Moose Crossing

This was a great weekend and I plan to post all of my whereabouts very soon. For now, I hope you enjoy this photo of my favorite road sign around here!

Happy Monday!

Rachel

For a Laugh

Tim's coworker, Dan, sent Tim this photo of a sign near a trailhead. Thought I'd pass it along! (excuse the "s word"! I just couldn't pass posting this photo up!)

Good Day,

Rach

Flat Top Mountain

Here are some photos from the hike to the top of Flat Top Mountain this week. We went with a group of people from Lindsay's Bible study and they were all awesome people. One brought her son, a 4 year old little boy! It may have been a bit much for such a little guy and he got pretty exhausted and mad along the way to the point where he kept yelling at the top of his lungs, "This isn't flat top, this is DUMB TOP!" It was pretty hilarious! You can see that he wouldn't even look at the camera for pics because he was so upset!

Once we got to the top, I was standing on a big boulder and decided to jump across to a pile of big rocks, well I jumped onto an unstable part that fell out from under me so I landed on my knee right on the rocks! I was pretty glad no one saw, but it hurt some kinda bad! I was able to walk it off and ice it that night and it hasn't given me much trouble so I think I'm good. At least I landed on my already bad knee!

If you ever come to Anchorage, you must do this hike, you can see the whole city and the ocean as in the photo behind me there. The day started out rainy, cloudy and cold in the morning and ended up being absolutely perfect for our hike. We didn't start the hike till about 7 pm and were finished around 10:30, so you can again see how bright it still is at that late hour.

This picture is especially for Morgan: When I first saw this guy from behind, I thought he had a furry jacket collar...nope it was a pomeranian...everyone needs one to go around their neck when hiking!

Love, Rachel :)

Last Weekend

This photo is of a humpback whale's skull!

This past weekend I went with Lindsay to her dad's church in Wasila. Her parents were missionaries when Lindsay was growing up and they have lived in some really neat places including France and Togo, Africa. Her dad is now the founding pastor of a new church called Settler's Bay Community Church. They are currently renting part of a day care building and have started groundbreaking for a church building across the road on the mountain side. It's a really cool place with sweet, sweet friendly people and it definitely reminds me of growing up building a new church. They had 2 mission teams from Missouri there to help with VBS this week. One of the teams was staying at Linsay's parents house and they were awesome people!

The sermon was given by a man from the mission team who is on staff for missions with that church and who used to be a missionary in South Africa. He preached an awesome sermon on slowing down and stopping from Matt 20:29-34 where it says that ..."Jesus stopped". Then after church we all went out to eat at this realllly good mexican restaraunt. We sat on the second story with windows all around so you could see the mountains and lakes. Then we all got free dessert since it was Father's Day and the mission team paid for our meals!!

Then we headed to Lindsay's parent's lake house where we were planning on tubing but the wind was too gusty. We talked and cooked for hours, making halibut chowder. It was phenomenal. The people were so neat to talk to. One woman's son was a PT so it was fun hearing about that and the other one had foot problems so I gave her some advice and looked at her feet! It was just really enjoyable to spend time with such joyful people when I was away from family on Father's Day.

This is just a really awesome cabin I saw the other day.

Miss yall,

Rachel :)

Earthquake

Hi yall,

Just wanted to tell you about the earthquakes yesterday...and yes, I'm fine! Apparently there were 3 earthquakes yesterday, the big one was 5.4 on the Richter Scale and I was walking through the clinic in the hallway while it happened so I didn't really realize it. After it happened everyone was saying, "Did you feel that!?" and I was like, "Feel what?" You could see the waves in our pool and the windows were shaking. Then afterwards when I thought about it, I did remember feeling like I had to catch my balance for a split second. Apparently you've got to be standing still or sitting to really feel them, but nevertheless I still was in an earthquake!! My roomate Lindsay felt a good jolt at her desk in her office. Then I found out that there are earthquakes all the time, but usually not that high on the Scale. This is the website if you want to check out the action: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/ .

