Walking a very large animal

Ok, I had to tell you about this. The other day after work, several of us went to the Park Strip near downtown Anchorage to play soccer. I played goalie so I didn't have to run around too much. Anyway I was leaving and noticed across the park what looked like a very large animal being walked on a leash. Thinking it was too large for a dog, I strained harder to catch a closer look. Antlers! Ok, someone was walking a reindeer in the park. Later I found out it is a locally known pet reindeer name Star. (there have been several Stars over the years) These folks keep it in their yard near downtown, don't know what that was all about but it is the strangest thing I've seen yet out and about in urban Anchorage. Only in Alaska... And for those of you who don't know this bit of trivia, reindeer (at least in AK) are domesticated caribou. Actually, a reading I did on Alaska History talked about bringing reindeer to Alaska to domesticate them for the Native populations to raise, eat, whatever and they wandered off, mixed in with the caribou and got friendly and now you have their descendents.
Looking forward to our camping weekend, boating, fishing and playing games. Hope you all have a good one too! Mary

Total daylight today - 14 hours, 33 minutes, 28 seconds
Today's daylight loss - 5 minutes, 38 seconds (do the math that is more than 35 minutes a week)

Sunrise 6:42am
Sunset 9:16pm

Getting dark about 10:30pm

Of course we had a lot of rain this summer so it seems to have been a perpetual fall like summer...

Going camping for the Labor Day weekend - Hidden Lake...taking the boat out for some trout fishing. YEA!

Vist again for pictures after the weekend.

Top of the World - Barrow, Alaska

Home now - first day of school has come and gone...

This narrative is from Saturday night 08-16-08

Today finds me in Barrow, Alaska (with our football team). Some of you may know that when I began looking for a job in Alaska that Barrow was the first place I applied. However, Mary made it abundantly clear that we would not than, now or ever live in Barrow (or any bush school for that matter). So the opportunity to travel with the team came up again this year I decided to make the journey.

What a journey - The school bus carrying our team and coaches left Seward at 7am on Friday morning for an 11am flight to Fairbanks. It is significant to note the the flight to Fairbanks is less than an hour. This put us to our layover destination at around noon - for a 5:50pm connecting flight to Barrow (arriving at 7:20pm).

...from time to time life doesn't go as planned and the journey north was an adventure. We boarded to the plane for Barrow Friday night as planned and we were have way to Barrow (1hr 20min flight) when the pilot announced that we were having a problem with a sensor on a wing flap requiring that we go back to Fairbanks for maintenance.

We arrived back in Fairbanks, disembarked and waited...about an 1 hour later the sensor was fixed and we boarded the plane only to wait 1/2hr while the thunder and lighting rain storm that began just after we finished loading passed over us. Finally we were cleared for take-off - the engines were fired up...2 minutes later they were powered down and the pilot announced that our flight had been canceled! (and no one seems to know why).

So...along with everyone else on the "full" plane - 3 coaches, 17 high school football players and I headed downstairs to claim our luggage, rebook our fight for the morning and get hotel reservations (and transportation) for the airlines. The good news is that the airline got a bigger plane for the morning to accommodate us all and gave us enough hotels rooms to give everyone there out bed. The not so good is that we had been in the airport since noon and need to feed very hungry teenage boys and get them to bed. Thank you for Pizza Hut and a very nice lady from the place who offered to help me - she took me to Pizza Hut to get 10 pizza's (and a salad for me) and took me to my hotel before she went home so she could also get up for the morning flight to Barrow. It was 12:30am when I closed my eyes...5:30am came sooo quickly.

The problem is that Barrow has two flights out of Fairbanks - 9:30am and 5:50pm...we had to be on the morning flight in order to play football that afternoon. I would like to say that we arrived at the airport and got on our flight at the scheduled time...but no such luck. We arrived at the airport only to discover that our flight had been delayed because we could not land in DeadHorse due to fog - you see the morning flight is not a direct flight to Barrow....so at 9:30am when we finally we cleared for take-off...we arrived in Barrow at 11:30am...game at 3:30pm - big loss 54-8 - go figure after the last 24 hours.

I did hear that we missed an 11 foot Polar Bear at the end of town last night. Hoping to see one tonight while out and about with a teacher from Barrow.

We head home tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed. (By the way - we were delayed two hours leaving Barrow due to weather 08-21-08)

The view down the road as you leave the "airport"

Whale skulls on the beach by the football field

Visitors bleachers - Watch your step :-)

Artic Ocean - What a view!

Tundra on the "Top of the World"

My Guitar Hero

(Thanks Darren and Erika for the great gift)

A good round of Guitar Hero deserves a nap

Yesterday marked the beginning of the annual Silver Salmon Derby in Seward. We had to go down to the harbor again today to check on the hall from the local fleet.

While this 16.45lb seems huge...the current leader is 16.89lbs. The silver salmon turned into the derby are sold to the local fisheries and hatcheries.

Safari Fishing Charters had a good haul today - including this octopus. The guy who caught it told me he got it up and in pretty quick it was just "really heavy" and "a lot of work."

Yea! The 2008 Summer Olympics has arrived to the world stage. The opening ceremonies were stunning. I often found myself standing in front of the TV with my mouth hanging open. While there were many highlights including the 2000 opening drummers. I think that the moving "printing blocks" were the most mind boggling. Particularly when it was reveled at the end of the segment that it was powered by over 1000 people. WOW! I can not imagine the mind power (and people power - 15,000 with no one person appearing twice) that went into making this opening ceremony happen. The massive LCD panel - what can I say.

Swimming begins tomorrow - If our rain comes back tomorrow as predicted watching the competition is where I may pass the time. The Silver Salmon Derby begins tomorrow. I will be making a trip down to the harbor in the morning just to check the fishing report. Hoping the Silvers are in the bay. May do some fishing off the shore. Silvers are the most aggressive of the salmon species and put up a good fight so they are fun to catch.

The past week and next week find me on the road more than at home. All for work! So much so that Nikan and Bruno have been staying with Mary in Anchorage. This travel period will end with a 3 day trip to Barrow next weekend with our football team. Check back for pictures because I will be taking my camera. Barrow is the northern most point of North America and the first place I applied to for a job in Alaska. Mary nixed that one...seems she felt that the "cons" were more compelling than the "pros."

Hope all is well with everyone...

Two Weddings and more...

Back in Seward after 9 days in sunny San Diego. Although I wish Mary could have been there the entire time, the trip was a great way to end my summer vacation.

• Bachelorette party for Heidi in Temecula at wineries,
• A splendid day at the Glen Ivy spa with Connie (twin sister - great idea for our birthday),
• Visit with Diane and parents - great to see old friends :-)
• Padre game w/Heidi (thanks Gina for the tickets)
• Amber (niece) turned 10 years old on July 30 (yea - great show by dolphin just past the break water),
• Mom's piano lesson - what fun...,
• Mary and I got married on Aug 1 (wow - after 18 years together) Happy B-Day Darren,
• Heidi and Bill got married on Aug 2 (hurrah).

What a great visit! Enjoy the pictures - more to come when I get them off of Mary's computer.

Family Group Shot (although I am missing Len and Emily, will need to replace when I find another in the files) :-(

The "Newlyweds" at Heidi and Bill's Wedding Reception

Mr. and Mrs. Lyon