Tue, 08 May 2012
Farewell to Alaska
Marc wanted to drive home from Alaska. Everyone should experience the AlCan highway, right? So I flew up and we took a vacation together in the wilds of Canada and Alaska.First, we cleaned out Marc's apartment and packed the car with his things. We packed some of the food for eating in the car. And of course we had to finish up the last of the ice cream in the freezer. This is a tradition from many weeks at our timeshares. We always seem to buy more ice cream than we can eat so we will be forced to eat too much at the end…(by the way, note the flavor of the ice cream and the mis-matched spoons).
Then we left.
I took a lot of pictures on the road. As I get time, I'll tell you about the fun time we had and I'll even post a few of the pictures, but for now, just know that we made it home safely, nearly 4000 miles later.
Sun, 22 Apr 2012
Alaska wildlifeIt was the wrong time of year to see the variety of wildlife that Alaska offers, but I still enjoyed what we did see. I already mentioned that we saw signs of moose and kept missing them downtown. When we drove to see Denali, we saw two on the way back, but we drove by quickly.
Did I mention that there are lots of murals on the outside of buildings in Anchorage? I guess they are for tourists, but I'm sure they also brighten up things in the winter. There was a nice mural by the dock in Seward also. Here's what we should have seen on our whale watching cruise.
Nope. But we did see some birds, and it brought back memories of the bird trip I took almost 30(!!!) years ago in Alaska. The company even lent us binoculars so we didn't have to share. Melody and Thomas don't like my little, expensive pair, and that's just fine with me.
Right away, coming out of the harbor, we saw a sea otter, but it was quick and we didn't get a great look at him. We'd hoped to see him on the way back, but didn't.
We saw seals.
Of course we saw eagles.
We saw murres and a kittiwake rookery.
Kittlwakes are a kind of gull. They nest on ledges to keep safe from predators. It is interesting that their eggs are extra pointy on one end so that if they roll, it will only be in a tight circle so they are less likely to roll off the ledge. Our guide told us that the kittiwakes have a social "pecking order" as it were. The lower status birds nest higher on the cliff because they are closer to the eagles. The eagles use the rookeries as a kind of cafeteria.
Another animal that lives on steep places is the mountain goat. We saw a couple of these and learned an interesting fact. We watched an eagle dive-bombing one of these. Our guide told us that the eagles do this to make them fall. They lead such a precarious life on these steep cliffs, that studies have shown that 40% of them die just from falls. K What a life!
This isn't wildlife, but we saw this skeleton forest that was from the 1964 earthquake that devastated Alaska. The whole section dropped so that the roots of the trees were in salt water and that killed them. The trees that live are not much higher, but enough to be out of the salt water.
We did not see polar bears. And it was too early for puffins, which I
was sad about. So I bought a stuffed puffin as a zipper pull for my
backpack. Does a towel animal count as wildlife?
One of the animals that was the most fun to see, was at the zoo. Our favorites here were the otter and the seal. They both liked the cold and were very active.
The otter enjoyed chasing his tail in the water.
And here is a mountain goat living a less dangerous life at the zoo.
it was fine with me that the only brown bear we saw was at the zoo.Look at those claws.
Well, gotta go now, so guess that will have to be enough of Alaska wildlife.
I guess I could mention that Bryan made it home safely from BYU. I didn't take pictures at the airport, but his flight was delayed so he ended up coming in after 2 AM. He still got up to help me clean the church the next morning. It will be nice to have him home for awhile. This week I will fly to Alaska again and Marc and I will drive home. Then the whole family will be together for awhile. Hurray!
Tue, 17 Apr 2012
Alaska continuedWe had a really fun week in Alaska. Like I already said, the weather was beautiful for the first few days we were there. Marc had to work, but the kids and I went skiing one day, went to the zoo the next, and went on a whale watching tour in Resurrection Bay (out of Seward, by Kenai Fjords National Park) another day. When the weather was less nice, we went souvenir shopping, went to the natural history museum, and relaxed around Marc's apartment. After Marc got off work, we still had lots of daylight, so one day we drove north far enough so that we could see Mount McKinley (or Denali). We were lucky because it is usually covered in clouds and Marc had tried that once before, but this time it was clear and we could say we'd seen it (albeit little on the horizon).
So here are some pictures from the trip. Anchorage is on the Cook Inlet and from Anchorage you can drive in two directions. One way goes along the Turnagain arm of the Cook inlet. We drove this twice. Once to go to Alyeska to go skiing and once to go whale watching out of Seward. We were thinking of skiing later in the week, but when it started snowing, we decided to stay in Anchorage instead. Good thing cause there was an avalanche and the road was closed on Friday.
Morning drive along the Turnagain arm. I should mention that none of the pictures come close to showing the beauty of the things we saw.
