San Francisco Dreamin'

I recently returned from a business trip to Northern California (Livermore actually, which is about 30 miles east of San Francisco). I had a few days off in the area before I had to start work on the project, so Malia took a couple days off from the classroom to come down for a little exploring. The weather was great (pretty warm) and we had busy days taking in many of the sights and sounds of the City by the Bay. There is a photo of the two of us on the ubiquitous and touristy, but also quite fun, cable cars. We also traveled north across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County and went to Muir Woods National Monument. This was a beautiful place that contains some of the last surviving stands of redwood trees on the California coast. It is truly amazing that it is only a few miles north of the hustle and bustle of San Francisco. There is also another common shot of part of the San Francisco city skyline, complete with the iconic Victorian houses in the foreground. I also happened to be in The City during part of Fleet Week and was able to see an air show over the bay, including a performance by the always-entertaining Blue Angels (pictured). Livermore has quite a few wineries and I had a little bit of time to explore some of them. It was fall harvest season and one of the pictures reveals a combination of wine grapes and autumn splendor. All in all, it was a great trip and good opportunity to see some places that I had not seen in awhile and some new sites as well.

Global Summer Trips: From Montana to Australia

Also this past summer, Malia went on another trip to an international locale (last year was France and England). The only catch is that she had to be a chaperon to high school students, but this duty took her to Australia this summer. While Malia was on the other side of the world I went down to Montana to spend some time with the family in Missoula and beyond. We both had great trips and many stories to share with each other upon our returns to Alaska. The first two photos are from my hiking trip in Glacier National Park with Adrian, Steve, and Logan. We had a great time on the hike and I really enjoyed exploring part of GNP and hope to return to see more. The last three photos are of Malia's trip Down Under. The first is her with a cuddly koala (yes they are cute, but you would look good too if you slept almost the whole day and only worried about which leaf to eat next). After that is a photo of Malia swooshing down a dune on sand taboggan (something we just do not get enough of in Alaska) on Moreton Island. Lastly, is a nice picture of the sun blazing down behind the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge after another day of looking over the beautiful bay.

Denali National Park

Malia and I spent some time in Denali National Park in June this past summer. The weather was pretty nice and we had a great time soaking up one of the most beautiful areas in the country. The photos shown are as follows: 1) a Dall sheep perched on a ridge; 2) alpenglow on Denali at dusk; 3) a juvenile fox in a black spruce tree; 4) a brown bear foraging; and 5) one of our camp spots (with Denali behind it). This is a beautiful park with open backcountry access (a rarity as far as National Parks go).