A Sponto Trip to Seward!

First weekend back home - 2 days actually - and I read a Facebook post about a fundraiser at SeaLife Alaska in Seward, 2 1/2 hours away - a wine and beer tasting with silent auction.  I saw it at noon, and by 1:00 we were packed and on the road, stopping for a hike at Johnson Pass along the way!  We drove through a little snow, a little drizzle, and finally clear skies before arriving at Hotel Seward.

The drive south along the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Seward is worth it in itself, and the hike was fun but flatter than we had expected.  We had forgotten to take our guide book with us, and we only had 1 1/2 hours to spare, so we went out about 45 minutes or so then turned around.

The Hotel Seward is just 2 blocks from the SeaLife Center.

It was originally built in the early 1900s as Seward’s Best Hotel.  Since it was so close, we could safely sample the beers from a number of microbreweries from around Alaska, vote on the 3 outstanding seafood appetizers (smoked halibut mini-tacos were our choice!), and then vote again on the desserts (below).  It was a tough decision!

We met some friends there who had originally posted the Facebook announcement and also came home with way too many things from the silent auction!  Including a "Puffin Encounter" for me the next time we go back, a float trip down the Kenai River, and two kayaking trips in Prince William Sound.

Home the next day with another stop for hiking, this time from Bird Creek with a seemingly vertical climb right from the road!  We didn't go to the top, constrained again by time, but we'll go back there - it was a great workout!

What a weekend!  Did we mention that we love our lives here in Alaska?!

Hunting for Deer on Naked Island

Brian and Carl "went a-hunting" in mid-October, but they came home empty-handed.  It was a different way of going hunting, since they crossed Prince William Sound to Naked Island, supposedly home to small and tasty deer -- they said the deep snow and cold last year decimated the population, as there were few signs this year.  Although they had thought they might fish on the way back, it was a very rough day with small craft warnings, so they headed back as directly as possible.  I think it was a cold trip, but Kakwik has a heater, and they had enough provisions to last at least a week in case weather socked them in for awhile!  In fact, they didn't leave until 5 at night the day they prepared to take off, because there was a blizzard! The sky cleared about 1/2 hour into the trip enough for them to see blue sky ahead!


Right after Brian got back, I went to Whistler, British Columbia for 9 days for a Leadership Conference with Werner Erhard, Michael Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari Granger.  We had beautiful accomodations and long but very effective days focused on an ontological and phenomenological model for the effective exercise of leadership -- leadership as when being a leader, all possible ways of being are available to you, and when exercising leadership, all possible actions are open to you.  It was beyond great!  And our suites were exquisite!  My roommate and I, in the little bit of time we were actually in our rooms had a suite with separate bedrooms, each with their own baths, another den and half bath, big great room with gas fireplace also with a big dining table and open to full kitchen and a laundry room.

The conference was held at the Nita Lake Lodge, and a trail around the lake led about 4k later to Whistler Village, which you might remember from the 2010 Winter Olympics.  The entire area is gorgeous, of course, though little snow yet and mostly 35-40 degrees and gray while I was there.

It looks just like Alaska, doesn't it?  It was very similar!  And lastly, I got to meet wonderful people, beginning on the 3 hour ride up to Whistler from the Vancouver airport!  Bob from Denver, Peter from California, Deidre, also California, Richard from London, Haley and her husband whose name I've forgotten from Texas, my roommate Cari from New England, we had a great time together, and a couple of nights we had wine and pizza in one of our suites!  Early to the airport on the 1st of November to go back home, we kept running into each other at the airport -- Rich and Noreen had a last cup of coffee with Richard and Peter and I before I had to run for the plane!

What a great group!  And, it was wonderful to get home to Brian and to Alaska!  

Catching up - Weather, weather, weather!

Rain, rain, rain - it's been an incredibly rainy time in Anchorage -- and right after I told everyone that it really doesn't rain in Anchorage - in the two years that I'd been here, I'd never seen a downpour or even a steady rain.  It's a very dry climate here, and mostly when it's overcast or "rains," it's a drizzle or even a mist.  Not this year!

We've hiked a little in the rain or walked in between the drops, but it's not been really inspiring.  Brian's been working on a job for a couple of weeks, and Judy's work has been busy, so it's been easy enough to mostly work and fit in a little recreation along the way.  We've been yearning to go out on Kakwik, and the weather just hasn't been conducive.  Brian's friend, Carl, pulled the shrimp pots - the season was over on 9/15 - and I don't think we have NEARLY enough shrimp in the freezer!  We drove down to check on Kakwik on Sunday and had a very rainy and windy trip.  There have been high winds here along with the unusual storms, sometimes up to 100 mph or more -- not directly where our house is, but not far away.  Some homes have had power outages several times.

