Book Quiz.....

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

You're West Virginia!

You are a true coal miner's daughter, or maybe even son. You probably
smoke, and your lungs are paying for it every day. While you're definitely willing to
separate yourself from the crowd for what you believe in, this policy has put you into
a state of unending obscurity and poverty. As a result, people only come to visit you
on foot, and usually they're just trying to prove that they can do it. Keep a canary on
your shoulder whenever possible.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Challenge Update

Well, I was crusing along with my books for the reading challenge. Then I started About Grace

by Anthony Doerr. Life is too short for About Grace. I'm usually not one to put down a book that I have begun - I usually plow through it, even if I decide I'm not a fan or it's too hard. I was planning to do that with About Grace, however about 2 weeks ago I got a notice from the library that it was my turn for Khaled Hosseni's A Thousand Splendid Suns. I knew I had to put About Grace down and read this one since it was in such hot demand I'd never be able to renew it. I absouletly loved A Thousand Splendid Suns. I thought it was just magnificent writing and such a compelling, though heart breaking and horrifying, story. I couldn't believe how Hoesseni was able to draw me into a story that was so far outside of my own exsistence! Abosultely amazing. A must read. Now, I know I could count A Thousand Splendid Suns toward my challenge, many people have it on their lists, however I had decided before I started that all my challenge books would be about Alaska. So back to About Grace.

It's not a bad book. In fact, it's prob a great story. It's just dense. Very very dense. The story is about a man who has an affair with a married woman, they have a child, Grace, they get married and move from AK to Ohio. He has these dreams in which he sees the future. In one of the dreams he dreams that Grace dies in a flood. He tries to change the course of things and his wife thinks he's crazy. The flood he dreamt about happens, but his wife kicks him out of her and Grace's life and he doesn't learn if Grace survives or not. He then moves to an island where he tries to make sense of everything. The story is full of his angst, uneasyness, and grief about possibly killing his daughter as well as the giant question mark - is she alive or not. He attempts communication through letters with his wife and child but they are never answered. I got far enough into the book that I was attached to this man and very interested in hearing the end of the story. However, it's such a dark tale and so tough to get through the writing that going back to it, especially after reading about the horrors of modern day Afghanistan was asking too much.

So....my new book(s) for the challenge:

I needed a twinkie read so I have actually come up with 3!

The Homestead Kid - This is a book that my mom bought me in AK. It's about a family who took in a number of foster children and then moved to bush of AK to build a homestead and live off the land. They loaded up in an old school bus turned camper and bought a claim of land outside of Fairbanks. They all pitched in to build the cabin and barn and other buildings. It's dubbed "Little House on the Perma-Frost" - for all you Laura Ingalls fans!

Dead in the Water - Dana Stabenow I had previously avioded her work not being a big fan of mysteries, esp criminal/murder mysteries, however she has written so many books about Alaska that I had to try just one. This one takes place on a crab boat on the Bering Sea so might be able to scratch my "Deadlist Catch" itch in the process.

Lucy the Giant - Sherri Smith This is actually a young adult book - there are lots of young adult books about AK, but I'd kind of been avoiding them just because I'm not too into reading books about teenagers - even though I know there are some great YA books out there! This one also is set on a crab boat in the Bering Sea!

So whichever one I finish 1st I'll post as my final book in the challenge. Do I get extra credit for the other 2?

My Middle Name

Well Susan tagged me so here goes.....I liked this one, it was a bit different....

Here are the rules for this Meme:

The Rules:
1) You have to post the rules before you give the facts.
2) Players must list one fact that is relevant to your life for each letter in your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name then use a name that you like.
3) When you are tagged, you must write a post containing your own middle name game facts.
4) At the end of your post, you must tag one person for each letter in your middle name. Don’t forget to comment them telling that they are tagged and to read your post to get the rules.

My middle name is Reeder. I'm named after my God Parents, Edythe and PE Reeder. They were both teachers in Dunbar West Virginia - Edythe taught 3rd grade (and was "the" 3rd grade teacher that everyone wanted their kids to have) and PE taught High School English. Both were active in the National Education Association and PE was even the president of their local chapter at one time. I find this interesting because no one else in my immediate family is in education in anyway shape or form. Even the last time I saw Edythe and was very old, suffering from Alzhiemer's and hadn't seen me in years her 1st question for me was "Is my baby a teacher yet?" Anyway, I digress - I'm named after them because they had no children of their own, just a few God Children. The agreement my parents made with Edythe and PE was that she would name me after them and then I would get Edythe's silver punch bowl after they died. They are both dead now and I have no punch bowl, oh well, it's a good story!

Ok on with the Meme:

R - Read....I love to read! I mostly read novels - I'm currently reading Khaled Hosseni's "A Thousand Splendid Suns", but I also enjoy magazines, professional books and educational journals

E - Engergetic, most of the time, when my allergies aren't acting up, I'm very energetic

E - eating....really, who doesn't love to eat????

D - Doing crafts - I enjoy crafts of all kinds, but I'm especially partial to cross stitching.

E (another e? seriously, this is hard...) - Excercise - gotta work off all that food right? I'm not to regular about it but I enjoy getting on my treadmill, or going for a swim, when it's not a pollen season or too hot (so like January) I really enjoy going hiking in the mountains. I'm also getting into yoga, a friend of mine from work teaches a yoga class after school and it's lots of fun!)

R - Relax - I always enjoy a good day of relaxing in my jammies with my computer and my TiVo!

Ok so now I have to tag 5 people....hmmm...can't tag the person who sent me this....let's see...I'll tag: Brenna, Counsuelo, Kristie, John, and Judy (yes I know your sister already tagged you)

EWWWWW!!!!!

This evening I let my dog out in our backyard. My backyard has a large grassy area with "flower beds" around the edges. The "flower beds" were lovely when I moved in 5 years ago, but they are now over grown and full of weeds. Daisy likes to crawl around in the weeds and sniff things. Tonight was no exception.

She was out rooting around in the weeds and I was checking e-mail and such. She comes to the door and scratches to be let in. I go to the door and immedatlely notice that she has something in her mouth - her mouth is bulging and there's some furry grass sitcking out. I figured whatever it was that was in there was dead and I surely didn't want it in the house. I figured Daisy had a plan for her critter - likely to eat it - and I didn't want her to do that on her bed!

So through the glass I directed her to "drop it". Daisy doesn't know any commands, but I swear she understands me. She looked at me like "Drop what, I don't have anything." I then told her "You aren't coming in until you drop whatever is in your mouth." Again she looked at me like she didn't know what I was talking about. I then gave her a stern "NO!"

At this point she backed away from the door. I decided I had to go out there with her. I opened the door and she made a run for it. Luckily she's old and fat and I caught her collar before she got in the house.

I finally managed to pry open her mouth (luckily I'm reasonably sure she won't bite me) and about half of the furry creature emerged. It reminded me of childbirth. It was gross.

I pried her mouth even further open and the entire dead baby rabbit fell out. :( It was whole and didn't look like it had suffered.

I then sent the dog in the house with a stern "get in there" and she was smart enough to go. My next task was to get the shovel and get the body off the patio and out of the yard where hopefully a hawk or other predatory animal was able to get a free meal.

This is now the 2nd baby rabbit she has killed, that I know of. Who knows if she killed more and devoured them outside. You'd think the rabbits would learn not to build a nest in my yard! And to think that for 6 months she shared a house with a rabbit!

