It's been a pretty eventful 3-4 weeks since we last posted any of our adventures.  Now that spring is here and summer is right around the corner there are a few more things going on and tales to tell.

First off - last night just before 10:00 PM we had another earthquake.  5.4 on the Richter scale.  Lasted for 10-15 seconds here.  It was centered up by Denali about 82 miles deep.  Wasn't anything like the 7.2 we had some time ago, but everything sure comes to a stop when it happens.  Kinda freaky!

Over the last 2-3 weeks we have begun walking again.  Anchorage has over 200 miles of bike/ski/walking paths all around and through the city.  We started on them last year so we are looking for new sections that we haven't walked yet.  During our walks we also do a little bird watching. (Which tends to break up the actual exercise, but you we're willing to make the sacrifice.)  Although we are seeing/hearing more of the "little brown birds" these days, they are just too quick to get much in the way of pictures.  Here are a few shots, of birds and the area, from our walks.

Conner Lake - not far from the mission office.  Just another one of the lakes, streams, lagoons, ponds, waterways or bogs within the city limits of Anchorage.  I took this shot mostly for the colors in the picture.

A Spotted Sandpiper on the edge of Conner Lake.

A shot of the downtown area from Earthquake Park.  The water is the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet.

Earthquake Park is near the International Airport and the Lake Hood Floatplane Base.  This is just one of the "birds" we saw while we were there.

While at Earthquake Park we were called by a couple of the elders who had locked themselves out of their apartment.  Since the Housing Coordinator was out of town, we went to the office, got the extra key, went to their apartment and let them in.  While there, we saw several swallows around and snapped a pic of this one.  We think he is a Northern Rough-winged Swallow but we're not positive.  And hey, we can birdwatch under any circumstances!

 

A Black-capped Chickadee seen in the trees at the pond just down the street from our apartment.

A female Mallard Duck.  We were walking near the waterway in another park and this duck was walking along the railing of the bridge.  She was pretty tame and allowed me to get quite close.  You can tell by the look in her eye, though, that she wasn't going to take any guff.

Last Sunday we went with the Mayhues down to Beluga Point on the Turnagain Arm to watch the bore tide come in.  If you've never heard of a bore tide, and we certainly hadn't, it is a tide that enters a shallow, narrowing waterway.  Instead of just gradually raising the level of the water, it tends to build up a "wall" of incoming water.  They apparently can be quite tall, but the one we saw wasn't that much to see.  If you go to this website you can see it better than our pictures would show (it was raining and windy) and there's good information about bore tides in general.  http://www.alaska.org/advice/alaska-bore-tide.  The video is really close to what we saw, including the turbulence and eddies near the shore.  It was taken from a location near where we were.

For 20 years of so, every year, on the first Saturday in May, President LaVoie and his wife (who now both work in the mission office in addition to him being the 2nd Counselor in the mission) take an ATV trip from Palmer up to the Knik Glacier.  It is about 25 miles in and 25 miles out and this year the LaVoies invited the other senior missionaries to go with them.  

So, at about 9:00 AM on Saturday, May 7th we embarked on the adventure.  Sister Taylor and Sister Lavoie weren't feeling well, so they missed out, but altogether there were ten of us from the mission who went plus some other members of the church that are part of this yearly excursion with the LaVoies.  Pres. LaVoie led the way in his 6-wheel Ranger (with a couple of passengers) and the rest of us followed along on some rented ATVs.  It was quite an experience.  I was only sore for a couple of days afterward, but when I say sore, I mean every muscle in my body. Part of the ride was extremely bumpy where the ground had washboarded and was covered with large rocks.  My phone has an app on it that shows how many steps I take in a day.  It showed 18,669 steps!!  That means I hit 18,669 bumps!  Everyone who went also ended up very dirty from the dust and mud.  Afterward we all went over to the LaVoies and had dinner.  It was quite a day and quite an experience for someone like me who has never ridden an ATV!

That light blue area to the left of center is the glacier.  Unfortunately, this nice flat sandy area was only a small part of the trek.  The rest of it was over rocks, through woods and through streams and mud holes.

As I was pretty busy trying to learn how to ride an ATV and keep up with everyone else, I didn't get the chance to take as many pictures as I would have liked.  Here are a couple of the sights we saw along the way.

 When we got to the glacier we stopped and had lunch before heading back.  The next three pictures are of the glacier and surrounding mountains.  They go from right to left across the area.

