Day One at BottleRock

To say that Vince & I were excited to head to the festival is the understatement of the year! We were ecstatic :) After fortifying ourselves with a little hotel breakfast and hopping on the shuttle, we were off...

The sign!!!

...and the schedule

Some good microbrews :P

One of the many vendors

Checking out the Allah-Las

Relaxing to some Andrew Bird- amazing!

Vince & I

... the crowds definitely picked up as it got closer to The Black Keys' time!

Wha??!! Yeah, that's right- that is a hospital slip with my name on it :/ 

The Black Keys were great, although I was righting nausea, headache, and the chills during their whole performance- boo for food poisoning! Luckily my honey took care of me. After fighting the crowds to get to our hotel shuttle, we finally made it back and it was decided that I'd better get some help since my condition was getting worse instead of better. Miserable! But I was loads better after some anti-nausea meds, some IV pain medication, and several bags of saline- whew...

END- Day 1 .....

First Hours in Napa

After a smooth trip south to Oakland, Vince and I picked up our rental car, loaded up our bags, and headed for Napa. Unlike Alaska, it actually gets dark there in the evening, so our first glimpses of Napa were at night...but it was charming nonetheless. We checked into our hotel and went downtown to check out the scene...

Nice comfortable weather, endearing storefronts, and- time for dinner! I figured we might as well start off on a good note, so we headed to Morimoto (owned by an Iron Chef) for some sushi.

Cool atmosphere & decor...

Excellent sashimi & fun sauce options!

And more great sashimi- I tried a couple new things out of my comfort zone... fluke is good!

Satisfied with our first glimpses of Napa and happy with our full bellies, we were off to bed :)

Countdown To Summer Fun!

Hi all :)  It has been awhile since I had anything exciting to talk about, so I am happy that it's getting closer to summer!!! It's definitely not summer in Alaska yet, but I am going to head out and get me some sunshine after I get home from work next week- yippie!

My honey and I are heading to California next Thursday to the INAGURAL BottleRock Music Festival in Napa Valley, and I am stoked! 4 days of sun, music (ahem, The Black Keys), awesome food, wine, and microbrews... Guaranteed to be fabulous. Then the next day we are going to do a little wine tasting. Here are a few pics I've gathered to get some new photo galleries started:

One of the many event logos

Oh yeah- The Black Keys next Friday!

Zac Brown Band on Sunday



One of my new favorites- Rodrigo Y Gabriella- wonderful Latin guitar music

...and a lot more great artists are in the mix!

As for the wine tastings, we are going to Schramsberg's Winery & Caves in Calistoga and Orin Swift's tasting room in St. Helena. Haven't had Schramberg's Blanc de Blance yet, but President Nixon introduced it to the White House during his presidency (and it's been used there ever since), so it can't be bad. And Orin Swift is guaranteed to be good; two of my favorite wines come from there- The Prisoner and Abstract. Can't wait!

Part of the Schramsberg Winery

"The Caves" at Schramsberg



Their specialty...

 The wine that got me hooked on Orin Swift

And my other favorite from Orin Swift (this is Abstract)

...Oh wow- in all my excitement about BottleRock, I almost forgot to mention the second part of my trip haha! After California, I am heading to Washington State to hang out in Seattle, check out Leavenworth, and visit Wenatchee (where my boyfriend's family is). It's been years since I've been in Seattle, and the rest of our little WA adventure should be great as well!

Stay Tuned!

Iditarod 2013

Sunday, March 2nd was finally the day! The official start of the "Last Great Race." Downtown Anchorage was buzzing with excitement; it was very cool to be a part of the enthusiasm!

The starting line

Spectators crammed throughout a nearby parking garage

Crowds lining 4th Avenue

Teams making their final preparations

Martin Buser's ride (he is in the lead so far this year!)

More mushers

One of many sleds

Heading to the starting line...

Are you ready?

Photographers waiting for the perfect shot...

...and they're off!

Fur Rhondy 2013

Finally made it to Fur Rhondy this year (which, to those of you who are not Alaskan, is the time surrounding the start of the Iditarod where Alaskans have all sorts of events and do crazy stuff!). Figured I should check it out if I want to consider myself a true Alaskan... Fur Rhondy happens in Anchorage, so I never went to it growing up, but now that I live in Anchorage, I decided to go :)

This is the starting line for the dog races prior to the Iditarod

Dogs getting ready to go...

Getting pumped...

And off they go!

Some of the snow sculptures from the snow carving competition near Ship Creek

Loved this moose!

This one looks AK Native Arts inspired

A sea otter

And a killer whale with a penguin on its head hehe

A more serious one

...and a more fantastical one

And apparently we have Star Wars fans lol!

These were all the things I saw the first weekend of Fur Rhondy. The second weekend, however, was even more crazy with more events and, most notably, the Running Of The Reindeer. Glad I checked that out for sure! It is a fundraiser for Toys For Tots where race entrants pay $25 to run down 4th Avenue and be chased by reindeer. The kicker is that all entrants wear weird costumes. Pretty funny stuff, and it is for a good cause!

People getting psyched up to run...

Whoa- and some guy from Arkansas in a diaper... interesting

The inevitable antlers

And more costumes... I think I see bacon in there!

The starting lineup

The "angry" reindeer getting ready to go

And hilarity ensues! Good times were had by all; 
especially the runners that pre-gamed at the bars downtown ;)