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.