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.

German beer. Alaskan food and art.

FRIDAY: We kicked off out weekend with a visit to Oktoberfest at the Egan Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. Then a trip to our favorite Anchorage wine bar, Crush.

TODAY: We picked up some late-season Alaska Grown food. This is the logo for Alaskan produce and agricultural products. There are little Alaska Grown farmers markets all over town through the summer. There's one just a block from my apartment on Saturdays and another in the Carr's (Safeway) parking lot near my work on Wednesdays. The markets season will be over in about two weeks.

It's not uncommon to see people wearing sweatshirts with the Alaska grown logo on it too. Very punny.

Later I'm going to walk over to the Make it Alaska festival at the Sullivan Arena. It's a fair featuring only products, arts, etc. made in Alaska.

>$50 in postage

This is what 110 save the dates looks like right before it goes in the mail. If you know anyone that needs wedding programs, invitations or save the dates ... Or business cards, brochures or other matierals.

Showing off

September was a busy month for me at work. Here's a few links to interactive PDFs of my projects.

Alaska Pulse, a re-invention of the ADN's Healthy Living and Health and Fitness tabs.

Classified's employment team puts on a semi-annual Job Fair and I designed the promotional tab.

And the 2009 Best of Alaska voted by Anchorage Daily News readers.