Thanksgiving in Chattanooga

So, as you can see, we're a little behind on the updates. Thanksgiving is getting written about at Christmas, and perhaps well get Christmas up by New Year's.

As some of you already know, my parents came up to Chattanooga for Thanksgiving and brought their two dogs. After a big turkey lunch, we went for a hike at Cloudland Canyons State Park, saw some waterfalls, and then drove to a hang-gliding launch pad on top of Lookout Mountain. We saw someone jump off and hangglide down to the bottom. It was pretty cool/terrifying to see.







Family picture in front of the waterfall. Maybe next year we'll get a picture like this in time for family Christmas cards...




















Millie poses in front of the hang gliding launch pad.





















Millie rolls her eyes at her mom's picture taking skills.






Oh yeah, and we went to the Jack Daniel's distillery the Friday after Thanksgiving. I had the camera on some sort of weird setting so every single picture was really blurry, but I wanted you to see our tour guide (right -- in the overalls). He was some character.

Any more shirts?

I have not gotten any new shirts in lately so I am wondering if I should pick a winner based on the current entries. If anyone needs some extra time just let me know. I have gotten a total of 9 shirts. Some people have argued that this is just my way of not having to go to the mall, and there may be some validity to that, but 9 plaid shirts is a lot of plaid shirts.

In other news, last night I was reading my Sport Illustrated in bed. I finished the article, but didn't want to get out of bed to turn off the light. Since we don't have the clapper I figured I was sunk, but in a moment of brilliance and athletic prowess, and empowered by the copy of Sports Illustrated that I would use as my weapon, I threw the magazine across the room, and turned off the light. Sarah bet me I couldn't do that again so she turned the light back on and I did it a second time.

Public Service Announcement: Get a will if you don't already have one.

This weekend

Rachel, dancing with her groom, Casey.

Me and mom, waiting for the wedding to start.

My cousin, Melissa, and I, before the rehearsal dinner.

I should be grading papers right now, but I thought I'd just post a few pictures from the wedding weekend in Jacksonville. I couldn't find a picture with Mark in it, probably because he had the camera the whole time (why don't more dresses come with pockets?!)

Halloween in Chattanooga

Halloween in Chattanooga was pretty much like the last few Halloweens -- incredible fall colors I couldn't quite seem to get good pictures of and pretty much no trick or treaters despite two bags full of candy that sat expectantly on our mantle.

We did have one cute little visitor, though. Our friends who live on our street (and one of them teaches with me at the college) brought by their adorable little daughter, dressed like a flower. Too sweet, too cute. Millie really didn't know what to do.

Picture of the Ryman

Sarah mentioned that we went to Nashville the other weekend and here are some pictures. We went to the Ryman where they used to have the Grand Ol Opry and then an evening show at the new facility. The history of the Ryman was really neat to me. For some reason I find it amazing to stand in places that have some history, and this was one such place. The stage was weathered by people from Hank Williams to Alan Jackson, and I think that is neat.

First Entries

So the first entry came in the other day (pictured bottom). It came from Mary from down the street. I must say she set the bar pretty high. It is a polyester cotton blend, dual pocket, button down shirt. It's pretty close in color to my old shirt and fits nicely. It also does not have buttons on the collar which is a good thing. She did leave the door open though for other contenders because the bottom of the shirt is not square and therefore it has to be tucked in.

The next day, almost as if she could smell the competition, I got my first entry from Pearl, who now lifes in San Francisco. It too has nice earthy tones, but it doesn't have the old man quality that I am after. After all if I am going to retire soon I might as well get the wardrobe. A few days went by and Pearl grilled me for some feedback so she could continue her search with more savy shopping.

So, that is where things stand now. I understand some more entries are on their way. My dad said he found the perfect shirt and I will get it soon. And Alyson has been searching in Ocala.

Two entries in...

We've received two shirts so far. Both are strong contenders. More later.

A little picture

We went to Nashville with my parents and some other friends this weekend -- had a lot of fun, went to the Grand Ole Opry. We'll tell you all about it, but in the meantime, I thought you might enjoy this picture -- campus in the fog. Clouds settle in around campus every once in a while and the campus is so foggy that we can barely see 100 yards in front of us. All the sounds are muffled; everything is a little big spooky. This picture is from the campus webcam the other afternoon. To the left of the chapel is actually a big four story building (just behind the treeish shadows you can see), but the fog is too thick to see it!

I like it a lot.

