I've been a really bad blogger recently... so a lot to catch up on in the past month and a half, including the fantastic fall here in Anchorage. I've never lived anywhere with stunning fall colors. Texas of course has a change of color and leaves falling off trees once the weather finally cools down, but not even close to the vibrant colors here. It's a beautiful mix of evergreens and the brightest yellows and reds I've ever seen. Fall has arrived (and nearly passed) and I've been fully enjoying it.
The temperatures are dropping and with that comes turning on the heater in the house.... in September! This was a new concept for me and at first I was a little sad to cave in and start the heater so early, but the house was down to 61 degrees and I just decided to embrace the fall in September when it should arrive and decorate the house and start celebrating. So I took out all my Halloween decorations and got crafty and made some Halloween cards! I love fall and now I get to celebrate it for even longer. My favorite time of the year always kicks off mid October (on my birthday) and then it just keeps building with Halloween, then delish eats and treats for Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas, which will definitely be snow filled for me this year!
Back in early September, the "termination dust" appeared on the mountains, which is the early snow that terminates summer. We also had a fluke early snow in the city about a month ago, which was shocking to wake up to! But it didn't stick and we have ended up with an entire month of October snow free to enjoy the lovely autumn colors.
A few of my coworkers from work planned a girls weekend in Homer, Alaska in mid September. Of course I'm up for exploring all Alaska has to offer so I was excited to venture south to Homer. During the drive down was when I first started realizing the beauty of fall here. The leaves were starting to change to the beautiful vibrant yellow, which made for a very scenic drive. We stayed in a super cute Bed & Breakfast right on the water. It was awesome to be at the "beach" with the waves crashing, the smell of salt water, and the outstanding scenery.
The first morning we walked to a cute little French inspired cafe with delicious breakfast and coffee. We tried to go paddle boarding, but the owner of the rental shop was gold panning in another city haha so we decided to go for a hike instead. It was a little scary since the trail was very overgrown and we happened upon a couple animal droppings along the trail, which of course terrified me. However it was a beautiful hike with views of some of the volcanoes in the distance. After our hike, we headed up to a winery that uses local fruits in addition to grapes for their wines. A lot of them were too sweet for me, but I ended up getting a Raspberry Wine that was delicious! I absolutely love raspberries.
There was also a pier in Homer that had boats, restaurants, bars, ice cream shops, etc. We took a stroll down the pier after dinner and ended up at a local bar for a drink. The next day we had another delicious breakfast and then massages, which was great and very relaxing!
I mentioned before how much I miss live music up here in Anchorage, even more so after seeing everyone's ACL pictures. However I got a little fill from my favorites Matt & Kim when they made it up to Anchorage. It was an amazing show, as usual, and my 5th time to get to see them live! I was in the 2nd row, with a spectacular view. I have to give the photo credits below to my friend Bart, who is 6'9" and has a much better phone camera than me. My iphone 4 pictures were no good, however I just updated to the iphone 5s after 3.5 years of having the same phone! I'm excited :)
I had my first Alaskan birthday this month on October 16. I was a little nervous since it would be the first time I wasn't in Texas for my birthday and celebrating with family and my Texas close friends. However, I felt so loved here from my co-workers and new friends, and I received so many sweet cards and gifts from my friends and family back home. Two other girls from work, Erin and Steph, have birthdays in mid October so a big group of our friends threw us a surprise dinner party and had everything decorated. It was so sweet and thoughtful. And on my real birthday, I was surprised at work with some delicious cupcakes from my cousin Rachel, who knows I have a sweet tooth! And my work group got me a cake and sang Happy Birthday in my lovely cube haha. At the end of the day, a few friends came over to my place for Thai food and ice cream, and it was actually the first time I've had several people over to my house so it was great! Thanks everyone for making me feel so incredibly special. 25 was my best year yet, so we'll see what 26 will bring!
There are several people here who love fall and Halloween just as much as me! So it is fun to get into all the fall activities with them as well. Erin and I carved some awesome pumpkins (hers turned out better than mine) haha. But it was awesome, I love pumpkin carving!
I know this post is getting pretty lengthy, so I'll wrap up with a forecast of the winter ahead! I got my first real taste of snow and winter when I made a visit up to the North Slope of Alaska, where my project site is located. It's about as far north as you can get up into the Arctic Circle! But it was really neat to see the construction progress and to see the Arctic Ocean. I was telling my brother Andrew that I had now seen all 4 oceans, but then he told me there is a 5th ocean now down by Antarctica... Lame, I guess thats a new thing kids are learning these days, they take away a planet and add an ocean.
