La Rentrée

First Day of School

School started in late August and it was easy for Kate.  We weren't in a new state, and it wasn't a new school.  In fact, she reported to the same classroom with the same teacher who decided to loop with the class.

The start of school for James was eventful as he started Kindergarten.  He was in the same school for preschool so everything felt familiar, except there was a lot less playing and lot more work. Well, that's how he described it anyway.

We hit the wooden boat festival this fall for the third time and added to our collection of homemade boats. We enjoyed the late harvest vegetables at the farmers market and we harvested our own carrots and potatoes.

Rainbow carrots from our garden

"As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."

Potatoes are so fun to grow, mostly because they take zero effort, and are super rewarding to harvest. Our little garden yielded somewhere around 100 tasty Yukon gold and purple magic molly potatoes.

We also found some new fall activities like attending a Homer Mariner football game.

Kate with the Homer High School Mariner mascot

The sand hill cranes migrated through Homer and our yard this fall, and the moose are still wandering around as well.

Sand hill cranes

This is not my photo, but it is the McDonald's in town.
Homer has one stop light,one blinking light, one McD, and a Subway.

Moose in our driveway

The kids have quite a little gang in the neighborhood.  Two other older sister little brother combos make great friends and neighbors.  In true Homer fashion they are having some sort of drumming circle below.  

Kate, Thea, Frida, James, Paul, & Lukas

The girls ride their bikes to school most mornings.  As I type this, it's mid-November and very dark in the mornings, but the wind, rain, and darkness have not stopped these hardy girls.  They have fancy bike lights and we have also recently purchased studded bike tires for the icy and snowy mornings that can't be too far off.

Bayview bike gang

We took the pedals off James's bike to make him a Strider-like bike. He has great balance, but little desire to put the pedals back on and give it a go big boy style.  It might be next summer before we can master the skill, so for now I'm still pulling him in the trailer for family bike rides.  When we get to the hill in town I make him get out and walk though.

Kate ran cross country again this fall and if the ship was in Brian joined the team on their beach and trail runs.  This photo shows Kate picking up pace to finish first in the Orca Fun Run.  Only in Alaska would the race route be changed mid-race to avoid a moose on the trail.  

Orca Fun Run

Kate also joined back up with the swim team and swam in her second meet this fall.  

As both the kids are in school, Brian and I have had a few Fridays to adventure on our own as the ship often takes Friday off when in port.  We finally hit the local par 3 golf course with some friends. 

It was so fun that I went back the following week to play again.  The fall has been particularly warm and dry.  The fall colors (pictured below) are about as colorful as I've seen since arriving.

We also had a family wood cutting adventure this fall as Brian obtained a permit to cut felled trees and then borrowed a chain saw from the ship.  We added to our leftover wood pile from last year and now feel ready to keep the house warm as the temperatures drop.

The kids loved carrying and stacking wood.  Who knew?

This Halloween, Kate carved her entire pumpkin and we celebrated with yet three other families who have the older sister, younger brother combination.  The dads took the kids out while the moms sat under the propane heater drinking hot toddies and handing out candy to the 200+ trick-or-treaters who came by.

The kids are in a full sprint to get to the next house for more candy

Halloween was a clear night and not too chilly by our standards.  We woke up the next morning, however, to snow falling.  We got 6 inches!  It only lasted a couple days and now we're back to warmish and rainy weather, but we have pulled out our skis for the year and now everyone is waiting for more snow.

November 1
 First snow of the season

Entertaining Friends and Family

It's January 2015 and I am just finishing the summer posts.  I think some of the adventures were so epic and there are so many great photos that I found the task overwhelming.  Now, I'm ready to document a shortened version knowing the posts are stacking up.

During our trip to the lower 48, Brian was promoted to commander.  He had a short ceremony on the ship when we returned and now he walks with a limp he has so much hardware on one side.

Pinning on the new shoulder boards

We returned just in time to dip net the Kasilof River during the peak sockeye salmon run in mid-July.  In one day, we caught almost 30 fish.  Combined with the lingcod, rockfish, and halibut Brian caught on the boat as well as Kate's halibut, our freezer is filled to capacity.  We took last year's fish, smoked it, and tried our hand at canning.  It was a bit of a process but all went well.   I can't seem to motivate to try canned fish as I prefer thawing and grilling.  No photos as dip-netting is fast and furious.

Shortly after the fish were in the freezer, our first guest arrived.  We had 3 weeks of company starting with Brian's sister who arrived sans husband and children for a week of Alaska adventuring.  We did a lot of the same activities as last summer: tide-pooling, hiking meadows of fireweed, dining at amazing local restaurants, but we also stepped up the adventures with some overnight trips across the bay, glacier hikes, fishing, mussel picking, kayaking, and more.

Since the cabins were booked, we opted to stay in a yurt in Kachemak Bay State Park or what we call "across the bay."  The yurts lack some of the function and aesthetic of the cabins, but it's difficult to nit-pick what could only be described as ideal weather conditions.

Our yurt at Right Beach

Kids "swimming" in the bay

Ramen dinner on the beach

Auntie Jessica goes lumberjack

Cooking dinner on the fire

Kids climbing the rock formations at "Hawaii" beach

Getting ready for bed in the yurt

We used the ship's morale boat to get us across the bay.  Since there was no where to tie up or anchor the boat, Brian dropped us on the beach and tied up in Halibut Cove and then kayaked back to our yurt.  For the first time we brought a frozen fish filet that was perfectly thawed by the time we were ready to grill.  This is a huge departure from the ramen noodles and hot dogs we are accustomed to, although I confess, we did eat those too. We hiked to Grewingk glacier and laid in the sun at glacier lake while the kids built forts.

