Me, February 1983.

This winter in Alaska has been unusual – we’ve had record snow fall (it had snowed over 81″  as of a couple of weeks ago and we’ve had more snow since then!); Almost every day for a month we’ve had temps below zero, usually double-digits into the negatives, which is a lot colder than last year. But I’m loving the weather despite that, because it means the snow is sticking around and piled on everything, the trees are all white and frozen, and it’s just beautiful.

We’ve been doing a lot of skiing too - I think this past weekend was the first weekend we haven’t gone skiing since Christmas! Howdy is getting into skiing too, and even skied on the blues the last time we went! This is huge since it was only his 3rd time skiing since he learned to ski for the first time last March, and he did so great! I was super impressed with him!

It was -11*F at midway and the base all day the last time we went (MLK day), but we were out there for nearly 5 hours anyway. The last 2 times we’ve gone skiing it hasn’t gotten above zero (the previous time it was -6*F the whole day), but aside from the cold, the weather and conditions were fantastic. It was actually about 10* warmer at the top of the mountain, because there was a cloud layer hanging just above the middle of the mountain.

View from the top:

I’m really enjoying getting back into skiing. Howdy and I bought skis and all our equipment during the off-season, and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. I love all of my stuff, and it’s more than paid for itself in what the rentals would have cost us by now if we hadn’t bought it.

We have such a great time skiing with our friends too, and I am so thankful to have such awesome people here in Alaska with us!

We’ve also gone tubing on base a couple more times! Again, it’s been cold, but so fun!

…Well, that’s a lot of what we’ve been up to lately. There are still quite a few more things to mention, but that’ll have to be another post. Howdy has a trip coming up, so while I will miss him, it’s always a good thing for my blog posting frequency.

Hope you all are having a fantastic week – and thanks for bearing with me during my blog laziness!

The first Monday of every month during the ski season, the ski resort here (Alyeska) has “Military Monday” where military members and their families get FREE lift tickets. December 5th was the first one this season, so I took the day off work and headed down there with a couple of friends. The Saturday before was the first crazy heat wave/windstorm, so a lot of the snow in Anchorage had melted and I think everyone (including us) assumed that the mountain would be icy or slushy, or both. We headed down anyway, figuring it was a free lift ticket, so if it wasn’t great, we’d just leave and it wouldn’t be a huge loss… but, it was awesome! The snow at the base was a little crusty, but I definitely wouldn’t call it “icy”, and the snow midway and at the top was great! And since so many people assumed it would be bad, there were probably 75 people on the whole mountain, which was seriously amazing. We did have one run from the top that was pretty windy, but other than that, we couldn’t have asked for better weather!

We were on the mountain until about 3:30ish, and this was from the last run of the day (about midway down the mountain):

The following weekend, Lindsey and I went tubing on base. It was a little more icy that day, but we didn’t mind that since our whole goal was to slide down the hill as fast as possible – and beat all the children to the bottom. Pretty sure we were the only adults sans kids that were tubing that day, but we didn’t mind. :

This past Saturday afternoon, once it stopped snowing/raining, Howdy and I decided to take the dogs on a short winter hike near our house. We haven’t been able to do this much lately because we don’t want their paws to get too cold, and they won’t wear their booties. But since it was nearly 40 degrees (!!) on Saturday afternoon, we were able to get them out and get some much needed exercise.

(by the way – these were all taken between 3:30-4:00pm)

I do have to say, even though it’s been nice getting outside, I’m really ready for winter to stick around. I hate the melting and re-freezing because it makes the roads (and every other flat surface) pretty hazardous. Not to mention killing my plans for outdoor winter activities that require snow, and hoping for a White Christmas!

Part 1 : Getting there
Part 2: The First Day
Part 3: The Werribee Zoo
Part 4: The Great Ocean Road
Part 5: The Sunrise Hot Air Balloon ride
Part 6: The Wine Tour 

We got up early the 4th day and walked to breakfast on Degraves St. – where they have quite a few cafes that have tables in the middle of the street where you can eat outside. We ate at The Quarter, and people-watching was in full effect.

 (not sure why this distorted Howdy’s face in a weird way… silly camera)

After breakfast, we stopped at Brunetti to grab coffee for the road, and ran into Steven and Melody, who were there trying it out based on our recommendation. We chatted for a while, then went our separate ways. Howdy and I were using our last day with the rental car to head down to Phillip Island.

