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