"there was a gathering party, you know?"

i had some people over on friday, it was fun. so was tabitha's puppy. i did not want to strangle the little rascal on the picture above, even though i am sure he did pee somewhere!

nooks vs. mavericks

the alaska nanooks played the mavericks from nebraska-omaha this weekend. good games! 

i should have taken better pictures, but i was too lazy to get out of my seat.

my cabin

 at 40 below, the tires won't stay inflated...it finally got warmer, though (for a few days at least). when it is that cold, tea and fruits are important.

end-of-year review: politics

this was an exciting year for me, i enjoyed it in so many different ways. from a political perspective, obama's election was my "event" of the year. 

solstice

on the shortest day of the year, the sun did not come out for very long. this is the museum of the north around 1pm.

it's lars again

lindsey says: "Rudy giving his tour. I'm sure he's telling a joke right about now. Ah, the good ol' days." (thanks for the pics, lindsey)

whittier

whittier is a special place. i could not imagine living there -  in fact only 180 people can. it is a small town created by the army to have an access harbor for its soldiers coming to alaska in world war II. today, it is popular for cruise ships. if you don´t come to whittier by ship, you have to drive through the longest tunnel in north america. it costs 12 bucks, and for european standards the tunnel is very short, a little bit more than 2 miles. that´s as long as the felbertauerntunnel back home! 

valdez

the first stop was valdez, that's where the pipeline ends. valdez is well known for the exxon valdez oil spill in 1989, and it also called the "switzerland" of alaska. it´s quite a long drive down there, so i needed to treat my back a bit.