Summer officially over

August 26th, 2009 · No Comments

AnchorageIt’s tough to believe it’s nearly September, but here we are. So the weekend before last we were in Alaska, taking advantage of the seasonal non-stop flights on Alaska from L.A. to Anchorage, and returning for our second go at the Snow City 5k. I wasn’t as fast as I was last year, but at least we’re pretty sure that the course was actually 5k, and not the mystery distance that we ran last year.

In addition to the old favorite Snow City, we stopped by Sub Zero, where we’ve been returning for years now, but it seemed to be undergoing some renovations. We checked out the still in-progress addition to the Museum, which looked really great, and will undoubtedly look even better when it’s finally finished. We also visited the new Firetap, with the biggest selection of Alaskan beers (two dozen) that I’ve ever seen, and it’s not far from our house, to boot. To celebrate my folks’ anniversary, we visited Little Italy, another long-time favorite; if it seems like our visits to Alaska have become a series of return trips to favorite restaurants and repeats of favorite activities, you’d be right. Throw in a little Craiglist time for me to help Dad get rid of some stuff (this time the targets were a Jeep, an old transmission for a Scout, some tires, and so on) and that’s our Alaska trip these days in a nutshell.

One new addition to the scene at home is the massive new garage that Dad is having built next to the house. We didn’t put Aimee to work, but she did test out some of the equipment.

Anchorage

We really enjoyed our three full days there, and appreciated the free first-class upgrades on Alaska, as well. It looks like that’ll be our only visit up north this year, and it was a great one: beautiful weather despite the forecast for rain, and lots of free time to relax and soak in the sunlight. More photos here.

Temescal Ridge Trail

Last weekend, we attempted to get back in the swing of things by tackling another hike; I don’t think we’ve done a hike or a walk since May, so it was high time. Our time off showed, and we both felt a little out of shape as we hiked the Temescal Ridge Trail, a longer version of which we’d done, in reverse, two years ago with Amherst alums. We didn’t go all the way up to Skull Rock, but stopped for lunch at the non-existent falls instead. The most falls-like thing I found that day:

Temescal Ridge Trail

After a busy weekend of screenings and talks this weekend for the Reel Thing, I’m getting started on some new projects as Aimee gets ready for a new school year. My number for jury duty was up today, so I reported to the Santa Monica Courthouse and was asked to come back tomorrow, as it’s not impossible that I could be part of the jury. I’m hoping not, but civic duty and all, etc. We’ll see.

Tags: Alaska · Los Angeles