Fall/Fire/Sunset/Moose

 The transition from summer to winter is happening very quickly. This time of year is most commonly referred to as "fall." But, here in Anchorage, I didn't transition from wearing shorts and tank tops to wearing sweaters-I transitioned from sweaters to puffy down coats and insulated rain boots. Thick frost is already forming every morning, and I live in fear of the first snowfall. The air smells like Halloween in Salt Lake City, and it I love it.

The evenings are especially gorgeous, because we are actually awake to see the sunset. On Wednesday evening we were lured outside, and decided to have a little fire on the beach (one of our favorite activities).

Jeff quickly put together a little meal of nuts, apples, peppers, bread, and delicious garlicky dip. We were sure to pack the Jet Boil, so we could have some hot chamomile tea to warm us up. I put on my wool underwear and layered up.

 
 As we strolled along the coastal trail, Oscar went wild off of his leash. I started to feel bad for him, knowing that winter would soon force us inside.

  September has made me fall in love with Anchorage.

 When we arrived at the beach, the tide was crazy high, and rising. We were so used to a long bit of beach from our usual spot. Now the water was creeping up over that log, and almost invaded our fire pit.

 Oscar was confused. He wondered why the ocean ate his beach.

 The tide rose just enough to almost touch Jeff's outstretched Crocs, but then hit slack tide.

 

The tide flooded our way out, so we had to scramble up the hill to the trail. I'm not much for climbing. I have a fear of falling to my death. Jeff said I should only have a fear of falling on my face into the leaves. Whatever. I was scared.

 

The sunset was quick, and we had to walk the 3/4 mile back to the car in almost total darkness. As we were remarking that we should have brought our headlamps, Oscar stopped on the trail, got very stiff, and wagged his tail viciously. Jeff and I stopped, squinted, and saw a dark shadow that could have been a bush. But it was most likely a moose.

I screamed at Oscar to come back to us, and he just got scared and moved away from us. Jeff acted fast, and scooped him up. Oscar let out a little squeal, and just then we heard a sound to the left of us in the woods. Jeff got in front of me, and we started searching for a way around these potential wild animals. We weren't even sure what we were dealing with, because we had no flash light. We could venture off the trail, and risk running into something more dangerous and not even realize it. Just when we were formulating a plan, we saw some bike lights in the distance. We flagged down the bikers, and told them there might be some moose in front of us. The slowly rode their bikes as we walked next to them, and sure enough there was a moose munching away in the woods, AND that shadow that Oscar was wagging at? Full on moose butt. Not a pretty sight. Both moose seemed completely engrossed in their eating, and paid us no mind. Thank goodness. And thank goodness for the nice German bicyclist who rode between us and the moose-butt.

We got to our car, and our hearts were still racing. As we pulled onto the road, Jeff put on the brakes just as a bull moose crossed the road. We watched it for a while, stunned at how these monsters just roam the streets of Anchorage. We had already seen a mama and baby moose on the trail a couple of months ago, plus I saw a moose at the park right by my house. At like 7pm! Some people get raccoons. We get moose.

Next time we go to the beach, I'm bringing a headlamp and Oscar stays on his leash the whole time.

xo

Alli

PS-We learned that the moose are extra dangerous right now, because they're mating. Jeeeez louise!!

More Denali Bears

As Jeff and I were driving back through Denali, we were still gitty from our grizzly bear sighting. As we continued along, we saw a few bears here and there in the far distance. Nothing really to write home about. We saw another line of cars on the side of the road, pulled over to join them, and watched three bears that were very far up on the mountain. We decided to sit and watch these bears, because two of them were blond. Grizzly bear hides come in all different colors, just like human hair. But, as I watched these cuties, I thought maybe they were related to the Spirit Bear. 

Once again, Jeff and I ate as we watched. And once again, these guys slowly moved closer and closer to us!

We couldn't believe we were getting another bear show. Especially with three bears. I didn't know which one to look at, but I was much more calm this time. 

They inched closer and closer to us, and we realized it was a little family. See the mama in the front, and her two big cubs trailing behind? *cute vomit*

Here we go again! They crossed the road. I was less worried about my own safety this time, because I was much more concerned about the people in the other vehicles. There was no ranger around, this time, so a family (with small children) excitedly exited their vehicles as the bears approached. A small child ran towards the beasts, and her grandmother told her to go back to the car. I realized this was not out of concern for the safety of the child, but for the child to get out of the photo she was taking. 

Here is the grandmother of that small child demonstrating exactly what you shouldn't do when a family of grizzly bears is yards away. This could have been disastrous. 

But, once again, these bears paid us humans no mind. And Jeff and I went back to our camp full of the Denali spirit.

Have you ever seen bear in the wild?

xo

Alli

PS-you can view all the photos from our Denali trip here. 

Denali Bear

About thirty miles into the park, we noticed a long line of cars pulled over on the side of the road. If you frequent National Parks, you know what this means. Wildlife. Sometimes it's only a few white specks of mountain goat, or a caribou munching (we saw plenty of both of those). It just so happened that THIS time it was the holy grail of Alaskan wildlife-a grizzly bear.

We gladly pulled over, got out of the car and giggled as we watched him slowly move around and eat. He was very far away, and I wasn't nervous. I was simply stunned that we got to see one so soon on our drive. See his hide glistening in the sun?

We kicked ourselves for not bringing our binoculars, but we caught little glimpses of his cute face every few minutes.

We hung out for probably an hour or so. We didn't have to be anywhere. We ate some pistachios, and treated this moment like a good movie. I was happy to watch The King of the Forest forever. As we watched, he slowly made his way closer to us. 

This is when my heart starting beating faster. A park ranger was nearby, keeping a close eye on The Bugger, and warned us that we should probably stay in our cars at this point.

