From snow to sand to snow again

First I must apologize to everyone who constantly checks my blog and is disappointed because I have been lazy and not updated you since November. This may only apply to my grandmother, but even so I ask for your alls forgiveness. We finally have internet in our house again! Which is the main reason I haven’t been online enough to update.

So what’s happened since Thanksgiving… Well Christmas was white here for sure. Lots of snow. New Year’s Eve was also white. Aaron and I drove out to the mountains on New Year’s to stargaze in 10 degree weather. We brought sleeping bags and laid down on a trail in Hatcher’s pass. Before we set up camp I had to pee really bad so I just propped open the car door and did my business. (Mind you we are kind of out in the middle of nowhere at midnight so not many people were around or were expected to be around. I don’t usually pee in public wherever) Anyway, midway through my car potty break, I saw headlights coming straight at me. I tried to finish as fast as possible, pull up my britches and just as I did so, a cop stepped out of the car. Good timing. Luckily he didn’t say anything about using a restroom, but he did ask us if we had seen any flares on the mountains. We answered no, we hadn’t seen any flares, just illegal fireworks going off in the valley. He thanked us and went on his way. But not even 2 minutes after he drove off, we looked up and saw a bright red light on the top of the nearest mountain. The red light then split into 4 red lights and we knew we had found the cop’s suspects. They weren’t people in danger. Instead they were crazy Alaskans who decided it would be fun to hike up to the top of the mountain and ski down it at midnight with flares in their hands. Watching it was pretty neat. I think I know what my New Year’s plans will be next year- who said you have to be original?

Seven days after the new year, I hopped on a plane and headed south. Destination: Maui. Sick of the cold, snow and darkness, Aaron and I went to a friend’s destination wedding in Hawaii and made a mini-vacation out of it. We did some snorkeling, beach bumming, and on the last day we drove out the Hana Highway. It is a very long very windy road that takes you around the Maui island. There’s a waterfall at the end of the 54 mile stretch that consists of 7 large pools that flow one into the other. It’s really pretty- but then again so is the rest of the island and I’m not sure the waterfalls were worth the carsickness and 6 hour drive it took to see them. So if you ever make it to Maui, don’t skip the Hana drive because I said so. But when you’re hurling your breakfast over the guard rails along with the guy who’s in the car behind you- don’t say you weren’t forewarned. Overall the trip was good. It was nice to see the sun and not be bundled up in so many layers your cheeks are the only thing that it can touch. I didn’t get a tan, but come on people, tans are so out. Health and not getting skin cancer are in. (This is for all those at the office who gave me crap for not coming back with a few more freckles!)
The last piece of advice I’ll give in this section is if you reside in Alaska or anywhere like it, don’t take vacation in early January. Coming back to reality is not easy! All that acclimating to the cold I had done before Hawaii was completely wasted. I turned into a big wimp whining about digits on the thermometer. I suggest waiting until February or early March so that when you return to Freeze City (as my sister likes to call Anchorage) from the tropics, the days are getting longer and it’s starting to warm up ever so slightly. Makes the transition a little easier. I know, smart huh?

Now that we’re back in town and no vacations planned for awhile, I have been trying to keep forcing myself to get out and do things. When I go a couple weeks in the city here without getting out and doing outdoor things, it’s easy to get a little down. We went on a hut trip last weekend and I was so glad I forced myself to get out in the cold- because every time I go out to the mountains, lakes and rivers I remember why I love Alaska so much. It is gorgeous. On the trip we hiked up a mile or two on a narrow snowy/icy path packed down by all the snowmachiners. When we got to the top we put on our cross country skis and skied across 2 frozen lakes surrounded by snow covered mountains. The second half of the second lake had no snow on it, just pure ice about a foot thick. My skis were not made to be going across terrain such as iceblocks- so I did a lot of unplanned and unwanted 360’s. Or maybe 180’s or 570’s because I would spin around and be facing the exact opposite direction staring at Aaron skiing behind me. Looking down through the ice scared me a little bit. Back in Virginia we don’t walk across frozen lakes or even ponds that much. Not too often can you trust the ice is thick enough. While we were skiing I kept hearing big booming sounds so I stopped to listen and realized it was the sound of the ice cracking and shifting on the lake. Talk about unnerving. Of course it was fine and you could have probably driven a truck over the ice but it still didn’t stop the quickening of my heartbeat every time it happened! The sunset was so pretty over the mountains that right before we got to the cabin, we plopped down in the middle of the lake and made a cup of hot chocolate. I can honestly say that was the first time I’d boiled water and made hot chocolate on top of a lake. Well actually Drew boiled the water and made the hot chocolate, so I guess it was the first time I’ve ever drunk hot chocolate on a lake. The boys did a lot of the work on the trip so I can’t take credit for much haha. When we unpacked we split wood and started a fire in the wood stove. Aaron brought his 22 so we shot at some things. Then drew brought the fixings to make fajitas on the wood stove for dinner. We played cards by candlelight until about 9:30 and then went to sleep whooped. We had hiked/skied 5 miles and without artificial light it’s hard to stay awake very late. We woke up the next morning, made coffee and oatmeal (Drew was very prepared) and then headed back to the car. My ski boot had been rubbing on my ankle and was killing me so after a mile of pain I decided I was just going to take my skis off. Drew fixed up some sweet looking makeshift snow shoes for me to walk back in. I had on wool socks, foot warmers, down booties, plastic bags, house slippers, duct tape, and gators. My makeshift snow shoes worked so well, I beat Aaron and Drew back to the car! Of course I got a lot of funny looks from the people on snow machines wondering what in the heck I had on my feet. We had such a good time that we are planning another hut trip in a few weekends so I’m looking forward to that.

I believe that sums up the most interesting points of my life here the past couple months. My puggle is doing well. He is getting the snip snip on Monday and I’m hoping it will calm him down some. He knows how to sit, lay down, and roll over on command now. He’s brighter than I thought he was going to be :) Other than that it’s just work and class- same old same old. And as always I’ll try to work on adding some pictures later to the blog for your viewing pleasure