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THE LOGAN - FARSTAD NEWS IN BRIEF - 2003Another year has flown by again and we can�t imagine where all the time went! We hope you are all well and enjoying the CHRISTmas season. We have all been doing okay until last week when I (Barbara) slipped and fell on an icy driveway and had to make a trip to the Emergency Room on our anniversary. No broken bones that they could find on X-Rays, but a lot of pain from torn muscles and bruised ribs. It has also caused a delay in my Christmas package preparation and mailing schedule, so some things will be late this year�. We finally got the house painted. It looks good! We decided to hire a painter who was painting our neighbor�s house earlier this year. Now our house is a creamy white color (looks like butter-cream frosting!) with blue trim. The water and sewer company finally put a new sewer line in our street this fall, so we are looking at finishing the floor in the basement. (the hall and family room) We�re also thinking about redoing the floor in the kitchen and dining room. So we have house projects to plan for next summer!! Not much around here has changed from last year. Don and I just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary last week. (SMILE) Don is still working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough, almost 8 years now. He finished taking the Microsoft evening classes in May and is not taking any classes right now. It was about time for a break from school for him! I am still at the City of Fairbanks Federal Credit Union and I am still enjoying my part-time job. Grace is still attending the University of Alaska here in Fairbanks. She has one semester left and should be graduating in May 2004. She took a class in Beginning German this semester as well as another Japanese Kanji class and two computer classes. I think she has three classes left to be DONE! Grace works as a "barista" when she�s not in school. She makes great mochas and lattes! (SMILE) 
We�ve not had any earthquakes of interest this year....(SMILE) We took a little vacation in July and played tourist in Alaska. We rented a car to have more room traveling and got upgraded to a van! That was nice! (SMILE) We drove down to Anchorage and had a nice view of the top of Denali (Mount McKinley) through the clouds as we came through the Alaska Mountain Range. We had good weather the entire trip - actually TOO good - it was too warm for us!! We did some shopping in Anchorage and went to a couple of movies. (Anchorage is just another big city of 300,000 people like Seattle or Portland.) We visited the Alaska Zoo. A nice small zoo, but it was just too hot that day for man or beast! We saw a lot of animals including a Polar Bear, and Grizzly Bear, Snow Leopards and Siberian Tigers - all sleeping in the heat of the day.... We also drove down to the Seward Peninsula and took a short half-day cruise through Resurrection Bay and out into the Gulf of Alaska, where we got to see a couple of Humpback whales and a Harbor porpoise. They were never real close, but we saw them and it was neat! We also saw a lot of seabirds and their rookeries; Two kinds of Puffins, Murres, Cormorants and Kittiwake sea gulls, to name a few. We also saw Bald Eagles and bald eagle nests in two tall trees near the shore. We saw Stellar Sea Lions at their local "haul-out" area on rocks of "pillow lava" that has risen through time from the bottom of the sea floor. Seward has an excellent aquarium - the Alaska SeaLife Center. It is mainly a research, education and rehabilitation center. We saw a lot of amazing sea creatures there including an 1800 pound Stellar Sea Lion and a Giant Pacific Octopus. There were "touch" pools and we got to "feel" such creatures as sea stars, anemones, crabs and sea urchins. I also took some wonderful pictures of many of God�s magnificent creatures! Also in the Seward area we saw Exit Glacier, a tiny finger of the huge Harding Ice Field in the Kenai-Fjords National Park. We went one evening and then again the next day and we could see where ice had "calved" off the glacier during the night. It was amazing. and may GOD be with you and bless you in the coming New Year! We love you! Barbara, Don and Grace We hope to hear from you all soon. I love getting email! Also, I have a lot of our Seward vacation pictures online. You can also read Grace's Christmas letter HERE! (SMILE) E MAIL: dlogan@alaska.net WEB PAGE: http://www.alaska.net/~dlogan/ |