Termination Dust

Termination Dust has got to be an Alaskan term. At least I think it is. I have never heard that term before. Not until this week that is. All the weather people were talking about it at the beginning of the week. My first thought was those pesky volcanoes!!! Believe me it has nothing to do with the volcanoes. I found out what it means. Termination dust means the first dusting of snow on the mountains that surround us or maybe it is in the mountains in general. It also means that summer has been terminated or ended and winter will soon be here. There is that wicked,wacky Alaskan sense of humor again!

See the picture with the huge diamond center sign in it? It's kinda hard to miss isn't it! Well look to the right. See the mountain with the flat top? Well that is Flat Top. That is the mountain that K and A can't wait to climb during the last weeks of summer. They climbed it about two weeks ago. Next week I will show you there pictures from two weeks ago. They brought me home a present. half a water bottle of wild Alaskan blueberries. I froze them and I am going to surprise them with blueberry pancakes tomorrow. Shhhhh.... Don't tell!!!

Alaska State Fair

During our visit to the fair were were able to catch the Cavallo Equestrian Arts show. I thought it was really good. A's favorite part of the show was the horses.... no big surprise there!!!! She is horse crazy. :) I gave her my camera to shoot all the pictures she wanted. The first 5 or so pictures had people in them. But its the last 20 or so that caught my attention. You see instead of just taking pictures with everyone and everything she took pictures of just the horses. You will see as I post more pictures of the show.

At the back of the fair where they have the rides they have a miniature golf course.

More Views of Seward

While we were in Seward for the day we happened to wander into the National Park Service. This is a real neat building. The building houses a few exhibits, a short film or slide show depending on when you arrive. And a very nice gentleman that stands behind the counter who will gladly answer any question you might have.

I found something that I knew I had to take a picture of. The Kenai Fjords National Park quilt. Isn't it gorgeous? I can tell you right now that I look at this and wonder how who ever made this did it... My Mom on the other hand is probably right now piecing it together in her head. She is very talented like that.

Behind A and K is Resurrection Bay. We haven't seen any whales here but we are told that they are out there... Somewhere! We saw a humpback whale on a cruise out of Valdez. And we haven't seen a whale since. We have decided that we want to do a Glacier Cruise sometime in the next couple of years.
Here is a picture of the harbor.

We haven't figured out which mountain is Marathon yet. But every 4th of July people gather from all over to run up Mt. Marathon to see who can be the first to reach the summit. In the Alaska Activities Guide this is billed as "America's second oldest footrace". The first time I saw this on the 10 o'clock news I thought these people were nuts. The wipe outs were unbelievable. Next time I am in Seward I will make it a point to ask where Mt. Marathon is. When I find out I will post pictures. Hmm... I am now curious as to what the "first oldest footrace" was!!!
This picture reminds me of the opening scene from Gilligan's Island.

Seward, Alaska

There are other photos I will show you of our day trip to Seward. And I will show them to you soon. But for now check out the impressive amount of salmon that a fisher woman caught. I took this photo over her shoulder. And take a look at the second row. See the middle salmon? That one was the fisher woman's entry in the Seward Salmon Derby.



A few minutes before I took this photo A and K saw an otter swimming around. The otter dove under the water and I was waiting for it to come back up. That's when we noticed the fish jumping out of the water.

A Badge and a Book Blog

So did you notice it??? If you didn't notice it it's OK because I'm going to tell you about it anyway.... It's that awesome badge on the left.... I got it because I joined the Blogger Unite book club. I can already tell you that I know for a fact that I will be reading outside my comfort zone!!! And I am OK with that!!! :) This means that once a month I will be reading a book one of the members pick. :) For August we read The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. After reading the book I am still on the fence as to if I am going to see the movie or not. :) September's read is Persuasion by Jane Austen. Bobbie who started the Blogger Unite book club was kind enough to let me pick. Thank You Bobbie. :)


Speaking of Bobbie... I would like to tell you about her blog. This is a book review blog. And it's run by my friend Bobbie Crawford-McCoy. It can be found at http://bookreviewsbybobbie.wordpress.com
It is a great way to research a book that you are thinking about reading. I have looked up many books using her reviews. She has book reviews and book give aways and interesting articles. she had an article on the Tudor's a few months ago that I found fascinating! Make sure you check out her art page. She is so talented and creative. I really enjoy her wonderful artwork. I am glad that she put her art on her blog. :)

The Biggest Little City......

Well I finally did it..... But this time I did it right! A and I went to the Peppermill Casino. NO we didn't go to gamble we went to play in the arcade. You are probably asking yourself why. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays the Peppermill has half priced arcade games between the hours of 5-7 pm. So if you find yourself in Reno, Nevada on a Tuesday or a Wednesday it is well worth it. But that's not what I did right.. What I finally did right is hand A the camera before coming to the RENO arch. Every picture I have taken of this arch has never turned out. So I decided that the best thing was to drive really slow and have A take the picture. It worked !!! I am starting to think that my camera is union. It only works when it wants to. It has a strict no working after dark policy. And the only way to keep it happy is to give it rechargeable batteries. A even managed to catch the afternoon thunder storm.

Cold Springs Campfire

This is a picture I took of the hills to the north of us. I went for a walk with A and I thought this scene looked absolutely beautiful. What a contrast from Alaska.

This is what the first picture looked like earlier this evening. This picture was taken by k. I would have taken it but my camera has a strict policy of not working in the evening...

This and the one above it were also taken on our walk. They are still building homes. In the newer phases we noticed that there are for sale signs and some homes that have not been sold. Another sign of the times.