Matt and I just experienced our very first earthquake! Whoa! It, apparently, was a 5.4. All pets and belongings are perfectly fine. The house (and Matt's workplace) just shook a bit. Nothing really earthshaking . . . oh, I guess it was!
Here's the news article: http://www.adn.com/news/environment/earthquakes/story/839501.html
It felt . . . wobbly. Nothing rattled or anything, just sorta trembled and didn't feel right.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Platinum
Here are some pictures from my trip to Platinum. I'm going back there this week and I hope the weather is just as nice. There's a bear in one of these pictures...can anyone spot it? First person to post a comment on where the bear is gets a free bear bell and sleep mask when they visit. The pictures shown here are: aerial of marshlands north of Goodnews Bay, aerial of boat on Goodnews Bay east towards the mountains, aerial of City of Platinum (pop. of ~60) with Goodnews Bay behind taken from over the Bering Sea, and on the beach at midnight looking at the Bering Sea.
Little Bits
Matt and I are both a little under the weather, so we've not really been up to too much, but here's a sampling of what we've been up to (ok--honestly, it's all we've been up to!!).
Yesterday we drove up the valley to Wasilla--hometown of our awesome Governor. The objective?? We're attempting to get our guest bed together for all of the visits we're expecting from y'all, and had found a bed frame on craigslit! The drive took about 1 hour, and it was sensationally beautiful. The landscape is a pure, vibrant green that just goes on and on and only stops at the sheer mountains. There are these gorgeous birch trees everywhere--it's the predominant tree around here--and wildflowers dot the undergrowth with vivid color. We drove over a tidal river that was just huge--much more of a river than what we have in Colorado. The water is a blue-green in the rivers, but in the tidal flats it's mostly grey--the color of the mud. It was a nice little opportunity to see a little bit more of the landscape around here.
Last weekend we took a walk along Ship Creek Trail--my neighbor Luis calls it the "12 million dollar trail" because that's how much the city spent to build it. It has this neat corkscrew bridge up and over the railroad, and starts basically at the bottom of the hill we live on. The trail was a strange mix of lush and lovely landscape and creek on one side, and train yards and commercial trucking, equipment, and junkyards on the other. The more I'm here the more I understand that, especially in Anchorage, that kind of contradiction embodies this place. The lovely hill we live on is bordered at it's base by the port operations of the city--so you look out over these huge gas/oil tanks and cranes and railroad cars to a lovely view of the cook inlet and the mountains beyond. The unbelievably clear blue-green waters of Ship Creek stood out the most to me, though. You can tell just by looking at them that they originated from a glacier.
Today we went to an art festival in the Alaska Botanical gardens here in Anchorage to hear Matt's supervisor, Debra, play cello in a string band she's in. The had all these local artist booths strung along the trails of the garden. Very neat, plus we got to figure out a few of the names of the flowers we've been seeing. At first I balked at the $5 entry fee, but later realized it was really a pretty good deal for music, art, and nature all mixed up in one. A few weeks ago we shelled out $15 each to see a Scottish pipe and drum recital in a local church--and this was equally enjoyable.
Yesterday we drove up the valley to Wasilla--hometown of our awesome Governor. The objective?? We're attempting to get our guest bed together for all of the visits we're expecting from y'all, and had found a bed frame on craigslit! The drive took about 1 hour, and it was sensationally beautiful. The landscape is a pure, vibrant green that just goes on and on and only stops at the sheer mountains. There are these gorgeous birch trees everywhere--it's the predominant tree around here--and wildflowers dot the undergrowth with vivid color. We drove over a tidal river that was just huge--much more of a river than what we have in Colorado. The water is a blue-green in the rivers, but in the tidal flats it's mostly grey--the color of the mud. It was a nice little opportunity to see a little bit more of the landscape around here.
Last weekend we took a walk along Ship Creek Trail--my neighbor Luis calls it the "12 million dollar trail" because that's how much the city spent to build it. It has this neat corkscrew bridge up and over the railroad, and starts basically at the bottom of the hill we live on. The trail was a strange mix of lush and lovely landscape and creek on one side, and train yards and commercial trucking, equipment, and junkyards on the other. The more I'm here the more I understand that, especially in Anchorage, that kind of contradiction embodies this place. The lovely hill we live on is bordered at it's base by the port operations of the city--so you look out over these huge gas/oil tanks and cranes and railroad cars to a lovely view of the cook inlet and the mountains beyond. The unbelievably clear blue-green waters of Ship Creek stood out the most to me, though. You can tell just by looking at them that they originated from a glacier.
