Hickory Returns

Daddy's back...back again. Daddy's back...tell a friend. Daddy's back Daddy's back do do doot.

We've been singing this song for years and must thank Eminem for the Slim Shady tune that we love so much. Hickory pulled into home port October 24. They were out for 7 weeks this summer, back for 3 weeks and then out for 8 more. It goes without saying that we are glad the ship is back.

Both the kids were in school when the ship pulled in, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and started snapping pictures. It was just after 9am and the sun was still rising. The late sunrise has turned out to be an unanticipated bonus for me as I am not an early riser. I get the watch the sun rise and set behind the mountains everyday. It never gets old.

I realize the days are getting shorter, but sunrise just after 9am and sunset at 6:30pm is not so bad. So, the ship spun around and tied up at the end of the Homer spit. The spit is a very thin, 5 mile strip of land that juts out into Katchemak Bay. The Homer boat harbor is at the end of the spit along with all the deep water docks.

Docked behind Hickory is the oil rig Endeavor. It arrived in Homer in mid-September for a two week stay, but they are still here updating structural components, trying to secure permits to drill in Cook Inlet, and generally making Homer residents hot and bothered. Understandably, drilling for oil is heavily debated around here.

Three days after the Hickory pulled in, my parents arrived. My dad should get some special award for coming to Alaska twice in a three month time span. Not sure if it's the grand kids or the fish that's got him hooked.

Brian's parents spent a half day charter fishing during their visit in September and they packed our freezer with halibut for the winter. It's so tasty and I feel lucky to be in the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World because I don't particularly care for salmon. I keep trying it in all its forms though. Several neighbors and new friends have given us smoked, canned salmon as a welcome gift. One jar was canned with jalapenos and it was my favorite thus far, excepting the salmon bagel sandwich from the Farmers Market (unbelievably delicious).

So my parents we lucky enough to be here for Kenai Peninsula's famous Haunted Hickory. Brian's ship has been turning itself into a haunted house for the community for well over 10 years. I walked through with a group that drove 2 hours to see it. The ship collects canned goods in exchange for a tour and stocks the local food pantry for the winter. This year, there were over 700 people who came through and 2200 lbs of food collected. Kate has been talking haunted hickory for weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the PG tour given during the first hour for kids. James not so much. He bailed after a few minutes. It's near impossible to take photos in a black room with a strobe light, so I tried to take a picture of the pier as people started to line up and the crew was lighting 55 gallon drums to warm and light up the pier.

The sunset was a bit ominous looking that night as well. It was very cloudly so the sky was dark except this small space on the water where the sunset was burning through. This photo was taken with my phone so I couldn't capture the outline of the mountains that we could see in the orange sky.

Halloween was the next day and thankfully the neighbor's tipped us off that our neighborhood is THE place to trick or treat. We had somewhere between 200 and 300 trick or treaters. It was very fun and also a bit hazardous as the streets were crowded with kids and cars as most everyone drove from rural areas.

Carving pumpkins with Grandma

Trick or treating in the snow

This month James has also started doing a half day a week at Yurt Preschool. A yurt is a wooden platform round tent. There is usually a window a the top to let in light and let out smoke from the wood stove. They are pretty popular in Alaska as temporary or permanent dwellings.

This yurt is loosely connected to a woman's house and is used for tumbling classes and preschool. I think it will be a perfect compliment to James's other preschool. One is overly religious and academic for a 3 year old while the other promises to be non-academic, has a trapeze, and marimbas (of course).

The inside of the yurt is crazy good times. James's new schedule also allows me to get to a gym class at least once a week. Once a week is better than nothing.

This month has also been good for celebrity sitings. We saw Atz Kilcher from Alaska: The Last Frontier at the coffee shop. Much to my dismay he did not ride his horse into town and barter for his coffee. For all its ridiculousness, I will continue to watch the show though. Brian and I went also to the world premier of The Alaska Sessions, a local surfing documentary.

We've always enjoyed surf films, but it was even more fun in a packed theatre where the film maker and the cast of characters are all locals. The surf around here is surprisingly good (if you have a very thick wet suit). We haven't tried it yet, but I feel like I might give it a go sometime within the 3 years we are here. I can pretty much guarantee Brian will do it. Cast members included that guy from the Farmers Market that we like to talk to and buy stuff from and a girl from my gym class. Here is a brief description of the film and a link for clips and photos.

