Back when we were still in Palmer and we knew our days there were numbered, we decided we would do a little goodbye-exploring. On this particular mission, it was very cold outside — about 15 degrees or so with a wind chill factor of -800. By Alaska standards, that’s “normal”; but by Okie standards, that’s “really friggin cold!”. Needless to say, we didn’t exactly want to be out in the elements.
It was January 3rd, 3:42pm and the sun was setting. We caught a glimpse of it as we were exploring a little area designated for sledding.
I love the pink light of the sun as it sets on the mountains. Just beautiful.
Seeing the pinkish sunset on the mountains was a fairly common occurrence, as I saw it quite often. It was definitely one of the things that drew me in to Palmer in the first place. The views were just all gorgeous all the time.
I caught the husband nearly falling on his badonkadonk on this ice-patch-disguised-as-snow. It may not sound funny… but trust me, it was!
We stepped out of the truck briefly, while the kids snored happily in their seats. All 3 kids. Can you believe it? It was nothing short of a miracle straight from the heavens.
But look at these crazy people! One of the greatest parts of going to a sledding area is being able to people-watch, since we had no intention of sledding in 15 degree weather. Oh, the people! These people were just like you and me. They just wanted to go out and have a little fun on a cold winter’s day. They wanted to enjoy the sun before it set into complete black oblivion. They wanted to embrace life to its full extent. And who could blame them? Not me….. but I could certainly laugh a bit at their expense. The person in the foreground of the above picture may or may not have just taken a snow dive… I’ll never tell!
Actually if we would have thought to bring our sleds and bundle the kids up more thoroughly, we would have probably joined in the sledding fun. But, as usual, we were quite ill prepared for a sledding adventure in sub-freezing temperatures. So after we had enough freezing our buns off and laughing our hearts out, we headed over to one of our favorite rivers, the Little Susitna (pronounced “sue-zit-nuh”), to see what it was like. Normally it’s a pretty decently flowing ricer, but that day it was a glorious snowy/icy patch.
It’s the same place I took my momma to visit back in November when I was around 72 weeks pregnant.
If you look closely, you can see the same bridge in both pics even though the pics were taken a couple of months apart. It’s amazing what a couple of months can do to the scenery. Although now that I’m looking at these pictures, it’s really making me miss my mother. She’s so strong… fearless… sarcastic…. spunky….and a lover of life and all-things-Wal-mart. (She’s amazing at finding good deals.) I haven’t yet convinced her to leave the scorpion-ridden land Oklahoma and move to Alaska with me but I’m hopeful that I can someday…. I know she would love it up here.
But enough talk about missing my sweet mother. Let’s get back to our January adventures.
The last stop we took for the day was a pull off on the road. Alaska has a lot of these, you know. And when there are beautiful sights to be seen, wouldn’t you know, there are almost always people around. This particular pull-off had probably 8-10 cars parked there. And when there are people/cars at a pull-off, it makes more people want to go there to see what exactly it is that they’re missing out on. How do I know this? Not because I’m a doctor (we already covered that in my last line of this post, remember?) but because I am guilty of the same thing.
That particular day, the coveted photographical delight was the moon. The glorious moon shining in all of its splendor at 4:18pm as the sun was setting. (This is Alaska, remember? The winter days are short and bitter.) It’s so hard to capture depth in a picture. Way down below, you’re looking at a mud flat-ish area which seems to go on for miles and somehow is beautiful all on its own.
A photographer of many talents, I am not. HOW DO YOU CAPTURE THE MOON AS AN ACTUAL MOON AND NOT JUST A BLOB OF LIGHT? That’s not a rhetorical question, by the way.
A fashionista, I am not. 15 degrees never felt so cold. I thought for sure I was going to turn into a Bonniecicle and freeze right onto the fence. But alas! I did not. And that concluded the adventures of that day.
We were only 10 minutes or so away from our home at the time, so we stopped by at Taco Bell one last time before we headed back home for the evening. (I say “one last time” because there are no Taco Bells in Juneau where we live now.) We had some great adventures in Palmer and I’m not done telling you about them. (That’s a threat, not a promise.) But believe you me, we also will have more adventures in our new home in Juneau. I can’t wait to share more with you soon.
