BIRTHDAY!

I know it has been almost two weeks since my actual birthday (Jan. 30), but here are some cool pictures of what we did.

Heather arranged for a guide to take us Nordic (cross-country) skiing. The guide was necessary since we've never done this before. She told me on my birthday, but I had to wait all week befor our trek.

We drove down to Girdwood, AK, which is also where Alyeska Ski Mountain is located. Girdwood has a large and intricate trail system where people do all kinds of things, skiing, walking dogs, snow-mobiling, snow-shoeing, hiking, etc.

For about 16 years I've been a downhill skier. And I must say, I'm not bad. I was never formally trained, but my family often took trips to nearby ski mountains which was training enough. I can ski down double black diamonds, moguls and do some nearly fancy jumps. So, you have to understand how perplexed I was when, after not 5 minutes on the cross-country skis, I was on my back with legs and arms flailing like a flipped turtle. We hadn't even gone down a hill. Just over a little bumpy thingy and, whfoo-bam, Nathan goes down! It was the first of three glorious close encounters with the ground.

Heather got all too much enjoyment out of seeing me prostrated on the ground, humbled and in painful respect for this new sport.

The guide took us out for about 3.5 hours. We went on groomed trails, then off trail in some meadows, then into the woods. He said this was extreme nordic skiing, because we were going up hills, across thin ice (where Heather's ski went in the water), and at one point we had to take them off and hike.

It was a blast, and the scenery was serenely beautiful and calming. It won't be our last time doing nordic skiing, that's for sure. I had to chuckle at one point when Heather asked our guide (because we were in the woods) if he was packin', and he just smirked and said, "Well..."

 Hope you enjoy the pics. Adios!