Sunshine on Winter Solstice 2018

Our favorite day of the year in Alaska! Now we turn towards the light again and slowly work our way back to those incredible long days of an Alaskan summer. Anchorage set a new official record yesterday, 10 days straight of snow at the NWS office near the airport. There hasn’t been a breath of wind and the trees are draped in snow. I honestly can’t remember this long of a stretch when Anchorage was so gorgeous.


A quick winter break at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

We took a short winter break in San Diego for a couple of days. It was nice to get away from the aftershocks of our big Nov. 30th earthquake and walk the beach and eat great Mexican food.

A friend of ours is working on the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research project trying to save the White Rhino. She hooked us up with tickets to the Safari Park where the project is located. Thanks, Sarah!

My very first paying job doing media was in Kenya while I was still in college. Not a bad way to spend a month during summer break. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for African animals, so this trip was a nice way to bring back lots of great memories. And lets be honest, baby elephants are pretty damned cute!

Shake, rattle and roll! Major earthquake.

We had a major 7.0 earthquake this morning in Anchorage right at 8:30am. Longest and strongest I’ve ever felt up here. Lots of damage around the Anchorage and Mat-Su area. Roads and bridges were hit hard, but so far not a single fatality or any major injuries reported, which is amazing. Our house rocked hard for over a minute, and we’ve had over 200 aftershocks, several that were 5.0 or higher.

And yet, we were incredibly lucky. Our kitchen got pretty trashed—lots of broken dishes and glasses—but the house is okay and the power came back on this afternoon. Quite the way to celebrate my birthday ;)

This is one of the cracks in the earth running across our gravel driveway. Crazy.