The Prize

As Sarah mentioned before we are offering a prize to the person that can find me my replacement plaid shirt. I have thought about what the prize should be, and have settled on $100 U.S. dollars to be paid in person in Chattanooga. Thats right, the fine print says that the prize must be picked up in Chattanooga. So basically we are paying our friends to come see us.
So, the contest will be judge according to fit, texture, color, and cut. If you are wondering about size, I am about 4 inches taller than my friend Ben who was the stunt dubble for Frodo in Lord of the Rings.
The early favorites in the contest are Pearl from San Francisco. I bet she will have multiple entries. The only problem, is that the thrift stores in California might not have enough old person clothes, and she might miss on the age of the item. Melissa from PA, will be a contender. She is a resourceful and determined individual, but she is pregnant, so that might slow her down. Alyson, from Florida will be in the running. She might just sew me a new one if she can find the fabric. Alyson is not pregnant, but she has two kids so that might hamstring her chances. Then there are some wildcards, Ben in Denver, relatives in Florida, Courtney in Germany, and thrift store veteran Mary from down the street.

Good luck to all. Entries will be profiled on the site.

goodbye, favorite shirt

Some of you may recognize the shirt in the wastebasket here and some of you may claim it as your own.

Last week, Mark had the opportunity to do one of his favorite things in the whole world: wear something until he's worn it out. It's sad to see favorite things go, my good utilitarian husband loves to use something to its fullest potential.

This shirt used to belong to our good friend Stefan. Stefan never wore the shirt, so he gave it to another good friend of ours, Ben. However, Ben never wore the shirt himself, so Stefan took it back and then gave it to Mark. Mark promptly started wearing it just about every day and for every occasion. Almost every picture of him in the last four years is a picture of him wearing this shirt. When we visited his grandparents in Oklahoma, we saw pictures of Mark, over the years, exclusively in this shirt. The shirt in Ft. Myers, the shirt in Gainesville, the shirt in Oklahoma, the shirt in Pennsylvania. He especially wore it whenever he saw Ben (though not by design, I promise), and Ben always claimed it was still his shirt. Mark wore it until it was full of holes and he really couldn't wear it any more.
So here's the last picture.
Goodbye, favorite shirt.

Mark, by the way, would love a replacement. For anyone who can find a replacement shirt for him, we offer a prize. I'm not sure what that prize is, but we will give you one.

More on the first week at the college (bagpipes, caps and gowns, oh my!) later.

the promised pictures...

Millie Huffines, co-pilot.

















We left State College late Friday night, drove until we were exhausted, woke up early Saturday morning, and pulled into TN late in the afternoon. Here's a picture of the Tennesee welcome center, where there was a billboard shaped like a giant guitar (check out the background of this picture), where Mark took a nap in the truck, and where I saw my first TN resident barefoot in a public restroom.



Moving in was a bit of an adventure, and I think we'll leave those complaints for later, but maybe this picture will give you an idea of what it was like:



All those stairs.... Even less fun than you would think.














But we're all settled now and very happy with the new place. We love our street, are happy with the neighborhood, and have already met some people on our nightly walks. Here are a few little pictures of our place...
This is the view from the red chair (next picture), through the living room, to the dining room, and with just a little peek at the kitchen. Some of you may recognize Pearl and Chris's old chair, and I have to say that it really fits in the house quite nicely.




Here's the living room looking the other direction. Beyond those double doors is a screened in porch (and Mark's good ol' mountain bike).


Our dining room set up. We really like all those trees out the window.


And here's Mark at work in his office, doing important things while I'm running around taking pictures and trying to get Millie to pose in front of the house.

Hope that helps you visualize us in TN a little bit better. We'd love to hear from all of you and maybe you can come visit too!

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Home to Chattanooga

In case you were wondering...

We got to Chattanooga safely and are settling in. I keep meaning to take some pictures to post, but it will have to wait another day or so. There are always boxes to unpack, pictures to hang, syllabi to pull together.

We're very glad to be here and really like our house.

More later, I promise :)

Harding Ice Field Hike

Right now we're in the midst of packing up our house for the big move. Boxes are everywhere; a place for nothing and nothing in its place. Sounds like a perfect time to tell you more about our trip, no?

After we were finished with Homer, we went on to Seward, which ended up being my favorite part of the whole trip. We had the nicest RV spot, too, right by a creek.

The first day there, we decided to go on a hike. I had known months ago that I wanted to hike up past Exit Glacier and to the Harding Ice Field. I knew it was an all day thing, so we scheduled a full day in the area just for this hike. Various guide books called the hike "strenuous," "difficult," and "for experienced hikers." Dad's knees are so arthritic that it hurt him to step up into the RV, but we wisely decided that we'd all go anyway. After all, it was a four mile hike to the top -- how hard could that be?

