Snow... it's coming

Earlier this week, the Chugach Mountains were pretty barren. Some greenish/grayish hills, with snow at the very top, overlooking Anchorage. Some clouds came in on Tuesday, and sat on the mountains for a couple days. By the time the clouds lifted, the mountains had a thick layer of snow on top. As winter approaches, we can watch the snowline fall. I figure we have a couple more weeks before the snow gets to us.

Cheap AK flights

I meant to post this earlier, but if anyone is planning (or considering) a trip to AK in the next year, check out the prices from Alaska Air's PFD sale. They're pretty low, and will be available until November 2.

Death knell for Twins and M's

I got home from work today, and there was a small package at my door. The sender was some guy from Lodi, CA. Very confused, and slightly afraid that the package contained bomb-like materials or white powder, I opened it to find...

A Minnesota Twins hat! Apparently my services have been requested again. I will bring down the Twins, simply by rooting for them. This is an interesting move by the Tigers fans who wish to employ my sports curse. I guess they are seeking a division title, so they can avoid the Yanks and get the A's in the first round. Seems like a risky proposition -- I think fans should be careful what they wish for. Moreover, I'm not sure my resources are unlimited; I'm sure my services will be employed again once the playoffs begin. Can I jinx four teams (White Sox, Twins, A's/Yanks, and obviously the Mariners) in one season? We shall see.

In other baseball news, the Mariners have defied all common sense and logic, deciding to bring Bill Bavasi AND Mike Hargrove back next year. I cannot believe it. Bavasi... okay. He doesn't bother me so much. But Hargrove is a terrible manager. Very, very bad. His lineups are baffling, and his in-game decisions are just plain stupid. His decisions to give certain players (Everett, Bloomquist) consistent at-bats are indefensible. I agree with everything said here. The M's won't be as good as they can be as long as Hargrove is making the calls.

Two Alaska things

First, apparently a volcano near here might erupt soon. Cool.

Second, we've now entered into the time of the year when there is more dark than light every day. Monday offered 12 hours of each, and now we're losing about 5 minutes of daylight a day. Some quick math for you: that's 35 minutes a week, 2.5 hours a month, until late December.

Now who wants to visit??

The Madden Curse

I'm not sure I believe there's a curse, but there are a lot of reasons why the Madden video game cover athlete might have an injury-filled year.

First, the cover athlete is always coming off a year in which he didn't get hurt. It's hard to find a big-time player who goes two years in a row without missing at least a game or two.

Second, the athlete often played deep into the playoffs, thereby extending his season and shortening his off-season. I'm pretty sure this is why many of the Seahawks have had injury problems this year.

Third, John Madden is evil. Okay, maybe I do believe in the curse.

It sucks that Shaun is out for the Chicago game, but I really don't think it will hurt the team as much as it might seem. I'll never believe that Shaun was the team's MVP last year, despite all the accolades he won. If I were to rank the most valuable players from last year, I'd say: Matt Hasselbeck, Walter Jones, Lofa Tatupu, Shaun Alexander. Sure, it'll hurt not having him in there, but Holmgren has confidence in Morris, and the team is really built more around precision passing anyway. Morris will have a fine day if the line blocks for him and if Hasselbeck is connecting downfield. Should be a good game.

My work is done here

Tigers clinch playoff berth. Can I stop rooting for the White Sox now?

Stanford football: worse than ever?

It is axiomatic that when you get blown out by Washington State, you have a bad team. When you get blown out by Navy, who in turn loses to Tulsa, you have one of the worst teams ever. Stanford is reeeaaallly bad. Holy crap. This might the worst team they've ever had. No exaggeration.

Luckily, they're not on TV much up here. More luckily, Michigan is on TV up here a lot. Michigan seems to have its defense back, and the offense has Mario Manningham, so this could be a fun year for Blue.

But Stanford... damn.

Wrong announcer quits

Ron Fairly, longtime Mariners color guy, announced he's quitting. When he started, I didn't like him. But he grew on me, and in the end I kind of enjoyed him. It's too bad that he's leaving, and Rick Rizzs is staying... now that Moyer's gone, my last wish for the M's is to ditch Rizzs. But, just as I fear I'll never be free of Moyer's greasy clutches, I fear that Rizzs will announce Mariner games as long as he lives, which will be until 2070 or so, I think.

The worst thing about Fairly quitting is that it gives the M's another chance to put a crappy guy in the booth... the M's choices in broadcasters is even worse than their choices in free agency. My prediction: Cryin' Joey Cora.