Saturday at least was one of the last days for the Farmer's Market - next Saturday will be the last of the outside markets at least!  Beet greens, swiss chard, celery, potatoes, carrots (potatoes and carrots are absolutely wonderful in Alaska!), even tomatoes (some unusual growing techniques here for fresh tomatoes), leeks!  I could take a picture of the potato-leek soup, but we've eaten it all!  Oh, and the Matanuska sharp cheddar cheese, which is expensive but only made about 20 miles from here and delicious! I'll miss the Farmer's Markets and always long for their return in May.

Brian was supposed to go fishing this week on the upper Kenai, but there has been so much rain and flooding that no boats were allowed on the water, and the trip was cancelled.  We missed out on the silver salmon this year, and we're hoping the Copper River reds last us through most of the winter.  We thought we would get more, and weather (high water) had even interfered with THAT fishing in May.

We joined a new workout routine, not really a gym, but a circuit-training place for skiers, and it is a tough 1 1/2 workout twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday after work.  After all, it's only a little over a month away probably to ski time!

Lastly, David Shipler, Pulitzer Prize winner is here this week to talk about his book, The Working Poor - great to work at a university and have access to so much!

Catching Up to Fall

The last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy as we settle back into life in Alaska, especially since Judy left over Labor Day weekend for a quick trip to see Jessica in southern California!  Brian did a long hike with Lance the same weekend up Wolverine.

Jet Blue flies to Long Beach from Anchorage direct between Memorial Day and Labor Day and very reasonably, so it was a good trip, even though it was 1 - 7:20 am, so very little sleep!  We made the most of the weekend with a trip to Ojai to see my sister and her family, shopping at a wonderful Farmer's Market in Santa Monica (oh, the tomatoes and the basil!), a night at the Hollywood Bowl for a concert, and a day at the beach.

In Ojai, we got to see my niece, Piper, playing with Emy Reynold's in The Emy Reynold's band at a coffeehouse in town.

I wish that I had taken more pictures in Ojai, but -- short trip, and I even made a huge batch of pesto while I was there to freeze and take back to Alaska with me.  We were just there overnight and then, back on the road to Santa Monica.  That night, there was a concert at The Hollywood Bowl, a huge, open amphitheater, celebrating 100 years of Paramount.  They had the symphony playing movie themes and huge screens playing the film clips at the same time - very fun.

And as if that wasn't enough, you can bring in a picnic, bottle of wine, etc. and have it while you're watching and listening.  A beautiful night, as you can see!  Each day we had taken a walk along the beach, but Monday, before I left to come back to Anchorage in the evening, we spent several hours at the beach, me reading of course! It's a beautiful beach and has a bike trail right up the middle that goes for maybe 50 miles?  These were taken from up above, as there are stairs down to the beach level.

A great vacation spot - thanks Jess!  Back to work and into a Wisdom on the Web Weekend this weekend, but we managed to fit in a great bike ride out the Chester Creek trail, where we could see all of the damage from the storm last week - trees down and uprooted, etc.  Leaves all over the multi-use trails . . . and two moose munching it up right on the side of the trail, big as life -- or bigger!  The storm was said to be more powerful coming off the Bering Sea because it was so much earlier than usual - more usual in winter.

Shrimp season is over, so whatever we have in the freezer will have to do til spring - hope we get one more trip out on Kakwik at least - though she won't come out of the water since it's salt water here.
Time to get Brian up and get both of us to work!

Rendezvous Peak in the Arctic Valley

This is a favorite hike and one we hadn't done in a while.  We thought we might also get blueberries, and we did see people spread across the hills, but we didn't see any where we were hiking.  When we got out of the car, it was 50 degrees (down from 65 when we left Anchorage), and the wind was just howling, so I'm not sure what the wind chill factor was - I do know that we scrounged around and found anything that we could that had gotten left in the pack or the car from last year -- a winter hat for Brian, a pair of gloves for me, and we both had brought rain gear that sufficed for wind gear!  

And yes, that's a patch of snow there on the side of the mountain - never melted during this summer, which is fairly typical, and this was also a cool summer.  The pictures don't even nearly do the wildflowers justice.  Rendezvous is a fairly mild hike with a pretty gradual rise and then very steep sections near the end. 