What they didn't say was that four miles to the top meant three miles of alternating between a steep path and actual hand-and-foot scrambling up rocks followed by a mile of slippery melting snow. Ummm, what? It was hard, to say the least. Now that I know that my parents weren't going to die of a heart attack or have to be helicoptered out because of a broken ankle, I have to say it was the best hike I've ever been on.

It did start out steep, with some warnings about the danger:


After we went up the trail about an hour or two (we took about 10 hours total to do the hike), we had a close encounter with a black bear. Some hikers before us had unwittingly treed it, and a few hikers had even managed to unknowingly hike beneath it -- until it started growling and hissing at them. We had to back up down the trail and wait for it to come down and walk away, a half hour delay at least.

As we kept hiking up, the trail stayed close to Exit Glacier, and when we got to above the tree line (did I tell you our hike started pretty near sea level? It was a 3,000 or 3,500 ft. change in elevation over the course of the hike), we got a nice view of it. While the ice field was smooth and covered with snow, the glacier itself was jagged and rough. There were little melted pools in its surface, and those were bright blue:


As we got closer and closer to the top, the hike seemed crazier and crazier. Steps cut into the rock? check. Large sections of snow still not melted by July 1st? check. A hike so steep that we started near the ocean, hiked up on tundra landscape, and ended up in never-melting snow? check.




When we finally got to the top, though, it was pretty amazing. Picture a bunch of mountains crowded close together on a penninsual -- now, picture the space between those mountains being completely filled with snow and ice, like a bathtub. Only the peaks stick out. The glaciers that make their way down to the ocean and other parts of land are like the spill over out of the bathtub. When we hiked to the ice field, we got to see (and sit at) the top of the bathtub, so to speak. There were the peaks of mountains that no one has ever seen the bottoms of. There were 300 sqaure miles of ice that fed all the glaciers of the area. Don't believe me? Google it.


Once again, I couldn't believe how fortunate I was to experience something like that.

On our way back down the mountain (also difficult, for it's hard to 1. hike downward in slippery snow and 2. climb down rocks that you had to go up on all fours), we saw a family of mountain goats just before the tree line. Baby goats and all. In the background, you can see the clouds settled over the town of Seward.



Nice hike, all in all, I'd have to say.

Homer, eh...

Everyone told us how much we would love Homer and how everyone's favorite place in Alaska is Homer. I have to say, I'm not sure what the big deal is. Yes, it's beautiful, and yes it has glaciers, mountains, and active volcanoes surrounding the little fishing town. But I also think it just felt a lot like a beach town -- fish restaurants and souvenier shops. Here are a few pictures, though.



After our time in Homer, we drove up the highway a little bit and Mark and my dad went fishing. Here's the fish that Mark caught. It's a king salmon. Dad also caught some fish, but there's only room for so many pictures...

Pictures of Denali

The train we took from Anchorage to the park.

Mt. McKinley, at our first view of her, 80 miles away.

Mom, as she looked for much of the trip.

Polychrome Mountain

Mark, looking at the view from Polychrome Mountain.

The one road (dirt) leading into and out of the park.

The caribou that walked in front of the bus on that road.

Mt. McKinley, at the closest we got, about 30 miles away (the peaks are a little bit hidden in those clouds).

more pictures to come

I'm sitting in an RV in Homer, Alaska. I can see the ocean, snowy mountains and even a volcano or two (I'm told -- though they don't look any different than the other mountains). Behind me there are actual glaciers in the mountains.
We spent the last three days doing Denali National Park. We took a train from Anchorage to Denali one day, spent the next day in the park itself, and then took a bus back south the next day.

For some reason, our internet connection at the RV park won't let us upload pictures (either to blogger or via email), but I can tell you a little bit about our time in Denali and maybe upload pictures once we get to Seward tommorrow.

