February: Walking the Line's 50th post!

Hey!  We made it to 50.  I can't say the blog is going strong, but it's still going!  February brought us a little more snow than January, but I think we're still on track to have one of the worst year's for snow on record.  Trying to post monthly is at least helping me capture the little things going on each month.  My dad's extended family has had a monthly family newsletter for years and lately they have been encouraging those of us from our generation to contribute.  I like to think that keeping the blog updated on a monthly basis counts as my contribution. :)  February wasn't too exciting.  Drew passed his exam to become an official professional ski instructor.  He learned a lot of good techniques for himself.  It even helped me out a little since I went skiing TWICE this month.  If you don't know, I never ever skied before I met Drew.  Our first day of Drew teaching me to ski started out with a lot of laughs (which I think you can still see videos of on my Facebook page) but ended with Drew's first introduction to my hotheadedness (not featured on Facebook but you can bet it's one of Drew's favorite stories to tell people about me.)  Luckily, he stuck with me despite my flaws and inability to ski, and every year since I've gone skiing exactly one time a season.  It usually coincides with Drew's birthday as his birthday wish is always, "I want to go skiing with you."  This is enough of a guilt trip to get me back on the hill, vowing again to not lose my temper and make his birthday any worse than just having to wait for me to get down the bunny hill over and over again all day. Unfortunately, I don't have enough self control to stop myself and most of his birthday ski day memories include that time I impaled him with a ski pole/threw a ski/yelled profanities at a well meaning skier passing by/threatened to throw myself off the chairlift/etc. Every year it gets a little better, and last year I could actually say I had fun for most of it.  So this year Drew took it a step further and bought me my own set of skis. We actually had a pretty great time when we went, and I decided to go a second time the next week.  Drew skied mostly with Rich, and I just stayed on Chair 3 and tried a chair 4 run at the end with Drew.  I skied for like 6 hours and had a great time, once I figured out how to get my skis on.  I'm hoping to go out a few more times this year, but I've been so busy it's been hard to commit a full day to using a ski pass and getting on the mountain again.

For Valentine's Day I knit Drew another custom handle mitt for his cast iron and Drew made me this awesome white chocolate/peanut butter frosting cake inspired by my favorite candy: 

Delicious..but super rich!

I've also been a more social cross country skier this month and went out a few times with friends.  I am excited because even Drew decided, without my even pushing him, to get his own pair of classic skis.  Maybe we'll even go together one day! My friend Sam also bought cross country ski's this year and we got Drew to take her older kid downhill skiing while we took the younger one out in Moose Meadows.  It was beautiful, and Sam rocked it.  It's got to be so much harder with a little one on your back!

Have I mentioned that I love where I live?

I also had my spring concert with the Alaska Chamber Singers this month, which was all Johann Sebastian Bach.  It was good music, but it was a heavier concert for the boys to sit through.  I'm looking forward to resurrecting our fall concert program, Darwin Sings:  The Evolution of Choral Music, for our tour to Homer and Cooper Landing in April. Drew baked up some amazing snacks for my choir and for work.  He made peanut butter and chocolate cookies, as well as croissants, some stuffed with chocolate.  He's pretty amazing.

I also ran in the Frostbite Footrace during Fur Rondy this year.  It's only the 3rd race I've ever done and the other two I waited for over an hour just to start running.  So we were like 10 minutes late getting there for this one which I assumed would be no big deal.  Oh no, it had started already.  Which meant that I got to bust through the people on the sidewalk and start running right in front of the funny guy with the mike that gets paid to make smart alecky comments as all the runners come by.  You can bet he loved making fun of me. :)

At first I felt like a total loser cause I was being passed by EVERYONE and I was huffing and puffing.  I finally gave up and slowed my pace to something I could handle.  It was a loop course that you did twice.  When I came around to start my second lap while everyone I'd been with cruised to the finish line I realized I was running with all of those competitive athlete people.  I came around the corner and there were all of my people, jogging at a much more sane pace.  :)

I'm hoping to do 3 more races this year, so this was a good warm up one.  Next time I'll try and be on time for my start.  Hope you got through your February OK.  I guess it won't be too long before I'll be late for a posting in March...better late than never!

A Weird January...

We had a crazy January this year.  It got as warm as 55 degrees in Girdwood and almost all the snow melted.  That has inspired me to start winter running, and I've been at it pretty consistently three times a week.  I will usually just run with ice grippers on my shoes but by the end of our month and a half without snow I didn't even need those.  It was fun to get out and enjoy the sunshine and warmth, but I didn't feel like I'd really paid the price of a long winter to appreciate it as much as I normally do. We started out OK in October with this:

 Unfortunately it didn't last.  And then all the rain we got while it was warm really washed any snow we had away.  Drew took some pictures to remember our year it hardly snowed:

Needless to say we haven't exactly had to break out the snowblower much...

Usually the bike trail along this mountain is closed for avalanche danger.  It was wide open and ice free.  I even broke out my bike a few times.

