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

Heather, Glen & Juliet Visit

In July 2010, daughter Heather came with her husband Glen and their 6-month baby Juliet. Glen was working at BP and came up to Alaska for a mixture of business and pleasure.
We spent the 2 weeks before they arrived going round garage sales to buy second-hand baby stuff. We got a cot, a bouncy chair, baby bath, and a car seat, so she was well-equipped for her stay. We will take it all back to UK when we go so that it is there for future grand-children.


They had a good time, and during the 2+ weeks, they went to the 4th of July Parade, Alaska Zoo, sailed on the Kenai Fiords, went to the Alaska Sea-Life Centre, went rock-climbing, tested all the best restaurants, and climbed the Flat-Top Mountain. We were very pleased to be baby-sitters during their more strenuous activities. The Alaska Summer was a shock for the Texans as they had to go into the clothes shops for warm pullovers and coats, as their Texas wardrobes were just not warm enough.


This pic is Juliet on the boat cruise, when she discovered that she could bang a plasic cup on the table and make a loud noise. Her designer clothes came from a big bag of baby stuff that someone was getting rid of and were selling on Craig's List (a US classified ads website). we bought 2 lots, 6 and 12 months old, for $25 each. Bargain, as they were all high quality designer threads!




We are now clearing up after the visit, and the house was full of baby stuff. It is amazing how a baby can take you over. Sadly we may not see them now until Christmas, which is a long time in a baby's life.

It is now official that Alan's assignement ends at Christmas and he is returning to his old job. Last chance for anyone who wants to see Alaska to book some time with us. Give us a call or email smseabrooke@gmail.com.


Alan and Sylvia

Cousin Geoff and Carol's Visit

June was a big month as my cousin Geoff and his wife Carol came to stay with us. They live in New Zealand and we had not seen them for 30 years. They were on a tour of Alaska and Canada, and their itinerary included South-East Alaska with us, a rail/land trip to Fairbanks and back, and a cruise from Skagway to Vancouver. They were then going to tour British Columbia in a borrowed RV before flying home at the end of July.

During our trip to Homer, Seward, and Girdwood, we had a great time looking at the sights and the highlight was a nature cruise along Resurrection Bay from Seward. It gets its name because the Russians arrived on Good Friday.

This picture shows us alongside the Kenai River, where we rented a couple of rooms in a lodge. We were out for a walk after a 2 hour drive from Anchorage to stretch our legs. It was 10pm when we took this shot.


Our visit to Homer was superb, with beautiful scenery and huge fish.

This one took a lot of work to land but Geoff is an expert fisherman.

This boat trip was marvellous and the wildlife were queuing up to show off to the onlookers. These were stellar sealions basking on the rocks. The more important you are in the sealion pecking order, the higher you can go up the rocks.

Finally we went via cable car to the top of Mt Alyeska where we had a scenic lunch in the skiers cafe and watched as people were still snow-boarding in the middle of June.


We hope to return the compliment by spending some time in New Zealand in the near future. For the moment, we are having a rest until our next guests arrive in a weeks time.

Alan & Sylvia

Adventures

Regular blog readers will be wondering why the blog went quiet in March 2010. The reason is that we went on a cruise in March which was supposed to last a week in the Caribbean. On Day 4, Sylvia was taken ill and we had to leave the ship in the Cayman Isles while her condition was diagnosed.

The upshot is that she was flown to Houston in a private jet with nurses in attendance, and underwent some tests in one of the big hospitals, which found that she had a leaky valve in her heart. They recommended operating asap and she now has a new mechanical heart valve.

We have a few pictures of our day in Jamaica, and her time with her new grand daughter while she was recovering. We will post these when there is more time. Our thanks go to our daughter Heather and her husband Glen, who looked after the patient as well as their 2-month old baby and all the visitors who came to see Juliet and help out in the apartment.

Sylvia spent the whole of April getting over the surgery in Texas and finally got to Anchorage last week, just in time to catch a flight to England for our mid-year trip home.

She is steadily getting better but still gets short of breath because her heart rhythm has still not settled down. This can take a few weeks, we are told. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Alan & Sylvia