Fall is Here!

Sometime in the last week or so a few trees turned yellow, and then a few more, and a few more.   Before I knew it fall was officially here!  I guess I've been in Utah too long, I've forgotten how long and beautiful fall can drag on for in a less desert-y climate.  My drive to work is even more gorgeous now, and everyday it looks different from the day before.  Drew and I decided to take a little half day trip down to Hope on the Kenai Peninsula on Friday.  The drive made me want to stop and paint at every little turnout!  Once we got to Hope we drove forever into the middle of nowhere (as if Hope isn't remote enough) and finally arrived at the start of 2 hikes.  One hike is 36 miles to another town called Cooper's Landing.  The other is just a 3 mile up and back trip to some lakes and a waterfall.  We opted for the 3 mile hike. :)  Here are a few pictures:

It was so weird to see all this lichen covering the hills.  I haven't seen that plant much anywhere else. 

By the time we got down it was so windy and cold that we couldn't wait to go to the little cafe in Hope and get some soup to warm us up!  It was the second to last day before they close as well for the season, so we were glad we made the trip when we did.

The next day I got lucky and got to come along with Drew to work.  We went out on Blackstone Bay trip, which was really neat.  It was pretty cold and rainy, but we stayed dry enough and that's the best weather in which to see the glaciers calve.  We kept hearing the thunder from farther away and finally while we were near Blackstone Glacier a HUGE piece fell off.  It was neat to see in real life.  We were also the only human activity on the water that day since it is so late in the season, so the seals were really curious about us.  They would follow us and kept popping up out of the water to get a good look at us.  We saw a few sea otters as well and got to paddle through a bunch of icebergs.  Here's a few pictures from that trip:

Drew will probably be finishing up the season by the end of this week so it was good to come along this last time.  Soon we'll be moving in to Anchorage and both working there.  Drew will hopefully be working at a Psych ER at one of the hospitals in Anchorage.  He interviewed today so we'll hear soon!