I have seem some really beautiful places in the last few years. The Pennsylvania countryside is a peaceful, rolling hills sort of place. When Mark and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge at night, that was a beautiful experience. But I can say with all certainty that I have never seen anything like Denali in all my life.
The mountains, of course, are amazing. There's only one road into the park, and a shuttle bus takes you in. Most of the time we were in the park, we were above the tree line, so even though the mountains towered above us, we were in a raised valley -- 2,000 feet or so -- and I felt like I was in this totally secret place. Only one road, and only an occasional park bus at that, very few hikers visible. There are no trails in Denali... The mountains were covered in tundra, the short spongy grass and miniature flowers, and only sometimes would there be bushes -- maybe five feet high -- but no trees.
Before we went into the park, we were told that it's pretty rare to be able to see Mt. McKinley; it's only visible maybe one out of every five days. The rest of the time it's covered in clouds. So when we got to mile nine into the park (our first chance to glimpse it), and it came into view clear as day, there was an audible gasp in the bus, and even a few cheers. The tour guide said she hadn't seen it since May 29th. It's the biggest mountain in North America, and has the biggest vertical rise in the world (while Everest is 9,000 feet higher, McKinley looks higher because it starts at a lower point). After that, our whole way into the park (four hours in, four hours out, not counting hiking time), everytime it came into view, the people on the bus would get really worked up. It was incredible how white and snow covered and dramatic that mountain was. I'll certianly post a picture when I can. It's interesting, though, how most of the mountains weren't that jagged and snow covered (just McKinley and its buddies) -- just smooth and green and tall and rounded. It was so easy to picture where the glaciers must have plowed their way through.
We saw a lot of wildlife -- a momma grizzley bear and two cubs (from far away), moose, and lots of caribou and bighorn sheep really close up. One caribou got on the road in front of our bus and walked right in front of us for about 15 minutes; we just had to slow down and drive with it.

I can't believe how lucky I am to have seen a place like that.

What would a trip be without frisbee golf?

On our second day in Anchorage, we sort of just hung around the city; not much to do. Having a big city in such a pretty place seems like a good idea, but it turns out that downtown Anchorage is pretty much just a collection of gift shops. And coffee shops. Someone recommended the zoo. We were told that it was started because someone one an elephant in a poker game and needed a place to put it. We were also told that a wild bear kept hanging around the zoo and coming back to it, so they just put it in the cage with the other bears and let it stay. There was a free shuttle from downtown.
Well, I have to say that the Anchorage zoo is not all that you might think it is (certainly no St. Louis zoo, I'm told). We counted 19 species total (not counting the birds because they don't count), and all of them were sleeping. Or pacing. The best thing we saw was baby goats in the petting zoo portion. They were play butting each other. Also they had wolf puppies, but they were just sleeping.
After the zoo, we walked a mile or two to a Play it Again Sports to get, you guessed it, a frisbee golf disc, and we played a round (only nine holes).
We had Mexican food for dinner, and my parents came into Anchorage late that night. The next morning we took a train to Denali National Park!

First day in the Land of the Midnight Sun

So after leaving our house at 8 in the morning on Saturday, we finally got into Anchorage about 20 hours later. It was a little bit exhausting, but it was so amazing to finally get to Alaska and see the mountains poking through the clouds -- and sharp snowcapped mountains at that.
It looked like this:


That picture was taken at eleven o clock at night. Notice the high level of daylight. We were super excited about getting to experience so much daylight. It's so novel to be walking around outside at midnight when it's light (and on our way to the hotel from the airport, we saw people playing frisbee golf at midnight), but when you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, and daylight's streaming through the cracks in the curtain, and your internal clock is already four hours off... Not so much novel as disorienting.

But we got off to a good start this morning. Mark and I rented a tandem bicycle and went for this 30 mile bike ride through the city trails of Anchorage.


Anchorage is an interesting city. There are a lot of neat paved trails running through the parks, but we also rode along some roads. Anchorage pretty much looks just like the rest of America -- roads, cars, discount storage places -- but like somebody dropped one of those painted backgrounds behind it. You know, like a stage set or like the picture of a home library that they sometimes put behind families at Sears Photo. Except the backdrop is an everpresent picture of these gigantic mountains.


Towards the end of our ride, we came to the most amazing part of the bike ride -- the coastal trail. We came out of the woods and the view opened up before us... we were on a bluff overlooking Anchorage's inlet. It was low tide, so there were miles and miles of sand and small pools -- blue grey and brown -- and then beyond the water, mountain ranges. Some of the mountains were close and dark brown and we could see downtown Anchorage nestled between them and the water. But other mountains were jagged and distant and altogether snowy. They were so amazing, but I had to keep reminding myself that they were there -- since they were so white and far on the horizon, my eye kept reading them as clouds. Take a look -- don't be fooled; those are mountains on the horizon. Of course, it's so hard to get a good picture to do it justice.


We saw some people playing frisbee golf up on this bluff, and Mark immediately felt sorry that he didn't have his discs. "I bet this is the best frisbee golf course in the world," he said. "I bet so," I said back.


