Laura Bush, daughters, spotted vacationing in Alaska

[Bluebear]

The National Park Service has confirmed that First Lady Laura Bush and her daughters are vacationing at Denali National Park and Preserve.

Callers to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner had reported spotting the Bushes in the Kantishna area on the western end of the 90-mile park road. National Park Service spokesman John Quinley says it's inevitable that their presence would be known because it's a small place.

Quinley says the group arrived earlier this week and would leave the Kantishna area Friday. The first lady is the honorary chairwoman of the National Park Foundation, a nonprofit group chartered by Congress in 1967. Quinley says the Park Service has no official events planned with Laura Bush. He says it's her personal vacation time.

http://www.ktva.com/alaska/ci_4111182

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[bleever]

1. Cuz it's so WARM there these days!

Thanks, George!

:)

[Bluebear]

3. Maybe they want to see it before it's all logged and oiled dry. nt

[lonestarnot]

38. Yeah one last look at pristine beauty. Fuckers.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Actually, it's a little cooler up here this year

than it has been in the past few, so I'm sure she's enjoying the 65 degree temps -- AND being away from the idiot for a few days. I just wondered how much of the 6 million acres of the park they roped off for her. Surely she isn't mingling with the peons.

[Lisa]

19. hmmm -- what a dilemma -- tranquility and stunning scenery in Denali

Plus long summer days and lots of wildlife to see .... or a month stuck at a boring phony "ranch" in 100-degree weather, lights-out at 9, and * whining about Cindy Sheehan and the media every waking moment?

Gee, what to choose! Somehow I can't blame Laura for heading off on her own.

(By the way, compliments on Denali -- my boss just got back from an extended cycling tour up there, and he really enjoyed himself.)

[Blue_In_AK]

25. It's incredibly beautiful up there...

We're heading up that way the middle of September when it will be gorgeous with the fall colors. Check into the photo group after September 20th or so, and I should have some photos up, and I agree, Laura is probably really enjoying herself. I wonder if she ever thinks of divorcing the asshole. I'll bet he really goes off on her sometimes...I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out he's an abusive husband.

[bleever]

26. All things considered,

I'd love to spend a vacation in Alaska, even without the odious alternative of the "ranch" home and the company, including George and his favorite secretary.

Have your annual weather patterns changed in the last ten years? I'm curious, because anecdotally (but overwhelmingly) they have where I live.

[Blue_In_AK]

28. Yes, things have changed a lot up here

since I first came up in 1975, although as I mentioned, this summer has been more like the old days, cool and cloudy, with rain. But for the past 10 or 15 years or so, excluding this year, spring has been coming earlier and earlier and fall later, and winters have been more mild with more thaw/freeze cycles. The old rule of thumb for Anchorage gardeners was don't plant before Memorial Day and harvest by Labor Day, but the past few years I've been putting in my garden by mid-May or even as early as the 10th, and we haven't gotten a frost until late in September. Winters used to have two- or three-week spells of sub-zero temperatures here in Anchorage, but lately it seldom goes below zero, and then only for a few days at a time. We used to get warm snaps in the winter (Chinook winds) maybe once or twice, but the past few winters it has thawed several times during the winter, and it gets really sloppy with rain, which just isn't natural. It's really messed with the dog sled races the past few years -- the Iditarod has had to start in Willow which is further north than Wasilla, where it traditionally started. I can't say much about the snowfall because it has always varied a lot from year to year, but three or four years ago it didn't snow until almost the end of November, which was really weird. But that was just one year.

So, yeah, I think it's changed a lot, and from what I understand it's even more noticeable further north. Another byproduct of the warmer temperatures has been more wildfires. I think I read that 11 million acres burned up here in 2004 and 2005. This summer hasn't been too bad because of the cooler temperatures and increased rain, which is a blessing because the smoke kind of messes up visibility over the whole state -- it sucks for the tourists.

[bleever]

30. I heard about re-routing the Iditarod.

Thanks for the detailed response.

Seems like the last ten years have seen an unsettling of long established regional weather patterns.

[hamerfan]

34. The winter of '91-'92

300 inches of snow in Anchorage, 500 inches of snow in Valdez, yet other years they have to truck in snow to start the Iditarod.
And the winter of '88-'89, the Omega Block. I do remember seeing -60 on the old thermometer. I was living near the Wasilla Fishhook Road, down from Hatcher Pass. Never been that cold in my life!
dumpbush

[Blue_In_AK]

37. I remember '88-'89 well...

That was a cold, cold winter. We had an old 1968 Dodge at the time, and it was just dead as a doornail in the driveway. We finally had to put a heater underneath it to get it started. The wind was bad, too.

By the way, Hatcher Pass is one of our favorite places to go. I've posted pictures here often of our trips up there.

[SensibleAmerican]

32. The slight cooling effect of Alaska is an effect of climate change

I believe

[Blue_In_AK]

42. Could be....

Seems all the heat has been sucked down south ... which is just fine with me. While the warm summers of the past few years have been nice for us recreationally, they certainly haven't seemed natural. I wish the glaciers would start building back up again. It's weird to see them pulled so far back from what I remember in the '70s.

