It Snowed!!

I woke up to snow this morning!! Yay!! I even got to try out my 4-wheel drive (there wasn't a ton of snow but it was super slushy- 4 wheel drive is amazing by the way!)

I even got to run to the park and enjoy the snow this morning before work.

stars

Beluga Point

I love eagles!

Pretty Fall Day

It has been rainy.  SOOOOOOOO rainy.  Grey and rainy and cloudy. 

Until all of a sudden, it the entire sky cleared and it was SUNNY!! Yay!!!

So It Snowed....

It snowed.  

In September.

And not like a little dusting.  It SNOWED.

The forecast was calling for snow throughout the day on Tuesday, and it did snow a bit- it was mostly rain but there was definiately some snow mixed in there, but it was warm enough that it wasn't sticking around.  So I settled in for the night thinking "It snowed in September!" but there wasn't any actual snow on the ground.  

I happened to look out my window about 2 hours later and saw that it was snowing- legitimately snowing.  Accumulation on the ground, flakes falling, it was great!  There was about 2" on my truck, I went out and took some pictures, it was nice!  But the air was still above freezing and I was sure the snow would melt by morning.  

 I was incorrect. 

I woke up to a solid 6" on my truck.  The city was covered (well all of Anchorage got snow but I apparently live in an area that usually gets more because I'm right on the edge of the Chugach Mountains.  Lucky me.)  The kiddos in my neighborhood made a full-sized snowman. 

Most of the snow had melted by the time I was able to take pictures much later in the day, but the snow has arrived.  Probably not to stay, but it did make an appearance! 

Good thing I like winter!  And have 4 Wheel Drive!

Autumn in Alaska

So Autumn comes early in Alaska (surprise, surprise).  The leaves were on their last legs in Anchorage this weekend- but I was a bit farther North this weekend and surprisingly, the colors were still at peak around Wasilla!  

This weekend our Native Alaska college group, Arigaa, met up with other Arigaa groups from Fairbanks and Soldotna, as well as a few elders.    We had a ton of fun.  There were great speakers, lots of time for fun and canoeing, great food and lots of great NATIVE food.  No muktuk this year (bowhead whale skin and blubber) but we had tons of smoked salmon, fried halibut, moose, caribou, and of course frybread!  We all had a blast catching up with old friends and meeting new people. 

After the retreat, I went up to the mountain I usually go to to take pictures of the Northern Lights to get one last look at the Fall Colors (the news says snow is in the forecast later in the week...).  I'd never actually been up to this place during the day (its actually the parking lot for a trailhead) but it sure is pretty.  

Northern Lights

I will never get sick of the Northern Lights.  Seriously.  They are just spectacular and pictures will never do them justice. 

Last night, the sky was full of lights and they were dancing directly overhead!  It was spectacular. 

 Both of these pictures are facing SOUTH!  That's how amazing the show was last night!  The sky was so full the southern sky had the most activity!

Fall in Anchorage

Sunset at Point Woronzof

Flock of geese flying over the Cook Inlet at sunset:

Chugach Mountains: 

Campbell Tract Park:

Eklutna Lake

Today I visited Eklutna Lake. Its only about a hour north of Anchorage and it is beautiful.  It is a glacier fed lake so the water actually looks teal when the light hits it.  Seriously- I didn't adjust the color to this picture to make it look that blue!

Camping!!

It's no surprise I like a good camping trip!! 

This weekend, my co-worker and I packed up 12 of our student leaders and went camping!  It was a fabulous time of worship, instruction, hilarity, good food and a lot of fun.  There was canoeing (hello- that is my FAVORITE).  There was target practice (I had to laugh as we were packing up to go- the pile of weapons continued to grow as each person arrived.  I told my coworkers- in my last job like this we worked hard to DIS-arm the students!)  There was caribou sausages cooked on an open fire.  There was also fresh shot grouse!  Gotta love when we are in the middle of a Bible study around the campfire and one of the students is sitting there, paying attention of course, but he is field dressing 2 grouse he just shot.  Side note- fresh shot grouse is YUMMY!!

Labor Day and Belugas

I was walking on the beach with some students on Saturday.  We were talking and laughing and all of a sudden I heard "huuuuuuuuuuu" (ok its difficult to spell what it sounded like- imagine someone with COPD inhaling loudly right beside you).   I turned and looked- and it was belugas!  Right next to me! They were so close, you could hear them breathing!  They were so close, it felt like you could just jump right in there with them- although that would be an incredibly poor choice!   A good sized pod of whales were just swimming up the shoreline. 