Armchair Traveler Challenge - book #5 - Manhunt

I finished this book weeks ago and at the time felt like I was just blowing through these books! My last challenge book however is proving to be more of a chunkster! Manhunt was yet another "twinkie read" - this was the utmost of "twinkie reads". Alex Scott is in her late 20s and single. She wants to find a husband so she trades her condo on the East Coast for a cabin and "hardware store" in rural AK. While on the ferry coming from the states she manages to get herself in a bit of a predicament and the drama surrounding it caught the attention of an unsuspecting man. Turns out the man's cabin/property is adjacent to Alex's and thus blooms a love/hate relationship that surprises them both. With few characters and a straightforward plot this was a light and easy read. It was def a "romance" novel, however it was in no way "trashy". There were parts that made me laugh out loud!


This is an "orginal" Janet Evanovich. Before Janet became a famous author she, like many aspiring writers, wrote romance novels, and like many budding authors Janet used an assumed name. Now that Janet has hit it big and made the NY Times Bestseller's list, they are re-publishing all her original books and putting her name on them. I think I'm going to have to add Janet Evanovich to my "To Be Read" list!

It could be awhile on the last book, "About Grace", it's a great story and I'm enjoying it, however it's slow going. Been reading it for weeks and am not even 200 pages into it! To further complicate things it's my turn at the library for Khaled Hosseini's latest "A Thousand Splendid Suns". When I requested the book back in June I was 176th in line...I'm surprised at how quickly I got to the front - maybe it's a quick read. So I will have to put "About Grace" down tomorrow when I can finally get to the library (they were closed all weekend) and pick it up since I know that I won't get more than 3 weeks to read "A Thousand Splendid Suns". What will be interesting is that I renewed "About Grace" for the 4th time today...I think that's my limit so I may have to plead my case with the librarian to let me return it, then check it right back out again!

Armchair Traveler Challenge - Book #4 - Sitka

Sitka by Louis L'Amour

I had never read any Louis L'Amour though the name was familar as I believe that my grandfather read all his books. I never thought I'd like "Westerns" but having been to the western parts of the country I think I might enjoy them more.

This might be one of my favorite of my Alaska books that I have read. This was a historical fiction set during the time when Alaska was a Russian colony, right before it was sold to the US. At times my comprehension skills were put to the test as the book was political in places and many times the author presented information before he explained it. Once I figured out his style I could relax a little and know that if I was confused I should just keep reading and it woud get all explained.

I highly recommend this one!

Armchair Traveler Challenge - Book #3 - The Serpents Trail

Sue Henry has written a whole series of mysteries set in Alaska. I saw them all and randomly picked one. The one I picked had a motorhome on the cover and it said it was about a single retired woman driving the Alaskan Highway.

Well, not quite. It was about a 60 something single lady, Maxine, and her Dachsund, Strech. And she has a house on the Katachemak Bay in Homer. And she drove the Alcan Highway to get to the Lower 48. However the story took place in Colorado.

This was what I call a "twinkie read". Not exactly good for you but enjoyable and easy to read. The story was about Maxine's best friend Sarah who died unexpectedly and Maxine was charged with uncovering many deep dark secrets about her friend and investigating her untimley death.

The odd thing about the plot was that this woman was confronted with the death of dear friend, however the emotions that would surround that didn't come out in the story. To me that took away from the story. Also the author spent a large amount of time describing unimportant things. I think maybe she was creating a distraction and giving the reader more details to sort through, but I found the extraneous information just that.

I will def read more Sue Henry novels when I'm looking for some twinkie reads! I already have the next Maxine and Stretch novel!

Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge #2 - True North

During my trip I managed to read 3 of my challenge books! I'm going to review each of them in seperate entries.

True North - by Kimberly Kafka

This was a nice book. It wasn't a great book, just a nice one. I would recommend it to someone else though.

Bailey has moved to Alaska from the east coast to escape a tragedy. She lives alone in a cabin way out in the bush. She flies her own float plane and she's a medical professional. She finds acceptance, and even attracts the attention of one of the native men. All is going well until two 20something kids come from the east coast for 2 weeks of camping at the lodge owned by the natives nearby. The kids arrival causes many secrets to be revealed and personalities questioned.

The setting was definitly a major part of the story. I enjoyed learning more about the native people in AK and what they are doing to maintain control of their land and bring in income, despite the internal controversy over it. The Alaskan bush was an excellent place for the female kid (whose name I can't remember and I returned the book the library!) to "come of age"!

Nice book, a good read.

Pictures Posted!

I have finally finished posting my pictures from AK! I have posted 2 slide shows, one of the 1st week and one of the 2nd. I recently added a lot more pictures to week 1 so if you checked right after I posted it, be sure to check it out again. The new pictures are at the end of the old ones, I can't make the slide show save them where I put them. The new pictures start after the one of Mom and Dad's MH being towed. They are in chronological order, just not matched up with the others. Enjoy!

Pictures from Alaska Week 2

Pictures from the 1st week in Alaska

Home

I got home in the middle of the night last night.

Flying out of Anchorage on a clear day is fabulous! We saw McKinley again - that's 6 out of 7 days getting to see McKinley! This time we were above it, but my camera was in overhead bin! We flew down the inside passage and I got some pics of the glaciers and fjords and mountains before the movie started and we put the shades down.

Sunday night I connected with John and we went out to see his airplane! I got the grand tour since a maintance guy had left the door open! I think I saw John taking off on his daily flight on my way to the airport on Mon!

When I got home last night I brought my luggage in and left it open on the floor in the kitchen since most it goes directly to the basement to the washing machine. This morning I picked up the dog at the kennel and brought her home, then went to run some other errands. When I got home this is what I found:

I think someone is happy that I'm back! Her tail is blurry because she is wagging it!

Denali and back to Anchorage

Sorry it’s been so long since I updated. We had internet in Denali, however I was very busy. We took the bus ride to Toklat River – about halfway in, walked on the road, went on a ranger hike, and saw the sled dog demo. Denali is an awesome park. It is a hiker and backpacker’s paradise – you can hike anywhere, no trails, and you can get on and off the bus whenever and wherever you want. I didn’t have nearly enough time and can’t wait to come back to hike!

We have seen the mountain for the last 5 days! It was sunny and clear the whole time we were in Denali! That “rain insurance” paid off !!!! It did however dip into the 30’s at night while we were there! We even heard it was into the 20s at one of the campgrounds farther in…Summer is almost over in Denali!

We are back in Anchorage tonight. Tomorrow I return my motor home then I fly home on Mon. I may not update tomorrow but will when I get home.

Denali National Park

We mostly drove today. It was another 150 miles from Talkeenta to Denali NP so we got an early start, I was hoping to be here early in the day so I could do some hiking/walking around the Visitor Center.

The mountain was out this morning!!! I could see it in the rearview mirror as we drove out of Talkeetna! I got some good shots before the clouds swallowed her up again.

The morning’s drive seemed to be a lot of start and stop. First, I needed fuel in my MH – I’d filled up at Fred Myer but it was already down to ½ a tank! Turn out I’d hit the $75 limit for credit card purchase and really didn’t fill up. So we stopped about 15 miles out since we weren’t sure where the next station would be. This highway is very remote and there are few services.

I could see the mountain from the gas station! I took this picture there! Kim…is this McKinley? I’m not sure which peak is which! I was aiming for the tallest one assuming that was it…distance obscures things though.

Immediately after I filled up we came to “Wal-Mikes” an eclectic little store that sells just about everything…think junk antique store and is run by a “Mike” who is a unique character. You really have to see it to fully get it!