One positive of all the warm sunny weather was that we had some beautiful clear days and nights.  We drove up the arm one night after we'd each spent the day outside (hence the clothes) just to take some pretty pictures at sunset:

Despite the lack of snow I did get in a cross country ski day or two early on, and Drew kept skiing the ice whenever the resort was open.  He took a professional ski instructor class this year so he is official now.  He's been having fun volunteering at the adaptive ski school and he found the classes really helped him with his own technique.

I love getting to spend a morning or a sunset afternoon cross country skiing here. I like to go alone, listening to classical music on my Ipod.  It's totally peaceful.

It's been really fun having our friends Tim and McKenzie here in Girdwood this year. (They own the dog we watched this summer, Wren.)

Gotta love the water view from the top of the resort.

Major Recap

So it's been over a year since I have posted.  Sorry about that.  My excuses are:
1) Laziness
2) Being busy: When it's summertime in Alaska the last thing I want to do is be inside on the computer.  Then we were on the road for 4 months.  Doesn't make it easy to find a moment to blog.
3) Lack of internet access:  We got rid of the internet last summer to keep saving money for our trip, and because we just felt like we didn't need it.  We still don't have internet at our house now, and we do OK with that.  If we really need it, we can go down to the library or the coffee shop and use it.  We just felt like we were spending too much time checking our email/internet shopping/"researching" etc on our laptops instead of talking to each other, spending time with people, getting outside, and doing other things.  So this winter I actually painted something, sang, read several books, learned to crochet, worked out, and listened to NPR a lot more than I'm sure we would have if we could have been on the internet.  Don't worry, we're not total freaks, I'm sure we'll get internet in our house again at some point.  We just don't really feel like we need it now.  One of the downsides of that is that blogging has fallen lower on the priority list.
4) The longer you put it off, the more of a big deal it seems to do it.

So excuses aside, I'm going to try and recap the past year and then I recommit to blogging a little more often.

*My best friend from college, Annie, and her husband, Brian, came up to see us in Alaska.  We went kayaking in the rain and got to show them around Alaska a bit.  We love hanging out with them and it was good to have friends visit us in Alaska.

*We moved out of our apartment in Anchorage and into an awesome summer rental house closer to kayaking for Drew.  The house was the most homey we've lived in and had lots of Alaskana touches (think Caribou mounted on the wall, moose antlers mounted by the front door, whale bones by the porch, a king crab and baleen on the wall, etc.)

*We spent a weekend  in Talkeetna camping.  We took the flagstop train to Hurricane Gulch and Drew took a flight lesson in a tiny two seater plane.

*I got into biking a lot during the summer.  We have good bike paths that are really scenic nearby.

*We watched the boretide on the biggest day of the year.  Lots of people and it was warm enough to actually feel like summer.  The actually boretide was pretty disappointing though.

*Lisa, my sister, came up to visit for a few days.  We took a cruise in Seward, went on some hikes, and checked out Forest Fair.  I think she was a little cold, a little scared of bears, a little tired of how far away everything is in Alaska, but generally thought it was beautiful.  It was really nice to have her come up, but Drew totally missed her as he was on a long kayaking trip.

*Drew did several extended kayak trips this summer, as well as all his usual day trips as a guide.  He really enjoyed getting to kayak to some new places and working his 3rd season as a guide.

*I went back to PA for three weeks and Drew joined us for one.  We were able to catch up with my side of the family and also spend a week at the Jersey Shore, my family's annual vacation.  We took everybody out kayaking one day in the bay.  Very fun.

*Back in Alaska, we did a Groupon date to the Musk Ox farm in Palmer, AK.  Learned a lot and got to see more cute baby Musk Ox.

*Took a day trip down to Seward and hiked Exit Glacier.

*Hiked in Whittier to see the salmon run and view Portage Glacier.

*Went on the 26 Glacier Cruise out of Whittier.

*Hiked the Kesugi Ridge Trail over 3 days with some of our new gear we bought for Hawaii.  Our first day was rainy but everything cleared up and we had some beautiful totally clear days with a view of Denali.  I probably love backpacking more than any other outdoor thing we do.

*Drew's parents came and visited us for 2.5 weeks in September.  We got to do the Denali Road lottery with them, camp on the Kenai peninsula, Drew took them kayaking several times, we went to the state fair, and did a lot of touristy things we hadn't had the chance to do before.  They also were a huge help to us as we left Alaska just 12 hours after we dropped them at the airport.  So they were there while I quit my job and we packed up and put all our stuff in storage.  Drew also cooked up all the food we possibly could for them every night we were there.

