Sunday, September 30, 2007

My Impressive Cranium Skills

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day. I wish I'd taken a picture, because you could see all the mountains that were white up top with snow and orange on the bottom half from the fall leaves. In the evening Sophie, one of my walking buddies from work, had a barbecue at her house. So I whipped up some sweet potato salad and went. It was fun to meet some other people and to hang out. They had a fire bowl so after the bbq we toasted marshmallows. Afterwards we played Cranium. Half the people had never heard of the game (those Alaskans...) so I impressed them with my gaming skills.

Today is not as nice out, so I'm spending the morning watching Wordplay (I think grandma would really like it. It's a documentary about crossword puzzles.) and knitting my pumpkin hat for baby Ashton.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Anchored back down

After a week of CSTE orientation in Atlanta I'm back in Anchorage. The orientation was pretty good. It was a lot of general public health information as well as some more specifics of what competencies we'll be covering in our fellowship. It was great meeting all the other fellows who are stationed around the country. And, the best part was that I got to stop over in Seattle on my way home. Neil, Sarah, Haru and my parents and I all went to the Greek festival, which basically included a lot of eating. Gyros, Greek salad, baklava, and some weird little donut things. Then, in the evening we went to see "To Kill a Mockingbird" the play. I had forgotten what a great story that was. It was pretty good. The girl who played Scout did a great job.

On Sunday we went out to breakfast with Neil's family, then we went to church and out to lunch with grandma afterwards. (It seems like all I did in Seattle was eat!) After lunch we played cards, which Neil and I made out with over $6 in winnings!

Back in Anchorage I can really tell that the weather is getting colder. The taxi driver told me that it rained about an inch each day while I was gone (in the 80 degree weather in Hotlanta). It's in the lower 50's here. Quite chilly really. We've taken to wearing hats and coats indoors. All the rain in Anchorage has meant snow in the Chugach.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Blueberry picking and moose...an Alaskan right of passage



Yesterday Joie from work asked if I'd like to go blueberry picking with her. So, we left work a little early (this was the first day all week without rain) and hiked about an hour up a mountain to this opening with tons of low bush blueberries. I wish that I had brought my camera, because the hike was pretty much straight up the mountain, but when you get to the top you can look out over all of Anchorage. We even were able to see out to Mt McKinley! It was a pretty neat view--especially this time of year with the leaves all red and yellow.

So we picked berries for probably about two hours, and I filled an entire gallon zip lock baggie. Joie had this berry picker thing that looked like some tool for removing cat tirds from the litter box, but it worked really well at getting the berries off the bushes. (Note that these bushes are nothing like the bushes dad has at home. They're really close to the ground and much smaller, but they are really flavorful.)

Since I'm leaving for Atlanta tonight, I turned most of the berries into freezer jam, although I don't think the recipe I grabbed from the internet was that good, because the jam is really runny, but it made great syrup from my blueberry waffles that I made this morning! (See the before and after pictures.)

Oh! And, I almost forgot to include that while hiking we saw some moose off in the distance (and a fresh bear track in the mud). But then when I was on my way home in the middle of Anchorage on the side of the road was a mom and baby moose eating some grass. It was pretty cool. They were just sitting there a few feet from the busy street. I guess I'm on my way to becoming a true Anchoragite.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Wildlife spottings




I wish that I could say that we saw these animals in the wild, but we actually stopped off at a wildlife refuge on our way home from Girdwood. It just so happened that the Animal Planet was there taping the moose. I think they were from the show, "When Nature Attacks" or something like that, so they were trying to provoke the moose to trample this dummy.

The cutest, and biggest crowd attracters were the baby bears. They just ran around and wrestled and jumped through the water. It was almost more entertaining to watch all of the old people bussed in from some cruise boat chasing the bears up and down their pen (other side of the fence of course) to capture them on tape.

Winner Creek Hike





Here are a few pictures from our hike on Sunday. It was pretty rainy, and MUDDY, but we had fun. Also, on our way off the trail we passed right by someone from Whitman. What a small world...

The last one is a view from the top of Mt Alyeska above the tram. The building below is the fancy resort.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Anniversary weekend

All day Saturday I had to work hard to keep myself busy so that I stayed entertained until Neil arrived at midnight (which turned out to be 1am). Unfortunately the weather outside was pretty bad and rainy, so I went to see Hairspray. It was an absolutely wonderful movie! I loved it. Then in the evening Meghan had a bunch of friends over for salmon chowder, so I hung out with them and listened to stories about helicopter flying and forest fires.

