Where were you?

Today is September 11. I'm almost afraid to turn on my tv because I know that I will be inundated with footage of the horrible things that happened that day 9 years ago. I'm just not sure that is something I want to watch. It may be good for me to remember, but I just don't feel like being sad today. 

I remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. I was driving back to my morning class after spending the night at my sister's apartment. I was a sophomore in college and I was so glad that she had moved back to town for a while so I could have some family around. I had a class at 9 or so that day so I was driving back to my dorm room in my brother's old Ford Probe. I'd finally mastered the art of driving a stick shift that summer. I was listening to the radio and heard the special news report interrupt the music. I remember the dread, and fear, and uncertainty sink into the pit of my stomach like a stone. I remember that it was a gorgeous sunny day, just like it is today. I got back to my dorm room and watched the footage on tv with my roommate. It felt good to be in the company of another person and not alone in my car, dealing with the news by myself. We wondered whether we should go to class or not. We waited for them to cancel it. They didn't. I went to class, but I don't know which one it was. It felt weird to be going to class as if things were normal. Things were not normal. I came back and sat in front of the tv for the rest of the day. The one thing that sticks out most in my mind from that day was seeing the footage of people jumping from the burning towers. Choosing one method of death over another, because death was certain. 

 

It seemed things would never go back to normal again, but somehow time marches on and life returns to some form of normalcy. The fear slowly subsides. Apathy begins to take root. Emotions and memories fade.  Maybe I should turn my tv on today.

I remember where I was, where were you?

State Fair

We spent last Friday at the Alaska State Fair. I think it may have been the only sunny day during the whole span of the fair. We definitely lucked out on the weather. The first thing we did when we got there was go buy some tickets so the kids could go on some rides. It felt so strange. The kids have never really been big enough to go on rides before, certainly not rides by themselves anyway.

Princess Blondie wanted to ride on the carousel. Sonny Boy surprised me when he said that he would go on with her. Instead of picking horses to ride on they chose this thing. They spun themselves around until they were dizzy and feeling quite silly.

I love carousels. I just had to get a picture of the inside of this one.

Such pretty little horses, but then I noticed the tails.

These tails look suspiciously real to me. If those tails are made out of real horse hair, I may just have to change my mind about carousels.

Next  up was the big slide. This is definitely a classic fair ride.

Halfway down. Pigtails flying.

So serious. She's at the bottom and has yet to crack a smile. Turns out she wasn't a big fan of the big slide. She thought she was going to fly off when she went over the bumps.

Sonny Boy loved the slide. Big smile.

Still smiling....

And still smiling all the way down to the bottom. Now that is what your face should look like when you go down the big slide.

The next ride is one that I did not go on, nor did anyone else in my family. I don't know what it is called, but I like to call it 'the one that would make me vomit in my purse if I had to ride it.'

Now I want you to think of the flip books with the progressive drawings that we looked at as kids. Flip through the books quickly and the pictures would appear to move as if it were a cartoon. Now scroll down quickly through the next series of pictures.

See it? This is basically a ride with two giant hammers full of people swinging in opposite directions. I almost want to vomit just looking at it. I get queasy just swinging on swings with my kids. No lie. I'm pretty sure that this ride would do me in, and it wouldn't be pretty. The only thing that could possibly be worse would be the spinning teacups. Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I went on this ride when I was a kid. Now I'm just too old and queasy for such shenanigans.

Next up the kids picked a duck out of the water. The number on the bottom indicated that he won the small prize.

Princess Blondie also won the small prize.They never did say which number indicated the small, medium or large prize. Hmm.....I think I smell a scam.

More on the fair later. I think I've talked enough about scams and vomit for today.

Fowl weather friend

Well, hello there.

This is a fowl friend that we met at the state fair. We also saw the world's largest pumpkin, a ninety some odd pound cabbage, an elephant made out of produce, a lumberjack competition, and a man do a back flip from the back of one horse and land on the back of another. 

I thought I'd introduce you to this little fellow today. More about the fair to follow at a later date. Possibly tomorrow if I'm really on top of things. I'm on a roll this week.

First day: Round 3

Sonny Boy had his first day of school a few weeks ago. Princess Blondie started a week after that. Today it was finally my turn. I went to work for the first time in over 7 years today. 

