Arctic Thunder 2008

This was the last day of my sister and nephew's visit to Alaska so we planned a full day. They're leaving on a 10 PM redeye flight back to Virginia Beach (I'm sure they'll enjoy the warm weather back there). We started with a vigorous hike in the Hatcher Pass area of the Talkeetna Mountains near our Wasilla home. This is a shot I took resting while Calico stampeded ahead further up the mountain.

After returning home to clean up, pack up my visitors, and have a bite, we headed down to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage to enjoy the Arctic Thunder air show featuring the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. I was pleased with how a lot of photos turned out, but I decided to use for Blip a shot the captured the essence of Alaska as a backdrop for the Thunderbirds. You might notice on the linked Picasa album that there is a high degree of variability of cloud cover and blue sky. There were ominous clouds over the mountains in the east transitioning to scattered fluffy white clouds and blue sky to the west. It made for a nice canvass.

After the show we had a great Mongolian barbecue dinner and then book shopping at Barnes and Noble. We successfully checked in my sister and her son and said our goodbyes. The SUV was an empty cavern without them on the drive back to Wasilla. Back to work and the normal routine tomorrow.