This weekend was a great trip to the Mainland without kids. We landed in Anchorage and met cross country ski instructor, Lili at Kincaid park for a classic ski lesson. She worked with me on continued form pointers and gave Patrick lots of helpful advice with his form as well. Patrick was amazed by how much he learned from her during the 1/2 hour! It was fun to watch him ski after and see the changes to his form. The biggest tip she gave him was helping him refine his arm movements, and to decrease arm "flailing". For myself, Lili worked on continued weight shifting, and double poling technique which helped a lot. I'm realizing this is the winter to practice lots of double poling to help improve my efficiency.
Skiing in Girdwood the following day was equally fun. There are groomed trails there with hardly anyone on them. To find the trails is a bit of a wild goose chase; we were told the trail started behind the Catholic Church which was near Aleyska resort. After several wrong turns, we finally found it, and this catholic church had the most incredible view ever-overlooking mountains and the valley!
One thing that Patrick and I noticed was the dramatic difference in light between Anchorage and Kodiak. On the mainland, the sun rises at 10 AM and sets at 3:30ish. Here in Kodiak, it is closer to 9:30 and 4:30. It is about an hour of difference and seemed significantly darker. When we drove home from the airport tonight in Kodiak, it was 4:00 and still light out. We remarked how in Anchorage it would have been dark.
Returning home to the kids and Leona was so smooth. Leona said the kids were good during the weekend, which made me so happy. Leona did a lot of baking, snowflake making, airplane making with them....Nora said, "Leona made that fast paper airplane from directions on You Tube". Too fun! As Leona boarded the plane we arrived on to return to Fairbanks, I told her heartedly how it meant the world to me that she took such great care of the kids. Its nice to return home to a clean house and happy kids...
Zoya
Pictures
-Patrick with the Catholic Church and Ski trailhead behind him. Amazing view from the church, eh?!
-Skiing in Girdwood
-Patrick and Lili
-10 AM in Girdwood with lights of Aleyska in back ground
2 comments:
We went to a wedding at that church this summer - so beautiful! We saw a black bear sow and two cubs in the parking lot as we were driving to the church. I though "We're not in Seattle anymore!"
The one time I tried cross country skiing, I spent more time on my bum than my feet. But this shouldn't come as a surprise seeing I had a similar result when I tried using a Nordictrack. And that's why I'll stick to downhill adventures.
Sounds like you had a fantastic time. And what a treat to realize you get extra sunlight. Kinda like finding $20 in your coat pocket. You didn't need it but darn it's nice to have.
Lastly, thanks for the link love. I'll be back!
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