driving the Alcan

Monday around 11:00, the ferry docked in Haines, Alaska and we drove off to a "Welcome to Alaska" sign. It was snowing and pretty dang cold. But it was beautiful!

We stopped off the side of the road to wait for the other two cars in our caravan before driving to the hotel. The water was still that slate grey because of the cloud cover, and there were so many bald eagles. At the hotel the next morning when we were packing up the car, Buckwheat got really nervous and would stand on top of his kennel so he wouldn't be forgotten. Poor guy! 
When we were driving through the part of Alaska before British Columbia, Canada, we counted 15 bald eagles, and 1 golden eagle in only a distance of 20 miles or so. They were everywhere.  When we drove into British Columbia we saw these two tractors plowing and blowing snow off the highway. It looked like they were trying to make a bunny hill or something.
I had to use the restroom a short distance into Canada, and the only things they had were these little outhouse rest stops off the sides of the highway. That was the coldest seat ever! My family and cousins will know what I mean when I say it is even colder than the Judd cabin's toilet seats early in the morning. 

After British Columbia, Canada came the beautiful Yukon:
After leaving British Columbia (which was desolate tundra nearly the whole way - awfully depressing!), we made it to the Yukon. It was beautiful. Below, this is the largest lake in the Yukon. It was all frozen. In one part of it, there were parts where an actual wave had frozen; almost like it had been frozen while it was crashing. It was bizarre. The caps were even frozen. It reminded me of The Day After Tomorrow. Sorry about Buckwheat's blatant sniffing. How about that hoodie on him, eh?

Leaving the Yukon, we saw the Alaska sign! It was huge, and the people we were driving with took a few other pictures of us but said we looked "too cold". So this is us "not looking cold."

About 80 miles outside of Anchorage, there was the biggest glacier we have seen yet. It looked a lot like the lake in the Yukon that was frozen because it looks like it has white caps like the ocean would. It came spilling out of a mountain, about 4 miles behind us (you can't see it in the picture) and kept going! We pulled over to all get a picture with it.  Where we were wasn't even the end of this glacier. I'm so excited to see it in the summer time when it's green around it. 

We are so excited to be in Anchorage. There are stores, restaurants, forests, inches of ice in every parking lot (I don't understand how everything isn't bashed in), and indiscreet moose that apparently don't like me! Last night we went to The Moose's Tooth (delicious pizza and home made root beer), then afterwards our friends drove us around to find a moose. They were so surprised we didn't even see one with where we were driving; I had warned them that they must not like me - that or they're all dead. 

Alaska Ferry

These pictures are some of my favorites from the ferry-cruise. The above picture I took Sunday morning when we pulled in to Ketchikan.  It was the first stop we made, and the first thing we saw after we passed through Canadian waters. This next picture would fit the right of the one above; the sun had lit up all the fog on the water. The sunrises were beautiful!

In Juneau the following morning (Monday), Mark's cousin Shelly came out to visit us; it was extremely nice of her because the ferry docked at 4:3o! She and her two kids had to wake up so early. But they came out with their beast of a car and took us through the dark snow to the glacier and told us about this "friendly" black wolf who plays with other dogs who are on walks with their owners. Mark says he must have realized that it was easier to get food if he was nice. Makes me nervous (especially if you remember the 7 things post).
The first night we were on the boat, I woke up at 4:00 because it felt like I was falling downwards in my bed (feet first because we were rocking a bit). I woke up to find our first light house. I woke Mark up to see this ghostly white lighthouse with it's beacon light shining our boat every 3 seconds. The lighthouse above we saw on Monday morning after leaving Juneau.  The scenery was picturesque.
This picture above is full color, it's not in black and white. Everything looked like Ansel Adams photography.  We kept seeing little glaciers every now and again, but this one took the cake this day. 
Here's another light house we saw on Monday before we docked in Haines. It was pretty far away, so it's sort of fuzzy because of my crop job. 