There are stunning views as you look back over the city of Anchorage and Cook Inlet -- the Arctic Vally is about 20 miles north of the city. 

It's always steeper to get to the top than I remembered, but not as steep or as difficult, actually, as the High Peaks that we climbed in the Adirondacks, which were more of a challenge to pull yourself up over ledges and boulders.  It was really blowing at the top, and there is this circle of rocks piled up that Brian hunkered down in here for a snack and some water . . . wish we'd thought to bring hot tea -- who knew?!

This was actually last weekend, but I haven't had time to load the pictures or even find the camera, which as it turned out, was still in the car with something thrown over it, hiding it!   This weekend was busy with Freshmen Convocation, and although we thought we'd do a hike today or possibly go out on Kakwik for shrimp, we settled for a bike ride.  We've been doing a loop up and around the university on a paved trail that we'll be skiing on in just a few months -- last year was November 4th, so only two months away - hard to believe!  Still, it's starting to feel like soup weather -- it must be, as I made soup twice this week!  And blueberry cobbler tonight, but I had to buy the blueberries!

A Preview of Grandchildren?

Lance and Mary, our landlords, have grandchildren visiting, and they went out on Kakwik with Brian while Judy was working.  They had a great time "driving the boat" and cooking out on the grill on the back of the boat - also pulling up shrimp and the unexpected octopus!  They'll be going back to Texas soon with lots of stories of Alaska - I bet they'll go to see the beaver family that we've been visiting on Ship Creek and they're off to a cabin north of here for a few days now.

We decided that Alaska is a great place for your grandparents to live and be able to come and visit, but we may be pretty old by the time we have any grandchildren who can do that since none are in the picture yet!   And Brian decided it must be pretty tiring, judging from the day he had and the energy THEY had!

No pictures of this, but we rode our bikes to both of my offices to time how long it would take the other night, and we may ride there this morning as a commute to try it out.  It's a short commute, about 25-30 minutes and about 20 coming home - more downhill.  The question is, what kind of shape do you arrive in to look presentable for a workday and how much (crap!) do you have to carry?!  And of course, today it seems to be rainy since we wanted to start today! Well, commuting is commuting - one doesn't pick the weather!

A Weekend in Alaska

Saturday was Farmer's Market day at Spenard, the first one since we've been back.  This is our favorite Farmer's Market, and we bought swiss chard, fava bean tips, lettuce, tomatoes, snow peas, scallions, a Christmas cactus, fresh flowers, and who knows what else?

After bringing everything home, we got ready to go to Kakwik and Prince William Sound for our first overnight together on the boat -- after a hike first in Whittier up Portage Pass.  The hike affords a great view of Portage Glacier and then a trail down to Portage Lake, with an even closer look at the glacier.  Hiking in Alaska describes Portage Pass as "a gap gouged out of the earth long ago by a lobe of Portage Glacier and opened up for hikers by the glacier's retreat of the last century."  It further says that the Alska Gold Rush brought prospectors in the 1890s, and steamships dropped them off at the foot of Portage Pass, where Whittier is now.  Prospectors headed for Hope and Sunrise on Turnagain Arm, hauling their gear up the glacier with ropes and pulleys.  We were there on a beautiful day, thankfully, but the guide book tells us that wind blasts of more than 120 mph have been recorded through Portage Pass.  

The Town of Whittier and Prince William Sound looking back from the trail

A first look at Portage Glacier from "the knob" on top 

A closer look at the glacier as we drop down towards Portage Lake - a ferry takes tourists out to view the glacier

After the hike, we were close by the marina in Whittier, Alaska, and unloaded our supplies for our boat, Kakwik, to go out overnight on the Sound.  

We didn't take off til about 5 pm, so we wanted an anchorage close by.  Shotgun Cove is a relatively short ride, about 1 hour, and a beautiful anchorage.  We grilled salmon along with vegetables that we brought from home, accompanied by a little wine!  No stars - it's too light by the time we're ready to go to sleep! 

Sometimes Judy gets to be "Captain!" 

A boat we're steaming by on our way to Shotgun Cove -- the Sound isn't what you'd call crowded!

Brian sets the anchor

Brian rowed to shore so we could take this picture of Kakwik anchored.

This is what we're looking at while we're hanging out at anchor!

Judy fixing breakfast "on board"

Brian pulling shrimp pots - we got plenty for dinner and the freezer

Coming back into Whittier

Back to watch the closing of the Olympics after a nice walk on the Coastal Trail with all of the families out on a glorious night -- hard to complain about the weekends here!