It's almost Fur Rendezvous time--where's the snow?

The Anchorage Fur Rondy starts this week, and for the 2nd year in a row, the North American Sled Dog Championship races are being derailed by lack of snow.  Last year the races were canceled completely.  This year, they're going to run a five-mile race instead of the normal 26-mile course.  It won't actually count as the North American Championship, but instead is really just being held for the fun of it.  These sprint dogs are barely getting warmed up at 5 miles, so it's going to be nuts on 4th Avenue!

Downtown 4th Avenue during the 2013 Races when we actually had some snow.

Waiting for another season of 'da bears.

Going through photos and came across this one from a rainy fall 2014 trip to Denali National Park.  Only a couple more months until we get to go back to possibly our favorite place in Alaska. Denali is special to us.  We try to go at least twice a year; sometimes more often, just for the chance to see these guys.  Brown bears (grizzly) are definitely my totem animal and I get a deep sense of satisfaction every time I'm lucky enough to see one.

Filling up on blueberries in the rain.  Denali National Park.

That's more like it :)

We finally got a pretty nice Aurora show last night.  It started early, just before 9pm and went throughout the night.  At first the colors were pretty diffused, but around 1am they really began to kick in.  These were all shot between 1am and 3am.  And of course, I gave up at 4am and evidently there was a really big burst of color around 5am.  Oh well.  A fun night shooting.

Now we're cooking!