I Want To Ride My Bicycle

We took advantage of the last 60 degree day to ride the bike trails in Russian Jack Park. We bought Maia a bike trailer, and this was her first time out!



Maia tries on her tiny new helmet




On the trail








Maia fell asleep immediately in the trailer. Here she is asleep, but the weight of her helmet has caused her to flop forward

Andy's Observing Adventures: Part IV

A few more pictures from my trip to Tucson, these from the plane on the way back.



Landing in Seattle.



Somewhere in the Inside Passage (Alaskan Panhandle).


A "glory" in the clouds.





Glaciers and glacier lakes in the Chugach Mountains.

Enjoying the Nice Days

This was my view as I grilled pork steaks for dinner tonight. The mountains are still a source of wonder for me, especially now that the snow starts to cover them. As the temperature down here near sea level gets colder and colder with the approach of winter, I think that the "snow-melt line" will move further and further down the mountains. Eventually it'll reach the bottom, and then we'll be knee-deep in it. I'm trying to take a picture every day, and hope to animate them later. (Thanks for the idea, Tim & Becca.)

And yes, that's a grill-inside-a-grill I'm cooking on. The bottom one was left by the previous tenant, but they didn't have an actual grill for it, just a couple of small kitchen cooling-racks. We opted to use our propane travel-grill, and this made a good platform.

Crazy Movers

Finally a Home

Our furniture arrived on Monday! First they said to expect it around 9am, but that we'd hear from the dispatcher for specifics. That was Friday or Saturday, and we never heard. We called on Monday morning, and then they said it'd probably be between 12-1pm, and that they'd call if it would be much later. At 2:30pm we called to find out where they were, and then they showed up.

We had a couple opportunities to get more than our fair share, it's a good thing we're honest people. First they tried to give us 3 bikes for the price of one, and later it was things like bean-bag chairs, bed rails, etc. I don't get it... they were very careful when they left our apartment that each of our 144 items (numbered on yellow tags) had been delivered, so I don't see why they couldn't have run down a similar checklist when they left their storage location. Some of these things even had orange or blue tags on them! So we were a bit worried that some of our stuff would be missing.

In the end, there wasn't much to worry about. There was only one thing missing: one shelf from Maia's bookshelf. It only had 2 adjustable shelves in the first place, so currently it's not of much use. If they don't find it, the whole thing may turn into garage storage. They also broke the back of one of our bedroom dressers... Becca saw the guy do it as he brought it off of the truck, not showing quite enough respect for our stuff. But the dresser still works, we probably won't even remember it's broken until we try to move it again. But we're calling to file an insurance claim on it anyway.

About 20% of the way through the move, they decided that instead of running the ramp down from the truck to the driveway and then carry things up our stairs, that they'd run the ramp UP to our deck. It sounded crazy at first, and the guy in charge (Josh) said a bit too much to us about how "not every mover would do this, I'm just crazy enough to do it," and then explained that they do it all the time. But the driveway is slanted enough that in the end, it wasn't THAT crazy. Check back here later for a picture, which still needs to be uploaded from the camera.

The move that we thought would be over around noon wasn't through until 6pm. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Bear's Tooth Grill... our kitchen was full of boxes, and there was even less of a place to sit than the day before. Afterwards, we managed to get Maia's crib and our bed together, although we were both tired and that made it a bit harder. I stayed home from work on Tuesday, and between the two of us we managed to organize most of the kitchen, connect up our electronics, and set up the living room and dining room furniture. It's still boxes and boxes and boxes, but I couldn't stay home from work ANOTHER day this week. It's livable, but it'll be nice when it's all put away.

In an epilogue that shows just how off-kilter this Josh character was, he showed up Tuesday afternoon and said, "C'mon, I've got your guns." Eventually, I realized he was offering me GUNS. Being an honest man, I said we didn't OWN any guns. He had apparently confused us with his Monday morning move.

Andy's Observing Adventures: Part III

A few days ago, my boss Travis took us on a tour of the Mayall 4-meter telescope, the biggest on the mountain. 4 meters (13 feet) is the diameter of the telescope; the bigger the 'scope, the more light it can collect, and the fainter the objects you can see. In that respect, the 4-m is 20 times better than the 0.9-m telescope we're using tonight! I'm jealous. Anyway, here are the pics...