You can see the river of ice that is the Knik Glacier as it works its way down from the mountains to where it piles up along the berm we were stopped on.

Just to the left of the first picture.

And to the left once more.

A little closer picture of the ice field and mountains across the way.  This would be a close up of the second photo above.

One of the larger chunks of ice  in the ice field.  One of our company was told that to be a real Alaskan you had to wash your face in the glacier water.  When he tried to get down to the water there in front, the gravel slipped and he went in up to his chest.  Said it was a wee bit cold!  Luckily, Pres. LaVoie was prepared for all eventualities and had some dry clothing with him.

Yours truly caught by Elder Mayhue as I drove down the berm to the glacier.  The thing you don't get from the picture is that the incline was very steep. (for the inexperienced)  I felt like I was going to go over on my nose.  Aaggghhh!

The group stopped for lunch at the glacier.

 

Our group - from left to right - Elder Taylor, the Saunders, the Mayhues, Pres. & Sister Lambertsen (1st Counselor), the Lunds and Pres. LaVoie.  Note that Pres. LaVoie is the only one wearing waders.

On our way out, we worked our way around to the right where the Knik River flows from the Glacier down toward Palmer and the Knik Arm.  We stopped to take a couple of pictures and saw these two airboats.

On our way back out, the Mayhues and I got separated from the others in the group, somehow missed the rendezvous point and became a little lost.  The trail we were on got worse and worse until we got one of our rigs stuck. (not mine!)  Some more experienced and better equipped Alaskans came by, pulled us out and offered to let us follow them on to the trailhead/parking lot.  Unfortunately, we got separated from them, too, before we got all the way out.
 

I got separated from the Mayhues but managed to find my way out,  I turned out to be the first one out as the rest of the group was looking for us.  I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but the mud comes up almost to the seat on my ATV.  Fortunately, I managed to keep fairly dry, only sticking my left foot into the muddy water only once.

The Mayhues, arriving a few minutes later.

The leader (and instigator) of the expedition, Pres. LaVoie.  We all were about this dirty from the dust, etc., but Pres. LaVoie also LOVES mud puddles and the water.  If you ride with him, or near him, you've got to be prepared!

So... That's the name of that tune for now.  We are looking forward to visiting Valdez this coming weekend, having Jonathon come visit us in a couple of weeks and having Ralph & Dixie visit us in June.  More to come!!!

As I mentioned in the last post, spring is here!  Or "break-up," as it is called here in Alaska.  Unfortunately, there's not much to break-up this year.  This last winter was quite mild.  Didn't really qualify for an Alaskan winter, at least here in Anchorage.

But the trees are leafing out, the moose are enjoying all the new buds on the trees and bushes, the snow and ice are about gone, the temperatures have been in the upper 50's for the last several days and the birds are returning!  Not too many little brown birds, yet, but we're seeing the waterfowl returning in breeding pairs, making nests and generally getting ready for family-time.  This post is specifically for the birders among us.  The rest of you can either enjoy the pictures or be bored and return another day.

Here are a few photos we've been able to get over the last few days.

Northern Pintail pair

Northern Pintail male

Tundra Swan

Northern Shoveler male

Northern Shoveler pair

Northern Shoveler male

Green-winged Teal male

Barrow's Goldeneye pair

Barrow's Goldeneye male

Common Merganser pair (male left, female right)

 

Same again

Gadwall male

Greater Scaup male

Some of these we've seen before, some are new to us.  We've also seen our first Sandhill Crane for the year, magpies, black-capped Chickadees, eagles and ravens - the usual.  We're looking forward to seeing a bunch of new birds this year as they migrate in for the breeding season!  We'll share as we see them.

Long time coming, I know, but hey, some of us actually have responsibilities, duties to perform.  We can't be out playing all the time.

I promised some photos, etc., of our trip to Fairbanks for the Ice Festival.  We flew up to Fairbanks with a couple of the other office couples and had a great time together.  We left on Friday afternoon and came back after attending church with some of the missionaries on Sunday.  While we were there we stayed in a really nice Bed & Breakfast called the Moose Manor.

On Saturday we went to the Ice Sculpture Contest after a late, leisurely breakfast.  The best way to experience the Contest is to go during the day, take what pictures you can, and then return after dark to get pictures of the sculptures all lit up.  Unfortunately, it is not easy to get good pictures of everything unless you have some awesome photo equipment and more skill than I have.  So I have posted some of the best ones and you'll just have to use your imagination.

