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July 31, 2020

SO many flowers

I really love flowers.  These beautiful coral gladiolas were from Hannah!
my birthday was a few days ago and I ordered a Thai salad (served in a bowl made from giant chip made with black sesame seeds) and pho just east of Findlay Market.  These planters are at the entrance to the market:
we went just before Olivia had to go to work, that's why she's wearing her lifeguard swimsuit.  We went to the library for the first time in 4 months.  And my husband gave me these hibiscus, salvia and celosia below!
he took the next day off, as Hannah wasn't feeling well. She ran a fever of 104.  She had a Covid-19 test and it came up negative, thankfully.  They gave her IV fluids and monitored her heart rate, for a few hours, as it was high.  She's a little better now.  Fever down to 100.
this is the celosia, this kind is called Dragon's Breath.  Isn't it lovely?
these boys prefer the vegan ice creams...
 Hope you have a nice weekend!


July 24, 2020

Souvenirs from Alaska

We got quite a few souvenirs on our trip.  These 3 oz. espresso mugs are beautiful. I got these silver + jade earrings for $20, for myself.  Did you know jade is the Alaskan state gem?  There is a jade mountain in Seward.
 This souvenir below didn't last long... Moose's Tooth pizza!
Lots of stickers!  There's an oval one in the middle from Flying Squirrel, we stopped there twice.  Their olive oil baguettes are scrumptious and the hot drinks are also great!  We bought a reindeer carpet.
Ulus. You can place it in this bone holder.  I watched several videos to learn how to use it.
I've used it several times, to chop onions, et cetera, and really like it.  Which one do you like best?
We bought an ulu for our friend and one for us, from the Magic Carpet, a gift shop in Healy, AK, just a 1/4 north of the entrance to Denali National Park, the maker is Dancing Man.  At the same shop, I bought a burl bowl and gave it to my mom, so I don't have a photo of it, but will take one...
What is a burl? It's a bump, a knotty growth on a tree.  We saw quite a few in the woods.
Next, I plan to make a photo book and enlarge some photos.

Have a great weekend!

July 15, 2020

Alaskan airlines

George liked looking out AND opening and closing the windows on the plane.  Flying with a 1 year old and a 4 year old, plus my husband and two teenagers meant there was always someone to help entertain them!
Take off!  Farewell mountains of Anchorage and we see the Pacific Ocean, specifically Cook Inlet.  Alaska Airlines was great.  First of all, the price was $212 per person, round trip, out of Chicago.
Buckling and unbuckling himself is a good skill.  This is one way to keep entertained!
We also packed things to eat:  a few of the donuts we had bought the day before, beef + reindeer jerky, Lara bars, refilled our water bottles.  
P.S. George loves the black sheepskin we got at the Magic Carpet gift shop in Healy, AK, just a walk north from the entrance to Denali National Park.  
He just wants to snuggle here!

July 14, 2020

St. Tikhon's

It's Tuesday.  Monday we spent 24 hours getting home, our original flight was cancelled.  We didn't know until we got to the airport, so slept on benches for 5 hours until the next flight.  We survived.
Sunday was a better day.  We went to Liturgy at St. Tikhon's in the morning.  Candles, icons and books for sale here in the foyer.
Such beautiful iconography and woodworking!  There were chickens running around from the neighbor's yard...and you can hear Paul complaining in the video clip above about wearing a cloth over his face!
Past the parking lot, there's a pretty gazebo with bells and a beautiful cross on top.
We need a sign like this for our church!
Fr. Andrei was welcoming and so kind to us.  He and his wife have 5 beautiful children, the youngest just 2 months old.  Paul picked me dandelions from the church yard.
After, we went and got Golden Donuts!  There was a store with crystals, rocks and gems on the other end of the plaza.  We got this eagle pendant, which I think we'll hang on the wall below a collage of photos from our trip.
Too much sugar!  We drove to another church, St. Innocent's next.  

We got Moore's Tooth pizza for dinner.  They had beautiful flowers outside the restaurant.
The top photo os their "Call of the Wild" pizza, made with reindeer sausage, Portobello + Crimini mushrooms, green onions, peppers, etc. And bottom is "Aloha" made with ham + pineapple.
It was scrumptious!
An evening stroll...this photo is Mt. Baldy, which we hiked up a week before, at 9:40 pm GMT, the sun set about 11:30 pm, and rose about 4:30 am.  

July 12, 2020

Local seafood

We had Alaskan Tanner crab + Rockfish at Bridge's Seafood yesterday...and it was so very scrumptious!
George really liked it.  20 months old and he's such an adventurous boy, in eating and all things!
 I think we did a good job!
We hiked to the falls here.  My camera battery didn't make it.  But WE did.  Just a mile hike there.  Perfect length.  I love all the green leaves, moss and birch trees.
Then, we went to Hatcher Pass!  What an amazing drive.  I'd recommend it for everyone.  I had charged up the camera battery, thankfully.  We drove as high as we could, got out to make snowballs, then hiked up.
It was really beautiful!  There was a small wedding going on there.
It started to rain, so we decided to hike down.  You can see the blue lake down there.  We didn't reach the summit, but the view was amazing.
Below is one of my favorite photos.  If you click and zoom in, Hannah + Olivia are visible, and Rob is walking out to them with George in his arms.