We got out a few places to take pictures, but then the 45 minute drive took us and hour and a half. Melody took some for me from the car window.
The residents call this season "breakup" and it is probably the ugliest season because of all the mud and dirty snow, but we still saw a lot of majestic sights.
It was only the second time Melody and Thomas had been downhill skiing and they did a great job. I thought they were skiing in control and learning very fast. It was amazingly fun.We were all a little sore the next day, but not bad.
Tuesday we went to the zoo and then drove to see McKinley with Marc. The drive to McKinley is the other way you can drive from Anchorage. It is along the Knik arm of the Cook inlet, past Wasilla (hello, Sarah Palin) and then north. It was another beautiful day.
The next day we had a gorgeous drive to get to Seward where we took the boat tour. This was kind of a whim. Most tours do not start until the first of May, but I found this boat that started tours the first week of April. I'm sure we didn't see a fraction of what we would have seen later, but I enjoyed seeing some wildlife and figured that it was better than seeing nothing. I liked seeing the fjords and the glaciers. We did see some wildlife. I think I will put the animals in a different post though because this one is getting kind of long.
Our boat was the Orca Song. I was concerned when I saw that the water had a thin layer of ice on it. I was afraid that we would not be dressed warm enough. We spent most of our time outside but the top deck had plexiglass to block the wind. Sometimes it got cold, but there was always the bottom deck, inside, to get warm.
On our drive back, it started snowing, so I was glad to have the all-wheel-drive car. We stopped in Moose Pass for a "dinner" of ice cream and Marc had a real dinner waiting for us when we got back to his place. The next two day we stayed in town. We visited the natural history museum, which is just a tiny place, but is packed with very hands-on exhibits.
Those are Dall sheep horns Thomas has on his head by the way. And now he is riding a mammoth.
We also went to a craft fair with Marc. He bought us these cookies, made by a Russian lady for Easter.
After all, Russia is nearby. By the way, we learned on this trip that Alaska is not only the northernmost state, and the westernmost state, but it is also the most eastern state in the United States. On Saturday evening, Marc drove us to the airport for another overnight flight.
This time I was able to sleep and we arrived home about noon on Easter Sunday. We missed church but had a nice dinner on the table at about 2:30. Happy Easter.
Sun, 15 Apr 2012
Spring break 2012I love Spring, and it came early this year. I already mentioned that it seemed that we didn't have much winter. Since Marc is in Anchorage and we had some credit with the airlines that needed to be used, we decided to go to Anchorage to visit Marc for our Spring break.
First, here is what it looked like at our house before we left…
I love to see the flowers bloom.
I guess I should also mention that I had a birthday. I counted Alaska as my birthday trip and celebration, but Marc sent me flowers anyway. And Melody made me a dessert. Bryan called me and Thomas sang to me. And I got lots of wishes on Facebook and real cards. It's nice to be remembered.
The flight to Alaska was long, but made better by movies. I tried to sleep but couldn't in spite of the fact that I am real good at sleeping through movies here at home. What's up with that? We arrived in Anchorage just after midnight and Marc greeted us and drove us to his apartment. Melody got to sleep on the couch for the week, and Thomas got the big, comfy chair. But this is how he slept the first night. It was kind of funny.
The next morning we were greeted with sunshine. We were lucky to have several days of very nice weather and gorgeous scenery. Marc took us around town the first day and showed us some of the places he'd discovered. We enjoyed exploring the Anchorage museum, which had art, science, and history combined. But most of the pictures I took were at the hands-on science part.
There were a lot of fun exhibits. We also explored downtown Anchorage including the sun. Marc's blog has a picture of it snowing on the sun. A lot of the snow had melted by early April.
Marc had bought us souvenirs so we didn't forget where we were.
Yes, the sun was really bright. Then we went out for my birthday dinner. Melody and Thomas got pizza and Marc and I had really good fish. Mine is halibut and Marc had fresh marlin.
Then we were full and so needed to go walking some more. We walked along the coastal trail to see the Cook inlet.
It was a beautiful day. We saw pussy willows and moose droppings. Melody wouldn't let me post the picture of the moose droppings. I guess they weren't beautiful. But I really did want to see a moose downtown and we never did. One day people told us that we had just missed a mother and baby by a few minutes. I began to wonder if the AK tourist bureau just went around with fake droppings and spreading rumors for the tourists' benefit…
Anyway, after everyone was tired and went back to the apartment, Thomas convinced me that he still hadn't had enough of playing in the snow. So I went out with him to let him dig in the snow. We had daylight until nine, so there was plenty of time. He said he did get a little cold when he popped up through the snow for his exit tunnel.
Well, that was our first day in Anchorage. I think I will post the rest later.
