Alaska - Post 3 (among other things)

Here I am. A third post on a trip that began in June and it's the eve of the First Day of School - 2012/13. One is off to officially start her Middle School career and the other her Freshman year of High School. We have enjoyed multiple trips this summer and the girls each experienced their first summer camps through church. They are, of course, no stranger to camps for school but this was another first and was a successful part of summer.

I have not accomplished any goals this summer outside of making sure everyone had clean laundry to pack for the next trip, arrived at swim meets with sunscreen and sharpie markers, made sure there was adequate food to prevent starvation and outside of a trip for an infection, managed to keep Eiger x-ray free and ingesting approved objects.

This time last year, we were starting new schools, the girls were still on air mattresses and we had just seen our household goods arrive from Switzerland. Due to grade levels, we are virtually starting new schools again and there are still parts of the house that need to be finished or 'rearranged' from the initial dump and conceal that went with some of the unpacking.

I have a friend who's been sensitively open about blogging their move to NC. It's been hard for me to open up too much about the difficulty of this move as I haven't wished to seem ungrateful, unhappy, unpatriotic, spoiled or discontent.  Or heaven forbid, simply human and weak. Most days are really good. But there have been others. I'm just not always sure how to put it into words. Based on my blogging absence, I'm still figuring it out. JD - know you're not alone - I had a full blown panic attack in a Safeway parking lot last fall. Tears, hyperventilating - the works! And the Iowa move? Our first week I was ready to cry when I realized "Mother's" cookies did not exist in the HyVee cookie aisle and then was asked by the clerk if I wanted my items in a "sack." Excuse me?! I believe I responded "a bag is fine" for the next 3.5+ years. :) I hope I've turned into a sympathetic listening ear for anyone who's moved.  And still need a listening ear for our move! :)

Enough about me and my attempt to ignore the fact that I'll have a Freshman in HS tomorrow.  Let's go back to Alaska and indulge in a little make-believe.

North Pole, Alaska:  Just a short distance out of Fairbanks on the Alaskan Highway you can visit Santa AND his reindeer.  Santa himself told us he uses Siberian reindeer, not the caribou that are seen roaming the wilds of Alaska.  They are smaller in size with better temperament.  Good to know in case you are in the market for sled-pulling reindeer.

I know that Minnesota claims the mosquito as their "state bird" but we weren't taking any chances in a state that is about 2.5 x bigger than Texas.  Our guess was that their mosquitoes must also be supersized - in number at least.  Add to that the threat of horse flies - we hate horse flies!  Fortunately, we were only bothered in a couple stops - Fairbanks, AK and Beaver Creek, YT - by the bugs.  We were prepared not only with DEET products but the latest in mosquito-wear as modeled by Kendra:

We kept running into a large group of German tourists.  They were traveling in this converted Mercedes bus.  It had a 'dormitory' in back which had a pop-out for access to their individual sleeping slots (each had its own window) and near that blue covered table is the "kitchen" that is contained in those storage spaces.  I think they had brats in there........oh, 'brats' as in sausage, not 'brats' as in unruly children (now I'm thinking Hansel & Gretel...).  Enough, next picture.

There were more beautiful photo opportunities than I can possibly share on this blog.  Come have coffee with me and I'll share the photo album with you.

It didn't matter if the weather wasn't perfect:

My 3 favorite people to be stuck in an RV with:

Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada at approximately midnight.  Did I mention yet how I loved, LOVED the long days.  One gets used to sleeping with a pillow over ones head.

 



Beaver Creek, YT boasts approximately 140 people in the summer and goes to about 80 during winter.  Hmmm....while I tend to like less congested areas, I do like a degree of anonymity.  I think it would be hard to be anonymous in Beaver Creek. What I also learned on this trip was a respect for those who dare to live above the "lower 48."  It's not an easy place - it's hard, cold and there's no glamour.  We learned that most Fairbanks residents don't consider it "cold" out until its about -30F to -40F and approximately 45 - 50% of households still maintain out-houses because pipe maintenance during the long winter months is difficult.  You think?

 

I have more pictures.  For now, must get to bed so I can wake up and get kids to school - the Olson bus departs at 7am................

 



Alaska - Day 1, part 2

Looks like I've done it again. I will not promise any posts soon.  That way, I keep my promises.  I thought summers had been busy before but this is a doozy.  Summer is almost over.  I am still on Day 1 of the "1st vacation/trip" of the summer.  I am woefully behind.  I posted most of these pic's before leaving for another trip - Seattle.  Returned and got laundry done, garden watered, re-packed and headed to Fresno & Southern CA.  Returned to do laundry, water garden, re-pack and visiting In-laws in Minnesota.  I can't keep up.  Can you?  Thank you for your understanding. 

