The Light is Back

So January was gray and uneventful. On February 1st we started our journey to California. I debated whether or not to include this trip in the blog but quickly realized vacationing in warm locations (or at least dreaming about them) is undoubtedly a part of our Alaska experience. I love that when people in Homer vacation they go big. It takes quite a bit of time and money to get out of Alaska, so once you're out you might as well stay a while. Our neighbors, with kids similar in age to ours, took their kids to Thailand for three weeks in January. The owners of our favorite restaurant closed up shop for the month of January and went to Belize with their young kids. A friend of Kate's leaves tomorrow for a kayak and camping trip in Mexico with her family. As you can imagine, I really identify with these adventurous travel types. Below: Homer airport before take off.

We went to California because the ship (and more importantly Brian) is in Long Beach for maintenance. Well Brian isn't there for maintenance, but you know what I mean. It took us three flights and an overnight in a hotel to get there, but the kids were great both directions. In six flights, there was only one 15 minute rough patch, but it was really rough. The entire row of seats in front of me got free wine, as did I, for dealing with James's massive meltdown and attempt to sabotage the flight at take off. I would do it again in a heartbeat though.

We spent the first week in Anaheim doing our due diligence as parents at Disney. I'm not sure I would have taken the initiative to go to Disney if the ship wasn't docked nearby and the beaches and air temps weren't so cool. Also, thank you to Disney parks for providing discounted tickets to military. It was a great trip made even better because we shared it with my parents. James surprised me with his desire to meet and hug characters while Kate focused her efforts on all things dark and creepy. Hollywood Tower of Terror (below) and the Haunted House were her favorite attractions. James really loved everything, but below he's taking on the Jellyfish Drop of Doom as we called it with Grandma and driving Mickey's car with Grandpa.

We spent the second week in Long Beach relaxing with Brian's parents. Since Brian and I lived in Long Beach years ago (holy shit we are getting old), we had a lot of fun walking, riding, and paddling (that's Brian below) around to our favorite spots.

Kate loved roller blading everywhere in town.

 

We ate an unhealthy amount of happy hour tacos, hit In-n-Out burger,

dusted off our old wet suits for a little surf (yeah it still fits me),

and even drove to Sea World San Diego (Thanks to Anheuser Busch for giving military free admission).

Enjoying Hodad's world famous burgers with Mimi and Pop Pop.

It was hard to leave Brian and the warmish days, but we were happy to arrive home and find the days in Homer almost 1.5 hours longer. In February, we were gaining 6 minutes of light every day. As I type this, we have just turned our clocks forward and now it is still light out when I put the kids to bed at 8pm. It's crazy.

The moose sightings are too numerous to count now. Almost daily we see them on our street, in our yard, holding up traffic in the road on the way to school, on the frozen lake, on the ski trails, and in the Radio Shack affiliate parking lot. That's right, the town is too small for a real Radio Shack, but there is a small store that is considered an authorized dealer. If I sound even remotely put off by the moose, I'm not. It never gets old for me. I am constantly taking photos, terrible ones I might add with my phone. This next one is of a mama and young yearling in our yard.

Here is another from the ski trail. As you can see we had to wait until we could tell the moose (left side of photo) was headed the other direction. Thankfully my friend's 6 month old golden retriever, captured on the right of this photo, is a good listener. He really wanted to go check out the moose, but we convinced him to stay with us.

Not too long after we got back Brian came home for a long weekend to celebrate Kate's 8th birthday. When the kids were in school, we went for a quick ski so I could show him what I've been up to for the two months that he's been enjoying the SoCal weather. I am afraid when the ship returns, the snow will be yucky and melting. The weather in late February and early March has been so great for skiing and sledding as it hovers in the mid to low 30s every day.

Here, Brian hit the ski trails (above) and the best sledding hill in town (below). The sledding hill is at the upper elementary school where Kate will go next year. Nice view of Kachemak Bay from the playground.

As I type this, it is spring break for the kids, so we've been filling our days with activities. Kate finished her Junior Nordic ski lessons last week, so we went for a real ski with a friend the other day. Can you believe the scenery? Here are Kate and Hazel skiing Sunset Loop.