That was definitely the highlight of the day. We rode our bikes back into Anchorage and had some lunch. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a "Fur Factory" near our hotel. $3,000 fur coats, silver fox pelts, and, of course, fur lingerie. I'm not sure how anyone could actually wear this and not feel like a R rated Betty Rubble.


Tomorrow we're planning exploring the downtown and maybe eating some Mexican.
We'll let you know how it goes.

Nice night, nice dinner, nice rash...

I have to say that nobody does grilling like the Bateses...

We went over to their house Monday night for dinner and had a lovely time. I got to play with the neighbors' puppy; we took our time to make dinner, laughing and talking with other good friends Carl and Jeremy; the six of us (seven if you count Bates-in-utero) sat on their back porch feasting and looking at their view of the mountains. The weather was perfect; the beer was cold. I don't think I could ask for anything more.

But like I said, nobody does grilling like them (and by the way -- if you're reading Bateses, thanks for being such great hosts), and here's what we had on the menu:

Not only did we have grilled steaks and corn, but they made

1. Lobster (Maine lobster)
2. Mussels (yum)
3. and Scallops (double yum)

I think I ate my weight's worth in seafood and butter, just great!

In other news...

I think I have a newfound shellfish allergy.

Either that or someone switched my face soap with poison ivy.

The next morning my face and neck got a little swollen, got very red and very itchy (still is), and my lips are itchy too. When I talked to Penn State's advice nurse (over the phone), she freaked out a little bit and told me I had to immediately see a doctor or go to the emergency room. Ultimately they just wrote me a prescription for Zyrtec and sent me on my way with instructions to not eat any crab on our upcoming trip to Alaska (sigh). At least they didn't give me a shot.

Also

Here are a few more pictures from our weekend trip to D.C.... On our way back to State College, we stopped at Gettysburg and had a look around.


A field, maybe where, umm, Pickett's Charge took place.



Millie poses in front of a cannon.




Millie contemplates our nation's complicated past.

Reasons you wish you were in D.C. last weekend:

1. Trader Joe's
Have you grocery shopped here? It took everything I had to not pick up every last item in the store to inspect its concept, content, nutritional info. They had pumpkin ice cream. And European chocolate. And apple chicken sausages. And all manner of strange and unusual gourmet items.

2. Ikea on a Saturday morning
just as many people as you might think. Still fun to walk around, though.

3. Jeremy and Jessica
hosts extrordinaire. It was nice to hang out with them AND they were gracious enough to let Millie come with us AND it turns out that Jessica (whom we know through Penn State) knew some people that we know.
We were sitting around the dinner table and we were talking about middle names. Someone at the table had a directional middle name (West), so I mentioned my friend Melissa North. Melissa North M__, I said. "Oh," Jessica spoke up, "I know Melissa M__" She went to my high school! (Although we know Jessica from Penn State, she went to high school in Tallahassee). Laughs and exclamations of coincidence all around.
Then I said, "she's marrying someone named Nahum next weekend." "Nahum B__?" she asked. Now I was a little weirded out. "Yes, Nahum B__" I answered. "He volunteered at my church youth group" she said.
Now how about that. I thought those of you who are friends of Melissa and Nahum might appreciate that...

4. Hilary and Flo



We had a very nice dinner with my old and dear friend Hilary on Saturday. We grilled out. She showed me the wonders of Trader Joe's. Millie played with her greyhound, Flo.

5. Sheetz Subs

My new favorite thing about driving anywhere is getting a sub at Sheetz. Yum.

6. Overall Nice Time

It was a great weekend, and on our way back to State College, we stopped somewhere with a famous address. More on that later!

95 degrees...

... and I wish I had a pool.

or air conditioning.

After last week's frost warning (I kid you not -- our local radio station predicted snow in part of the listening area), State College is now in the midst of an epic heat wave: highest tempuratures in 70 years, almost the highest ever on record.

In good news, though, I've put away the fleece and been able to wear a skirt. Of course, after nearly 8 months with only my face and/or arms exposed to the sun, my legs looked a bit like this:


Oh, I exaggerate. My arms aren't that tan.

We had a nice time in West Virginia last weekend. The Duncans and the Hoyers were, as always, a delight to be around.

Four more weeks until Alaska and six until we move to TN!

What I did this weekend...

Just a quick little post -- sorry it's been so long. Graduation was Sunday, and classes started Monday, so I'm already back to work. It's been kind of cold and wet here in State College; we actually had the heat on this weekend! Sandi (Mark's mom) came to visit and we had a nice time.