Our neighborhood

So far, we have posted our family adventures in south-central Alaska. So where do we spend most of our time? Our house is in the geographic center of Anchorage. We live in a working class neighborhood that is surrounded by a fairly commercial area of the city. Although we are in the middle of all of this development we still enjoy glimpses of wild Alaska. When we look down our street we enjoy views of the beautiful Chugach Mountains. Once the leaves all fall from the trees, which will probably only take another week or so, we will be able to see the mountains out of our east facing windows.The Campbell Creek Trail is a green-belt that runs through the city and is about a block from our house. It is a refreshing alternative to the automobile-centered design of our surroundings. We will go for a bike ride or scooter ride several times a week. This past Thursday Jackson, Asa and I (Jerry) were heading home after a bike ride about a block from our house when a juvenile moose and its mother came up from the creekside trail, ran out onto the road, and started heading right for us! In a startled voice I told the boys to keep to the right and let them pass. Jackson, who was about 30 feet behind Asa and I, watched in amazement as they ran by him and then yelled "I just saw a MOOOOSE!"

We have a small fenced-in back yard that allows the boys to horse around and get rid of some of their boundless energy. Yesterday they discovered the fun that a pile of leaves contains. They also have made friends with two neighbor kids that are close to their ages. The neighbors have a trampoline in their back yard which never gets old. Jackson and Asa love to hear the kids calling from their driveway "Jackson...Asa..." to see if they can come out to play.

Eklutna Lake - Sept 16

A short drive from Anchorage, Eklutna Lake is a nice place for a family day trip. The fall colors were in full swing, but there were a few clouds around that hid some of the taller peaks. The bike/hiking trail that follows the shoreline rolls gently enough that we were able to ride our current family average of 4 miles (round trip). I don't know if we will ever go the entire 13 miles to the end of the lake. But if we did there is a waterfall and a glacier to be seen. This glacier and its lake are the source for the Anchorage Public Water supply. They actually truck the water from the water plant to be bottled and sold as "Glacier Water".

The boys' favorite part about the trip...THE PUDDLES!

Geocaching with Travis - Sept 14

One of the latest activities that we have been having fun with is geocaching or "treasure hunting" as the boys like to call it. For those of you unfamiliar with this new term it involves using a GPS to find caches (posted on www.geocaching.com) that have been hidden by some other fanatical geocacher (don't you just love these newly fabricated words). Once you find the little waterproof case you open it, sign the log inside, and leave a little trinket/take a little trinket. The kids love it!

Our good friend Travis Fraser was traveling through Anchorage on his way to a fishing weekend with his buddies. Knowing he enjoys this new "sport" I took him and the boys to the Glen Alps area with my GPS and a couple of cache coordinates. Jackson and Asa loved holding the GPS and following the red arrow while watching the distance to the cache get shorter and shorter. When we finally reached the bridge we hunted for the little cache box for about ten minutes. Finally, success! As you can see it was a beautiful fall day in the Chugach Mountains.

Winner Creek Hike

At the suggestion of a local we took the boys on a hike called Winner Creek at the Alyeska Ski Resort near Girdwood. It was a winner! The round trip was a little over four miles (our current distance limit on most adventures with the boys). The hike was a rolling, well groomed trail through the temperate rain forest that led to a beautiful gorge with a hand tram fixed across it. Jackson did great crossing the gorge with dad although he shows signs of a mild fear of heights. Asa was all for it, saying "cool" and "awesome" the whole way across with mom. We made lots of stops for looking at the mushrooms which were in their glory. Asa even found a purple, yes purple, one.

Local Rides

I looked up a local bike club called the Arctic Bike Club who organizes all different kinds of rides (racing, touring, MTB, Road).This past Tuesday I went on a local park ride and a mountain ride last Saturday in Chugach State Park. The ride today was a 2 hour singletrack ride in a park called the Campbell Track. Lots of roots and some cruzey trails in the woods. It was a good workout.

Here’s more details about the Saturday ride…there were about 12 guys in the group. It was obvious from the group leader’s description that it was a difficult trail. When I surveyed the group I had some doubts about the riders’ skill levels, but, hey, it’s Alaska, right? The stock boy in the grocery store probably runs marathons.