We also hit the local gym's rock wall. This was an awesome experience for two reasons. First, Eve who was working the wall is half of our favorite couple from Alaska: The Last Frontier. So perhaps she is not living a completely self-sufficient life style if she is working kid climb time at the gym, but we loved meeting her and Kate even asked if she did real rock climbing while homesteading..."you know to hunt mountain goats and stuff?" The kids, especially Kate, is obsessed with the idea of homesteading. The only real application she enforces is turning off all the lights in the house, so we can hangout by candle light or with flashlights. The kids run around yelling "homesteading night!" while the microwave is heating up their hotdogs. Oh the irony. So, the second reason why the rock wall experience was so cool is that Kate, unbeknownst to us, is a phenomenal rock climber. Her legs are insanely long and lean and she's like a spider up there. She went to the top of the 3 story wall several times, trying a more difficult wall each time. I think we'll be back.

Kate putting her name on the ceiling.

Even B-man got to give it a go.

After months of requesting an opportunity, Kate (and I) finally volunteered at the local animal shelter during Spring Break. James hated the smell from the minute we walked in, so we had to find someone to watch him while we played with and petted mangy, stinky cats. Kate loved it and has her eyes set on walking dogs as well. We will be back for sure, but it will be easier when Brian is home.

We also tried out family karaoke night at a local restaurant and will definitely hit that again too. It was a hoot. Here are Kate and Birdman singing Wheels on the Bus. Check out the guy who runs the karaoke machine...for real y'all.

The ship is en route to Alaska and will make a stop or two to drop off buoys along the way. We hope to have Brian back by Easter. The three month trip went better than expected (for me anyway) and hopefully the ship won't have to take a trip that long again (not holding my breath). Our family situation is not, however, unusual for this community. There are so many husbands that travel for extended periods that no one thinks our situation strange. In addition to the 30 or so Coast Guard families that live here, we have met several friends whose husbands drive commercial ships, fish commercially, or work on the slope. I had several people tell me they "work on the slope" and I felt too silly to ask what that meant. I knew it had something to do with oil and being north, but that's about it. Most slope workers are engineers employed by BP, Exxon Mobile, or Conoco Philips in Prudhoe Bay, north of the Artic Circle. It is the largest oil field in North America. Their schedule is 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. They can live anywhere in Alaska (not sure if they can live elsewhere?) and they are flown up to the slope for their two weeks and then back again for their time off.

Side bar: Alaska is rich in oil but has no refineries. I paid $4.30 a gallon to fill up today. Thankfully, the town is small, and I can't even remember the last time I filled up.

Another friend drives for the Alaska Marine Highway system and has the same 2 weeks on/off schedule. Our neighbor who set net fishes in Prince William Sound (out of Valdez) is gearing up to leave in a few weeks to start maintenance on the boat before the start of the season. I hope to do a future blog post on the fishing, but obviously need to make it through the spring and summer first. I have a lot to learn. I hear Homer is just women in the summer as so many men are commercial fisherman. For me, I like knowing that it's not akward to show up to a dinner party unaccompanied, and that it's okay to tack myself on as the third wheel to another couple's date night (if you can stomach that term) because almost everybody in town is in a similar situation. Off the top of my head, I can only think of three families that have both parents living and working in town year round. Mind you I don't know everybody...yet. Small town.

 

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Happy New Year!

2013 in Homer begins with a ban on plastic bags. It's a trend that over 50 communities across the US have taken on. Bravo. Produce bags, trash bags, and a few other exceptions are excluded from the ban. I kind of feel like they should just go whole hog, but then again I am glad trash bags are still okay since trash pick up doesn't exist here. We drive our trash to the dump and sort our recyclables when we get there. It's an onerous task, but at least we get to spend time with a national symbol, the bald eagle. Why on earth we would put a trash bird on our national seal and more is beyond me. I am also sorry that James is deprived of trash day, a beloved day in any toddler household. Don't all little boys get fired up to see the truck come down the street?

Photos taken at the dump with my phone.

We had a very white Christmas when it started snowing December 23rd and didn't stop until we had over two feet by Christmas Day.

Christmas morning sunrise.

Immediately after Kate opened it, James yelled, "Kate you'll shoot your eye out!" Proud moment.

 

This is what Christmas Day should look like (unless of course you have the opportunity to go to Hawaii).

 

Before we left Connecticut, Brian sold the sailboat (boo) and bought 4-wheelers (boo), but one does have a snow plow on the front.

I'll admit it was a little fun to drive, but in the end it seems more complicated than it should be, so we are now the proud owner of a snowblower as well. Maybe we can off load some of the gear in the summer.

Good thing the kids played in the snow all day because it started raining the day after Christmas and it didn't seem to stop for weeks. They were sad to see all their snow creations shrink everyday from more rain.