Today we went to an art festival in the Alaska Botanical gardens here in Anchorage to hear Matt's supervisor, Debra, play cello in a string band she's in. The had all these local artist booths strung along the trails of the garden. Very neat, plus we got to figure out a few of the names of the flowers we've been seeing. At first I balked at the $5 entry fee, but later realized it was really a pretty good deal for music, art, and nature all mixed up in one. A few weeks ago we shelled out $15 each to see a Scottish pipe and drum recital in a local church--and this was equally enjoyable.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Spring (I think) in Alaska
So now that I've been here a whopping two weeks, I think I'm sort-of getting the feel for the weather this time of year. I'd looked at climate graphs for the Anchorage area, and it looked like the highs would be around 80 degrees F in the summer. Well, I'm not so sure it's actually ever going to get that hot. The weather reporters get super excited when they can report highs in the upper 60's, and since I've been here the hottest it's been is 75--and that's in the middle of a parking lot on the clearest sunny day. I don't think I'm going to ever need shorts up here. There is quite a bit of rain and clouds in this area, and it's usually hazy. We are in easy sighting distance of Denali--but I've only been able to actually see it one of the days I've been here because the haze affects visibility so much. There is a whole range of mountains across the inlet that I didn't even know existed until we had a lovely clear day last week, and they just emerged as if from a mist. 31 years of arid, clear, thin Colorado air, and I think that's what the whole world lives in. That'll show me.
Today on Jack and my walk around our neighborhood I noticed the lilacs are finally budding. I think they'll probably be beginning to bloom by the end of the week. I've decided that the Anchorage's "summer" is really a spring. I'll let you know if later I decide to change that designation, but for now I think it fits. We have a whole two more months of this lovely weather!
Sunday Matt, Jack, and I went to Kinkaid park. It's a huge park right on the coast; they have miles and miles of trails, and it actually serves as the Olympic training center for cross country skiing in the winter. They also have a disc golf course! Matt and I spent the afternoon experiencing our first Alaskan course. Wow. There are these sheer drop offs just filled with trees and underbrush. There must be whole villages of lost discs just waiting for winter when they can again show their garish colors. One of the players in the group ahead of us actually carried a machete (I suppose to whack at undergrowth to find lost disks). We played it safe and managed to hold on to all our discs, but what a neat course. The park is lush to bursting right now, with an abundance of bright fuchsia wild roses and mountain bluebells. Lovely. We also hiked down to the beach. The tide was out, so there was at least a mile of mud flats instead of ocean. I'm looking forward to going back when the tide is in to see exactly how cold that water is.
Matt's also been assigned some more villages at work! Last week he traveled to Emmonak again because their annual flood was worse than usual. FEMA was there, and Matt went out to help document and report on the flood damage to their sanitary systems. This week he will be going to a new village: Platinum. It's on Goodnews bay. He's also been assigned a village called Gambell--it's WAY out on an island on the bering sea, within sight of Russia. It's so far West it might be East! Here's a map so you get a feel for the distances Matt will be traveling (if you click on the blue markers it'll tell you what it's supposed to be pointing out):
View Platinum in a larger map
Today on Jack and my walk around our neighborhood I noticed the lilacs are finally budding. I think they'll probably be beginning to bloom by the end of the week. I've decided that the Anchorage's "summer" is really a spring. I'll let you know if later I decide to change that designation, but for now I think it fits. We have a whole two more months of this lovely weather!
Sunday Matt, Jack, and I went to Kinkaid park. It's a huge park right on the coast; they have miles and miles of trails, and it actually serves as the Olympic training center for cross country skiing in the winter. They also have a disc golf course! Matt and I spent the afternoon experiencing our first Alaskan course. Wow. There are these sheer drop offs just filled with trees and underbrush. There must be whole villages of lost discs just waiting for winter when they can again show their garish colors. One of the players in the group ahead of us actually carried a machete (I suppose to whack at undergrowth to find lost disks). We played it safe and managed to hold on to all our discs, but what a neat course. The park is lush to bursting right now, with an abundance of bright fuchsia wild roses and mountain bluebells. Lovely. We also hiked down to the beach. The tide was out, so there was at least a mile of mud flats instead of ocean. I'm looking forward to going back when the tide is in to see exactly how cold that water is.
Matt's also been assigned some more villages at work! Last week he traveled to Emmonak again because their annual flood was worse than usual. FEMA was there, and Matt went out to help document and report on the flood damage to their sanitary systems. This week he will be going to a new village: Platinum. It's on Goodnews bay. He's also been assigned a village called Gambell--it's WAY out on an island on the bering sea, within sight of Russia. It's so far West it might be East! Here's a map so you get a feel for the distances Matt will be traveling (if you click on the blue markers it'll tell you what it's supposed to be pointing out):
View Platinum in a larger map
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