Then about an hour later we came upon the south view of Denali Peak overlook – part of Denali State Park. So of course I had to pull off. There was the great view of a smaller mountain that you see above (prob 7 -8,000 ft but compared to 20,000 it’s tiny), but McKinley and her sister peaks were enveloped in clouds. We had lunch at the overlook – the sun was shining and it was very warm! We ended up being there over 2 hours because Mom and Dad ran into a friend they’d met while driving the ALCAN and had to chat, then we ended up making a few “new friends”. I finally just left.

I ended up being pretty far ahead of them and by the time I realized it the radio was out of range and I had no service on my cell phone. I just kept driving figuring they were back there somewhere!

The road is beautiful. There are mountains on all sides, yet the road itself seems to be in a valley so it’s flat. The Alaska Range seemed to be churning up some weather – they were all ensconced in dark rain clouds, yet where I was driving on the Parks Highway it was sunny with high thin clouds or puffy cumulus clouds, no sign of rain at all!

I arrived at Denali and set about making our plans, campground reservations, ranger lead hike sign ups, passport stamps, bus tickets. Turns out mom and dad were just a few miles behind me – the cell phone worked so I was able to call them. We are camping outside the park tonight (hence the pictures…high speed connection), but tomorrow and Friday nights we’ll be at Riley Creek in the Park. I didn't make it to the hike/walk today - doesn't look like we'll have time for that now. I hope to get in some walking/hiking tomorrow and then again on Fri.

Tomorrow we are moving over to the park 1st thing, and then at noon we are riding the shuttle bus to Toklat River. Dad and I plan to hike/walk a bit; mom will probably stay on the bus most of the day.

There won’t be any more high speed connections till I get home. I might not be able to connect tomorrow or Friday either – my cell worked in the park so hopefully the internet card will too.

PS - to those of you dealing with the oppressive heat and humidity on the east coast....it's 58 degrees here. I have the heat set to come on in the night. I love it!

Denali - The Great One

I got to spend nearly the whole day with The Mountain, Mt. McKinley, Denali, The Great One. I took over 50 pictures. Since I don't have time to post them all here I'm giving you the overview...Morning in Anchorage, evening in Talkeetna, and sunset in Talkeetna! Enjoy!


The tall peat is Denali, The Great One. The other peaks are part of the Alaska Mts.
This is from Anchorage - Elderberrry Park- around 9:00am, zoomed in.


This is McKinley along with several other peaks, zoomed out a bit. The mts are over 200 miles away. The body of water is the Cook Inlet.

This is all the mountain I was able to fit in the frame. I climbed up on some playground equiptment to get even higher to get the whole thing.

From the Talkeetna Spur Road (I was on foot!) at around 7:30 pm.

Talkeetna Beach area - around 7:45 - 8:00 pm. Note the clouds to the left of the big peak. They weren't there earlier!

Talkeetna Beach - 10:30 pm. Note, no clouds. You can see how much closer I am now to the mountain by looking back at the picture from this morning that has the peak zoomed out a bit and you can see the other three peaks. This picture is not zoomed.

Denali Mountain after sunset - 10:45 ish pm. The dark blueish purpleish shapes at the bottom are more mountains. I have obviously zoomed in here...this may become my new background on my computer!

It really doesn't get much better than this.

A few More Pictures

Again these are in reverse chronological order....



The Coach being towed off of Turnagain Arm.



These puffins are in captivity at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward - they are much easier to photograph that way. These are horned puffins, as opposed to tufted puffins.


Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords NP - that's fog above the glacier.

Harbor Seals in Aialik Bay - Kenai Fjords NP. No the picture isn't grainy...it was that foggy.

Elephant Island off Katchemak Bay near Homer - this was taken from a kayak, in the wind!

The Homer Spit, Katchemak Bay, and the mountains - taken from the overlook just before you go down the hill into Homer.

Pictures!!!!

It's only 3 for now....I have a high speed connection tonight so I'll try and post more - esp my pics of The Mountain and a few of the glaciers and hopefully one of my puffins -trust me this is a microscopic tip of the iceberg! They are in reverse order because I posted them wrong!

Off to watch the sunset over Mt. McKinley!







This is the trail up the mountain to Harding Icefield that dad and I hiked in the rain.

Eagle sitting on the rock at the Homer beach right in front of my motor home.

My little motor home and my parent's "big rig" at Williawaw the 1st night.

The Mountain! The Mountain!

The Mountain was out today!!!!! Mt. McKinley, at over 20,000 feet, is the tallest peak in all of North America! Usually you can’t see it due to clouds, today how it was crystal clear and as the locals put it “The Mountain is out.”

My aunt Kim and Uncle Jason, who live in San Francisco but used to live in Anchorage, called us this morning to tell us about it…they saw it on the web cam!!!!! We piled into the car and just as we rounded the Cummins Truck Repair building where we were “camped” we saw The Mountain in all her splendor. “Camp Cummins” was more scenic than we’d thought!

We drove to Elderberry Park at the end of a street to check it out! Absolutely amazing! The Mountain is about 250 miles from Anchorage, so we could see the whole thing! There are several other impressive peaks as well. It was a challenge to photography because it is so big and would get washed out in the blue sky (it’s covered with snow!), however I did get some good ones!

Late this afternoon the motor home got fixed!!!! Since we were “cleared for take off”, I took off heading for Talkeetna, about halfway from Anchorage to Denali. Mom and Dad were going to finish a few things and follow.

It was a lovely drive up here, the mountain would occasionally show herself through the trees and it was sunny and warm! I arrived in Talkeetna about 7:00 and got us a campground then explored the little town. Most of the stuff was closed but it was a nice walk. I walked down to the river and saw the mountain again, only here we are so close you can’t see the whole range, just McKinley. On my way back I strolled through the residential section, Talkeetna is a cool little town – kinda Alaska meets West Virginia!

Mom and Dad just called and will be here soon – the campground has public WiFi so I need to post this so I’ll be ready when they get here! This connection is lighting fast compared to the cell phone card...maybe I'll post so pics later tonight.

Tomorrow it’s Denali National Park!

Today's post

Blogger is being especially uncopoartive tonight and there's lots to tell....I already went as briefly as I could but Blogger would only post it in small chunks so I divided it up into 3 posts...be sure to check all 3 for the full story of today's adventure....

Breakdown - Part 1

Woke up to sunshine in Seward!!!! The mountains all around us revealed themselves to us in all their splendor and the sky was bright blue. Awesome.

Today was a travel day – we were headed back to Anchorage to do some errands before going on to Denali – so we “made ready”, dumped the RVs and headed off down the stunning Seward Highway under crystal clear skies! Soon we reached Turnagian Arm and while windy it was a stunning day – bright sunshine and puffy cumulus clouds!

Just after we passed Girdwood we pulled over for lunch at the Bird Creek access point – which had a large parking lot with plenty of room and a great view. We had a lovely lunch and about 2:00 decided to continue on our way to Anchorage, about 28 miles away.

Breakdown - Part 2

Dad was in the lead in the big motor home. He pulled out of the parking area and I had to wait my turn as a few cars passed then pulled out into traffic. Just as I did the walkie talkie squawked to life – it was mom with a stern “Cool it a second”. I looked up and there on the side of the road was the Country Coach, stopped. I pulled in behind and put on my four-ways to await further instruction.