Ill be updating soon as I'm hiking/climbing Flat Top Mountain Today.
-Rach :)

Anchorage Market and Festival

Today Lindsay and I walked around the Anchorage Market and Festival that happens every Saturday during the Summer. There is live music and dancing (Celtic and break while I was there), booths of art, photography, food, jewelry, woodcarvings, blown glass, native works, clothing, etc. It was too hard to say no to a few items, so I finally got myself a souvenir today. I'm a sucker for the native made items, they're all so amazing. Who knew that earrings made from seal's fur would be so popular!? One more thing, I rented "New in Town" on Friday night and would highly recommend it, very cute movie!

Love, Rachel :)

Girdwood/Alyeska

Nothing noteworthy happened this last week except that Tuesday was 73 degrees and Wednesday was 49 degrees! Also, I got 2 free tickets to a rock concert to see Static Cycle and they were pretty good; Katie went with me.

Today I drove down that gorgeous drive on Seward Hwy again toward Girdwood to visit with Mrs. Lanell who I mentioned previously. On the drive there was a male Dall Sheep with big horns at eye level on the mountain to my left standing almost vertical on the face of the mountain, eating plant. Mrs. Lanell had grilled fish that were caught yesterday in the ocean!!! Halibut and Salmon, Hawaiian steak pinwheel and grilled veggies..phenomenal! We stopped by the Jade factory first thing so I could retake the photo next to the Humpback whale vertebral bodies for my PT buds- manip that!

Then she took me on a driving tour of amazing views, must eat at places and gorgeous mountain homes. Of course, when we first pulled out of the driveway we spotted a black bear cub! We drove to the big Alyeska ski resort and to a chapel in the mountains. We hiked to Virgin Creek Falls (wow!!!!!) in the northermost rainforest in the entire world! When I think of the rainforest I tend to think of hot and humid (like when I was in Costa Rica), but apparently the rainforest can be cold! The waterfall was beyond beautiful.

Then we drove the Crow Creek Road and passed by the old and still working Crow Creek Gold Mine. We saw tons of wildflowers, trails, waterfalls, rivers, creeks, mountains and glaciers (the reason the snow on them in the photos isn't white is from the volcanic ash from the recent eruption of Mt. Redoubt).

And of course as we arrived back to her home, we saw the bear cub again further down the road! Mrs. Lanell gave me smoked salmon last time I was there (fantastic! Tastes like fresh beef jerky). This time she gave me crab manicotti, leftover grilled meat from our lunch, mango, wild mountain strawberries she had picked and some dessert bars she made with honey, peanut butter and rice pellets! That's the kinds of friend everyone needs!

So today was full of exploration and it was great fun, oh and I also saw a cow (female moose) on the drive home!

Another interesting AK fact: It's free to personalize your license plate so everyone has cool plates on their vehicles and it makes driving more fun!

Love, Rachel :)

Nothing Much

This pic with our pal Smokey was taken at the Portage Glacier Visitor's Center.

Lately I've been so exhausted when I get home from the clinic that I haven't done anything exciting or adventurous to write about. Today was a good day at work, I started doing my first evaluations on patients so that makes things more exciting! I had a pretty interesting patient today too, of course for my first day of evals! But I actually enjoy the weird patients, the crazier the better it seems! Normal people are too boring :). I have been cooking and baking a good bit - for those of you that don't know, this is how I cope with missing Tim! My classmates know when I show up on Monday morning, after Tim leaves on a Sunday, with a batch of something good filled with butter and sugar that I'm missing my hubby! This week I've made red beans and rice with sausage, a chicken and broccoli braid and chocolate chip cookies. Never a bad idea to bring a batch of homemade cookies to work the first week ;). I've also really enjoyed aquatic therapy. The pool is set to 93 degrees, so it feels amazing and getting off of my feet in the middle of the day is heavenly.

Tim just flew to Dallas today for a few days of meetings there for work so he's glad to be home.

This weekend, I'm looking forward to meeting with a really neat joyful woman I met in Girdwood at the Jade factory. It's kind of a long story, but in short, she's an older married woman who spends her summers in AK with her husband. They live in CO, but he's originally from Amite, LA! In short, she is a christian marriage counselor and psychiatrist, so I'm looking forward to being challenged by her wisdom and picking her brain over lunch. You can never learn enough from those who have been there and done that and done it exceptionally well!