Kate in her igloo and James trying out snow shoes.

It was gray skies, sloppy puddles, wet basements, and buckling roads for the next couple weeks. I am choosing not to focus on this because the blog is supposed to be all positive and adventure adventure. I am, however, dabbling in light therapy to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder. Not sure if I need it, but it seems wise to be proactive aobut it. The Mayo clinic tells me,

The light from a light box mimics outdoor light. This is thought to cause a chemical

change in the brain that lifts your mood and eases other symptoms of seasonal

affective disorder. Light therapy can also be used to help adjust daily sleep cycles,

which may play a role in mood.

If I am not plowing snow and soaking up fake sun, I am splitting wood. Pretty soon I'll buy a red and black plaid shirt and you won't be able to tell me apart from Dick Proenneke. That's baloney, but it's my blog and if I want it to sound like I'm roughing it with my running hot water, proximity to Safeway, and gas furnace to back up the wood stove then I will.

Before leaving for California, Hickory was sent out to assist Shell's oil rig the Kulluk as it broke free from its tug in hurricane conditions. Three tugs attempted to tow within the days that followed, all with the same result. Brian's account of the weather was horrifying to say the least. All crew members were air lifted off by the Coast Guard before the rig ran aground. The rig has recently been pulled off the rocks and towed to Kodiak following the storms.

I realize I may not have mentioned that our dog Jessie gets underway with Brian. She is a hunting dog and loves having a job or at least loves being at Brian's side with the prospect of having a job.

Jessie supervises the buoy deck.

Not only does Jessie get excited to get onboard, but Brian loves the company. The only downside is trying to get her to pee and poop outside in 20-30 foot seas.

So the winter vacation was a bit rainy and blah, but we did make little trek to Nikiski, a small town on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula. They have a large community recreation center with pool and waterslide that we wanted to check out. It seemed strange that such a small town would have this until we passed the Conoco-Philips plant on the way in. Surely the town required the company to invest in the community. It was a little over two hours for us, but we traveled with friends and the kids loved the warm indoor pool on a snowy day. There were at least 4 roadside moose sitings along the way. I still love it. These guys are just laying in the snow.

Once the kids were back in school and in a routine, I went for my first Nordic ski since our class ended in December. It was the first blue sky in weeks. After dropping our sons off at preschool, a friend and I skiied a 5k loop. A huge snowshoe hare bounded across the trail as we started off. There were quite a few ups and downs making for great fun, exercise, and views of the rising sun.

Skiing the Homstead Trail

We had so much fun skiing that we decided, against all better judgement, to take the kids on a night ski a few days later. The ski club lit a 2.7km trail with several hundred tiki torches. It was mid 30s and no wind, so we couldn't ask for better weather, but Friday evening often equals tired children. None of the kids had been Nordic skiing, but we promised them hot chocolate at the end and cool experience along the way.

We all donned head lamps and set out. I cannot tell you how stupid this idea was as the trail went down hill to start. Once you got to the bottom you were pretty much committed to doing the loop even if it was past bedtime.

Kate and James were not only troopers, but I would venture to say heros. Kate took to it immediately. She loved the downhilll parts and helped her friend overcome some fears. James just plodded along talking about hot chocolate and cheering on Team K to the finish line. I was amazed. James walked the uphill at the end and of course took a few breaks to lie in the snow, but it was awesome. He didn't even mind when we finished and all the hot chocolate was gone. There was, however, hot Tang (weird). The kids put snow in it to make snow cones because we were all actually quite hot from the work out. Both kids fell asleep on the drive home. I carried them to their beds and dropped them on their pillows. It was the easiest bedtime routine I've had in months.

I'll end with a photo of a moose peaking in our neighbor's window. It's not very clear, but you can see his legs and how close he is to the house. This was taken from my car window on the way to the Tiki Ski.

 

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Winter is Upon Us

It's the Winter Soltice today and the first day of winter break for the kids. We haven't started our chanting or drumming yet, but I'm sure we'll have time to fit it in and probably a few venues to choose from around here. Sunrise is 10:05am this morning and sunset is 4:04pm. As I am typing this, it is 9:11am and the mountains are illuminated from behind and the sky is a fabulous dark blue. I'm not keeping up with the blog as much as I had hoped, but I've decided getting it down is more important than formatting and looking for just the right photo etc. Here goes the report for the last six weeks or so...

