Tourist Season

I'm back! What a busy few weeks it has been.  Since I last wrote, Nathanial and I had a great visit with my parents, celebrated the solstice and I even made it on the news with my job.  More on all of those things in another post.  Nathanial's grandparents are visiting us this week so I thought I would share some of our go-to activities.  We're becoming quite the tour guides these days.

If you come to visit, we will take you to:

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

The Wildlife Conservation Center is easily one of our favorite places in the whole state of Alaska. We've been 5 times in the 8 months since moving to Anchorage. As the name implies, the center is dedicated to conservation of Alaskan animals. They take in injured and orphaned animals and try to rehabilitate them. Those that can't be released into the wild, stay at the center.  I like to think of it as an open air zoo.  It's neat to see so many types of animals roam in large spaces. The mountain views aren't bad either.

Here are some of the shots we've taken on our trips there:

                                       My Dad took this awesome shot with a high powered lens.

The population of Wood Bison in Alaska was dwindling, so they actually spent the last decade raising a new herd.  They released them into the wild last month.

This time of year makes visits especially fun because there are lots of baby animals running around. The Center is raising a set of orphaned moose right now & I'm in love. I keep petitioning N for a pet moose but he hasn't bought into it yet.

 

Even Jeff Corwin (of Disney & Discovery Channel fame) thinks the moose are film worthy.

He was filming on our last visit.  

Flattop Mountain

The trailhead to Flat Top Mountain is only about 10 minutes from our house. During the winter, it was a favorite spot of ours to check out the sunset and watch for the Aurora Borealis.  This time of year it still makes for a great scenic overlook.

You may also recognize it from our Christmas card. I much prefer the area when it's not covered in snow.

Day Cruise

Regardless of the weather, Alaska is one of the most beautiful and majestic places I've ever seen. Winter or summer - it's easy to see God's handiwork in the beauty of the scenery. One of the best ways we've found to take it all in is by glacier cruise (or whale watching trip.)  Not only can you see glacier calving, but you'll probably also see puffins, otters, bald eagles and even whales. 

Food

We'll take you to some unique eateries. From the world's best pepper steak at the Double Musky Inn or a reindeer dog from a street vendor, you'll definitely try something new.

Waterfalls and Creeks

Not much is more peaceful than the sound of water running through a creek or waterfall.  We've found some great spots.

I took this picture. It's amazing how much better photos on a digital camera look.

Saturday Market

Every weekend in the summer, a few hundred vendors set up tents at an outdoor market. It reminds of an event my hometown always had when I was growing up, so we love to take visitors to it.  Lots of unique gifts & music.

Animals

Mountain views and animals abound in Alaska.  Birds were never of any interest until I moved here and now even they are captivating.  And of course, we're always on the lookout for moose.

Can you spot the muskrat in this picture?

I spy a mom and two baby moose.

We still have a few weeks without guests this summer, so come see us! We'd love to show you Alaska.

TBT: Weekend Edition (Moose, Plants and Procrastination)

I've found that I tend to work best under a deadline. The longer I have to do something - the longer it will take; give me a short window to get it done and I make it happen.  This is a blessing in my line of work because I'll often get last minute client requests.  It doesn't bode so well in my personal life, because then I do things like starting a new renovation project instead of dusting when my parents are coming to visit.  Needless to say, it has been a busy week with not a lot of sleep. But I'm happy to report everything got finished.

Here's what we've been up to the last few days.

Finally Registering my Car 
I resisted changing my license plates over for as long as I could; I'm a proud Texan afterall.  Plus, out of state license plates tend to get you some grace if you aren't the best driver.  But after 8 months of living in Alaska, my Texas tags finally expired. Rather than risk getting a ticket, I spent several (3+ hours over the course of two different days) at the DMV.  The waiting was almost as horrendous as Houston rush hour traffic but this time I at least walked away with something. I'm now the proud owner of Alaskan license plates (side note: I was one of the first 500 people to get these bear plates.)

Seeing Wildlife
My office participated in the local Relay for Life over the weekend.  Nathanial and I stopped by their tent on Friday evening. The event was staged next to the biggest duck pond I've ever seen. There were ducks and geese EVERYWHERE.

Then on Saturday, my training group had to run through the woods (roots, brush and all) to avoid a moose mom and calf on the trail.  Alaska- where you run off road to avoid the moose that's on the paved trail.

