Sailing in Chicago

After Mayo this week, I went to Chicago for the weekend to visit my family for my nieces baptism. We were able to put the top down on my dad's mustang and take my first ride in it downtown to sail on the boat.

Jeff, Jen and I riding the tender out to the can, where the boat is docked in Monroe Harbor. This is the harbor right in front of Buckingham Fountain downtown Chicago.

Jen and Jeff are recently engaged and getting married next summer in Chicago. It was great to catch up with them and talk all about the wedding!

Dad and I on the bow of the boat before we raised the sails.

Dad inspecting the new furling jib sail. Jeff at the helm.

Dad and I taking off the main sail cover.

use the wench on the main halyard, raising the main sail.
Jeff sailing us into the sunset over Chicago. It was great night to be out on the water.

The skyline at night. Jen used my camera in night mode to get this shot. Nice work Jen.

of course sailing is not complete without Taylor Street stuffed pizza, just down the street from Jeff and Jen's place.

Julie's visit

Taco and Marg party at Kristen and Ned's on Friday.

Angel rocks to Chena Hot Springs and back. This shot is from the ridge above the rocks. The views were awesome. Kristen and Julie did the 16 mile out and back hike/run.
Ben and I turned around before that. It was a great day to be out! It was good to see Julie and tomorrow morning I will make her one last Huff Latte (not as good a Ben latte :-))

Running...

Getting back into shape is going pretty good. I have been running with both the Kristen's lately. We need some good nick names for these two! Even while flying to Mayo every other week for my infusion, I have been keeping up with the running. I am excited to try a race soon. Maybe run up Ester Dome or something fun like that. Ben is a printing machine only two weeks left until his big show at the Annex!

Record Yukon River Break Up and Ice Jam

From the bridge, notice the shear edge where the ice was flowing down river and is now an ice jam.
The beginning of break up on the Yukon River at the Yukon River Bridge. The Yukon River starts in Canada and runs the entire width of Alaska and feeds into the Bering Sea. This year the the record levels of the Yukon and flooding up river in villages prompted us to drive to the only bridge on the Yukon, all other camps you have to fly to. In this picture the river has just began to break up and we are giddy over the inches the river has raised.....little did we know over the next few hours the river would rise 15 feet and completely ice jam the 3/4 mile wide Yukon nearly taking our camping spot down river. Notice the three levels on the pillars spaced at 10ft each by the next morning, barely one is showing.

Pella was only a little interested in the River break up and some time at this culvert.


Ed and I setting up the tents at our campsite.

Waiting for break up.

From the campsite looking down the embankment at the dock that would be completely covered in ice over the next few hours.

The ice beginning to come up the bank towards the fire.
The view from the tent around midnight, notice the trees blocking the view. The ice rose and took down all the trees.
The jumbled ice less than a few inches from the fire! Now we have a clear view and no trees.



I took a lot of video and tried to splice it together to get the picture of the enormity of this break up, but it is hard tell completely from the video how fast the river rose....except for the excitement in our voices. Ed also took video and used his official National Weather Service hydrologist voice. It is a much better video and he will post it soon on his blog. www.edplumb.blogspot.com.

Delta Clearwater Float/Paddle

Our paddle down the Delta Clearwater to the Tanana to Clearwater Lake was a perfect sunny day. We are waiting for the cars to shuttle back before we can shove off.


Trevor and I toasting.
Ben and Kate.

The long flotilla portion of our paddle, perfect for hanging out, chatting and listening to Mike tell us about "nature".
Kat and Tina and the dogs. Pella always wanted in their canoe and climbed over all the canoes a few times.

Mostly though she was a great dog and had a ton of fun swimming along side the canoe.


Entering the Tanana, looking back at all the icebergs and downed trees we had to navigate through...this was not a floating part of the trip, it was fun and a little intense depending on your steering ability.
Finally Clearwater Lake and the take out. Clearwater is always the first to break up and so people float it every year. Most of the other rivers are just breaking up or still frozen.