Last Week of August

After Mary Jo left, I went back out to see Greg in Gakona again. This time the weather was nice and we finally did go blueberry picking up on the Denali Highway. It was beautiful, such a vast landscape! But I guess I didn’t bring my camera because I don’t have the first picture. The berries were hard to find, and although we finally found a pretty good patch on the south side of a hill, we didn’t get that many. The area we picked in is above the tree line and the berries are low bush in those areas. We used a berry picker. You can see in the pictures that it looks like the picker will get just the berries and leave the leaves, but in reality, it doesn’t work that way! So it took quite a bit of time to clean the few berries we did get, BUT it is still way faster than picking individual berries (the berries are really small). After cleaning and freezing our small cache, I’ve been making blueberry syrup with them, using just a cup at a time. Maybe that will get us through the winter? I can only hope! :) It’s good on yogurt, pancakes, French toast, ice cream, yum, yum! I talked to Greg about moving in with him. I really like the area that he lives, it is so beautiful! Also, for me, living in the big city of Anchorage must be a lot like living in any northern city, except that the real Alaska is only 30 minutes away. Wouldn’t it be such a great experience to be in the “real Alaska” 24/7? That’s why I’m here, after all!! And so it was decided. I would move in and help Greg with cooking for his hunters during September and in October, we would winterize one of the rooms for me to use for my acupuncture business. Besides the berry picker pictures, the rest of these pictures were taken on the day I moved out of Tom’s house in Anchorage, where I had rented a room. Tom really does have a cool house, lots of nice skylights. In his kitchen, the cabinets are covered with salmon prints on rice paper, which is certain type of Japanese art (can’t remember the name). The rail going from the front door is also a salmon motif.

August 21 Back to Anchorage

We left Greg and Gakona and headed back to Anchorage, driving by a couple glaciers along the way. There's a few pictures of regular Anchorage traffic; the picture of the park is the Park Strip in downtown Anchorage, just a couple of blocks from Tom's house. It's called "Strip" because way back when, it used to be an air field. Mary Jo and I ate dinner at Simon and Seaforts and watched planes take off and land over the Cook Inlet. What a view! Then we took an evening drive down the Turnagain Arm. Mary Jo left early the next morning. What a great time we had together! It was a very special vacation for both of us.

August 20 Gone Fishing on the Gulkana

Greg took Mary Jo and I fishing on the Gulkana, caught a beautiful sockeye salmon, and then cooked it up on the grill for us! A stunning day in Alaska with the Wrangell Mountains in the distance. The last picture (on the top) is Martina, the resident pine martin, sitting on top of the pine martin trap!!!!

Aug 19 On The Road: Denali to Gakona via Fairbanks

The first few pictures (starting from the bottom, as usual) are from a lookout point on the Parks Hwy, just a few miles south of Fairbanks. We got gas in Fairbanks and tried to go to a museum, but it was closed, so we hit the road again, eating lunch at a little pull off on the Richardson Hwy just a few minutes south of Fairbanks. Then we stopped at the Pipeline. Here are a few pictures for you to read all about it!! We drove through some just unbelievable country. It was so beautiful, Mary Jo and I stopped and picked up rocks to commemorate the day and the trip. Finally got to Greg’s in Gakona in the late afternoon.