End of the Road and Hoopin on a Mt Sunset Valcano

After my bday, I spent 4 nights in Homer then I head off to Seldovia, a small village across the bay, for 3 nights to check out the town and music festival. My work is partly about relationships and networking and I am trying to learn more about this interesting place I dwell and make sense of how to best do my job.

In the meantime in Homer, work has been just getting busier and busier as we come close to our end of July concert on the lawn. After work I always seem to manage talking about it at at home, with friends/the public, even when I don't bring it up. I leave work at 5 and get to explore the town area with friends since I ain't in Homer on the weekends much these days.

It's been not so easy being away every weekend, all the catch up at home to do. But can't complain about my adventures. Just wish I had more time to do all the things that interests me (long list) and chill with all the amazing friends I have (long list again). I hardly can catch up with my pdx/nyc friend anymore. I guess I need to marry rich so I can just volunteer vs working full time at a nonprofit :)

One night a friend and I took my friend Mary (who moved from  Cali to Anchorage to Homer) to the true End of the Road. Only about an hr drive but I never been down there. Waited till break up season was done. The road down to the sea was f'n scarey. But all new landscape and had a blast. click here for those pix.

Another night finally caught up with friend Kammi; we went up the mt to get more sun and some sunset views. We hooped in an open field, no one else in sight. It was grand. Just two girls giggling and having fun. Click here for those pix.

Bday retreat - Solitude

I survived my 3 days alone in the woods across the bay in a yurt. By 10pm I have not spoken to a soul in 12 hrs. No human communication in any form, that's what I wanted as it is so rare these days to have. Each day I saw or heard a kayak couple or hikers. Disappointed by this, I avoided them and did not say a word to them. I did not move to Alaska to be surrounded by people and technology and I had to go across the bay to try to beat the peeps. I think I ran away from the concrete world that I grew up in and that's one reason I am so in love with nature. 

I am pretty sure this was the most alone time I have ever had that I can remember. Good way to celebrate your bday as we were alone for the first nine months! Been meaning to do this for years. Did not even want to know if I got cell phone reception, did not check. It's funny how we humans tend to feel the need to camp, hike or travel with someone. Why are we so social Why do we not want to be alone for some moments? Especially now when you hardly have alone time? Best present i ever gave myself and will become an annual thing. A honeymoon by myself with myself.  I've always been intrigued by the mediation getaway, etc but never thought I could handle that so I guess I have come up with my own version.

Packed some books, paper and pen, just enough food for 3 days, water, box of fire wood, clothes and of course camera and some whiskey. That's it. I realized as i unpacked that I just brought enough meals and snacks. nothing extra. i could not believe i did that as I do snack every 2 hrs or so. i had to ration and plan my food to be safe. Then I found mussels not very filling but fun to harvest and tasty. I read a whole book and edited a few chapters of my travel book. Slow going. so painful as I am not great at this. I realized that I even at the beach I was writing in the present but right now I am looking at the past to post this blog for this to be published in the future.....Just like my travel book. I love writing in the moment, the rest is harder for me to get to.

Some highlights include: eagle greetings (the closest I have ever been and have been by company this weekend), beaches to myself, trees that remind me of Oregon, secret morning spot in moss, 2 eagles on a branch, early morning mt reflection, and my first yurt experience. I woke up to all sorts of birds but can only recognize the eagle calls and went to sleep with a roaring fire that I lit on my own and by my own feeling like an adult. The fire was more for light than heat and got it too feel like the start of a sauna. Can't beat that. If I was with someone I might not have heard the sound of the eagles' feathers in flight b/c I most likely would have been talking. Went for a hike first time this summer. Happy I can identity some AK plants within a year of living here.

Spoiled with warm and the nicest weather ever on my bday that I can remember. I never thought I would ever tan here, we have had a very unusually hot summer. I can't imagine how the true Alaskans are taking this heat. I am enjoying my multi tone color body. Feels like I am in L48 with this heat at times but the sun here is like nothing I have ever felt before. such a scorcher need to reapply sunscreen more often and feel the heat coming from my face after the day is done.

