Well, winter's back!
Seems like just last week I was winding down at work and closing it all up for the season. Though now, over a month later, I'm in the very depths of winter! Temperatures are descending into the negatives, and remaining there for most of the day.
I went on a trip "Outside" to Portland in early October. As Aurora and Healy were saying their goodbyes there was minimal snow on the ground that was barely sticking, and temperatures were only down to the 20's in Alaska...
Arriving in Portland, it was a warm and humid 60°. There was of course plenty of that famous PNW rain however. It sure is different being wet and warm rather than dry and cold. I spent most of time in Portland playing pinball and walking all around the colorful, damp and dirty streets.
After spending so much time surrounded by spruce trees, snow capped mountains and miles and miles of tundra, my eyes had a hard time adjusting to all the concrete, power lines and traffic. There was still beauty in the reflective glass of buildings, the bright fall colors on the trees lining the streets, and of "alpenglow" on Big Pink (urban version of alpenglow on Denali?:)
Outside my old job...
PORTLANDIA!
Second largest copper statue, after the Statue of Liberty
I even saw some Portland wildlife!
Now, I'm back home to Healy, and it is surely a winter wonderland!
It snowed so much in a couple of days, the top of this poor little spruce was weighed down with a cap of snow...
In final news for the day, the Denali National Park quarter was released yesterday! They had the launch party right here in Healy at the community center. The quarter features of course, Denali and a dall sheep. The dall sheep is what inspired officials to make Denali a park and preserve oh so many years ago...
