Photo Friday 3

Well, as promised, pregnancy brain had me forgetting to do this whole photo Friday thing for the past month. Whoops. The good news is, I have 4 great photos to share from the last 4 Fridays I missed! Getting right to it....

1. Hands down, the best thing about short winter days is that we get to sleep in and see the sun rise. Since the sun comes up at an angle, it tends to cast some pretty magnificent colors onto the clouds in the morning. Below is a good one I captured around 10 am. Didn't edit this photo at all, scouts honor. 

2. Another fun thing about winter is the abundant moose butt. In the summertime the moose stand around and eat the flowers/shrubs that are blooming, but in the winter, all they have is whats on the ground. So to reach the ground, they do this funny thing where they kneel on their front legs but keep their back legs extended so that their butts are high in the air. Mooning moose everywhere. Hehe. 

3. Snow downpours. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning when the snow pours down heavy with giant flakes and the inches accumulate within minutes. It's heaven.

4. Hunting for a Christmas tree after said snowfall. The Peninsula is full of Blue Spruce tress, which tend to be skinny and not very full, but the experience of hiking through that winter wonderland and the pride of chopping down and hauling in our own tree made it totally worth it to go Charlie Brown style this year. 

Photo Friday 2

The freeze has begun! Not much snow yet, but morning temperatures are now generally in the teens and daytime highs rarely get above 30. What this means...

1. Back to plugging the car in every night.

2. It's now acceptable to wear your hat and winter jacket (if you get caught doing this on a day above 30 degrees in Alaska, you'll be chuckled at and called a rookie/tourist/cheechako)

3. A diet of hot oatmeal, hot cocoa, and hot soup. 

4. Brown Bears hockey season.

4. Outdoor ice skating! Which happens to be my Friday photo:

When you dog sit an Alaskan Malamute...you take him ice skating.

And since today happens to be October 31st, I also have to share mine & baby's Halloween costume.

Way to go Giants! World Series Champs!

Got a little excited with the photo editor there. Happy Halloween!!

Favorite Photo Friday

Well, needless to say, blog writing has taken a backseat for the past few months. But for good reason. We have a baby girl on the way!! Avery Ana is due January 23^rd, 2015. We couldn't be more excited!

First trimester was a little rough (helloooooo, nausea). Second trimester has been a blast (baby shower, prepping the nursery, feeling her first kicks). And this week is the first week of third trimester. Three more months until we meet our little munchkin!

In the meantime, autumn in Alaska has come and gone. It lasted approximately 2.5 weeks. The colors were amazing (see last year’s blog post), but gave away quickly to early winter frost. The days are getting quite short now and the temperatures are rarely above freezing, which can make things seem pretty gloomy headed into winter. So, in the spirit of brightening up this cold/dark time, I've decided to share my favorite winter photo every week.

Despite the gloominess, Alaska is truly amazing in the winter. I found myself taking millions of photos last year, and they are still on my camera unshared. Sad :-‘(  This year, I plan to post one every Friday… as pregnancy brain allows. Here is the first:

Not exactly representative of winter, but definitely a sight true to life in Alaska. This is the definition of an Alaskan “airport”. One tiny bush plane and a long stretch of open field. And check out that security fence. Fear not, the public Soldotna airport is at least twice this size. I love it.

Clamming

There is small town called Clam Gulch just a few miles of Soldotna, which is where our latest adventure took place. The beaches at Clam Gulch are famous for the hundreds of thousands of razor clams that are harvested there every year. Neither Brandon or I particularly like to eat clams, but our good friends Amy and Bryan do-so we decided to join them in trying our hand at clamming. Here is what we learned:

Step 1: Consult tide book. Clams can only be dug out of the sand at low tide. 

Step 2: Buy clam gun. When I heard this, imagined some shotgun looking-thing that you shoot into the sand in order to blow a hole deep enough to access the clams. This is wrong. Here is what a clam gun actually looks like:

Clam gun = a hollow aluminum cylinder used to pull up sand. No shooting involved.

Step 3: Wander the beach in search of small round holes in the sand. These holes/dimples are called "clam shows" - basically where the clams bury themselves in the sand.