November started off with the Homer Ski Swap. This was a much talked about event and supposedly a great way to pick up used ski gear. We make a mental note of the kids' shoe sizes and head in to the Homer High School common area. The first table was the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club, so we sign ourselves up for a family membership and Kate for the Junior Ski Club lessons that begin in January. Lessons come with skis, so now we just need to pick up boots and poles for her. This is great....and then overwhelming. I am stopping at various tables and looking for ladies size 9 ski boots etc. I am always met with the same question:

"Well, what kind of skiing do you do?"

"I want to learn to cross-country ski." (Always referred to as Nordic skiing. I've got it now.)

"Do you skate ski or classic ski?"

"I don't know, but I wear a size 9."

"Well do you want to tour or back country?

"Size 9?"

Perhaps I should just rent from the shop in town until I get a clue.

We buy cookies from the bake sale table and high tail it of there with no more knowledge than when we entered. Kate is beaming with skis on her shoulder and James is in tears because he doesn't have skis and is not in the Ski Club.

Things look up on the ski front when we decide to go to Anchorage for Thanksgiving. We make the trip in part because Brian is here, we have four days, and the roads are clear, but also because we have no other Thanksgiving plans. Cooking the full turkey dinner with bells and whistles for 4 doesn't seem like fun, especially knowing that 2 of the 4 of us will only eat cranberry sauce and pie. There is not much snow to speak of in Anchorage, but enough for a few downhill slopes to be open. I'm not sure why I am determined that our kids learn to ski, but I feel it's important. Maybe it's because I didn't learn until I was in college. My skills are pretty much non-existent and I've only been a few times, but somehow I have decided it's something we can do together as a family our whole lives. I have two college friends who have been skiing since they were little and have been taking ski trips with their dads ever since (shout out to Dr Kate & Judge Lane and Adrian & Norman (I know it's Dr Sas (no disrespect)). You guys have inspired me. It's such a cool thing to do together...family, travel, sport, and the great outdoors!

Driving the Sterling Hwy to Anchorage with a near full moon (above).

The sun is setting as we reach Turnagain Arm just outside the city (below). This is taken from the car window and the sky really does turn that incredible blue.

The dashboard thermometer registered 10 degrees when we rolled in to town at 5pm, and there was a line outside Sears. They still had five hours to go waiting outside for their... TVs? Washer/Dryer sets? That's commitment. We would have arrived earlier if we did not stay until the bitter end of the Lions's Thanksgiving loss. C'mon guys...you were so close to winning AGAIN!


Anchorage also has Target, Play-It-Again Sports, and every other chain store we might "need" to visit before Christmas. I've never been out shopping for Black Friday. I guess I lack the drive to navigate the crowds and I hate getting up early. I do, however, think that Black Friday shoppers in Alaska are much more devoted than their counterparts in the lower 48.

Tangent: People here refer to the lower 48 as if it's one state. I do this often when I talk about New England, but somehow that seems legit to me. If someone says they are heading to the lower 48 for the holidays that leaves a great deal ambiguity as to where they are going.

We stayed at the joint Army/Airforce base in Anchorage. When there is space available, we can stay in their furnished apartments for a very reasonable price. Having a bedroom or two where we can put the kids to bed early and a kitchen makes for better sleeping than the four of us in a standard hotel room. We can shop at the Commissary on base and load up on groceries and drug store supplies. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant/cafeteria on base. Unfortunately, the stuffing and pumpkin pie ran out just before we arrived. Those are the only items I care about, so in the end I probably will make a Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us at a later date.

We spent the next couple of days wearing out the kids and shopping for winter gear like used skis and snow shoes. Kate and James both took a downhill ski lesson. Kate spend 1/2 hour on the bunny hill and then was ready to head up on the lift. We could hear James badgering his instructor to take him on the big swing with Kate. Brian and I almost fell over 15 minutes later when the instructor said he was ready to go up (or he just lost an arugment with a 3 year old). But he went up and came back down and loved it. Kate wanted more, so Brian rented some gear and skied a couple more hours with her.

The kids spent the next day jumping their little hearts out at Bouncin Bears while Brian and I took turns shopping. On our next trip to Anchorage we will drive directly here so the kids can jump after the car ride. We did pay them $1 and a piece of chocolate for every hour of good car behavior on the trip. I don't care how ridiculous it sounds, I'm not above good old fashioned bribery for my sanity in the car. I often feel like the Griswold's on any road trip except Kate and James argue more than Audrey and Russ.

Even Brian and I got in some jumping and sliding.