Another fun AK fact: 9 out of 10 people have a dog here. 8/10 of those have more than one dog! Also, there is every little hing you can think of that is crazy to spend money on for your dog. I have seen more pet emergency room centers than those for humans. There are dogs everywhere in cars with people. It's pretty cool.

'til next time,

Rach :)

Clinical

Today was my first day in the clinic. I am exhausted from lack of sleep due to daylight during nighttime hours!!! If I happen to wake up in the middle of the night which I always do, I can't go back to sleep if it's not pitch black so I'm having to adapt.

To summarize today, the people I'm working with are super neat and very friendly. My feet are sore because I'm used to sitting at a desk or sitting somehwere to study 24/7, but I am sooooo glad to be up and moving finally! Patients are so much fun as always and looks like I'm going to be getting in the pool almost every day for aquatic therapy, sweet!

I'll write more later!

Love, Rach :)

Portage Glacier, Wilglife Refuge & Kobuk Valley Jade Co.

I decided not to post yesterday as it was my last day with Tim here and I wanted to maximize our time together. He got off on time this afternoon from the airport and then Lindsay and I went to Change Point Church here in Anchorage. It was a good message on deacons and leadership in the church. The part that stood out to me was when the pastor read the scripture Proverbs 6:6 ("Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!") and used ants as an illustration on how we are to be The Body of Christ. Ants are fascinating creatures in case you didn't know! There are over 2,500 species of ants and the one we looked at was the leaf cutter. There is one queen, then all the other ants are workers. Within the workers there are certain task forces or ants that are assigned to different specialties ranging from hi-tech ventilation and humidity control systems for the anthill to infrastructure and protection. Each ant knows that their highest duty lies in protecting the whole of their colony and will quickly give their life for the good of the colony if needed without thinking twice. Also, these ants can form a bridge using their own bodies to the detriment of their lives in order to make a way for other ants to reach safety!!! WOW! I mean, they are ants, but just this one species out of 2,500 can demonstrate such intriguing metaphors to the life we are called to in Christ and that is just one of the many amazing things they do.

This afternoon I plan on preparing more for my first day in the clinic tomorrow and tonight I am getting together with some girlfriends to watch a TV show and make moose meat spaghetti.

Oh and Mom, Becca and Logan picked Ruthie up from Kanakuk Kamp (the best in the world!) in Missouri this morning and Ruthie got the "I'm Third" Award! This means that she clearly demonstrated the attitude of "God first, others second and I'm third" throughout the week. We're so proud of her!

Yesterday was another day of awe. Lindsay, Katie, Tim and I went down Seward Hwy (http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/10390/stories/47123) and stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (http://www.awcc.org/home.html) to see the animals. When we got there, there was a broken down tour bus sitting in the middle of the waiting line. Tim asked if they needed help and the lady said that if we could push it out of the way we'd get free admission, so out we popped from the Bronco and began pushing with all of our might on a gravel road. This is what I wish we had a photo of! And of course I was yelling things like, "Give it all you got people!", "No mercy!" and other encouraging battle cries of sorts. We soon found after moving the bus about 15 feet that we were going slightly uphill and wouldn't be as effective as we'd hoped. Finally a big truck came to the rescue and we ended up getting free admission, so we got a good little workout and saved $30 - totally worth it!

We saw moose, caribou, muskox, bison, black and brown bear. Very cool.

We then headed out to Portage Glacier and went through the museum on it and watched the educational video. At one point, the glacier was right next to this visitors center and you could reach out and touch it, now it has melted back by almost a mile! You could see parts of it floating in the water, and the largest part was seen in the distance. It was so beautiful- bright blue sparkling ice.

We then headed to Alyeska/Girdwood to the Kobuk Valley Jade Company where all of their jade is from Alaska and is carved and polished in the shop. I got a few souvenirs and also took a photo of an old kayak made from walrus skin and and humpback whale vertebral body (for my PT buddies to "appreciate" ;) but it didn't turn out! Sorry guys, they were almost as big as me though!!). There were hugs chunks of raw jade outside of the building too (see right).

