A walk in Kincaid Park

 We took a short walk in Kincaid Park this afternoon. Kids were sledding on the barely snow-covered ground. The breeze made 22 degrees feel much cooler, but Davin still rolled in the snow as much as he could manage. Then we took a drive along the Turnagain Arm. Huge chunks of snow and ice floating on the inlet and ice frozen blue on the hillside made for a scenic drive. The photos are all from the park.

 

Davin earns his Bobcat

Davin joined Cub Scouts at his elementary school this year and was awarded his first badge Thursday. The ceremony had their dads paint a paw print on the boys' foreheads and other colors symbolizing the values of Cub Scouts. I made him stand still for a picture before he washed it off. Watching the dads paint faces was way too cute. Too bad an elementary school gymnasium has pretty much the worst lighting for photos imaginable. Afterward there was a host of Thankgiving themed games complete with turkey bowling -- yes that is rolling a frozen turkey like a bowling ball.

 

Winter has arrived

Snow arrived on Sunday night. We drove to Wasilla and the ground was bare when we left. Two short hours later, Anchorage was blanketed in snow. With highs in the 20s, winter is here to stay. This is the view from my balcony shortly after 8 a.m. Monday ... yes it's dark out much of the day now. We are losing 6-plus minutes of sunlight a day.

My first Alaskan Halloween

Carving pumpkins.

Sarah Palin and Rorschach from "Watchmen" at Bernie's Bungalow in downtown.

Alisa and Tony... or Wayne.

Unseasonalbly warm and other random notes

We had our first snowfall in Anchorage yesterday morning. It didn't even stick. I could live with this.

A bull moose crossing the Seward highway near downtown Anchorage stopped traffic yesterday evening on the way to Davin's parent-teacher conference. This kind of thing doesn't phase seasoned Alaskans, but I still think city moose sightings are noteworthy.

Davin finished his first quarter with straight-As and his teacher is very impressed with him. So am I.

Fairbanks, Chena and North Pole, Alaska

I traveled to Fairbanks with a co-worker this week to report for the Alaska Visitors' Guide. It was unseasonably warm, with highs in the 50s and no signs of snow. Fairbanks is about 6.5 hours from Anchorage by car. Don't plan on stopping between Trapper Creek and Healy -- the businesses at Denali Park Entrance are pretty much boarded up for the winter.

I had a guided tour of Fairbanks' new pride, an auto museum. This is the Ford Model-T Snow Flyer.

This is "Wander Lake" a play on Wonder Lake in Denali National Park. The hotel owner who turned this land into a wildlife preserve saved his visitors' view from tuning into a landscape of Wal-Mart and various other big box stores by buying up more than 70 acres.

Musk ox chow down at University of Alaska Fairbanks Large Animal Research Center.

Hand painted signs adorn a shop in Pioneer Park home to Fun in the Midnight Sun summer festivities. Fairbanks has 24 hours of functional daylight around the Summer solstice. It drops to only 3.5 hours of daylight on its darkest day.

Entrance to Pioneer Park.

 

Pioneer Park reminded me of an Alaskan Disneyland minus the giant mouse.

 

Chena Hot Springs Resort is just more an an hour's drive northeast of Fairbanks. The waters are believed by some to have healing powers.

North Pole, Alaska is just 11 miles outside Fairbanks. This is the Santa Claus house on St. Nicholas Drive. Here, it's Christmas all year long.

Make it Monday media chat

I went to an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce "Make it Monday" forum yesterday to hear local media pros talk about the changing landscape of media, challenges they are facing and what they predict for the future. Aside of the fact I scored tickets to the Spanish Harlem Orchestra as a door prize (ironically donated by Anchorage Press) I also picked up a few clever quotes. Matthew Felling, CBS anchor here in Anchorage, is longtime media critic, former CBS "Public Eye" blogger from D.C. and self-proclaimed "media utilitarian."

A few gems from him on Twitter:
"You need to give what you have the moment you have it."
"Brand yourself as the person in the know."
"Twitter is turning everything into the world's largest cocktail party."
"Give people a well-balenced diet: A little fun, a little protein of hard news and a little bit of ruffage of hard-to-process information."

I think that last one can apply to all kind of media.