Sunday Drive

Last weekend, Michael had three days off of work (gasp!) because he had enlisted three people during the month of February! We were going to go out of town, but I had to work on Saturday! Go figure! So we just stayed around Anchorage and did some more exploring in our new home. We decided to drive south and check out some of the little towns. This is a view from the highway that goes south! It just keeps getting more and more beautiful!

These are two views at Portage Glacier. I'm pretty sure we didn't actually see the glacier itself but these were still some pretty sights!

Michael was experimenting with the camera features...

Our little car holding its own up here in the last frontier! Also, notice I'm in the car because it is cold outside!

We went to the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center. They had moose, grizzlies, musk oz, etc. Here is a closeup of a moose's nose!

A Grizzly eating part of a bison leg...

A herd of musk ox

A musk ox up close and personal

Is this my good side?

He's eating potatoes!! Hahahaha! For some reason, I thought this was hilarious!

I heart moose! :)

Fur Rondy Snow Sculptures

The Fur Rendezvous Festival was going on for the past week or so in Anchorage. They have various events that occur around the city, such as a carnival, helicopter rides, and the snow sculpting. Michael and I stopped by to see the snow sculptures after we got back from the re-start in Willow.

This was my favorite sculpture! Also, the hotel in the background is the hotel we stayed in when we first got into town!

This sculpture was the 1st place winner!

This is another photo of the 1st place sculpture using a different camera feature.

This one was pretty cool...a bunch of mallard ducks! :)

Iditarod 2009 Re-start

The Iditarod starts in Anchorage. However, the real race starts in Willow, AK. Part of the trek from Anchorage to Willow is impossible for the dog sled teams to get through, so they have the re-start of the race on Sunday (after the Anchorage Start) in Willow. Michael had to work on Saturday during the start in Anchorage, so we drove up to Willow to see the re-start. This was pretty cool because this is where all of the dogs are hooked up to the sleds and the sleds are packed and ready to go for the long trip ahead.

This is Jeff King. He placed 2nd last year. Notice that he has two dogs IN his sled! We didn't know why he was only having 14 dogs pull the sled versus 16 that day, however, we read about it the next day in the paper. If the trail is good, there is no need to have 16 dogs pull and the musher have to ride the brake the whole time. 14 dogs can pull just as well and he can alternate the dogs pulling. We'll see if this strategy pays off...

We stood where the mushers and teams got ready approach to the starting line. This is where you can get a good look at the teams.

I can't remember who this musher is, but notice how BIG his mittens are!!! He's going to need them! I may need to find out where he got those!

New Friends

Who says you can't make good friends at a bar? :) This is John. He is actually a bartender at our favorite bar (the bar that we can walk to!). He also lives 5 houses from us! John is an awesome guy and the friendliest person we have met. He is in the Air Force and is unfortunately PCSing at the end of the year. :(

This is Blake (middle) and Mitchell. These are also some of our really good friends up here. They are both in the Air Force too. Unfortunately, Blake just deployed for several months and Mitchell is getting ready to PCS in two months! Back to square one in the making new friends department.

This is where we hang out most weekend nights. It is in John's basement where the beer pong table is at!

Michael and I after drinking for awhile!

Iditarod 2009

Okay, today was the start of the last real race, the Iditarod! It was pretty cool and I am so glad that I braved the frigid temps to go watch the start.

They cleared the roads and then made a path out of snow for the dog mushers. This is on 4th Avenue in downtown Anchorage.

And the race begins! This was actually a really long process. They start each dog team one at a time with two-minute increments in between each team. The start took over two hours since there are over 60 teams competing this year!

Team 2! I don't know who most of the teams are...

However, I knew about this girl, Rachael, with the purple hat, because she is almost blind. She has a lot of vision problems, yet she has not let that stop her. The musher in the picture below is her "teammate". They each have their own teams, but he is helping her through parts of the trail. You are not allowed to have assistance on the Iditarod, but fellow Iditarod mushers can help each other. So these two teams stay with each other so Tim (guy below) can tell Rachael if she needs to watch out for anything. I read about her story in a magazine on my flight back from Portland. I waited to see Rachael go by for over 2 hours today!

This is Tim...the fellow musher that is helping Rachael getting through the race! :) Someone on the sidelines told me that last year, Rachael and Tim weren't with each other on the race, so they waited and both went last so they could be with each other.