Step 4: Drive clam gun straight down over the center of the hole, then pull up the column of sand. 

Step 4 is not for the faint of heart. Big muscles required. 

Step 5: Search through the sand you pulled out and collect your prize. 

We had an awesome time clamming. Not only was it exciting to stumble upon those little clam holes, but even more exciting when you dug out the sand and A-there was a clam there in the first place, B- you hadn't murdered the clam with your gun, and C-it was a nice big one. When all was said and done, we scored about 50 razor clams for the day. The boys stayed up till 2 a.m. cleaning them, and by then nobody felt like cooking, so we decided we would freeze them and try them another day. I see clam chowder in our near future... (:

Wildfire

Where have we been the last 2 months? Europe! We spent over a month in Romania, Hungary, and France visiting family, hanging out with old friends, and of course doing the tourist thing. It was an amazing time, and way too much to cover in a blog that's supposed to be about Alaska. Instead, here is a small sample from each of the places we visited:

Dracula's Castle- Transylvania, Romania

Bridge over the Danube River- Budapest, Hungary

Eiffel Tower- Paris, France

It was truly the experience of a lifetime, but needless to say, we were ready for a little R&R by the end of it. Little did we know that what we would be coming back to was more excitement and chaos. The day that we returned to Alaska, a little fire that was accidentally started near town blew up into something a lot bigger- the Funny River Wildfire.

Nobody is sure how it started, but it grew fast. There had apparently been a very dry spell while we were gone, and there was no forcasted rain in sight. Then, the wind came. It blew the fire straight towards town, causing several evacuation orders in and around Soldotna. The closest the fire came to our home was 7 miles, but we had the Kenai River separating us from the fire. It eventually did jump the river, but luckily, we didn't get evacuated. We sure did get smoked out, though. 

That tiny red dot is the sun

By day 6 of the fire, it had consumed 243 square miles, making it the biggest wildfire in the US at the time. There were over 700 firefighters working to keep it from destroying life and property, and they did an incredible job. They set up a fuel break that held so well, not a single person or home was affected. Only 3-4 recreational cabins. 

That straight edge at the top of the fire map is the fuel break. And just above it is the city of Soldotna.

It was amazing to see our small town rally together and show appreciation for the firefighters. And to help the evacuees.  People around town donated food and supplies to both groups. The restaurants in town offered free food. Local hotels let evacuees stay for free. And everywhere you looked, there were signs thanking the firefighters. 

As of now the fire is over 50% contained, the air is finally clear, and the burn ban in town has been lifted. The fire is still going, but moving toward the mountains where people and property are not in danger. So once again - THANK YOU FIREFIGHTERS! 

Now to get back outside (without fear of the black lung) and enjoy the start of summer....

First Spring Hike

Blog posts have been scarce these days simply because there hasn’t been much to write about. Winter’s chill has been clinging on, but there is no snow to play outside in. So, our leisure time has been spent in one of 4 ways:

Yahtzee tournaments

Movie nights

Wall art projects

Exercising the thumbs

Party animals, aren’t we? The good news is that it FINNALLY started to warm up last week to above freezing. We just couldn’t resist the warm (40 degree) weather, and so we ventured out with some friends for our first hike of the season.

The trail we picked was at Skilak lake- a short drive from town. Skilak is known for its populous of brown bears, so we packed our guns and left our food at home. The trail was only 4 miles round-trip, but conditions were still quite sketchy. If you weren’t stepping in slushy mud, you were slipping on half-melted snow where sun hadn’t hit the trail.  It took us quite a while to get to the top, but it was totally worth it. Check out this view:

We didn't see any signs of bears, didn't need snow pants, and stayed out till 7 with plenty of daylight to spare. Summer is surely approaching. Or so I thought.....until this morning...

This pretty much sums it up

Iditarod

This weekend we got to experience the "Last Great Race on Earth" - the Iditarod.

