03 07 - New Trash Cans

Here is a lovely picture of our lovely new trash bins.  Regular trash must go in the bin on the left; recyclables must go in the bin on the right.  We have mandatory recycling in Overland Park (for which we are charged a fee on our trash collection bill).  Now we have these mandatory bins that we must use.  They are too big to go in our crowded garage, so they are just going to have to set outside between the car and the garage.  Ugly.  However, it is a nice picture of my van, Ray's trooper, Ray's roadrunner, and the house.

03 06 - David's Native String Art

David does speaking and demonstrations on Native Alaskan crafts and traditions such as string art (which most of us know as cat's cradle).  He learned the art of making the shapes from his Dad who learned from his Dad who learned from...  This is a fisherman (left side) and the fish that got away (right side).  David was amazingly fast at making amazing pictures.

03 05 - Chugach Mountains

This is the Chugach mountain range from on the way back from Wasila to Anchorage yesterday, after the start of the Iditarod.  We had a beautiful day with bright sunshine and no snow.  There is a moose in the left corner of the picture, but you can barely seen it. We saw 8 moose in this field.

03 04 - Run, doggies, Run!

Beth snapped this picture of us as one of the identical twin women was passing behind us down the starting shoot.  There had to be at least 10,000 people hanging around on the frozen Willow Lake for the official restart and the official beginning of the timed portion of the Iditarod.  Even being from Kansas, I have found my favorites to root for:  DeeDee Johnrowe, a breast cancer survivor that runs with her dogs in pink traces and booties; Lance Mackey, a 5-time winner; Mitch Seavey (dad) and Dallas Seavey (son), owners of the Seavey Iditaride,  where we have been.  Go to www.iditarod.com to follow the race.

03 03 - Bonus, Here we are

Here is our group:  Cleta, David Nicolai, Elizabeth, and Ray.  They use the snow fence to keep the crowd out of the street.  The picture is not fuzzy.  That is snow.  It snowed all day, for about another 5-6 inches.

03 03 - Iditarod ceremonial start

We went downtown today for the ceremonial start to the Iditarod.  You can pay $1000-$1500 to ride in the sled for this ceremonial leg, about 11 miles.  This day was for the crowd and sponsors and the mushers hammed it up for the crowd.  I love to watch the teams get started.  I heard later that they estimated the crowd at 10,000 people.  Anchorage is not really that big and it was really crowded.

03 02 - Native Alaskan Crafts Fair

Today, we went to the Native Alaskan Crafts Fair held at one of the malls.  I had never been.  It was just fascinating.  David explained things to me with outstanding patience.  This is the lady from Barrow from which I bought a dogsled sculpture made out of the Baleen.  This was one fair where you knew the stuff was authentic.

03 01 - Snow in the driveway

This is a picture of Ray standing next to the snow pile beside Beth's driveway.  The snow is taller than Ray in the strip between driveways in the condo association.  There is more snow here than you can possible imagine.  The snow in neighborhoods is up to the bottom of the stop signs.  We have heard Beth tell us about the snow but you really cannot imagine how much snow it is until you see it.

02 29 - Bonus, Army Airborne Guys

On our flight from Seattle to Anchorage there were about 30-40 soldiers returning from training in California.  This was the way that they retrieved the luggage from the carousel and stacked it in a pile before loading it on the bus.

02 29 - Airport Security

We are on our way to Alaska to see Beth and David, the boyfriend, and go to Fur Rondy and the Iditarod.  This stuff is too heavy to pack in our suitcase so we are lugging it through airports and airport screening.  Check out the boots.  These are my heavy duty boots, ready for the snow.