Fishing and Beach Camping

Summer has been amazing here. great people and such awesome sunny warm weather. i am wearing sandals and dresses daily. Getting a tan, but no swimsuit wearing. My joke is you can tell an Alaskan woman if they have a halibut looking tummy. The bright white side of the fish....

So much fun stuff to do here, never a dull day. I am hardly home b/c its hard to be indoors after working indoors all day.

I went halibut fish on a charter for the first time and felt very sea sick for the first time. but i got 2 halibuts, which is the limit. They ain't no 100 pounders, but its all good. My arms were sore reeling in 250 feet.....I have yet to get salmon  though I tried to with a friend on a boat and that was fun and in the wrong river where they ain't running yet. Click here for those pix.

I also did my first tent camping this summer by the beach on the warmest beach day ever. no wind and no mosquitoes, a true miracle. So much to see walking on the beach. Click here for those pix. More fun coming soon. I am behind on my computer photo management :)

McCarthy & Kennecott Mining & Glaciers - 4th of July

Last week I had a nice long weekend. I headed to Anchorage to meet up with a friend who was going on her annual 4th f July McCarthy visit. About a 6-8 hr drive. Very nice with a glacier on the way. McCarthy is a small, mostly seasonal town way off the road system.

It reminded me of Talkeetna young people working hard and having fun too. Lots of history with the old copper mining town nearby. Lots of dogs running around. Lots of musicians and drinking and mosquitoes. Now I remember why I like living by the breezy beach in Homer!

I got to walk to a glacier and a little bit on it. Almost met Steven Tyler from Aerosmith but it was just his former tour manager and ex girlfriend, who is from AK, with her new bf so no Steven Tyler to be seen :(

Went inside a historical old leeching plant before the rangers boarded it up as it is about to collapse and go on my first glacier lake/river rafting in 37 degree water. Even with a dry suit, you feel that cold penetrate through and my feet still got wet. It was fun screaming at the water. I was a little nervous of popping out since I have not rafted since Costa Rica two winters ago where I almost did not make it out of the river....

One trip in 4 nights made 2 cool albums: McCarthy and glacier river rafting pix, click here. Pix of Kennecott mining and glacier hike, click here.  I plan to stay in Homer for the rest of July at least, try to get on a fishing boat, see a local burlesque show and who knows what else this busy town has in store for little old me!

June - Tutka Bay and Wedding

More and more i understand the phrase midnight sun. Not only is daylight still around by then but it was dreary all day and then around 9 the sunshine breaks out. totally throwing me off. instead of fighting it, I am working with the solar energy. sleeping late getting MY work done slowly. sigh. 

Earlier in June I got to visit Tutka Bay for kayaking, click here for those pix of oysters, barnacles and more. 

End of June I was invited to a wedding. I knew weddings in Homer would be interesting and could not miss out. It was a pagan wedding which I am sure has negative connotations to it but it's more earth based and anti-organized religion. Great creative family making their own dresses. The couple is in their young 20s but been together for years and very happy and loving. Click here for pix.   

Now June is complete, here's an album of random shots taken in June (eagles, clouds, fun town stuff) not listed in other albums. You can see that I have been a busy bee!

Happy 4th!
Rose

 

 

Seldovia Summer Soltice Music Festival

As I mentioned I am checking out as many music festivals locally and feasibly economically as possible for work. The music around here tends to be more on the folky/bluegrass side which ain't my thing. but i learned to appreciate talent when i hear it.

I was going to camp in Seldovia but due to weather i decided to stay with a friend i met through work stuff.

I still do not understand this small town. Lots of history:  "The Seldovia Village Tribe is a blend of Aleut, Yupik, Alutiiq and Athabascan peoples. In the 1850's Russian traders moved Aleuts and Alutiiqs from their homelands to a new fur buying/trading post established at Seldovia Bay, joining the Dena’ina (Athabascan) peoples that already inhabited the area. Following the American purchase of Alaska the official Russians moved away. Additional Native peoples and Northern Europeans came to Seldovia drawn by the rich marine resources".

Thing was I did not see many natives. The town was bigger back in the 50s before Homer got the main road to anchorage then Homer stopped needing Seldovia as a port. A walkable charming town, with some nearby hikes and beaches. I felt like I was more in AK and in Northern Exposure with the one bar in town, one main road, everyone knowing everyone. I thought Homer was small :)

The music was eclectic ranging from young pop girl to gospel African American lady with a set of pipes, to native guy with a little drum which a big heart (click here for video) and voice to orchestra rock band from Anchorage whom I have seen twice already and got to know and know have new friends in Anchorage.

The cool part was this small town was so easy to meet the musicians and talk to them for a while There were workshops and I met and actually made a halibut dinner for Si Kahn a long time community organizer from NC who is helping us fighting Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.  Please Click here to make a comment to the EPA by June 30th and for more info. It may seem just like an Alaskan issue but in this small world we are all connected and clean water and healthy wild salmon runs effects more than just AK. Thanks!

Overall I had a nice and peaceful time. Nice break from the busy big town of Homer. Click here for pix.

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.