So - to finish off our day in Alaska (ahem...), we went to the Sled dog facility.  These are not racing dogs (Iditarod sp?) but working dogs.  They've been bred over the years for strength and endurance - true Alaskan malamutes which according to the Park kennel officers are wonderful mutts - a mix.

Kendra was particularly taken by the dogs and had we not had our own at home, I'm sure would have tried to take one back in her suitcase.

Thus ended Day 1 in Alaska - complete with some tasty food in the camper of course.  We did eat well!

I will complete Alaska!  For more recent events, here we are in Seattle.  Bart has a client up there and has wanted the girls and I to go up for a weekend and with a team event in place (Mariner's game), we flew up.  Had a great time and I got to visit with a college friend - we lived next door to each other my Freshmen (her Senior) year in the Dorms.  Facebook brings you together with people you've lost touch with - I will say that.

Most dramatic recent event:  Locks of Love donation from Kendra.  Here she sits.  A very thick, long ponytail was cut off by my trusted stylist A. I hope someone feels great in her hair!  Seriously.

Her cut is very cute.  Very Kendra.  I have to admit I'm torn between missing the long flow of hair down her back and not missing the tangled mess it could be with her ripping her brush through it.  Sigh......

They grow up quickly don't they?

Vacation - Alaska Day 1

Hello!  Whoever said summer was relaxing and full of long, lazy days with spur of the moment exciting adventures - did not live in my house!  We are finally done with Swim Team (hear the sigh of relief mixed with slight sadness because they did have fun) and are cramming our days with other activities before school begins again.

But we have enjoyed planned adventures.  The biggest so far being our long awaited trip to Alaska/Yukon Territory - via RV and Cruise ship.  Whoo Hoo!  We went with another family dear to our heart - it's because of this couple that Bart and I met so we love them for that.  Two separate RV's.  We love them but an RV for just one family is enough cuddly closeness if you know what I mean. 

We flew together into Anchorage where the Polar bears await:

OK - I had a little frustration on this trip.  Due to camera issues.  Now, I went and bought myself a new camera.  A little upgrade from my last and I was very excited to use it.  One thing I forgot with the new "fancy schmancy" camera is that the file size is about twice that of my old and so my impatient self is very impatient with certain programs downloading (Shutterfly wanted 24 hrs to download 300 original files and I said " I don't think so, we'll take the "photobook" acceptable size instead).  So I am learning that only if I truly want enlarged original prints do I need to transfer original files to outside resources.

I digress.  The real source of my frustration and most of you who take pic's will understand:  my favorite, everyday, I-use-all-the-time lens pooped out on me.  In the RV.  The first night.  "Error 99" and "cannot communicate with lens-check and clean lens contacts."  The lens has it's own electronic parts and has already been sent to Canon for a fix.  Now, I had brought my wide angle (10-20mm) and my small telephoto (80-200mm) as well but that regular, nice lens (17-85mm) did not work.  The lens I use for approx. 97% of all pictures I take - I had nothing between 20 - 80mm range - Aaack!  Yeah, don't ask why I bother with other lenses in the first place.  But I was really glad to have them in their limited nature for this trip!  And the new camera made my old telephoto lens seem like new.

So the H's were in front of us most of the trip - made for some fun pictures.  One of the things I was looking forward to was the light.  We arrived in AK on June 24th - just 2 days after the summer solstice and until we traveled further south later in the week, we never saw the light disappear, the sun just rolled around the horizon.  It was fantastic.  Albeit a bit hard for sleeping - Rachel wore eye shades all week and I slept with a pillow over my head.  Kendra is in the bunk of the RV with curtains and Bart - he just seems to sleep if he needs to sleep, light or no.  We flew into Anchorage around 5pm and by time we picked up the RV's, got groceries and headed out for Denali - our evening destination, it was 7pm - ish.  And Denali was a good 4 -5 hr drive away (yes, a long first day!).  Here we are at 11:34pm (check clock on dash!) as we were getting close to the park - the light was incredible.

Here we are! Our first 'real' day after a night of sleep and headed into Denali National Park.

I can't quite describe the width and breadth of the country we saw. It was like so many of the beautiful, natural places I've been but on a bigger scale and definitely less inhabited and wild. Breathtaking and beautiful.

We saw Caribou!!!!:

And a big Moose!!!!:

And here are the caribou and the moose together - dark specs in the river bed! Look at the backdrop - that is Alaska big! You know how Texas brag's about being big - and it is. Alaska is almost 2 1/2 times the size of Texas - Alaska is bigger.

What a beautiful place and I hope you will be more impressed by the slight distortion that comes with a wide angle lens vs distracted by it. :) At least I got a lot of scenery into the pic's. And with the telephoto was able to get "close" to the caribou and moose.

Day 1 is not over but I just didn't have patience for the rest of the pictures! :) Until next post...

Eventful times

Does anyone else find that mid-May into June passes in a blur? Our school district gets out on the later end of the school year and the girls last day was June 14th. Therefore Summer has just begun but I feel like we're behind somehow.  Maybe because the schedule is still full?

It has been so dry that the jack rabbits have very little cover to hide behind.  They're fun to watch jumping around on the hills.  So far - they are not a garden nemesis.  The moles?  We're still at war.  Exterminator didn't help and so I'm putting sulphur gas 'bombs' in the tunnels at odd intervals to see if that stops them.  The garden center said I may want to try Wrigley's spearmint gum in the tunnels - apparently the moles don't like minty fresh breath.  The deer also came one night an had a smorgasbord consisting of Daylily buds, geranium blossoms and roses.  I actually don't mind that so much as the moles.....

Here's Eiger with his Moose antler treat.  It's only about 4 inches long now.  Time for a new one I think.

Memorial Day weekend was spent up at the family cabin for a work weekend.  We had a great time - the 20+ of us: deep cleaning the indoors, washing windows, cutting up some felled trees, chopping wood, raking brush/debris and keeping the burn pile going for two days straight.  It was a lot of work but a great time with everyone.  Looked really good when we left and can't wait to go back just to have fun.

Kendra and I took a walk to the swimming pond that the cabin has access to.  It wasn't cleaned up for the swim season yet and they've been "cleaning" things up there to.  We (I) was a bit disappointed that they cleaned up so much of the reeds that used to border that left side along the embankment.  There are always a ton of frogs/tadpoles to watch but we didn't hear one.  :(  Did see some small fish so at least not everything has been driven out.

The big and not so big cousins (Rachel & Kendra's) had a great time building a fort and lining it with ferns and moss.  Needless to say, there were a lot of moss stained clothes that came home to be washed.  Fortunately - no tic's came home with them!

Swim Meets started up as well before school dismissed.  Practices were every night (not compulsory) from 5:45 - 7:30 up until school ended.  Swim meets require our presence from 7am - 1/1:30pm on Saturdays and 3:30 - 9pm on Wednesday nights.  This has been quite an adjustment for the family who up until this point has not had kid activities which ruled the "free time" schedule.  But it's great exercise for them and while Rachel is not as "in love" with it, Kendra definitely enjoys it quite a bit so I have a feeling there will be a repeat season......... :)

We were also finishing up puppy school.  Whew!  I'm tired just revisiting all this - haha.

Eiger finished Puppy II training and did so well I feel I should take Puppy III in the Fall and perhaps the Good Citizenship Canine certification.  We'll see how motivated I am come Fall and the girls new schedule.  The picture is from a game of musical chairs with the dogs - we walk around the border with dogs in a heel and when the music stops, put them in a sit or down stay outside of the line and then we take a chair.  If the dog breaks the stay, you leave your chair to get them into command again and another person can steal your chair.  You can only sit if the dog is in their stay position.  I'm pleased to say that in two rounds, Eiger was one of the last two dogs - we got beat by a Pug named Rocky the first time as Rocky's dad stole my chair and the second was a draw with an Aussie sheperd.  Am I a crazy dog mom?  :)

This young lady is on her way to High School!  We had a hot, HOT, evening out on the sunny school fields for 8th grade celebration - 211 kids.  All I could think was "what am I going to do when she has High School graduation out on the football field for 600+/- graduates."  I actually think her Freshman class is supposed to be 700-ish students if I remember right from the orientation night.  I digress.....

We celebrated afterward with California Pizza Kitchen - her choice - and again when Bart got home later in the week with presents and an ice cream cake from Baskins Robbins.  I forgot how good an ice cream cake can be - delightful!  Once that was all over we shipped her off to High School church camp where they rock climbed, went river rafting, canyoning, etc... and slept under the stars - sleeping bags on a tarp under the open sky with mosquitoes and pincher bugs/earwigs for company.  I'm just thankful the rattle snakes didn't find themselves looking for a warm body to curl up next to.  She LOVED it.  We're so glad.  I have such good memories of summer camp and thankful she has the opportunity to try it before she gets "too old."  A pretty flower in my garden:

Last weekend was also Father's day and as it was too hot to sit outside, we broke in our new dining room table with my Dad and his siblings (we were just missing 1 of the 6).  I realized I miscounted people and we should have put in the last table leaf but it all worked out.  Dad and Bart held court as the "Fathers" at each head of the table.  Had a really nice time and I'm very thankful for my Dad.

