sun pillar at 5:45 a.m.

A sun pillar is caused by a refraction of sunlight due to the presence of ice crystals in distant clouds.

Beautiful, isn't it?

a bit crowded

"When I came to Alaska, there were 72,000 people, and I thought it was a bit crowded."

[Jay Hammond, governor of Alaska from 1974-1982]

the flowering plants belie its barrenness

"Not infrequently [the Arctic] is described as remote, desolate, barren, and climatically rigorous. Probably none of these adjectives is accurate, and very possibly they are misleading... It is not remote to the Eskimo, the arctic fox, or the ptarmigan; the flowering plants...belie its barrenness and desolation."

[official comments from the Committee on Environmental Studies for Project Chariot, 1961 approximately]

This quote comes from the article "Alaskan Roots of Environmentalism" by Peter Coates. You can read the article in its entirety here.

grey and white

chocolate, chocolate, AACK!

My niece Lucy as my sister as Tina Fey as Liz Lemon as Cathy

school dance and limbo

Yeah, she won. I hurt just looking at this picture.

my friend Heidi

Check out my friend Heidi on Flying Wild Alaska! She was the one I was with when I got stranded out of town at the point. Good times.