Remembering My Favorite New Year Eve

(These pictures aren't my own.  I didn't have a good digital camera at the time.)

I take care of elderly people and a lot of time is spent remembering the past.  Today we were talking some about the time I lived in Alaska.  It was my favorite New Years ever.  It was New Years Eve of 1999.  There was so much anticipation for a whole new millenium. And for me it was my first time ever seeing the Northern Lights!  I was so excited, especially coming from Arizona.  Talk about total opposites!  I also had a wonderful boyfriend at the time.  It was a fun, exciting and magical evening.  My memories often take me back to that quaint little town at the northern end of the Inside Passage of Alaska.  I am so grateful to have had that experience.  I loved it there!

So here is my New Year's wish to everyone, whether you are close to home or somewhere far away and exciting...may you have a safe, happy and FUN 2011!!!

Enchanted Forests

It is still hot here in Arizona even though it is the end of September. I really do not deal with the heat very well. I dream of the day I can escape again to a cooler climate and take adventurous, magical hikes through a beautiful cool forest. I love the forest! It is on my list to get to the Redwood forest someday soon. With such giant-sized trees, I imagine I will get a chance to feel what it would be like to fairy-sized! Miniature in comparison. Watch this video I found on Youtube and imagine yourself in one of these majestic giants.

http://jerryandmarynorthtoalaska.blogspot.com/

The best memories I have of heavenly hikes through forests and nature are from my 2 years living in southeast Alaska. I was living in Haines which is part of the temperate rainforest that covers the inside passage of Alaska. Unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera back in 2000 and I don't have a scanner to show some of my own photos. So I found some from other travelers. This first picture is of the amazing flower called Fireweed. They grow in thick fields at least 6 feet tall! There was this gorgeous patch of Fireweed in the park of Haines where I lived. They had this little pathway carved out to walk through. So Beautiful.

Then from any number of spots around town you could step off the road onto a trail through the enchanted forests surrounding the town. I used to collect twigs and then tie or glue them into fairy-sized furniture. Some were doors. Then I tucked them into some of the nooks and hollows peeking out of the thick mossy carpet that billowed up from the forest floor.

For now I must just dream and imagine that I am there.  Somewhere cool, green, and rejuvinating.