This is the pond where they harvest the big blocks of ice, purportedly the best in the world for sculpting.
Our young missionaries get to help with this every year.

This prehistoric fish is about 6-7 feet tall and 10-12 feet long.  Like most of the sculptures, it is incredibly detailed.
Check those teeth!

This sculpture is about 6 feet high.  The dandelion head is a ball with all the seeds individually carved in place.

Sister Taylor next to a gymnast(?)

This is part of a sculpture of a dragon and a sea monster fighting each other.  That fire coming out of his mouth is actually connected to the sea monster.  Look how intricate the texture is on his skin and wings.

This Monkey God is on a life-size elephant.

One of my favorites.  A fairy or angel chained to the earth.  Probably about 12 feet high.

One of the largest sculptures.  This thing is massive, somewhere in the neighborhood of two stories high.  You can see where they have joined numerous blocks together.  The Buddha was carved separately and put into place with a crane.

All of these sculptures are placed around the edge of a large area where they have numerous ice sculptures that are designed as an ice playground for kids and adults alike.  There are mazes, igloos, slides, and the like with a Warming Hut where you can get in out of the cold for a bit and get some hot chocolate and food.

While warming in the hut we met this girl.  She consented to our taking a picture of her hat.  Only in Alaska!  Yes, it's the real thing.  On the screen behind her they were showing videos of the actual work on the sculptures.  Pretty neat stuff!

One of the things not available in the Warming Hut were restrooms.  But they did, indeed, have outdoor restrooms and each had a little heater in it.

Our Mission Secretary, Sister Mayhue.

Our Vehicle Coordinator, Elder Weston, in one of several race cars they had lined up there.

Ssiter Taylor in one of the open mazes.  You can see a couple of the smaller ice slides in the background.  Check the videos for the big one.

A maze you had to crawl through unless you were really little.

This little ice-block basket kinda thing was just laying around for anyone to use.  

We saw several families and tourists twirling their kids and friends.

After checking everything out in the daylight, we split up for the afternoon, the sisters going to the museum at the local university and the elders going to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum. Guess where we got pictures!

The Auto Museum was really awesome!  They had 70 automobiles, all American, all pre-WWII, starting in 1898.  All but three of the cars were ready to be driven off the floor, including the oldest.  They had the cars all arranged more or less chronologically and had period clothing arranged among them on mannequins.  The sisters were sorry they didn't come.  Here are a few of the pictures I took.

Check that Grill!!!

1911 Ford Cab Depot Hack.  

Any self-respecting auto museum has to have a Stanley Steamer.

Like that top?  Don't know exactly how well it'd do in the wind... or the rain... or even the sunshine.

Gotta love a 1936 Cord with rumble seat

One of my favorites - a Hupmobile!

Three-wheeler.  Steer it with that rudder, kinda like a boat.

One of the three that didn't run, a 1910 Hudson.  This one is for my friend Dennis.
He used to own a Hudson, just not quite like this one.

1917 Ford Model T Snow Flyer.  This is Alaska!

All of these vehicles were not for touching, of course.  All but this one.  They had the period clothing for men and women and you could take your picture in the car.  This is Elder Weston (Vehicle Coordinator) and Elder Mayhue (Housing Coordinator) on their way to do vehicle and apartment inspections.  Left a couple of days ago.  Should be there in a week or two.

Okay, then after dinner and a little downtime we went back to the Ice Festival.  A few photos of the lighted sculptures.

It was COLD!!

If you can't tell, the seahorse's body is hollow.

The prehistoric fish from a different angle and lights.

A little "Beauty and the Beast."  The rose was inside that solid ice dome.

The little girl's dandelion with lights.

You didn't expect me to pass this up, did you?  That cello was only about 10 feet high.  Note the music.

Cinderella.  Sorry you can't see all the detail that went into this sculpture.  It was pretty incredible

Another dragon.

Well, that's it for the Ice Festival.  It was a great weekend.  We even got to see some northern lights while we were there, but they were pretty minimal.  That may have been our last opportunity to see some.  Heck of a thing to go to Alaska and not see the northern lights.

It's spring here.  The snow is gone (except for an occasional gravel-covered pile in some parking lot) and the trees are starting to bud out.  The days are getting longer really fast.  It's getting hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

The other day we walked around a small lake here in the city and took some photos of birds.  These are Red-necked Grebes.

Raucous bunch, aren't they?

That's it for now.  We love you all and are beginning to look forward to the day when we get to see you again and give you great big hugs.