The Fair

The Alaska State Fair takes place in Palmer every August. It sounded like a lot of fun – and Alaska is turning 50!

Fireworks were planned for just about every night.

Governor Palin was also supposed to be at the Fair to hand out the new Alaska quarters to the kids. Well, she never came, since she was recently chosen as John McCain’s running mate.

I was definitely most excited about the food! I had been looking forward to this annual artery-clogging event for months!

Staci and I had fried halibut

Kristen and Sarah had giant turkey legs

Don't worry, they didn't serve huskies...
Then I had oysters

Then Kristen and I had corn fritters and fried cheesecake...And of course, who could resist the Denali cream puffs?
Again, the giant cream puffs with various toppings!
The flower exhibit

Of course, I could not leave the flower exhibit without looking at the sunflowers

Next stop - animals!! I was hoping for polar bears, or grizzlies, or caribou...but I guess this is the best they could do... :-)

After walking around for a few hours, my legs were very tired. While I was waiting for my friends, I found the nearest available place to sit down. It just turned out to be the 'Planned Parenthood' table, and no one was manning the booth at the time...

The pumpkin got an earful!

Our last stop was the giant vegetables
The hugest cabbages I've ever seen

Giant pumpkin

I had a great time at the fair. But of course, I woke up this morning and went for an extra long run! :-)

Yay Salmon!

One of the things on my ‘to do list’ is to learn how to fish. I know nothing about fishing, but absolutely LOVE salmon! So when Kristen invited me to go salmon fishing, I did not hesitate!

After church, we drove out to Wasilla, where Sarah’s (Kristen’s friend) uncle owns a cool cabin by a secret creek, the name of which I have sworn not to disclose.

The ‘secret creek’

The cabin

Silver salmon were what we were after. I was told that silvers were hard to catch since they tend to put up a good fight. It took me a while to learn how to cast the right distance – it went into the trees a few times. I was a novice for sure, but it was a lot of fun. (You skilled fishermen can stop laughing at me now!)

We were out there for a few hours, and by the end of the day, I, the novice, caught THREE – let me repeat, THREE – fish!! I had to let one go, since the limit of the day was two. They weren’t kidding about the silvers putting up a fight. They flipped and jumped around so hard that they left a large red spot on my stomach from the stabbing fishing pole! It was such a blast, though!!

I got one!!!

'Clubbing' it - this was for being stubborn!
(Reminded me of the time when I had to 'club' a rat!)

My first salmon - it was a big boy!
We caught 5 between the 3 of us
Fresh fillet?

Food for the month... :-)

More 'Mounds'

While I'm not quite ready to go up Bear Mountain yet, I have discovered a few other trails in the Valley. One of them is called Lazy Mountain. Unlike what its name suggests, Lazy is anything but lazy. It has approximately the same elevation as Bear. The second half of the trail was mainly alpine tundra, or rocks and gravel, which made it slippery.

A race takes place every July on Lazy Mountain and the neighboring Matanuska Peak. Avid runners (or I should say crazy people) endure this 14 mile race of 9000 ft elevation gain. Some other mountain races (as long as 24 miles) completely blow my mind because a regular marathon is impossible enough for most people, add thousands of feet of elevation to that... That’s just absolutely crazy!

Anyways, my friend Carolyn, Kavi the German shepherd and I hiked up to the top. It was absolutely beautiful, even with the cloudy sky!

I left my mark in the guestbookThe view from the top

Kavi - the ultimate mountain racer!

On our way down, Carolyn started running, so I thought I would give this skipping and bouncing from side to side stuff a shot. I was cautious, but I must say, it had worked rather well. It was amazing to watch Carolyn run down the steep slope – a few blinks and she was out of sight. She had to slow down and wait on me a couple of times to make sure I didn’t get pummeled by a bear. Surprisingly, I was able to keep my legs under me and not tumble down the hill.

Another trail I discovered is ‘the Butte’. It has become my favorite trail, mainly because it is fairly animal-safe. Moose are spotted occasionally, but no bears!!

View from top of the Butte

Me

Anchorage

Anchorage is about 50 miles southwest of Palmer - roughly a one-hour commute. I spent all day Wednesday in Anchorage, but six of those hours were in the operating room in an orthopedic surgery center. After observing 7 surgeries, my work day ended at 3 o'clock, which meant I had quite a few hours to explore.

Downtown

The couple for whom I am house-sitting had left me a big SUV, so I had thrown a bike in the back of the SUV, just in case I had extra time at the end of the day - which I did. So I went on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail - an 11-mile trail along the Knik Arm and Cook Inlet. I wasn't sure how much I was able to bike on the old Huffy, since it weighs a ton, literally, but I thought I'd try anyway. I was also quite amused by several cross-country 'roller-skiers' on the trail.

Westchester Lagoon

Downtown Anchorage through the berry bushes

Apparently, wildlife has been abundant on the trail, including a few bear maulings. I did not see any. Old Huffy was not the most comfortable thing to sit on for a long period of time, but perhaps its squeakiness made my presence known to the animals in the wooded areas. I was prepared with my bear spray though.

Trail in the woods

Self-portrait on the bike

(kids, please do not try this at home!)

I ended up biking 16 miles roundtrip. It was then time to grab some dinner and head back to Palmer. Of course, I was up for trying something new, as always. So, I went to a local deli and ordered reindeer stew - quite delicious! Santa's reindeer!?

Mound?

I did not have to go into work until 10 o'clock this morning, so I 'hiked' up Bear Mountain at 6:30 am with two of my friends and 2 German shepherds, in case there were bears. I always thought I was a pretty good hiker...until this morning. It was a hiking experience like no other. Instead of a trail that spirals up the mountainside, the trail at Bear Mountain goes straight up, literally! The shortest path between two points is a straight line, I suppose. It was by far the steepest slope I have ever climbed. In fact, at the steepest parts, the slope looked almost vertical! My calf muscles were on a constant stretch for 30 minutes (1800 ft)...not a pleasant sensation at all! All that and the mud...yeah!

What further complicated the hike was my fear of heights - which was fully realized this morning, 3000 feet up in the air. I very well could've had an asthma attack...if I had asthma. What amazes me is that my friends usually RUN down the mountain. "You bounce, and skip, from side to side," they would say. They also reassured me that this was a good 'training mound' to begin with. The view was absolutely wonderful, though, but only if I could've fully enjoyed it! On my way up, I did not bother to look behind me and just climbed and climbed. However, I foolishly decided to look back 200 ft short of the summit, and realized how high up I was. There were no trees or tall brushes to block the view, but only short patches of wet grass...and the vertical path to my death! :-) I could only pray, and breathe, and try to not cry. I was so overcome by my fear that all my leg muscles seemed to have been paralyzed. I could no longer continue. I thought I would have to spend the rest of my time in AK on that mountain. I definitely have a newfound respect for those 'mountains'. Thankfully, I did make it down - Praise the Lord!!!


I will be spending all day in Anchorage tomorrow (Wednesday) - scrubbing in on surgeries and exploring downtown Anchorage in my limited spare time. Stay tuned...


P.S. Many of you commented on the pictures I put up. So, I'm putting up more. I drove around for fun the other day just to explore... A picture is worth a thousand words, indeed. I certainly cannot take credit for being a wonderful photographer - it is easy to capture beautiful sceneries when you're surrounded by them. What is more amazing is that they are only small glimpses of the Creator of the heavens and earth and everything under the sun!

Mirror Lake

Really cool tunnels/underpass

Knik River

Another look from my backyard - gotta love the clouds!