Day 3 in Alaska!
This morning we started out from the house about 9 AM. Our goal was to beat the sunrise at 10:30 so we could get some photos. It was a very overcast day, so there wasn’t much of a sunrise to see. We drove out toward the north side of Anchorage because William had seen that there had been bald eagles up in some of the trees.
We were able to see three juvenile bald eagles and eventually one adult. There were ravens and magpies all around as well. Listening to those birds was a lot of fun, and we got to take quite a few photos of them there. Of course, we have all been taking photos of each other, which has been great. It is a lot of fun to have photographer friends.
We left from there and drove farther north out of town, hoping to see a moose on the roadsides or in the timber. We unfortunately didn’t see one there, but we stopped at a weigh station on the freeway to take more photos of the eagles that were up in the trees. We had a lot of fun in the deep snow that no one had been in, so it was just deep powder. The girls and I put on our snow bibs to wade through it all. We took a lot of cute photos of each other after the eagles flew away.
As we drove down the freeway back toward Anchorage, we saw a lake that had people out ice fishing on it. We turned around and stopped at the public lake entrance to grab some photos of the ice fishers and the snow. The girls and I saw the swings there and decided that it would be a fun thing to do. I have also grown up flopping in snowbanks, so I did that there as well. A few snowballs got thrown, too. Nick stood there taking a photo of me throwing one and did not move, even as it hit him right in the face.
Anna wasn’t feeling great at this point, so we all went back to the house. Once we got back, Nick and William went out to grab some sandwiches for lunch. Kris and I went out in our neighborhood and took some photos for a few minutes before coming back to the house.
Kris didn’t bring her computer to edit her photos, so she used mine and went through photos from yesterday and today. After she got done, I edited my own photos from today as well as Nick’s. Kris and I were able to convince Nick to download Snapchat, so he now has us three girls and William as his friends on Snap.
We went through our social media, and I showed them a lot of my portfolio work and photos I have taken over the past few years, as well as some of the videos I have made. William’s brother from in town also came over for a little while to hang out with all of us while Anna got some rest.
We made lasagna and garlic bread for dinner and listened to stories from Nick and William about their years of trucking together all over the lower 48 states. William talked about some of his craziest and favorite hauls and told us fun stories for hours after dinner.
I am so excited to have new friends who love photography like I do—not just for all the great photos of me with a camera, but for the fun of having new friends too. I am loving getting to know Kris and Anna more while on this trip. I have wanted to come to Alaska for so long, and I can’t stop smiling now that I am here.
The photos below are either from a phone selfie or from the girls, Nick, or William. My photos that I have taken are continually being uploaded to the Alaska tab at the top of my website!!
