We're Damming!

On a walk at the end of August 2010 we encountered a pair of beavers trying to make a home in our local lake. They were very busy, presumably because they have to get sorted before the cold weather comes. The plan seems to be to dam the outlet to our lake, let the level rise, then pick a spot in deep water to make their home for the winter.



We took a remarkable video of one of the pair bringing in a tree branch and planting it in the culvert. It is on You Tube, and hard luck on anyone searching for 'beaver' - this is the other sort! Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW3AAhg8jNM.

They never stopped all the time we were there. The local trail warden was concerned as they are damaging the woodland and if they succeed in flooding the lake, there could be damage to local houses. They have managed to fell a couple of trees, with 10" trunks. We think this is in the hope that the trees will float down to the outlet and help with their damming activities.

The warden is trying to get the authorities to move them to a site where they can do their stuff without threatening the local infrastructure.


Evenings are getting considerably darker now, and the sun is going down at 8.30. Very little time for the beavers to settle into their winter quarters so I hope the Alaska Dept of Wildlife comes to their rescue.

Alan & Sylvia

Anchorage Greek Festival

We never knew there was a Greek community in Alaska - couldn't be further away from the mother country. Every year, they hold a festival of Greek music, dance and food and this year we got to go and the sun shone as well. We had gyros and loukoumades for lunch. Gyros are flat breads with meat and yoghurt, and loukoumades are deep-fried honey puffs sprinkled with honey and nuts, with sugar and cinnamon. It was all high-quality.

Pictured are some of the dancers who put on an exellent show in traditional dress. The men wore the national costume, the 'fustenella'. The women's costumes were from the village of Ambelakia, in Northern Thrace. Also on show was the charming boy's costume from Corfu. The older dancers are wearing the Cretan costume from Anoghia.

At the end of the performance the audience were invited to come up on stage and have a go at one of the dances.
Pictured here is the current Alaska Senator, Lisa Murkowski in the yellow, strutting her stuff and targetting the Greek vote in the elections next week. About half the commercials on TV at the moment are for various candidates for the elections and we can't wait for it all to be over.

At the end of the afternoon, with warm breezes and bright sunshine, we had just got home when there was a violent thunderstorm, with torrential rain, hail, thunder and lightning. This is the view out the side of our house showing the floods that the rainstorm caused. We don't get many of these in Anchorage but this was a doozie. Then the sun came out again.

Alan & Sylvia

Anchorage Port Tour

Nice day last Sunday so we took the tour of Anchorage Port, where 90% of Alaska's imported goods come through. It was built in the 60s and now needs considerable refurbishment. They are adding another 65 acres to the site, nearly doubling the size. The tour took us all round the docks area, and they were loading a Pacific-going ship at the time, as you can see in the picture above. There is no such thing as a free lunch, but we did get a free hotdog in the viewing area.

We finished up with a free shuttle back to the town centre, curtesy of the Ulu Factory, who have a shop near the docks area. There we went round the Anchorage Market (bit touristy for us locals!) and had a coffee and giant cookie. A nice cheap way of spending a Sunday morning, which is how we like it.

Alan & Sylvia

Scenes of Oregon

On the way from Portland Airport to Sunriver Resort for a tennis tournament, we were lucky to see some of the sights of the state of Oregon, a small state which is on the US West Coast between Washington State and California.

On one side of the Cascade Mountains it is dry and desert-like. On the other side, it is wet. These were some of the landscapes we passed through.

There is a lot of farming in the area as the area was once under water, leaving a rich soil behind.
We were in the shadow of Mount Bachelor, which still had snow even in mid-Summer.
Lots of wildlife on the complex, with deer such as this one, and ground squirrels. These are not chipmunks, which have a stripe on their nose as well as down their back. Our dog Bentley would have a field day with these squirrels as they don't climb trees.


We also went to Lava Land, a National Monument to the volcanic nature of the terrain round there. These are the lands of solidified lava where you can walk around and go up to the top of Lava Butte, which is a cinder cone with a road up the side.


What we also didn't know is that Oregon is one of the best star-gazing areas in the USA. The combination of the altitude and the clear skies gives you a phenomenal view of the stars, and it was amazing to lay on the patio at midnight and look up at the sky. The Milky Way went right over the top of our house.

All-in-all a memorable trip.

Alan & Sylvia

You cannot be serious!

Alan has just got back from a vacation/tennis tournament representing Alaska at the 3.5 level. We were up against competition winners from state tournaments involving dozens of teams in Oregon and Washington states, so no real chance of our lowly team winning. Pictured above are the team, fresh from their first defeat against the team that eventually won it.

