Gorgeous skies and sunshine – a rare Friday off work – for both myself and oldest daughter. Road trip was in store for the day – we got her youngest onto the school bus and hubby moose into bed after his long night of work – and off we went.

Lessa has no problem with me stopping frequently to take random pictures. She usually has her camera at ready, too. In fact, she got a couple of shots I didn’t. But neither of us got pictures of the several moose we saw.

Homer is hosting their annual Shorebird Festival so there were a lot of folks out on the mud flats with scoping glasses and binoculars – birding books for identification and mud boots, of course.

We wandered out to the end of East End Road – well, we went to the end of the pavement near Voznesenka. I guess I hadn’t realized how close those fires came to homes up there last year. We saw lots of damage to the wooded land thereabouts.

And . . . while lessa and I knew that we could get garages at Garage Sales – and yards at Yard Sales . . . who knew you could get:

. . . just follow the signs . . .

More pics tomorrow.

shining on me . . . talk about blue skies . . .

This shot is from April’s last weekend. Hubby and I took a drive – ended up at a park at the “end of the road” and were graced with some sun and blue skies loaded with wispy clouds. (back the other direction there was a lot of black sky to be seen)

Sometimes Alaska is so beautiful my soul just soars to the tops of trees like these – I can’t explain it, but I love it.

This shot:

was taken last weekend when it was the littlest miss’ turn to go shopping. She wanted to go to the bookstore (instead of the toy store), but first we had to look at a BIG duck at the hot tub store. It sits higher than the building so is a really BIG duck.
🙂
As we walked over to meet Paw-Paw at the bookstore we noticed the reflection of the duck in the store window. So, of course we had to get the shot.

Hope you have a wonderful day. It looks like ours is dawning with clouds and a hint of rain. The weekend is supposed to be nice, though. And, since I am taking a four day weekend to celebrate hubby’s and my anniversary, I am looking forward to a nice weekend.

A long, long time ago . . . in a land far, far away . . . okay – it was just Ohio, but it WAS long ago (30+ years) . . .

we had a pastor who told of naming his boat “Visitation.” That way, whenever he was out fishing and a parishioner called for him his wife could honestly tell them that he was “out on visitation.” Yeah, he could tell that story from the pulpit with a straight face and pull us into it right to the end when we would all just cackle.

In fact, when we moved to Alaska and bought a boat our thoughts went right to that story when it came time to name her. (Boats and trucks are ALWAYS “her”, by the way). Hubbymoose and I owned a business then – and when you are business owners it seems like you can never get away from the shop.

If you DO manage to get away people seem to take offense that you might be out filling up your freezer instead of being at their beck and call 24×7. I was often left to answer the calls and face the upset folks – so hubby and I put our heads together along with our Alaska pastor and came up with a perfect name for the boat: On Business. That way I could always be telling the truth when calls came in and I told customers “sorry, he’s out on business.”

This all flickered through my mind when one day last week while leaving Wally’s I saw a van in the parking lot . . .

Yay! Someone had the same idea!

I love small town life in Alaska.

And, I also love rhubarb – so it’s a great sign when I see the first shoots poking up through the ground:

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummo!

Hubby took me to lunch today – was very nice. But the restaurant was busy so we decided to move on and free up a table. Hubby had some business to attend to – and I wanted to take advantage of a gorgeously clear and sunny day.

Fun on the road with a camera! 🙂

First, of course, is a new picture of Mt. Redoubt. No steam today, but she sure was pretty.

Drove down a road near the bluff and ended up in front of a friend’s house – and saw their new flower pot. (smirk)

Yeah – we live in Alaska – we make our own fun.

Headed back to work I spotted a sign that caused me to back up and take another look. This was on the dirt road that leads to some driveways. You can just about see – behind the sign – that the road is pretty chewed up – I would imagine it’s drying up from some winter deep rut driving. It caught my eye – and just pleased me.

Road healing

Sigh – I put away the camera and headed back to work. Thanks, HubbyMoose. It was fun.

Last week hubby and I took a drive – it was a cold, but gorgeously sunny day. At least, it was sunny where we went . . . there were big black clouds in the other direction. We decided to follow the sun for a bit.
🙂
We drove the “North road” towards Nikiski and beyond to Captain Cook Park. Just the other side of Nikiski is McGahan Cemetery. Now, as most folks around here know it the other name for Nikiski is McGahan-ville. It used to be said you could dial 776-any other four digits and odds are you would come up with a McGahan. They’ve been here for a bit.

As we came upon the cemetery I could just see the tip of a cross sticking up out of the snow . . . it caught my eye because it is red:

Of course we had to drive down into the cemetery so I could get a closer look – and a picture. The name on the cossbeams is Franklin Histop. I did a search online and came up empty. I did a search on the local paper’s website and came up empty. I did a search on the local government’s website and came up empty. I don’t recognize the name – and we’ve lived here over 30 years.

Sad . . . I wonder what the story behind this iron pipe marker might be.

I guess now that I am 60 – a bonafide senior citizen – that my thoughts go towards remembrances. It won’t be long – should the Lord tarry – that I will be but a name on a marker somewhere. I think we all hope that we will be remembered by those who come after us.

I take heart that there is ONE who has my name in His book – and it is HIS memory I cherish the most.

Here on earth I will leave behind family and friends who have me in their hearts – seven gorgeous grandchildren, too. And, as many of the grands bear a striking resemblance to me (smile, apple cheeks, blue eyes) I guess I can be assured that I will be carried on.
🙂

It was a beautiful day – and hubby and I certainly enjoyed ourselves. It is nice as we near our 41st anniversary as Mr. & Mrs. to know that we can still be together and enjoy that togetherness.