Eric's big-ass ride

I'm leaving Anchorage tomorrow morning and flying down to Oregon for my friend Garry's wedding which conveniently doesn't happen until over a week later. In the meantime I'll be meeting up with my dad in Redmond and biking with him on the last few days of his cross-country ride. I kind of feel like its poor form to show up at the end of this epic journey as they cruise towards the coast, but that is outweighed by the fact that it sounds pretty cool to me that after crossing the Cascades on my first day we'll be on flats or downhills for virtually all of the remaining 175 miles or so. Also, I plan to be on hand as a photographer for all the riders once they reach the ocean, so that has to carry some value.

Anyway, it might not be too much of a ride compared to my dad's trek, but I've been looking forward to this trip for awhile and can't wait to get started.

Beth's brothers were in town for a bit over a week. As predicted, several hijinks ensued. Here's the evidence:

The first stop of the trip was Homer, Alaska. Allegedly it's the halibut capital of the world, but we didn't even see one.

We camped out on the Homer spit, which is basically a 4-mile long sandbar covered head-to-toe in tacky tourist crap, which is just what you'd want if you had a really unique geological feature in a gorgeous setting. We camped on the beach next to the road and next to some rather amorous neighbors who failed to show proper vocal restraint. Bella was, needless to say, intrigued. There were eagles, seals and sea otters, though.

On the way down to Homer the weather was beautiful and we could see across Cook Inlet for some of the clearest views of Mt. Redoubt and Mt Iliamna that I've ever had. Very gorgeous.

In the AM, after a quick boot check by Beth and Ian (results: success!), we were told that we couldn't go on our planned bear-viewing and flightseeing adventure. Although this was technically the point of our trip to Homer, I'd say we did a beautiful job of transitioning to Plan B: eat a giant breakfast and then hike it off.
This was the destination of our hike: a beautiful lake at the toe of a glacier, complete with icebergs. The scenery was gorgeous and the weather was the best we've had in weeks. Unfortunately, Beth's only footwear was her Xtra-Tuffs. They're not exactly ideal for a 5-mile hike, but she's a trooper.
I just love this picture of our friend Louis with his beard and deadpan expression on the one hand, and his foofy drink in a cat mug on the other. Trying out Bloody Marys made with different flavors of vodka (bacon, salmon, pepper) was one of the main activities for the rest of the week. They were all delicious. Since I had to work while Beth and her brothers were going off on their adventures during the week, they were very good at making sure that once I got home I had one of these (or a beer or glass of wine) in hand as soon as possible.

This classy shot was taken after Ian decided to see our classiness (we were having our second bottle of Eric's-birthday-related champagne) and raise it with a pack of fake moustaches. Well played.
Ian did the better of the two Wilson boys when it came to wildlife. Here he is with a nice rainbow trout that he caught.

And here's a moose that Beth and Ian saw wandering around in a busy intersection near our house. I think Ian saw so many moose that he got bored with them. For Andrew we had to go on a special moose-finding mission after Ian had left just so he could see one. We were successful, though, and found him a big bull moose with huge velvety antlers.

Well, there you have it: a photo journal which chronicles 2 or 3 of the many many more things that happened while Beth's brothers were in town. Hope you enjoyed!

Impending Vacation

There's probably other ways to define a vacation, but if you go with "missing multiple days of work to go someplace and have fun" then I'm a week from going on my first vacation since... well, since before I had a job to take a vacation from. I find that I am beginning to look forward to this thing.

Dew

Back when I started this thing, one of the major goals was to answer the types of questions that a person might come up with at a bar, while on a bike, or at least during a non-biking interval of a cross-country bike trip. Questions of the “the hell / anyway” variety, one of which came up recently on my dad’s blog: How the hell does dew form anyway?

Well first of all, what (the hell) is dew (anyway)? Simply put, dew is just water droplets that form on exposed objects that have cooled to temperatures below the aptly-named “dew point –“ the temperature at which the relative humidity of air would be 100%.

(The difference between dew and fog is that the water droplets in fog remain suspended in the air [while the difference between fog and mist has to do with density, where fog is the denser of the two {and the difference between mist and haze is dependent on relative humidity, with mist occurring at >95% humidity and haze under drier conditions}])

Calm weather and a lack of moisture in the upper atmosphere generally contribute to dew formation by enhancing radiative cooling at ground level. In some cases, however, where the moisture that forms dew comes from the atmosphere, a very small amount of atmospheric turbulence is needed to replenish moisture at the ground and sustain dew formation. Wet soil is also a major source of water vapor, especially since the ground can remain significantly warmer even at shallow depths than at the surface. As water vapor moves up from the warmer subsurface to the cooler surface, the dew that forms is said to be produced by distillation (yum!).

Technically speaking, it is dew that forms on cold glasses, be they of the “pint” or the “eye” varieties, when they are exposed to warm, moist air. Interestingly (but not really), pint glasses are then said to be “frosted” (a type of dew), while the more generic term “condensation” is generally used for eye glasses. Guttation – which is basically how plants pee – should probably not be confused with dew.

What if...

...I told you I was doing research for an easement on a trail from my cubicle to the end of the internet? Would that make how I spend my time more acceptable?

Wilson boys headed for Alaska – hijinks expected

In a stunning turn of events it appears that the Wilson siblings not only stand on the verge of tying the Moore/Monte siblings in terms of total Alaskan visits 2-2, but are also poised to take a commanding 2-1 lead in the number of individual siblings to visit the 49th state. Observers have noted, however, that neither Wilson brother is expected to be accompanied by a spouse or significant other, thus missing a crucial chance to gain an advantage in the primary tie-breaker should both clans eventually tally the same number of visits and/or visitors. Progeny are not to be considered in the event that a tie-breaker is needed, as the risk of an inter-family arms race in the form of rampant childbearing was deemed too great.

The visit will kick off with a weekend in Homer, Alaska, including a bear-viewing and flightseeing tour to nearby Katmai National Park. Later in the week Beth, her brothers and BFE Chris will backpack into the Talkeetna Mountains and visit the wreckage of a B-29 bomber that crashed on a glacier over 50 years ago. On top of those two events are plans for a joint 30th birthday celebration for myself and Ian, the possibility of additional hiking, gold panning and all sorts of other uniquely Alaskan activities. Along the way, I expect beer to be consumed, hijinks to ensue and a good time to be had by all.

window/house fixing pictures

Here are a couple of the pictures Beth took during the window replacement and front-of-house rebuild:

First, our house is like an onion. So many layers!

Second: That there in the shadow is the outside of the house, which is in no way airtight. Sorry the guest rooms were so chilly over Christmas, mom, dad and Brigit!

No pictures of the finished product yet. Such a thing is still probably a couple of weeks away.