Then on our way home, we stopped at Beluga Point to climb on the rocks a bit and enjoy the view where we ended up spotting Dall Sheep on the mountain (at the top there).

We also stopped on the way home at a little pond that's a block from the condo I'm staying at to see the baby Canadian Geese.

For dinner we ate at the famous Moose's Tooth (http://www.moosestooth.net/) where they brew over 100 different kinds of beer and their own root beer...we stuck to root beer and it was great. They're also famous for their homemade gourmet pizza. Honestly, every time we've driven by there regardless of the time, every parking space is full and car are packed on the frontage road outside.

It is a happening place and for good reason!

Wishing y'all were here! Rach :)

Eklutna Lake & Thunderbird Falls Videos

Eklutna Lake/River & Thunderbird Falls + Halibut!

Wow, not sure where to start on today's adventures... I got up at 5:30 am to make Dutch pancakes, I had to be mindful of the effects of elevation on baking, but they turned out great and were a hit with Lindsey and Tim. Tim learned how to destud winter tires and was able to save us about $100 by doing it himself! He's so awesome. Then we packed up our PBJ lunch and headed for Thunderbird Falls. I'm going to have to retract my earlier statement about mosquitoes! The only skin exposed on our hike was our faces and I must have gotten about 10 bites on my face and scalp, so now I will say that AK and LA mosquitoes are on the same vicious level.

The hike to the waterfall was a mile, then we hiked to the bottom of it and back of course. There are signs everywhere saying to watch for bears or that this is bear country or that a bear was sighted recently so beware, so Tim and I decided to make up songs to sing aloud during our hike - so we wouldn't startle any bears - which was quite amusing! Still no bears spotted, but we did see another moose grazing today! I am amazed by all of the gorgeous wildflowers that are blooming everywhere and will most definitely be posting photos eventually.

We then decided to venture on down the road and stumbled upon Eklutna Lake...WHOA! Tim and I both were just silent for several minutes and we both agree that it's one of the times we've felt closest to heaven! We've never seen anything like that Lake, so crystal clear and blue! The clouds were setting low, so you can't see the huge mountains in the distance, but we weren't complaining! I hope you all get to see something like that one day because it really puts you in touch with God.

We then spotted what's referred to as a "juvenile/immature bald eagle"!

We had our binoculars and were able to see his talons and look him in the eye,

it was fantastic. The lake is fed by Twin Peaks River, so we could hear the

rushing river and appreciate the beauty of the scenery that much more.

To top off this day of adventure, we got to meet Lindsay's parents at their lake home on Lake Wasila. They fried halibut that they caught and also made the best hush puppies we've ever had! For dessert we had chocolate meringue pie and triple berry cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream...SOOO needless to say we were more than happy campers. Then we watched the final championship game for the ECHL: AK Aces vs. SC Stingrays (AK lost) and told stories about "kinfolk" in Mississipi and West Va. with some really neat people that are the Hearn's family friends, one of whom is a Doctor of Physical Medicine on the same floor of the same building that I'm going to be working in. She said she'll come in on Monday morning in her white lab coat and say that I'm her niece to make sure that I get taken care of ;). They were really great folks! Oh and by the way, this lake photo below of Linds and I was taken at 10:30 pm!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of love, Rach :)

"The Beast"

Meet my 1989 Ford Bronco Eddie Bauer Ducks Unlimited Edition 4x4 with a 351 V8 engine (AKA "The Beast"). I am completely in love with it! We are trying to figure out a way to sneak it back with us on the plane... Tim and I got a smoking deal on it from a really cool guy and it passed emissions testing with flying colors. We spent about 3 hours detailing, scrubbing, waxing and cleaning it. We estimate that it had not been cleaned for circa 10 years at least... it came from an older guy who was in the Air Force and used it for his outdoors play. It has a nice CD player with a 10 disk changer. We're planning on taking the top off of it for our drive to Seward tomorrow.

Today we saw more wildlife: Canadian geese, a leopard gecko (see right) and the Alaska state bird- the mosquito. Now, I still claim that it's the state bird of LA, but here they are 5 times bigger which makes them slower and they don't bite nearly as frequently as the ones down south so while they are everywhere, they aren't as much of a nuisance it seems.

