denali national park..day 2!

put in a few pictures from our second run out to savage creek. carla and i woke to rain again at our hostel, went for breakfast and since it looked like sunshine was a possibility off towards the national park, we opted to do a drive through prior to hitting the denali highway. above is a black and white from the bridge at savage. this is where you are cut off from further driving on the road unless you are in the bus or have special permit...except now. apparently after the road lottery is over you can drive the road into the park unpermitted, but weather permitting. will have to do that. be aware that there will be few to zero services and campgrounds open and available to you.

light does change everything. you can drive or hike the exact same trail at various times and weather conditions and it will all be new and beautiful all over again. new photo ops will appear. i'm sure carla was thrilled with me stopping so often. she actually just seemed happy to have been able to join me out here at all. her original trip was planned completely differently and everything just worked for her to head north instead of to south america. so happy she did.

still many more pictures to post from our little trip north and now some more pictures to post from our walk out to hanging valley. i was quite lazy today. didn't want to crawl out of bed at all. poor dogs. i did finally make my way to the gym for my laps. the water felt very chilly at first. took the plunge and did my laps though. want to get back to minimun 2-3 swims/week again. apparently it was some sort of family night thing tonight so while we were swimming the lights were dimmed and they started a movie on the wall in the pool area. not sure what movie...hard to see from the pool....i had first thought maybe they'd be doing disco night at the pool. that could be cool!

went to lowes and wandered in a fog there. always bad shopping in a fog. was thinking of getting a real lawn mower, hoped for sales..but figured i'd only be mowing once more before the season changes. i'll just buy the little ring thing and hope that gets the push mower through the season. hopefully, i can hit the yard a bit tomorrow. i've neglected it this summer so best to back it in and get it set up for next season. clear the beds, plant bulbs, bring in the lawn furniture.

still wanting to branch out and do some more fun/social things this next year. have a strange desire to bowl. it's been several years. want to attend more hockey games this season and i also totally miss dancing. was looking online for some options. must say i have, in my past, been adept at dancing. country western anyway. great exercise, loads of fun and who knows i may meet some nice people. nothing wrong with my current friends, but i think sometimes it's easy to grow dependant on people, get into a comfortable habit. hard for one person to be all things. found myself feeling insecure and uneasy. just time to get uncomfortable, shake it up a bit in my life.

of course, here it is friday night and i'm home alone. just finished 2 nights of work so i don't mind a slacker day every so often.

this is at savage creek. loved the rock in the water here. some cool geology out there. not something i know much about but it does always fascinate me.

mostly bog/neighborhood walks the past few days. first monday walk is coming up this next monday. we'll see who shows up. i'm not always great at names so hopefully i don't have any uncomfortable introductions. :-) . had an intern this past week and we were busy with an admit, the patients husband came in and i introduced myself and then totally blanked on the poor interns name, meghan. so embarrassing!!

liked this of carla walking ahead. i often stopped for pictures. they never do justice to the beauty of alaska. i know there are many out there who take much better photo's than i do and they have hope of doing the scenery more justice than i. everyone wants to be a professional up here and i think i have been humbled enough times to realize my status as an amatuer. it's a hobby and i love it. mostly, i love to share the pictures with others and have them enjoy the beauty i live in through the photo's.

a few pictures of carla and i out on the savage creek trail.

carla wanted to get a photo of me in my silly hat. i don't think thought much of it. there are a ton of these various animal hats up here. perhaps because we spend so many months in ski hats we end up with a variety of them. alaska fashion is rather unique and alaskans would not do well as fashionista's in the lower 48, especially los angeles and new york.

it may be that she initally thought i was the only person wearing as silly a hat as this, but i got to the parking lot before she did after this little hike. the dogs were out getting fed and then we were surrounded by a gathering of tourists who wanted to meet the dogs, pet them and photograph them. it is always kind of funny that my dogs end up in so many tourists photo albums. there are dogs in the lower 48, but as long as i've lived in alaska tourists have photographed my dogs. i figure people on vacation who have dogs just miss them. not sure though. anyway, there were probably 10 asian tourists asking questions about the dogs in broken english. they looked to be very happy folk and smiles and laughter are universal. carla joined and then suddenly another member of thier tour group walked up wearing a bear hat similar to mine. hehe. after that, i think she decided my hat wasn't so bad....though i think she'd still avoid wearing it herself.

there was this one amazing spot that we kept stopping at to look at the trees.

so pretty

perhaps i should take a little drive south on these days off and see if i can catch some colours on the kenai. have been wanting to hike ptarmigan lake. maybe i can convince tanya to join me on tuesday.

need to make the to do list for this stretch off. so much winterizing to do. want to get the heater system checked. i may have skipped it last year. i've seen some people decorating outdoors. at work the conversation arose about the pumpkin decorating contest. my co-workers can be a bit competitive in this regard and then near christmas the tree trimming contest between the peds day and night shift gets quite heated as well.

still have some cleaning and reorganizing to do. want to get the garage/pool room ready for some pool parties this winter. it's all part of my re-socialization plan. we had a pool table growing up and it was always fun to just chill down in the basement and play a game or two. junk has collected a bit in my lack of use and post these rooms getting cleared out. would like to get that taken care of.park entrance

they filmed a movie up here last summer, "everybody loves whales". apparently they have now changed the name to "big miracle". doesn't have a good flow to it. they have been encouraging those in the industry to film in alaska. loads of reality shows are getting filmed here. now a fe movies.