The telescope can work in two ways: You can either put your camera at the "prime focus" (in the black tube at the top), or at the "cassegrain focus" (below the primary mirror). In the old days, astronomers used big glass photographic plates, and had to change them by hand. Can you imagine riding atop the telescope all night in the cold, with no potty break?


This is the "cass-focus," and even though astronomers don't ride down there all night anymore, they still have to go down there to change instruments. There's a circus-net down below, to catch those who fall.


The telescope (white) sits inside a huge horseshoe mount (blue), which rotates from east to west and back. The whole thing is perfectly balanced, so the silver half-horsepower motor (lower right) is all it takes to move it.


My boss Travis, for scale.


View of most of the KPNO campus, from the visitor's observing deck at the 4-m.


The two domes in the foreground (silver and white) belong to the Spacewatch Project, which is busy studying the asteroids and comets in our Solar System, in part so that we'll know in advance if any are on a collision-course with Earth.


The dome of the 0.9-m telescope, with Baboquivari Peak in the background. BP is the most sacred place to the Tohono O’odham people, the very center of their cosmology and the home of their creator, I’itoli.


One of the more "antique" (but still working) parts of the 4-m control room.


The 0.9-m telescope, which I'm now proud to know how to operate. It reminds me a lot of the Yerkes 41-inch telescope, but with a bigger dome (and a bigger budget for upkeep).


Finally, the "0.9-m House," where users of the telescope of the same name sleep. It may not be pretty, but it has one of the best views on the mountain. I'll be heading there shortly.

It's been cloudy all night tonight, so we haven't done a lick of observing. And we get to go to sleep now, according to the "Aperture Plus One" rule: 0.9 + 1 = 2am. It's a good thing, because Travis and I have to be heading down the mountain at 8:30am tomorrow, to catch our 11:20am flight. I'll get a good chunk of sleep before I have to get on the plane, which is a good thing (I find it hard to get good rest on a plane).

I'm very happy to be heading home tomorrow. It's beautiful up here, and it's been a great learning experience, but I need to get home to my ladies. I miss them.

Andy's Observing Adventures: Part II

Kitt Peak National Observatory is about 7000 feet above sea level. I notice it occasionally, when I find myself inhaling deeply to get my oxygen-fix. I'm also doing a fair amount of walking, because I don't have a rental car and haven't been on exactly the same schedule as my fellow observers who do. Going from the telescope to the house is relatively easy, but coming back up I'm definitely winded. And my boss has been going for runs every day! I'm definitely out of shape... maybe I'll get into cross-country skiing this winter? We'll see.

Why do I have this much time to post pictures tonight? It's cloudy, and we can't even open the dome for fear of rain. So, enjoy!


The dome of the 2.1-meter telescope. To the right are some components of the coude-feed spectrograph (the rectangular shed and the sloping white tube). We had "the coude" the first few nights I was here, but I was only over there the first night.


The dome of the 0.9-meter (36-inch) telescope, where I've spent most of my time. Also, the Moon.


Looking back from afar at the 2.1-m/Coude (upper left) and 0.9-m (upper-right) telescopes, our tools for the week.


Looking down upon the Tohono O'odham Nation.


The visitor's center has its own telescope for the public! I think that's pretty cool.




More nice views towards the 4-meter.

Don't want this to get too unwieldy, so I'll save the rest for later. If the weather stays as it is, that might be later tonight...

Andy's Observing Adventures: Part I

This week, I'm "on the mountain" at Kitt Peak National Observatory, about 50-ish miles southwest of Tucson, Arizona. This is the longest observing run I've ever been on: 5 nights in a row at the telescope. It could've been worse, b/c the full length of the run is 8 days, and I'm just participating in the middle. (Gotta get back to my ladies in Anchorage!) This is also the first time in a long time that I've actually gone "up the mountain" to observe. The University of Chicago's telescope in New Mexico can be run over the internet, so I'd gotten used to observing in my jammies, and for only a half-night at a time.

Here are a few images I'd like to share, and there'll be more on the way. The one above is my reflection in the grating element of the coude spectrograph (I was basically standing inside the instrument, it takes up an entire room!).




Mount Rainier, as seen from the plane.


The road up to the observatory. The Mayall 4-meter telescope can be seen from miles away, even from downtown Tucson on a clear day.


One of the amazing views from the mountaintop.


Looking over towards the 4-meter and Spacewatch telescopes, to name a few.