 View of Halibut Cove Lagoon from Saddle Trail

Picking watermelon berries along the Saddle Trail

Bear scat

Approaching Grewingk Glacier

James pulling ice out of the lake in his skivvies

Fort building

Fireweed and view to Halibut Cove on the return hike

Kate waiting for Brian to bring the boat around

When we left the next morning, we went to China Poot Bay hoping to snag some salmon. It was time consuming and we were unsuccessful, but we did see sea otters, seals, giant sea stars, flounders, and more.  We even picked mussels for dinner.

Boat ride to China Poot Bay

Seal swimming by bald eagle on shore

Mr Otter

Kate showing off a sea star

Sea star mania

Jessica and I picking mussels for dinner

At extreme low tides, these mussels beds are exposed.  The black patches are all mussels.

Seals on the beach

Jessica went across the bay again with Brian and some guys from the ship for a lesson in snagging. They were successful in catching pinks (the least desirable of the 5 species of Alaska salmon), but we grilled some to eat and canned the rest for use in dips later.

Jessica was also here to celebrate James's 5th birthday.  It was costume party with lots of super heroes and a bounce house.  So fun.

Wonder Woman, Clark Kent, Neon Army lacrosse player, Green Lantern, and the Tooth Fairy

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In the few days between visitors, I took the kids to Salmonstock, "a celebration of Alaskan wild salmon and the people who depend on them."  It's 3 days of fish, fun, and music at the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds.  We opted for a day trip as camping at a music festival with the kids seems daunting without Brian.  

Our little hippies hoopin' it up

During the day it wasn't too crowded and there was a small fry area full of kids activities. Salmonstock hosts artists in residence, several musical stages, amazing food, salmon education vendors, and lots of friends.  It was the sunniest and hottest day I've experienced here and we all went home with a sun burn to prove it.  Kate also participated in an action of art human aerial mosaic all in the name of protecting wild salmon. You can't make this stuff up.  

I actually think Kate is easy to find in her orange sweatshirt and legs wide (about 10 o'clock).  It was scorching hot, but Kate refused to take off her Alaska Grown sweatshirt lest she be mistaken for a tourist. 

In August two of my college roommates also came to visit.  Sonata, Drew, & baby Adelaide get the furthest traveled award for coming to Alaska from Liberia following a two year tour with the State Department.  They were lucky enough to leave just as the first Ebola case was discovered.  We did not venture across the bay for an overnight since we weren't sure how Adelaide would fare and more importantly the ship was out for most of their visit.  A round trip water taxi is $75 per person, so if Brian and the morale boat are not available, we stay in Homer.

We took all our guests on a creatures of the dock tour.

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 We hang upside down and find all sorts of crazy things living under there.

Adelaide does a good job of not falling in while Kate looks for Christmas anemones.

Kids showing off the salad they picked from our garden for dinner

Bishop's Beach

Tidepooling

Kate took to Adelaide and enjoyed mentoring her which was fascinating to me because I had no idea she had any patience or mothering instincts.  James was less sure that a smaller, cute child in our house was a good idea.  Really they were all very cute together and the visit was loads of fun.

This summer the Homer Brewery set up a little outdoor area and invited a variety of food trucks to serve food.  The fresh oysters are pretty popular.  I'm not even an oyster person, but they are small and sweet.

Unfortunately for Adrian, our final visitor, it rained 6 of 7 days that she was here.  That didn't stop us, however, from an overnight yurt adventure including hiking and berry picking in the rain, kayaking in Tutka bay, and picking fresh mussels to grill on the beach.

Raspberries on one hand, bear spray in the other

Blueberries

Adrian paddling back to the yurt

Morning fog in Tutka Bay

Campfire apple berry crisp

Waiting for the tide to come in and float our boat

 After packing up the yurt and heading out in mid morning, we stopped by The Saltry in Halibut Cove for some appetizers and a walk before heading home.

The Saltry

This guy was waiting for us when we tied up in Homer harbor

Adrian was also first to experience Nina and the Samovar Cafe in the Russian village of Nikolaevsk,  It was my first visit into one of the villages as well.  Aside from the church there is nothing else to mark the community.  Nina little restaurant is run mostly on a turf covered porch.  The place is covered in trinkets, some for sale, and features an extensive collection of Russian dresses and traditional Old Believer clothing that you can try on.  We had to work pretty hard to convince Nina we just wanted to eat and didn't want her to photograph us playing dress up on her porch.  The cafe is unique in that there is a menu but a lot of it is not available, and no matter what you want Nina will tell you what you will eat, when you will show up, and she even tells you how good the meal was.

James smiling that the he could have ice cream following the borscht

Adrian's only blue sky,sunny day

It was probably only 65, but James said he was burning up in the car, so he put on a suit and ripped off his shirt Hulk style.  We capped off our run of visitors with a Hobo Jim show.  He's known as the Alaska State Baladeer and is famous for playing his Iditarod song at the race start.  He plays in Homer every week in the summer, but it was our first time to see the show.  The kids had a blast clapping along to his folk style songs about fishing and living the Alaskan life.

Hobo Jim