Run Fischers run! - A weekend update

Interrupting my Alaska posts for a little weekend update:

Friday - had a great 4 mile run in 46.5 minutes. That may be slow to some people but it was a good pace for me, especially since .35 miles of that was uphill in the beginning. Averaging around 11.38 min miles the whole way... not bad! That is probably the best we've been able to hit outside at the reservoir - that course is so short (1.1 miles) and slightly hilly so I'm usually super slow up there so I was feeling really good after we did so well.

Saturday -

In the morning we watched the Philadelphia Temple Groundbreaking Ceremony through a live broadcast at church which was awesome. If you would like to know more, please to go: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/philadelphia/

It was a great occasion to remember why temples are so important in our church and to strengthen my testimony of temples. It was also a good reminder to us to plan as a family to make going to the temple more of a priority.
The temple in Philadelphia will not be completed until around 2014 so we will still be driving down to DC for the next few years, but eventually it will be nice to have one less than an hour away. We will actually be heading down this Saturday since we just realized there are only 2 weeks left this month - yikes how the time flies!

After the temple groundbreaking broadcast, we went out to ice cream with some friends. A great way to get ready for our 7 mile jog in the evening! haha. Had a bit of lunch at home and then took a 2 hour nap... lovely way to spend the day.

In the evening we headed over to Glasgow park for our 7 mile run. That is the most either of us have ever run and the longest stretch of our half-marathon training so far. Over 1/2 of the distance we will have to run on race day.... and we made it! Slow but steady - took us 88 minutes - so about a 12.5 min mile average once you could in my quick potty break haha. The 2.6mile course makes it a lot easier to run long distances than our usual 1.1 mile course so it was not so bad running that long. In 2 weeks we will have a 8 mile run... hopefully we'll be up to it by then!  Slowly and steadily we are getting ready for this race... so proud of us, especially myself because I am definitely NOT athletic and am proud of the progress I have made so far.

Sunday -

No muscle pains after the long run on Saturday! Yay for us!

Church was good and we just chilled/crafted/etc. afterward for a nice relaxing afternoon.

I love weekends.... why is it Monday now? Why.... WHY!!!????

Alaska Day 3 - Denali National Park

On Monday - Labor Day - Day 3 of our Alaska trip we picked up our rental car and drove 2 hours to Denali National Park for a day of bus riding, hiking, and camping. Are we insane... yes, yes I do believe we are. Was it worth it... yes, totally!

Weather... 60s? Weather at night... 40s or lower? Brrr...

So many pictures to show you - will try to narrow it down!

Fall from the bus - cranberry fields

Could not get enough of these fall colors!

First signing of "Denali" aka Mount McKinley from the bus

View from our first stop - gorgeous!

Let the windy "alaska hair" pictures begin! haha

These river beds look so fun to explore

Our first sighting of Dahl Sheep roaming around the hills

Stop #2 - man we love these mountain views

Dahl sheep chillin' by the bus

Hello there sheepie, want to come home with me?

Golden Eagle soaring by the bus window

Golden Eagle

Grizzly Bear #1

A crafty little fox sneaking through the bushes by the road

Stop #3, getting a little chilly and windy

Grizzly Bear #2 - sleeping about 10 feet off the trail

Bear sign keeping us off the trail due to Grizzly #2

Map of the 85 mile road our bus was slowly taking through the park to our campground

5 hours later - Wonder Lake Campground - Destination reached!

Closer view of Denali - only about 20 miles from our campground now

Happy to be off the bus in nature!

Wonder Lake

Feeling a little romantic ;-)

Start of our 3 hour hike

Bear paw on our path... look at those claws, yikes!

1.5 hours into the hike, cold and tired

Lovely path - does not give much visibility when looking out for bears tho!

3 hours later - the hike is done! And apparently so am I :)

Sunset in Denali

Sunset on Mt McKinley

Cold but excited about dinner

Bear Proof Food Locker

Staking our claim at the campsite

My first campsite outside of my backyard!

Cold and tired at sunset but loving the adventure

Changing pants behind tent while watching out for hikers

Denali - So clear and lovely!

And that my friends was our first day in Denali National Park!

My feet were pretty sore after the hike and we were pretty nervous looking for moose and bear along our path but fortunately it was a safe and beautiful hike. We were pretty cold and a bit uncomfortable while camping... espec. since we forgot to close the valve on our airpads and were basically just sleeping on the hard ground haha. MC gave me a sleeping bag that will keep one warm up to -40 degrees F... unfortunately we could not figure out which one it was when we got there. I def. did not end up with that one tho, it was so cold! Then the wind storm came... shake shake shake shake... all night long... yea, it was a rough night haha. We survived the night tho and lived to tell about it ;-)

Stay tuned for day two in Denali with more scenery and wild life sightings!

Alaska Report - Day 1 & Day 2

The following few posts will be re-caps of our FANTASTIC trip to Alaska over Labor Day weekend/week.

Day 1: We arrived around 8pm at MC's house after being picked up an airport with a stuffed (as in taxidermied) Polar Bear and Gizzley Bear and Arctic Wolf in glass display cases.... interesting...

Her little cabin (in the woods, on a hill, up 3 steep gravel roads) was SO cute and I am SO grateful that she did not have a "dry cabin"... aka DID have running water and an indoor flush toilet, wooo hoo! It's about the little pleasures in life I tell ya ;-)

She has a normal apartment downstairs and then loft upstairs with her bed and storage area up there. It was interesting climbing up and down a ladder every day to get up there, especially at 6am when I had just woken up to potty. There were no accidents of the pants wetting nor falling kind, thank goodness.

Due to the 4 hour time difference we were pretty beat and went to bed around 10pm... 2am Delaware time, yikes.

Day 2: After a chill morning and breakfast, we drove MC to school and then went to church. After an hour of church we left to explore Fairbanks... the booming metropolis that it is... not... ;-)

Adventure #1: Pioneer Park
This is a little tourist village full of cabins and huts and a museum and other attractions about Fairbanks' history. Hopefully you will enjoy the following pictures from our treck around there:

 

Ride the giant alaskan salmon at your own risk!

Apparently Salmon bite

When confronted by a blac bear, punch it in the nose!

Old steamboat that used to be fully functional

After wandering around Pioneer park for a bit, we headed up to the large animal research station and checked out a few furry friends:

Musk Ox

Reindeer

Nearby was the botanical gardens where we stopped to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather, even tho it was only in the 60s and crazy Alaskans were wearing shorts and tanktops!

Alaskan Giant Cabbage, yum!

When the mood strikes you, sometimes you just have to go for it :)

After those thrilling adventures we picked up MC and headed home for a fun cookout with a few of her friends. A lovely first full day in AK.