Before leaving the States we had purchased tickets for the Nature Parks on Phillip Island. The island is about a 2-2.5 hour drive from Melbourne, and since we had the whole day to kill, we decided to also drive down to Wilsons Promontory National Park, which is the southern most point of mainland Australia (the only thing between this part of Australia and Antarctica is Tasmania).

Unfortunately we weren’t able to go as far into the park as we would have liked because many of the roads and hiking paths had been washed out from flooding earlier in the year. We drove as far as we could before having to turn around and head back.

We were super excited to see a little joey on the side of the road as we were leaving:

We pulled the car right up next to him and he let us take quite a few pictures. He just sat there eating and hanging out – completely unperturbed by us.

We hadn’t realized quite how far Phillip Island was from Wilsons Promontory, so we found ourselves once again in a position of going as fast as we safely (and legally) could go to make it to an attraction on time. Throughout our entire car ride to Wilsons Promontory, and then to Phillip Island, we amused ourselves with looking for road signs warning us to watch out for specific animals. We were determined to get a picture of each kind, and we did (I even got a two-for-one shot in the park!):

It was a gorgeous day for driving and we made it across the bridge to Phillip Island without incident:

We had just enough time to visit the Koala Conservation Center before it closed, which was a priority for me and the main reason why we had to hurry. But it was so worth it to see them up close! (note: these are 3 different koalas, not the same one)

After enjoying the koalas we headed over to the main attraction of Phillip Island – the Penguin Parade! This was such a neat experience! From the website:

“The Penguin Parade is one of Australia’s most popular wildlife attractions.

Every sunset, wild little penguins emerge from the sea and waddle across the beach to their sand dune burrows. Phillip Island is home to one of the largest ittle penguin colonies in the world.

The little penguin is the world’s smallest penguin species and the only penguin permanently found in Australia.”

The Little Penguins show up around sunset, but there is not a definite time since they are living in the wild. We took our seats on the viewing platform at maybe 5:45-ish, and the penguins arrived sometime around 6:15-6:20. Once the sun started to go down, and the sea breeze picked up, it was pretty chilly on the beach. We had each bought an extra layer (hoodie for me, fleece half-zip for Howdy) at the Koala Conservation Center, and we were very glad we did!

Unfortunately they do not allow pictures during the Penguin Parade. From the website again: “Penguins have sensitive eyes and a bright, sudden flash or unusual light can frighten or disorientate a penguin. Unfortunately our rangers cannot tell who will use flash and who won’t until after the damage has been done. To ensure penguins keep coming back to this special area we ask you to keep your cameras or camcorders away at the Penguin Parade.”

I wished we would have had some pictures, of course, but the only one I took was right after we were seated, just before the sunset. The strip of sand in the middle of the picture is where we watched hundreds of penguins waddle in from the ocean and head home to their burrows:

We originally went with the regular package, but upgraded to the “Penguins Plus” package when we checked in at the ticket counter, and I would highly recommend doing that if you get the chance. It included a free beverage (we each went with a hot chocolate), rental of an iPod nano pre-programmed with more info on the penguins and their habitat, etc…, as well as a discounted souvenir photo (which we passed on), and most importantly – a closer seat to the penguins!

The penguins were so cute! If you’ve ever seen the animated movie Madagascar (or previews for it), they always show the little band of penguins who sneak around in their groups – and that’s exactly what these penguins were like. All of a sudden a group of about 10 or so rolled in on the tide, and then they would stand up and move slowly forward together in a tight group keeping a lookout for predators. One of them would get spooked, and back they all went into the waves. Then a few minutes later, they’d creep up a little further on the beach…only to run right back into the waves again! They did this quite a few times before they got brave enough to come all the way up to the sand path in the picture above. Once there they broke off into smaller groups of 2-5 and made their way to the burrows. They filed right past where we were sitting and the park rangers encouraged us to watch them for a while, and then follow them down the boardwalk to see where they were going. They are so small - about the size of a small stuffed animal – that I could have picked one up and put it in my purse.

After the initial group went by, we looked back toward the water and saw a group of several hundred Little Penguins coming out of the ocean now that the initial “scouting party” had made it safely. We watched them for about 45 minutes and you could hear their ‘spouses’ greeting them when they made it home to the burrows – some a little more enthusiastically than others.

