Memorial Day Weekend in Alaska

Saturday - Prince William Sound on Kakwik - first time that Judy went out.  Brian and our landlord, Lance worked on the boat first (Judy pretty wiped out from week, just wanted to read), rainy day, but we went out to the rookery just to take it out and then drove back - it's about an hour and 15 minutes from our house, and you have to time it to get through the single lane railroad tunnel -- late dinner of salmon cakes and macaroni and cheese with salad -- we're tired of salmon from the freezer, and the runs are about to start for new salmon, so we haven't felt like eating the frozen filets - Judy cooked a couple and made salmon cakes out of them.  She's going to a canning workshop (pressure cooker) on the 13th of June for a refresher on what she learned in "fish camp" last year in Klukwan.

Saturday we did errands, cleaning, Brian worked 1/2 day, and then we went back to the boat and went out for longer this time - still overcast and rainy - picked up the shrimp pots and brought home shrimp for appetizers.

Judy at the helm of Kakwik with Mary Mearig 

New recipe from Lance - shrimp on the grill, Vietnamese style - clip shell over back of shrimp and grill 2 minutes on each side.  Meanwhile, prepare small individual pots with sea salt on one side, ground pepper on the other, lime wedge in between, and a chopstick for each.  When shrimp are done, squeeze lime and mix with salt and pepper, peel and dip shrimp.  Excellent!  Followed by salmon cakes, macaroni and cheese, salad and steak!

Today was finally a sunny day, beautiful - we went for a walk in the morning around the lagoon, and then another walk in the afternoon to Walgreen's for errands!  Then back to the apartment to finish up some work for the weekend, do laundry, you know. all those things you have to do to keep your job and live in your apartment!  We had some great risotto tonight - onion, green pepper and cremini mushrooms - we love risotto!  Oh, I forgot how we started the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with a glass sitting out on our park bench in the sun about 3:00, which made it easier to finish off the bottle tonight!  Holidays are good!

Not to forget Memorial Day and everyone who has fought, been injured, or lost their life in wars - remembering all of you/them.  Judy has been reading Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky, and just finished today.  It's a novel about Occupied France, written by a Russian Jew, turned Catholic, who had lived in France for maybe 20 years before the Germans invaded, and was married with two children.  She was picked up and transported to a concentration camp in July 1942 and transferred almost immediately to Auschwitz, where she was sent to the gas chamber just 3 days later.  Her husband, frantically trying all diplomatic channels that he could for his wife, who was, after all, a famous and published author, was sent himself several months later, also to Auschwitz, also gassed.  Their two daughters were hidden and moved from place to place ahead of the French and German police, and survived the war.  the oldest, just 11 or 12 at the time, packed her mother's writing when they fled, and only many years later was brave enough to read what she thought was her mother's diary.  Instead it was this novel, which was published in 2006, complete with her notes about the novel she was writing, and the correspondence between her husband and the authorities when she was arrested.

Happy Memorial Day!  Be present to all of the suffering that's gone before us and be a stand for peace in the world!

Spring in Anchorage

Flower pots are hung around the city, leaves have unfurled, but boating can still be chilly, even cold and rainy, with snow-covered mountains still surrounding Prince William Sound in Whittier.  Brian took these pictures last weekend, and it was about the same today as we went down for a few more "repairs."  The hot water works, but the windows leak, and the boat had been sitting for two years out of the water.  Brian and Carl went out with another friend for two nights last weekend for the "maiden voyage" while Judy was at a conference in San Francisco (with Jessica!).  

Kakwik is again a work in progress, and Brian and Carl have done a lot of work already to change an engine, begin to restore some of the woodwork, and work on some of the other systems.

We went down to Whittier today with Lance, our landlord, for a few minor repairs and to spend some time on the boat - went out a short ways but not for long - just to a rookery with thousands of birds on the cliffs surrounding the water.  Notice how much snow there is from some views!  Brian and friends anchored in two different coves last weekend.

We'll go back tomorrow or Monday and go out again - it needs to be cleaned up inside - but maybe we'll pull up some shrimp and grill them off the back of the boat  . . . it's a tough life!  Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

What a Day!

Here is a day in the life of Brian - only in Alaska!

7:15 am - leave to meet Carl to drive to Whittier

7:45 am - driving along Turnagain Arm (Cook Inlet) they see a 4 fit rolling wave that's so strange they finally pull over to watch the bore tide.  Here is an explanation of a bore tide from Wikipedia that actually gives a picture, though it's from 2005, from Upper Cook Inlet, probably almost exactly where Brian was watching it from!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore.  He said he'd never seen anything like it, and Carl, who's lived here for 20 years, had never seen one like this one.

8:30 am - Driving through tunnel to Whittier, snowing and raining with gale force winds.  The harbor master says no boats are going out, and it's not possible to move our boat OR to go out and pull up the shrimp.  Started up the engine at least and did some more work on the boat.

11:00 am - Back through the tunnel on the hour.  Saw Dall sheep on the way back on the cliffs, a moose along Potter's Marsh, and then a black bear moseying across the road on the way back up to Carl's, a yearling.  The bear decided to cross the road, part way across decided to go back, then seemed to think, "Well, maybe I'll cross over there after all!"

