Saturday, May 1, 2010

Spring in Alaska 2010

Spring in Anchorage allows for all sorts of activities. The cross country ski trails were still being groomed in town. We all set off and did a long, tough 8 kilometer trail called Spencer's Loop. It was Hope's first time doing it. It was a sunny and warm day. We were rewarded with great views of Denali and the Alaska Range at the top and a fun ski down.


Below is a video of Hope cross country skiing down Spencer's Loop. Click on the arrow to play.

After skiing on a Saturday we went bike riding the next day, Sunday. Nic pulled Hope around on the trail-a-bike on the slushy, not quite melted Tour of Anchorage Trail. After that we found a big empty parking lot to start teaching Hope how to ride a bike. There were many crashes and Hope's favorite bike accessory, the bell, got such a beating it didn't work by the end of the afternoon. Hope was a little torn up too, but she dusted her self off and got back on. The bike's name is Bella. She was able to make it about 30 feet before falling off. There were a lot of people out enjoying the sunny, warm (45 degrees) weather after a long winter.Next week, May 1, Hope really got it. We took her to the track of our local Junior High School and soon she was riding all by her self.



The track provided a smoother surface, with no hills and a softer landing for the inevitable crashes.


Click on the arrow for a video of Hope on her bike.

This week there is a community wide effort to pick up trash along the roads. Now that almost all of the snow is gone there is over six months of trash accumulation that is now visible. To do our part we walked from our house down to Old Seward Road to pick up trash. We had a competition to see who in the family could find the best trash. I will not tell you some of the things we found, except that Jolie won the prize by bringing home a large blue exercise ball. We ventured off the road and down to the marsh to do some exploring. We saw a bald eagle up close and Nic and Hope found some marsh water that was deeper than they expected.






3 comments:

Krista said...

I'm so glad we aren't the only ones that still have snow on the ground! Great to see you all out enjoying the outdoors!

Unknown said...

These are great!
So happy to see all the fun things you are doing.
Big hug to all of you!
~Bernice

Suzanne said...

I'm not surprised Hope took to bike riding so easily. She's a natural! And it looked like she was flying on those skis! What fun!