The coach had simply stopped and would not start again. After a few calls to numerous people who know about these things and my dad’s knowledge of how it all works it was determined that most likely we’d had a fuel pump part failure and would go no further. We had to be towed.

For those of you who don’t know my parents MH is a 36 ft “diesel pusher” – it looks like a tour bus. Towing something that big is a challenge. We found someone who could do it, and waited for them to arrive.

Breakdown - Part 3

Now, if one’s motor home is going to breakdown, Turnagain Arm is a damn good place. Since we were right in the middle of the Chugach State Park I decided to go for a walk. There were folks “combat fishing” in Bird Creek, a nice bike path with awesome views, and I even found a hike that I could have taken had we been there longer.

The tow truck arrived and they got the motor home secured. Dad had to drive it up on the truck! He thought that was cool. Mom didn’t. We decided that it would be best for me to head to the Fred Myer in Anchorage while they went to the Cummins dealer (MH has a Cummins engine like a truck) to get the coach down and parked and to see if there’s room for me to “camp” there or not.

They just called and it looks like we are all “camping” at the scenic Cummins Engine Repair yard. They’ll look at the MH tomorrow and see what the issue is and then decided how to proceed.

Alaska Sea Life Center & Caines Head State Park

This morning it wasn't raining!!!! Cloudy but no rain. We did some "indoor activities" - seemed appropriate after spending the two rainy days doing outdoor activities!

We went to the Alaska Sea Life Center, it was good. They had a neat exhibt of shorebirds - had a viewing area where you could see the birds dive! I got some awesome pictures of puffins! It's way easier to get good pictures when you are standing on solid ground!

While in downtown Seward we went to an outfitter store. After yesterday's hike both Dad and I decided that new rain gear was in order so we both got new "The North Face" 100% waterproof rain jackets. We decided that now it prob won't rain anymore. We are calling it our "rain insurance". Sure enough by the time we returned to our motor home the clouds had broken and there was blue sky. A few minutes later the sun came out. We took pictures, it was so exciting!

Late this evening Dad and I decided to go hike at Caines Head State Park - it was a 3 mile hike and was actually fairly easy. This hike went through a rain forest and was totally different from yesterday's alpine hike. Throughout the hike we saw peeks of sun and blue sky! We got back around 9:30 (and it was still bright daylight) and had a late dinner.

The clouds have lifed some and the mountains are beginning to reveal themselves to us! Amazing. Although as quickly as they come out they are esconsned in fog again.

Tomorrow we head back to Anchorage to do some "chores", then it's on to Denali!!!!!!

Harding Ice Field Hike

Today Dad and I hiked to the Harding Ice field. This is also in Kenai Fjords National Park.

The hike was great, very difficult though - 3000 feet of elevation gain/loss, lots of steep rock faces to scramble up, and it was raining – the whole day. However there were excellent views of Exit Glacier! There was also tons of lush vegetation – probably thrives on all the rain. The trail in most places was just beautiful, but limited views and very wet.

Going up the trail wasn’t so bad – the climb made us warm and the scenery was great! The trip down however, sucked. It was very cold, windy and wet at the top so the 1st mile or some coming down was miserable. I hate hiking downhill, especially scrambling down the wet rocks.

We finally reached the end and I was quite happy to have my motor home right there so I could change in dry clothes right away! (We’d left the Jeep so mom could do laundry and stuff!)

Time to head to bed….I’m sore from the hike so it’s gonna be hard to get in and out of my “cab over” bed in my RV!!!! Tomorrow is the Alaska Sea Life center and possibly driving back to Anchorage.

Deadliest Catch

Our connection is painfully slow (but it's better than nothing), blogger can only post a little at a time before the connection times out - that's why I have been so brief with my updates (as most of you know, this is hard for me!)...this didn't fit in my post from today but I wanted to share it...

Our captain today used to be a crab fisherman in the Bering Sea! My now extensive knowledge of 2 out of 3 seasons of Deadlist Catch was very important! He used to own and pilot a sister ship to the Maverick, and he says Sig Hansen and the Northwestern are the best crab fishermen on the sea!

Kenai Fjords National Park - Wildlife cruise

Woke up to no rain! It was however very cloudy, foggy, misty, cold, and generally unpleasant though. Our plans for today were to go on a 9 hour wildlife & photography oriented boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. I donned all my cold weather and rain gear and headed out!

The cruise was great! We were on a small boat with 16 people. We saw so much a bald eagle, a huge pod of orcas (Shamu), harbor seals, puffins (so darn cute!), sea lions, and Dall Porpoises.

The mountains were supposedly beautiful, but they were hemmed in with dense fog – you could hardly see 50 feet. We did go to a glacier that came right down to the water and was cracking and calving (when chunks of ice fall off).

Despite hardly getting to see the landscape, Kenai Fjord’s is a pretty awesome place! I’ll have to come back on a sunny day to see the mountains, although I think the only time it’s not raining in Seward is when it’s snowing!

Tomorrow dad and I are hiking to the Harding Ice Field near Exit Glacier. It’s supposedly the best hike around – though quite strenuous.

Travel - Homer to Seward

I woke up this morning to the pitter pat of rain on the roof of the motor home. Ugh. It had been predicted, but I’d hoped they were wrong. The forecast for the next 5 days is rain. Ugh. Did I mention that it’s 50 degrees. Yeah cold and wet. But it beats the 95 degree weather in Washington right now!!!! I’d much rather have this!!!

Our 1st task was to dump my motor home’s waste holding tanks and fill up with fresh water. Not a fun job, but must be done. This was my 1st time emptying the tanks so doing it in the rain was really no fun, but it was quick and soon we were on our way down the road.

The drive from Homer to Seward is about 170 miles and it went fast. I’m getting better at driving the RV so it’s more comfortable and easier. Today I even backed up a few times all by myself! I even backed myself into my campsite! Mom was going to help but I decided I could just do it myself!

Seward seems like a nice town. It’s bigger and more populated than Homer, lots more tourists and shops and such. We are camped by Resurrection Bay in a City campground. We don’t have a beach view though. L When we were driving after dinner we saw a porpoise/dolphin (not sure of the difference) in the harbor!

Tomorrow we are going on an all day wildlife photography tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. It’s on a small boat so we are promised to see lots of animals and get close. Because it’s raining and cold and damp I decided I needed some synthetic long underwear – I cannot even believe I considered bringing them but left them at home – luckily there is a Helly/Hansen store in Homer where I obtained so cool pastel pink polypropylene long underwear! They are actually much better than the pair I have at home!

Today won’t be my favorite day of my trip, however a bad day in AK is still way better than a good day at home!

Halibut Cove and Wildlife Sightings

This morning there were 2 eagles right outside our motor homes! They were feeding in the tide pools at low tide! I got some great shots!

We took a small ferry boat to a tiny little town on the other side of the bay called Halibut Cove. The boat ride took about an hour and we stopped at Gull Island – a huge bird rookery! There were hundreds of birds – all types! Mostly gulls. We saw a few tufted puffins and some horned puffins in the water! They are really cool birds! We also saw several sea otters in the water, and a black bear cub on a beach!

Halibut Cove is a quaint little artist community. All the houses are up on stilts to accommodate the huge tides. There are boardwalks that connect everything. We ate lunch at The Saltry, the only restaurant in the town. It was very good! All the food is made from scratch and all the dishes were hand made! It was a really cool experience.

After we ate we had about an hour to explore. Dad and I hiked up a steep hill to the top of a bluff that had views of the bay on one side and view of the town on the other.