Even Oscar noticed The Monster.

Mr. Bear paid no attention to the line of cars and awe-struck humans. Jeff believes this is because the park service is careful to ensure that these beasts never eat human food. Even though the Big Guy probably didn't notice us, we all knew this was a profoundly dangerous animal. Hence the name "Grizzly."

We kept our windows rolled down for ideal viewing, and we began to hear The Hungry One digging and chewing!

Then-he started moving closer....

...and closer....

AND CLOSER!

He sniffed in the direction of the cars, and I wondered if he could smell our pile of pistachio shells, and then! He suddenly crossed the road. 

This is where I freaked out. We quickly rolled up the windows, and I whispered in fear "Should I lock the doors?! Oh my gosh! Oh my GOSH!! OH MY GOSSHHH!!" Jeff was giggling with delight, and reminded me that bears don't have thumbs-therefore it's difficult for them to open car doors.

These folks tried their best to "stay inside their vehicles." They were braver than I was.

We continued to watch Mr. Bear eat, and sniff, and lumber and then suddenly he was gone over a hill. We were pleased that we got to see a bear right away, and happily continued to drive. We knew that we were lucky to have an exciting bear show. Little did we know-we would get another, more awesome bear show in mere hours. Stay tuned...

xo

Alli

Denali

Last weekend, Jeff and I were lucky enough to score a road lottery pass into Denali. A pass to drive into the park is precious, as they only allow a limited number of vehicles per day. The park has a dirt road that stretches 90 miles across the park, and it's meant to feel very secluded. 

Denali (or Mount McKinley) is the highest mountain peak in North America. It's simply incredible. 

We woke up very early on Saturday morning, and drove about 4 hours to Denali. It was a glorious fall drive. The colors were changing, the sun was shining, and Oscar and I were napping on and off while listening to "This American Life" pod casts. Oscar preferred napping on my backpack. 

Please. Give me something nice to look at. 

We saw seven bears, loads of sheep and mountain goats, caribou, and a baby and mama moose running on the side of the road. Don't you worry, I'm putting together two separate posts about our awesome bear shows. Wait for it...

I had a couple of Into the Wild moments. I never want to be alone in this vast, wild space.

The most spectacular views of the actual mountain were supposed to be at the end of the road at Wonder Lake. It was too late in the day as we approached Wonder Lake, so the mountain was covered in clouds. 

We spent the night with some fantastic company at the Teklanika River campsite. We ate beer-battered halibut for dinner, and our friend Joe quoted a scene from "The Three Amigos." His accuracy was almost as incredible as the Mountain. Almost.

I was a little bit cold as we slept in the tent, but I put Oscar inside my sleeping bag. He slept on my feet.  He was happy. I was happy. 

As we drove out of the park the next morning, we scored this view of the Mountain. It's not totally clear, but those wispy clouds make me shiver. 

Obligatory picture of us. Notice our down jackets? Yes. It was very cold. 

As we drove back to Anchorage, we were met with even more sunshine. I am excited to plan another, longer trip to the park. Maybe backpacking in the back country. 

Maybe.

xo

Alli

ps-Stay tuned for the bear posts. Will post today and tomorrow.

Spot

When I was about 13 or 14, my dad gave me his camera. He just said I could have it. This is the camera he used on his LDS mission, and he took lots of our treasured family photos with this baby. I've always loved this camera. Especially because of its history. It's a 1969 Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic that my dad purchased at a duty-free zone in Colon Panama. The Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic was introduced to the public at the 1960 World's Fair, and it was made available for purchase in 1964. This little piece has only been in our family, and I'll keep it forever.

When I went away to college (over ten years ago) this baby stayed in my parents' basement. It seemed too precious to cart around, and digital cameras were becoming the norm. I had all but forgotten about it, until I got a little camera hungry this summer. I was browsing Amazon for instax cameras and holgas, when I remembered my little Spotmatic. I asked the folks to send it all the way from Utah to Alaska, and they did!

When it arrived, I noticed it had a roll of film that still needed to be used up. I snapped a couple of pictures of Oscar and the kitty, and wound up the film. Of course, I couldn't remember how to open the camera to get to the film, but google took care of that. I was happy to find out that Costco develops film, and even makes a CD of all the images. HELLO 2011!

Of course the pictures didn't really turn out, as the film was probably 15-years-old, but here are the ones that did turn out. Well, sort of turned out:

 These five pictures were taken in Wyoming, while visiting our friends the Kunz's. We were all obviously at different stages in development face. Wowza! 

 Marianne, me, Katie, Gravy, and JB

 JB, taking a little breather on the soccer field.

 Katie relaxing in the sun.

 My mom. My mom's hair. And a soccer field.  

 Marianne, probably wondering if the game is over yet. 

This next picture is weird, because it's a picture of a picture frame. I recognize the top left photo as Meredith and I on all fours in a parking lot pretending to want to eat lemons. It's still one of my favorites. The bottom left photo is my high school boyfriend, Chris Jensen. The other three look like dance pictures and probably another picture of me and Meredith.  

 I like that I got a picture of this picture frame, but what I love most about this photo is that it captures a little bit of my teenage room. I lived in this room for 17 years. It had all white wicker furniture, peach-colored walls, and curtains that matched the bed spread. I regret not keeping that wicker furniture when I went away to college. This photo also shows how messy I was-hence the hanger on the floor.

This next photo is one I took when the camera arrived here in Alaska a few weeks ago.

 It's just kitty. Lookin' real slim.

As you can see from the three pictures at the top of this post, the Spotmatic (I guess I'll call it "Spot") needs to be cleaned and refurbished. I'm excited to load it up and take some old-fashioned film photos.

xo

Alli