Siblings visit in Seattle

Kristina is living in Kent, south of Seattle, for a 10 week internship. Sam, Erica, Ryan and I decided to visit her last weekend. We basically ate our way through Seattle. Here were at a sushi train.

Visited our relatives in Bellevue. The view of Seattle from their house.

Relatives! great to see them. It's been a long time.

Spent some time at Pike's Place

honey sticks

gross dried fruit rolls

yummy fresh fruit

giant lobster tails

goofing off

went to Kerry Park to take photos of downtown Seattle

Great to spend the weekend with my brother and sister, and Erica and Ryan!
Wish mom & dad could have been there.

Homer Solstice Weekend

I went to Homer over Solstice weekend with some girlfriends from Anchorage. Mandy & I ran the 7 miles down and back up the Spit. We spent some time on Bishop's beach.

Nellie

We went back to the Spit the next day and went to the Salty Dawg and had a shot of Jack at 11:30A for my sake. I spent more time than I want to admit at the Dawg during my first summer in Alaska. It was worth the reaction of the locals in the bar. Ann did mention that we were from Seward - making it a little better that we were local tourists, rather than from the lower 48.

We then spent the next hour shopping on the Spit and trying not to breathe on anyone.
Here we are shortly afterward getting lunch at Cosmic Kitchen.

and we did more shopping.
Looks like I missed out on the tiara for my wedding! haha.

came back lounged in the sun on the deck and did some yoga

then some sushi at Wasabi's
the saki sampler

Glad we made the trip down there. Not sure how often I'll be able to get down to Homer after we move to Fairbanks.

Dave's Dispatch from Barrow

Dave sent a few images from Barrow: Polar bear and whale carcass at Pt. Barrow

1 polar bear

2 polar bears

spectacled eider pair

Nalukataq: whaling festival of the Inupaiq. blanket toss.

bowhead whale tail - muktuk

part of Dave's crew

He's working hard out there! Will probably be out of the field by mid-July.

Run for Women

A bunch of us headed up to Anchorage to participate in the Run for Women in Anchorage which raises money for breast cancer awareness. We had a fantastic dinner at Orso's. Never seen skate on a menu before. stuck with the calamari.
Mandy & Pam

I don't have any photos of us running but there was a lot of pink.
Stretching afterward. Rebekka & Mandy.

Jill & Ann

DeAnn & Marnie

Team Seward Sea Maidens!

Say boob!

even the port-o-potties were decorated

I was happy with my 9.8 min/mile. I finished the 5 miles in 49 min. I didn't think I was even going to be able to run it since I'm still sick but I was able to keep a steady pace.
It was a really fun event - almost 5,500 participants! including breast cancer survivors.
Makes me thankful for my health.

Mt. Marathon Training Run

This winter, I entered the lottery for the annual Mt. Marathon race in Seward and my name got drawn. Lucky me! The race is a mountain race that happens every 4th of July in Seward. Distance is ~ 3.1 miles round-trip and 3,022 ft in elevation. I started training in April with some ladies. Just going from the start of the race to the base of the hill. then up the 'roots' section. then 1/2 way up. Today was my first day up to the top. Jeanette took me up the race trail. It was nice to go all the way up. And back down. We have 3 weeks until the big race. Ugh. lots of training runs to accomplish before then!
1/2 way up. The wildflowers are out - beautiful to look at since I spend a lot of time looking down...

3/4 of the way there

some folks going down.
the mountain averages a 38-degree pitch.

us at the top!

almost down to the base - still snow!

view of Seward, Resurrection Bay from the top

This is going to be my biggest challenge this summer I think!