Iditarod fun begins...

 these are various iphone shots...mostly not mine as i was using my bigger camera most of the time.  thanks to all who shared pictures of me.  ended up spending the day with my friends cousin, Karen at the Ceremonial start....she allowed me to play an honorary Canadian for the day, which meant i got this cool back stage pass to play downtown!!

 below is me with Bradley Farquhar and his lead dog Jerry.  he is from Nova Scotia and is running a team of dogs to Nome.  Karen is from there and had contacted him prior to arriving to Anchorage.  he is kind and generous and genuine and invited her to come grab some handler passes. 

 we had a blast!!  everyone we met was super nice...

 this is today.  we zipped down to say hello again at the restart prep area before heading to the second lake...long lake to watch the teams cruise past.

 i am busy looking at the gazillion pictures...yes, i do exaggerate a bit. 

 as you can imagine. the dogs were not happy to be left home alone for hours two days in a row.  yesterday i got done early enough to get them to the dog park.

 today it was just chuck it time in the yard.

 will take them on their usual Monday walk tomorrow...they will survive this. Ivy was waiting for me to return in the upstairs window today. 

 i see a little stuffed monkey was added to the little free library with a note that says, take me and read to me..so cute.  :-) 

 below, me taking my photo's of the dogs...they run right past me as you can see.

 the rest are from Seward.  more designs in shingles.

 hopefully, tomorrow i will be done looking at these pictures and can share more of them with you all.

 the Iditarod is always fun. 

 i need to go re-up myself with the Iditarod insider so i can watch the teams as they move along the trail.  will keep a closer watch on Bradley's team. 

 he is a bit of an adventurer it seems and this was just one of the things on the list that he wanted to do. it is always amazing those folks who make these wild, seemingly impossible sounding goals and then check them off one by one. 

 busy days the last few days.  waking up early. so nice to have taken a week off to just enjoy the festivities. 

 i have a few more days off before i head back to work. have gotten several calls looking for overtime shifts...soon i will need to pick up shifts to get my kitchen done and paid for.  boo.  oh well.

 beautiful in Seward, no matter the weather.  that is Alaska.  just amazing beauty everywhere you turn.

 the pups love, love, love the beach.  they frankly love every walk and they have a pretty good life really. 

 this was a half hearted "sphinx" by Ivy Rose.

 they just booked out the dog door...wrestling at midnight...hope it doesn't get too loud.  they still have some energy. 

 i did return home today and immediately tossed the tennis ball in the yard for like an hour....never enough for these active pups though.

 Ivy is most like a sled dog.  watching those dogs leap with anticipation to run...that is Ivy.  she would be all over that.  of course, she would require booties as she does get quite a bit of snow build up in her toes. 

 i think her one canine is damaged pretty bad. one day a few months ago i noticed it was already cracked...probably on Tusker's skull.  doesn't seem to bother her though.  will have to keep watching that.

 kayaker on this morning.  by afternoon the water was a bit more rough.

 paws on the beach

 seaweed. 

 the pups play in the tide.

 Tusker alternated between swimming and rolling in the snow

 nice crew out on the second lake today.  it was foggy in Anchorage but the fog lifted as we arrived in Willow and it was beautiful.  Denali was out for quite a while.  we parked and headed down to the first lake to check out the teams getting ready...

 funny to watch the various sleds go by....I'd be an over packer and you can see that some mushers are over packers as well. some sleds seem to have very little in them while others seem to be bursting and have spare parts for storage. that could be a mess going through a few of the more difficult patches of the trek.

 Jeff King is always the sled innovator. 

 more seaweed.

 not sure how many more pictures I'll get through tonight.

 it's already after midnight.  at least i do not have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

 just heard the pups crashing back in through the dog door.

 yesterday was fun being on the inside.  saw several friends...some i haven't seen in some time.  one friend up from Ketchikan, who often volunteers. another was a surprise rider in a sled...she was in Mitch Seavey's sled which is one that won the race last year so i figure it was a high bid.  she was actually replacing a friend who had won the bid and then had been unable to travel north as a family member was ill and needed their assistance.  MK looked great in that sled...a class act that girl.  great to see her...and i know she had a blast on her ride.

 these are at the SeaLife Center.  that is always a fun stop over when in Seward.

 the seaweed floating is serene and beautiful. above is a sea anemone.

 the baby beluga...how cute is this little guy.

 he will be leaving soon for Texas i guess.  will need a bigger tank and some beluga buddies.

 there is his tail.  they are grey when they are young.

 waving goodbye no doubt

 love this small tank with the barnacles.  we always see the barnacles closed up on the beach so it's fun to see them filter feeding in the tanks there.

 a whale and mermaid grace these buildings in Seward...very cool.

 hopefully, i will have some more fun shots to share with you over the next few weeks during the Iditarod run....then i will get back to attempting to catch up on other days hikes and rambles.

 these are the start of the little beach around Nash Road. great at low tide.  beautiful there.

 here we are just coming through the woods to hit the beach.  good night...

thankful for:  A. the kindness of strangers who become friends  B.  dogs, dogs, dogs  C.  laughter