made it to the beach today..

 got a bit of sunshine...in addition to a lot of wind.  tons of folks out there.  saw this guy as i was driving out of the park.  he was near a female with a calf.  cruising by the road.  they must have opened a bunch more biking trails as the place was packed to the gills with bikers. once i pulled off onto the beach trail it was chill and peaceful.

 got out late again, but i did have an excuse, i was up til the wee hours watching a movie last night.  "amelia".  it had been on my list to see.  overall i liked it.  they didn't really make her out to be the strong female i had always assumed she was.  she wanted to fly and seems to have bent her morals a bit to do it...and oddly fell in love and married the guy who put her in that position.  was it just a different world?  who knows.  i like a strong character.  they also seemed to show her freaking out a bit when things didn't go well in a plane, which was odd. her plane was lost on her adventure around the world.  an adventurer is an adventurer.  as i wrote in here before....most adventure sorts have an inflated ego or they wouldn't be able to do the crazy stuff they do.

 blossom is my wind indicator for the day.

 otherwise, laundry, dishes and more excitement.  my life is pretty crazy...right?

 happy the workers are back to work and that dc passed the extension just in the nick of time.  the repubican party really needs to reign in the tea party.  i know i have avoided voting republican on several elections because i feared the person running had tea party leanings.  they are nuts imho.  i'm all for freedom of religion and these nuts want everyone to follow what they believe to be truth and don't seem to see any other options for believing, religious or political.  doubt that will happen ( the tea party dissolving)...without further elections that hopefully weed out the tea party members who have won offices.

 a pretty nice bull.  the female and calf were back in those trees.

 always nice to hit the local beach here. every hike, every week here...can be so different, things just change so fast.  even in winter.  each winter has it's own personality.  we can get deep freeze like last year with tons of cool ice formations, or snow or ice fog.  we shall see what will come.  for now the beach still has sand.  we've been warm for this time of year, the ground is not frozen yet.  happy i put a few layers on today as it was windy out there.

 rio joined today so we walked fairly slow.  blossom will turn 8 next sunday.

 still coughing but i think that is improving a bit.  can't wait, all this coughing is exhausting.

 happy to hear they are using drones to try and decrease the poaching of elephants.  it seems in history most inventions seem to come about due to war and a need to get the enemy...so good that something built for war is now proving useful for an environmental cause.  elephant ivory sells for $1000/kg in hong kong...asia seems to be a huge trade for animal parts to be used as "medicine".  200-400 elephants are poached from Kenya parks each year it sounds like.  the worst part is that all they want is the ivory and the rest of the animal is totally wasted.

 an alaskan story...nearly 100 villages in alaska are dry.  the communities have elected to be dry and have so for many years.  it's not always easy to catch people bringing alcohol into villages. it's like the 1930's all over i guess. i think in some communities you can get a alcohol card and this allows you a certain amount for personal use as long as you have the license?  there are always those who want to vote to repeal the prohibition on alcohol and an article today was saying the younger members of the community may turn out to vote and they want to repeal the laws.  smuggled alcohol sells at crazy profits.

 alcohol has had a negative impact in many villages over the years which is why the people wanted to just ban it.  still causes a great deal of trouble across alaska.  alcohol can be a pleasant thing, but way too many folks can't stop at one drink and that stuff can cause havoc.  a great deal of my patient population are there due to issues with alcohol.  it can mess up your liver, your heart and your brain.

 the sun was peaking through out there. love when the rays come through the clouds. so pretty.

 tried to get some shots with the dogs.  rio was the most cooperative...blossom less so, but we are all kinda in the photo

 see, so pretty...

 these little plants on the ground looked super cool changing to fall colours.

 i only saw them in this patch.

 people like to come make fires on the beach.  last year it was tougher in the winter. it all had iced up pretty good.

 nice to have found the sandy beach here...further out it's still mud, but there is some sand.

 the light was shining down on the lagoon as i left.

 looking down as i headed back...this tree is backlit by the lagoon

 mostly the leaves are all brown but a few stragglers are out there, hanging on to their fall colour.

 on the trail out just before i hit the main trail again.

 my favorite tree...will have to do a collage of it in different seasons...should be easy enough to do since i take pictures of it each time i pass by it seems

 it just has the coolest roots

guess that is it for the day...another day another walk.  such a lazy life i live!