(The moose is in the shadows. I figured if our coaches didn't want us running by the moose, they probably didn't want me getting close to take a picture either.)

Painting
I organized a painting class for a group of ladies at church. It was so fun and I'm happy to report that this painting (compared to the two others I've done) isn't one I'm embarrassed to hang.

I also painted parts of two of our bathrooms because when you take down the old light fixture and old contractor grade mirror, there are sections of the wall that you didn't need to paint before.

Procrastination at its finest.  Why vaccum the house when you can start on a new project that involves melting liquid nails to scrape it off the wall?

Gardening
Mostly of the flower variety but I planted some asparagus in a pot so that makes me a real gardener, right?

One of the things I loved about our house when we bought it was the landscaping - such green, lush grass, and the prettiest flower beds. Most of the plants didn't survive the winter, so over the weekend I dragged Nathanial to go pick out plants.  He earned his patience badge for sure because I had absolutely no plan walking into the nursery. I insisted on going down every aisle (of a very large greenhouse) before I decided on flowers and color schemes. You can imagine how much fun that was for my very analytical, engineer minded husband.  We bought quite a variety.

The weekend was so busy, we decided to put off planting until Monday night after work.  That is, until we got a burst of energy Sunday night and decided to tackle it.  Alaska - where you still have enough light between 10 p.m. and midnight to demolish and replant a flower bed.

We pulled all the old plants and a lot of the soil out to make room for the new plants and good new soil we bought.

 I think we used 12 bags of soil.  I have to admit it was kind of fun getting to play in the dirt.

We finished about 12:15 which was fun until our alarms went off for work a few hours later.

Some of the pansies from the previous owner survived the winter and sprang back up.  I liked them but didn't think the colors went with the new plants we bought.  Until I can get a new planter, I replanted them in an extra storage tub.  After a few days of rain - they are actually doing the best out of all the plants. Ha. Classy.

A Whole Lot of Grilling

Did you know that your left lung is divided into two parts while your right lung has three parts? Yea me either. Thank goodness for Bill Nye. We just realized that old episodes were on Netflix so we've been watching them. Bill Nye is just as awesome as I remember but a whole lot more cheesy too. 

Other than a whole lot of science, we've been doing a whole lot of grilling. I joked that I need another weekend to recover from my weekend. 

We kicked off Memorial Day weekend by grilling up some steaks my brother sent Nathanial for his birthday. We sent him reindeer meat and he sent Omaha steaks. It was easily one of the best steaks I've ever had. So delicious. It was one of those meals where I felt guilty not having people over because all the food was so incredible. 

Saturday I did a long run with my running group and then we got some things done around the house. Hotel Wells will be hosting our first set of five of guests in two weeks. Can't wait!

The weather has been so beautiful lately that I've been dying to have a picnic. I sold our pastor on the idea for Memorial Day weekend. Coordinating a meal with friends is a lot different than coordinating a whole church. It was both incredibly stressful and rewarding at the same time. Unfortunately it rained all day Saturday and was pretty chilly on Sunday so my outdoor picnic quickly became an indoor picnic. I set the tables up in long rows so it still had a picnic feel. 

I was pleased with how everything turned out. I received lots of compliments and thanks which in a church of older people is sometimes hard to come by. My favorite part was seeing different groups of people interact. 

I got so many crazy looks buying this many buns at Costco. 

We spent Memorial Day at our friends' house. They just moved about an hour out of the city. Their house had the perfect setup for the nearly 20 people that showed up. They had tons of room for all the kiddos to play outside and lots of space for the grown ups too. It was such a great day with great friends. We played lots of games and even did Minute it to Win It. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. 

Nathanial manned the grill again and we ate well. Shish kabobs, steaks and hot dogs for the kids. Couldn't have been better. 

Alaskans refer to grilling as barbecuing and it drives me crazy. It's only BBQ with the right sauce and brisket. We had a weekend of GRILLING and I loved it. 

Funny story - I bought cream cheese at Costco because I use it in a lot of recipes. What I didn't realize was that the kind I bought was a giant block and not individual packages. 

Needless to say, I've been thinking of ways to use it. Cheesecake seemed like the perfect dessert to take to our friends. 

I topped it with fresh strawberries before serving. 

And because I love a theme, I also made a blueberry pie. Love red, white and blue. 