Sunday night, we were standing at the stern of the boat and it had gotten dark while we were standing there. So dark in fact we couldn't see anything. All the sudden a huge spotlight turned on with a huge metallic noise. It swiveled on its axis to this iceberg! It wasn't too big or anything, but it was about 10 feet long out of water, so it must have been pretty big under the surface. Shortly after we passed that one, another spotlight turned on so they could spot even more icebergs. I felt like I was on the Titanic and was happy to go inside and play Skipbo and not think about the cold! 

ferry day 1

We arrived at the Alaskan Ferry on Friday at about 2:00, made some friends as we waited in line, and then boarded the biggest ferry I have ever seen at about 5:30. There were U-hauls, and semi-trucks being loaded! The red expedition with the roof box on top is an awesome military family we met who are going to Anchorage as well. They have three kids (the oldest is almost my age, a little strange thinking I've been married 2 years!), a dog and a cat. We will be caravanning with them on our way up through Canada and back down. 

If you enlarge this photo, you can see into the hull of the ship, this is where we parked and where Buckwheat remained a champ throughout the entire ride. On a side note, the cop on the right was wearing the greatest boots. Their motorcycles looked like fun as well. 

We got situated in our room, #171, and were happy to find that it was on the right side of boat. If we never left our room, we still would have had a great view.  This picture was right after we set our bags down. This is a coast guard boat that followed us up for a while. 

A little while after we started moving, there were small islands and inlets everywhere: 

This picture was taken the first night, when the clouds got a little thinner. We were closer to the open ocean, so it's a little rockier. Never got sea sick!

Mark and I spent a lot of time playing a new game his family gave us: Skip-bo. It's a great past time game that doesn't take much concentration, but Mark is still beating me every time! I think he's a bad shuffler. 

This picture was taken in a lounge at the front of the boat by a guy who Mark knew at the Academy who will be in our 3-car-caravan. He just got a new Canon, so I guess he was trying out our old Sony. 

The internet was really weak on the ferry, so every time I tried uploading pictures, it would fail. Now we're at the Captain's Choice Motel in Haines, AK and the internet is off-and-on stronger. Ferry day 2 coming up! 

a new view

Yesterday we stopped at a new home for my parents, and we loved what we saw! In the back, there's a blackberry bush. I am so excited for summer, when these shriveled berries will be rich, purple, and sweet with juice. 
In the front of the house I saw a huge Bumblebee, but it wasn't scary because it had a lot of fur on it, so it looked like the ones in stories - right. I got about 2 shots of its behind, then in this shot it started to take off and fly towards me! Buckwheat and I ran for the house. 
I turned around, and this is what I saw; it's breathtaking. My parents are going to get sick of me with how many visits I'm hoping to make.  

indian snow

A patchy here, a patchy there. 

* in this picture we're driving in Oregon, but across the river is Idaho. 

happy things

We're all packed up - o o oh!

The car is packed, the jerky and water is in my orange striped beach bag, Buckwheat is bathed, and Mark and I are excited. 

Watch out Alaska! Here we come!!

U2

Last night, Mark took me to go see the U2 Imax concert. It was so exciting! The messages of peace in their songs resonated so powerfully and loudly, that you couldn't help but be moved as Bono was singing 3 feet from your face. This 3D recording was done while on a final stop of their Vertigo Tour to Latin America. 

We thought that it was even better than a real concert! You weren't bumping up against sweaty people, you get all the close-ups you want (6 inches from Bono's outstretched hand), messages relayed on the screen, and it still seems like the crowd is all around you. I almost sang along as all the audience did when he held out the microphone; good thing I had the constant reminder from the big glasses that it wasn't real. 

If you like U2, the 3rd dimension, and you have an Imax somewhere near, I highly recommend this experience. 
* these photos I took through the glass' lense. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked (still 2D, but you get the gist). I had to get Larry Mullen (the drummer) because whenever you have a good drummer, it brings the music to life. Good drumming + excellent vocals + great guitarists = U2. Go see it. You won't be sorry.

