Last Sail of the Season

We pulled the boat out of the water and towed it back home on Sunday. Luck was on our side in the weather department as we had a beautiful Saturday afternoon sail down to Thumb Cove, which is about midway down Resurrection Bay in Seward. Our friends own the same sailboat as we do so I had the opportunity to take a few pictures of the MacGregor sailing on the water. Thumb Cove

After spending the afternoon on the water, Bryant and I mountain biked part way up Lost Lake Trail just outside of Seward. The trail was almost ideal, gradual uphill, not too many rocks or roots, great views but I say almost ideal because it was extremely exposed in places. By exposed I mean, if you were to tip over sideways, you're tumbling into a steep ravine never to be seen again and the best case scenario is being left dangling by the string of your spandex bike shorts in an alder tree with a couple of broken bones. This potential, but most unlikely situation, leaves me feel slightly ill at ease when heading downhill, so I tend to ride the brake a little more than usual. Resurrection Bay from Lost Lake Trail

After an almost successful downhill (Bryant had an unfortunate encounter with hikers that resulted in a deep blue bruise on his side), we headed into town to meet our friends for pizza and a bonfire on the beach.

On Sunday while strolling the docks, I paid particular attention to the boat names. While it is not unusual to see popular boat names like Odyssey, Luna Sea, or Escape and old fashion boat names like Nora Jane and Barbara Jean, there are still an overwhelming amount of boats that only people who live in Alaska or a northern region like Alaska would name their boat.I started snapping pictures of all these place appropriate names and decided to start a collection, which will have to continue next year as I won't be in any of the other harbors around the state for about 7 months. For my beginning slideshow collection of Alaskan Boat Names click: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/AlaskanBoatNames

For more pictures from Last Sail of the Season: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/LastSailingTripOfTheSeason

Functional Cabin

On Sunday, Bryant and I finished the last step toward making the cabin functional for winter activities. We painted the OSB on the floor. While we still have to do the inside trim, paint the outside trim, put in some type of cooking area and a few other odds and ends that could take years, none of these jobs interfere with our ability to use it this winter. In between coats of paint, Bryant sighted in his new gun. Surprise, surprise, I decided to take a few more pictures of fall. Sphagnum moss bog

Highbush cranberries

Denali (Mt. McKinley) viewed from South Big Lake Rd. on the drive out to the property

Falling into Winter

It's that time of year again, yellow cottonwood and birch along with a some lower scrubby bushes and fireweed stalks that turn red. It is definitely not the Midwest/Northeast fall color show, but we are well aware that the season has changed, shorter days, snow on the higher peaks, cooler and darker mornings, but we are still awaiting our first frost. The colors peaked this past weekend and after a few more days of the wind like we are getting today, I suspect we will be down to bare trees before long.

Most of the summer and fall, we've been successful in our goal of getting on our bikes on a regular basis. Nothing long or furious just turning the pedals for a little bit of exercise after work. When we left today, I promised Bryant I wouldn't bring the camera. However, I did get in a few clicks from yesterday's ride.

Silvers - Part II

Well, we still aren't slaying the silvers especially considering the time we've been putting on the water, but we are catching a few. This weekend we ended up with 6. Two Saturday - Bryant was the lucky fisherman

Two on Sunday - Gus had a turn.

Then, I caught a little one.

And two on Monday . . . .

We were on the water by 8:00 a.m., but didn't catch our first fish until 10:30 a.m. So much for those who believe silvers bite early and in cloudy weather. It was both!I can't complain about Monday's clouds because most of Saturday and all day Sunday were absolutely gorgeous. After we finished fishing on Sunday morning, Bryant and I decided to hike up above treeline on Mt. Marathon, which turned out to be about 1800 feet above sea level. The views were phenomenal!

For more pictures from the weekend: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/LaborDayWeekendSewardAlaska?authkey=Gv1sRgCMTkmsL9-5iCjAE#

Alaska State Fair

540 lb. pumpkin

It was actually enjoyable this year. I spent most of the day there with my 2nd grade class on a "Barn Safari" field trip, and since it was an all day admission, I decided to meet the kids later on that day. For once, I wasn't dodging crowds of people. My two favorite sections are the the big vegetables and the fried potatoes chip/zucchini /onion ring food booth.