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!