There are more, but I'll save them (and those I haven't taken yet) for future posts.

More Saturday Adventures

This past Saturday, we were greeted in the morning by an odd but welcome sight:


That's right, Cubs baseball at 9am! It was a good weekend, we got to see another game at 10am on Sunday, also on WGN, and both were wins over the Cards. Go Cubbies!

That afternoon, we ran down to Beluga Point, as mentioned previously. Here's a picture I like, with Maia looking totally stylish (but slightly underdressed; don't worry, we didn't stay out for long):


On our way home, we stopped by Alaska Wild Berry Products, which is totally kitchy and right across the way from the Sourdough Mining Company. Maia tried on a new winter hat!

Beluga Point

Here are a couple of pics from our recent trip out to Beluga Point. About 10 miles out of town, this is a point in the bay that, at certain times during the year, is filled with hundreds of beluga whales in search of food. Unfortunately when we went, we did not see any whales. We did have a beautiful view of the Kenai peninsula. You're not seeing things, on the peaks of the mountains is indeed snow. Its all already on the highest points now, we've already had a hard freeze, and we should be seeing our first few flakes in 3-4 weeks!

New Stuff

Maia models her new cloth diapers. We are use them part time, around the house during the day. The bulkiness increases her pants size to 18-24 months!

Since her favorite thing to do is to pull herself up, we bought her this play table. As you can see, she loves it!

Maia is now eating finger foods! Here she is eating sweet potato puffs, which taste like Cheerios with a delicate sweet potato finish.

Our car is here!

Our friends Amber and Peter arrived on Monday with our car. Both the car and our friends are in one piece. It sounded like a long but fun adventure for them, 13 days total driving from Chicago to Anchorage. 4,000 miles and not a scratch, except for a small chip in the windshield that should be easy to fix.

Amber and Peter spent Monday with us. The trip up must not have been too bad, because on Tuesday they rented a car and headed South to explore. They return back to Chicago on Friday night.

In other news, our stuff left Montana on Sept 7. There is a chance it is already up here, just sitting in the depot waiting to be cleared. If not, it will be up here in a few days! Just a few more days of the air mattress!

*Prices slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii

Ever see an ad that boasts a great deal, with the small print saying prices slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii? Well, in the week that we've been here, I feel we have done enough shopping to present to you a list of prices for basic goods:

-Gallon of milk $3.50 (Chicago price $2.50)
-Jumbo box of Pampers $18.00 (Chicago price $18.00)
-12 pack of soda $5.00 (Chicago price $2-$3)
-Gallon of gas $2.85 (Chicago price $3.40)
-Pound of peaches $3.00 (Chicago price $1-$2 in season)
-One Artichoke $3.00 (Chicago price $1)
-Dinner out (Burger for me, ribs for Andy, 1 beer) $40 (Chicago price $30-$40)
-Large soda from McDonald's $2.00 (Chicago price $1.25)
-6 pack of good beer $9.00 (Chicago price $7.00)

So as you can see, most things are reasonable, about what we were paying in Chicago. Some things, particularly soda and beer, are crazy expensive. Gas is significantly cheaper, but you have to drive everywhere, so its probably an even trade.

As far as housing goes, we are paying about $100 a month less for our place up here. For that, we have a garage, laundry, dishwasher, and jetted tub- Amenities unheard of in Chicago for our price range.

Alaska has no state income tax, and Anchorage has no sales tax. The sales tax thing takes some getting used to, but its like automatically saving 9% on just about everything we buy!

Portage Lake, AK

Portage Lake and Glacier, image taken from the internet as it was too foggy for pics today


Maia meets a kayak


Maia meets Smokey the Bear


Maia meets a red fox

We had the chance to take our first sightseeing trip today. Unfortunately, we had rain and 30 MPH winds, so we didn't get to see two of the top whale watching attractions-Bird Point and Beluga Point. We did make it to Portage, AK, about 45 miles South of Anchorage. We explored the Portage glacier area, which is run by the US Forest Service. They had an excellent interpretive center right on the lake created by the glacier. The weather was too harsh for a boat ride out to the actual glacier, but it was still an interesting morning. On the way back to Anchorage, we stopped at Girdwood, AK. Girdwood is a ski resort town with a impressive and expensive hotel at the base of the mountain. We had planned on taking the tram to the top of the mountain, but the weather put that idea on hold for a while.