all work & play leaves no time to update

I was slightly afraid this would happen.  I became a full-time working girl again last Monday and my time at the blog has become limited.  It doesn't help that our internet connection as been down the last several days.  I was warned that Alaska internet is a bit slower...and patience has become a virtue.

Work has been going great.  It helps that when I get up at 5:30am the sun is still up. The pace of life up here is completely different than I'm used to - like having a 3 hour break during the day on the clock is normal. No arguement coming out of me!  And having an hour lunch break again seems like eternity compared to my previous 20 min teacher "lunch". 

Plus, since Matt and I both work downtown, he drops me off in the morning and then I walk the 8 blocks or so back over to his office to utilize the free gym inside til he gets off work.  It's great in theory, but we will see how it goes once winter hits full force.  I've never considered myself a cold-weather type gal.  Should be interesting.

Anyways, Saturday we called up a couple friends to go with us and give our new mountain bikes a real trial on the mountain side. About a 40 minute drive up to Eklutna Lake. A tourquiose lake surrounded by mountains and a 26 mile roundtrip bike trail. 

I learned a few things on this trip:
1) How to change a flat tire...and to make sure to have all the necessary supplies when you are 8 miles away from civilization. Thankfully with several of us combined we were able to come up with everything we needed to patch a flat.
2) A bike with no shocks does not work well on a rocky path.  It actually creates blurry vision if you were curious.  Let's just say craigslist got another visit from us afterwards.
3) Thank you Jesus for protecting our ill-prepared heads with no helmets this trip. That won't happen again.
4) Bring buy spray.  My legs are paying for that today.
5) First gear means everything. That might have helped when Matt and I climbed the massive hill in town a couple weeks ago and we almost passed out upon reaching the top.

And last but not least...pictures for your enjoyment.

I may or may not have almost fallen off my bike while taking this awesome picture.

Of course to document the adventure. As always.

 A forest fire took out hundreds of acres just a few months ago right along the trail.

No words to describe the beauty.