This is not us, but this picture was taken from the area we were sitting, so you can get a good idea of how close we were to the little guys:

[source]

When we were leaving the rangers told us to check under our cars and watch out as we were driving, since sometimes the penguins have burrows further away and they had been known to cross the parking lot to get there. We also were stopped on the walk back up to the visitor’s center to allow a group of penguins to cross the sidewalk without interference. So neat to see these cute animals in their natural environment. I was definitely glad we put this on our list of things to see, because it was great!

Howdy took a couple of trips (believe me, this is not the norm these days!), but was home in time for his 30th birthday at the beginning of November. For his birthday I got him a new coat for skiing (and outdoor winter activities), and snowshoes! Of course, I got myself snowshoes too, because I can’t wait for us to go together. We’ve had almost 2 feet of snow accumulation around our house since the beginning of November. It’s such soft, dry, fluffy snow – so much better than the snow we had in Michigan.

Unfortunately the temperatures dropped below zero pretty much every day last week, and the winds picked up like crazy. I’m an incredibly deep sleeper, but the wind was blowing so hard one night it actually woke both Howdy and myself up at 2am! I also got a picture of my car thermometer one night last week showing the temperature as -11 before 8pm (yes, negative 11 degrees Fahrenheit). I wear a hat pretty much every time I go outside, but so far I’ve still resisted getting out my gloves.

The downside to the cold is that the snow now has a hard crust on the top of it. But we’re getting more fresh snow tonight, so hopefully that’ll make nice powder for the opening of the ski resort next Wednesday! We finally got our skis prepared for the season and picked them up. They’ve been in my car for 2 weeks now and Howdy makes fun of me for not taking them out, but I’m just so ready to get on the mountain.

This past Friday was our squadron Thanksgiving party and auction. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and checking out the venue – the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.

We also joined a new gym here and have been going regularly. We’ve both had some personal training sessions, and are enjoying it so far. I’ve been seeing a trainer at a different gym since the end of June, but have mixed thoughts on it…I’m still working with her until the end of December, but that’ll have to be something for another post though.

*****

Tonight’s lower body workout was short and sweet because I only had 45 minutes before the gym closed:

Yesterday (10/26) we had our first measurable snow of the season! We’ve had little flurries a couple of times this month, but nothing that stuck until yesterday. Last year the first snowfall was November 1st, while Howdy and I were staying the weekend at Alyeska, so it’s only slightly earlier this year. Most of the snow in Anchorage (at least near the base), melted by late afternoon, but it’s still holding on here at our house.

And of course, nothing like snowfall to remind me that I hadn’t put the snow tires on my car yet! I had been waiting for Howdy to do it since he’s out and about a lot more than I am, but he’s been busy and also gone for the last 2 weeks, so it just kept getting delayed. Well, no longer! I took advantage of Costco’s current coupon for tires, and went and picked them up on my lunch break. Originally the tire shop at Costco was all booked up for the day, but right when I bought my tires they opened up 3 more spots. So I happily booked the last one of the day (7:30pm) and went on my merry way.

After work I had just enough time to get to the gym for a lower body workout (Legs/Abs/Cardio – my favorite day!), run home and change, and then get back to Costco for the tire appointment. The tire swap took about an hour, so I took the opportunity to wander around and see what goodies I could find. Of course I picked up a few things.

I cannot tell you how excited I am for winter! Last winter was fine, but I felt like we were still adjusting to it all and figuring out what we needed/wanted. This year, I feel much more prepared. I’m in the process of swapping out my wardrobe and getting back into the mentality of bundling up, but jeans/sweater/jacket/scarf weather is always my favorite. Basically right now I’m a happy, happy girl!

We didn’t have anything specific planned for the rest of the day, and had considered coming back to the Yarra Valley to do some wine tasting anyway, so we said sure! Six of us from our balloon ride were taken over to Yering Station to meet the tour. We were a little early so we took the time to chat more with each other. Howdy and I had already spent the entire day with Steve and Melody, but the 4 of us got acquainted with Keith and Chloe, who were from Singapore. Then the tour showed up and it was time to get the party started!

