Sunday, April 29th

A few nights ago, we decided to take a ride and drove to Potter Marsh. This wetland habitat is right out of town near south Anchorage. This is actually our first time to stop and stroll the boardwalk. It was a beautiful afternoon with temps in the upper 40s with a bit of a breeze. We thought we would have seen quite a few birds but they seemed a bit scarce that afternoon. We did see several geese and many more began to land as we were leaving for the evening. Greg also managed to spot a bald eagle perched in a tree. He was scanning the marsh for a meal. We mainly just walked around and enjoyed the beautiful mountains and incredible scenery all around us. Greg had the studded tires changed off the car yesterday, don't think we'll need them anymore. They must be off the car by May 1st or you pay a fine. We are up to 16 hours of sunlight now!

Wednesday, April 18

They say when the geese return to Anchorage that spring is here. Well, they are here. We got these photos on the little lake behind the library. There were quite a few ducks, gulls, and geese enjoying the partially frozen lake. As you will notice, there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground in some areas. The meteorologist predicted that all the snow will be gone by May 2nd. Of course, the day he announced that we still had approximately 22 inches of snow covering the ground. The lengthening days have helped to melt this snow. The sun now rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins to set about 9:30 p.m. It is still light outside until after 10 o'clock. We went out Saturday night to our friend Julie's home in Chugiak. There was still quite a bit more snow in the upper elevation where she lives. We actually had to park at the end of her driveway because my little car wouldn't make it up the incline to her home. We still have the studded tires on the car but must get them off by May 1st. They didn't do us any good that night on the slush-covered, ice-packed pavement. The meal was worth walking a bit. We enjoyed grilled burgers, bratwursts, and hot dogs. We sure enjoyed it and will hopefully do it again soon.

Easter Sunday, April 8th

Remember to click on the pictures to make them larger.
As our chances seemed to be getting lower and lower after having little to no snow for the last 3 weeks, we broke the snow record! From Friday at midnight until Saturday afternoon, it snowed steadily and we ended up with over 4 inches of snow. This gave us 134.5 inches of snow for this season. That's 11 feet 2 1/2 inches of snow. Wow! This new total surpassed the old record, which reigned for 57 years, by 2 inches. So, hopefully, this will be the last blog entry featuring snow pictures for awhile! We haven't done much in the last few weeks because Greg has been recovering after having 3 more wisdom teeth cut out. It was quite the surgery and he missed 2 days of work even after resting a whole weekend. I have been trying to keep up with the work in my Master's classes. Thankfully, I'm down to one more month of these classes. As you can tell from the photos, the ground is still covered in snow even though spring is officially here. I've seen one patch of brown grass so far. For the last few weeks we have been getting into the upper 30s and low 40s for highs during the day. I think most everyone in Anchorage is ready for this winter to end. We do have some exciting summer plans so stay tuned for some interesting pictures.