This is Lance Mackey, the winner of the Iditarod for the past couple of years! The crowd went crazy when he went through.

Yummmmm, a reindeer hot dog! :)

NC State in da house! (notice the red booties!)

Notice their booties! Freedom could definitely be a dog sled dog! I always thought these race dogs were big huskies...I don't think I saw any big big dogs on this race. My dream of Freedom, Bracken, and I being dog sled mushers is getting closer now!

This is how some of the dogs were transported to Anchorage.

I liked the dog mascot. I guess it was the "cheerleader" for the dogs. I wonder if the dogs knew that or if they really just wanted to chew on him since he was a big stuffed animal!

Some of the dogs chillin' before their run.

A team getting ready to move up to the start line.

These dogs are so strong and ready to run, that people have to hold the sleds and the dogs down until the start. All of these teams also only have half of their dogs right now. When they do the real start in Willow, AK tomorrow, they will have all of their gear and dogs loaded and ready for the real start of the race. You'll notice in some of these pics that a lot of teams have a couple of sleds and a few people that the dogs are pulling. This is to help slow the dogs down! Crazy! I think the start in Anchorage is like the Hollywood Red Carpet for the Iditarod mushers! :)

Only in Alaska...

And this is the back of Wolfman

These were the smart people...they all found places in the parking deck and were able to see everything from a bird's point of view! But I bet it was COLD in the parking garage!

The photos below are just some other pics I took at the beginning of the race...before I realized that there were over 60 teams!

Portland, Projects, New Furniture...

Okay, I've been called out about my lack of a new post, so I'm getting off my lazy butt and writing! I just got back from Portland for my WW leader training. It was so intense! It was like a normal WW meeting times 500! I was only there for four days and made some really awesome friends! I was super nervous to get up in front of everyone and talk. But I received a lot of good advice from the other trainees, trainers, and Michael that I was able to use to help me get over my stage fright! My presentation went GREAT and now I'm ready to lead my meetings! I have to do a little more mentoring/training back here in AK, but then I'll have my own meetings! :) I'm really excited about this! Oh, and on my flight to Portland, we flew right over the top of Mount Saint Helens!! That was incredible! And I have also realized I know nothing about Northwestern US geography. This is something I need to work on.

Some of you may have been asking yourselves what the heck I do with all of my extra time. Surprisingly, I don't have as much free time as one would think. I still wish there were more hours in the day! In between working at WW, volunteering at the animal shelter, searching and applying for jobs, getting me and the dog's exercise in for the day, and getting all of the other crap around the house done, I really am not that bored! Maybe I've just learned how to spread my projects out...Who knows! I have worked on some projects with my new found time:

This beauty here was a royal pain in my butt to assemble. After what seemed to take me ages to put together, I was then able to burn, stain, and varnish it. We now have this bench in our Arctic Entry so our "getting ready to go outside into the snow and cold process" is a little easier.

This is the next project I tackled. Luckily, this treasure was already assembled, so I just had to burn, stain, and varnish this one! Thank God!

I also wanted to take this time to thank Uncle Sam for finally giving us back some of the money he has taken from us all year long! Usually, Michael and I are pretty smart with any extra money we may come into and put it towards any debt we may have. However, this time we decided that we were going to buy new living room furniture! Our old furniture stunk of Frisky's cat urine, so it was time to get some new.

Our new bookshelf. Notice that on the bottom shelf are magazines and pamphlets of all the touristy things to do in Alaska! We are collecting this propaganda for all of you to use when you come visit us! ;)

And the crown jewels...the new couches!! We did get two COUCHES, not a couch and a love seat. Michael and I have a problem sharing the couch and neither of us ever wanted the love seat, so we decided to just get two long couches! When we each are stretched out on a couch, we can still hold hands so we get the best of both worlds! For the times we want to be all lovey dovey, we can both fit on one couch, as well. We actually tested couches in the stores for this requirement of us both being able to lay comfortably on the couch together. It was funny. We also got a new coffee table and end table because our old ones were way too short for this furniture. But don't fret that we got rid of all of our old stuff...we just moved that living room into the basement! So now, when you all come visit, there's extra space to vegetate! Perfect! So why have you guys not all booked your flights up here yet? We're going to feed you, be your tour guides, house you, AND give you your own separate "chillin' out" space? What more could someone ask for? :) I wouldn't wait too long to book your trip...with accommodations like these, we're going to fill up fast!