Days Of Great Beauty

April gives Anchorage lots of sunshine and the south facing snow is going fast.  The sidewalk/bikepaths are clearing - many just wet now as snow melts across the during the day.  But parts of Anchorage still have lots of snow.  Well, it was pretty crusty at Campbell Airstrip where my granddaughter went X-country skiing for the first time.  I'd managed to borrow some little skis that attached to any snow boots.  This is her first trip to Anchorage when there's still a lot of snow.  

We walked over the bridge and she got into her skis where the tracks are still in the snow.  And then she just took off. One ski forward, then the next.  Eventually I told her to try to slide a bit and so she went faster.  

It was about 40 minutes of pushing one ski forward then the other.  She had a great time.  Got into a good rhythm and the few times she fell, she laughed - even though the packed snow on the ground is hard.

We had the trail to ourselves a lot of the time, but there were other skiers, people on fat tire bikes, walkers, and runners, some with their dogs.  

It was stunningly beautiful.  It was comfortably warm - the trees kept the wind above us.  

This morning we filled in my ballot for tomorrow's mail-in election.  We stopped by the voting box behind the UAA sport center and stuck the ballot in on the way to skiing.