We found the conditions (about 85 deg F) and altitude (about 5000 ft) made it a very different game to what we are used to and proved to be a big handicap. That and not being very good.

Nevertheless, it was a great 4 day break in the sunshine, sharing a house with the rest of the team, and enjoying the sights and history of Oregon, sandwiched between California and Seattle on the US West Coast.

The reason for the title of this post is that if you play like we do, you cannot be serious about winning inter-state competitions, but it was a privelege just to be there.

This is the house and car we rented. The venue was a resort called Sunriver, which is a forested area, with vacation houses dotted all around, and golf courses and tennis courts, hiking, biking and boating all around. In the winter, it is a popular skiing resort as the snow lasts longer at altitude.

We enjoyed the stay and the scenic drive across the Cascade Mountains to get there. See the next post for more scenes of beauty...

Alan & Sylvia

Arctic Thunder

End of July every 2 years is the time for the Alaska Air Show, named Arctic Thunder. It was held at Elmendorf Air Base, an important USAF station which guards America's back door from Russia and the Far East. Rumour has it that Air Force 1 uses Anchorage as a refuelling stop when flying the US president round the world.

This is Sylvia at the show, compete with ear plugs which are an essential fashion accessory as these planes make one hell of a roar on full throttle.


This is Alan, a bit further away from the main runway, where you could actually hear yourself think. He has our portable chairs, which we set up at the edge of the runway to view the proceedings.


This is the USA Navy flying team, Blue Angels, doing a special tribute to the loss of one of the C17 aircraft that should have been performing on the day. Earlier in the week, a C17 went down during practice, with the loss of 4 lives. The manoeuvre is called the 'Missing Man' and in the shot, one aircraft deliberately leaves the formation and leaves a symbolic gap to commemorate the missing pilots.



There were also displays by stunt flyers, a wing walker, the Canadian Snowbirds team, a helicopter troop landing, plus demonstrations of the F22 fighter and the Hawker Harrier. We watched the Harrier fly backwards, which was impressive.




The show was so good on the Saturday we went back on the Sunday and saw it all again. Weather was perfect for watching flying, with high cloud to make the sky more visible but no rain. This was a relief as Anchorage has just had the 8th wettest July on record, and it has rained nearly every day.

A great day out and a privelege to be there.

Alan & Sylvia

Fishing in Alaska

You can't go to Alaska in Summer and not do fishing, even if you have never done it before, like us.

On a Sunday morning in early August, we went on an organised boat trip to catch silver salmon. They are 'running' at the moment, which means they have come back from 4 years in the Pacific Ocean to breed in the Susitna River, where they grew up.

As the fish like to get an early breakfast, we had to get to Wasilla, about 40 miles North of Anchorage, by 5.30 am. This meant setting the alarm for 3am - hardly worth going to bed!

This shot was taken at about 7am, by which time we had already got half our quota of 2 fish per person.



This is Sylvia's first fish, which weighed in at 11.3 pounds. We know this because all the fish have scales (ha ha!). It put up a struggle and for a while we were not sure if the fish was coming out of the water or Sylvia was going in!



This is Sylvia on the river bank with proof of the weight of her catch. The hair is a bit wild because the boat does 20 knots, which is pretty bracing on a cold river at the crack of dawn.


This is Andy, our guide, who cleaned and filleted our fish for us. The remains go back into the water for the bears and seagulls to pick at. In the end, we came away with about 40lbs of prime salmon fillets. These are now in our spare freezer ready for the winter nights.

Quite an experience for 2 novices and never to be forgotten.

Alan & Sylvia

Close Encounters of the Moose Kind

On a pleasant Alaska evening in June, with daylight until 1am, we decided to go for a walk in the woods at Hillside, just on the edge of town. All was well until we met this moose, who lurked at the side of the path. Not wishing to disturb it, we doubled back, only to find it followed us, gathering pace as it got closer.

Rather than take a chance it might charge us, we nipped behind a telegraph pole, because a person can run round a tree trunk or pole faster than a moose, so it is a good way of avoiding a kicking.

This shot was taken from behind the pole, and there may be a bit of camera shake for obvious reasons. The camera does not portray the sheer size of the moose - it was about 6ft from the ground to its shoulder.

It held us captive for 10 minutes, not daring to move from our cover. At last it wandered off with a few menacing looks back at us.

We had to take the long way back to avoid meeting it again. The forest is a scary place when you are jumping at every sound!

Alan & Sylvia