Thu, 15 Mar 2012
A FuneralI've really been trying to post at least twice a month, and I need to get something written because March is half over. Marc has been complaining at my lack of communication (on the blog that is. We communicate all the time on the phone, although the three hour time difference does make that a challenge).
After our trip to Jefferson City, we got news that Marc's dad died. It was quite a shock for everyone because he was still young and in good health. He had just returned from a mission in Ukraine two months before. So we all flew to California for the funeral. It was nice to see family, but we certainly regretted the reason for it. Marc has a link to his father's obituary and more information on his blog about his father.
We were fortunate to have good weather the weekend of the funeral. I mention this because I was worried that with so many people traveling from all over on that weekend, a winter storm would have complicated things. Marc had originally planned to fly overnight and arrive just an hour and a half before the funeral, but in the end, was able to change flights and come in the night before.
I took my camera, but did not take pictures except in the airport. Here we are, together at the Sacramento airport.We arrived on three different flights within about a half hour of each other.
Melody and Thomas and I having dinner in the Denver airport on the way home.
Apart from this major event, it feels like nothing has happened for the last month. We did manage to go hiking a few times. Sheila and I went hiking on the lost valley trail and convinced Melody and Thomas to join us on their bikes. It was kind of muddy in a few spots. We also went back to Bangert Island, but on a hike lead by a naturalist this time. I should mention that we will remember this year as the one without winter. We have barely had winter weather here and that has happened across the nation. Except Alaska. Our crocuses and daffodils bloomed the first of March and now the trees in the back yard are blooming.
Melody had a choir concert. This was in preparation for the competition that they participated in. They did a great job.
And Melody got glasses. She's been complaining for a couple of months that she thought she needed glasses, but it took awhile to get around to actually getting her an appointment, etc.
Otherwise, it doesn't seem that we've done much. It feels like we've been sick a lot of the month. Hopefully we will all get healthy soon. We plan to fly to Alaska for spring break, so we'd better be healthy and make some plans for that soon.
Fri, 17 Feb 2012
Jefferson CityThe third annual Robot Rumble in the Rotunda actually got an official name this year. They called it the Jefferson City Invitational. We got to be one of 16 teams representing the more than 100 LEGO teams across Missouri at this mini-tournament. The purpose was to promote science, technology, engineering, and math education to legislators. Only four of the boys were able to miss school to go, but they had a great time. Since Marc couldn't go, another parent went with me. We all left early on Thursday morning and arrived at the capitol two hours later.
We set up and explored a little of the capitol. The is a museum on the ground floor of the capitol. Kevin found a gun
and Thomas found swords.
We were excited because we got to visit with our state senator, Tom Dempsey. He was very nice and talked to the boys for awhile about robotics. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the boys with him. We gave pins to him and his secretary. We visited a few other offices to hand out our pins.
Our tournament was set up right in the rotunda, which is a very pretty place.
We visited with other teams and shared ideas. Hopefully we learned things from others.
The tournament was pretty casual, and unfortunately we didn't score as many points as we were capable of, but we finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. It was a respectable showing for a rookie team, especially considering that we had completely redesigned our robot and started from scratch with the programming at the beginning of January.
We had a snack between rounds.
And got our picture taken.
We got a certificate for our efforts.
After the tournament, we had a quick lunch and then toured the Governor's mansion.
And then went back to the capitol for an extensive tour there. The team members all asked lots of questions and I think were impressed by the building and things we saw.
Paintings…
And architecture…
Our guide was very knowledgeable, but they did have to correct him at one point when he misidentified a type of Greek column…
We saw stained glass.
And fossils in the floor and walls.(built with native limestone…
We all got to use the state seal.
We saw busts of famous Missourians.
Anyone recognize this one? The team is studying the circus in one of their classes right now. So they all knew that this is a famous hobo clown.
I hope the trip was worth a day off school. We had a lot of fun and it should have been a memorable day for all..
Happy Valentine’s Day
There hasn't been a lot going on, but I want to try to write a little more regularly. We have all been kept busy with the usual routine of school and church. Thomas has played a little church basketball. The games are on Saturdays. They only have one left.
Melody has been busy with school. She also started taking voice lessons and is enjoying that. To point out how boring our times have been, she made me take a picture of the time two weeks ago when I caught a wooden spoon in the blender and had "wood smoothies". Quite newsworthy, huh?
To encourage me to write, Melody also took pictures of our recent snowfall. Yes, we did finally have a little snow. The kids didn't get a day off school, but it was pretty.
We have all been passing a cold around also, so no one has felt very good. Marc is lucky to not be here. I felt especially bad on Valentine's Day, so it was just as well that we had a long-distance romance that day. I wouldn't have been a fun date. Marc surprised me with pretty balloons and chocolate covered bananas and apples. Yummy. I look forward to our postponed date.