The last job I had was as a waitress as at a mom and pop type restaurant that I had started when I was working my way through college. By the time it all came to an end I was pregnant with Sonny Boy. I quit a week before he was due. He ended up being ten days late. Perhaps I should have worked. Maybe I could have coaxed him out a little earlier.

So today I got to go back to school too, but this time I was the teacher. Last year I finished that college degree that I was using tip money to pay for so many years ago. I'm the lucky girl that has a pushy husband who tells her to do crazy things like finally finish college. I'm glad he did. He also keeps telling me that some day I'm going to get my masters degree and maybe more. I'm going to give that one a few years to sink in before I feel the need to work on it.

It was a wonderful first day. I have some fabulous little pipsqueaks in my class. As far as first days go it couldn't have gone better. Only one case of tears and that was because she got bubbles in her eye during a particularly rowdy bubble blowing session. All's well that ends well, I say. 

To top it all off, I work with the most wonderful people. I loved Princess Blondie's teachers last year and now I get to work with them. How much better can it be?

It's a mystery

Someone snuck off with my camera again.

I wonder who it could be?

Dad, can we keep him?

The other day  the kids and I spotted this cow and calf in the woods just off the edge of our back yard.

We spent a little while watching them, but they soon took off.

It wasn't until after they left that I noticed this little guy on the other side of the house.

He was all alone. I kept expecting to see another cow come out of hiding somewhere, but we never spotted her. I suppose he could have belonged with the other cow and calf, but he seemed to be by himself.

He came to the yard and then he saw us watching him from the window.

Then he was distracted by something shiny.

And then he turned his attention back to us.

And then he decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge.

This summer I've been really surprised by how sleek these animals are. I guess I just got so used to seeing them in their shaggy winter coats that I forgot that they might actually shed those in the summer like most animals do. Their summer coat really reminds me of horses.

And just look at that face? I just want to hug him and stroke his soft little muzzle. I won't though. Calves are definitely more skittish than adults and he would run off. Also, he may be little but I bet he could still take me. I've spent enough time around horses to know that one swift kick hurts like a son of a gun. If I'm going to get close to large animals that can cause bodily injury, I prefer that they be domesticated first. I'll stick with horses.

Wolves and sheep and bears, oh my!

I'm finally putting up some pictures from our second trip to Denali. We went back for a second visit when my in-laws came to visit us this summer.  The first night we went to Savage River again and the kids threw rocks in the water.

I seriously have to wonder how there are any rocks left. If there are 40,000 visitors a year here, and at least some of them love to throw rocks as much as my kids do, you have to wonder how the river has not filled up with rocks. I suppose rocks are the one thing that Alaska will never run out of. And the way that rivers change course from year to year probably makes this a moot point. The river will run a slightly different course next year anyway, so throwing a bunch of rocks in it really isn't going to do anything.

The last time we were at the Savage River there were areas marked off because birds were nesting. This time when we came back we got to see the babies. They were still cute and grey and fluffy. When they grow up they look like seagulls, but they are not. They are something else all together.

On a completely different note, how the heck do you spell grey? Every time I write grey, my spell check tells me I'm wrong and tells me it should be gray. I thought gray was a surname. Gray, as in Mr. Gray, and that grey is the color. I did what I do every time I am faced with life's tough choices. I googled it, and I found this link. This person also had the same question. As it happens, both spellings are correct, it just depends on which part of the world you happen to live. I like it when I can be right in two different ways.

On this trip to Denali we decided to take the bus tour. It really is the best way to see the park. In fact, it is the only way to see a majority of the park. The farthest you can drive is thirteen miles in. After that you have to be on a bus. After our bus trip, I have to say, it really is the best way. I can't imagine what it would be like if everyone drove. Umm... can you say traffic jam! Plus some of parts of the road are slightly perilous, as in, the edge of the rode is a cliff. I prefer to leave that kind of driving up to the professionals, thank you very much. 

We were lucky on our bus tour because we saw the trifecta of park animals, except that there are five, so would that be the quintfecta? The squiggly red spell checker line is telling me no, it is not a word, but I like it. In fact, it is also telling me that trifecta is not a word either, but I know it is. Google told me so.  Anyhow, we saw the big five: moose, caribou, bear, wolf, and dall sheep.

