The Longest Day of the Year!

We took advantage of the spectacular weather we had on the first day of summer in Anchorage and we drove up to "Flattop" (that's where we take most visitors because it has a good view and you never know what you'll find up there) to watch the sunset at the time posted in the picture. Yeah, we actually did that on purpose! ...and the tilt as well, when we held the camera horizontally we got a bad glare.

...and of course we weren't the only ones up there, mr. moose was enjoying the solitude of the hillside as well.

What's the real draw?

The most significant part of Chicago this weekend was the little girl, Lauren Riley Anderson, who traveled more than 700 miles, endured her first plane ride, first train ride and enjoyed life (from a stroller) in the big city.

We rented a condo-by-owner 1 block from Millenium Park, 5 steps from the train and across the street from a genuine Chicago style pizza place. Lauren and her mom, Colette, flew in and met us at the airport from which we rode the train to our doorstep and promptly ordered take out pizza for dinner. Did we mention the Starbucks downstairs and the Dunkin Donuts across the street?

This city has lions and bears (at the zoo, of course), a jungle (at the Conservatory), really old paintings (at the Art Institute) and of course, awesome architecture both old and new. So Lauren saw her first zoo, jungle, glass ceiling, Impressionist painting and enjoyed a sustainable urban lifestyle for a few days. We didn't subject her to the crowds at Wrigley Field, though, we waited to go there til she'd gone home.















After Colette and Lauren returned to PA, we spent some time "working". Bob attended a faculty meeting for the National Institute of Financial Education and Suzanne attended NeoCon - the biggest trade show anyone could imagine with more seminars than anyone could possibly attend.

For more images - follow the "Tour of Chicago June 2008" link, to the right, under Photo Albums.

Seth & Amanda visit AK

So the Summer began with our first visitors, Seth & Amanda. Although we didn't spend the entire week with them, we had a few outings and some new findings. We discovered the Talkeetna Historical Society - they had a great Denali model that really brought the mountain to life. It's hard to believe we've been to Talkeetna so many times and never found the place before! We also ventured to the Alaska Native Heritage Center which provided great insight into the Alaska native culture and completely dismissed the igloo nonsense...Alaska natives DO NOT live in ice houses only Canadian Natives do. The following photo was a presentation featuring Native Games - The High Kick!

An Alutiig (Aleutian Natives) House - ciqlluaq

The interior of the non-igloo




















And of course we went fishing, everybody limited out on Halibut plus we saw 10 moose on the way to Homer and Bob stopped counting eagles at 25. We also saw the largest gathering of Sea Otters ever, it was like a convention or something. Oh yeah, and a breaching whale, a Minke Whale to be specific.

The day that Seth and Amanda left, we went out for another day of fishing and caught little in the way of Halibut but we landed several King Salmon - one was a lunker at 42 pounds.

For more images - follow the "Alaska Native Heritage Center" link, to the right, under Photo Albums.

The 90-day burn

The bad news first - the car wasn't totaled, it cost the insurance company $7,000 and it took 3 weeks to get fixed. The good news - during the last 90 days our world has changed tremendously. Pictures don't lie - this was our living room in January... shortly after Bob moved his company out of it's downtown location and opted to operate a virtual office model from what was our spare bedroom. That decision was the beginning of many changes and a profitable business decision as well.
















Right around the time of the "wreck", Bob was hired as a coach for the local division of a national mortgage company, to teach them the advanced concepts of mortgage planning that he has been pioneering for the last 5 years. The coaching not only established for him that he really has been impacting people's lives through his 5 year avocation but also, that what he loved to do most was also apparently his greatest strength - being a financial educator. The company he was coaching for acquired the mortgage division of his company in exchange for an interest in a national, privately held mortgage bank. More importantly, the local team quickly got behind his unique business model and have made it possible for him to become a full time financial educator.

Simultaneously, he finished writing his first book with his friend and mentor, Todd. The book, "Borrow Smart Retire Rich" has been self published. They have created a whole website surrounding it http://www.equitypond.com/ - go check it out! The site was originally designed to support the sales of the book but has expanded into much more - all in 90 days time! And if that wasn't enough, he was honored with the invitation to become a faculty member of the National Institute of Financial Education and had too fly to Texas. The Dallas Fort Worth airport is as big as Manhattan in New York City!

In the transition from mortgage planner to financial educator, Bob has been converting his company into a full scale financial education company. He's been teaching financial education classes to consumers and financial services professionals. Over the last 90 days he has taught 12 classes, live and as webinars, reaching consumers nationally utilizing the technology that was implemented for the virtual office model. When we look back at what has been accomplished it seems unbelievable - trust us we left out a lot of the details.

