Sunny Summer

It's beautiful summers like this that keep me in Alaska. It is so beautiful outside and all the flowers are blooming around the city and on my patio! It's hard to choose which events to attend, as there's such a big choice. Last night the sun went down at 11:30 p.m. and came up shortly thereafter. We gave up at the baseball game, as it was in the 21st inning, with no winner yet, and I still don't know who finally won.

One annual event is the Solstice Walk thru the downtown cemetery. It's led by Audrey and Bruce Kelly who lead the pack from tombstone to tombstone, telling stories of the occupants below. It was more colorful when the late John Bagoy did it, as he started a project about 20 years ago to label the unmarked graves, which often times - ahem - were the mistresses buried near the provider and wife. Since the husbands usually died first, their graves were marked, but no one around to do the wive's.

Then we have a small group of storytellers, actually those of us who are good at Lying, so here's a shot of the Liar's Club.
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Anchorage spends big bucks on hanging baskets of beautiful flowers all over town. The farmer's markets abound also, as there used to be one only. Now there are many, and the Spenard Farmers Market in the parking lot of Chilkoot Charlies has grown into a major one. It's in it's fourth year now, and features only Alaska products and crafts. Musical group add a lot to it, too.

The climbers at Mt. McKinley continue to clog the mountain, and there are more deaths than usual this summer. Four climbers, out of a group of five, just fell down a cravasse, and the rescue team is trying to reach them, but have given up. The one survivor tells a grim story of their fate.

There have been several passings of Alaskans recently, and a variety of wakes have taken place, but I'm sure the reader (YOU) don't really want to hear of these. For those of us who live here, it's reunion time at many of these.

The local arts are thriving, and Cyrano's continues to put on old and new and innovative plays. I personally like to attend these, altho' some are much better than others, but you know . . . different strokes for different folkds. Well, it's play time. . . so I'll leave you to your own summer fun

Approaching Anchorage Summer

Talk about action! It's hard to keep up with what's going on indoors and out in our fair city. On a personal basis, I'm volunteering at the American Astrological Conference, which has drawn registrants from all over the world! Looking at the schedule shows that none of the events listed are in either of our three planetariums around the city, but I hope they will be visited anyhow.

One local classy jazz band is Rick Zelinsky's, so here's a shot of them I stole.

This weekend found 4,000 ladies in the Women's Breast Cancer Survival run, and it's become a well known annual event nationally. Of course, it was won by our local heroine, Kikkan Randall. She's a cross country skier of note, which translates to the track too, and the color pink abounds!
The alternative lifestyle community also took over the downtown streets with a parade and trade fair, and the annual Renaissance did not lack for a devoted crowd either.

The Botannical Gardens have a wonderful fair over the weekend, and it has become a great family event, which has a variety of talents including my magician partner.

The National President of Hostelling International also came to town to host an appreciation dinner for the good works we're done in hostelling. We had a great dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse, which is a popular downtown watering hole, besides being advertised on the many cruiseships, so it's the first destination of many cruisers.

Our weather has been cooperating, too, although it is unpredictable as showers appear for a while every now and then, but overall, the sunshine brings everyone out. There are farmer's markets on at least 10 venus that I can name, but my favorite if the Spenard Farmers Market, which is just a few blocks from my condo, but the organizer is a talented gal who bring booths of local color, and one of the clever ones is the "Mobile Mender". If you can't figure that out, it's a gal with a sewing machine that mends stuff you don't want to... great for bachelors, too.

The other event of note is the arrival of the Bore Tide, a unique tide that comes in the width of Turnagain arm, which fights the oncoming winds, so becomes around 5 feet across. . .(smaller ones happen more frequently) this event draws hundreds of cars, doubled by people to Beluga Point and other spots to watch this. It helps if you carry a bottle of wine and toast the tide as it rolls across the arm!

Well, I've finished my report and haven't even mentioned all our golf tournaments, and lakes, fishing, campers, etc. but you have to make time to engage in all these choices.