State Cross County Skiing Championships hosted in Fairbanks

The last weekend in February, the Fairbanks area hosted the 3-day State Cross Country Skiing Championships.  The first race on Thursday was the Individual Skate Sprint.  Here's some pics of Megan along the trail......

The second day was a Classic mass start race.  Birch Hill ski area is one of the only places that has a nice wide stadium in order to do this type of race...it's so cool watching all the skiiers come out of the stadium and up the hill.

Now if you really want to spectate, bring along a noise maker!

and here she is.....

just finishing  -- watch for "floppers"

oh what the heck, what not join them....

(photo below, courtesy of the News Miner)

In the photo above, I (black skirt - white jacket) am trying to do my volunteering duties which consisted of taking off the racers bibs, getting them to stand up and out of the finish area.  As you can see, at this point the other volunteers and I are a little overwhelmed with what we call affectionately, "floppers."  Trying to untie bibs in the cold can only be done with bare hands especially those schools that like to tie little tight knots!

Doesn't she look so cute!

The end of a very good ski season for Megan as this was the first year she really raced competitively.  We are all so proud of you!

Megan - Regionals Skiing Feb 12&13

Blogging mania today......it just takes so long to download pictures sometimes.  Anyway, back to the weekend of Uncle Michael's birthday (Happy Birthday by the way!!!), Regionals were held for cross country skiing.  Though I don't remember if it was cold or not, apparently from the pictures, it must have been quite warm with a touch of sun.  Is Megan really wearing ear-rings in a ski race?  Mom didn't catch that apparently, but the photos do tell.  (all photos in this blog courtesy of Bert Boyer)

Go Megan!

and it's over..........

Here's the top ten individuals for the classic sprint.......Megan took 4th.

The following day was the relay race..........

Megan's team took 2nd.

A Return to Besh Cup in February

It's hard to go back to February on such a beautiful, warm, sunny, Spring day in Fairbanks but I realized I had forgotten to upload some of my own photos from the Besh Cups in Fairbanks.  Heather and Megan racing were already captured on a previous blog so here's a few pics of Michael (B) racing.

"Look Dad, I can go down the hill with my eyes closed!"

The Michaels' spectating for the girls races.

Heather and her friend Becca named to the JO team by FXC coach Pete.

Heather -  smile, medal and JO paperwork.

Up With Art - March 2010

Once again, I am so very behind in posting pictures and events for the month of March.  You would think with all of my travel, I'd have time at night in the hotel to upload pictures and blog.  Well, that thinking was all it was..thinking with no action.

During the month of March, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District in conjunction with the Fairbanks Arts Association sponsors an event called "Up With Art" for students K - 12.  Artwork is only submitted for the event by students art teachers.  This fall, one of Megan's class projects was a self-portrait in pastels and her art teacher very much wanted to submit it.  At first, there was some reluctance on Megan's part as she had given the piece to her father for Christmas.

Megan ended up overall 1st in the Painting category!

Way to go Megan!

Besh Cup #5 & #6 - Fairbanks (February 6 & 7)

Besh Cups #5 and #6 were held in Fairbanks.  Michael A & B as well as Nanna drove up from Anchorage for the last events.  At the end of these races the teams for Junior Olympics and Arctic Winter Games would be named.

Some pics (courtesy of Bert Boyer) of the girls from #5..... (I hope they don't take too long to load as each picture as a higher pixel count then I would have with my little camera.)

On to Super Bowl Sunday and the final race of the Besh Cup series.  (Again pictures by Bert Boyer.)

A Bronco's fan ready for next season...

At the end of the races the teams were named.  Michael was named to the Alaska Arctic Winter Games J3 team...though he was drawn into the Super Bowl by the time the teams were named and had to be called back to the ski area.  (Am thinking that somehow Steve's new 47" flat screen TV had something to do with it.)

Heather and Megan both compete in the same group J1/OJ's which is a very competitive grouping with high schooler's competeing against college students.  Heather had pre-qualified for JO's at the Senior National races in Anchorage earlier in the year and as such was named to the team.  Megan had one of the best races of her season...she was so impressive and driven, her race placed her much higher in the points, and she was named as the 1st alternate to the Alaska team for the Arctic Winter Games.

It was really fun to have the Michaels' and Nanna in town for the weekend.

Besh Cups #3 & #4 - Homer (January 23&24)

With our trip to Mexico and my work travel, I am really behind in the girls skiing races. I'll just try and post a few pictures of the races and hopefully get caught up.  Besh Cup #3 and #4 were held in Homer back in January.  Poppop was able to come up, visit with the Homer and Anchorage Wise/Wolfs and also watch Heather, Megan and Michael "B" Wise (B for Boo) race.  I got various pictures from Poppop and Bert Boyer so not sure if these are in order or not.

And here's Michael "B"....

.

And Heather.....

Megan waiting her start......

 

and she is out on the course...

I don't know what we call this......nap time?  Ipod time? or just hanging out time?

A Tasting of Oysters

Right after Mexico I turned around my suitcase in one day and headed off to Seattle (well Renton area) for three days of meetings. We usually go to our favorite little Italian place nearby (sometimes multiple times in one week) which we did the first night; however, the next night five of us wanted to do something different.  I was in the mood for oysters and we decided on Elliott's Oyster House on Pier 56.  I think because Elliott's is located downtown Seattle on the water, some of our group canceled out so by the time we left the hotel, we were down to the fearsome three always up for an adventure.

While we pondered the menu of so many oyster choices as well as white king salmon, we ordered a bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) to start; it was very good and goes wonderfully with oysters I might add.  Since it appeared that January (a month with a "r" in it) was some peak in the oyster season, we had too many choices and none of us wanted to be "the designated one" for choosing the selection.  We then asked our waiter to bring us eight of his recommendations from the Washington sampler.  We ordered two dozen so we could sample one each of his choices.

When the waiter brought out our selection with full explanation of kind and location, Mike asked for horseradish.  Oh my goodness!  You should have seen the waiter's face...utter disbelief!  but being the waiter he was, freshly grated horseradish was brought out.  Terri and I were interested in what was in the little dish brought with the oysters, which he dutifully explained was champagne sorbet.  He also went on to explain to just put a touch of the sorbet on the oyster and then suck/eat the whole oyster.  To Mike, he warned that even a touch of horseradish would bring Mike to the "land of horseradish."  Obviously not a good place by the sound of it!

We then carefully approached our tasting, being careful to really enjoy one at a time and to pause between to take tasting notes.  Terri and Mike.........

Terri and I with our sampler lineup sheet..........also notice the little bowl of champagne sorbet.

Here was our listing with a few of our notes....

1. Sweet Water - ok
2. Totten Inlet - a favorite
3. Sisters - hmmm not sure
4. Penn Cove - a favorite
5. Barren Point - voted the best by all
6. Baywater Sweet - salty
7. Eagle Rock - very salty - try with beer
8. Derbob Bay - the sweetest and very good

I have to say even though the three of us were tired from meetings, it ended up being a really great evening on the water, downtown Seattle.

In case you are really interested in the menu  (Elliott's touts itself as the place Seattle goes to eat seafood) and want to see a full listing of Elliott's oysters which by the way it is updated twice daily.......check out http://elliottsoysterhouse.com/food.cfm.

And then you too can enjoy the restroom where you can dry your hands in this device!  It only takes 12 seconds and then wow...you have dry hands.  (I did lay (sit) wait in the stall for the right moment to take the picture so as not to upset anyone.)