Tide

One of the ways I keep myself busy all day is watching the tide change from high:
to low:
Endless fun.

Marketing

You've heard of "Ladies Night," where a bar or club will offer reduced prices to women on cover or drinks to get more women to attend. Here in Anchorage, they go a step further. At one local bar, "Ladies Night" means free dinner. Some of my friends went this week... the food is free, the only price is being gawked at by the crusty sourdoughs fresh off the fishing boats. In describing these fellows, the words "abscess tooth" were mentioned.

Toy.

Alaskan style.

Bears and reindeer

Not sure if it's a sign that I'm acclimating or not, but last night I had a dream that I was being hunted by bears. They were only black bears, but it was enough to make me wake up and wonder where I am and where the bears went.

Today for lunch I had reindeer sausage from a street vendor. Very tasty. Had to take advantage of the good weather we're having and eat outside on the grass... before winter arrives... which should be next Tuesday or so, I'd guess.

A little hike

I spent Sunday watching football, but Saturday was in the hills. Some fellow clerks and I went to hike around and old dilapidated mine:Things have fallen into disrepair.
From there we hiked up to a small mountain lake:
A nice place to stop before the rain clouds rolled in.
So many places like this, all so close to home. Have I convinced you to visit yet?

Orientation

A few months ago, I commented on this piece from the Stanford Magazine. I remember thinking that the author must be kidding about the orientation -- more talk of bears than of judicial philosophies. Well, now I know... she wasn't kidding. We had an orientation on Friday that included discussions on bear safety, hypothermia, kayak safety, etc... Funny.

An ugly win

The good: I got to watch the Seahawks game today.
The bad: They played like crap.
The ugly: The game started at 9 a.m. here.

Also good: They won, but won ugly. The offensive line is clearly going to be an issue -- Hasselbeck got knocked around a lot. I give the Lions a lot of credit, though. I think they're going to be a good team this year... as long as their D plays that well every week. The Lions' offense was bad, but I think that had to do with the Seahawks' D playing really well. I'm excited about the Seahawks defense, especially the addition of Julian Peterson. But that O-line needs to get its act together.

On a clear day... you can see a very far way

Especially here. On the clear days, this is the view out my bedroom window, which faces west:


When I get to work, this is the view I see out my office window, which faces north. The peak on the left is Mt. McKinley/Denali, the tallest point in North America. It's about 300 miles from Anchorage, and still visible. Pretty crazy.

Oh, and today I saw a pair of Beluga whales swimming right along this shore. There's a surprise every day here.

Animals

I haven't seen any moose or bears yet, but they're around. Some of my coworkers reported some moose hanging out in their yard all weekend. And we really have been given advice for what to do when we see moose and bears (brown and black) in the streets or on trails. This is real knowledge around here, as common as knowing to look both ways before crossing the street. If you see a moose, don't spook it... run away. Black bear, yell at it. Brown bear, just pray it goes away by itself, or else lay down. It's simply accepted that we share the city with these creatures.

In other news

We felt an earthquake tonight. At about 10:30 AKDT the house shook a little bit. Turns out it was a 4.3 magnitude, centered a little bit north of Anchorage.

Shhh, don't tell Mom. She'll worry.

UPDATE: Now they have it measured as a 4.1 magnitude.

Out of shape

After a week of sitting on a boat or in a car, and eating rich foods, I need to get back in shape. Tonight I went to an Anchorage tradition, Tuesday Night Races, where the locals get together and run around different trails.

Tonight I ran a 5k that featured some huge hills. Holy crap. Big ups. Ugh.

Fun event... we'll see if I do it again next week. I've also found that there's pickup ultimate every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday... at least until the snow comes.

UPDATE: An article about Tuesday Night Races.

The trip

Elise arrived on Thursday evening, a little late after a slow takeoff in Chicago. We got home and had a quick dinner with Mom and Dad, and watched a movie. The next morning we got the car packed quickly, and had some extra time to hang out before leaving at 1. Grabbed some wine from TJ’s, and got to Bellingham around 3. The directions I got from Google sucked, so we had no idea where to go. Finally we pulled over and asked at a marine supply store, and got directions to the ferry terminal. The directions were right on, so we made it with plenty of time, and then had a couple hours of waiting before finally loading.