The Night the Lights Went Out in Anchorage

I'm on my way to a rocking 6-pack and I didn't even have to do any crunches. Apparently three days of a bad cough really uses some ab muscles. I've also been doing that natural look thing because blowing your nose every two minutes doesn't leave much make up on your face. Prayers for me and my sweet husband that I start feeling better.

Aside from being sick, things are going well. Nathanial made it to the North Slope and back last week. The weather there was iffy and more than half of the flights both coming and going were cancelled. 

I kept pretty busy while he was gone with a hectic week at work and training for my half marathon. 

My legs have been painfully tight the last few weeks so my runs have been getting harder. I got some compression socks and a stick roller which seemed to help a little. My coaches said I just needed to work through it. It's frustrating because it feels like my training is taking a step backwards. My speed is improving when I'm able to run full out so I'm hopeful this phase will pass quickly. 

I continue to be amazed at how beautiful Alaska is. Even when my legs hurt - sights like this mean I'm still running happy. 

Nathanial got home on Friday. I picked him up from the airport and then we headed to see a performance of Sister Act. It was such a great show - until the lights went out after the first act and didn't come back on. It was almost perfect timing with the normal light diming. Eventually a crew member came out on stage with a flash light and said they were canceling the rest of the show due to a downtown power outage. It was fun to watch the surrounding buildings evacuate. There was both a Neil Young concert and the inaugural Cannabis Classic (lol Alaska) happening across the street. What a motley crew. 

The Performing Arts Center offered to reseat us in one of the remaining shows so we got to see the rest of the musical on Sunday. It was hysterical.

 

The volunteer usher in our section did not like me taking this picture. Talk about feisty older people! 

How To Feel Like A Rockstar

Some things happened last week that made me feel pretty good about myself so I thought I would share.  Here are some instant ego boosters.

For our anniversary, I gave Nathanial some notecards I custom designed for him. He wrote a letter to one of his favorite podcasts on one of the cards (this podcast asks for viewer letters) and they spent several minutes at the end of the episode discussing how awesome the notecard was.

"It's got his initials on. It's really well designed."

#PodcastFamous

I've occasionally done graphic design at work, but never as frequently as I am in my current job. I usually outsourced work to an actual graphic designer in the past. It's pretty cool to walk around the university and see posters, web graphics, etc. that I've designed myself. 

#UniversityFamous

We've been studying missionaries in Mexico with our little friends at church. Last week was the last session on Mexico so I thought we'd celebrate with a pinata.  1 pinata + lots of candy = instant hero.

We share this room with another group.  None of the clutter in the background is ours. :)

#kidhero

We had a church potluck on Sunday and I made an Asian Crunchy Salad. I've made it a few times and it's always a hit.  I can't remember where I found the recipe, but I know it came from someone in the Duck Dynasty family.  

It's always my goal for the food I bring to events to be the first thing gone - and this recipe never fails.  You won't regret making it!  #PotluckQueen

You could also feel like a rockstar by actually being a rockstar and doing a surprise concert in a remote place.  This happened a few weeks ago when Jack White (of the White Stripes) announced on a Monday morning he would be doing an acoustic show that evening. Tickets were only $3, limit one per person.  The announcement went out at 8 a.m. and there was a line by 8:10. The tickets went on sale at noon and all (nearly 1000) were gone by 12:30.  Did I mention this actually happened? At the college where I work.  The concert was held in one of the buildings I'm in charge of marketing.  The website had more than 10,000 hits that morning.  It was my second week on the job. Two weeks in and I could already show a significant boost to website traffic. #MarketingRockstar ;)

Scenic Saturday and Training Program Week 1

My friend Kendra tagged me in this picture on Instagram. I cracked up at its accuracy. There are few things that have been more dangerous to our bank account than the resurgence of my running.  Even my time as a housewife wasn't so bad.  Ha!

Last week was the start of the training program I'm doing through the local running store. This will mark my third half marathon - but this is the first time I've done this type of program.  I wasn't sure what to expect but even after just the first week, I couldn't be more thrilled with my choice to join. 

The coaches sent out the training schedule for the week last Monday. There were two tracts - beginners and intermediate.  The beginner plan incorporated three days of running with the other plan calling for 5-6 days. I ended up getting in 5 runs last week. 

I knew I was back in love with running when I sacrificed an awesome hair day to get in a run between church services on Sunday. 