A brief Wiki lesson for those of you unfamiliar with this event: 

"The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is an annual long-distance sled dog race run in early March from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of 16 dogs cover the 1,000 mile distance in 9–15 days or more. Teams frequently race through blizzards causing whiteout conditions, sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds which can cause the wind chill to reach −100 °F (−73 °C). The race is the most popular sporting event in Alaska"

Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_Sled_Dog_Race

We made the 2.5 hour trek to Anchorage on a sunny Saturday morning and arrived just in time for the ceremonial start of the race. 

#1 on my list of favorite drives

The mushers started out in downtown Anchorage and took off one at a time on an 11 mile jaunt through the city. We decided to skip the downtown crowds and watch the teams go by a few miles down along the course. This allowed us to get up close and personal - we even got to high-five a few mushers as they rode by (haven't washed our hands since!). Although this ceremonial start wasn't actually part of the race, it was pretty cool to see all the teams in action just before they took off on their journey north. The actual timed start took place the next day from Willow (80 miles north of Anchorage).

High fives for the red bootie team!

Once all 69 teams had passed by, we went into town to check out Fur Rondy. Fur Rondy is an annual winter festival which Anchorage holds around the time of the Iditarod. Its a huge festival with over 100 events. Some of it was your typical carney stuff: a ferris wheel, concerts, talent shows, native art/dance, etc. But the rest was pretty unique. There was a snow sculpture competition, ice bowling, leaf blower air hockey, fur bikini contest, and Running of the Reindeer (in which you can run a 5k alongside - you guessed it - running reindeer). Some of the other winter-themed events, like snowshoe softball and the giant snowball fight, were sadly cancelled this year due to lack of snow. 

We got to experience only a little bit of the festival sine we had to spend most of our day doing our "big city" errands, so these are the most exciting photos I got: 

Definitely want to plan to spend some more time at the festival next year. 

In the meantime, I downloaded the Iditarod app and have been keeping tabs on the race. The latest news is that 12 of the 69 teams have already had to forefit due to dog and musher injuries. And it's only day 3 ): The trail is apparently bare in many spots and very bumpy. Fingers crossed that they will have some more snow as they head farther north!

Meltdown

Things are heating up in Alaska. And not in a good way. While the lower 48 is bundling up amidst a “polar vortex,” we’re breaking record high winter temperatures. We’ve had almost 2 weeks worth of rain and 40+ degree weather, and there is no forecasted cool down in sight. The snow is melting, the rivers are thawing, and most winter activities have become impossible.

Sure, its been nice to experience such a mild winter for us first-timers. On the other hand, we all really, really miss the snow. All that’s left from a few solid feet are some slushy patches here and there. There is bare ground everywhere. In January. In Alaska. It’s thrown everything out of whack.

For starters, the conditions outside are horrible. All that melting snow is causing avalanches and flooding all over the place. And the roads are a slippery mess; a mix of underlying ice with slush on top makes it nearly impossible to gain any traction. Especially when you drive a Ford Focus /-:

There is no longer enough snow to go snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or really any winter activity for that matter. Even the annual Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race has been cancelled. This year would have been its 30^th anniversary. And the race was supposed to start just 6 miles from our place. Boooooo.

“It’s official the T200 has been canceled.  We just don’t have the snow and way to much water in the hills to put together a quality race. We’ve looked at all possible options and with the 10 day forecast (trust me we’ve looked at them all) we feel this is the right decision.”

-Tami Murray, race director

Another sad story - The city of Soldotna put up these amazing ice sculptures all over town for the Peninsula Winter Games. I took photos of two of them right when they were set out last week, but they melted so quickly that there were only puddles left at the start of the Winter Games this Saturday. 

Then there is the worry around town that the warm temperatures and lack of snow will cause the bears to come out of hibernation (they usually sleep till end of March or early April). It's already happened in the hills of Nevada. And when bears can't find food in the wild, they head to the nearest town to look for it. Bad news bears.

UPDATE 1/27/14: I saw on the news this morning that 2 black bears were spotted a few miles out of town ):

Hopefully this warm spell doesn't last too much longer. Alaska should be white, not wet, in January. When you finish reading this, please get up and do a brief snowdance for us up here. We need it.