Road Trip!

Going to Fairbanks this weekend! I'll be visiting with the Alaska Bird Observatory for their Owlpalooza and with some friends. I even get to meet some blog and fb friends. I hope to bring back some good photos. Have a safe weekend!

Wordless Wednesday 9/28/2011

To Seward and back

A handful of us from Bird TLC went to Seward on Saturday to release a few eagles. Afterwards it was time to go do some photography. It was overcast and sometimes drizzly, but the fall colors were awesome.

Britt's dog Cooper was awesome. He's one of the best travel dogs I've seen. Loves the beach and loves sticks.

We went to view Exit Glacier (between Britt and Verity). There's where the rain was and that's not unusual. Verity got to see her first glacier.

And then we went someplace special to eat. Just kidding, but we did do ice cream in Girdwood.
All in all an awesome day with awesome friends!

Bear ly ready for the weekend

Actually I'm ready for an awesome weekend planned. However, this brown bear was a surprise this morning.

Click to see more photos.

Wordless Wednesday 9/21/2011

Why do I live in Alaska?

Take a look at Denali and I won't have to tell you.

Last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and she decided to come out and visit.

Alaska's Veterans Memorial

On 9/11 I was staying in Trapper Creek for the weekend, and of course I got to go do some photography. I stopped at the Alaska Veterans Memorial which is located at mile 147.2 on the Parks Highway.

The Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG) stayed behind to protect the state when the Alaska National Guard was mobilized during World War II. If it was a clear day and you stood behind the above statue, you would see that Denali (Mt. McKinley) was in view of their binoculars.

There are other memorials to military plane crashes, Alaskan Medal of Honor recipients, and others military events from around the state. 

It's a nice peaceful place to honor our veterans.

Wordless Wednesday 9/14/2011

9/11

10 years later and this commercial still brings a tear to my eye. God bless those that are gone and God bless those who protect us all.

Sunny days bring out the kites

The sunshine yesterday brought out the kites. Chances are we won't have many days like this left, winter is around the corner.

The sky was gorgeous and there was a slight wind.

Nothing like a day in the park taking it easy and flying a kite. It's like I told these guys, why work?

 

They definitely were enjoying the day.

Wordless Wednesday 9/7/2011

Click to enlarge

My oldest son turned 30?

Was 1981 all that long ago? It seems like only yesterday to me. I remember 1981 like it was last year. Nickolas Lloyd Dorsey was born Aug 28th. He was 9lbs 8oz and already out grew the clothes we got him to come home in. 3 days later he and his mom are coming home, I got laid off and my mom is coming to visit for a week. Yikes!

I still can't believe I have a son who's 30. I tease my friends saying his mom was a cradle robber. Truth be told, she is older than me, but only by 2 weeks. We've been divorced for over 20 years now, but stay in touch. For both of us, our kids were always number 1.

I do see a lot of me in him. He loves his kids (BTW, he made me a grandpa for the 5th time 2 days before his birthday), he likes to turn wrenches, he likes motorcycles, he likes trucks and he has my hairline.

Nick was meant to be a family man. He married a lovely girl Stacey, who already had 2 children, so he started right off with a family. Now they have 2 together and they are a lovely family.

I remember when I was stationed in Oklahoma and we went to a squadron family picnic. Nick had to be about 4. They had a bean bag race and Nick wanted in it even though he had never seen one before. He couldn't get a handle on jumping and going forward, but he wouldn't quit. He stayed at it until he finished. That was one of many, many times I've been proud of him. But that sticks out in my many happy memory files.

I can't cover 30 years in a blog post, but I can tell you one thing though. There has never been a day that he's disappointed me. Like all of us, as kids and young adults we had our ups and downs and so has he. But he's always over come all of the downs.

To me, he's my oldest boy, but he's a man I'm proud to call my son.