Following Yering Station, the tour actually took us back to Rochford Wines where we had ended the balloon ride with our champagne breakfast. We had a wine tasting followed by a delicious lunch. I had the Beet Risotto, which was really, really good. I’m normally pretty “meh” about beets, but this risotto was fantastic!

After lunch we headed over to another vineyard called Yering Farm. They have a small boutique winery and it was definitely different from some of the others we saw, but I just loved the view.

Our last stop on the wine tour was at Domaine Chandon. Domaine Chandon is owned by the famous French makers of champagne – Möet & Chandon, and was opened back in the 80s to server the Australian and Asian markets. They have several vineyards, with the primary one being the Greenpoint vineyard we visisted. This vineyard only grows the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes used to make “sparkling wine”. But another Chandon vineyard in the area is planted for Shiraz, and the wine is also excellent. (Fun fact for those who don’t already know: “Shiraz” is also known as “Syrah”. For some interesting reading on why there are several names for this type of grape, see the always entertaining, sometimes factual – wikipedia!).

The Domaine Chandon winery was beautiful. It was the more expensive of the tastings (we didn’t actually pay separately, ours was included in the tour), but our tour operator told us that they used to offer free tastings until they started to get bombarded with “hen parties” and other groups who would stay all day and just “taste” the free wine… so the price is more to encourage serious tasting trips than anything else. We spent quite a bit of time at Domaine Chandon chatting with the rest of our group – mainly Steve & Melody, Keith & Chloe, a mom and her college-age son from Christchurch, New Zealand, and a couple who were living in Australia, but the girl was an American (Air Force brat) and the guy was Irish. We had a very interesting talk with the Kiwis about the earthquake that struck Christchurch earlier this year, and how the rebuilding was going, etc…(over a few glasses of wine, of course).

We bought a few bottles of wine to bring home with us (1 from Rochford, 3 from Chandon). It was a beautiful day in the Yarra Valley, and we had a great time on the tour. Our tour operator was funny, nice and knowledgeable – all the things you want in a tour guide – and the group we were with was awesome. When the tour concluded the tour bus drove us back into the city and dropped us off at various stops near our hotels. After getting up at 3am, the excitement of the balloon ride, the good food and lots of wine, followed by an hour-long bus ride with the sun streaming through the windows, I managed to take a pretty good nap on the way back to Melbourne!

We made plans with Steve and Melody to meet up with them after dinner. Howdy and I went back to our room and took another long nap. We had only planned to sleep for 2 hours before dinner, but ended up sleeping for 3 and a half! Steve called our room as they were heading out to dinner to establish the time and place to meet them (1opm – Rooftop bar), and I’m glad he did or we might have slept right through the night! We got ready quickly and went down to dinner, but we were still running late to rendezvous at the bar. To make matters a little more complicated we could not find it! I was following the iPhone directions, but I felt like we went around in circles for a bit… but luckily they were running a bit late too, and we happened to bump into them on the street as we were walking around like little lost tourists, and so we all arrived together and it worked out perfectly.

We were out until a little after midnight. It started to get pretty chilly on the rooftop and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. As we all headed back to the hotel Howdy and I said we felt so old because we couldn’t stay out all night like we used to. I blame the early morning and all the sun and wine we had that day.

Overall, it was a fantastic birthday, and a great way to usher in the last year of my 20s!!

As I mentioned, we had to get up at 3am the morning after our trip along the Great Ocean Road for some special plans we made to celebrate my 29th birthday. It started with a little bit of a hiccup at 4:30am when we realized that the transportation we had arranged had left without us, and we had to make several calls to get it straightened out. In summary, there were 2 couples staying at our hotel, but the company didn’t realize it right away. So whenever they talked to either couple, they assumed we were one and the same. We got it straightened out, they came back for us, and during the 45-minute car ride we made friends with the other couple – Steve and Melody from Northern California (they were on their honeymoon).

When we finally made it to the Yarra Valley, it was nearly sunrise, and there was a heavy mist along the ground. It was beautiful and a bit surreal. We all helped the company get the equipment set up for our hot air balloon ride! It was a little more “hands on” than we were expecting, but I thought that part of it was pretty cool and liked seeing how it all comes together.

(Clearly I was a big help…)

At last we were ready to make our way up through the mist, just in time for sunrise!

