sunday

come, lets go for a walk.
its a cold and icy sunday, and if you dont get out and off the couch, the sadness of northern winter will attempt to steal your soul.

so, lets go.
shall we?

we'll start by walking through the frosty neighborhood.
as i mentioned before, we've been locked in a perpetual state of ice fog.
its been over a week now since we've seen the sun, except for the few moments we got up in girdwood yesterday.

the anchorage bowl is called a bowl for a reason.
as you can see, the snow removal crew has been busy. they have an elaborate system of moving snow to the center of the street and then picking it up and removing it elsewhere outside of the city. otherwise we'd have mountains of snow until may. something i never thought much about.
they also have this ridiculous sidewalk thingy that will eat small children and dogs if you are not careful. a sight to see- i'll try and capture it the next time we get snow and its chugging and banging down the sidewalk.

as we head toward valley of the moon park to pick up the chester creek trail we pass some fun flags.
they look cold.

anchorage has an amazing network of trails. the tony knowles trail hugs the coastline of knik arm and cook inlet from downtown anchorage to 10+ miles south to kincaid park.
in the summer time it is full of runners, bikers and moose.
in the winter it is full of runners, bikers, skiers and moose.
the trail is kept groomed in the wintertime.

anchorage really is an amazing city when it comes to its maintained public outdoor spaces.
it boasts 10,946 acres of municipal parkland, 223 parks, 250 miles of trails and greenbelts, 110 athletic fields, 5 pools, 11 recreation facilities, and 82 playgrounds. impressive, right?

okay, back to our walk.we connect into the coastal trail near westchester lagoon. just about 4 blocks from here.
there is ice skating at the lagoon, maintained also by parks and rec, but maintenance hasnt yet begun.
with city budget cuts, im hopeful this year they will carry on the tradition of hot mopping and maintaining a burn barrel because it sure sounds like fun.
i'll keep you posted.

as the coastal trail winds toward downtown it hugs the shore. the inlet is full of giant, broken, sheets of mud and ice.
its really an amazing sight to see.
ice is everywhere, on everything.as we wind our way back home, hands kept toasty by that incredible invention "little hotties" we will walk through a neighborhood called bootleggers cove which is located just west of downtown.

there sure are some amazing little homes around here.
remember i said we are renting a great older home in downtown?
well, this isnt it.
and neither is this one.
but arent they lovely?
its getting to be all festive around here.that being said. we have arrived back home. we now have a nice bottle of wine out with some crackers and cheese. its time to wrap up a great weekend.

we bought a chrismas tree today.
a beautiful little fraser fir tree.
abies fraseri.
she's a beautiful little thing and she smells so sweet. be paid the big bucks to minnesota bob.
you can read all about him here. a very interesting story.

your other option here is to cut yourself an alaskan spruce.
they generally do not smell sweet and can be quite charlie brown, if not tall.

so its off to decorate the tree.
thanks for walking with me.