11:08 PM
| Sunrise at | 7:31 AM | in direction | 83° | East |  |
| Sunset at | 8:24 PM | in direction | 277° | West |  |
Readers, let me obsess about the amount of daylight we have. Today sunrise and sunset were at the times listed above. We have gained nearly an hour since equinox which was the 19th or 20th. More importantly, civil twilight began at 6:41 AM and ended at 9:14 PM. We already are well into the season of light and my whole perspective of life here is once again shifting to a sense of appreciation rather than the caution and watchfulness I often feel during winter.
We drove to Anchorage this weekend because our youngest bitch was entered in the AKC dog show. We left from work, and by the time we got to Anchorage, found the house where we stayed for the weekend, and got settled, there was no time for blogging .. not to mention that I wasn't sure they had wireless.
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| Soft gray and white between Denali and Cantwell |
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| Nenana River between Denali and Cantwell |
The next morning, we found our hosts, Bev and Terry, did have wireless but she couldn't remember the password. Instead, I used her laptop to briefly check email (I wanted to see if my son still planned on coming to Anchorage) and then we were out to the dog show. First day JayJay placed the worst she ever has since she was a small puppy, but that left us free to do other things.
I went over to see my Mom while Gary walked JayJay and then he napped in the car. He came down with a virus last week and didn't want to expose it to the elderly residents. My mother is doing well, but I really wish I could see her more often. I took her up on the 5th floor where I got her some coffee and then we sat in the atrium. The couches we sat in last time had been moved out to make room for the plant starts they were sprouting for the summer gardens. We sat on two conference room chairs and absorbed the sunlight and warmth. She always loved her garden and this little atrium seems to be one of the most relaxing places for her.
When Gary and I reconnected after my visit with her, we drove around so I could try to find some good perspectives of the Chugach to photograph. I can tell you, it didn't work .. everywhere we went were road signs, billboards, tall buildings, or utility poles and wires. It reminded me how my eyes always seem to screen out the artifacts of civilization and instead concentrate on the aspects of nature interwoven into the fabric of every day life. The truth is, that once you hit that mountain range, civilization stops and it is a vast, open wilderness. But from Cook Inlet to the the last street and last house abutting the mountain range, the Chugach were literally the backdrop for the lives of the people in Anchorage.
We drove back down by the Inlet and watched the tide come in. It comes in scary, fast - so fast it looks like a river flowing in, but instead of flowing out to sea, the flow is up toward the arm ending at the mouth of the Knik River. Seeing the tide is especially easy this time of year because the ice floes bob above the current and can be traced as they move along the water way.
Finally, giving up on Lorien contacting us, we went to dinner at the Spenard Roadhouse around 7 PM. It was packed, as usual, but the wait wasn't overly long. We were seated within 15 minutes and ordered. Then we noticed several people taking empty tables without actually ordering, and perhaps not even being assigned seating. It was weird and I concluded they'd been too impatient to wait their turn, and weren't in the system so they were not served. Then at a pre-arranged time, they all gathered in a section of the restaurant and began to sing from the stage musical Rent!
The sound was fantastic and they handled it really, really well. I loved it .. got a bit emotional at how good some of them sounded as they sang. Unfortunately, we won't be in Anchorage for the performances .. We would have been if Gary's healing schedule didn't keep changing.
I did a
lot of experimentation with photos, which I will post on this site
tomorrow. I'll also add details from Sunday's time in Anchorage.
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