As you may have noticed, it’s been a bit since I’ve posted anything. No, my internet is not messed up again. I’ve been traveling in Alaska. The rest of our family and I have come up to Anchorage to see my youngest brother and celebrate my Mom’s 80th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! (Also a Happy Birthday to my baby bro, since his is actually today!). It’s been a wonderful time with lots of interesting new sights to see and things to do. We’ll be headed home shortly, and I must say I look forward to seeing my critters again, but I will miss the fun times we’ve been having and the incredible scenery. Over the next little bit, I’ll post about some of the incredible wildlife we’ve seen up here, but tonight I’m just going to show you all a few of the magnificent landscapes the Anchorage area has to offer.

As I’m sure you know, the scenery and habitats up here are very different from those in north central Florida. It’s definitely the fall season up here, and we have been lucky enough to be here at pretty much the peak of the fall colors. There tend to be a preponderance of yellows due to the many birch and poplar trees in the area. Those tend to be interspersed with evergreens, but not much red, except in the forest understory. It’s definitely different from the fall colors one observes on the Appalachian trail or in New England, but it’s still quite stunning. The tundra, above the tree line, is also very colorful right now since it is covered by numerous types of lichens. And of course the mountains and the rocky coastlines are also very much different from what we’re used to in Florida. We’ve been fortunate to have pretty good weather most of the time we’ve been here, so we’ve had plenty of outdoors time. I’ve also added quite a few new species of both plants and animals to my life list, and I look forward to sharing those over the next little while.