Hi Everyone

Just a quick note it's 9:30pm and I'm ready to hit the sack. I posted a new picture at the top of the blog of Kenai Lake. I wanted to show you the beauty that we experienced when we were in Alaska. There will be more where that came from.

Carol, thanks for the comments, so glad to see your keeping in tune. By the way, I changed my mind AGAIN, I signed up for another semester of class, so you will see me on Monday, yipppeee! I thought it was best to get in as much as possible before I depart. I can't wait. I've been going to Gereons studio on Wednesdays since class ended which has been great. Take care, and I will see you soon.

Dan, how's that puppy? You forgot to tell us what his name is. Yes, we've considered the webcam, Alaska does have broadband, go figure. All we can get here is dialup..... (pondering).
Take care and glad to see your keeping up on the blog. Hey, you may want to send the address to Scot, I don't believe I have his address. Take care and say Hi to all... Love M.

PS... I got that commission to do the watercolor painting in Valley Springs, very cool... M. I am excited.

A meaningful encounter.

Ok, so I want to know who invents the names for font types?!? I mean talk about eccentric..... Today we had a bit of a treat. The buyers of our soon to be 'former humble abode' came by and we had the opportunity to meet them. What really nice folks.....Phil and Leanne if you read this I'm not just trying to suck up ;) ...... We gave them the exclusive tour of the operations center of our home, and some of the neat secrets of where to hike, fish and enjoy the sierras. I have to say that it is a tad weird from the perspective of, within 3 weeks we will be renters in their home, which was ours....and still feels like it's ours....try and chew on that concept for a minute! In any event we felt very comfortable with them, and are excited for all of the wonderful discoveries in store for them in this area, and the joy we know they will find getting to experience the peace, more stars than you could imagine at night (the milky way is awe) and just everything about this place that we love and will miss. We are truly happy for them. True it is sad for us. But when we step back for a moment and think of what we are going to, its beauty and passive atmosphere, new lifestyles....a dream home amongst it all, we cant help but let the sadness pass and turn it into anticipation of things to come. A friend of mine said it the other night. "Once your there for 2 weeks, you won't even be thinking of Arnold". Thanks John. You are probably right. But we will not forget the friends we have made, the privilege of sharing the time we have with them, as well as never knowing the honor of spending time with those who we have recently met, just before we move on. You all know who you are, and we feel so blessed to have shared time in this life with everyone. Lets all keep in touch. Do you want to hear something spiritual? Mind you we had nothing to do with this. The new owners met with our friend Tim today, who is a local contractor. They want to remodel the upstairs bathroom to include a shower. Something we have wanted to do, and frankly had we stayed here another year or two would have done that next. Anyways, after an hour of brainstorming the subject of how to make it work in this small space, they came up with the same idea as we had for how it would be arranged to fit right....to the "T"! Hows that for "on the same plane"? I leave you with a thought to ponder. Why does it take nearly a sixth of our lifespan to make our dearest friends, only to leave them, and start over from square one. My uncle Honey once said that in a lifetime how lucky one is if he/she can count their true friends on one hand..... I can honestly say in this sixth of my life I need both hands and my toes! =] Hold on to your dreams.
-Greg

Hello again, well today turned out to be a good one. I took care of checking on DMV status with the State of Alaska to answer some of my own questions.

I then left with the dogs on a long walk off of Summit Level Rd near our home here. While I was walking the dogs, both were smiling and running together glancing back every now and then to make sure I didn't hide (we hide from the dogs when they run too far out of sight-a sick joke of hide and seek, Kenai thinks it's fun, Cherokee doesn't think so). Cherokee is always on a mission for smells and places to hike his leg, while Kenai is more interested in squatting over everything Cherokee has hiked his leg on, pretty entertaining let me tell you.

Anyway, while I was walking the dogs I was thinking about the distance between us and the truck due to a nightmare I had recently regarding getting mauled by a mountain lion and how far I would have to drag myself back to the truck. :0) Terrible nightmare. Anyway, I'm trying to rehabilitate myself to not worry about such things and just be mindful so I can continue to take walks with the dogs alone. Let's face it we're going to have a lot more wild animals to deal with up in Alaska soon, (Greg had felt it necessary to tell me this) like I didn't know already. ;0) And I had to tell myself that wild animal attacks do not happen as often as the media would want you to believe. So on our walk I happened to look down at the trail and noticed a fossilized rock sticking up, it's absolutely incredible. I was so excited to show Greg and he was bummed that he has never found one, the rock hound that he is. You can never take a walk with Greg or John without one of them stopping to pick one up. So now I think I'm hooked. I wonder what kind of rocks we will find in Alaska? To answer your question the dogs and I were a mile and a half away from the truck going toward the Girl Scout Camp (heavily forested) when I remembered my nightmare. Needless to say, we immediately turned back and headed for the truck. :0) Greg and I went back out to where I found the fossilized rock and found more, very exciting.....

PS we have no new news on the move as of yet. Take care, M.

Packing, stacking, throwing out and so on

Ok, so we're now up and running. This Blog is dedicated to all of our friends and family who wanted to live life in our shoes while we were taking the wild trek to Alaska.

So, we are still on for our move from here June 1st. We are to be at the Bellingham, Wa ferry terminal on June 8th to board. We're still not sure what we're doing between those days, we'll keep you posted.

Once we're on the ferry from Bellingham, it's 3 days up the inside passage (3 days of whale infested waters, yaaaah) until our first stop in Juneau (we will be staying one night, and the dogs will be in utter bliss for a loooonnnngggg walk). Cherokee and Kenai will be crated in the Tahoe for those 3 days on the car deck of the ferry, with potty, excercise and eating breaks. I know, we really don't exactly like it but it's the rules. If we had our choice they would be right by our sides. So the 1st night off of the boat will do us all good. Plus will have a bed. Yes, we're sleeping communally (sp?) on the first ferry (on the deck under the stars or midnight sun). This is a good thing though, Greg and John were planning a coup by eating chili 2-3 nights earlier. Can you just imagine us all sleeping in a 5x7 berth? And with no window to open, oh dear.... :0)

So, the following morning we're back on the Cross Gulf Ferry for another 3 days to Whittier, Ak and we do have a berth on this one, although I may be sleeping communally again. I will just leave the berth to the boys... :0)


Until then, we're packing, stacking, throwing out, and giving away. Smiles, M.