I ran on my own Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and met up with the training group on Wednesday and Saturday. 

Wednesday's practice with the group was intense.  I went to the morning session which started at 6 a.m. (in the rain & cold.) We met up at a local school track to do different types of strides (cherry pickers, sideways running, backwards running, etc.) and then tempo work.  We ran three tempo sets, each 5 minutes, of running as fast, but as consistent with our speed, as possible.  The goal was to be running at 90 to 95% of our maximum with no ability to carry a conversation.  The first set went fine but on the next two sets I couldn't control my breathing. It was like I had never run before.  I left feeling really disappointed in my progress but excited about the program.

My running watch bit the dust last year and I've been eyeing a new one for a while.  Wednesday's practice (& Nathanial - best husband ever) encouraged me to go ahead and get one so I could be more consistent in my pacing.

Friday night, I rushed over to the running store to pick one up after work.  We attended a workshop at our church Friday night and I barely made it home before we needed to leave. I didn't get to play with my new watch until we got home but it was worth the wait. IT IS AWESOME. 

The training group met at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. I was really nervous about the run because of how Wednesday had gone. This training program utilizes time instead of distances which made me nervous too.  We were supposed to run for 75 minutes. Eek.  There are over 100 women in the group and I had only met a few so that part didn't help either.  Luckily my nerves were for nothing. It was the best experience. I was downright giddy and feeling awesome after we finished.

The coaches had some tables set up with shoes and water belts we could test on our run. Because of the previously mentioned nerves I opted not to add anything new to the mix, but I'll definitely be trying new products in the future. 

I stayed towards the middle of the pack during the run. I was able to find several ladies who were running similar paces which was great. Conversations made the time fly by.  One of the biggest differences I've noticed about running in Anchorage is the hills. They are everywhere.  The locals aren't phased and tend to call everything flat - but to this Texan, even the littlest hills are hard. During the last hill of the run, I started talking with Kristen. I found her blog a few weeks ago when I was doing research on the training program and was thrilled to meet her in real life.  My first blog friend!!

The trail we ran was great (minus the hills).  I couldn't get over the stunning views or the beautiful weather!!! 

This week's training schedule looks similar. I'm excited to see how it goes!

Post-run group picture!

16 Hour Days and Pinterest Inspiration

8 months in Alaska and I'm still in awe. This is the view from our driveway looking down our street. Look at those mountains. 

Alaska is remarkable. Today we had (/have because the sun is still out at 10:30 p.m.) 16 hours of sunlight. It's incredible. It's light more than it's dark. And the weather has been nice too. The mornings are a little cool but it's been warming up to 50 in the afternoons. 

This week has been really great. Thanks in large part to a day of grilling on Saturday. Nathanial received a new charcoal grill as a birthday gift from his mom. I'm not sure who was more excited about it - him or me. 

 

Nathanial is quite the grill master. He cooked enough meat to last the week. It has made a huge difference in our evenings. 

He grilled 4 sets of shish kabobs, 8 pounds of chicken, a pound of sausage, 2 pounds of pork chops, hamburgers and corn on the cob. 

He's also been a champ at preparing dinner while I get in a run after work. My favorite meal was the lemon chicken pasta he made with some of the grilled chicken. 

He's a man of many talents that husband of mine. He surprised me Tuesday night with a ukele serenade. While I was out on my run, he bought a ukele and taught himself "You Are My Sunshine." It was awesome. It's more impressive considering I wasn't gone that long and knowing the ukele is an instrument made for right handed people and he's left handed. I'm trying to convince him to take his show on the road - to Hawaii :)

I've been talking a lot about running lately because I've finally found my love for it again. I've already signed up for another half marathon this summer and am eyeing several more. This time around I'm determined to be more consistent in my training. I decided to join a training group to help with that and so far so good. The group is organized through the local running store. There are four coaches and over 100 women. It's such an empowering group of ladies. We will meet twice a week. On Wednesdays we do a track workout with tempo and stride work and on Saturdays we will do long runs. This was the first week and I couldn't be more thrilled with my decision to join. I wasn't so sure on Wednesday morning when I had to be at the track at 6 a.m. in the pouring rain. Early mornings  are not my thing and showing up at a place I didn't know with a group where I didn't know a soul was nerve-wracking.   

Turns out Pinterest is right sometimes.