When we got back, it was high tide so the bay was at our doorstep. There was a seal hunting for food a few hundred feet out in the bay! Because it was freezing outside (55 with wind and clouds) we sat in the front of Mom and Dad’s motor home and watched him – he would surface every few minutes and he didn’t seem to be moving much. Better than TV!

Tomorrow we are leaving Homer and heading to Seward. We get to go back the same way we came so hopefully by the time we get back to the really pretty parts I’ll be more comfortable driving and can pay attention to the scenery!

Kayaking in Katchemak Bay State Park

I woke up this morning and it was so light in the MH I panicked! I thought I’d overslept and it was 10:00 or something! I looked at my clock and it was 4:59. I did a serious double take – couldn’t believe it was that light that early!

The kayak trip was great! We took a boat ride across the bay to Yukon Island where our outfitter had a base camp with all the kayaks, life jackets and other gear we’d need. Just as we were getting ready to get in the kayaks, a strong wind whipped up! Out on the water it was sooooo windy! That made it very hard to steer the kayak and paddle the kayak. We paddled to Elephant Rock – a large rock island shaped exactly like an elephant! We saw a seal pop his head out of the water right in front of us! Also saw an immature bald eagle and a river otter.

After the trip we came back and got cleaned up and went to the Homestead Resteraunt for dinner. After dinner we drove out East End Road – it sits on the bluff above Homer and the Homer Spit and has amazing views of the bay, the mountains, and the glaciers!

Cool thing about Homer: it has 20 ft tides! This is huge, it’s the 2nd highest tide in North America (the Bay of Fundy being the 1st). When we went to the water taxi this morning, almost exactly at low tide, the ramp to get to the boat dock was at nearly a 45 degree angle! When we returned, at almost exactly high tide, the ramp was almost level! Very little slant to it. The entire dock in the Homer Harbor is floating and rises and falls with the tide.

Better get my pictures uploaded and then get myself to bed! Tomorrow we are doing a lunch cruise to Halibut Cove and then spending some time there.

Portage Lake, Drive, Homer

This morning we drove 1 mile up the road to Portage Lake which has a very nice visitor center with a great movie about the glaciers and the ice – very well done! After the visitor center we hiked up to Byron Glacier. It was a ¾ mile hike – however we started a the visitor center parking area so it was ¾ mile road walk added in. I didn’t care, the scenery was great and the traffic wasn’t so bad. Mom and Dad weren’t as thrilled. The glacier was really neat. You could see the deep blue color changing as the light changed. It was also quite chilly – the wind coming off the glacier was freezing! Nature’s AC!

After the walk we had lunch in the visitor center parking area, then started the drive to Homer. Homer, AK is on the Kenai Penisula – it’s all the way down! Jeff Corwin says that it’s the Westernmost spot in the US that you can drive to – sounds good to me!

It was about 150 miles and it took a long time – about 4 hours. The road was 2 lanes and windy. At one point the speed limit was 65!!!! I couldn’t even make my MH go 65! When I did get up to speed I hit a “frost heave” – it’s when the road freezes and thaws and it buckles the asphalt – anyway the MH was shaking in about 6 directions at once. It was then that I decided I would go 60 and everyone could deal with it. At the beginning of the drive the scenery was magnificent! It was so hard to watch the road and the mountains! I’m glad we get to go back that way, maybe I’ll be more comfortable with driving then and can enjoy a bit more. By the end the road was a bit less scenic, and I was finally feeling comfortable behind the wheel of this thing!

We arrived in Homer around 6:00. Just before we entered Homer there was an overlook where you could see the Homer spit way out into Katchemack Bay! We stopped there for a while for pictures then came into town. We secured a campsite right on the beach! It’s a really cool beach – rocky, not sandy. The water is frigid so no one swims, and it’s a bay so the water is calm, no big waves. It is a tidal bay though so the water goes in and out with the tides. There are snow capped mountains all around. We have seen at least one bald eagle, apparently there are many more.

One really cool thing about Homer is that you can really see the motion of the sun and why it doesn’t really get dark. When we arrived the sun was straight out from my MH – which given how late in the day it was, I would have assumed that was west. As the evening went on though the sun sank off to the right and finally “set” about 10:30 pm behind the mountain. It’s still not dark (I’m writing this at 11:30pm) and the sky behind the mountains is pink and yellow and orange from the sunset! In the morning, the sun will come up behind me. It’s so open here that you can really trace the movement!

Better get to bed,….the sun will be up in a few hours! Tomorrow Dad and I are going Kayaking in Katechmak Bay for part of the day, then we’ll explore the shops on Homer Spit.

Getting the RV, Turnagain Arm, Glaciers

While my dad’s wifi card does work, the connection is unstable and very slow! I’m hoping to be able to post this in the morning (Mon, 8/30). I’m not going to be able to post pictures till I get home, unless I can find a faster connection. Hard to believe we are "camping" when we have our own little "hot spot" and all 3 of us have laptop comptuers! Ahhh technolgy! :)

Alaska is pretty amazing! We are on the Turnagin Arm headed to the Kenai Penisula. It looks like the Alps! There’s water and mountains and glaciers and all kinds of really cool stuff! The campground we are staying in has a glacier right above it. The glacier is quite cool, it changes color! This afternoon, when the sun was shining brightly, it was glistening white, however this evening with a blanket of clouds touching it, it was a deep blue color. My pictures don’t do it justice!

Turnagain Arm is a tidal bay that reaches very far inland. When the settlers first came to Alaska they thought it went all the way through. However, it didn’t and they had to “turn again”! Hence the name.

We picked up the motorhome from Great Alaskan Holidays mid-afternoon. They provided a brief orientation video - not really enough if you don't know anything about motohomes but good enough for me! My parents asked a thousand questions - some of which stumped the management! They have probably not rented to a compulsive RV owner before! Overall Great Alaskan folks were really nice and they seem to running a 1st class operation!

My motorhome is quite cute! It’s tiny. I could not imagine being in it with 5 other people (supposedly it sleeps 6! HA!) Driving it isn’t too hard – hard to see what’s around you, but otherwise it drives real nice. Hard to get used to the “rear view mirror” only providing you with a view of the bathroom door! It has big mirrors though so I can see all around me. Inside is nice, but it has a lot of little "quirks" that my parents motorhome doesn't have.

We are staying at the Williwaw camp ground; it’s a National Forest Service campground in the Chugach National Forest. After dinner we went for a walk here at the campground. Just about 2 miles on a flat trail around some ponds and streams – had great views of 2 glaciers. We started at 7:50 pm and finished ay 9:20 – it’s was still broad daylight! In fact it’s 10:30 as I write this and I don’t have any lights on in my RV! It is slowly getting darker so I’d better get to bed!

Tomorrow it’s on to Homer!

Arrived In Anchorage!

After a very long day I have arrived in Anchorage! I am not writing this from my parents motorhome in Centennial Park Campground in Anchorage. It's probably 65 - 70 degrees with no humidity! It's sunny and cool and breezy! My parents have told me that there is a resident mamma moose and her baby who frequently stroll right by the motorhome! I can't wait to see them! :)

My flight left Dulles at 7:30 AM which meant that I needed to be there by 6:00 am to get through security and whatnot. My "favorite cousin" Lisa was quite generous in agreeing to take me to the airport at this ungodly hour of a Saturday and allow me to park my car at her house for the two weeks therefore avoiding paying parking at the airport! i was up at 3:45 and left by 5:00 - I arrived in Anchorage at 2:00 local time (6:00pm EDT) after a stopover in Salt Lake City.