THANK YOU all for the bday wishes. You all make me smile and feel grateful! Click here for pix.

River Fishing and Sun!

More and more i understand the phrase midnight sun. not only is daylight still around by midnight but even on dreary days the sun appears around 9pm. totally throwing me off.  Instead of fighting it, i am working with the solar energy. sleeping late getting MY work done slowly (mainly blog and pix). sigh. 

It's such an extreme. In winter I could not stay past 8 and now I can stay past 1am! And I don't even drink tea these days my only source of caffeine. Summer is busier than I like it to be. The roads, the people I do not know, the airplane sounds over the beach and town. I need balance and this super action is more than I can take.

I also have a lot of weekend adventures planned which is cool. Some of it is for work and some is play and some is a mix. I pretty much think about work 24/7 right before i sleep and right when i awake. It's just so connected to everything it's hard not to. So I am trying to visit as many local festivals I can to do some market research and better understand this place I live in. My work puts on a 2 day concert which I have never done before and I am not much of a festival fan. Just don't like being around tons of people and out all day and night. so I am checking things out to to see how I can make our concert a more effective fundraiser since we pour so much time into it. 

So busy at work and on the personal front. never a dull second. Also we have had amazing weather. the best summer in 5 years i am told. its been above the average temp which is 60... so making up for last summer's windy, cool, cloudiness. I got a tan already. It's so keeping me from being in side after work. I hope this keeps up but you never know how quickly things change here. 

Well my bday is friday. 34 and I am going across the bay solo via a water taxi to stay at my first time in a yurt, first time in the woods alone for days, first time camping via boat. I need to break away for a bit and I am excited to spend my bday in the total opposite way than the past. 

click here for river fishing and more pix.

The end of May in Homer & Seward Kayak

May has been a chilly month. We had a super long spring with not much sun. Though it did not snow much this winter the snow lasted longer. Towards the very end of May we finally got some awesome sun and great low tides.

For memorial weekend a friend and I visited Seward. About a 4 hrs trip to another coastal town. Very similar to Homer but smaller with even cooler temps. I wanted to check out the scene and the glacier hike.
 
My friend also had friends with a kayak business so we got a good deal on a day trip. I could not help myself from comparing their bay to the bay in Homer. Though they have awesome mountains there's are taller and closer in, but we have a longer range.

It's an awesome scenic drive. And the train goes down there from Anchorage, which I imagine would be a beautiful ride. The nice part about going down now is the mountains are still white soon they will just be green.  On the way back we got a great spot with great reflections of the mountains from a lake still with ice. Felt like I was in heaven. It's been so nice being in the sun wearing sandals without socks and no jacket. If summer in Homer was just a tad warmer I would never leave :)

Cool pix of low tide, baby razor clams and the bay in May in Homer click here.

Click here for pix of kayak and road trip to Seward!

Birch Syrup Making and Waterfall by the Ocean

On May 5th I woke up at 7am. Could not go back to sleep and decided to text a friend to go to the end of the road to see the Russian village at the head of the bay. My friend says, "sure but first we need to collect and drop off some birch sap for a friend to process."

"Yeah, I'll go check that out." What a great start to a Sunday. Collecting the sap was way easier than expected. We walked around the property to the trees they drilled holes in with buckets under the tubing. There was not a ton of sap in the buckets. We poured them into one bucket and then poured it into a 100 gallon tank. Barely filling it.

On our drive over through major pot holes and bumpy dirt/mud holes, I thought hmmm maybe going to end of the road where there's a steep dicey switchback ain't the best thing to do during break up season. Living in town on paved roads I don't experience break up as much as others.


We delivered the goods and I got to see the beginning of the syrup process, documenting via pix (and video) and asking lots of questions as usual. The friend suggested we check out a waterfall 20 miles from town. It was a nice sunny day so I wanted to be out.