2 years

2 years ago, my ring on the left was joined by Mark's ring on the right. His has more wear on it, just like any good man-ring should. These two rings have been with us through pilot training, four moves, dancing, yard work, game nights, and some unfortunate cooking incidences. But what is even more important than these two pretty rings is what they represent. The past two years of our marriage have been very wonderful, and not as hard as many people warned us it would be. We are very grateful for our experiences and our love; that like Elvis said, isn't as strong as it will be tomorrow.  

happy things

Happy Valentine's Day yesterday, and happy 2nd Anniversary to us tomorrow. I like to call it a mesh. What a happy mesh. 

2 years already?

reef exhibit

Tonight Mark and I went to the Shark Reef Exhibit at Mandalay Bay with Mark and Carli (these two Marks were roommates before we were married). 

It was beautiful! I don't know if it's because I have been landlocked in Oklahoma for too long, or if this was just really something. When you got to the big tank, there were so many sharks! Not huge or anything truly great-white-spectacular, but there were many many sharks, and the fish were hiding in the faux ship wreckage. There was a monster of a shark under this plexiglass you can stand on; it was the biggest one by far. I wish that one would have moved. Where's my poker? 

The lion fish was elusive. In a couple of shots I only got it's tail: 

And when I cropped/zoomed onto it to see the peacock-spots I realized it looked like it had been painted! Its scales look like a watercolor:   

After living here for as long as I have, I am glad Mark decided I needed to see these fish, sharks, and gators up close. Thanks, Mark!

so far

Thursday morning, before we left Oklahoma, we took donuts and OJ over to Ruth's house for a last game of Scrabble. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but we'll stay in touch, so we'll remain good friends. 

We left Altus, OK last Thursday morning, and we needed air in the tires, but we had the hardest time trying to find air!! So many of these gas stations were closed, or didn't have an air machine; sort of weird.

 

This is an oil well somewhere in northern, central Texas.  There were soooo many of them. I think we rely on other countries' just because we don't want to use up our own. Just a theory.

This is the view from the front window (of course) about 1 hour outside of Del Rio. I loved the hazy yellow for some reason. When we got to Del Rio we made a couple of house calls seeing old neighbors and friends.

This is Dan+Macey, Mark, Sven+Soren at the bowling lanes on Wednesday night. It was a good time! This time Chelsea, aka the Hustler, didn't cream me! 

This cute couple are good friends from Mark's flight class in T-6s. They are awesome. This is Tyler and Julie. Sorry, I'm still learning how to crop on our new computer.

Buckwheat was a trooper! He was in his kennel for most of the two day drive, and was sweet about it the entire way. When we let him out at my parent's house, he went nuts! He was going mach 3 for about 15 minutes. 

We had the best driving weather we've ever had on this trip. Before it was sometimes snowing, or hailing, or just raining. But it was breezy, sunny, and warm the whole way.  It was crazy driving through Phoenix. There are some insane drivers. Mark even thought so, too. Mauri, you're brave! The cactus were beautiful though. Before we got to the Hoover Dam, we were stopped in construction traffic, so I snapped a picture of the cactus on the side of the freeway - look how many there are!

When we got to the dam, I was surprised to find Lake Mead's water level even lower than normal. It is now lower 100 feet.  

In non-picture news, we have visited lots of family, and have just been enjoying the time with my parents.  It's weird having my sister away at college now that I've come home for a visit.  Right now Mark and I are about to go fill up my Grandma's water softener with salt, then it's off to spend the evening with my good friend Megan and her husband Bryce. He and Mark haven't met yet, so it'll be great to finally all get together. 

an itinerary

Thank you to everyone who wished us well in our 'journey'. There have been a few people who have asked when I will be where. So for friends and family, here is a reference. I hope to see as many people as I can!