4:30 pm - Back home -- probably saw some eagles too - pretty common sight now.  The hooligan are coming in (fish) and the eagles hang around for them.

6:00 pm - Judy came home, made dinner, and we watched a new tape that we ordered with Ron James, a standup comedian from Canada.  Then took a walk before coming home to watch The Mentalist!

No more animals on our walk, none other than the usual anyway!  The moose aren't in town anymore - in the winter, we never knew if the moose would be walking right down our sidewalk!

Kakwik is Launched!

It wasn't a pretty day particularly, or a warm day, but there they were in Whittier, Brian and Carl, finishing the bottom paint and launching the boat, leaks and all!  You can look up Whittier for some pretty interesting information, and we've probably told you before, you drive through a 3 mile railroad tunnel, one way traffic (you have to go through on the 1/2 hour from one direction and the hour from the other), to get there.

It was really windy, so they weren't able to move it to the "real dock."  It went from being windy to very nice and back to windy - it happens to be one of the rainiest spots on Prince William Sound, though it hasn't really rained at all in Anchorage in months, save a few drops a week ago or so.  There was some orchestrating to do, as anyone who has ever owned a boat knows, but all was well after a long day.

Too windy to go out and pick up the shrimp pots though -- had to settle for turkey and leftover risotto and asparagus for dinner!  The mountains around this harbor are breathtaking, and you've seen pictures of Prince William Sound on this website too - check out the side pictures!  Hope we get a few trips in on Kakwik before we leave to go out east!

A Good Weekend!

A little bit quiet, but lots to catch up on -- like cleaning the house finally, actually dusting for the first time since before I got the flu, and putting things away, that spring thing for changing clothes out, moving things around, etc.  Brian was in Whittier working on the boat all day -- inside, no bottom paint, since it rained all day there.  It has pretty much not rained at all in Anchorage since early October - a few drops in the last few days but not so it amounted to much!

Carl and Diane came for dinner for Kodiak scallops last night and brought these beautiful tulips.

Tulips from Diane and Carl

Yesterday was Honors Graduation Reception too, a sort of pre-ceremony for the 12 students graduating from the Honors College -- that was fun, and we didn't go to the big UAA graduation today - we went hiking instead!  We haven't been doing much for physical exercise, but we wanted to check out a bike path that runs along the Seward Highway for miles and also a new hiking trail that we haven't been on.  We just hiked out an hour and then back - didn't take the camera either, but there were some good views since the hiking trail, once we crossed over from the bike path, pretty much went straight up!

We probably were at most 1/2 way to the top, so we're going back next weekend.  With a bear whistle!  There did seem to be a fair amount of people going up and down that trail, but I think it's also an area that's known for grizzly bears.  Saw three eagles soaring over the water - the Bird Ridge Trail is along Cook Inlet, in an area known as Turnagain Arm - and several Dall sheep along the cliffs as we drove to the trailhead - now we want to see the Beluga whales that are sometimes visible swimming up the Inlet - haven't seen them yet.  

Just hanging out at home since then, finishing up the weekend now watching the Comedy Awards!

Spring comes to Anchorage!

It was surprising how fast the snow disappeared!  Within two weeks, it seemed like, we went from these tall snowbanks that completely covered the bench we brought with us to Alaska for our yard to sitting out on it (south-facing yard!) on a sunny evening.  Judy was very ill with the flu this past month - not the WHOLE month, but it's surprising how disruptive that was and how long it's taken to recover from it - so we haven't brought you up to date on what we've been doing for awhile!  Daffodils and tulips are blooming, buds are about to burst, and nearly every day has been blue sky, sunny and 50-55 or so - VERYpleasent!

Spring has brought new things to take care of . . . the semester's almost done at UAA, so lots to finish up there.  Brian has been working on Kakwik, our new Sundowner tug owned with two partners, trying to get it in the water - and it's due in probably at the end of the week!  Next chore - bottom paint!  Launching in Prince William Sound at Whittier, stay tuned!  And come up and go out on it with us!

Shrimp for dinner tonight, fresh out of Prince William Sound, our first of the season - we have this picture of them put on to briefly come to a boil, and we MEANT to take a picture when they were peeled and on the plate, but they disappeared too quickly!

And, we've been doing some traveling.  Judy had a chance to lead a couple of community meetings for public feedback on the Chugach forest, subbing for another professor at UAA, so we both flew to Cordova on April 24th overnight (you can only get to Cordova by flying!) and Judy flew to Valdez on April 26th overnight (you can drive to Valdez, about 6 hours from here).

This is a picture of Cordova's harbor - Valdez looks much the same except much more dramatic mountains rising straight from the harbor. Very fun to see two more Alaskan communities, each of which was quite different. We loved hearing from the people who lived there about how they used the forest and the Sound and the different recreational opportunities they took part in - Valdez has the extreme skiing championships, and there were several young people who came out - self-proclaimed ski bums, but also interested in getting a hut to hut system built for the Chugach.

Tickets back East for June 21st, back in Utica on June 25th til July 31st -- about two weeks of that will be sailing on Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands!