The Winter Wonderland Begins

Hi, Everyone!

Sorry for the delinquency in blogging, but life here has been fairly standard the past 2 weeks.  We had the high holidays, and so a lot of time on the weekends was devoted to that.  Mix that with Michigan football, and we haven't had a lot of opportunity to get out.  But, now that things have settled down, we went exploring again this afternoon.  And hence, the blog post!

Some exciting news to begin with: Steve got AK license plates and Tammy bought a car.  We are really starting to feel like we're settled in, and our doors are open to anyone who may want to come visit.  Some people have been asking about weather, so we'll discuss that in a little bit in the blog.

Today we went for a hike with some of Steve's co-clerk friends.  We went to an area called Eagle River, which is about 45 minutes outside of Anchorage.

When we left, we had heard some reports of possible precipitation, and there had been some light brushings coming down, so we decided to do a bit easier of a hike.  We walked along the historic Iditarod trail, which was a really nice and mostly flat hike along the river.

The temperature in Alaska has been changing lately, and we've started to see drops down to the 30s-40s.  As a result, it's beginning to look a lot like fall here, and many of the trees have changed their colors and the leaves have fallen, giving splendid beauty to the already incredible outdoors.

This also meant that Steve spent about 2 hours this week raking leaves from our lawn.  Can you say sore back?

Anyway, as we were hiking, we decided to take a lunch break at a river along the path.  It was beautiful and relaxing, until we noticed this:

Yes, that is ice.  The river was beginning to freeze over.  And then, within 5 minutes of sitting down, the area began to look like this:

It is official.  We have had our first snow fall of the season . . . in SEPTEMBER!  It was like walking through a winter wonderland.  The snow was sticking a bit to the ground, so it made for some really interesting hiking (and loss of trail markers along the way!).  It looks like the cold wintery weather is now here, and will be here for the next 7 months.  So, if you love snow sports, now is the time to come!

There's more snow for ya!

By the time we got back to the car (3 miles later) the snow was gone.  But it has fallen.  We are officially entering winter in Alaska.  Come on and visit!  The bears are hibernating now, and we have bear spray and a bell to keep us safe just in case!

Talk to you all again soon!  Keep warm!