Today it rained a little bit and there was a huge bright rainbow in front of the mountains...of course I've had my camera for every other second of the trip except this one, so it'll have to remain a memory, but it was beautiful and I'm sure there are more to come.

Some more interesting AK facts we've discovered: no sales tax at all! Also, there are little drive through coffee huts EVERYWHERE. I started to count them but gave up after 30. They are more frequent than snow cone stands or shrimp stands down in south LA. I guess because it stays light so long people figure out ways to keep the night alive. Also, the people have all been so very friendly.

Thinking of yall,

Rachel :)

1989 Ford Bronco

Today was designated to the search for a vehicle that could last at least 2 months. After getting well caught up on our much-needed rest, we contacted several people through craigslist, alaskalist and the newspapers. We test drove vehicles and ended up with two options that we felt good about. One was a 1990 Pontiac Grand Am and the other a 1989 Ford Bronco 4 wheel drive. We ended up getting the Bronco after much deliberation. I'll post photos soon.

We saw our first moose today on the side of the highway. It was a female and she was bent over eating grass, didn't get a picture, but I'm sure I will eventually from all I've heard. Weather here was phenomenal today, 49 this morning to 65 this afternoon, sunny and clear skies. The two neatest things so far here (besides the scenery) are the light at night (it looks like it's 4 pm outside right now, but it's really 10:30 pm) which makes it so hard to go to bed, and the tap water- it is the best water we've ever had.

The photo with the equipment rental place shows the neighborhood I'm living in behind it...nice view, eh? :D

Hope everyone is well!

Love, Tim and Rachel :)

Day 1

Tim and I finally arrived in Anchorage after one long day! Only to be true to my ability to greatly succeed under pressure and my talent to procrastinate, I did not start packing until the night before we left around 9:30 pm. I finally finished at 12:30 am. I was exhausted as I had woken up that morning at 4:15 am to get Ruthie off to kamp (and the night before had driven from Ruston to Dallas and gotten to bed around 12 am). No sooner then had I laid down my head, I got the hiccups! They decided to hang out for the next 45 minutes, waking Tim up about every ten minutes and not allowing me any rest!

So, when the alarm went off at 4:30 am, I had gotten about 6 hours of sleep over the last two nights. You know when you get so exhausted that you're nauseous? Well I have that sometimes (had it the day before also!) and it usually just goes away....not this day! As soon as we got in our rental car (my car is in the shop) to get to the airport, I started puking out of the window- and of course it got in my hair and all that fun stuff. We were running a little behind and still had to gas up the rental, so of course we took the wrong exit for gas and lost time there, and when we got to the gas station, I had to clean the car off (still feeling miserable at 5 am) with the windshield scrubber- Tim attempted to help me but just couldn't. Then as soon as we got to the rental car return, I ran to the nearest trash can and hugged it for about 5 minutes. Then we had to carry our copious amount of luggage across the DFW airport. I just couldn't do it, so Tim had the look of a very kind pack mule on our trek. :)

Also, Tim had to make it through security with our firearm (remember we were running late). Well, needless to say, we made it in time. My nausea didn't go away until about 1pm that day! And no I'm not pregnant (sorry Laura). We arrived in Seattle at 10:30 am and ate at Ivar's fish bar, I got their famous clam chowder which was very good. The mountains over Nevada, Idaho and Oregon were amazing.

We left for Anchorage at 12 pm and were in wonder for the next 3 hours as we flew over the Pacific Ocean and Canada, lots of massive mountains, islands, beaches and the pacific Ocean. We arrived at 5:30 (Dallas Time) and 2:30 (AK time) after 7 hours of flight that day. It was sunny and 65 degrees. Lindsay drove us around downtown a bit and showed me where I would be working (very nice building and location). No need for AC at Lindsay's house, we slept with the window open and enjoyed a nice, natural breeze and lots of light coming through the windows!

Today we are on the lookout for either a moped or an old car for me to get around, so pray that we find the right vehicle! Right now it's in the 40's and I'm wearing my big winter jacket of course :).

I'll keep yall posted!

Love, Rachel :)