My friend friend Kristen sold me on the vitrues of TiVo. I got my TiVo in October and don't know how I ever lived without it. One really cool thing about TiVo is that with a wireless adapter your TiVo can connect with your home wireless network and this then allows you to transfer anything you have TiVoed to your laptop and take it with you anywhere! I downloaded a whole bunch of stuff before I left and have over 13 hours of my favorite TV right in my computer! This was so nice during the last hour of the flight when I'd finished my book (my 3rd for the challenge and one of 4 I brought with me - too bad it's a library book, I have to haul it home!), the movie (Premonition - not bad, hard to follow though, kinda weird) and had all the snacks and beverages they were going to serve me so was getting antsy...I pulled out the computer and had my pick of my favorite shows! I love TiVo!!!!! :)

Am meeting my friend John from OK and his family for dinner. The wireless network seems to work so I should be able to blog a lot! :)

Great Alaskan Motorhome Adventure

As many of you know tomorrow at the crack of pre-dawn I am heading out on a big adventure! A few years ago my parents decided to retire as Gypsies. After much research they purchased a large diesel motorhome and have been doing a lot of traveling. Last summer they toured the Canadian Maritimes with a caravan group. This year they decided to drive the Alaskan Highway, and I'm going with them - well for 2 weeks anyway.

While their motorhome is 36 ft long and for a vehichle it's huge, there simply isn't enough living space for the three of us. We are all rather set in our ways and we need our space. We have done it but it really is cramped. In order to solve this issue, I am renting my own motorhome! I have rented a "class C" motorhome from Great Alaskan Holidays in Anchorage. A class C motorhome is your typical "camper" with a truck cab and a bed over the cab. The one I rented is 22 ft long and claims it sleeps up to 6. I can't even imagine living with 5 other people in such a small space! I'm quite happy that I will have it all to myself. I have never driven a motorhome before, but I have driven trucks and vans that are similar. They rent these things to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that comes along so how hard can it be? Come back on Sun and hopefully I'll let you know!

I'm really excited about trying out RVing! I have always wanted to like camping but being out in a tent has never really worked out for me. I get scared when I can't see what's outside and I hate being in a tent in a thunderstorm. The motorhome is differnt because it's hard sided - it would be hard for an animal to get in! Also it's hard sided and a bit safer during a thunderstorm - unless a tree falls on it or a tornado comes along! It's also nice because there is a bathroom (no shoes and a flashlight!) and a kitchen so no worries about starting a fire or using a camping stove. If all goes well on the trip, I might consider investing in a small RV, I could go out to Shenandoah National Park and hike then spend the night and hike the next day, I could go visit friends and stay in their driveway, I could go on short trips up and down the east coast - it sounds like an exciting possibility.

Here's a loose itinerary so you can follow along on a map if you so choose:

Week 1
Saturday July 28 - Saturday Aug 4
Arrive in Anchorage
Visit with John and his family
Check out John's airplane!
Turnagin Arm
Cook Inlet
Chugach National Forest
Portage Glacier
Homer, AK
Sea Kayaking
Hiking in Ketchamak Bay State Park
Kenai Fijords National Park
Seward, AK
Nature Photography boat ride class
Hiking to Exit Glacier and the Harding Icefield

Week 2
Sunday August 5 - Sunday August 12
Denali National Park
Hiking near the visitor center
Ranger lead hikes
Mt. McKinley? (here's hoping it's clear!)
Denali Highway - we may or may not drive the full 127 mile length, it's not paved and quite rugged, sounds like fun to me but might be too much for the MHs)
Denali NP sled dog kennel
Talkeetna
Wal-Mikes
Glenn Highway?
Copper Center?
Wrangall St. Elias National Park and Preserve?

The adventure begins tomorrow! I hope you'll join me! I plan to blog when I can and post pictures from the day so check back often! My dad has a card for his cell phone that makes it a wifi hotspot so hopefully I can get on frequently.

It's an early morning tomorrow to get to the airport so I'm heading to bed - gotta get used to going to sleep while it's still daylight anyway! :)

Destination Shopping

I love a great grocery store. When I visit my parents or my grandmother I can go visit their Ukrops. A trip to Ukrops is quite exciting! Ukrops is fun because they have all sorts of fun stuff - prepared foods, a very nice produce section with all types of fruits and veggies, a nice salad bar, special products you can't get elsewhere. I thought Ukrops was the greatest. That is until Wegman's opened. That place is amazing! They have everything under the sun. They have a food court! They have a cookie bar where you can pick your cookies and mix and match. They all sorts of prepared-cook-it-yourself foods. They have the best low-fat veggie cream cheese that reminds of the veggie cream cheese from Marx Hot Bagels in Cincinnati. I would go out of my way to go to Wegman's. Then I discovered Whole Foods. I like Whole Foods for all the same reasons as Wegman's, but shopping at Whole Foods feel like I'm buying nutrious food, something about it being super fresh and brightly colored and prepared for me makes it easier.

Until recently though none of these fabulous stores were near me. It was always a field trip to go to the fun stores and it would be an all day affair. So I lived with my little Giant. It might not be as flashy or as bright or sell healthy organic food, but it was cozy and I think I know every checker and manager there! Enter Harris Teeter.

The area where I live is somewhat up and coming. They are building new houses by the dozen and there are more and more people. Out by one of these new developments they built a brand new Harris Teeter. It opened on Wednesday. I have been there twice.

I'm 100% addicted. One of my favorite parts is the salad bar. On Wednesday when I was there I got some spinach salad. It was a yummy combo of fresh spinach, blueberries, raspberries, mandrian oranges and red onions. It was so yummy I needed more. I went back today. They didn't have that spinach salad. This time they had a traditional spinach salad with hard boiled egg, carrots, mushrooms and onions. It looked soooooo good, bright green, and fresh. It was really yummy too! Tonight I got some fruit also - it was the best pineapple I'd had in a long time. Another favorite of mine is the bread slicing station. They have loaves of bakery fresh bread and they pay an employee to stand there and slice what you want. This means I can get backery fresh bread and portion control! If I slice it myself I usually make the slices really big and eat them, pre-sliced I'll only eat 1 or 2 slices. Also, they had mini loaves, so I can buy less.

I'm so thrilled that at long last I have a super grocery store near me to shop at all the time! Rumor has it Wegeman's is coming in 2008...

Finished....

Well I finished Harry Potter!!!!! I can't believe I did it so quick - and did two projects for my grad class, went to class all day today, and ran errands all day yesterday...amazing feat! Amazing book. Amazing story. I can't wait now to go back and re-read all 7 in order. It will be awhile though because I need to let this one digest first.

One thing I have been asked a lot today (by non-Harry fans) was if this one was better than the others and which one was my favorite. I can't really say because all 7 come together so nicely. The 7th book was the end of the story, there's nothing about it that makes it any better than the rest. Now that I'm finished I can say with certainity that all 7 books come together to be one unit of literature, now that we have the end of the story the others no longer stand on their own. I'm wondering if that's why I was able to read with such speed, such a desire to know what was going to happen - it was like the end of any good novel when the action picks up and you are about to discover how it all fits together.

My fav part (no spoilers, don't worry) was near the end (I promise no spoilers) when Molly Weasely called another character a bitch. It was totally justified and it fit what was happening perfectly (hell, I would have had some even choicer words...Molly was being nice) But still, I couldn't believe it. There in big bold all caps was the word bitch. In a children's book for crying out loud. I'm surprised no one has banned the book based on that alone.