On Sunday Neil and I packed a lunch and headed south of Anchorage to Girdwood, which is a small town about 45 minutes from here. We went hiking on the Winner Creek trail out towards a glacier. But, because of the rain it wasn't until the following day that we realized how big the glacier actually was. After our hike we checked into the Hidden Creek B&B, which was pretty nice. The family just built the house last year so everything was very clean and cozy. We stayed in the enchanted forest room. I don't know what bed and breakfasts are normally like, but this one was really nice, although a little hokey. For dinner we went to the Double Musky (voted best steak in America by the food network). The food really wasn't my cup of tea, but it was tasty. Neil had a pepper steak and I had crab stuffed halibut. The food was creole themed and the place was decorated accordingly.

Monday was my first "flex" day. So I had the day off to play. After a very tasty breakfast, complete with reindeer sausage, we went to the Aleyska Resort in Girdwood, which has a tram that takes people up to the top of Mt. Alyeska. At the top of the lift we were able to hike around a bit and make our way up to a big glacier. It was pretty cool being so close, although I was getting a little vertigo.

Today Neil came and had lunch with me at work and then hung out in my office a bit before I took him to the airport. Apparently on the drive to the airport Anchorage experienced a point 4 earthquake. I was sad to see him go, because we had such a fun weekend. But, soon enough I'll be in Atlanta and then back in Seattle for the weekend. Tonight I also started a master's swim class. It was fun to get back to swimming again, and it is nice because the pool is a saltwater pool, so no icky chlorine smells.

I'll try to put pictures from our trip up sometime later this week. I'm too sleepy right now. We have a bunch of neat wildlife ones from a wildlife preserve that we visited. (The bears were so playful and cute.)

Friday, September 7, 2007

Strawberry bread= Mmmm

I'm still not used to grocery shopping in the absence of Neil's appetite. So, I had a 5 pound box of strawberries from Costco that I were starting to go bad, so I made lemonade (well, actually strawberry bread). And, now I've discovered one of my new favorite foods. If you're every stuck with a bunch of strawberries that need to be put to use, I recommend this recipe. It makes two loaves, so I brought one to work that was eaten all up, and we're working on the other here at home.

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/399/Snooks_Bayside_Club_Strawberry_Bread14196.shtml

So today it finally hit me that yes, I'm now living in a red state. On our daily walk during lunch I saw this car with a homemade license plate holder that read: January 20, 2009, The End of an Era. Another not so subtle reminder is the front desk that I walk by each day on my way into my office. Francis (who I believe thinks I'm a Native Alaskan because of comments about bead work and tribes) keeps one of those poster inserts from the newspaper with an American flag blowing in the wind that says September 11, Never Forget.

I guess I'll have to be careful what I say...or at least not bring up grandma. The only other not so great thing about living in Alaska, which may or may not be related to the redness of the state, is the lack of recycling. You would think that the state's largest city could have a recycling program. But, the closest thing is this drive up center that you can bring your presorted stuff to be shipped down to the Seattle facility.

Monday, September 3, 2007

An Anchorage 3-Day




Labor Day weekend has been pretty relaxing. There's this guy in Anchorage who owns two restaurants called the Moose's Tooth and the Bear's Tooth (named after mountain peaks). Neil and I have already been to Moose's Tooth twice for pizza. And on Saturday I tried out Bear's Tooth. The neat thing about Bear's Tooth is that it is also a theater. So Meghan, one of my roommates, and I went to see Nocked Up. The place has seating just like a normal theater, but in-between each of the rows there's also a narrow table. We didn't end up eating, but I will definitely need to return for the mud pie. The movie was decent, although it wasn't what I was expecting.

This weekend our duplex also has 2 house guests--Sherpa and Montana. Meghan is dog sitting so we are officially out numbered by canines 4 to 3. Montana is a great dane, and I could probably ride her around like a horse without her slowing down. Her head comes up to my arm pit.

I've also managed to get in a few hikes this weekend. With a friend from work we went up to the flat top area, which is Anchorage's most popular hiking area. It's only about 10 minutes from my house, and you can look out over the entire city. We took the power line trail. Along the way there were a few middle school aged boys looking up into the hills with binoculars at something. They claimed to have seen a few moose, but I wasn't able to spot them. I expect to see one soon though. I guess as it gets colder and the moose can't find anything to eat they make their way into the city to eat the bark off of the trees.