My fourth and final trip to Alaska this year was another brief one, from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, to help my dad celebrate an award he received from the Alaska Conservation Foundation on Friday night. It was an evening filled with inspiring stories about people going above and beyond to help preserve wild places, endangered animals, and public lands for public use in the state of Alaska. “Community organizers,” you might call them, as my dad did, people whose reputation apparently needs a little rehabilitation these days thanks to the state’s governor/ventriloquist’s dummy.

In addition to the dinner, we had some time to hunt for new coffee shacks, and to go for a tasty breakfast at the Bake Shop in Girdwood followed by a great hike out to Winner Creek on Saturday.

It was definitely fall in Alaska; it has apparently been fall all summer, as it’s been rainy and gray most of the last few months. The colors (mostly yellow) were out, and the views – snow-capped mountains, yellow hillsides, and green at our feet – were spectacular. We saw a black bear in the parking lot at the hotel where the trail began, and three pairs of swans at Potter Marsh on the way back.

We spent the rest of Saturday and the beginning of Sunday getting stuff done around the house as I went on one of my usual drill-sergeant routines, trying to help out with projects (building shelves, hanging stuff on the walls) when I’m home. It was a quick visit, but we got a lot done, and I even squeezed in a long-ish run on Sunday morning around the house. The half-marathon in Long Beach is in three weeks, so not only do I need to be training, but I’ll also get to see my folks again soon, and they’ll hopefully get a break from the rainy weather.