Thanks you, Marc. I love you.
I had to pull myself together long enough to finish the pins that I had been working on for our robotics tournament in Jefferson City. We like to have hand-outs, so I cut up another motherboard to make 100 more pins. I'd not done this when the weather was nicer, so had to use the tile saw on the back porch in weather in the teens. It was very cold. And my fingers got wet and frozen. But they are done.
And now we are all ready to go. I'll write about the tournament in a separate entry.
Sat, 04 Feb 2012
JanuaryWow. Marc just told me that he posted in his blog. Not to be outdone, I am going to write quickly also. The whole month of January I just felt behind. I didn't get my Christmas decoration down until halfway through the month. That is a new record in lateness. We usually do them on New Year's Day. Anyway, I only posted once and only took a few pictures during the month. Let me try to catch up quickly.
We only had one snowfall during the month. The kids got one day off school, but it's still looking like an unbelievably mild winter. We've had days in the 60s.
I mentioned that Marc's job funding was uncertain. It was still uncertain on the 15th and his boss was busy getting married ( and so not entirely focused on this issue), so Marc didn't want to wait until the 31st to learn that the funding hadn't come through. Although he'd liked the job, he decided to take a short term contract that came up. I think we were both excited about the adventure feel of the job that he decided to take. It is in Anchorage. The pay is real good and hopefully will be good experience for him. He flew up there two days ago. I plan to live vicariously and appreciate the adventure also. And maybe the whole family will get a chance to go visit on spring break. At least that is the current plan. So, for more info you can check out Marc's blog. He says he's going to write regularly. What else is there for him to do?
I've got a couple more really busy weeks around here and then maybe I'll get caught up and write again also.
Wed, 04 Jan 2012
The Dana-Thomas House
Marc reminded me that when I am writing my blog, since this the Internet and all, I really should include links when I refer to something. "But" I tell him, "It's so easy for someone to look things up when they want them…"
Really, I just forgot that I can do links and so I hope this one works. Check it out, but the real house is nicer.
Tue, 03 Jan 2012
holidaysChristmas was nice. Our anniversary was nice. New Year's was nice. Today is the last day before the kids go back to school. So I will write a few things about what we did over Christmas and for our anniversary. The best things are that Bryan came home and my mom came to visit. The Christmas shopping was mostly done before Bryan and Mom came, so our time was mostly spent relaxing and visiting. Yes, we played pinochle. I did get to do some shopping with Bryan for some warm winter clothes. Ad Mom and I did a little shopping together just for fun.
We baked some cookies.
On Friday, the kids finally got off school, and we went to the zoo. It was cold and we didn't see many animals, but enjoyed the chance to get outside and walk around. Mom has two new knees she wanted to show off.
Then on Saturday, we made quiche for Christmas morning.
And Marc was off work and supervised the making of chocolates.
On Christmas eve we had our traditional (sometimes, depending how we feel) dinner by the Christmas tree.
And then opened a present. This year only the younger people had presents to open. The rest of us already had too many pairs of pajamas. I guess that's what happens when you don't outgrow your clothes…
After some movies, we had hot chocolate and went to bed. Melody and Thomas in their new jammies.
Christmas morning we ate quiche and opened presents. Since it was Sunday, we went to church in the afternoon. We watched more movies on Sunday.
On Monday, we had snow! Melody had really been hoping for a white Christmas, but I guess she got her order in a little too late. Or it got lost. But we did get about an inch of snow.
It made the drive to Springfield a little prettier for Marc and me. Yes, we went to Springfield to celebrate our anniversary. 20 years really merits Hawaii, but we'll have to do that another time, when life isn't so busy. We really enjoyed the Lincoln museum.
And we also saw a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I wish I'd gotten at least one picture of the house,but pictures weren't allowed inside, so I left my camera in the car and didn't get any pictures. You'll have to check out the web site for the Dana-Thomas house designed by F.L. Wright. I really enjoyed this tour. And I liked the house much more than I expected. I decided that I wouldn't mind being rich. Except the lady who had this house built had a sad life in spite of her money.
Anyway, we had a nice little get-away, and came home to find that the kids hadn't tied Grandma up and that all were safe and sound. They'd even built a snowman in our absence.
You can see that the snow didn't stick around long. Mom and I did go on a little hike and there was no snow, but the trail was kind of muddy.
Mom left a couple days before New Year's and Bryan left New Year's Day. We just had a relaxing, quiet holiday together. It was nice.
Melody and I decided a couple days ago to try to crochet some of the cute winter hats that we've seen in the stores. We had fun doing this. Melody made the two on the left, and I made the others. The one without pink or obvious purple is for Thomas. He says he is brave enough to wear it.
Maybe we'll feel creative in 2012.
Jan Dill Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 31 December 2009