To add to the excitement of the time, Suzanne received word that she passed the first of the 9 tests she needs to receive her Architecture license. She also traveled to St. Mary's, Alaska to evaluate a school renovation project that is to be built this summer. Flying out to the Alaskan "bush" is always an experience, but flying in a little plane (translation: very little heat) at -15 degrees F and below is more like an adventure!

















For more images of St. Mary's - follow the "St. Mary's" link, to the right, under Photos of Alaska- Southwest.

The building phase began on the infamous "quonset hut" clinic project in Perryville, Alaska out on the Aleutian chain. Would you believe it took 3 days to get there for the first site visit? Most of that time was spent waiting in the Anchorage airport for the weather to break at the destination, but it was worth it - as everyone in the office says, it's the best looking "quonset" anyone will ever see! Not to mention the beauty of the Aleutian chain. Perryville is located at the base, more or less, of Mt. Veniaminof which is an active volcano. The day before the trip, our client sent me a link to the webcam showing a smoking mountain behind the Perryville post office, but due to the low cloud cover when we were out, I didn't see any smoke with my own eyes.






























For more images of Perryville - follow the "Aleutian Chain - Perryville" link, to the right, under Photos of Alaska - Southwest.


Suzanne also began her first design/build project for the National Guard - a remodel of the executive offices for the joint forces division generals.

We know all work and no play is a recipe for burnout so we threw in a trip to Talkeetna - you know how we love Talkeetna...

On this spontaneous trip Bob was learning to use a film camera and experience the "pop" of slide film, which took several hours. Two days later he picked up the developed slide film just to find out that the roll was double exposed with pictures of people he didn't know. Turned out Jed, who gave him the film, bought the film on the internet from another camera guy and well, oops. Good thing Suzanne took some digital pictures.
































Upcoming, we have planned several trips for the summer - one that will begin in a week with our good friends from Idaho who are making the trip north, to be followed by a trip to Chicago for some business, some pleasure and most importantly, a rendezvous with the little niece. And upon the return, more visitors which will require more time off from work, ha ha - to be followed up by another trip south before the summer ends. Details to follow in future posts...

Baja Crash

I was driving down the road, minding my own business, just minding my own business and this brand new pick up truck just ran right into me knocked right into me like a bowling ball knocks into pins. The Baja went flying off the icy road, jumped off a snow/ice bank flew like 50 feet in the air. Remember I was minding my own business. For a split second I felt like Dick Van Dyke driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or flying a Lear Jet. Then bang the Baja dropped like a rock and landed right on a chain link fence.

In fact I had just left the house and 2 blocks later my next door neighbor, who was driving home, swerved to avoid a pick up truck with a plow on it that was sliding through a stop sign on cross street into the road we were on. When he swerved, his front left bumper hit my car right above the drivers front wheel and then the rest of the left side of the car as I was redirected for take off into an snow/ice bank, right between a stop sign and a tree, for a landing right on top of a fence. No one was injured - the guy who slid into the street we were on was doing someone a favor by driving their pick up to the repair shop. He never made contact with anyone but got a ticket for not observing the road conditions. I have only one payment left on the car and the fence I'm hanging on belongs to a client of mine who was surprised to see my car parked in his front yard when he came home. When the tow truck finally arrived 4 hours later and attempted to pull out the Baja, his winch just pulled his truck across the road. After his next attempt and 20 minutes he was able to pull it out. The car still drives, the door opens and closes, the interior light stays on and all the insurance companies involved are reluctant to claim responsibility. It is kinda hard to drive without a side view mirror. Hopefully the insurance company will pay out big bucks and we can enter it in the Iditarod Smash up Ice Derby this weekend, win first prize and buy a new car so we can run into someone else before spring arrives.

For more images - follow the "Baja Crash" link, to the right, under Photo Albums.

New Years on the West Coast

Our Christmas adventure continued with a departure from Newark, NJ at 6:00 pm Eastern Time Chrismas Day, to an arrival in Spokane, WA 12:00 am Pacific Time ... in the middle of a snow storm. From there we covered 3 states in 24 hours, logged more than a 1000 road miles (including 12 mountain passes), visited a multitude of friends and family and endured a 24 hour flu. We also learned that babies DON'T stay that good - they soon require crash helmets (despite their innocent appearances)!















For more images - follow the "West 2007" link, to the right, under Photo Albums.

Christmas on the East Coast

Our Christmas adventure started at 12:00 am Alaska Time, 13 hours later we landed in Newark, NJ - officially kicking off the East Coast portion of our tour. Obviously, well worth the effort - do babies stay this good...?

We had 6 days of fun - a historical tour of Philadelphia, PA with some excellent food thrown in, some quality family time and more gifts than you could possibly imagine... and we ate more food in 6 days than we normally eat in 6 weeks - at least it felt like it. But that's what the holidays are for - food and family!

For more images - follow the "East 2007" link, to the right, under Photo Albums.