Blogs from Anchorage, Alaska, United States, North America - page 30

The grey of the ocean meets the base of the Chugach Mountains as they rise into pillars of ice and snow, almost transparent against the dull, white sheet of a sky. From the city their presence are always felt as they tower over buildings and peak into the city through the open streets running from South to North. The sun rises later each morning from the breast of one peak, simply to fall a little earlier each day between the crevices that lie between two others. Even the Alaskans who have spent their lives in the city watch these ever-transforming giants in admiration, like children who stand mesmerized by the constant changing of the clouds. Here, in Anchorage, I am living in a two bedroom apartment with , Lacey, this awesome hippie chick, and her cat, ... read more

Wow! Here is the home stretch, we are really winding down. I’ve spent some time reflecting on our time here. It seems like we’ve packed a year’s worth of adventure into 6 weeks. When I think all the way back to our first days here, it seems like ages ago and yet I can’t believe that it’s time to go already. We really were fortunate to have received good advice about places to visit. We certainly didn’t hit them all. The other thing that I am amazed by is the people that we met and that welcomed us into their lives. Here we were some family from Massachusetts dropping into Anchorage for 6 weeks and we were met with such generosity. Within days of arriving, we had 3 bikes to use and had been on a ... read more

On Monday, the girls had a quiet morning and met me for lunch at the “Moose’s tooth” for pizza. Then they ran some errands, including an exciting trip to the recycling center. Gabbi has been incredibly into speaking different languages. She’s obsessed with German (gee, I wonder why Petra and family). She goes around saying things that sound Germanish, but is still gibberish. For example, “Ich de klein”. It’s cute, but a little annoying after a while. After work we drove about a half hour north of Anchorage to Thunderbird Falls. Our friends, Bernadette, Kara, and James met us at the trailhead and we started off. The kids ran most of the mile to the lookout at the falls. It is absolutely incredible how the maximum speed of our children increases with the number of other ... read more

On Wednesday, the girls had a play date with some homeschool friends. A co-worker lent me a bike that Danielle and I can use, so I met them at home. We packed up a supper and went to a pickup ultimate Frisbee game. We had a good time, ran hard, played for about 2 hours and left with the game still in full swing! Unfortunately, when we got back we had a surprise. The girls had left their borrowed bikes on the edge of the parking area thinking that they would put them on the porch when we got back. Someone had taken one of the bikes and replaced it with their bike which had a bent chain guard and two different size tires. Jacqui was very upset, because it was “her” bike that had been ... read more

Danielle, Gabbi, and Jacqui visited the library in preparation for our long drive to Denali tomorrow. Then, they went back to Flattop to pick berries and do some hiking. The weather has been just great! Apparently, August can be the rainy month (last year 28 out of 31 days!). After work, we went to Kincaid Park. Anchorage may not have a ton going for it, but the park system is incredible. We hiked on some trails that are used for x-country ski trails in the winter that all had lights for when it actually gets dark around here. We had heard that there were lots of moose in the park, but didn’t see any today.... read more