So after that taste of winter up at the North Slope, I started prepping myself down here in Anchorage for what is inevitably ahead. I bought my first true down winter coat, that claims to be rated to -20 degrees. Its hard to find a coat that doesn't make you look like the michelin man, but I think I found a good one. It's not cold enough to wear it yet, but stay tuned haha. I also prepped my car and ordered some all weather rubber floor mats to catch all the snow. And I got my tires switched out to studded winter tires. They essentially look like the tires have lots of nails in them and huge deep treads, which will help grip on the ice. It was a lot of money to fork over for these tires, but as a winter newbie I think its essential. I'm still debating if I should get a remote start installed. Quite a few people have that and turn on their cars 10 minutes before heading outside so that the engine can get warm enough to produce heat. I have a heated garage so I'm not worried about freezing when I leave my house, but it might be a little rough leaving work in an ice cold car for my whole ride home! Quite different from what I experienced in the "Lower 48". People say this all the time when referring to the other states down south and I think its so goofy, but I guess I need to start using it to fit in around here haha. Anyway, I'm well on my way to preparing for winter and starting to get exciting for all the winter sports I'll get to try out!
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| Leaves falling in my neighborhood |
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| Lovely mix of color |
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| Beautiful bright leaves outside my office building |
The temperatures are dropping and with that comes turning on the heater in the house.... in September! This was a new concept for me and at first I was a little sad to cave in and start the heater so early, but the house was down to 61 degrees and I just decided to embrace the fall in September when it should arrive and decorate the house and start celebrating. So I took out all my Halloween decorations and got crafty and made some Halloween cards! I love fall and now I get to celebrate it for even longer. My favorite time of the year always kicks off mid October (on my birthday) and then it just keeps building with Halloween, then delish eats and treats for Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas, which will definitely be snow filled for me this year!
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| Crafty Halloween cards |
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| My front door sign |
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| My house finally complete, and decorated for Halloween! |
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| Living room |
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| Fall scarecrow guarding my tv |
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| Halloween coffee table |
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| Bookshelf in the living room |
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| Kitchen table |
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| Halloween centerpiece |
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| New peacock artwork made from painted leaves and ropes |
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| Halloween stickers in my bathroom |
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| Front entry way and new coat rack since I'm always wearing a coat! |
Back in early September, the "termination dust" appeared on the mountains, which is the early snow that terminates summer. We also had a fluke early snow in the city about a month ago, which was shocking to wake up to! But it didn't stick and we have ended up with an entire month of October snow free to enjoy the lovely autumn colors.
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| Termination dust and pink glow on the mountains at sunset |
A few of my coworkers from work planned a girls weekend in Homer, Alaska in mid September. Of course I'm up for exploring all Alaska has to offer so I was excited to venture south to Homer. During the drive down was when I first started realizing the beauty of fall here. The leaves were starting to change to the beautiful vibrant yellow, which made for a very scenic drive. We stayed in a super cute Bed & Breakfast right on the water. It was awesome to be at the "beach" with the waves crashing, the smell of salt water, and the outstanding scenery.
The first morning we walked to a cute little French inspired cafe with delicious breakfast and coffee. We tried to go paddle boarding, but the owner of the rental shop was gold panning in another city haha so we decided to go for a hike instead. It was a little scary since the trail was very overgrown and we happened upon a couple animal droppings along the trail, which of course terrified me. However it was a beautiful hike with views of some of the volcanoes in the distance. After our hike, we headed up to a winery that uses local fruits in addition to grapes for their wines. A lot of them were too sweet for me, but I ended up getting a Raspberry Wine that was delicious! I absolutely love raspberries.
There was also a pier in Homer that had boats, restaurants, bars, ice cream shops, etc. We took a stroll down the pier after dinner and ended up at a local bar for a drink. The next day we had another delicious breakfast and then massages, which was great and very relaxing!
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| Beautiful view of the beach |
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| The cute B&B |
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| Mint plant at the B&B I kept picking from to put in my water |
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| Walk around Homer... I love these boat planes |
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| Stroll along Ocean Drive to breakfast |
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| Cream cheese and berry french toast topped with whip cream, aka heavenly |
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| Starting our hike on the Homestead Trail |
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| Hiking |
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| Volcano in the distance |
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| Volcano on the hike |
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| Stumbled upon a few cabins while getting lost on the hike |
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| Post hike wine tasting |
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| Homer winery |
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| Morning view |
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| Cool beach |
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| Panoramic view of the beach from the swing at the B&B |
I mentioned before how much I miss live music up here in Anchorage, even more so after seeing everyone's ACL pictures. However I got a little fill from my favorites Matt & Kim when they made it up to Anchorage. It was an amazing show, as usual, and my 5th time to get to see them live! I was in the 2nd row, with a spectacular view. I have to give the photo credits below to my friend Bart, who is 6'9" and has a much better phone camera than me. My iphone 4 pictures were no good, however I just updated to the iphone 5s after 3.5 years of having the same phone! I'm excited :)
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| So close to the stage! |
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| Love love love |
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| The best |
The new IOS system on the iphone lets you track the sunrise and sunset time in your city. However, I don't even need to track on my phone to notice how much darker its getting here. In the month of September alone, Anchorage lost 2.5 hours of daylight between the first and last days of the month. And its been the same in October, losing 5.5 min of daylight each day. So by Halloween, the sun will rise at 9:26am and set at 6:00pm. It has been nice being able to catch the sunsets since they aren't after midnight anymore. They are so beautiful and light up the sky like its on fire and cast a light pink glow on the mountains in the East that is just stunning.