Mr. McCune sells his house and buys and old fishing boat to embark on an epic surf

adventure. He and his eclectic crew travel up the isolated Alaskan coastline in the

dead of winter. It’s cold, it’s dark, and these guys aren’t exactly pro-surfers,

but in the words of one crew-member, “when your stoke is hot, you can endure a lot.”

To see more check out www.alaskasessions.com.

 

We have also started watching a show called Buying Alaska, essentially House Hunters in Alaska. Most of the house searches have taken place in and around Homer. One of the home buyers checked my parents luggage on their outbound flight to Anchorage yesterday and we bought our lawn mower from a featured home. I find the "celebrity" sitings are much more interesting here than they were living outside of LA. Small town for sure.

 

 

 

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First Snow

I think October 16 is early for snow even for Homer, Alaska. Thankfully we got a few inches, so the kids could play in it (and eat it) before heading off to school. Not sure why kids love to eat snow so much, but I've pretty much given up trying to stop them. Before admitting defeat, I showed them where the neighbor's dog pooped in our yard thinking that would surely deter them. They both agreed not to eat that snow, but the rest was fair game as far as they were concerned. We still had a few lingering raspberries on the the vine, so they picked the raspberries, mashed them into a bowl with some snow and proceeded to eat it with spoons.

The sky was so overcast that that we couldn't see the mountains or water, so I took a picture looking North. It was spectacular and a good reminder that there is more to look at than just the mountains.

Snow = sledding, so obviously we gave that a go. It was very muddy since the ground is not completely frozen yet, but an insanely fun time nonetheless. As the temperatures droppped and things started to freeze, Kate could not wait to get on her ice skates. We bought her the skates in May when we told her we were moving to Alaska (that seems like a year ago now), and she has been waiting to test them out ever since.

This is frozen mud in the cul-de-sac in front of our house, but she really couldn't wait. The next day we headed to the ice rink for a quick lesson.

Birdman said he had fun too, so we hope to try it again next weekend. I actually had a preview of the ice arena Friday night when I joined the Homer Broomball League. It was the first time I've had a sitter and been out after dark in months. It felt great to chug a beer and hang out with adults not to mention try a new sport and get some exercise. Broomball is a bit like hockey, but you wear shoes and run on the ice. The ball is a little softer and larger than a softball, and you're allowed to kick it (good for me and my soccer mentality). You are also allowed to bat it down with your hands (who knew). Ultimately though everyone uses their broom (stick with rubber wedge on it) the majority of the time.

Since I was hoping to meet friends and hang out, I left the camera at home, but took a quick photo before leaving the house.

Our new love of ice sports continued today when the kids made up their own hockey game on our frozen mud pond using sticks and a smashed tin can.

 

Our fall has been busy exploring even before the snow started to fall. We've spent quite a bit of time at the city's new park. The Homer community came together and built the park in 7 days last spring.

Of course the park comes complete with Marimbas (above) and a million dollar view (below).

We were unable to find a play structure for our yard before the cold weather set in, but Kate doesn't seem to mind. You can find her on our little swing any time of day and in any weather.

Kate has joined Girl Scouts and I would imagine the Alaska Girl Scouts to be crazy tough and cool. She earned her first badge doing beach clean up. Her stretch of Bishop's Beach was quite beautiful.

It took a good 15 minutes to even find a piece of trash. The 50 foot tidal range makes for wonderfully wide beaches at low tide. After hunting around the sticks and kelp at the high tide mark, the girls were able to find some styrofoam, bottles caps, plastic wrappers etc, but it was still a pretty small haul.

James and I have spent a few mornings on the same beach enjoying coffee and the view.

We even manage to get in a few planks here and there to keep us fit. Well, James does anyway.

This fall, I was lucky enough to accompany Kate's class on a field trip to Beluga Lake in town. The lake is used for float planes in the summer and fall and I hear there will ice skating and car racing (?) in the winter. The class tried a little pond dipping and we walked through the slough, a tidal, muddy marsh connecting the lake to Kachemak Bay.

We've also spent time at the local Pratt Museum learning about homesteading, walking their trails,

and feeding the fish.

