Another successful Alaskan adventure

Sadly, we just said goodbye to Martha on Sunday after her week-long Alaskan adventure. The three of us had tons of fun exploring all that Southcentral Alaska has to offer.

First we went down to Homer, a cute little fishing/artsy retirement village about four hours south of Anchorage. Then we headed up to Seward and jumped on a wildlife and glacier cruise. We got to see some humpback whales, puffin, seals and other crazy Alaskan critters. Check out Andrew’s pictures for a complete tour.

After Seward, we made our way back to Anchorage. Andrew brought Martha up Flattop Mountain and explored our little downtown area. We all spent another day out in Girdwood, where we discovered Virgin Falls, a very cool waterfall you’ll have to check out in the pictures below.

In all, it was a wonderful visit and we were sad to see her go. Gladly, Andrew and I only have a few months left until the holidays and an escape from the arctic to enjoy some much needed Florida heat, family, fun and (of course) shopping.

P.S. I'm having issues with Picassa taking FOREVER to upload images. So, if you don't see all 192, either write a really nasty letter to Google or just check back later ...

Martha's Alaskan Adventure

For the love of customer service

The Thing on the Thing with the Thing

Employee: “Thank you for calling ***. How can I direct your call?”

Customer: “Do you have any of those things you can put on tables?”

Employee: “Like a table cloth?”

Customer: “No. They’re those things you can put on tables.”

Employee: “Ma’am, you can put a lot of things on tables.”

Customer: “Well I don’t know what they’re called! You’re the one who should know!”

Employee: *face on desk*


For anyone who has ever been in customer service - The Customer is Not Always Right.

You’re welcome.

Officially the gloomiest summer in history

So, all the talk I was hearing when I first got up here about how Alaskan summers are "absolutely wonderful" sounds like one big joke right about now. Apparently, this summer is going down in the books as the gloomiest summer in recorded history.

Not kidding, read the article - Gloomy summer set for infamy, Anchorage Daily News

We had two wonderful days where the temperature made it above 70, two. During a usual Alaskan summer, we should get about 15 hot (at least, hot for Alaska) days.

What's all this talk about global warming? No signs of it up here ... So far, we've only had seven days where the temperature reached 65. 65?!?! Up here people are walking around in tank tops, shorts and some flip flops, back in Florida you could find people breaking out the mittens.

The sad part is there's no hope. Forecasters say it will stay cool and cloudy for the rest of the month and into August.

So, everyone keep your fingers crossed that the clouds open up long enough for Martha's visit. She arrives tomorrow and is staying a little over a week, I'm hoping some warm Florida weather follows her up.

Well, that's enough complaining about the weather from me. Hope everyone in the "lower 48" (as they like to say up here) is having a hot, hot summer!

Just one more thing ... will someone please go outside today and get a sunburn for me?

Political fun: It's time for some campaignin'

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Lions, and tigers and bears ...

The Anchorage Daily News has a new interactive tool showing what the bear activity looks like in the Anchorage area.

Between 2005 and 2007, 11 grizzly bears were captured and fitted with radio collars that transmitted their locations to researchers at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Biologists have identified 35 bears in the Anchorage area, here's a snapshot of what the activity looks like in the Elmendorf area:



Click the image to see what the other 10 collared bears are up to.

Bad day at work?

Well, at least it's Friday. Get out of the office before anything like this happens ...

Where's Matt?

Found this great video today on another blog and wanted to share it.


Visit wherethehellismatt.com for the background on the video and the reason for all the dancing.