a picture's worth a thousand words...

The ride from Anchorage to Soldotna - Friday, 26 August - looked a lot like this...


Saturday, 27 August - the day after I arrived here - we (all the ACC students and staff and staff families) went hiking. This is ALMOST everyone that has anything to do with ACC. We hiked the Russian Mission River. It was beautiful and the weather was too!


In this picture you can see salmon swimming upstream to go spawn. It's amazing how they get upstream in such strong currents. This is the Russian Mission River - Saturday, 27 August.


Bonfire on Kenai Beach - Thursday, 1 September.

Blassi Shoogakwruk playing the Karate Kid on Kenai Beach - Thursday, 1 September. I actually had one of him doing the actual KK pose but it was blurry.


Jimmy Andrew attempting to play the Karate Kid on Kenai Beach - Thursday, 1 September.


And Krystal Camille trying to be like the guys...


Redoubt (pronounced re-dout) Volcano from Kenai Beach at sunset - Thursday, 1 September. It was about 9:30-10:00 at night when this was taken.


Football on Kenai Beach - Saturday, 10 September - with Redoubt in the background. On clear days I can see most of Redoubt from the end of the driveway to campus.

This is Oscar (a student from last year), Reggie (a second year student), and Jesse (an RA) pretending they're in a gang. This was taken at Kenai Beach - Saturday, 10 September. (The "Bloods" was already spraypainted on the log - just an FYI!)

This one was on the same log on the same beach on the same day except almost all of us. From left to right: Oscar Active, Melissa Harrison, Adrianne Woody, yours truly in the bright orange cap, Jesse Palmberg, Qalla (kullah) Carter kneeling, Salena Tomaganuk, Blassi Shoogakwruk, Ryan Mute, Stefan Coleman (Megan Gilmore was taking the picture and for some reason Cameron Mixsooke isn't in it either but he was there that day along with a few others.)


I needed some alone time so I hiked down to the Kenai River from campus - maybe 1/2 an hour from campus to the river bank. I have to go through Kenai Peninsula College's (a branch of UAA) parking lot to get to the trail head. That's where these flowers are. Some cool ictures of the river bank are below the flowers.

I LOVE this one - the way the sun is hitting the blue one! You can't tell but the pink one is a brighter pink in real life.


This is another one of my favorites - all the colors!








These next few are down by the river on that same hike...


There's a little salmon fry in this one if you zoom in. It's pretty much right smack in the center of the picture. You can see the shadow of him and he's just to the right of the shadow...


I like the light and shadow of this one against the water and rocks. There was a big branch in the water that cast the shadow.


And the river and the sky with the storm clouds rolling in. The pic doesn't do the sky justice. I loved it!


And I took this picture the same night as the hike, when I got back to campus. This little baby moose was eating our wildflowers - this is just outside my dorm. He looks like he's bowed in prayer, doesn't he? I think they're so cute when they do this.


These next few I am excited about. They were taken from Bridge Access Road on the overlook at sunset - Sunday, 18 September. The shore is just beyond this marshy area and the mountains are on the opposite shore. The clouds and the water and the colors of the sunset! I love these pictures!


This one was zoomed out.


And zoomed in...


That's all I have for now. I hope to have more up soon. I am leaving for retreat tomorrow and will be gone until Sunday evening. Have a great weekend everyone!