[napi21]

2. Can't get much farther away from Shrub without leaving the

Continental US! I can't blame her, I'd be out of the WH as much as possible too!

[TomInTib]

7. I was thinking same.

And maybe a little boost for Senator Bridge to Nowhere.

[rurallib]

4. Had to get out of that hotel room she's been living in?

[soothsayer]

13. Yeah, what's up with those Mayflower rumors?

on edit: someone had told me tonight it was the Watergate, but now I'm seeing Mayflower

[Benhurst]

15. Actually I think it was the Willard.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Dammit! I live in DC and I haven't heard these rumors. Tell MORE!

[Benhurst]

23. Supposedly she has moved out of the White House and into

the Willard. The Willard management, following long established custom, will neither confirm nor deny.

[Phredicles]

29. What I heard n Randi Rhodes' show in like April

was that she'd moved out of the White House 'cause she found out her hubby was bumping uglies with Condi.

[Ian David]

5. Enjoying the Global Warming while the Caribou are still alive

Actually. Laura Bush's vagina restores permafrost with every footstep.

[BelgianMadCow]

8. Sooooo

your solution to global warming is one HUGE first wife's reproductive organ floating in the sky?

I sure hope it would have a high orbit.

[Ian David]

10. Imagine what The Flying Spaghetti Monster would do to it?

Take off every vagina!

You know what you do?

For great justice!

[man4allcats]

11. Oh my goodness!

"Actually. Laura Bush's vagina restores permafrost with every footstep."

That's a good one!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Warren DeMontague]

6. I wonder how much a carton of smokes goes for up there

or a crate of Xanax, for that matter.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Five+plus bucks a pack for the ciggies

I can't comment on the Xanax - too busy smoking buds.

[pooja]

9. Chairwoman to the national park foundation.. can we say oxymoron

[Cobalt Violet]

12. Republicans at a National Park??????

I thought they were against that sort of thing. I thought they were all for places like that being turned over to private developers.

What a bunch of hypocrites.

[gatorboy]

14. Honorary chairwoman of the National Park Foundation?

Is that a joke? Hasn't she noticed how hubby's tried to drill the hell out of the place?

[Lisa]

18. Haha! My boss (vehemently opposed to *) just got back from there!

He's been going on and on about the wonders of Denali all week! Wait until he hears who got there after he left! (He will probably grumble about how he missed a chance to make a pointed comment to Laura about her husband!)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. Ok, I Fail To See Why Or How This Matters Somehow At All.

Why should I care? Did I miss something here? :shrug:

[greguganus]

22. They are there on a secret mission

Doing a geological survey to find the best places to drill for oil.

[JI7]

24. i thought they were in 3rd world nations doing volunteer work

and helping the poor or whatever the hell the media whores were claiming they were going to do but which we never get pics of.

[lpbk2713]

27. Kinda hard to miss a convoy of 20 black Suburbans ...... n/t

[EFerrari]

31. Laura Bush went to ALASKA because she was the last human being

to know about Junior and Condi?

That's funny.

[symbolman]

33. Where's a nice grizzly attack when you need one?

After having them chase me all over the tundra you'd think one could wander over and chew up and shit out some vodka stewed fresh meat, tho the Xanax Queen would probably make him nod off after the meal :)

Funny thing about a bear (I lived in Alaska for a good ten years)- you can shoot and shoot and shoot, and in a lot of ways it don't matter what the weapon is, and they JUST keep COMING.. the rule is to save one slug for yourself. Even after they are DEAD they will STILL kill you..

Unless of course as any Alaska poster here mentioning Bud you are "confused" by Matanuska ThunderFuck (is it STILL PURPLE?), in which case they wander away :)

I'm writing a book about my adventures up there which will also be an environmental, spiritual growth scribe.. got some interest in it and I hope to change the way people look at the whole planet and their place on it, with it..

Maybe I can get enough people to buy it to make the best seller list and give Coulter the finger :)

[Blue_In_AK]

43. Your book sounds great, Symbolman...

I don't know if you're aware, but we're having real issues with grizzlies up here this year. There are apparently six of them hanging around Bird Creek bullying the combat fishermen into dropping their catches, and just this morning I read about a guy being grabbed in his tent while he was sleeping in the Russian River campground. Lucky for him the bear just mouthed him and didn't even break the skin.

By the way, the horticulture is still good up here. :smoke:

[no_hypocrisy]

35. Maybe she's surveying ANWR for Congress. n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

44. Denali is a LONG ways from ANWR.

[displacedtexan]

36. It's 61 in Fairbanks today (up to 70 by Thursday!)

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USAK0083_f.html

Compared to DC, it's extremely cool there...

In more ways than one.

[mb7588a]

39. Who cares?

This is just about as important to me as what color tie Bush wears to the SOTU... They live busy lives.

And besides, everyone deserves a vacation from George W. Bush!

[ComerPerro]

40. Better go there now before we privatize it and drill the shit out of it

[EstimatedProphet]

41. Maybe we can talk them into hiking the Turnagain Mudflats

[Blue_In_AK]

45. Oh, now, THAT'S funny....

We just saw a bunch of windsurfers down there a few days ago. I couldn't believe they were all hanging out on the "beach" like it was California or something. I hope they had their tide tables with them.