I have included some pictures and a map so you get a feel for the lay of the land. We started out from a parking area (2200 ft) heading up a gradual incline in a u-shaped valley toward what was referred to as Powerline Pass and also Indian Pass (3600 ft), so I don’t really know the official name. There was a mountain-bike race following this same route so we were passed by about a half dozen riders. Our group was a little strung out on this section and the leader forgot his biking shoes. He went back home to get them while we started the ride. We regrouped (without a leader!) about mid-valley and headed for the pass. There were some in our group already straggling. I hung with a guy named Stephen who knew the trail well and was a good rider. There were some important choices to be made about how to get over the pass. About five of us made it to the top and waited for a couple of others. It was gorgeous. There were two guys who decided to go the “pay me later” route which was a sheer climb up very loose gravel. Now the leader showed up and offered no real help for the bikers-now-climbers. We waited about 40 minutes and could take it no longer… Stephen and I went down the sheer gravel and carried the one biker-now-climber's bike up to the saddle.

The leader then explains to the group that trail will now become more difficult! It was going to get steep as the powerline drops back down to sea level… so steep that your rotors will turn blue from the extreme heat. He wasn’t kidding! I washed out around a switchback and went tumbling once, but other than a big, bouldered stream crossing I made it down…blue rotors and all…without much trouble. I passed a bunch of guys in the group walking down the steep scree, but I thought someone was ahead of me. I chose to stay on the power-line all the way to the Seward highway. I popped out at a little town called Indian over looking the Turnagain Arm only to find no one down there. About 5 minutes later Stephen comes out to the highway and says the rest of the group was walking and wouldn’t be down for while. The kicker was that the group was planning to ride 14 miles back to Anchorage after all of this!

Luckily, Stephen had a car parked in Bird because his wife did a road ride from Bird to Girdwood that morning. We hopped in his car, picked up his wife, and headed back to town. Of course passed the group starting out on the highway and let them know we were not lost.

Trip to Seward...Sept 1

Amy and the boys went on a tour of Kenai Fjords National Park and I went on a halibut fishing charter. Our good friends Travis and Karina hooked us up with Katrina's parents who live there in Seward (our favorite town in Alaska, thus far) and her dad is a captain of a big, 290 passenger tour boat. So, Amy and the boys got to see just an amazing amount of wildlife - otters, puffins, humpback whale, orca, sea lions, black bear - as well as the calving glaciers. I think she took 200 pictures! Her favorite shot is the whale tale.

This was one of the last weekends for the tours and fishing folks. All of the wildlife is in the exit mode as the snow will fly in just four to six weeks. The fishing boat I was on was a 40 footer with 16 fishermen, a captain and a mate (Katrina's sister, Jessica!). The fishing was a lot of fun. We ran 3 hours to the western opening of Prince William Sound to find the halibut that were scattering to follow food sources. We were catching something nearly all day long - 10 to 15 pound halibut were normal, a ling cod now and then, some rock cod, a sliver salmon and a whole bunch of dog fish. We were all hoping for that big 100+ pound halibut to hook on, but according to the captain it's too late in the season to predict where they will be. I was happy with all the action. By the end of the day, pulling a 10 pound "chicken" (young halibut) up from 150 feet feels like you are pulling up a truck tire. Everyone on board limited out on the halibut (2 per).

Alaska Arrival...Aug 14

First of all, we want to say what an incredible send off we had from Lincoln City. We were able to enjoy eating out and saying farewell to friends all week before moving day. The actual packing day was so smooth…the best we’ve ever experienced. The best thing, though, was the overall feeling of love that we received from our Christian brothers and sisters there that day who sent us with their blessings. We’ll always treasure that. Thank you.