The Columbia is huge – holds almost 1000 passengers, has a dining room, snack bar, solarium, theatre, two large viewing decks. We had a four-berth cabin, which has two bunk beds plus a toilet, sink, and shower. It was more space than we needed, really, but it was nice to be able to spread out.

We left Bellingham at 6, and headed west before turning north to hit the inside passage, east of Vancouver Island. The ship is great – they show movies in the theatre, they have a naturalist who gives presentations about animals or towns or geographic features. The sunset the first night was amazing. We were traveling west at the time, so the sun set in an amazing explosion of red and orange and reflected across the many small islands east of Vancouver Island. The food in the dining room is okay – the first night I had the halibut and Elise had a game hen. Nothing amazing, but it was a nice environment with views out the stern of the ship.

Saturday was more of the same. The islands don’t change much between Puget Sound and Ketchikan, I noticed. Small, forest covered, not too tall. The inside passage is nice because we rarely come across rough waters, and everything there is to see is just off the sides of the ship. We don’t see a lot of wildlife – there were a couple porpoises and a couple whales, but not much else. We learn about bears from the naturalist. Apparently, if the bear charges me, I need to lay in the fetal position and cover my neck. The bear might injure me, and it will hurt, but then he’ll probably go away. Great.

When we woke up the next day we were in Ketchikan. The terrain is the same, but the weather isn’t. We had mostly sunshine until now, but here the weather is drizzly and rainy. After the town of Wrangell, we start to see some bald eagles when we go through the Wrangell Narrows. Very tight, shallow little waterway, with changing currents. We go slowly through it. At dusk we reach Petersburg. The terrain is still largely the same, and the weather still sucks.

We awake the next morning in Juneau. Finally, the geography is changing. The mountains are taller and more craggy; there are glaciers cascading down the hills toward the water. We got to Skagway safely, and walked around the town a little bit. It’s Disneyland for retirees. False-front buildings, wooden sidewalks, people walking around in circa-1898 garb. Amusing. We bought some fudge and took some pictures, then hit the road on the Klondike Highway. A gorgeous road, it weaves its way alongside the old White Pass Yukon Route railroad from the old gold rush days. We pass lakes small and large, and lots of smaller peaks. When we get out to take pictures, we encounter the state bird: the mosquito. They’re everywhere. Suddenly, getting in and out of the car is a challenge – it must be done quickly and decisively to avoid allowing mosquitoes in the car. We pass into British Columbia and then into the Yukon Territory.

After about 100 miles we reach the Alaska-Canada Highway (aka the “Alcan”), and head into Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. There’s a miner’s convention in town this day, so most of the hotel rooms are booked. After help from the visitor’s center, we finally track down one of the few remaining rooms, which turns out to be a “suite” in a family motel. We didn’t need the kitchenette and the living room, but it was nice to have the extra space. Dinner was at a barbecue joint. Elise had caribou stew, and I had prawns.

The next morning we took the Alcan back into Alaska. The drive is again magnificent, with more lakes and peaks – this time larger snow-capped ones. We stopped in Tok for the night at a surprisingly nice hotel and a decent meal at “Fast Eddie’s.” The next morning we started off for Anchorage. We stopped for lunch in Glenallen, at a restaurant called the Brown Bear Rhodehouse. A classic dive, it had an “Insured by Smith & Wesson” sign on the front door, a musty bar and a dimly lit atmosphere. Fox News was on the TV in the corner. The food was okay, and the biggest attraction was the wall of brown bear photographs.

The last 100 miles of the drive to Anchorage was amazing. Winding through the Chugach mountains, we saw some very tall (16,000+ ft) peaks and some long glaciers. We drove right past the Matanuska Glacier – 26 miles long and several miles wide. What a sight. Slowly we started seeing more signs of civilization – a truck stop here, a gas station there, and finally a McDonalds in the city of Palmer. Then it was just 30 more miles to Anchorage.

The journey finally over, we went to a very nice restaurant called Simon and Seafort’s, where we ordered king crab legs and delicious appetizers. We spent the next day exploring downtown Anchorage, and Elise left on Thursday night for a red-eye back to Chicago. It was a great trip.

For photos, go here. I'll be back with more later about life in Anchorage so far.

Taller people are smarter.

So says a new study. I'm surprised; I thought the opposite would be true.

Road trip pics coming soon...

Resurfacing

I've made it to Anchorage, and today was my first day at work. Internet service is not set up yet (I'm mooching from a downtown hotel right now), so more pics and tales of the trip to come later. Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone.