When I woke up this morning and went out side to start my car, everything was frozen over. It was clear that the clouds had parted at some point during the night, and with that all the heat they where holding in had gone. Everyone was driving to work a little slower, a little more carefully then they have had to all year.
On my way into the office I pulled into the Nugget Mall Parking lot. The whole parking lot was white with frost and you could see in the background the snow kissed mountains. It was very pretty this morning.
Tonight Hannah, Zaine and I went out to the Governor’s Open House. We drove into town and parked the truck, and the three of us walked a couple of blocks up to the governor’s mansion. We waited in line with the rest of the public while staff came all through the line with cookies and hot cider.
The line was not too long. Maybe a block at the most. But the line always seemed to be moving and we were never standing one place very long.
When we got up to the front door we were instructed to wait so that guests inside the mansion could exit and allow for more room inside for more guests to enter. After waiting a few moments we were allowed inside and told that we could all stand with the governor and someone would take our picture but we needed to have our camera ready. That’s pretty much what happened. We made our way up to Sarah Palin who smiled, said hello, and shook all of our hands. I then handed my camera over to a staff member to had taken a photo of the person in front of us with their camera. We all turned to face the camera, smiled and before we knew it we were in the next room filled with cookies.
We all grabbed a few cookies and made our way around the mansion. We went in one large circle. Six rooms in all, if i remember correctly. The pictures and video below tell the story better then I can.
[Update December.10.2008] The local Juneau Empire news paper was updated today with a story on the governor’s 93rd open house since the mansion opened 95 years ago.
Juneau’s Tom Matthews said he turned out for the open house to impress his relatives down south.
“My family in Wisconsin are just so ga ga for Governor Palin I had to get a picture of me with her,” he said.
As the lines of well-wishers trooped through the house, they were serenaded by local school groups and plied with cookies and punch. Many were wearing their newest Xtratufs for the occasion.
Palin spent hours greeting well-wishers with “so glad you could come,” for some and “thank you for your service” for others.
Also on hand were husband, Todd, and daughters Piper and Willow, who handed off baby Trig at times.
More than 3,300 visitors poured into the Alaska Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday for the annual Christmas open house hosted by Gov. Sarah Palin.
…”Thanks for coming over. Merry Christmas to you,” Palin said again and again to the stream of people over three hours.
Palin, wearing a velvet kuspuk, paid especially close attention to children, crouching to greet them at eye level, holding up the line to ask them questions…
Our pictures take with Sarah Palin
The Rug picture. Take for my brother Abe. So can see it.
COOKIES!
We voted this painting the best painting in the whole mansion.
Tonight Hannah and I went to down town Juneau to partake in the Juneau gallery art walk. While we were down there we also bumped into some friends and we all ended up walking the galleries together. Here are some pictures from our night.
Last night Hannah and I ran to the store. From the time we left our place to the time we got to the store the It started to really snow down on us. We don’t live that far from the store at all either. It was coming down in big, white, thick clumps and sticking to the cars and our cloths. I snapped a few pictures right before we ran inside the store.
Wow! I saw these at Safeway the other day and snapped some pictures with my iPhone. I have not seen Madballs since I was a kid. Who knew they still made them?
