Daily Outfit

Jacket-Marmot

Pants-Healy Hanson

Shoes-Mud covered

Poles-Leki 

Socks-soaked wool

Spirit-crushed

Oscar-at a tourist trap in Hope, Alaska

I just couldn't resist...

xo

Alli

New Bikes and a Happy Birthday

Jeff and I finally bought ourselves some bikes. Anchorage is equipped with loads of bike trails and green ways. I have been desperate to take advantage of these trails, and tooling around on a bicycle is the way to do it.

Coasting along the coastal trail is a great way to spend an evening. The sun shines well into the middle of the night this time of year, so we frequently find little spots along the trail to stop and enjoy the view.



I owe my new found love of biking to my bicycle-obsessed sister, Rachel (I am only calling her "bicycle-obsessed", because I can just hear her saying, "I am not bicycle-obsessed!!"). It is her birthday today, and I love and miss her so much. If she were here, I just know she would love biking along the beautiful coastal trail.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

xo

Alli

Prison

Yeah. I went to prison. Once. It was pretty nice actually...

Check out all the pictures here.

I "had" to go to prison for work. Meaning, my boss couldn't go-so I got to go check it out on his behalf. I was so pumped to go, as I had never been to prison before :). I, and some other legislative staffers (including Jeff) got an exclusive tour of Goose Creek Correctional Center, and our tour guide was the Commissioner of Corrections himself. It was pretty interesting. The facility will be, in a way, run by the inmates. They will cook, clean, and contribute to the overall maintenance of the property-that way they can stay busy. Nobody likes an idle prisoner...

xo

Alli

Rabbit Lake

Backpacking. Ugh. It's tough to want to put on a million pound pack and hike up a mountain. Call me a spoil sport, but the thought of it is no fun. But what's weird, is that once I get going up the trail, I'm nothing but happy. I feel like I can hike for days and days, and I'm always so proud that I did it. Why don't I ever feel that way after watching Season 7 of "Friends" for the fiftieth time?

I was a tad nervous when we started our hike, because we had to start on the complete other side of the trail. There were clear, big, red warning signs for bears, so I was a bit of Nervous Nelly.

Jeff looked at me, and said "Come on, honey" again. He had the bear spray in his hands, and he was rearing to head up the mountain. We went over the proper procedure when encountering a bear. About an hour into our hike, he suddenly told me to think of everything he told me about bear encounters-and just do the opposite. Yep, that's right. He told me the wrong thing to do, but luckily he told me the proper procedure, eventually. Good thing we didn't see any bears.

Once we arrived at Rabbit Lake, we hunkered down and sipped some hot lemony tea. Because it was very windy and very cold. Oscar didn't mind.

It was pretty windy, because there were no trees. We were way above tree line, and very exposed. No place to hide, except the tent.

We cuddled inside for a little body heat. Once again, Oscar didn't mind.

The next day, at the very end of our hike back, we saw a moose! A bull-moose! Yes, this is the best picture I could get of him. I was very nervous. But he didn't spit or hiss, so I guess we were safe. He just stared at us. And we stared right back. Then we slowly backed up and got in the car.

You can see all our photos here, pre-picnik.

xo

Alli

4th

I am having a heck of time adjusting to summertime life in Anchorage. It's a little strange working at a desk job in the summer. I am so used to the Red Onion and all my beautiful friends in Skagway. I knew I'd probably get all mushy for Skagway when July 4th hit, but I'm happy that Jeff and I stepped out to enjoy the festivities in Anchorage.

Click here for more photos of the parade. 

Working on some more pictures and projects. Blogging in the summer is weird. I'm constantly inspired, but I need to put all that inspiration into action. More coming soon!

xo

Alli

Summer Solstice 2011

There is a bit of an annual tradition to hike to the top of Flat Top Mountain every June 21. Jeff read this last week, and we decided it would be the perfect Summer Solstice activity.

I was amazed at how many people decided join the annual tradition. We saw hundreds of people on the trail, and it was thrilling to feel like we were part of some old world, solstice, pagan, pilgrimage ritual.

 

Except no one was chanting (except for Jeff, saying "good job, honey" over and over and over.)

If you look closely at the left side of the ridge, you can see a little train of people marching to the top.

Now, when I say "marching" I mean c l i m b i n g. I am still carrying my winter coat (aka my fat I put on over the winter), so this hike was tough.

 

It wasn't even recommended that Oscar hike to the top. But he went anyway, and was better than all of us.

The last bit of climbing was pretty intense. Hand over foot climbing, with hikers that were older and fatter breezing past us. I was very frustrated with myself, and felt the tears rolling down my cheeks right as we hit the top of the peek. 

We did it! And we were even greeted by the beginnings of what was sure to be some an awesome solstice party in the clouds on the mountain top. We didn't stay on the top for long-because we had to get to bed early.

My mountain man.

I think Jeff is trying to suck out my brain through my cheek-or kissing me. I think he was proud of me for making it to the top, or happy that I wasn't complaining anymore.

We got a little Solstice bonus on the drive home. The vibe hit 100,000 miles!

Happy Summer Solstice! I know this blog is supposed to have at least a little bit of knitting, but with the sun shining through the night-it's tricky to get it up for the needles and wool.

(this picture was taken at 11:00 pm)

xo

Alli