Dog Sledding and Homer (Jan. 29, 2011)

We had an exciting Saturday, starting our morning off with the Tustumena 200 dog sled race. There were not as many mushers this year in comparison to last year, but there were definitely more spectators this year. The dogs were happy as always, ready to start moving! And of course they were looking fashonable in their booties. Following the dog sled race, we headed down south. During our drive we drove past a huge bald eagle's nest, with an eagle perched on top. We then stopped in at the Village of Ninilchik and its Russian Orthodox Church. The village was what we picture the bush of Alaska looking like. It was very quaint, small, and practical (nothing fancy what so ever). From there we headed down to Homer. There were not as many bald eagles as last year. We think its due to the lack of snow. Homer had a lot of exposed grass. We walked the beaches and docks of the spit where we saw many birds: eagles, loons, gulls, cormorants, mergansers, and some species of pintail. We had some fish and chips, stopped in for some wine tasting at Bear Creek Winery (they have the BEST berry wines), down to Bishop's beach, and finally to church. The skies were overcast, but the temps were in the low to mid-thirties, making it very comfortable for walking around outside.

Finally Getting Some Snow (Jan. 22-23, 2011)

It was a great weekend for being outdoors during the winter season. Temperatures were in the upper twenties on Saturday with plenty of sun. The days are definitely getting longer. After having gotten some snow earlier this week, the trails were great for cross country skiing. Coming down a small slope we looked to our left and saw a cow moose about 20 yards off the trail bedded down. I think she was counting the skiers as they went by. Saturday was also National Yoga Day, so we both participated in three free half hour yoga classes at the yoga studio in Kenai. It was nice to do yoga again at a studio and not just as personal practice. On Saturday evening we had a mama and baby moose stop in for a visit at our house. They were busy browsing for food.

Sunday also turned out to be a pretty nice day, although not as nice as Saturday. Temperatures were in the high teens, but there was a lot of wind making it feel pretty chilly. The mama and baby moose stopped back this morning and hung out around the house all day. I think they felt well sheltered. For part of the afternoon they were bedded down. We managed to get out to a trail we hadn't visited since last winter, Egumen Trail. We were hoping to see some snowshoe hare, but with the wind blowing as hard as it was, we're pretty sure they were nestled down somewhere. Hopefully we will see some more weekends like this one. Jon's pee wee team played in Kenai this weekend, winning one and losing one.

Critters In Our Neighborhood

On Friday, after getting home from school, we were hanging out in the living when Jon looked out the window to see a snowshoe hare. It was right below the window, next to our deck. We watched it eat from the same patch of grass the moose was eating from last weekend. It stayed there eating and looking at its surroundings for about 20 minutes when it suddenly hopped off into the woods and took shelter under a spruce tree.

Tonight, while sitting at the dining room table, we both heard an owl. I'm not sure what kind it was, I didn't recognize the call. None the less, it was fun to hear.

We finally got some snow today! And we're suppose to get more later on this week. Hopefully it will be enough to recover the ground.

Moose, Eagle, Hare, Moose, Eagle, Hare! (Jan. 8-9, 2011)

Jon coached 3 pee wee hockey games this weekend, so we did activities closer to town. On Saturday we went for a long awaited ski. We really haven't had any "descent" snow since November. When it does decide to precipitate, it's above freezing so we end up with rain and when it's below freezing, the skies seem to want to be blue and clear. We haven't been out skiing much due to these weather conditions, but we decided to give the trails a shot anyway. And as the weather would have it, the trails were terrible. This of course led us to doing only one lap. However, we did come across a cow and calf feeding off of some shrubs. This was the first time that we've seen moose on the ski trails. We also spotted at least 10 bald eagles perched in trees just at the end of the trail.

On Sunday morning as we walked out of church there was a cow and calf browsing. When we got back from church around eleven, we heard some crunching outside our dining room sliding glass door. I pushed aside the blinds and saw a young bull moose browsing on some exposed grass about two feet away from our door. He moved along the side of the house until he reached a patch of grass at the corner. Here he knelt down on his front two legs to reach the grass more easily. He even on a couple of occasions started to move forward on his knees as if he were doing an army crawl but with his bottom in the air. It was quite comical. We went for an evening hike at the Wildlife Refuge. Due to the terrible ski conditions we decided to hike on the trail used as "ski trail" only, which turned out to be okay. The trails are no longer groomed due to all the rain. It was nice to hike on a couple different trails, Cheechako and Howling Hill, which took us past to beautiful lakes, Headquarter and Nordic. On our hike we spotted four snowshoe hares at various times moving about during dusk. It's amazing how white their fur is.

The weekend was cold and clear giving us some gorgeous views of the volcano, especially at sunrise.

Christmas (Dec. 19, 2010-Jan. 2, 2011)

We are halfway through the school year, finishing up our 2nd quarter on Dec. 17. On Dec. 19 we drove up to Anchorage, caught a red eye flight to Seattle and from there a early morning flight to St. Paul/Minneapolis. It was a total of 9 hours of traveling, not including lay overs and too much time spent in the airports. The more traveling you do, the more exhausting it becomes. The drive up to Anchorage was beautiful. We had a perfect day for driving. The sun was out and there was little to no wind. The trees going into the Kenai Mountains were covered in ice and snow, making for a gorgeous drive. On our way in and out of Sterling we first spotted a young moose, then a large cow moose, and then, a few miles further down the road, a bull moose. Although it's antlers weren't huge, it was fun to see because bull moose with antlers are rarely seen on the Peninsula. This was the first that we have seen since moving up here.

At the Anchorage airport, we had a very long wait. But while there we ran into two teaching couples from Nikiski (the town just north of Kenai)as well as a coworker from our school. So although we had a long wait, we had plenty of familiar faces to keep us company. At the airport in Seattle, while waiting for our next flight we had two Gustavus grads come up to us. Both recognized Jon, not me. I must be too old. One graduated in 2006 and the other in 2009. The one who graduated in 2009 is a teacher up in Barrow, Alaska. We had heard of him from professors at Gustavus and he had heard our names as well. It was nice to put a face with the name. He told us that from Nov. 19-Jan. 19 they do not see the sun at all.

When we arrived in Minnesota, our friend Donna picked us up from the airport and drove us out to Cokato to visit Myra, Wade, and Rita. That afternoon we cut down Myra's first Christmas tree. In addition to spending time in Cokato, we also were in Hastings visiting my grandparents, and in Hinckley visiting Jon's family. We were also fortunate to meet up with Becca, Nathan, Ella, and Aidan (our fast growing Godson!). It was great to see those that we were able to see. We just wish it had been enough time to see more people.

We got back to Alaska on Dec. 31 and drove down to Kenai on Jan. 1. Shortly after arriving home we decided to go on a walk down to the beach. We didn't make it very far. While walking we saw a cow moose laying down in the snow off to our left. The cow did not seem bothered by us so we continued on. Up ahead we spotted another cow moose laying down. This one however was a bit more concerned about us being there. She stood up and faced us. With that, we quickly turned around to ahead home. On our way back, we spotted three more moose, roaming and grazing. Five moose all within about an 1/8 of a mile. Alaska has definitely welcomed us back.

Happy New Year to All!