The Worst Part of Alaska

There are many wonderful things about Alaska.  It's incredibly pretty everywhere.  There is tons of stuff to do, if you like the outdoors. But there are some downsides to the last frontier.  Stuff is much more expensive up here, it's far away from everything else.  But the worst thing....

We brought our bikes up here which has been a good thing.  We go on rides from time to time.  Here we are going on one.  We left about 8:30 pm.

Good thing babies don't mess up equilibrium.

We traded who had the camera somewhere along the ride.  I think this is near the end of the ride, a little after 9 PM

This is my cute wife that same day after we went out and did an install just relaxing before bed, around 11:30.

Noticing a pattern? IT NEVER GETS DARK! I knew this about Alaska, and I think most people are familiar with this fact about this large track of land, but dang it's hard to get used to once you actually start to experience it.

Ode to Fathers

An ode to fathers those selfless blokes
So full of answers and dumb, dumb jokes
With hands like iron and arms like beams
They teach us to avoid extremes
He crushes coal with a slab of rock
And you must jog to keep up with his walk
Can take out a jug from 500 yards
But better watch out for cheating at cards
Dads make the best bedtime snacks
But stand to the side while holding the axe
They make Christmas great with hunts and tall trees
They like smelly foods like duck and bleu cheese
With heroes like Clint, The Duke and The King
How could he not be the toughest cool thing
The best things in life I am and I have
All came from you being my dad.
         Happy Fathers Day!

Save the Boobs!

We have some friends that live up here in Alaska and last Saturday Vicky invited Katy to go on a walk-a-thon thing.  It wasn't to raise money, I don't think, but awareness.

  Katy is on the far left.  Next to her is Vicky Otte our friend.  And then some people I don't know and didn't meet.  I was moving all of our stuff into our new apartment.  But maybe I can guess.  That next girl looks like a Rebecca, then Maureen, Julie, Bambi and Denise.

You know if there was an awareness walk for testicular cancer and dudes showed up to walk in pink tu-tus there would be big problems. 

Kenai

Here in Alaska there are no huge cities.  Anchorage is the biggest being about 300 thousand people.  So to have more places to sell the reps have been traveling a lot.  They were up in Fairbanks for a few weeks and now there is a group of them down in Kenai.  The company won't ship equipment to 2 different locations for one office so that means I get to haul equipment all over Alaska when the traveling group runs out.  I really don't mind, yet.  The drive to Kenai is very pretty and it's only about 3 hours. 

And they have a nice big sign to welcome you, but it is kind of hard for pregnant ladies to climb up on.

Last week when we went to Kenai a rich customer had the entire group that is working down there over for a cookout.  Since we were around we too were invited.  These folks had a great view, and the food was fantabulous!

They had fried halibut that was so darn good (probably because of the beer and Bisquick).  They also had king crab legs, which I have to admit I don't care for.  It's not that I'm being picky, but they make me nauseous and the back of my mouth/through gets a little puffy when I eat it. Maybe an allergy?  Not only that but we had to fight these ones to the death.

This one almost got Kade, but Bear Grylls there helped him out.

Show that crab Kade!

Happy Memorial Day

Hooray for not working!  Here's a shout out to all my peeps who were working.  Thanks to all you techs who make it so I can just hang out.  Rock on!

We went up to a lake in Palmer, Alaska with our family friends the Ottes. We had some brats and then we went out on the lake in their canoe.

Even though I wasn't working, I sure got a lot of phone calls.  Jerks, ruining my picnic.

And away we went! Katy must smell funny because the bugs left her alone completely but I had a black cloud buzzing around my head the whole time.  I must have some tasty head orifices because I couldn't keep those nasty things out of my ears and nose.  And then you know how it is when you get bugs stuck in your beard. Tut tut. 

In a canoe there has to be at least one person rowing. More is preferable, but there has to be one at least to make any forward progress.  Out of these 2 pictures above who does it seem was doing all that progressing? 

And that there is an official US Marshals service tactical life vest.  We don't mess around in our canoeing adventures.

The epitome of futility

Have you ever had to do something that you knew was pointless?  Just pretend that you just spent $200 on fishing stuff.  You would have to go fishing right?  Forget the fact that it's too early for the fish to be running (maybe that's where I went wrong, I was by the river looking for swimming fish, not at the track looking for running fish), or that it's low tide so all the rivers around are just trickles, or even the fact that you don't really even have bait. You would have to go fishing right?  RIGHT?!

Good thing we are just pretending, otherwise a body could make his self look real dumb.

At least the beard looks good.  Tell me the beard looks good.

Behold Anchorage!

Since Jack was still up here naturally we had to go for a hike.  There is a hill they call Flat Top that is a nice easy hike that from the top you can see all of Anchorage.  You know how lots of big cities have smaller cities around them?  For instance you could say "Salt Lake" while actually referring to Holiday or Murray or Idaho Falls.  Anchorage is not like that.  Everything you see in the picture above is Anchorage.  We drove up to the trail head to start our wanderings.  One thing we really didn't expect was the snow.  

 

Seriously, who goes hiking mid May up a nice little hill and thinks to themselves, "hum, I should probably bring my crampons"?  Well we should have.  Nikes that you have had so long that what remains of the sole is a couple of holes and smooth rubber are not good footwear for uphill snow climbing.  They do make the return trip fun though! 

Except for all the slipping getting to the top wasn't too hard. It sure was a pretty view.

Since we only have "regular" cameras and not the Cannon XD 45679er our pictures aren't that of a celestial quality but right behind Jack's paws is Mount McKinley. You can kind of see it.  We could see it very well.

We had dinner plans so we had to get going.  Sliding down is much easier than sliding up.

Action Shot!

Isn't she bodacious!