From My Window - Installment #1

I like living downtown!

For many years it's been a dream of mine to live in a downtown high rise but only during the work week. When the weekend rolled around or when I had time off work, or retired, I would be at my out-of-town "weekends house". There I would have a vegetable garden, fruit trees, a cow, chickens, pigs and a bounty of flowering plants for an endless supply of color on the kitchen table. There would be a separate screen house where I could do all the canning without making a mess of the main kitchen and in the off-season a large greenhouse would provide tomatoes and other vegetables year round.

With this move the first part of the dream has come true, I get to live on the 10th floor of a 14 story high rise overlooking downtown Anchorage. I'm simulating the second part of the dream by having tomato, cucumber, basil and sweet potato plants growing in the house taking advantage of the warmth along with the 19+ hours of light each day. If my real garden starts looking productive, I'll post some pictures of that.

I bought a new camera and, although I'm still trying to learn how to get good pictures out of it, wanted to share some of what I see from my apartment window. All the pics are zoomed in, some more that others.

The picture above is a narrow view of what I see every morning when I wake up. The road on the left is 4th Ave, where the Iditarod ceremonial start takes place (if you watch the Discovery Channel CD about the Iditarod you can see my tall 14 story apartment building in some of the shots). The water is Cook Inlet and across the inlet is Mt. Susitna, which I've posted pictures of in the past. The long white building (mid/right area of photo) is the Alaska Railroad station where I disembarked last summer after the train ride from Denali National Park. Behind the building is a tide flat area where people fish for King Salmon.

I see planes taking off and landing at Stevens International Airport and many of the small planes taking fisherpeople to the roadless areas of the state fly over and very near the corner my building.

Zoomed in pics of people fishing for King Salmon (north of train station).

The Ulu (oo-loo)Factory.

An ulu knife, said to have originated with the indigenous Inuit people.

Downtown Anchorage market. Geared toward tourists but will have produce later in the season.

Photo of wind chimes that were given to me or bought by me to remember people. L to R: from Alena, Ryan, and Kyla. The one on the far right is a reminder of my grandma.

Plane about to touch down at Stevens International

Alaska Railroad Station

A ship headed to the harbor.

Sun behind the clouds.

Last, but not least... Denali Sunset:
What luck! I woke up at 12:30 on June 4 and the sun was just setting. I looked out the window and saw Denali! This zoomed-in picture was taken that morning (June 4, 2009) at 12:45 AM. Tomorrow, June 18 sunrise will be at 4:20 AM, sunset will be at 11:42 PM for a total of 19 hours, 53 minutes of daylight!

I see so many great things from my window!