Thanksgiving.

Matt and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We began the day with the Skinny Raven Turkey Trot...

...which for the first time ended indoors at the Dena'ina Center in downtown Anchorage. We were also able to wait inside before the race started just a block away. Brilliant idea. 

The Turkey Trot was a quick 5K. The temperature was in the low 20s, which made for a nice run outside. 

Although we weren't with our families for the holiday, we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house, which has become a tradition. Meanwhile, my family kept me posted on their Thanksgiving hoopla...

...and toasted their thanks via text...

After dinner, Matt and I came home to spend the evening with Rio, who feasted on a yummy chewy for her Thanksgiving dessert.

Cheers!

Election Day.

It's Election Day!

I remember voting with my mom and dad from the time I was young. It was so exciting to walk into the poll booth with them and watching them fill out the ovals that signaled for whom they were voting. 

Since I turned 18, I've enjoyed doing the same...and since moving to Alaska, I've had the same polling place every year. Many of the same volunteers still greet me when I walk into the location, often asking "You're one of the twins, right?" I guess Leah and I made a positive impact on them the first few years we voted together. Hopefully they don't wait for her to come in and vote today!

I hope you get out and vote today if you haven't already. 

Cheers!

Chicago.

In August I attended the Midwest Academy training in Chicago. Midwest Academy is a five day residential training that focuses on honing skills around community organizing and strategizing for policy change. Although Midwest Academy uses a very progressive approach (and at times had me cringing due to their very liberal political view point), through a combination of presentations, exercises and discussion, the training provided me with skills that will be useful in my work. In addition, because the training took place in Chicago, I was able to spend time with two of my best friends from college and also spend some time in Iowa.

I flew in to Chicago the weekend before the training to spend time with Sarah, who lives in Chicago, and Kala, who flew up from Kansas City to spend the weekend with us. Since I arrived into Chicago around Noon, I had some time to walk around downtown until Sarah got off work.

It was fun seeing the river and some of the main Chicago attractions in 80 degree weather...

The bean!

Sarah picked me up after she was done with work and later, we headed out to dinner before picking up Kala at the airport. Sarah took me to Ben's Noodles and Rice, an excellent Thai and Asian fusion restaurant near her house. The fortune in my cookie was quite pleasing...

On Saturday, the three of us had a great time catching up and talking while walking around and visiting some of Sarah's favorite places in the city...

Brunch at Riverview Tavern...

Starbucks!

Manicures...

I thought the pedicure chairs were quite festive...

 Sarah had reservations at Cafe Ba Ba Reebah, a Spanish tapas restaurant (interesting bar decor)...

The food (and sangria) was delicious...

After dinner, Sarah took us to a rooftop party at her friend's house. The view of the city was amazing!

We then headed to Glascotts Saloon, a bar in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, to meet up with one of her friends before calling it a night...

We had brunch at John's Place on Sunday morning and then headed downtown to spend the rest of the afternoon...

Sarah and I dropped Kala off at the airport and then Sarah took me to my training location, which was just North of Sarah's house. Since my training was so close to Sarah's house, we planned to meet up later in the week for dinner.

The training took place at the Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center, a nunnery in North Chicago. The room reminded me of when I walked into my dorm room at UNI for the first time. No TV, a sink and a closet...and a shared bathroom down the hall.

Jesus and Mary kept a watchful eye on me during my stay...

 The location was really quite great for walking around. Each morning I ran outside, which was a fun way to navigate around the area. One morning it started pouring down rain, so I stopped for a coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. I definitely felt like a "big city" girl...

Lincoln Park was nearby and had some great trails for running...

Each day of the training lasted from about 8:00 AM until 9:00 PM. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was served at the Cenacle and all attendees ate together. What I thought would get old quickly, this time really provided a great opportunity to meet and get to know my classmates. However, Wednesday night was our free night, and this is when Sarah and I met up for dinner. We went to D.O.C. Wine Bar, which was just down the road from my training...

We enjoyed some wine and charcuterie...

...and a delicious baked cookie with ice cream!

It was great meeting up with Sarah again and the rest of the training went very well. After the training concluded on Friday, I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Cedar Rapids. Next stop...Iowa City!

Making Strides.

October is Breast Cancer awareness month and Making Strides for Breast Cancer is the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the United States. Ever since my grandma Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer many years ago, I have been passionate about this cause. Fortunately, she and many other women I know have successfully beat this disease. However, many of us know women who have not been as successful, which makes it even more important to me to support efforts that raise awareness about the importance of screenings and raise money for funding research to improve diagnosis and outcomes.

Some coworkers and I chose to participate in The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and had a bake sale at work to help raise money for the event. 

There are a number of risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer and one of those factors is smoking. Although a few studies suggest that there is no link between breast cancer and smoking, many studies have found that the risk is high for women who  started smoking at a young age. An active focus of research now is weather secondhand smoke increases the risk of breast  cancer. 

A look at Cook Inlet...

There was plenty of pink at the event and were approximately 1,000 people who participated in the walk, including friends and family members of those who have battled breast cancer and survivors themselves.

The morning was quite chilly, but we had fun anyway. The walk was a 5K that looped through downtown Anchorage and onto the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.

Even the firefighters decked out a fire truck in pink to support the cause...

Cheers to October and raising awareness for Breast Cancer. I hope you had a great weekend!

Mountain biking at Kincaid Park.

Fall is beautiful in Anchorage. Because the season is so short, it's important to take advantage of as many nice days as possible. Matt had the weekend off, so we headed to Kincaid Park, which lies on the western side of Anchorage, for some mountain bike riding...both Saturday and Sunday. :-) The temperature was about 50 degrees, which was perfect for riding. 

Kincaid Park, along with Hillside Park, which is on the southeast side of Anchorage, has more than 20 miles of single track trails, which have all been developed over the past three years. The Alaska Dispatch News, Alaska's leading newspaper, wrote an article about the singletrack trails that are becoming quite popular among mountain bikers in Anchorage. 

We rode a trail called Bowling Alley and a loop called Toilet Bowl on Saturday and then rode Middle Earth, Mighty Bike and Tower Power on Sunday. Middle Earth is a new 7 mile trail at Kincaid Park that had spectacular views of the Cook Inlet. These routes were obviously named with some intense thought... 

According to the Alaska Dispatch, the International Mountain Biking Association offers a five-level trail rating system ranging from easy (maximum grade of 10 percent and no natural obstacles) to the extremely difficult double black diamond (20 percent grade with unavoidable obstacles and no more than 6 inches wide in places). IMBA officials were in Anchorage in early June to inspect the Kincaid trails. Singletrack Advocates considers all of the Kincaid trails -- except for new one-way sections -- to be intermediate, and the IMBA agreed, classifying the one-way trails as black diamond or expert level.

Most of the trials are one way, which conveniently prevents collisions with other bikers...

We ended up riding about six miles of the singletrack trails on Saturday and rode for about three hours on Sunday...time flies when you're having fun!! 

Just as our ride ended on Saturday, we came across some familiar company...Moose!!!

After our ride on Sunday, we headed to Tastee Feez (my first visit ever) for a snack. For the record, this is the northern most Tastee Freez in the world. 

We had a great time getting outside together and enjoying the weather.

I hope you had a great weekend!