Jupiter & Venus

On our second night of Aurora hunting (with no such luck), we did get a pretty awesome view of Jupiter and Venus!

Not a very exciting photo, but it always amazes me that you can actually SEE other planets - Living in Alaska may force me to purchase a telescope and investigate astronomy as a new hobby...

Aurora Borealis

I finally saw the Northern Lights last night, and they were even more amazing that I had imagined!

They were so strong we first saw them from our backyard when we were letting Willow outside before bed.

Karl was nice enough to hop in the car with me and head outside of Anchorage where it was a bit darker.

To finish out the evening, a mama moose and her baby walked within feet of our car before we headed back home!

An Alaskan Sunset

Sun setting over Cook Inlet, across the hay flats.

Sun on the Mountains

This view just never gets old...

As seen from the Glenn Highway, at the amazing hour of 5:30pm - finally!

Big Dipper

Can you see it?!?

I wish it wasn't such a blurry photo, but when you're trying to take pictures of stars (with your shutter open for 25 seconds) and you've left your tripod at home, you have make do.  In my case, this was wedging the camera between the dashboard and windshield of my car.  Ideal? No.  Sufficient? Yes.

Moonrise, Sunset

This was just one of those times when you happen to look out the window at just the right moment...

Oh Christmas Lights, how I adore you...

Say what you will about BP, but they rock my favorite holiday lights so far.  I love moose and I love Christmas lights, so what could possibly be better than combining the two?

I've been wanting to head over and get some photographic evidence, and we finally made it out a few days ago.  Only one security guard came over and wanted to know why I was standing there, on a cold, dark night, taking pictures of the BP building.

Just makes me happy every time I drive past!

Snowy Sunday, take 2

Looks like Sunday mornings seem to be the day to look out the window and be surprised at the amount of snow that accumulated overnight.  This is what I woke up to yesterday morning:

All told, it was probably another 6-7 inches on top of the 2-3 inches that was already there.  This is already more than accumulates all winter in Pittsburgh!

Luckily I went and got my snow tires this week.  Cost me an exorbitant amount of money, but have already made it a hundred times easier to get around.  It doesn't appear that the roads are cleared very often (ever), as our road still hasn't been plowed.   Honestly, I'm not sure where all the snow would go even if they did plow.  It already seems like the piles from the driveway and the sidewalk are piling up, and it's only November!

No worries about Willow getting used the snow.  There are two things she loves: running through tall grass, and running through snow.  Yesterday was no exception, as she went tearing through the snow, grunting and snorting the whole time.

As I write this, big fluffy chunks of snow are falling again.  Hey, who needs a gym membership if you can shovel snow every day?

A panoramic view

This photo (or group of photos) was taken over the summer and was my first attempt at using Photoshop to merge a bunch of photos together to create a panoramic view.  I think it was about nine or ten individual images, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. 

A view of Anchorage from across the inlet

I'm anxious to try this in winter.  I think the mountains are much easier to photograph with the snow and ice, and without the near constant haze of summer.  The only problem then is getting the opportunity to take photos when there's enough sunlight!

The Man in the Moon

The past few days have been wonderfully clear - hardly a cloud in the sky.  The moon will be full later today, but I had to take a quick photo of it illuminating the night sky last night.

Even though we live in a relatively crowded neighborhood, it's still very dark at night as there's no streetlights.  Make the moon and stars really stand out!


The big dipper was so much clearer than this picture would lead you to believe.  I think I might need a better tripod (my camera usually makes mine tip over)...

I have the rest of the photos taken of our house, so I'm hoping to get them into a post in the next day or two.  Check back!

A Visit to the Anchorage Museum

I must say, I had put off visiting the museum here in Anchorage... Honestly, museums sometimes bore me to tears and it seems quite often that if you've seen one, you've seen them all.  I initially decided to plan a visit after I realized that I was desperately under-educated in the culture of Alaska Natives.  When you're a social worker in Alaska, you can't get away with that for too long.  I decided the Anchorage Museum was my best place to turn for information (after realizing that the Alaska Native Heritage Center Museum was closed for the season).

I was pleasantly surprised when I checked out the museum's website, and realized that the entire museum is actually the history of Alaska - even the artwork is either of Alaska or from Alaskan artists.

We first checked out the art and there were a couple paintings I fell in love with - my gauge for great artwork is usually anything that makes me think "oh man, I wish I could paint!" when I look at it.