Hickory is on it's way home, so undoubtedly my next post will include activities with Brian. I think if he wrote a blog it would be mad interesting. Their most recent trip was to remove, replace, and maintain buoys, but also included watching the crab boats leave Dutch Harbor for the start of crabbing season on Oct 15, searching for a fisherman that went overboard setting a cod pot, and rescuing the crew of a downed helicopter from a beach with grizzly bear in site. And that's just what I've heard about through our brief email connection. James loves to hear stories about Brian and Hickory boat. He was running man zebra overboard drills the other day during his "rest" time.

The kids are beyond ready to see Brian and could use some real rough-housing. Today we went on a nature walk with some friends in the morning and the kids could not stop with the pig pile.

 

 

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Seward

Seward looks pretty close to Homer on a map, but the Kenai Mountains and Harding Ice Field prevent a direct route. Brian's boat had to go to Seward for emergency repairs, so we took the opportunity to go visit him and see the town. It is still only a 3.5 drive, so not bad if the children keep their hands to themselves. Side of the road pit stops are common with James, but when they look like this, I don't mind. Glacier fed Kenai river, home of world class salmon fishing and toddler pissing.

Brian's parents traveled to Seward with us, It's almost comical because I can't even count the number of times they have come to visit and Brian's schedule has changed and they miss him completely. This particular trip was even more of a clusterf##% as they had planned for a relaxing 5 day trip on the Alaska Marine Hwy with Brian as he traveled with our car and dog from Seattle to the Kenai peninsula. The emergency repairs to the ship trumped the shipment of our car. If it wasn't for Chick and Pat, our dog and car would still be in Seattle. I do love that they will roll into our driveway with huge smiles on their faces after caring for and cleaning up after our dog during a 5 day ferry ride followed by a 4 hour drive in my car that smelled 50% dog kennel and 50% vomit.

Needless to say we were all happy to visit Seward and Brian. We planned for a day trip into Prince William Sound to see the Kenai National Fjords and all the wildlife and calving glaciers it has to offer. Unfortunately, the rain set in a day after we arrived turning the visibility to nil. We canceled on the boat trip (I must try again next summer) and forged on with our plans for the Sea Life Center and a quick hike to Exit Glacier. I have no photos of the Sea Life center, a relatively cool aquarium, because I was chasing James the entire time.

I did manage to get a few photos of Exit Glacier with my phone or point and shoot camera. Although is was mid-September and I had been in Alaska for one month, I still had not unzipped my new camera. It was rainy and I was still too scared.

This glacier is extremely accessible because it's only 1/2 mile from a parking spot. This made a very doable, round trip hike for the kids.

There is a chalkboard at the trailhead for hikers to note wildlife seen along the trail. There was a black bear spotted the day before, so we were all on alert.

The edge of the glacier is marked every year and it is amazing to see how much the glacier retreats each year as it continues to melt.

As we hiked back from the glacier the views seemed to be even more spectacular.

 

As it was still raining nonstop on day three, we went for a diner breakfast and quick drive. The diner was in an old train car (Seward is the start of a rail line into Alaska's interior). Oddly enough, the Train Wreck favored New Orleans jazz and zydeco music for breakfast. I enjoyed it.

We let James take a few photos.

Bacon

After breakfast the sky seemed to clear up a bit, so we walked through the harbor.

By the time I was ready to pull out of town, I could see blue sky and the mountains head straight up from the road. They were there all weekend, we just couldn't see them.

Of course, we never tire of watching silly otters feasting on clams.

I was happy for the break in the weather so I could drive home. This is where I had the ephinany to start blogging. The blue sky was a quick phenomenon as the rains started up again that night. A week later, the only road to Seward was closed due to flooding and the bridge pictured below collapsed.

The entire Kenai peninsula was declared a state of emergency. We took on water in our basement, very annoying since we still had many unpacked boxes sitting down there, but Homer was much better off than Seward. Again, I am trying to keep it in perspective. I know excessive rain beats a tsunami or earthquake. I have all my brochures on how to prepare for both disasters, but I still haven't stock piled batteries, water, etc for what is potentially a not so unlikely event here. Who knew the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire extended all the way to Alaska?

 

At the diner we all passed around paper and wrote a poem together about Seward:

In a train between the mountains and the sea, we see snow. It looks like marshmallows.

It is fall and yellow and red and orange mixes with all the green!

But the clouds fall slowly down the mountain, covering everything in white.

We see snow and smell rain.

 

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