The students I was walking with were all excited. One had never seen whales before.  The rest kept saying "you NEVER see belugas here!"  Everyone keeps saying that- You never see Belugas at Point Woronzof!  But  I've seen them there twice now!  Maybe these people who never see Belugas here just aren't paying attention!

Anyways, hoping you all had a lovely Labor Day!  I had a nice, restful day and then went to a friend's place for moose burgers. YUMMY!!! 

Beluga

I went to check out the sunset again tonight at a park at the end of the airport runway.  I'd been there before, but got distracted by the mama moose and her calf and didn't really pay attention to the sunset so I decided to try it again. 

This time, I got there and there were a pod of Beluga Whales breaching right off the beach!! I mean like less than 100 yards from the beach (the tide was very high).  It was amazing!!  You could see a spout, then the top of the head and the back would come out of the water- some times even the tail.  This pics aren't fabulous- I mean they kind of look like the Loch Ness Monster- but seeing it in person was fabulous!

Other people watching the whales said they had lived here 25 years and never seen whales at this beach (or this close to shore).  Usually you have to drive quite a ways down the Seward Highway to get a glimpse of the whales- the inlet that surrounds Anchorage is the sea but it is a long ways from the open ocean.

One of these days I'm going to go out to this place and really just enjoy the sunset- but I'm enjoying all the random animal experiences I've had there!  A plain old sunset might just be boring!!! Or maybe not:

And a view of Anchorage:

Good Morning!

Sunrise at Potter Marsh.  Winter is coming though! There was snow on the mountains the last few nights and ice on the boardwalk Sunday morning. 

Berry Picking

Some of the students I work with went went berry picking on Friday.   It was a blast!  Every other time I went berry picking we would just walk out onto the flat tundra; but in Anchorage berry picking means climbing a mountain first! 

 There weren't a ton of berries to be had but we had fun regardless! 

Another Night of Northern Lights!

Mt McKinley at sunset

The Northern Lights were out again (technically they are ALWAYS out- you just can't always see them). They weren't as spectacular as the night before but they were still fabulous!  There was a lot of purple light- apparently that's rare to see.   

 My new night-sky photography friends came out again last night- its fun to get to know people who enjoy the same types of photography I do!  Admittedly, not many people think its fun to sit on the side of a mountain for 5 hours staring at the sky- even if the aurora isn't bright I enjoy just looking at the stars.  I think that is the BEST way to spend an evening, but I get that not everyone thinks its fun.  So its nice to have friends that will jump in their car and drive half an hour at 2am just to see the aurora.  Good thing I have Mondays off!

 You have to be patient for the Northern Lights though, so many cars would pull up, they would wait 5 minutes, not see anything spectacular, turn around a leave.  But if you are patient, you can see some amazing things!

Northern Lights

The college students I work with are back in town!  Yesterday, we had an event on campus with them- it was great but as I was leaving (at about 12:30 am), I thought I saw the Northern Ligthts- from downtown Anchorage (which is pretty rare).  I wasn't sure I saw them, there was a lot of ambient light and I was tired so I went home, got ready for bed- when I got an alert on my phone that the Aurora was supposed to be pretty good.  It was a totally clear night, so I got back up, grabbed my photography gear and drove 30 miles north to see what kind of pictures I could get.  

Holy Cow.  I've never seen anything like this!!! The Aurora was filling the sky!  You could see the light (mostly green with some red) pulsing through the entire sky- at one point, 80% of the sky was filled with light!   It was in every direction- and directly overhead was just insane!  It went on for several hours- I've never seen northern lights like this!  Plus I made some new friends- I ended up teaching a nighttime photography class to a young couple that just got a DSLR camera and were trying to take aurora pics. 

I love Alaska!

Moose in the City

I went out to the airport to watch the sunset last night- I mean literally at the end of the runway.  Its incredibly beautiful there looking out at the mountains and the Cook Inlet- but a bit loud when the jets are just a few feet above your head.... 

But I was sitting on a hill, enjoying the sunset when I found out there was a moose and a calf on the hill behind me. So fun!   I wasn't out in the country or anything, I was at the end of one of the busiest roads in town!

Sunset from Flat Top

A friend took me on an adventure to Flat Top today!  Its a mountain just south of Anchorage that has an amazing view of the sun setting over the Cook Inlet and the mountains.  You can even see Mt McKinley.  This will be a great place to take night sky pics!

 This is a view of Mt McKinley- over 125 miles away.  (its the mountain on the right in the pic above, also the only mountain in the picture below)