Three weeks into Alaska

Alaska continues to be pretty interesting to say the least.

but

When all these things happen to me I can think of a million wonderful things to say about them, but later on Sunday when I am actually trying to write I find myself out of the energy it would take to make it awesome.  I think, "Oh, I'll just wait until I FEEL like writing something good," but we all know that only happens once every few months and by that time I hardly remember what all the pictures I took were about.

So instead I'll just describe each picture and call it an update.  In a few months I'll write something good again :)

Here is beautiful Elise on Skilak Lake!  We took her guitar on a little hike and were having a good time playing and singing on this beach...when we noticed a group of rafters pulled up close by for lunch.  Eh, no big deal, we keep going.  Then these young red-headed fishermen came tromping out of the woods, and set up quite quite close, frequently looking over their shoulders, sometimes stopping to chat.  By that point it was starting to feel more like a performance, so we packed up and headed back home to the parents house.

To see Leah and baby Aurora!

Elise, Leah and I went to high school together, now Leah has two adorable children.  Her little boy is as sweet as she is and also as gregarious.  She and her husband recently moved down the street from my parents and seeing them is one of the best parts of going to Soldotna!

Plus, look at that sweet doll of a baby.

The other greatest part about going to Soldotna is seeing my parents and THEIR FOOD.  I'm not talking about raiding their pantry.  I try to keep that to a minimum (not saying it doesn't happen though).  I am talking about when my mom makes a 5 course dinner in 5 minutes and it is the best food I have ever had!

I appreciate my parents themselves even more than I appreciate their food, but it definitely deserves a mention :)

I had to work on Labor day, but at noon the boss-lady sent out an email saying if we wanted to we could leave at 3 and forego the rest of the time and a half pay!  From that moment on, all I could think about were the fall-colored mountains calling my name.  I chose a trail behind Anchorage called Wolverine Peak, grabbed my bear spray and headed up listening to "The Endurance." If you need motivation to stop talking about how you're cold, read a book about living on an ice berg in Antarctica for 6 months.

The trail started out like this.  Easy, beautiful.

At the saddle the mist was so thick I could only see what was directly around me.  This was kind of neat, but I had no idea how far away the peak was because it turns out it's hard to keep track of distance when you can't see anything!  I had estimated it would take me about two hours, so I tried to keep trucking and trust that I was right.

Just as I reached the peak, THIS HAPPENED!  The clouds broke and I could see them rolling and boiling over the Chugach Range.  It was beautiful.

 On Thursday I went with some friends to a restaurant where they serve you pizza and you eat it in your MOVE THEATER SEAT while watching a movie!  We went the night they were showing Meru, which is about mountain climbing, of course.  Basically it was exactly like Nicki Preece's house in Salt Lake.

The weekend is time to get out of town, so John and I decided to check out this 'hut' in Hatcher Pass.  Well...as you can see, it is pretty nice.  We discovered signs from the government put up the day before saying no one should live or stay it in ever again because ew.  And those signs were spot on.  Despite the hut conditions it actually was really fun and peaceful to be up there.  I guess the scariness of the hut keeps the riffraff out.  And, it snowed!  I love Hatcher Pass.  I love Alaska.