Rio joined us which i was a bit surprised about as it's a bit rainy out there. i put her red rain coat on her and off we went. she moves slower and slower though these days and so i feel like i am half dragging her up the hills and even on the flats..added work out for me i guess.
these are again from my time with visitors!! a rare treat up here for me!! many beaches up here have these super cool flat rocks. first they were skipping rocks and then i got them started on cairn building...always a favorite and relaxing beach activity. we left our mark on the beaches of fox island.
this shot above is actually from Talkeetna. the susitna river.
these are from the wide angle. it's always a favorite lens of mine.
explore.org this is my obsession for this week. the walrus cam went live!!! so awesome!! i'm totally excited. have spent some extra time there commenting and making sure that WARIS has a presence on the site. posting some of my pics to help people near and far get a feeling of what this place is. will post some walrus snap shots in a later post. it's pretty amazing though. great clarity, the sounds are clear as well. you can hear chiming at times and the waves on the beach are totally soothing!
i got the app for my phone so now i can peek in on them when i'm not at home. really need to get our web page more functional and fun so we can have more to offer folks. i've mentioned that we are on facebook and i think we'll get a few folks show up there from that. sounds like people are pretty exciting and digging the cams so there is hope that Annenberg will want to add more and stay out there for a few years...hope, hope, hope!!
these guys are ready to explore!!
3 nights of work down. steady and in the adult icu all three nights. the hospital has been packed. maybe this rain will slow people down a bit. we needed a bit of rain anyway so i'm cool with rain. felt nice today on the trails. yesterday was actually "hot" out. i know that sounds crazy to you in the lower 48 but up here when you hit the 60's, nearly 70. when you are used to cold weather hot is relative just like folks in the lower 48 who are used to temps closer to 70-80 and then are freezing at 50.
anyway it was "hot" i tell ya!! we walked up Patterson and then through neighborhoods to the bog and back home between shifts. Rio was feeling quite parched and then we ran into a guy out watering his lawn. turns out we know him from the dog park but never knew he lived there..he offered to get the pups a drink of water. they happily took him up on his offer. they know him well as he generally has treats for the dogs out there.
the other day i was glued to the web cam on my time off and awake. i know...i'm addicted to walrus!! i've been happily sharing the web site with anyone who will oblige me at work!
food, scenery and company was fabulous on our Seward boat excursion.
today we did the loop at campbell airstrip. it was just over 3 miles. overall i feel pretty good. i fear i have some chronic venous insufficiency issues which is annoying and my right foot has been causing me pain...no idea why. aging is a bit of an irritation. i try to push through.
another big ice shelf is in danger of breaking off in Antarctica but apparently Antarctica is proof that there is no global warming because it hasn't been impacted..haha. that was just something a relative tried to tell me. i emailed some information that i felt refuted this claim and never heard back. of course, that is not necessary a sign that there is any sort of agreeance.
these guys really took to cairn making!! :-)
DJ won though..that is one impressive cairn.
a very Alaskan story...3 Alaskans treated for Botulism after eating fermented seal flipper!! Natives love fermented fish and seal...the old ways of doing this were actually safer than what seems like the newer and probably cleaner seeming ways. fermenting these foods in glass or plastic sealed containers increases your risk of Botulism. had a little Native child in...apparently when asked what her favorite foods were she stated, froot loops and seal. i sprinkled froot loops over salmon....it was all i have. apparently Providence Hospital doesn't serve seal!
a death has occurred on the mountain already...Denali that is. a guy from Argentina was found dead. at this time cause unknown . he was found by other early season climbers. the support crew is up there now and have to get acclimated. the mountain does take some lives.
life is risky. we often get ourselves in situations that in retrospect were perhaps not good idea. most of the time we come through and are unharmed. we learned a lesson...or one hopes so. it is amazing how many dumb things we can get away with in life unscathed. that is not always the truth though. occasionally one of us does something that perhaps could have been better thought out and we pay the ultimate costs. when it's your time, it's your time.
sat down with a subway sandwich for dinner tonight and turned on the blackhawk/duck hockey game. that third period was awesome. ducks got 3 goals in 37 seconds only to have the blackhawks tie it up and take it to overtime. just asked Siri...the blackhawks won. i'm starting to enjoy having siri on my phone. i gave it a male voice but i may switch back to the female version.
this was the cool shot of the day on the boat trip. it's pretty rare to spot moose out swimming in Resurrection Bay and then to have said moose followed by 4-5 curious sea lions...a nice addition. we were pretty far away so i was happy that any pictures turned out.
