Fall falling

This morning we took advantage of a sunny break in the weather and drove up to Flattop (of earlier post fame) again, this time to take in the autumn scenery. The view did not disappoint!

If you are reading the blog, you are familiar with the view too - a picture of one of the scenic vistas available from Flattop is the opening picture of this page. From this area in Chugach State Park, you have a breathtaking view of the mountains, Turnagain Arm, Cook Inlet,

Fire Island in the Inlet, Anchorage, and a good portion of MatSu valley. On a clear day, you can see almost forever.

This wasn't that clear of a day, but it was pretty good. Here is the fall version of the main picture on this page. We can see our house from here!

Here you see the mountain shrubs and grasses taking on their fall colors.

In the opposite direction from Anchorage and the sea, here are the mountains that surround us. The snow on the mountain tops (of earlier post fame) wasn't there this time last week. Just Thursday we started seeing snow, and last night it got down to 38 (F) with rain, so that explains why there's more today!

Because sometimes the little things are as beautiful as the grand things.

So we enjoyed the sights - took pictures for awhile, then just sort of slowly rotated 360 degrees, trying to take it all in. Then it got cold, and we had errands to run, so we left.

About half an hour later, a deep cloud cover rolled in and we couldn't see the mountains at all; then it started to rain, which has continued up until this point. Which kind of figured, because we had grocery shopping to do. However, this demonstrates the Anchorage addage - if you don't like the weather, wait a minute.

This sort of randomness in the weather leads to a kind of spontenaity which is new to us, but which we find we are enjoying. Outdoor stuff and the scenery are really why you come here - at least to a certain extent - so knowing that if you have fine weather it may not last, you tend to say "to heck with the cleaning, let's go for a hike!" and off you go. There are plenty of rainy days - let the dishes wait.