Wednesday, April 02, 2008

I had the best afternoon yesterday.

I spent about 2 hours outside after work, walking the coastal trail with my friend Elizabeth. I’ve been stuck inside all winter long due to the ice, snow, and cold weather – so it was really nice to get out. There’s still a lot of snow and ice, but the weather was definitely Spring weather!

I met Elizabeth at the Bioneers Conference this past year. She and I were both taking a workshop on how to make your home more energy efficient. We got to talking and discovered we had something in common: She is the girlfriend of the owner of my favorite sandwich shop downtown!

After running in to her several times down at the café, we finally decided to get together for a walk, once weather permitted. That day finally came yesterday.

We started out at the trailhead off of 3rd Avenue and H Street, and made our way from there. I think all told we ended up walking about 3 miles, maybe more. As mentioned earlier, there is still a lot of snow and ice on the trail, so I had to be very careful as I had forgotten to bring my ice cleats with me.

As most Alaskans know, spring time means that all the dog poop is thawing out, so the aroma is at times overpowering. It also means all the trash is starting to surface out of the snowbanks.

Anchorage has a Spring Clean-up Week where concerned citizens get out and clean up the place – but until that happens, you have to put up with the mess. And it’s pretty messy, let me tell you.

If you can look over the poop and trash, Anchorage really is a beautiful place. The birds are coming back in on their migratory paths – a bit early this year, actually. The ice out in the ocean is breaking up. The sunlight is lasting longer and longer each day. Soon enough, the green will start to happen: almost overnight it sometimes seems!

It’s a wonderful thing!

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