Weekend in Anchorage

The plumbing contractors finished on Thursday, January 22 and that's when the real work for me started. They did an excellent job. I have water and I have heat. 'Nuf said. I was stressing over how much I had to do, since I couldn't work around them when they were working; I would have just been in the way. I did little things, like setting new toilet tanks, and setting the toilet bowls (the part you sit on) when necessary. Every tank cracked, but fortunately I only lost a couple bowls. I neglected to take pictures of those, since taking pictures of broken toilets isn't my cup of tea. DH was needed in Anchorage for a work dinner with the Society of American Military Engineers and I decide to invite myself along and invited him to drive. Usually he flies down for their functions and flies back up that evening, but I casually invited him to drive the normally six hours (five if we are driving our personal vehicle) so that I could go along. Now I say normally a six hour drive. This time there was ice on the road heading south, so it took us almost eight hours to get there.

When the sun was shining, it was hard to watch the road without burning your retinas.

Here is the view as we are about thirty minutes north of Healy coming up into Denali National Park(ing lot).

After the park (and I say parking lot because most visitors never really get into the park, they sleep in the hotels, shop in the tourists traps, and drop serious money in the eateries. It is just that they never really manage to get into the park. The best they can be exposed to is the BlueBird bus ride, which is such a shame such a gorgeous National Park isn't available for the public) Off my soapbox and back to the road.

Something that I have never seen with my own eyes before:

I caught a picture of this wolf who was hunting on the outskirts of the caribou herd that was south of Cantwell. I have driven the Parks Highway hundreds of times. Driving to Anchorage is a pasttime for most Fairbankans. In all of these drives, I have never seen a wolf. Hundreds of moose, caribou, arctic tern, porcupines, grouse, snowshoe hare, and even once a brown bear, but never wolf. Nice to see the population is growning. Hunters might not agree, but I dont really care if they don't like competition. Makes them stronger.

And what was my incentive to drive eight hours on a single sheet of ice?

My Matron-of-Honor is pregnant with her first baby, hopefully there are more coming later.

Her husband was kind enough to grow is own baby belly as a form of marital collusion. Yeah for babies! since I won't be having any more :(

Babies are great, it is just the additional 18 year maintenance agreement that they come with.

Hopefully she will let me babysit.

The drive home always seems to go faster, so we stopped off at Hurricane Gulch. I always have the images in my mind, but if we ever move away, I want actual pictures of these places.

It is much more stellar in the midday with full sunlight, but I didn't have that option.