Friday, February 8, 2oo8
pm - arrive in Las Vegas

Thursday, February 14, 2oo8
pm - arrive in Salt Lake City

Friday, February 22, 2oo8
pm - catch ferry in Washington

Monday, February 25, 2oo8
am - dock in Alaska

Friday, February 29, 2oo8
pm - arrive in Anchorage

I left out specifics for privacy reasons, but give me a ring, text, email, or comment for more details. We have missed Del Rio a lot. It is so fun being on a base where the neighbors are like your college roommates/friends. We will greatly miss the friends we have made here, but are looking forward to making more friends and seeing the old ones too.

cause for celebration

We should all have something to celebrate. I know, with the passing of President Hinckley, each member hopefully felt the warm feeling of knowing he's happier now with his wife, and he can do even more work where he is now, which probably adds to his happiness.

My family has a reason to celebrate for their upcoming move. And for the same reason, Mark and I will be celebrating in the next couple of days. He has his final check ride tomorrow if everything goes well. So let's put on our fancy earrings and find our reasons to celebrate!

oh! And about the picture: Mark and I have decided that since we're going to be celebrating our 2nd anniversary en route, then I should be 'en charge' of finding us each some small anniversary gifts. I saw these earrings in a boutique yesterday and thought the usual oo la las. Glad Mark liked them too.

a Prophet's Passing

Always stand for something; something he taught me. I'll miss him.

A Mighty Change of Hair II

In the Reeder's Digest post below, there was a professional-Mark-taken picture of the side of this new hair cut. This is one for my mom. I told her I cut it to about her length and she sounded pretty skeptical. I'm having fun with it, though!

Thanks for the new flavor of Fresca, Crista! Here's another thing people probably don't know about me. Soda, the day after is the best! I love the more-mellow bubbles that don't make my eyes water. Is that weird? Probably.

Reeder's Digest

Sorry for a lack of pictures, there has been a lack of mojo around here lately, and when I do take pictures, they just don't cut it. There will be pictures soon.

Last night Mark was supposed to have his first night-flight with NVGs (night vision goggles) and everything. He was nervous, but mostly excited about the flight.

He left, and I left too. I went to see 27 dresses, and he went off to his adventure. Well... you know how Altus just won't let us leave? The Altus-fate string still hasn't been cut! His plane broke as they were taking off, and they had to land the plane while not being able to hear the flight-tower. I'm quite proud of him. He said that when they started the plane and were taxi-ing around to the flight line, it was really loud. So loud that they all were wondering if their helmets just weren't working right - they couldn't hear each other. Then they get permission to take off, so they do so, all the time the plane is getting more deafening by the second. When they get airborne, they can no longer hear the flight tower. I'm not sure how they were able to land it still with not disrupting the pattern. But my hero-husband and crew did it.

He'll fly tomorrow night. I'll go see Mad Money. I know, I'm horrible.

Today Mark briefed for tomorrow's night flight, and I had a few appointments of my own.

The day started off with a hair cut - it's the shortest I have ever had it. Here's a night-time picture that Mark took for me. It's next to the prettiest thing in the room: the 70s orange-ish curtains. I will try for a better one. It's a small one because I didn't feel oh-so-pretty. I wish I had gotten a shot while I was there (like I did in "a mighty change of hair"). But.... you know, the lack of mojo.

I left the hair place, left for Kris' apartment and was greeted by a happy, jumping Buckwheat. What a funny boy!

Then it was home to have some Chicken Noodle Soup for my still-sore throat. And now it seems like I'm losing my voice. Perfect! I was just getting into singing in the car again; now I can bust out my Janis Joplin.

After my nice, warm, soothing lunch, I went to Crista's house for a Mary Kay session. I needed some help with a new wash-routine I want to get down. She's very savvy.