The morning before we left, we hit a sports bar in town to have breakfast and watch the Michigan v. Ohio State game. We were pleased to walk in to a bar full of Michigan alumni complete with inflatable wolverine and maze and blue decorations everywhere.

With a $10 in singles, a bag of Hersey kisses, a DVD player, and the iPad, the drive home went well. The best part was running into a mess of Dall sheep hanging out in the rocky, mountains of Turnagain Arm driving out of Anchorage. Why do I never have my good camera? Like all photos in this post, these were taken with my phone.

I stuck my face in here as proof that I'm not stealing these photos from the interweb. This was a band of male sheep (we saw at least 8).

We also saw a few moose on the side of the road as we got closer to homer. This is only my second moose sighting so still exciting.

The sun was setting in Cook Inlet as we drove down the Kenai Peninsula. This is Mount Redoubt.

 

A dusting of snow and a bit of rain mixed with cold temperatures equals a town full of ice. Our driveway is a sheet of ice. Now I know why everyone here was blathering about their studded tires as soon as the first snow hit in October. Thankfully, I followed suit and bought studded tires for my car. I am happy to report the Subaru is driving well on the ice. My new boots appear to have a lot of tread, but it must be purely fashion tread. I looked like Benny Hill in the parking lot of James's preschool trying to get from one side of the car to the other. I let myself slide to the back of the car, but could not take a single step up the very mild incline to get around to the other side. Finally, I lunged for the bumper and held on the the underside of the car, scooting around like a 3 year old does on the edge of a pool.

Future embarassing and potentially hazardous incidents have been mitigated with a pair of ice cleats that stretch overy my shoes. I keep them in the door of my car. It's no surprise that Kate thinks the ice is cool. She has been putting on her skates after school and skating around the driveway.

Not only is Homer filled with interesting people, but extremely friendly people. As I've said before this is our ninth move and I do think it is a bit easier to meet people with school aged children, but still the peope here stand out as genuinely friendly. A girl I met one time at the gym invited us to her Christmas party where Santa would be arriving by helicopter to hand out presents to all the kids. She lives "up the hill," about 4-5 miles up and outside of town. There are breathtaking views and abundant snow up there for anyone willing to brave the drive throughout the winter. The dusting and rain that turned our driveway to into a skate pond left just enough snow up the hill for the kids to sled at the party while waiting for Santa to circle around. The helo landed on their hot tub deck and Santa came inside to pass out toys. It was the coolest.

December was also the start of our classic ski lessons. Classic Nordic = what anyone else would call cross country. There are over 75 miles of groomed Nordic ski trails in Homer. The town is crazy about skiing. The Women's Nordic Club has organized workouts twice a day six times a week. There are organized night ski outings with tiki torches, races, and more. The ski community is also very inviting. There are many highly competitive racers, but they still invite us to ski and seem to take pride in the number of people who use the trails. Our first lesson was at a resevoir since there was not enough snow for any of the trails. Although well frozen, warmer temperatures early in the week made the frozen water groan and echo. At first, I thought the ice fisherman across the way had bass thumping music coming from their tent. It was a little eerie. Despite cold toes (toe warmers are a must for me in the future) the lesson was great. Our instructor was a retired Humanities Professor and local artist.

We ran into Atz Kilcher again skiing on the resevoir. He stopped to chat with our group and again I failed to get a photo. The Last Frontier show is a bit overly dramatic and staged, but I have to admit I still love watching it.

Each week, we would ski a new spot. Week two was a small loop (3 kilometers) at the top of the hill with some breathtaking views of Kachemak Bay. There were more downhills than I would have thought and it was a lot of fun.

Week three we tried skiing in groomed tracks. This felt a lot more like the Nordic Track at the gym. There was a 2-3 kilometer, relatively flat loop with tracks (used by our class) and also a very technical course with lots of valleys. It is the home course is used by the high school Nordic team. Although my skill level is not there yet it is kind of my goal now. I have no idea how to get up such a steep hill on skis...yet. Hopefully I'll be able to try it out at some point. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from either week two or three because it was unseasonable cold (or at least I hope it was), and it's quite difficult to get your mittens and poles off to get the camera out.

We returned to the resevoir later to cut down a tree for Christmas. Alaska opens up most state forests for tree cutting (one per family, cut by hand) between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most of the evergreens here are tall and very skinny.

 

I thought it would be cool to have a sparse, Charlie Brown-esque tree, but Brian was determined to find a full one, and he did.

`

Nice looking tree! We are ready for the holiday to begin!

 

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