7/29/07

happy anniversary baby

its hard to believe that one year ago we were pulling into palmer with 2 vehicles, 4 animals and a tiny load of essentials to last until the moving truck arrived.

jeff made the drive with my brother corey and his girl cullen leaving fort collins on july 26th.
corey and cullen braved the subaru, 2 cats and each other for the 6 day trek. (coincidently jeff and i solidified our relationship with a road trip to alaska in 1996).











jeff drove the pathfinder with the dogs while pulling the trailer with the "essential alaska"
snowblower and 6 rubber maid containers stuffed full of immediate needs, or at least what i considered at the time to be needed.
jade and i got off easy, simply dealing with emotional friends (many of whom still havent forgiven us for the exodus), cleaning and tieing up loose ends at the riverhouse. we boarded an airplane and met jeff at the end of his trip, muscles tight, both of us in awe at what we had just done.

its hard to believe its been a year.
in many ways, it has gone by very fast. we have been lonely at times, as we were used to being social. we lived in a busy spot on that beautiful river, which meant there was always someone stopping in unexpectedly.
now, we go for days on end without the telephone ringing.

we have come to depend on one another in a manner that has improved our relationship. we no longer bicker about the small stuff. who would we talk to then?
in many ways we are still finding our way around our little corner of alaska. and this isnt such a bad thing.

today was a picture perfect summer day. mid 70s, blue skies with clouds threatening rain but not producing until we were home happily munching dinner.

we visited the matanuska glacier located about 60 miles from palmer. it is an active glacier (melting) and advances at about 1 foot per day. it is approximately 24 miles long and 4 miles wide a the terminus. it averages approximately 2 miles in width.
the matanuska glacier is a valley glacier, whereas the majority of glaciers in alaska today are smaller alpine glaciers which hang off mountain slopes.

here are some photos. the color shots are unedited. true glacial blue as captured by my camera.













3 comments:

V said...

I love that you brought your pets... and your kid. :-)

Anonymous said...

Can you believe that I missed you at the glacier by like an hour? We passed you guys on your way back home as we headed up. Beautiful day, wasn't it?
_Melissa

Lisabeth and Jeff said...

ooooh that's so sad!! thought about you as we passed through "gods country". amazing day!!