Sunday, September 30th

We haven't been doing much lately. As now my Master's classes are taking up most of all my free time, and then some. The wet summer has carried on into fall. We have had many rainy days lately. This past Friday night, September 28th, we got an early treat. SNOW!

It had been raining most of the evening. As we looked outside around 10, the rain had changed to big wet snowflakes.The snow carried for most of the night. When I got up Saturday morning, I saw nearby homes' roofs still covered in snow.

 There was a bit of accumulation on cars and even some still on the ground.














The streets were clear.











The official snow was measured at 0.2" at the airport.


However, on the hillside they received as much as 7 inches! Since the snow didn't accumulate Friday night, Saturday, September 29th, will be the official first snowfall of the season. Hope this is not a sign of things to come. Ths is over a month earlier than last year's first snow. Hopefully, next weekend we will be able to get out of town for a few days on our anniversary trip. If the weather cooperates, of course.

Monday, September 10, 2012

We woke up this morning to the first frost of the year! Fall is most definitely here. In fact, you can see the termination dust on the mountains here in Anchorage.

Termination dust is the term given to the early snow in the higher elevations of the mountains. This snow terminates the growth of the vegetation.

Although here in town the days have been sunny and reaching mid 60s by the afternoon- perfect fall weather. Last Tuesday night, however, we had a huge windstorm that swept through the Anchorage bowl.

Winds were clocked at hurricane force levels in many areas.












These winds caused a lot of damage throughout the city.












Trees were uprooted in part from the wet summer combined with the high winds.













It was so bad that school was cancelled on Wednesday. As of Sunday night several areas were still without power.

Most everyone in the city was affected in some way or another by the windstorm.


As you can see by the picture, we were also affected!

It took Greg 3 whole minutes to tidy the balcony!!

Labor Day Weekend

 As you can tell by this picture, the geese are heading south.














We know winter is right around the corner. With that in mind, we decided to get away for the day on Sunday. We had thought about going away for the whole weekend, but as rooms were either filled or costs as much as a house payment, this would have to make do.



We decided to head down to the historic mining town of Hope.

 It is about an hour and a half south of Anchorage. Hope was another Alaska gold mining boom town in the early 1900s.

 In its heyday, there were around 3,000 people living there. There are still several of the original buildings to see, such as this social hall from 1902.

A couple of shops












                                                                                        and cafes

are here to tempt you.










A few of the old homes are still in use today.

This town is situated about 16 miles off the Seward Highway.

It sits along the Cook Inlet.








 Here is Greg making use of the fish cleaning station on a small stream.

 We walked around a bit but a combination of the continuous rain and hordes of mosquitoes forced our eventual retreat to the car. After a delightful afternoon in this small town, we headed home.