After checking out the art side, we headed into the history area.  Unfortunately we went through it backwards, although I don't think I missed out on too much.  Anyone else feel like museums should have arrows on the floor like IKEA?  Anyway, there was obviously lots of history about the discovery of oil and the subsequent building of the pipeline.  Here's a model of how massive the pipeline really is:

Alaska was a territory of the US for almost 47 years before it became a state.  The museum also displayed the front page of the Anchorage Daily News announcing Alaska's statehood:

This half cracked me up and half made a bit misty eyed - the battle to be included in this country seems a lot more real when it happened just over 50 years ago, compared to growing up in one of the 13 original colonies.

Finally, we made it to the history and culture of the Alaska Natives (remember how I said we went backwards?).  The museum had some beautifully done dioramas to illustrate typical Native life in a few of the cultures.

Eskimo:

Contrary to popular belief, not every Alaska Native is an Eskimo.  Eskimos primarily live in the western half of Alaska, with the Inuit dominating the northern half and the Yup'ik residing in the southern half.  This diorama depicted an Eskimo whaling community.

Aleut:

The Aleut (not surprisingly) inhabit the Aleutian Islands.  Self named 'Unangan,' Russian explorers gave these natives the name 'Aleut.'  While the Aleutian Islands themselves didn't offer as much in the way of resources, the ocean offered everything necessary to sustain life.  Nikolsi, an island in the mid-Aleutians, is actually one of the longest continuously inhabited places on earth, at 4000 years.

Athabascan:

Athabascans cover one of the largest land areas in the state, and have villages throughout all of interior Alaska.  The culture of this community focused much more on hunting and gathering, and tribes were somewhat nomadic.

Tlingit & Haida:

The Tlingit and Haida (as well as the Tsimshian) people inhabit Southeast Alaska.  They had a hunter & gatherer culture, but also utilized the resources that the nearby sea had to offer.

As if the museum itself didn't give you enough of Alaska, all you had to do was check out the view from the fourth floor.  Can you see the snow capping the nearby mountains?  Winter's coming!

One thing I really liked about this museum was that it's not overwhelmingly large.  I don't have the longest attention span for museums, and we were easily able to see everything within a couple hours.  I also picked up a great map in the gift shop outlining Native cultures and villages, and I plan to tack it up over my desk tomorrow!  I also found an awesome children's book, but the gift shop was out... It's not available on Amazon so I may have to check back because I have a certain little cousin in mind... or two little cousins!

A Trip to Hatcher Pass

Hatcher Pass is one of my favorite places in Alaska and it's less than a 30 minute drive away.

We decided to go for a drive and see the whole thing, as we weren't able to last year.  Hatcher Pass is one of several areas that is not maintained through the winter, so big gates close a large portion of the road from about October through early June each year.  It felt like we were driving straight into the clouds as we headed up the mountain!

We hoped to find some blueberry patches so we'd know where to look when they're ripe in a few weeks, but no such luck.  The wildflowers were almost as fun!

Willow seemed to like the scenery, and enjoyed her mid-afternoon drink of fresh mountain water.

This is Summit Lake, aptly named as it is at the top of the pass.  Beautiful green waters, as seems to be the case everywhere in Alaska!

I can't wait until the blueberries are ripe and we get to head back - from what I hear, we'll be collecting more blueberries than we'll know what to do with!  Sounds like more jam to me!

Rainbows!

Our second drive back from Kenai was rainy, rainy, rainy.  However, the constant drizzle gave us the opportunity to see some of the most killer rainbows every time the sun peaked out between the clouds.  Every photo is a different rainbow - I couldn't believe how many I saw!  

Can you see the double rainbow???  Look close!

A Touristy Day in Pittsburgh

Karl's brother Jake, Jake's girlfriend Marcella, and Jake's daughter Emma, are staying with us for the next few days before the head out to Ligonier to spend the rest of their Pennsylvania trip with Emma's mom.  Marcella had never visited Pittsburgh before, and Jake had never seen much of the city even when he lived out in Ligonier a few years ago.  We set out to do some fun touristy things around Pittsburgh:

First, we hit Mt. Washington for the requisite shot overlooking the city.

Then we hopped on the Mon Incline and headed down to Station Square.

To finish our tour of the city, we did a quick boat ride on the Gateway Clipper.

Emma had a blast feeding the fish and ducks in the river some leftover popcorn. These fish were huge!

Marcella was impressed by the size of the city.  I guess Pittsburgh does seem pretty large when you're used to Anchorage!  It was also a great opportunity for me to do a few last things around town and get a photo or two to cheer me up when I'm feeling homesick in Alaska.