I did a quick weekend trip to Vegas in late September with Steph, my Aussie friend from work and met up with two of her other Austrailian friends. Everyone loved the Australian accent of course, so I just let them do all the talking to get us into places! But it was a great trip and the perfect amount of time to enjoy Vegas, have some delicious food and cocktails on the most lovely patios, take in the sunshine and heat, do some fun shopping, party rock to Teisto, and hang out with some lovely ladies.
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| Sunset from the car |
I did a quick weekend trip to Vegas in late September with Steph, my Aussie friend from work and met up with two of her other Austrailian friends. Everyone loved the Australian accent of course, so I just let them do all the talking to get us into places! But it was a great trip and the perfect amount of time to enjoy Vegas, have some delicious food and cocktails on the most lovely patios, take in the sunshine and heat, do some fun shopping, party rock to Teisto, and hang out with some lovely ladies.
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| Beautiful flowers in Vegas |
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| Lovely |
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| Yummy cocktails on beautiful patios |
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| Extreme candy shop! |
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| Waiting for Tiesto |
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| Tiesto! |
I had my first Alaskan birthday this month on October 16. I was a little nervous since it would be the first time I wasn't in Texas for my birthday and celebrating with family and my Texas close friends. However, I felt so loved here from my co-workers and new friends, and I received so many sweet cards and gifts from my friends and family back home. Two other girls from work, Erin and Steph, have birthdays in mid October so a big group of our friends threw us a surprise dinner party and had everything decorated. It was so sweet and thoughtful. And on my real birthday, I was surprised at work with some delicious cupcakes from my cousin Rachel, who knows I have a sweet tooth! And my work group got me a cake and sang Happy Birthday in my lovely cube haha. At the end of the day, a few friends came over to my place for Thai food and ice cream, and it was actually the first time I've had several people over to my house so it was great! Thanks everyone for making me feel so incredibly special. 25 was my best year yet, so we'll see what 26 will bring!
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| Surprise party for Steph, Erin, and myself |
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| I love cookie cake! |
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| Yummy cupcakes from Rachel |
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| Carrot cake from my group at work |
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| So much birthday love! |
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| Awesome puzzle from Becca to do on my new puzzle table! |
There are several people here who love fall and Halloween just as much as me! So it is fun to get into all the fall activities with them as well. Erin and I carved some awesome pumpkins (hers turned out better than mine) haha. But it was awesome, I love pumpkin carving!
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| Harry Potter pumpkin carving |
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| Harry Potter |
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| Erin's Cardinals pumpkin |
I know this post is getting pretty lengthy, so I'll wrap up with a forecast of the winter ahead! I got my first real taste of snow and winter when I made a visit up to the North Slope of Alaska, where my project site is located. It's about as far north as you can get up into the Arctic Circle! But it was really neat to see the construction progress and to see the Arctic Ocean. I was telling my brother Andrew that I had now seen all 4 oceans, but then he told me there is a 5th ocean now down by Antarctica... Lame, I guess thats a new thing kids are learning these days, they take away a planet and add an ocean.
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| So far North at the North Slope! |
So after that taste of winter up at the North Slope, I started prepping myself down here in Anchorage for what is inevitably ahead. I bought my first true down winter coat, that claims to be rated to -20 degrees. Its hard to find a coat that doesn't make you look like the michelin man, but I think I found a good one. It's not cold enough to wear it yet, but stay tuned haha. I also prepped my car and ordered some all weather rubber floor mats to catch all the snow. And I got my tires switched out to studded winter tires. They essentially look like the tires have lots of nails in them and huge deep treads, which will help grip on the ice. It was a lot of money to fork over for these tires, but as a winter newbie I think its essential. I'm still debating if I should get a remote start installed. Quite a few people have that and turn on their cars 10 minutes before heading outside so that the engine can get warm enough to produce heat. I have a heated garage so I'm not worried about freezing when I leave my house, but it might be a little rough leaving work in an ice cold car for my whole ride home! Quite different from what I experienced in the "Lower 48". People say this all the time when referring to the other states down south and I think its so goofy, but I guess I need to start using it to fit in around here haha. Anyway, I'm well on my way to preparing for winter and starting to get exciting for all the winter sports I'll get to try out!
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| Finally got my AK plates! |
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| Moose in Erin and Jason's yard |
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| So many moose |