it was a lovely ending to a pretty sweet boat tour.
even through there are some rotten folks out there...you know, idiots who gang up on juvenile moose and stab them to death or get drunk and run over bikers and leave them for dead without so much as calling 911 or folks who use a branch as a walking stick and then randomly use this stick to whack an innocent biker on the bike path in the face...i keep trying to remind myself that most folks out there are actually nice.
it's a tough thing to convince yourself of some days with the terrible headlines but i do believe it's the truth.
there was a dead walrus getting bashed about on the web feed. pretty sad...it is nature and i guess the web viewers quickly learned how remote Round Island is. there is no way those 2 rangers can move a dead 3000-4000 pound animal off the beach. nature seems to have come through last night with a pretty good squaller out there. cleared the beaches.
we stopped by the conservation center on the way back from Seward...always a treat. we tried to hit the sea life center but they closed fairly early, not summer hours yet i suspect.
liked the foxes new digs. they switched him and the bald eagle out.
i never noticed the porcupine out there.
they do have red teeth. i think someone said it was iron...oh...lets ask siri. bark staining? may have to look into this more.
a late night stop at Potters for the sunset
often in report you are told what a pain in the arse this patient or that patient is...and believe me some of these patients are a total pain in the arse. i was so happy to be rid of...errrr, i mean transfer this one lady out the other night!! people can be so incredibly dramatic and selfish. was cracking up at one point though as this lady and her family were in the room being totally loud and we were all commenting on how loud they were and someone said, "oh, they are from Texas" like that explained being loud and annoying. we just laughed as i really don't know what that means. perhaps this person has met some super loud people from Texas. haha.
often i find if i can make people feel safe and cared for in those first few hours they will not be on the call light as much. that was the case i think last night. although i think it was the patients spouse that was the real pain and i never met the man...gotta love night shift!!!
more walrus cam...see i am obsessed. it actually made national and international news. right now the camera is faced out to sea. i think the cam operators may be in California. so happy the Annenberg foundation added Round Island to their nature cam list...so hope people find the walrus as cool as i do!!
sunday after brunch we headed out to Windy point for a walk and to chase the Bore Tide. thankfully Rio skipped this one. i think they enjoyed the views. later i made them dinner here and took them moose spotting around Anchorage.
dandilions. they look so much better in nature than in my yard. my yard is totally neglected right now. really need to just pay some young folks to come out and do a clean out and make it pretty for the summer.
while the Denali Highway is open the Dalton Highway is apparently a mess. flooding by the Sag River has made the road impassable.
got a room in Barrow, small but it is at the King Eider. the nice guy at the desk also gave me a few names of local tour operators and steered me away from the top of the world tour package. need to call that tour guy next week. also need to see if i can get a dog room for next weekend in Homer and then i can explore the beaches of the Kenai a bit more and Homer. sounds like fun!!
HJ is on top of the world...well at least on top of this rock.
always nice views up there and no signs of bears that day which i think they were happy about.
lots of flowers blooming, even lupine starting to bloom. summer is early and in full swing!!
have heard from others in the Bog here by my house that a moose did have a baby there and was pretty defensive over the young ones in her care. there was even word of a dog being injured. i stood and watched a family of baby ducklings with others on the trail the other day. so fun. babies everywhere!!
boats can swamp up here and quickly...a guy up north had his boat go under during rough seas...they had been calm when he left, but things really can change here. i've been in those waves. it's scary. he ended up in the water with a life vest and clinging to a bundle of fire logs. he rode the waves, called for help on his emergency radio. sounds like he did everything right and he is alive today. while he floated out there with numb arms and legs a group of sea lions chilled with him. the elders told him he was being watched over. i like that way of thinking. happy that this tale had a happy ending, it often does not.
stats...Alaska is home to 17 trillion mosquito's...that weighs in at 96million pounds...ok..i'm never leaving my house again until fall. haha!!
there was a cute video of a beaver who rambled into a Lowes store in Fairbanks. so cute! other moose videos of a male moose playing in a sprinkler and baby grizzlys playing together. there are some rescue grizzly babies at the local zoo. may have to stop by and say hello to them.
loving all the green everywhere...things grow so fast here...it is insane really!! you can quite literally watch the grass grow!!
getting a selfie on the trail
thankful for: A. walrus web cam...may our pink friends be safe for generations to come! B. walks in the rain. always relaxing C. Siri...she always listens to you. haha
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