Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

The weather this July has been cooler and cloudy... but still no rain. It's good and bad.  I find myself wishing for a good downpour, and then the clearing and sun that follows.  But, all the sky does is threaten.

Our 4th of July staycation was AWESOME!  Besides doing a lot of relaxing, some gardening, coffee drinking and playing with the dogs, we also went to the Girdwood Forest Fair.

 
 We hiked to Rabbit Lake (trail head just a few miles from our house).

After a few year hiatus, we busted out the canoe gear and went canoeing at Eklutna lake (about 45 min north of Anchorage) while our friends kayaked.  First trip in a boat for Chuska.  It took him a bit to settle in... but after about an hour, he fell asleep :o).  It felt sooooo good to get back out on the water that we have started planning future canoe adventures.

This weekend was the Fireweed 400 bike race.  Four of us completed the 100 mile ride (aka - a century ride).  It was a gorgeous day for a ride!  I feel lucky to have great biking partners.  We all worked together so well as a "team".  I don't think I could have done it (happily or at the same pace!) without them.

I spent yesterday relaxing and made my first ever batch of kimchi! I followed a recipe that uses red cabbage instead of napa cabbage (traditionally used). It should be ready (depending how fermented I want it) in anywhere from 3 to 7 days.

I also put some garden rhubarb to use and made a small batch of rhubarb jam.  It has a great puckery taste and is such a beautiful pink!  I can't wait to use leftovers to make thumbprint cookies :)

The Midnight Sun

The Midnight Sun has been as awesome as we were told it would be.  I find myself staying up late (unless I really keep an eye on the time) and therefore wanting to sleep later too.  I started using a face mask to sleep because although I can easily fall asleep with the sun still shining, once it sets and then rises again at 3am, my body wants to wake up.... every hour... until my alarm goes off... wondering what time it is.   The flowers popping up in our yard are putting a big smile on my face and the garden is growing in leaps in bounds.

Although I am still complaining that we can't escape "people", I have started to appreciate the magnitude of the wilderness in Alaska and have found I can find some solitude on the trails in the early morning light.

In June we caught Halibut (with our friends Jessica and Zach) out of a Ninilchik on a fabulously sunny and calm day. This is my very first fish!  A cod... which was instantly cut up for bait... but i was still very excited about it!! There were 6 people on the charter - these Halibut hanging here are the largest we caught.  We went home with 48 pounds of delicious fish!

Six of us rode 125 miles from Anchorage to Seward (80 miles to Summit Lake on Saturday, 45 miles to Seward on Sunday) to raise money for colorectal cancer awareness and screening in the Ride For Life, Alaska. There were a total of around 75 folks that did the ride, raising almost $70,000!  We had cool, overcast days (with rain the last 10 miles), swam in chilly Summit Lake and met some great people and cancer survivors.  I had many thoughts of my Dad on my mind as I rode since he is a survivor!  A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who donated to the cause.

This Tuesday before work my friend Serena, Dave and I rallied for an early morning hike up Little O'Malley Peak.  It was one of those mornings that made us all ask "why don't we do this all the time?". We are so lucky to have the Chugach Mountains out our back door.  It was an "I Love Alaska" type of morning.

We were supposed to go camping in Valdez this weekend for July 4th... but a high of mid 40's and steady rain with lows in the 30's didn't sound quite as appetizing as baking cookies, sleeping late, coffee in our pajamas next to our cozy fireplace, hiking and some day excursions exploring around Anchorage.  And so we say Cheers! to the start of our 4th of July, 4 day "staycation"!

Oh yeah - and this guy graduated from doggie school (not quite sure how)....