We hiked on snow which turned into mini rivers. Then had to hold on to a rope for dear life going down a muddy steep "trail" to the beach. I had no clue how slippery mud can be. My cheeks are the only part of my body exposed to sun here. It's kinda sad wearing gloves, hat, boots, wool sox, polar fleece, down coat and after a bit I still felt the wind in May!


I see sunny images of Hawaii and even freaking PDX on facebook. We may not have heat here, but I got the ocean views and an awesome town, surrounded by beauty, generous caring people and a job I finally truly enjoy and am proud of. Click here for pix. 

May Day and Art Burn!

May is off to an excellent start with my first time ever celebrating May day. I think peeps in Homer just like gatherings so much that we celebrate everything here :) Nice fire by the beach with words shared explaining that we are celebrating the fertility back to mother earth. Makes sense!

Two days later was my work's big fundraising day that I've been working on since March. It all went smoothly with lots of help from volunteers. Amazingly I was not stressed just tired from a long work week. I mad a few changes, additions to promotions, revamped training, and so on.

We did better than last Spring so I am happy with that and happy it went so well overall. It's funny b/c I never wanted to plan major work events and I have 3 a year to plan. But we have so much creative opportunities to grow and try new ideas that makes the whole experience fun and satisfying.

Right after ending the day I headed to the local art gallery that was hosting a cool bon fire on the beach for artists to burn there work. So many people out and about and two beach fires in 1 week. It was pretty seeing the art burn, kinda wished I could make something to burn.

It's kinda funny timing as this notion was done on an individual scale on Northern Exposure season 5, which I love to unwind to at night. But we had fire dancers and ended the evening with great sounds and singing by my roommate Heidijo's performance.

Three days in to May and I already filled up a photo album. Summer is going to be NUTS! stay tuned.

Birght Lights

In winter, I complained about driving in the pitch darkness and unable to see thee road. Now, I get to complain about driving in the brightness. The sun's glare is so strong and some parts still have snow adding to the bright light affect on my eyeballs. I do not even recognize familiar roads I have driven on. Now I see objects, mainly ancient cars that were hidden by the snow. That bright sun came out of nowhere. It just amazes me. We have now have about 16 hours of daylight.  April has been a chill but sunny month. I am like a reptile when that sun is got, basking in it when possible.


It's funny all the opposites that exists in AK. Homer has more winds by the ocean than cities like Anchoarage and Fairbanks. The good news is the wind deters the mosquitoes. I was puzzled about the fact that AK has so many mosquitoes. But now I think I get it. When all the snow melts, there's a lot of water. And they like still water..

I was told that Homer goes through three 3 stages: ice/snow up, brown up and green up. Right now we are in the brown up phase where we see all of nature's browness. It even smells brown. At first I thought it was all the moose poop, but it's all the wet soil stenching the air. But soon in just a matter of weeks it will all be green. The bare trees will have leaves. Just like how our weather changes drastically in a single day like the mountains, the seasons change with all this added sun light. My basil plants are booming by the window sill and I am loving eating from it.

Just a few nights ago, I had my scariest AK experience to date. On my way driving home at 11pm, sun had just set, so it was dark but not as dark at winter. I thought to myself man u just never know when there will be a moose around here or on the road. Need to go slow so I can stop if I see one on the road. then i see a young moose on the side of the road. ok, they are out, I thought to myself, go slow. two minutes later, a huge moose came darting from the side to the front of my truck, just a few feet a way. I was able to slow down just in time, my purse and bag flew off the seat. Just a reminder to go the speed limit and be extra alert at night. Heart beating fast, I say, holy shit, holy shit. thankfully the moose kept going. i missed him by a few inches. i can't forget the look in his eye. I pulled over to a spot by some mailboxes on the left to slow down my heart and settle back to drive home.

Random side note: I love it when Alaskans refer to the other states as America, like "Back in America" or, "He just got back from America" or "While visiting America..."..I think that's why I ended up here b/c I never identified fully with America. Click here for pix.