After a couple weeks in Alaska this summer, I knew I would be moving there, some day soon. Scott and Jenn thought it would be a good idea for me to experience winter in Alaska; and they were right, it was a very different feel than summers in Alaska. I loved every moment.
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| Flying over "ordinary" mountains... |
Sam and I had a very early morning the day we flew out. I think our flight was leaving around 8, so we had to be there around 6:30 or so. I get so excited at airports. I love them. I love people watching and the random overpriced stores and food places. I love knowing I'm departing on an adventure and love knowing that I'm coming home. Such good feelings... We had an enjoyable layover in Seattle and were able to enjoy a pretty yummy lunch. Though we spent 10 hours traveling, because we landed in Alaska around 5pm, we still had the whole evening ahead of us.
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| Flying over Alaska's mountains |
Scott picked us up from the airport and when we got back to Scott and Jenn's, Jenn was cooking up something yummy for dinner before Bible Study. They encouraged us to take the night off if we needed to rest and recover form jet lag, but we only had so much time there! After dinner we went off to Bible Study. :-) I met some of the coolest people there. Great thinkers = great discussion. Despite being jet lagged and exhausted, I really enjoyed the Bible study and community time.
Thursday was kind of a busy day for Scott and Jenn (both working) so Sam and I spent most of the day walking around Girdwood and went for a hike. There are beautiful walkways all around town.
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| Between Hotel Alyeska and Scott & Jenn's place |
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| beautiful bridge, isn't it? |
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| Moose Meadows, on a very snowy, gray day! |
Friday morning we did a program at the middle school called Junior Achievement. The "curriculum" is provided by the program, and in essence we taught it. This particular series is on vocation and started Friday, so we got to see how the program is laid out. Really cool way to connect with the community and really be a part of it.
Jenn made a salmon soup for lunch that day. I have to admit I was a little skeptical (c'mon, fish soup?!), but OH MY GOODNESS. It was sooo good. It was NOT fishy at all; the fish was caught by some friends who packaged it for Scott and Jenn... Anyway.... After that, Jenn went to work and Scott, Sam and I went for a drive to see more of the surrounding area and to get a feel for winter around here. We went to Portage Valley, Whittier, and Turnagain Pass.
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| Kite skier on the huge, frozen Portage Lake |
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| Sam and I in Portage Valley |
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| Sam, always playing and always curious... seeing the ice kind of freaked me out though... I went back to "land" after snapping the picture |
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| Sam and me |
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| kite skier again |
Portage Valley is an area that is BEAUTIFUL (and a great place to play!) and it allows you to get to Whittier. Whittier is only accessible by way of boat/water travel, or through a mountain. Yes, through... There is a tunnel that is about 2.5 miles long with only one lane. There are certain times of day that the tunnel is "open" for going into or out of Whittier. Whittier is a ...strange... town. The entire town (with a population under 200 I believe) lives in ONE building, much like a college dorm/condominium. Crazy, right?
While waiting for the one-way go ahead to drive through the tunnel to Whittier, I was fascinated by these birds... magpies. They look black and white until the sun catches their feathers, then the feathers look iridescent... blues & greens.
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| This is Whittier, and the building the town lives in. |
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| Prince William Sound (I think?) ... view of the ocean from Whittier! |
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| the left side of the tunnel is for train passage, and the right side for cars... |
We went out further to Turnagain Pass and got to see a glorious sunset and alpenglow - the colors of sunset on the mountain. The Pass is a big play ground for winter sports enthusiasts. Snow-machiners play on one side of the road and non-motorized methods of travelers (skis, snowshoes, snowboards, etc.) play on the other. As the sun set, the wind seemed to pick up, and for the first time since we landed... I felt COLD and underdressed!!
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| Mt Alyeska, all lit up for night skiing |
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| soooooo beautiful... |
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| oh, and we saw a moose. hanging out in Girdwood. #nobigdeal |
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| Alyeska night skiing again |
Saturday I went with Jenn into Anchorage. It was nice to see a Target, but really I hadn't missed it too much! Ha ha. We ran some errands, and after a couple hours I was more than ready to return to Girdwood. Again, Jenn had to work (and Scott was teaching ski lessons), so I met Sam at the Grind, a coffee shop in Girdwood that has some of the best coffee I've ever tasted!! There, we met a couple of people to chat with and we hung out for a couple hours.
One of the people we met is named Dario Martinez. He offers dog sled tours out of Girdwood and competes in races. He didn't race in the Iditarod this year, but has 9 times in the past (I think I'm remembering correctly). I knew Scott had set up for us to work with a man named Nick Petit, a musher preparing for March's Iditarod race so... Sam and I asked Dario if there was anything we could do to help him! ...More on that next time!
After we left the Grind, Sam, Scott, and I went cross country skiing. What a workout. One of the best cardio workouts I've ever done, and I actually LOVED every second. We skied through an area called Moose Meadows, and up to the resort for a yummy sushi dinner before going back out to the Meadow and watching the Winterfest Fireworks. So stinkin' cool. (It got pretty chilly last night and I didn't want my camera to freeze so I left it at the condo; thus, no fun pictures of fireworks or cross country skiing that night.)