 The first thing we saw on this trip was a moose. She was far away and had her back to us so not terribly impressive. But, I also live in moose central station, so seeing one a hundred yards away is not a big deal to me anymore. The out-of-staters were more impressed by the moose's appearance.

The next thing we saw was a caribou from a million miles away. There was one guy on the bus who had an eagle's vision, because he was spotting animals all over the place that were a million miles away. Finally our driver said were weren't going to stop anymore unless they were a little closer to the bus. 

This photo was taken with the zoom all the way out to 40x, and this is still how small it was. The only think you can see is his rear end and his antlers. We went to a reindeer farm last summer and we got to feed the reindeer out of our hands, so I didn't feel too bad about not seeing this caribou up close. (Reindeer are in the caribou family, for those that don't know. Reindeer are also very tiny. Also, both males and females have antlers, only the males shed theirs first, so all of the reindeer that you see at Christmas time with antlers are actually females. Crazy, huh? I think Santa may need to change the names in his fleet.)

This is a glacier. It is that white line in between the two peaks.There are more glaciers in Alaska than anywhere else in the world.

Um... this is a mountain range. I'm really not sure if there is something in particular I was shooting here.

Next we came around a switch back and saw some Dall sheep.

This was an excellent view of them. Zoom in a little with my camera and I could get some pretty close shots. Normally, the only sighting you see of Dall sheep are little white dots on the side of a peak, so this was pretty amazing.

We went a little further and Mr. Eagle Vision saw a brown blob move a hundred million miles away.

It was a grizzly bear. Supposedly there were two cubs with her as well, but I couldn't see them. I just saw a brown blob move. I have to say, I'm glad that I saw this bear even though I have a very huge bear phobia (I prefer to think of my phobia as a very strong survival instinct). However, I was in the safety of the bus and it was a million miles away. I think I would have been disappointed if we hadn't seen one. I think.

We also saw a wolf. He/she (?) was running around near one of the rest areas. 

He sort of got stuck between the rest area, a river, and a road with buses stopped to look at him. He didn't quite know where to go. Eventually he found a spot to cross the river and went on his way.

On our way back we saw the same group of Dall sheep again.

Remember how I said that we had a great view of them before and people normally don't get that close to them? Well, buckle your seat belt, because we got the closest I believe anyone in history ever has.

They had moved from their perch and found a new place to rest, ON THE SHOULDER OF THE ROAD! I could have stepped off the bus and pet one, but they discourage that sort of behavior.

This guy was just across the road from his buddies, happily munching away at the grass and posing for us.

It couldn't have been any more perfect.

Here are the rest of their friends, resting a little further down the hill.

Sonny Boy conked out soon after the up close and personal visit with the Dall sheep and slept the rest of the way back to the visitor center. It was well worth the money, plus the kids were free, so you can't beat that.

The visitor center is really cool. I should have taken more pictures of it, but this is all that I took. They have some artwork displayed and this quilt was one of the pieces. Isn't it amazing? I just don't know how people can make things like that out of fabric.

Our next stop was at the dog kennels. The park still uses dog sled teams in the park. They are used to patrol the park in winter, plus break new trails and bring out supplies. There was a time when the dogs were replaced with snow machines, but it was discovered that dogs were much more reliable when it is 40 below. Also, the dogs leave a much smaller carbon foot print than snow machines.

The park wants people to pet all the dogs so that they get used to people and learn good manners. The dogs love it. The only rule is don't cross the ropes. If the dog is near the rope fence, they want to be petted. If they aren't, then they need a break. Oh, and if they jump up on you you have to push them down and tell them no. 

This one was a bit of an attention hog. He loved all the lovin' he was getting from my kiddos.

After you get a chance to pet all of the dogs, the rangers do a short demonstration with the dogs hooked up to a sled. Then they tell you a bit about the dogs and their role in the park and then they have a question and answer session. I loved the kennels. If you ever visit Denali, put this on your list of things to see.

In fact, put 'visit Denali' on your bucket list if you have one. You won't be disappointed. Just don't expect to see Dall sheep laying next to the road, because it won't happen. Just prepare yourself for little white specks on the side of a mountain.