*We left Alaska on September 18th.  We spent the next two months in Hawaii.  This was the first time for both of us and the last of the 50 states I had left to visit.  We went to every inhabited island but Niihau.  We took only our carry on backpacks and spent almost every night camping.  We hitchhiked about half the time and had a rental car for the other half.  It was amazing. To summarize the whole thing quickly:

Top 5 experiences:
- Scuba Diving - we liked it so much we got certified.
- Hiking on Kauai- the Kalalau Trail, Koke'e State Park, and Waimea Canyon
- Drew learning to surf/Jennifer falling in love with snorkeling
- Church and meeting the members in Hawaii
- Poking lava with a stick on the Big Island

5 Least favorite moments:
- Camping in muddy/buggy Manoa
- Getting stuck in a puddle jumper airplane for 2 hours circling around Maui because of the threat of a   tsunami on the ground.  Oh, and having to pee for that whole time.
- Freaking out taking off my mask while getting scuba dive certified
- Drew's ears getting messed up after scuba diving and bothering him for a week.
- Drew hurting his foot jumping off a cliff and being totally non weight bearing for awhile.

Top 5 Beaches:
- Kalalau on Kauai
- Lapahoehoe on the Big Island
- Hamoa on Maui
- Hulopoe on Lanai
- Lanikai on Oahu

Favorite Island:  Kauai

Number one quote from our trip: "It's freakin' Molokai!"

Soundtrack for the trip: Bob Marley's Redemption Song

Click on the pictures to view albums of more Hawaii pictures:

Oahu 1

Kauai

The Big Island

Maui/Lanai/Molokai

Oahu 2

*In November we flew to Utah where we spent about a week catching up with family and friends.  We then drove Drew's grandma's car that she was giving to Drew's mom across the country via I-40.  We saw friends and family in New Mexico, Texas, and Alabama.  We also visited San Antonio, New Orleans, and Atlanta.  We made it to Drew's parents in North Carolina on Thanksgiving day.   We spent a few days with them and then headed south and saw Drew's PopPop in South Carolina and visited Georgia as well.  Then we drove north and saw my family for a few days in PA before heading farther north and doing a big circle road trip around New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Hampshire again, Vermont, New York, and back into Pennsylvania.  We spent Christmas with my family there and then drove back down to North Carolina for one more week in the beginning of January before we flew back to Alaska.  All in all, we were unemployed and traveling for 4 months.  It was an epic trip and we are so happy we got to do it.  We had so many cool experiences and got to see so many friends and family that we have missed being up in Alaska. You can click on all these pictures for more pictures as well.

Utah to North Carolina

PA

The Northeast

*Back in Alaska we found a house to rent (we signed a year lease!) and got settled back in.  I went back to my old job and Drew now has 3 part time jobs, two in psychology and one kayaking.  Drew did a lot of backcountry skiing and I did a lot of cross country skiing.  I went downhill skiing once this year and it was the first time I actually enjoyed myself.

*In February we flew home for my sister's wedding.  It was a very short trip but we managed to do her wedding and my future sister-in-laws bridal shower, as well as spend some time with my Aunt Kathy and my Grandma Avis.

*In March we did an overnight cross country ski trip to Barber Cabin by Lower Russian Lake with our friends Jennifer and Aaron.  It was a ton of fun and when we returned we did dinner out to celebrate Jennifer's birthday.

*In April we had two lost huskies at our house on two separate occasions.  It really made us want to get a dog, but our lease doesn't allow it.  So we're stuck for at least a year.

*Went to slush cup together this year.

*Bought packrafts, cross country skis for Jennifer and another set of downhill skis for Drew. Looking forward to getting to use the packrafts a lot this summer.

*That brings us to now, which I think I'll go ahead and do in a separate post or two.  We packed our bags, left our car and house in the care of friends and are gone to the East coast for a few weeks.  Drew planted his seeds before we left, but we've heard that it's snowed since we've been gone, so I don't know how they'll be doing.

Overall we've had a great year and are so grateful for all our blessings- our family, friends, and the beautiful world we live in.  I love catching up on everyone else's lives through blogs, so I'll try and return the favor.  More to come!

Eklutna Traverse

Like two weeks after doing the bomber traverse, Drew left again for another week long ski tour.  This time he did the Eklutna traverse.  More glaciers, which means more skiing while roped to other people, which was understandably a little more difficult.  Less experience, a bigger group, and not the nicest weather made it perhaps not quite as fun as his first trip, but he still loved it so I guess that's what counts.  

They did group dinners on this trip.  They voted on what to eat each night.  If your dinner sounded good than you got to cook it sooner and then you had less to carry for the rest of the trip.  So Drew spent the whole week before the trip dehydrating different things and buying already dehydrated peanut butter and everything else.  He really wanted to create a lightweight but good meal for backpacking.  I got to try everything and let him know what was best.  In the end he made pasta carbonara, tomato basil soup, and these little chocolate and peanut butter pudding layered desserts.  

I'm glad he went on these two trips because before he went on them he was so upset that it was getting lighter, upset that the snow was starting to melt, etc etc.  He hadn't had enough of winter yet.  Skiing for 7 and 8 straight days seems to have gotten him the fill he needed to make it until next year.  Now he is all about the kayaking season.  And just in time too, he went and dug the boats out of the snow this past Saturday.  A few pictures from his trip:

Spring is coming!

Planes landing on the glacier below.

Rest day with mini avalanches in the background.

Their last day they were trying to descend in severe wind and white out conditions.   You can just barely see 4 little black marks on the hill.  That's the second rope team making their way down.