Then it was off to the eye-doctor's. Oh how I love that eye-puff machine. It makes me break into a cold sweat just thinking about it. At least I know what it's for now; I could not stop talking while I was there. I chatted with the nice nurse and my optometrist like I was about to lose my voice. Oh wait.

When I was with Doctor Mumford (who's really Todd to me and Mark - he's in our ward, and is hilARious), we talked all about the eye and how it works. Yes, I really like anatomy. So after a thorough review of the eye on the big chart next to the chair, it was time to view into my eye. After, I asked if there was a way I could see my own eye. YES! There is. So he got out the massively bright light and magnifying glass (like he's going to fry my optic nerve like a kid in summer time with nothing but an ant and a magnifying glass - hmm, what to do?) and got to taking digital pictures of my own eyes! It was so weird seeing my eyes up close like that. Now I'm trying to keep my eyes open and watery because they feel like they're on fire. I think all that over-exposure to magnified light was tooooo much. But it was sure fun!

Mark and I later went to Fred's fish and steak house for their Mon-Thurs. special $6.oo 1/2 lb. steak and mashed potato dinner. For this reason, am I glad the Altus-fate string has not been cut by the fate sisters yet. At 8:oo we watched the Republican debate and cheered loudly when Romney called Hillary a general. Overall, I thought it was the most mellowed debate thus far. It was a nice change; and we still got to see more sides of all the candidates. Unfortunately we missed the Dem. debate on Tuesday.

We think next Wednesday we'll be heading out of here for our Alaskan adventure. Keep those fingers crossed and those sissors ready, fate sisters!

transitions

- a mormon man, a black man and a woman are running for
president : transition of time and civil liberties
- stock market near recession : scary transition
- militant surge working : good transition
- Buckwheat's out of his kennel prison: transition to the Hansen's
- Heath Ledger is dead : sad transition
- Reeder's moving next week : finally a transition
- my art bag is under bags : squished transition
- my family sold their house : transition to WA en route
- starting to cough : my sign for wellness transition

What's one of your current transitions? name one

scrabble scrap

About every other Friday night, Mark and I go to Ruth's house for dinner and a game or two of Scrabble. Tonight it was no different. After some yummy broccoli and cheddar soup, we brought out the Scrabble board.

In the book I'm reading right now, Ofglen gets to play Scrabble with the Commander, secretly, so it's enjoyed much more. She mentions words that you can only spell on the best of games, so it was a bit of a motivator to hold out for the more complex words.

The second game came around after I came in second to Mark in the first. I sped ahead of Mark and Ruth when I spelled a word that gave me 39 points. At the end, I had 219 points! Mark only had 194 or something lower like that. Mark was skeptical, so he checked my math. Now, I have kept score for all other games we have played until now, so I thought he was trying to get me all riled up. As he was checking it, he started to laugh. I had added 30 extra points to my score, and added 3 to his he shouldn't have gotten, and didn't give Ruth 3 that she deserved. I was so embarrassed! Ruth started to laugh so hard at me, Mark was laughing, and so of course, I joined in. It's not that funny looking back, but it looked like I had been trying too hard to win. Mark was pretty pleased that his wife didn't know how to add because he ended up winning.

*The picture above is of the boxer Rocky Marciano. Wik says he still remains to be the only heavyweight boxer to retire having won every fight in his professional career. In the picture they have of him there, his nose is pretty flat.

7 things

Last week Mark caught the inevitable cold that was buzzing around Altus, poor guy! I avoided it longer than I thought I would be able to, but yesterday ... I got it.

So here I am blogging because I don't want to be only a fair weathered blogger. Don't worry about wishing me well, because I think I'll kick this pretty quickly. Hopefully that's not just wishful thinking! In the mean time, I have Lost, The Handmaid's Tale, and orange juice to keep my mind occupied.

HSF tagged me last September to write about 7 things [most] people probably don't know me. Here we go. Put your seat belts on!

