Sunday, March 18th

Well, tomorrow I head back to work. Spring break went so quickly! It just barely felt like a long weekend. Alas, only about 2 months til school is out for summer. Maybe I can survive til then. For those of you keeping up with our chance to break the snow record- we are now in 2nd place for snowiest season in Anchorage history. We have gotten 129.4 inches of snow and need 3.3 inches to break the record. Still think we have a pretty good shot at it. I know many of you have had very warm temps, even up into the 80s, while today we were ready to break out the bathing suits as we did get to 29! No real warm up in the forecast for the next ten days. As a matter of fact, over the next few nights the lows are going to get down to 5.

Didn't do a lot this weekend, Greg had to rest because he had some wisdom teeth removed. We did manage to get out this afternoon and take pictures of something other than just snow. We drove down the Seward highway stopping at Beluga Point and a few other places. It was a nice sunny but cold view of the inlet. Surprising, it wasn't that windy there. We just enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. Check out these ice blocks in the water. Some were as big as my car!

Monday, March 12

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Greg and I got out Thursday night to go view the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. It was a cold clear night so we headed out to the park. The brilliant full moon was reflected off all the snow on the ground. You could see to walk through the woods without a flashlight! It was beautiful. The Northern Lights showed up as wide green vertical streaks in the sky. They moved ever so slightly as you watched. Our photos didn't show them well so maybe we can get more pics later this week. We walked about a mile up and down the trail looking at the sky. It was only 6 degrees so we finally headed back to the car. This picture shows how we have to clean the parking lots here. Snow is back in our forecast for Wednesday night. Hope we break the record! We are currently still in third place for overall snowiest winter in Anchorage.

Today is my first day of spring break. This is what the city looks like from the library window! The snow plow had cleared the parking lot for these cars. You get an idea of how much snow has fallen by looking inside the fence. Check out the snow under the trees! It will be a mess when it does begin to thaw.

Iditarod Begins

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Friday night we could hear the dump trucks unloading the snow on our street. They were getting the street ready for the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Saturday morning. The ceremonial start begins in downtown Anchorage and ends eleven miles later in South Anchorage. We managed to get up and take a few pictures. The crowd seemed larger than last year despite the cold and snowy morning. Greg managed to get tons of photos with his new Canon Rebel T3! Unfortunately, the heavy snow interfered with shots of many of the well-known mushers. Here is last year's last winner- John Baker. He was the first Native Alaskan to win since 1976. These photos are of crowd-pleaser DeeDee Jonrowe. She holds the fastest time for any woman finishing the Iditarod. Maybe this year she will get her first victory. Two women have won the Iditarod- Susan Butcher won 4 times! DeeDee is a fierce competitor and true inspiration having survived a battle with breast cancer and being able to tackle such a harsh physical challenge. Here's the crowd favorite and probably most well-known musher, Lance Mackey. He is also a cancer survivor and has won 4 out of the last 5 years.

It has continued to snow and we now have 123.7 inches of snow for the season. This puts us in 3rd place for all-time snowiest on record for Anchorage. We are now 9.1 inches from breaking the record.