Jerry and Ken Snyder (friend from Drift Creek Camp) left Portland on Friday around 11am. Ken’s wife Mabel came along with the boys and I. We flew out of Portland on Saturday. The hospital provided us with a suite hotel room for the week and a rental car. The place was wonderful and Jackson and Asa swam in the pool sometimes as much as 3 times a day! The hotel had breakfast and dinner, which was so great. We had our own little kitchen for lunches. My job was to find a place for us to live in preferably before Jerry arrived with the truck. That was a hard and overwhelming task at times. I didn’t have a cell phone, so making appointments, etc. was challenging. I worked off of Craigslist, the local paper and through a real estate agent who is the mother-in-law of my 2^nd cousin in Anchorage! We went to see 3 properties for rent on Saturday afternoon and I felt a little like Goldilocks…only none of them was just right. The prices here are high, but once I got over that, I was looking for the best place for the kids, etc. To rent a house would have been nice, but it would have cost us a lot more in utilities, yard work, snow removal, etc. than a townhouse. On Sunday morning we went to see another property before attending church. It was great inside, but no place for the kids to play. The sermon was about not worrying and Mabel said she was so glad we had gone to church there that morning (Prince of Peace Mennonite Fellowship). Anyway, that afternoon I called another place on my list and didn’t take the boys or Mabel along. They were growing pretty weary of house-hunting. This place was the one! It was not that the outside was that desirable, but the place had tons of closets…so many that I wasn’t sure where I was going to hang my tons of pictures! The landlord lives next door and I felt really good about him. It’s a duplex that shares a back yard and they have lots of vegetables growing and raspberry bushes line both sides of the house. I left there feeling very peaceful. I took the boys and Mabel the next morning and when they saw the “garden house” they begged to live there. So I paid the deposit. Job done. We are directly in the geographic middle of Anchorage and we are 4-7 minutes from my work, the airport, the mall, REI (Jerry’s thrilled), the library, Cosco, etc. It’s a great location. I also really was interested in the duplex because it is less than 2 blocks from an entrance to a paved bike path. There are over 120 miles of paved bike paths in Anchorage and in the winter they become groomed cross country ski paths. So that was a plus.

Jerry arrived by 1pm on Tuesday, so it took them 4 days. They were tired but happy to be here. They saw moose, bear, and coyotes on the way and beautiful mountains. The penny jar that was in the back of the Jeep got smashed from the very bumpy roads and Mabel spent quite a bit of time cleaning out glass and pennies! Also, someone tried to steal the bikes from the back of the Jeep (that was on a car trailer) while they were stopped somewhere in the Yukon and since they didn’t realize this, they drove down the road with a loose rack. The bikes really bounced on the rough roads and actually caused the back door of the Jeep to bend out. When Jerry got to Anchorage, he called an auto parts junk yard and they had a red Jeep door to replace his! He said he had asked God to just take care of it and let them have a red one. God is good. It’s funny how He is there all the time but we lean on Him so much when we’re tired, weary and moving to ALASKA!!

Our first impressions of Anchorage are very good. People are very nice and helpful. There are many different ethnic people here and it seems like everyone coexists well. The trails are incredible, as are the mountains that peer down at us. Asa spent the first few days saying that he hates Alaska, but since we have completely moved in and been able to get him outdoors and have a playdate with some kids from church, he now says that Alaska is great. The boys have done remarkably well. They were pushed aside for at least 3 weeks and they are bouncing back.

I begin work on Monday and Jerry will start school for the boys then. We will share the teaching once I start working evening shift. Unknown to me, Alaska is a fantastic place to homeschool. You enroll in a school district, meet with a teacher and the kids are tested yearly. They reimburse your curriculum costs and with the extra money you are allotted, you can pay for music lessons, sports or classes (gymnastics, etc) or have use of a computer, which is yours for $1 after 4 years. I spoke to one lady who says she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it doesn’t! They even take the kids on field trips and arrange for picnics, etc. There is a lot of money here from the oil proceeds and you can see it in all the services and stores that are here.

Tomorrow we head to the state fair to see the giant cabbages. We’re also going to try to pick some wild blueberries. You are warned to scan the hillside for bears before you begin picking…right out of “Blueberries for Sal!”

We miss all of you! Sometimes I am lonely and miss everything familiar, so Jerry quickly takes the family on a hike or bike ride and that helps to lift my spirits. It will be good to continue meeting people and find a church. We look forward to having guests. I used to think that summer was the only good time to visit Anchorage, but the way they talk about winter here and all the activities, I think that is equally good!