a white supremist in texas was executed the other day. james byrd was dragged to his death in 1998. the white supremist was given his choice of "last meal". apparently it has now been decided that these last meals will no longer be granted. one who participates in a heinous act of violence and hate doesn't deserve any sort of special meal prior to their execution. i would agree that it's a silly thing to do.

as most things, i am mixed on the death penalty thing. part of me feels people such as this violent man deserve no place in our society and there are some out there who it may be best to just send them to thier creator to be dealt with. there are several flaws though. one being what about those cases where someone is wrongfully convicted. should circumstansial evidence be able to be enough for a death penalty case? seems to me in these cases it should be beyond any doubt or question what happened and who is at fault. to execute one person wrongfully is just unacceptable and i've no doubt it has happened more than once.

it also is not justice that is delivered fairly in our society. in one state a horrific criminal will be given a life sentence after killing multiple people and in another state a person could get killed for killing one person. there is a great deal of expense involved in maintaining a person on death row and also in all the appeals. it's much more expensive to keep a person on death row than to imprison them for life.

the other issue becomes that our prisons have become too comfortable. the prisoners seem to have gained far too many rights. i've never served time, but i'm not sure we should be allowing conjugal visits, marriages to take place, weight training or even television watching. why should a person with a life sentence be allowed to procreate. they won't be able to raise or support the kid. should they be granted organs if the need arises? so many questions come to mind.

don't get me started on parental rights. took care of a kid with an accidental drug ingestion. one of the parents asked me if the kid would be taken away from them. he felt very guilty that the kid had gotten ahold of the med ( must give it up to the parent who took care of the kid and worried about himself secondarily). anyway, i reassured him that i felt quite secure that this would not happen.

of course, i was laughing in my head thinking if people only knew how difficult it is to get a kid taken away. sadly, our society is more about keeping family together no matter how crappy and disfunctional and even horrible that family may be. even if the kid gets taken away by some miracle, the kid will be handed over to relatives of the parents who are often just as bad as the parents were. a few kids get lucky, but often by the time they are taken away it's because they have permanent damage related to thier abuse. in other words...it's too late.

one of my goals at this stop the second day at savage was to convince rio to pee! she didn't pee the night before and then again on the walks we attempted in the morning. i walked and walked and walked and finally after not peeing for over 16 hours...she pee'd. i think my vet friend was getting a bit nervous for her. she liked rio, but i don't think carla wanted to try and sneak rio into her suitcase like she threatened with my cat pogi.

rio is wonderful though. she has her idiosynchrises (spelled that wrong), but she's a good dog. she was dumped at the shelter, but no dog really deserves that. lucky for us there are individuals that work in places such as shelters that see the good in a dog and work to find a way to preserve thier lives. too many people do not take pet ownership very seriously. my feeling is when you take in a pet you have promised to care for it for life. working in pediatrics though i see how people can also have human kids and not take that role on very seriously either. hard for me to imagine how people can be so cruel and neglectful of thier kids and pets.can be a sad world.

savage creek and the road back to the park entrance.

quite a few beautiful colours out there and we really had just missed the peak.

you can chase fall all over. winter doesn't need to be chased. looking up at the chugach each morning i can see the snow is making it's way down.

was great to get back to denali and see some blue skies. the big mountain didn't show up and carla never saw denali.

that is pretty common though. i think they say only 25% of alaskan tourists actually get a peak at the mountain. seems like it's out much more in the winter months as we can see it from anchorage all the time

christmas in denali....the reds and the greens

and of course, the bright, bright yellow and oranges.

snow

these last pictures i took right before i started my shift last night. they had a surprise birthday party for my co-worker, margaurite. she turned 80! hope she doesn't mind me posting that. she still works full time in the peds unit. she is always great to work with, a favorite of mine. she can be just as snarky as me...one day she promised me she'd save a place near the fire for me. she cracks me up.

she's pretty reserved as far as things like birthdays and hula skirts are concerned. not sure how faith got her to put this on, but she even danced a bit. i often model walk at work for the entertainment of my co-workers and i did get her to do a few steps on her own, but can't say as i've seen her hula dance yet. they had her scheduled for work and then secretly scheduled someone to work for her so she could enjoy the festivities and enjoy the night off.

a few of my favorite people, margaurite and lena!

another newer favorite, amy. she kindly volunteered to work for margaurite.

tons of food and she was totally surprised. at 80, everyone deserves a big party!! (pictured, gretchen, jenny, kate, tara, margaurite and meghan)

i scrunched down and got a picture with my friend. i hope i am as together, spunky and healthy as she is when i hit 80, if i'm so lucky. not sure i'd want to be working at 80, but them i'm also not sure i wouldn't want to be able to be so productive. i have often said, once you quit living you're dead. nothing wrong with having a purpose in life, a place to be at and people who depend on you. she's been a nurse probably as long as i've been alive. the number of peoples lives she has touched must to astronomical. we should all be so lucky to be able to work into our 80's and continue to be a productive member of society. rocking chairs are over rated!