Whew, I'm back from Colorado! Spent most of my trip in sunny Breckenridge, stoners, er, I mean, skiers delight!
The Rocky Mountains were rather lovely, but still couldn't hold a candle to the Alaska Range, let alone Healy. I guess it just seemed weird to have dirty, slushy snow everywhere in full on winter...
But oh... the sun...
Breckenridge, CO average days of sunshine: 300
Healy, AK average days of sunshine: 156
Hello sun!
There was a decent amount of "powder" while I was there, that mixed with the sun to make for some fun. No down hill skiing for me, but I tried some cross country skiing with Walt for the first time with mixed results...
Heck ya, I got this...
Oh, okay, downhill...
Pretty much pro...
Oh that's a lovely vista... wait a second...
Ya, I spent some time on the ground, however I surprised myself with how much time I was vertical. Cha, brah.
Time was not only spent on the ground, but also playing PINBALL! Colorado is pretty much a mecca of pinball. It's just a matter of finding it.
Breckenridge it's self wasn't too shabby with selections. There was even a smoothly functioning Funhouse with light up flipper buttons... hello Rudy!
The pinball highlight was Fort Collins, which had three previously unseen games for me. Rescue 911 with a magnetic helicopter; Safecracker, which uses time instead of number of balls to dictate game play...
and Blackhole, with it's basement playfield...
Also... sidewalk pianos and a perfect parallel park (take THAT 2009 Ruhr University Bochum study)...
You didn't think I'd give up PUZZLES whilst away did you??? We had to MacGyver a puzzling surface, but it got DONE. Thank you duct tape and North Side Pizza...
Supposedly there are MOOSE in Breckenridge. No, I didn't see any. The only "wild" life I saw was "Oscar" the neighborhood fox eating leftovers from the back porch...
I celebrated my birthday in Breck. My best gift was from my lazy boyfriend who bamboozled kids at his work to make me a lovely card...
Seriously though, it was a lovely trip...
Now I'm home in Alaska.
I was welcomed by ice fog and -46 degree weather. Yikes...
Brrrrrrrrrr. Home sweet home.
Ernesto is hiding and I'm sure hates me even more for leaving him. At least I've got Mini to hang with and watch TV...
Yes, yes, it's true, Annals will be taking a trip in a couple of days. First, ten days in the pretty much tropical locale of Colorado, and then a week in the "heart of the interior", Fairbanks. I'm not getting out of here a moment too soon...
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
The cold has really reached an amazing intensity! My walk today didn't last more than twenty minutes before my fingers and toes started first throbbing in frozen pain and then lost feeling altogether. I did however get my first view, since October, of that mysterious bright orb in the sky rising (barely) above the mountains...
The piles of snow around town are becoming quite monumental. My car has been dwarfed...
Walking to my outhouse is like trekking down a deep, frozen pristine white cavern...
The poor stunted spruce trees can't stand up to the winter assault... drooooop
While walking about outside when the temperature drops below -20°, it's interesting to see the heat shimmers rising off of anything with even a LITTLE heat. My vision is blurred whenever I breath out the warm, foggy air. Even while just sitting outside, the heat rising off my FACE causes heat shimmers. Then the warm, moist air around my face promptly freezes onto my eyebrows, eyelashes, nose hairs, hat and scarf, creating a web of frost and icicles across my head. I have to wipe at my face every few minutes for fear of my entire face freezing solid. Oh winter wonder water fun! H2-Oh no!
I hit my stride with my fruit and veggie puzzle, and got that done before my trip, like a CHAMP! Don't be TOO jealous Sarah;)
In baking news, I created a pretty amazing loaf... it's sourdough done in the style of ciabatta with garlic and jalapenos, yum! My new starter (not named until it lives longer than a couple of weeks) is pretty awesome.
I'm going to miss my sweet little cabin in the woods, but away I must go!
Stay tuned for...
Breaking News from Breckenridge
or
Fantasies from Fairbanks
You know it's a special day when the "Red" apple choice at Minor's Mart is not the usual Red Delicious, but a Pink Lady. Oh joy to my flavor starved palate! One of the things I miss about the Pacific Northwest is surely all the marvelous apple choices... pink lady, jazz, fuji, honeycrisp, braeburn, ambrosia, oh my! I will say though, I will not soon forget the crisp, wonderful apple of today:)
Along with my pink lady, I also picked up an Iditarod essential...
Any Alaskan recognizes Tang as a cheap and yummy way to get your hard to find vitamin C. Now, mush!
This past week found me mostly indoors. The weather has been pretty snowy and windy and generally not too welcoming for outdoor activities.
I may not get to eat many fruits and veggies, but I can PUZZLE them! YUM!
I did manage a trip to the post office and found a couple of sweet late Christmas (or early birthday?) packages from my two Eds...
Eddtastic!
Eddo!
(moose plush blanket)
and a sweet outhouse for my birds...
Now little Chirpee the Black-Capped Chickadee has FULL services...
Chirpee is just another amazing beast of the far north. Both larger AND smarter than his southern cousins. An observation I've made about animals in Alaska is that they tend to be larger and smarter as a rule when compared to their brethren in lower latitudes. There is much less diversity in the north, so it seems like the few animals that do call this arctic wonderland home all year have more space and resources to go around. Larger! Though there are resources to be had, it can take "resourcefulness" to get to them in the frozen, interminable winter. Smarter!
In knitting, I've been really focused on MAGIC SCARVES. Is it a scarf? A cowl? A hat? A tube top? You decide!
Also at the post office, I found my swimsuit edition Victoria's Secret catalog. Thank god, just in time! Almost time to hang up my snow pants and bunny boots...