1. The first thing that comes to mind are the things that still surprise myself: I have been bungee jumping twice. (my folks weren't too excited about that) The first time with Megan Cole (at the time it was her 7th jump) and the second time was with Brock Nelson. Both times were at AJ Hackett in Las Vegas; the highest in all the U.S. = 17 stories high, or 172 feet. There was a pool at the bottom, but I didn't want to be dunked. It was scary enough! I was most worried about the 'bungee' whip lash. But that was the best part! It was nice and smooth and it felt like you were flying. The second time I went, it was the last week they were there in Las Vegas; their lease was up and they wanted to go to New Zealand, so that's where they went!

2. I have been to Brazil. For those of you who have served a mission, it might not be that special, but I will always remember it! When I was a junior in High School my good friend Corin and her family asked if I wanted to accompany them to a little island called Fernando de Noronha. It's a very small (7 mile long) island about 300 miles off the Atlantic Coast of Brazil. Then we went to Fortaleza for a few nights at the end. It was one of the greatest vacations I've ever been on. So much fun being somewhere different where you had to learn a different way to say "thank you" - simple, but it was very exciting trying to understand their language and ways of life. Things I enjoyed there: the biggest rain drops I've seen, and the funnest lunch: whole crabs that you beat open with a wooden stick and you need to suck out the crab meat. Sorry if you don't like crabs, but it was delicious. Once you got past all the leg hair!

3. I'm a better listener than I am a talker. I can talk your ear off if I'm trying to get you to open up, but once that's happened, I just sit back and listen. Learning about people's lives and stories is a thing I've always been interested in hearing about. I think Mark fell in love with me when I asked a 2-star General how he became a 2-star General (which is something you just don't do)! Granted, he fell in love with me AFTER he realized that the General was entertained, and not offended, by this non-frequented question. That weekend the General taught me how to fish and treated me more like a daughter than someone he just met. My dad still laughs when he hears this story. Mark is still relieved that things happened the way they did that weekend.

4. Wolves terrify me. Along with sharks. Nothing surprising there, but what is surprising is: I'm even afraid of werewolves. I know they don't exist, but just the idea of them makes me start to shake. You know the things in The Village? Yeah, that's what I used to picture them as. I think M. Night Shaymalan got in my head before making that movie and before Lady in the Water. Lately in Anchorage there have been wolf-packs giving people trouble. Uh-oh.

5. Having my back lightly scratched and my hair played with are on my favorites list. It feels so good! I was always one of those little girls in kindergarten, who during story-time the teacher would have to tell the girl sitting behind me that it wasn't beauty hour. I always felt bad for that person because I think it was always my idea. ha ha

6. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was almost 20. ha - in fact, right after I got my ears pierced, Megan and I went bungee jumping. It was a memorable night. On the elevator ride up to the platform, there was a guy there with piercings almost everywhere you could see-pretty gross. I was glad I wasn't him; something about strapping yourself to a big bungee cord with that many medal things in your skin didn't seem too smart to me. ugh.

7. I have just started watching the show Lost because of all the free time I have in this hotel, and because the library had the first two seasons available. Within a weeks time, I will have finished the all of it! It started off slow for me, possibly because I had seen bits and pieces of the show before and knew the beginning of the story line. However, it soon caught on and I was .. yes, hooked. It's pretty good!! Pretty scary sometimes, but pretty exciting. ]

If these were sort of lame, sorry! It was a good time for me. Just to prove I'm not a fair weathered blogger.

Now go ahead and tell me something I might not know about you.

happy things

I love to think I'm involved with people. And when we're moving away from family and new friends a lot of the time, it's nice to know I still have 'my roots'; even if they're rooted in the mess of wires that connects the internet person to person. To know that I can check in on people and people can check in on me are motivation enough to keep on blogging. Even if it's not always about Mark and I, it's a nice outlet to get those cooped up thoughts most people think are nonsense. But us bloggers... we know better.