Sun!

Yesterday afternoon we had sunshine.

We haven't had sunshine for a couple weeks. There have been occasional cloud breaks, the odd half hour of sunshine, but mostly gloomy.

Gloom and rain.

So yesterday when we had sunshine, we went off to explore Earthquake Park. Earthquake Park is on the Knik Arm, which eventually leads out to the Pacific.

Mostly there are mudflats, which means you can't go out to the edge of the water. The mudflats, and downtown Anchorage.

But if you go to the farthest parking lot, you can walk down to a rocky beach.

We threw rocks in the water, picked up a few interesting rocks for Tess's endless rock collections, and enjoyed the sun on our faces (and in our eyes).

We watched this little guy swimming around in a teeny puddle. (It's only maybe half an inch long. And it's kind of leaping that rock. If you click on the photo, you can see a bigger version and get a better look at that thing.)

One little drawback, sort of. This beach is directly in line with the end of the runway. So every five minutes or so, a plane would come over the bluff. Not exactly peaceful.

But rather interesting to see the planes so closely we could watch the wheels retract and the doors close.

On the way home, within a mile of our house, we saw five moose. (I think they were out enjoying the sun too.) As we crossed Ship Creek, which is maybe a quarter mile from our house, we saw this mom and calf walking down the creek. So of course we pulled over and ran back to check them out and take some photos.

Today we were back to rather gray and gloom, with a few sprinkles.

Worst summer weather ever.

My so-called life.

We have actual almost darkness now, but NO SUMMER. It's barely 60 degrees for a high, moments of teeny little bits of sunshine, a tiny bit of rain (it rained the day we went to some glacier between Anchorage and Whittier. It's really cold standing in a drizzle, next to a lake full of glacier chunks. Really.). We have had a couple really nice sunny summer days, but we are working on our second straight week of overcast days. Not really a great introduction to Anchorage, not endearing me to Anchorage, definitely.

There are some consolations. Like my fab new house, with SEVEN storage rooms and areas. There's a big storeroom plus a small closet under the stairs on the ground floor, two storerooms plus two sets of shelves in the garage, a big walk in linen closetupstairs and a walk in closet in the upstairs laundry room. Plus a small walk in closet in each of the four bedrooms.

See the sunshine?
Obviously I took this photo a couple weeks ago...These are the doors to the deck and the backyard, and that's my backyard. And that gray bit between the houses out the right door? That's the Chugach Mountains. We can see them pretty well, and this fall when the leaves drop we will have an even better view.

The dogs love the new backyard, especially the grass. Grass is much better for those surprise attacks.

When the kids and I went to pick Mark up from the airport when he was coming back from Japan -- he went to Japan right after we arrived, and is now in Honolulu. His new job seems to involve a lot of travel -- we parked in the cell phone lot (which is such a great idea -- it's a free parking lot where you pull in and wait for a call from the person you are picking up) which is right next to a lake full of seaplanes. So we sat there for half an hour watching seaplanes land and take off. It was very Alaskan.

This is our house right now -- our stuff has arrived but I haven't unpacked everything yet.

We went up into the Chugach Mountains, where there's a great view of Anchorage and Fort Richardson, and SNOW. Here's a shot of the dogs having a most fabulous time racing across the snow and jumping over a small stream. Mojo crashed on his last attempt. He fell sideways and ended up on his back. No lasting damage, though...