The blogger seems to have fixed itself. Maybe Peeves is messing with me?

Although I did discover that I'd accidentally pasted my "library thing" as part of my post template, maybe that was screwing stuff up? Or maybe it was Peeves.

What's up?

I have been playing with my blog layout! Susan told me today how to make the strikeout text and I fixed up my list of books for the challenge.

One strange thing though is that when I look in the layout editor it shows the challenge picture on top of my list, when I click "preview" from there it shows up correctly. However, when I click "view blog" it has the list on top. What's with this? How do I fix it?

The other issue is line breaks...I like to leave lines between my paragraphs, I think it makes it easier to read. On my post about Drop City I put in line breaks, but they don't show up. Again, they show up when I click "preview" in the layout, but not when I click "view blog". I have gone into settings and did that line break thing...but it doesn't show up. The breaks are written in HTML, but they don't show up. Again...what's with this?

Ok..back to Harry...150 pages left....I have heard the last 100 pgs are the best of the book...can't wait!

Finished My 1st Challenge Book

I finally finished Drop City by T.C. Boyd! This was an interesting book, I enjoyed it, however it was a "chunkster" and the writing was quite dense. While the plot moved along I would find myself egar to keep reading however my brain was too tired!

Basically the book is about drug using, free-loving hippies who move their commune from Southern California to Alaska because of some legal issues. The book begins with 2 different, seemingly unrelated stories, one of a hippie commune and one of a bush-man hunter trapper in the wilds of Alaska. The two stories merge and and become one with both parties learning from each other.

My favorite part truly spoke to why it was a good book for this challenge. At one point one of the characters says to his wife "get your ulu ready." The average reader from the lower 48 wouldn't know what a "ulu" is, thanks to my aunt who lived in Anchorage, I not only know what a ulu is, I own one and use it almost daily! I did get a bit stymied in my comprehension though because in the book they were talking about the garden when they mention the ulu and since I use my ulu mostly to cut veggies I thought they had a huge crop of veggies! I was very wrong, ulu's traditionally are used for prepping game!

I highly recommend this book to just about anyone, it was a good story, well written, fun to read.

Thunderstorms, Undressing on the Highway, and Fireworks

After doing so serious sleeping in this morning I decided I wanted to go hiking. It was a bit warmer and more humid today than it had been but I knew the weather was only getting worse. There was a 30% chance of severe thunderstorms this afternoon also, but there's been a chance of thunderstorms every day all summer, so I didn't think much of it. Since I was getting such a late start I decided to go someplace relatively close - the AT in Ashby Gap near Sky Meadows state park. Also, I liked the idea of an out and back hike because if the weather did get bad it was easier to turn around and walk back. I decided to hit the new Harris Teeter in Bristow first to grab some lunch. Then it took me awhile to find the trailhead - which is a good thing I think...keeps out the rif-raff! It was 2:00 before I got to the trailhead and close to 2:30 before I got to trail since I decided to eat some lunch and had to put on my boots and everything.

The goal was to hike from Ashby Gap to the Sky Meadows State Park boundary - it was about 2.8 miles so round trip it would be close to 6 miles. I start out from the parking area - going downhill, crossing RT 50 and into the woods - it was sunny and hot although the shadow of the trees made it cooler. I was climbing up the hill working up a pretty good sweat, but not out of breath! I was getting in the groove and enjoying myself. Then it started to rain. It was a light shower - I hardly even got wet because of all the leaves on the trees. Hiking in the rain I enjoy - it cools you off and the air gets cooler and it smells so good! This afternoon when the rain started coming down the forest seemed to come alive - birds flying and chirping! While hiking in the rain is a-ok, hiking in a thunderstorm is not ok at all. I love a good storm when I'm home or otherwise safe, on the trail, I'm terrified. The sky didn't look at all threatening, in fact the sun was out and I could see blue sky! So, keeping a close ear on the sky I continued. Murphy's Law was going through my mind - if I keep going the weather will be bad, if I turn back the weather will do nothing and I'll miss a perfectly good hike in the rain. I forged ahead, the rain came down harder. When I got to a little clearing in the trees I got a good look at the sky, still looked OK although there were some darker spots. I kept going. Then I heard thunder. It was off in the distance, but it was thunder. I did an about face and started back to the car.

I moved pretty quick getting to the car. The weather still wasn't horrible - in fact the sun was peeking out in places. Again I was thinking, this is nothing, I'll regret turning around. I could hear thunder in the distance and that spurred me on to keep going. When I made it back to Rt. 50 I could really see the sky in all directions - it was looking quite ominous, in all directions. Turing around didn't seem so silly now. I ran across Rt 50 and kept running up the hill...it was only 0.2 of a mile back to the car, but it was uphill...I moved at a very quick pace (thank you maxair!). As I was making my way up the hill it started getting very dark in the woods. The rain had stopped, but the thunder was getting closer. I rounded a corner and had a visual on my car - still had to go up just a bit more, but I was almost there! As I arrived in the parking lot there was a huge clap of thunder right over head! yikes! Glad I turned around.

I quickly removed my boots and started home. As soon as I got on the road, the rain started. The sky was looking very scary and it was raining really hard. Not upset at all that I didn't forge ahead.

I drove back out 50 to the road that goes to 66 (I don't know the name of it but the speed limit is 45 and they mean it!). I was enjoying the trip back listening to my iPod, singing along and drying out from the rain/sweat. I was on the entrance ramp to 66 when I reached over with my right hand to scratch my left shoulder. As my fingers made contact with my shoulder I felt a sharp stinging, like a bee sting! I instantly knew that somehow a bee or other stinging varmint had gotten in my shirt. Remember that I'm on the entrance ramp to an interstate at this point - I can't exactly react to the bee or I'd get smushed by the on-coming traffic! Luckily, bees are about the only thing I'm not allergic too so I clenched part of my shirt in my hand and got myself on the highway and up to speed. Then I set the cruise control so I could see about getting my shirt off. I did successfully remove my shirt while driving 70 mph, without removing my seat belt! Now I was wearing a sports bra, which is not much different than halter top so....(now of course if you have seen my "spare tires" lately you'll know that halter tops are not an article of clothing I should be wearing!!!). I decided to just leave the shirt off - more exciting that way!

As I made my way closer to civilization I decided I did need to wear the shirt - way too self-conscious about my spare tires. I shook the shirt out and did manage to get it back on while driving, but I did have to unbuckle the seat belt. A few minutes after I put my shirt on, I saw the bee buzzing around the passenger seat! Glad I got him out of my shirt!

As I pulled into my neighborhood the sky was looking ominous. As soon as I got home I went to check the weather on the computer. There was a large, ugly looking storm right over where I'd been hiking!!!! And there were both severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for the county where I'd been hiking!!!! Turning around was exactly what I needed to do.

When I got home it looked at though my whole neighborhood had gathered at the end of the court for a little 4th of July get together. I quickly showered and put on my ancient Old Navy 4th of July shirt (I think it's from 2000) and grabbed a chair and headed out for some fun and fellowship with my neighbors! We had a lovely picnic and it was fun to chat and hang out! As soon as it got dark our local pyromaniacs started setting off fireworks, some legal and some illegal (in VA anything that goes airborne is illegal). Some other folks in our general neighborhood had fireworks as well so it was quite a show! Some people on the next court over even had what looked like professional fireworks that they set off for what seemed like hours! It was way better than going into DC! When the show was over we all just picked up our chairs and walked home! :)

Baby Brandon

One of my good friends just had a baby on Fri and I got to go see him, and hold him this afternoon! He's just amazing! Babies have got to the best things ever! :)

Check out the mohawk!

