back to finger rocks and a few pics from seward

thought i'd play a bit of catch up while i continue to wrap up from the trip north. last week i took a day road trip to seward. stopped often along the way. these top two are from the seward main port. i always love boats.

this is up at summit lake en route.

these are from a stop over and walk to byron glacier. it's very accessible and the dogs love to play in the snow in august!

glaciers are always so beautiful. today was beautiful as well. we are finally getting great weather again...just in time for fall. fall is my favorite in many ways though. there are signs of the changes and a chill in the air that wasn't there a few weeks ago.

i took the two dogs up patterson and then left rio behind and took blossom to kincaid for a loop. we did run into one moose out there. he was quite obliging and passed by us with little notice at all. blossom had the lake to herself and so enjoyed a good swim or two. i always have her jump off the dock when i can. she's quite good. i've always loved watching those dogs jump off the docks and now i have one of those cool dogs.

here rio is enjoying her romp in the snow. i don't think she wanted to leave, though really in the winter she's the most hesitant to get out there.

this glacier like many has receeded. still pretty and there were several folks out there enjoying the summer snow. a few teens were attempting to sled. not sure that went so well for them.

this is turnigan arm. that day i saw many beluga's. always a treat. posted a few pictures, may post a few more on another day. i work the next 4 nights. gotta get those shifts in this week. have just been drinking tap water...eegads...!! finished watching the netflix for the week. it was called "an education". jsut another school girl dazzled by an older man that turned out to be married and a con artist. so is life. it's so easy when you are young to be dazzled and end up the fool. we've all been fools in love. as they say though, in the end it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. i'm definitely in the loved and lost category. love just never seemed to stick for me. i suppose all hope is not lost...it is also said that good things come to those who wait. it's not something i really think about on any day to day basis. my life is happy.

many aren't so happy. was thinking today that happiness comes to those who follow thier hearts. i have followed my heart and it has led me to a path of happiness. people who let others make thier life choices for them or don't heed the path that is thier destiny seem to end up miserable and angry. i have often felt that i have never really made any decisions, i have just sat quietly and the answers were laid out there for me. all i had to do was follow.

we took a final shot when we arrived at the dalton sign...the cars were a wee bit dirtier,but our hearts were fuller for having traveled the road. as always in my life...i took the road less traveled and that has made all the difference. that road has been scarey at times, but fear is healthy. it's good to make yourself nervous, to take the chances that lead to changes. i've always found big changes to be both frightening and exhilarating. this was just a road...

scott and jacqui had left us that morning very early in marion campground. so it was just the girls. we found some guy who was parked there for his dalton photo and so we took his picture and he took ours. people are usually nice like that. so above is me, maria, tanya, sue and julie.

breakfast was eaten in coldfoot. the food along the road was good, though not like other highways. there are many miles between eating establishments. we'd read about the burgers at the hot spot, which is just north of the yukon river (and has no gas). it wasn't bad, but i did belch for the next several hours, much to tanya's dismay. i know julie complained of heartburn for several hours after as well.

but at the moment we were happy with our burgers. they are large. now i wish i'd just gotten a shake. the folks that work there seemed a bit overwhelmed. i believe a bus load of tourists had come through just before we arrived. i think that bus tour just goes to the arctic circle sign and back to fairbanks.

luckily we didn't need any service. i'm sure it would be horribly expensive. a tow on the dalton...i don't even want to think how bad that could be. here is the shop though, just in case.

this is just the big picture at the little cafe there. only an outhouse at this local. it was made out of an old walk in freezer i believe.

at some point my car did require some duct tape to keep the bits together. i think the mud kept everything else together. i was afraid to wash it off before we'd gotten all the way back to anchorage. i thought i heard something dragging and the girls alerted me to some dangly bits on my hind end. that was just repaired yesterday so no more duct tape on the car. you can see some of the caked on mud though in that photo.

another semi truck heads for us.

roads continue to stretch out long. amazing to see nothing urban except this road and the pipeline intermittently. for miles around us nothing but nature. crazy. it's just unfathomable to people who've never been here.

this was such a beautiful place to stop coming up that we just had to stop at the finger mountains again. the weather cooperated with us and we all did glam shots on all the rocks. just girls being girls.

tanya, sue and rio enjoy the views.

tanya and blossom find the perfect thinking rock.

finger rock in the distance. i wasn't quite as focused on the phallic rock this time around.

this picture above seems to have been the favorite picture of many from the trip. my car was so very dirty and yet the back window was spotless where the wipers had cleaned it up. the sand box was very impressed so when i got out and saw this reflection...well i had to take a shot. guess it was a good idea to get new windshield wipers before we left.

just more of the same scenery.

did get my swim in today. got 62 lengths. always enjoy the swim. i think i've dropped nearly 10 pounds and definitely can tell a difference in the tone and such.

a few more pictures from the hot spot. i think they are from the other camera. gets tough going back and forth. of course, all is backwards as usual. i hear raindrops out side. after such a sunny day seems so odd, but i did get the lawn mowed. the chickweed is killing me. this happened a few years ago as well when the rain went on and on. no way to manage it all.

more of hte road and pipeline. the sights just went on and on.

news...murkowski bowed out of the senate race. can't say i hated her or anything. i didn't like how she was first given the job by her father, but then she did get elected afterwards. a bit worrisome that palin holds enough power to entice voters to vote for who she wants. she's very childish really. she and murkowski didn't get along and the guy miller who she supported is a buddy of her husbands. she seems to do that alot. if you are her enemy she finds a way to sock it to you and if you are her buddy, whether qualified or not she will help you.

another strange bit of news i thought. some 49 year old woman died in a chimney while trying to sneak into her off/on boyfriends house. one would think people would reach an age and maturity level where this just wouldn't be possible. the woman was a doctor so not uneducated. love can just make people insane...like that crazy astronaut lady who drove across country in depends to attempt to harm the other astronauts girlfriend. freaks.

this is from the morning. we stopped in coldfoot for gas and breakfast. this is the post office. obviously used. i think many just get mail care of cold foot as there was a list posted inside at the restraunt that listed names of people who had mail waiting.

or here are the glam shot sessions. me on the thinking rock. there were actually several and we attempted to get blossom to join me, but she wasn't in the mood apparently.

i think they came out well.

tanya was the first to discover this great rock setting. blossom clued me in. i liked this picture.

i was really trying to frame the finger rock in the background, but when everyone else arrived they wanted to take the picture sitting on the rock . so above is sues rock shot and below is julies. definitely shows thier personalities.

just more rocks...

see, there is the original framed shot before the glam got going.

some shots closer in to coldfoot end. next time i will hopefully be able to finish off the trip and get back to the regular pictures of day to day life in alaska. should be many coming up with fall coming on. i should also get back to the poetry. apologies. i've been busy getting the trip stuff done. off to read a bit from my book on my little kindle. i did laze about this a.m. reading this book. i'm starting to get into it. "the girl with the dragon tatoo".

they did add a little stat's thing on here, so now i can see that a few people do actually look at the blog from time to time. that is nice, so welcome to any readers, feel free to comment and i hope you enjoy the pictures.