week off

I took last week off work to use up some leave and take care of some things that needed attention.

It turned out to be a somewhat productive week. I cleaned out closets and donated a good deal of clothing to the Fairbanks Resource Agency. I bought and planted my flowers for the summer. This year I decided to try cherry tomatoes instead of zucchini. We'll see how that goes.

I spent one day with my daughter and the girls. Maddy is 5 and Atheana is 9. We stopped at the Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to see the musk oxen. Disappointingly, they were not in the close-in viewing area, but way up on the hill behind the barns.

A quick stop at the Georgeson Botanical Garden allowed them a glimpse of reindeer, including some new babies. I was excited to see a lot people with tools. It looks as though they're about to begin planting. That garden is one of my favorite trips in the summer. The flowers are spectacular. I am looking forward to our annual flower trek latter this summer.

We visited Santa Claus House in North Pole, where the girls looked at the reindeer. I think they were more eager to get inside the store than to watch any animals.

We had lunch at Little Richard's Diner (it used to be Harley's Diner). It was ok, but not somewhere I really HAVE to go again. We originally planned to eat at the Pagoda (one of my favorite places), but were too early for their lunch service and the girls were hungry.

After lunch we went back to the LARS, but the musk oxen were still off in the distance. As we drove back to their place, we saw a young moose on Goldstream Road. He was feeding along the left side of the road and I stopped to grab my camera. While I was fumbling around, he crossed in front of us and stopped along the right side of the road. There were two very excited little girls in the back seat.

All in all it was a busy week - not at all the completely relaxing time I initially planned. But I did accomplish something and I did ensure I had time to sit on my benches under the birch tree and enjoy the summer days.