Look at that adorable face! :)

So strange to think that when I saw Kristen on Thurs he was inside, then on Friday he's out - he hasn't changed any since then, he's just out here now! Pretty cool!

15 Minute Mile!

Raise your hand if you were traumatized in high school PE class when it came time to run the mile? I HATED the day, each quarter it seemed, that our PE task was to run the mile. Me, I couldn't run 20 feet much less a mile. 4 laps around the track, that was it. Except those laps could have been a million miles long! The goal I remember, was a 15 minute mile. I'm not even sure I could have done 1 lap in 15 mins. Well today, nearly 15 years after high school, I ran a mile in 15 mins!!!!! What an accomplishment!

Now, before you go thinking I'm going run marathons or anything....while I did run a mile in 15 mins, they weren't consecutive minutes! I was on the treadmill and did 3, 5 min intervals where I was jogging at 4 mph!!!! We'll work on extending the time I can run and shorting the rest interval, but I was running for a 5 solid mins, 3 times during my 45 min work out!

I do need to take a moment to thank my sponsors without who this athletic feat would not have been possible - Glaxo-Smith-Kline, the makers of Advair and whoever makes Maxair asthma inhalers (even google doesn't know!) - as the treatment of my allergic and exercise induced asthma has dramatically increased my endurance when it comes to anything even remotely athletic!

Summer Addictions

A little over a week into summer vacation and I have developed some major addictions!

1. Deadliest Catch - Who would have ever thought that Alaskan Crab fishing could be so interesting! My friend Kristen turned me on to it and now I'm hooked! (pun intended!) Basically, the show is Alaskan Crab fishing as it happens on the Bering Sea - nothing scripted, nothing made up, nothing done just for the sake of making it look good, it's true reality TV!

2. M&Ms - most specifically, Peanut Butter M&Ms, they are like Reese's Pieces on steroids!!!!! They have a lot more peanut butter inside them and are just plain yummy!

3. Yoga - I have a pass to my nearby county rec center/gym. I originally joined because of the pool - I'd go and swim laps, now however I'm getting into other activities that they offer. I have been going to water aerobics for a few years now and yes I'm the youngest by a long shot. They have 1 yoga class that is in included in the pass, gentle yoga, it's a beginners class and I went for the 1st time this week and am hooked on that too. I like the Mon instructor better than the Wed instructor though. The gal who teaches on Mon is very high energy and outgoing and the yoga is more "power yoga" than what you think of when you think of yoga - I was very sore the day after her class! On a different note: my treadmill at home is broken, and so today I went to the rec center to try their treadmills....very nice machines! I still like having my own at home (no time limits, can watch DVDs while I walk), but I may use the ones at the rec center occasionally for a change of pace!

Hiking!

This past week the weather was perfect - low temps, next to no humidity and I was still on "house arrest" due to grass pollen. I finally decided that the pollen count was lower and I just couldn't resist the weather so out I went - figuring that I would pay the price later. I got quite lucky though, I didn't have to pay any price, other than the tank of gas to get to SNP! YIPPEEE!!!!

Over Spring Break I'd begun exploring the southern district of SNP and so I decided I'd continue that exploration yesterday. I found a shortish, easyish loop trail - 5.8 miles, 1,300 feet of elevation gain/loss. At the trails lowest point there was a creek where I could enjoy lunch and a possible foot soak and/or some wading if I was hot.

I was so glad that I decided to go out to SNP - the weather was perfect - 61 degrees as I was driving down Skyline Drive! When I stopped at a picnic ground to use the comfort station and was wishing I'd worn pants - it was chilly! Once I got hiking though, I was working up a sweat.

Check out a few of my pictures from the day...




The view from the overlook where the trail started.

Trail post for the trail I was hiking, with a great view in the background.

When I reached the creek I bushwhacked off trail a bit to a big rock to sit on to eat my sandwich - from my rock I could see this waterfall so I climbed over a few more rocks and walked through a patch of stinging nettle to get this picture!

Rock overhang on the AT on my way back to my car.

There were lots of flowers in bloom on the AT. I like this one with the bug on it!

More pretty flowers - I believe they are columbine of some sort.

This is one of my favorite pics - it came out looking like a professional photographer!

My 1st picture of an SNP bear!!!! I have seen many black bears in the park - both on the trail and from the car, this is the 1st one I have been able to get a picture of! This pic was taken from the car on Skyline Drive and yes I used the zoom on the camera....


Here's hoping for a mild summer with more low temp/low humidity days for more hiking! :)

Reading Challenge!

On my friend Susan's blog she posted about a reading challenge she was taking part in that she learned about from another friend of her's - Lesley - got to her site for rules and info, but basically you pick 6 books about travel and read them between now and December.

Since I'm traveling to Alaska later in the summer I decided that I would try and read all books about Alaska! I have my 6 books, but I have also selected some alternates, in case I get sick of reading about Alaska! I also already know that I will need to take some time off from the challenge, since the new, and last, Harry Potter book will be released and as much as I think it should qualify, because I would love to got to Hogwarts, Lesley's rules clearly state that all places must be real - despite the fact that Harry Potter is also set in London, which is very real, I don't think it would fly (pun intended! :)

Ok....on to my books!

Alaska Books - 1st picks

About Grace: A Novel - by: Anthony Doerr
Manhunt - by: Janet Evanovich (have heard she is great, but have never read any of her books)
Sitka - by: Louis L'Amour (not big into westerns so have never read anything by him, but feel like I should)
True North - by: Kimberly Kafka
Drop City - by: T.C. Boyle
The Serpents Trail - by: Sue Henry (she has written a whole series of Alaska mysteries)

Alternate Books

Ordinary Wolves - by: Seth Kantner (set in Alaska also, however is not available at my library so might not get read - try not to buy "adult books" since I spend so much on children's books!)
Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor in our National Parks - by: Jim Burnett (looks really funny, but not avaliable at the library)
There's No TP...on the Road Less Traveled: Best of Travel Humor and Misadventures - Edited by: Bruce Lansky (a compilation of a a number of comedians best travel misadventures - looks really funy - probably a great airplane read, but again, not in the library!)
Endangered Species - by: Nevada Barr (she has written a whole series of mysteries set in National Parks starring her ranger herione Anna Pigeon)
Stormy Weather - Carl Hiaasen (his books are set in Florida and a totally hysterical!)

Ok so I have almost as many alternate books as I do "real" books! So many books so little time! :)

Long Time....No Blog

Hello all my faithful readers - all 2 of ya! Sorry I haven't blogged in a very long time! I have had very little "Playtime" lately. The allergies got really really bad and I have been quarantined inside, then I got a really, really, really, bad sinus infection which kept me from doing pretty much anything for a few weeks - 3 rounds of antibiotics finally made it go away and then it was the end of the school year with all that insanity! School is finally out, the pollen is going away, and soon I should have more stuff to write about! :)

I have some cross stitching to post - but they are all baby gifts so wanted to wait and post after I'd given them to my friends.

First thing - I'm going to write it in a seperate post - is I'm taking my ist ever "Reading Challenge" - my friend Susan has a blogging friend who blogs about books and she has posted the challenge...links and more info above! :)