Anchorage and the Kenai

We spent a few days in Anchorage, checking it out and getting shopping errands done. We bought a new tent--the waterproofing was going quick on the old one and after a couple of soggy nights we bit the bullet. We've stayed in some very, very buggy places and the number of mosquitoes that laid in wait between our tent and the fly was pretty disgusting. It doesn't help that Luke has been telling me they are his minions waiting to attack me, in his best mosquito voice :P The new tent is a bit easier to get in and out of, so we can escape the awaiting swarms quicker.

Anchorage has 1500 moose that live in the city. When we were biking the Tony Knowles Coastal bike trail, which is a paved path in the city, we found a moose (with antlers!) sitting in the trees about 3 metres from the trail. Luke learned that moose are actually more dangerous than bears in this area. Apparently since it has been getting warmer earlier in the spring now people are going on the trails earlier, which is coinciding with moose calving season. The mom moose can charge without warning and people are getting injured and some have died. People aren't as afraid of moose too, so they probably put themselves in danger more often too.

The Single Speed World Championships were held in Anchorage this year, so we spent some time at the race. Luke took some photos (which he hasn't shared with me yet) and our friend Sierra was the winning female!! There are a number of silly aspects to the race (lots of beer drinking, costumes) and the winners are required to get a tattoo. Lucky for Sierra, the tattoo is actually really nice this year.

I went to Oomingmak, which is an interesting qiviut co-op (my non-knitter friends can skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid knit nerd talk). It was started in 1969 and it has about 250 members from remote Alaskan villages who hand knit traditional patterns with qiviut that they get from a musk ox farm in Palmer and Fairbanks. They are paid per stitch and get a portion of the profits at the end of the year too. These lucky ladies get to use the divine, incredibly soft and warm qiviut and preserve the knitting traditions of their area at the same time.
I also went to the musk ox farm in Palmer and did a tour. The musk oxen are brushed once a year in the spring and they get 6-9 pounds of qiviut from each animal. (a cowel can be made with about an ounce of yarn, so that makes a lot of yarn) Qiviut is very expensive, so I couldn't justify buying any wool, yarn or knitted items. But it being at the farm made me happy enough! There are only three musk ox farms in the world (2 in Alaska, one in Norway) so I'm glad I was there to see it.

We spent 5 days in the Kenai Peninsula, which is ridiculously gorgeous. We stayed in the area between Hope and Seward and there are big mountains, lakes and rivers everywhere! There's also glaciers and fjords. Every moment was beautiful. I have lots of excuses as to why I don't take more photos and my excuse for the Kenai is where do you start when everything is breathtaking? My photos also don't do the area justice--but here's a few.

 My favourite grass

 Fjord

 Hope Alaska

 Mountain Ash Berry

Luke decided to try one on the trail and they are very bitter. I looked it up later (my policy is not to eat anything you don't recognize but Luke said he'd take his chances) and the berries aren't really palatable until later in the fall. The bears seems to love it though, since you see lots of it in their scat.

Seward Alaska

We did some hiking and some biking and it was all happiness. I'm in love with Alaska!

Oh! Before I forget--Luke is growing a beard. Before we left on our trip I insisted that Luke was not allowed to grow a beard, but since we are camping almost all the time I can see that it would be hard to shave regularly. He seems quite proud of his beard but he hasn't voluntarily let me take a photo of it, so this is the best I have so far:

This was from a couple of weeks ago, so it's filled out a lot more since then.