I can’t even adequately describe how much I loved this experience (seems to be a theme of the trip, I know). But seriously, anything I could say would just be the same old cliches over and over… so I’ll just have to let the pictures speak for themselves.

As we were nearing the end of our flight, the balloon pilot started looking for a place that was “dry enough” for us to land. Apparently they just kind of randomly land in these pastures and the farmers know that it could be their pasture on any given day, and they don’t care. The pilot decided to land in one particular pasture, but as we were descending we noticed a powerline under us (no bueno), so he maneuvered away from that, only to land us between 2 trees, which is not ideal for packing up the balloon. We were also pretty far from a gate, so the truck with the trailer for the balloon was not able to get to us. In order to rectify the situation, the pilot told the guys to hop out of the basket, and after he put a little more hot air in it to get it off the ground, they were supposed to pull the balloon away from the trees far enough for him to get into the air again without having to worry about hitting the trees.

So, out hop all the guys, right into a muddy pasture. They weren’t exactly thrilled, but they were good sports about it…

…and then we took off up into the air and left them behind in the pasture! (in the picture below, you can see me looking out on the far right side of the basket):

AND – every time the balloon landed, this herd of cows all grouped together and stared at us, but as soon as our balloon went back up in the air, they started creeping toward the guys:

The guys had to hop a fence and cross some railroad tracks, but they met up with the truck and were given a ride to the next pasture over where we finally landed.

Everyone got out and started helping to put away the GIANT balloon. My job, along with 2 other women, was to go to the very front and pull backwards on the rope to bring the balloon toward the ground (not as easy as it sounds…).

When the balloon was packed up, we were driven to a nearby vineyard – Rochford Wines – for a champagne breakfast.

The balloon pilot gave us an Irish Blessing while “anointing” each of our foreheads with a cork that had been dipped in champagne. Then we received certificates stating we are now “official” balloonists.

We had our breakfast at the winery restaurant, and since it was turning out to be a stunning day in the Yarra Valley, we decided to stay out there with our new friends and keep the party going!

But for now, it’s late (even in Alaska) and I need to go to bed… so I will continue this in Part 6 later this weekend! I promise it won’t be another week before I post it – and I’m sorry if you’re sick of my Australia posts, but hang in there – I’m nearly done! The first 4 days were completely full of unique experiences, so they’re taking a little longer to get through.

At one turnout along the road, Howdy noticed there was a place where we could climb down to the rocky beach. The tide was out, so these rocks would have been completely submerged during high tide. It was fun getting down so close to the water and beautiful to watch the waves breaking on the rocks.

Howdy goofing around on the rocks we climbed down:

We took a bunch of pictures and sat on the rocks for a while enjoying the breeze and the view – then got back on the road! As we were driving I started to get worried that we wouldn’t make it to the Twelve Apostles before the sun went down. I was getting fidgety but tried not to bug Howdy since it’s a two-lane road winding around the cliffs/hills along the coast (and of course we were on the opposite side of the road). One thing we found pretty funny is that we kept seeing signs along that road that said “Drive on the Left in Australia”. Seriously, if you made it that far out there, driving on those roads on the wrong side – you’re probably the luckiest person alive. But anyway – Howdy knew I was a little worried about beating the sunset, so he drove as fast as he safely could… and we got there right as the sun was beginning to set! It was perfect and breathtaking. There really aren’t words for it that don’t sound cliche and hyperbolic, but it was so awesome.

Obligatory “sign” picture:

A few of us, you know, to prove we were there:

The cliff behind us has a boardwalk path along the top and we walked out there while the sun was setting to get some pictures back toward the other rock formations:

Twelve Apostles:

This was taken looking over the opposite side of the cliff I mentioned earlier (that cliff is kind of in the middle of the Twelve Apostles):

We took so many pictures while the sun was setting, and none of them even remotely do it justice, as usual. This was one of the top things on my list of things to see in Australia, and it did not disappoint. It was pretty breezy up on the cliffs, so as soon as the sun went down and the temps dropped we started to get chilly and decided it was time to head back to Melbourne. We took a more direct route along the Princes Highway on the way back, so we didn’t have to drive along the windy cliffs in the dark.

We arrived back at our hotel in Melbourne around 10pm and went immediately to bed because we had to be up at 3:30am the next morning…