This view is for sale.

This panoramic was taken from a lot in the Stone Step Lake development. Skippy, Patrick, Jenni and I drove out there on Sunday to look around. It’s a beautiful area, with views of this, Stone Step Lake, or both! This particular lot seems to be going for $250K, if you’re interested.

I have a ton of photos from this little excursion, I’ll try to post more this week.

Turnagain Arm is Frozen

I took this yesterday, about 15 miles outside of Anchorage. 6 weeks ago, I drove our friends’ car back from Anchorage while they took a long vacation to visit family and friends. They arrived back in Alaska Sunday night and will be presenting at an environmental conference in Anchorage this week, so I drove their car back up for their use. I did some shopping, ate at Pho Saigon again, and then flew back to Homer (having a spouse that works for Era Aviation is awesome! Free flights!).

Anyway, this is one of the turn-outs off of the highway. During the summer, this is where the ocean is. Now it’s just ice and ice boulders for miles. It’s an awesome sight any time of year, and I’m happy that the clouds cleared enough to get some blue in the shot.

First Snow of 2011

I’m not exactly on time with this, but thanks to the magic of WordPress, I’ll publish this about 30 minutes earlier than real life and no one will know the difference! Except anyone who reads this.

Anyway, say hello to the first real snow of 2011. It’s been a pretty sad snow drought here in Homer, Alaska. The last snow to fall and actually stick happened way back in early December. Hopefully this one sticks around for a bit. I’m tired of walking (waddling is closer to reality) on wet, slick ice.

I took this picture at midnight in our front yard, so there’s obviously some artificial light happening. That would be the giant sodium street light that’s planted between us and the neighbor. Not sure why a little cul-de-sac in Homer needs a big street light, but we just pay rent here, so who can say.

Here’s the full view in all it’s midnight-sunnish glory.

Night light

Hot Coals

The temperature has been hovering around 8° F for the last week or so, and we’ve had the wood stove burning like mad to keep the house warm(ish). I took this just as Skippy finished blowing on the fire, catching the still-glowing embers as the flames burst up again.

Tyra came up for a winter visit in December, and we took her on a helicopter ride across Kachemak Bay.

The Homer Spit

Grewingk Glacier

Glacier Ice Blue

Near Halibut Cove

Halibut Cove

Intertidal zone

Ocean and mountains, hooray!

Misty mountains