Love You Dad!

A Rare Sight

If I don't start writing posts consistently soon, they'll be as rare as this solar eclipse:

Wow!  My aunts had come over in the afternoon and we were headed back from the pool down the street just before 6:30pm when we noticed the light changing.  It occurred to us that, Oh Yeah!  there's a solar eclipse tonight.  It was a partial, not a full.  You can see the form of the eclipse in the shadows cast by the leaves.  Everywhere we looked the leaf shadows were circular shadows.  The lighting was similar to that at sunrise but filtered - hard to describe and it shifted the perception of colors as well.  VERY COOL!

And then it was over.  I think the next one will be 2017?

I promise - promise - that I will post again before 2017.  Hah!

We still continue to adjust and reconnect with life here in CA.  Just tonight we were going through the drive-thru of In 'n Out for dinner after Swim team practice and after our total of $14.72 was announced (4 burgers, 2 fries, 1 drink), Kendra says "wow, I can't believe how cheap it is!"  Considering we paid approximately $36 for the same meal at McDonalds in Wadenswil for years, we are still adjusting to certain aspects.  What I appreciate is being able to wait for sales here instead of just buying what we need because there is no other opportunity as we did on trips home from Switzerland.  That said, we'd all love to hop on a flight for Switzerland right now.

Since I last posted, I keep meaning to post pics from Spring Break - Washington DC - but, but as soon as we returned, swim team practice started.  I'm still trying to get the girls schedule coordinated so I don't have to drive back and forth everyday to the pool but by time it really works, school will be out and practice will switch to 7:30am!  I don't see them going to practice 5 days a week.  Do You?

The garden has also required some work.  I've been planting some perennials and herbs in the regular beds and planting the garden boxes with tomatoes, green beans, squashes, melon, peppers, etc....  I didn't realize how easy my gardening had really been in Switzerland.  Besides slugs and some cool weather issues, there wasn't much I dealt with as far as challenges.  In Iowa it was the deer, rabbits and squinnies (like chipmunks) but here!  I'm going to look like Bill Murray in Caddyshack pretty soon.  There are moles, MOLES!, tunneling under my new plants in the flower beds - eating the strawberries! - and I didn't know we had moles in CA.  Gophers yes.  Moles?

There is also the issue of water.  CA garden watering is an art form.  I've been away for a while and I'm still trying to figure it out.  There hasn't been enough natural water this year so it's a bit of a guessing game as to what portions of the garden need what.  Oh, and there are more 'blights' and 'funguses' and diseases related to temperature!  What was I thinking?  So I am trying to take care of all of this without killing my family or dog with toxic potions.  A castor oil treatment is being used for the moles - non-toxic - and I hope they go back where they came from.

What else?  Oh.  Mr. Eiger.  Latest escapade involved my forgetting some boxes on the garage floor from a Costco run.  I had to run out for just over an hour and put him out, the boxes not in view of the door.  Sooooooooooo, he ate an entire bag (large!) of Cheezits and got into the Swiffer duster box destroying the duster refills and more worrying, I found only a part of the plastic handle that comes with this product.  Worrying because I knew there were two missing Gatorade caps from his interest in a flat of that beverage two days earlier.

So back to the Vet (prior week he was in due to Colitis) because I could not induce him to vomit at home.  Vet was reluctant to induce him at first until the xrays were viewed and we could see not only the plastic but a large amount of Cheezits that had not started digesting.  In the words of the staff "Eiger threw up an impressive amount of Cheezits.  We've never seen a dog throw up that much."  Gee.  My special dog.  Not to mention that he gained 6 lbs from his prior week weigh in - I did mention it was a large bag!  Fortunately, almost all the plastic came up too.  He's doing great now and we've finished the clean up/organizing of the garage not to mention we are working on crate training for daytime confinement - he's already crated at night.  We have to protect him from himself!  That said - he rocked at Puppy training class - having fun with his training.  He's quite smart outside of the ingestion of anything that fits in his mouth!

So that is all keeping me busy.  That has really filled up May.  We are looking forward to some fun things coming up and I'll be sure to share.  Until then, I wish you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if I don't get back here.  Remember those who have served for our freedoms!  Take time to thank the veterans and servicemen/women who are arround us now.  :)