothing too exciting happening with us. Holly is teaching swimming on the weekends and even picked up teaching skate skiing to a friend from China last week. To our amazement, Guapo still has his "Moosey" stuffed toy in tact...it's lasted since Christmas Day and he hasn't ripped it apart - you did good Darci! And Dan loves his new espresso maker - he made me a cup of coffee the morning after we got it and I was hyped up on caffeine until noon, so I'd say it works pretty well (thanks for the gift certificate Sue)!



Hopefully we'll have more exciting stories to tell next time!