Karen Hornaday Park-HoPP Playground Build

One of the things that continually impresses me about Homer is the number of talented people and the generosity with which they share those talents.  Those things came through so clearly in the past year as the Homer Playground Project (HoPP) grew from an idea into a finished product, fueled by so many dedicated folks.

Our kids are past playground age, so when we heard about the HoPP request for kids' input for a new playground, we didn't make it a priority to get there.  In some places I would expect to hear about such input, but the idea might just fizzle and die or take years to come to fruition.  I couldn't say exactly, but it doesn't seem like they've been working on this project for more than a year.  The organization needed to raise over $200,000, a goal which they ended up exceeding by quite a bit. They sold engraved fencing ($50/slat), wrote grants and fundraised to make it all happen.

This week was "Build Week".  From Sunday last week through Sunday (today), hundreds of community members volunteered thousands of combined hours.  Shifts ran from 8-12:30 and 12:30-5 each day, with food and drinks galore provided for those who showed up, as well as entering volunteers into drawings for each shift they worked for a chance to win massages, meals and other cool things.

Many tents were erected for food, tools, saws, and more

The day before the build began, Troop 555 Boys Scouts erected a 1000 foot orange fence marking the construction zone.  No kids under the age of 14 would be allowed in the construction zone.  However, there were still activities youth could do, and some teachers brought their classes to the HoPP build site for their end-of-the-schoolyear field trip (Wednesday was the last day of school).  Tasks for the kids included soaping bolts to make them go in easier.  When adults volunteered they were separated into skilled or unskilled:  if you could cut a straight line with a Skil saw you were considered skilled.  Unskilled adults were put to work digging, raking, painting and whatever else needed doing.

When I arrived on the site to volunteer today I signed a waiver, got a duct tape name badge, got a safety orientation, was given gloves and led to the site by a safety personnel who would hand us off to one of the foremen who were assigning tasks.  I ended up helping 2 other folks dig the holes for a bench.  It was a messy affair but it did eventually get done!

An 'artsy' touch

When Douglas arrived at the build site at 10:30 this morning he thought to himself, "There is no way they're going to have this done by 5:30 for the grand opening!"  But he left at 2 and we came back at 6 for the food, music and grand opening, and it was indeed mostly done!  There was a bit more gravel to put down for the walkway around the structure and painting, but overall, it was done, from the slide, the water sluice, swings and the main structure.  Amazing!

For me the funniest part of this playground is how 'artsy' it is.  There are so many stylish additions, courtesy of our very talented, artistic Homerites (oops, I guess we're called Homeroids now!).  The biggest bummer is that my kids are past playground age, but this is an awesome addition to our community and something it has sorely needed so I am so glad it happened and I got to be a small part of the process.

And if you want to know more about it, check out the HoPP website at http://www.homerplaygroundproject.org/.

Oiler Field-Kenai

Wasilla vs. Kenai on Oiler Field in Kenai

Baseball is not one of my favorite sports, but I certainly felt immersed in it the past few days.  Douglas was on the Board of Control for baseball regionals this year, meaning that if there were any disputes, he and the other BOC members would make the ruling.  Thus, he had to stay close to the fields Thursday, Friday and Saturday as the eight teams in the region sought the title.  Part of the reason Kenai was able to host the regional games is because they have a semi-pro baseball league and field, the Kenai Oilers.  The field is just down the road past Kenai Middle School, and I'd walked by it before as I checked out  the disc golf course trails adjacent the stadium.

The parking lot is gravel, the concession stands and ticket booth typically old, worn wooden buildings, and the box seats in the stadium were comfortable, though worn.    I'm always a little startled when I come across places like Oiler Field--they are so out of my normal activities, yet they are one more thing that add to the quality of life/entertainment for people living in the area.  It also made me a little sad going to these games because there were so few spectators.  Even the boroughs track meet a few weeks back got more spectators than a regional baseball game.

The Oiler Field Stadium in Kenai

While I'm not a baseball fan, I can still appreciate the athleticism of these boys, as some of the games we watched were exciting, including a 3-hour nailbiter of Homer vs. Houston (Alaska).  I wanted to blog about this because it is yet another cog in life in Alaska.

Sweeping Parking Lots

Finding good fundraisers for sports teams and other groups is a huge deal in Homer.  The high school teams must raise $100,000 a year in travel expenses, on top of regular fees and out-of-pocket expenses from families.

Here's how parking lot sweeping works:  The coach or parents contact businesses around town that might need their parking lots swept of the sand and gravel that's been layered on all winter.  Generally if a group does it, they get dibs on it each year unless they give it up.  The kids and their parents show up at the assigned parking lot at the agreed-upon time with brooms, wheelbarrows, shovels and masks.  They sweep the sand into piles, it is shoveled into barrows and dumped, usually off to the side of the lot, though not in ditches.  For their work, they get $150-200 or more for the lot, depending on the size of the lot and the generosity of the business.

This year it seemed there was a lot of toe stepping as certain coaches tried to get parking lots away from teams that had always done certain lots.  The track team got a couple parking lots and swept them today (hard, dirty work!).  Ironically, another group was sweeping a parking lot right next to ours.  And as we swept a lady drove up and said she knew of a business owner who needed their lot swept and would we be willing to do it?  (We said maybe!)

We had a good hardworking group of kids and parents there today.  We are earning money for a running camp in Oregon this summer.  After 2 hours of work each family will get about $50 towards their camp, which isn't too bad as far as fundraisers go.  This isn't my favorite fundraiser, but on the other hand, it is less torturous than others, and I think it is a good thing to work with our kids to help them earn money for things they need, like a pricey camp.

Sweep on!

Softball Practice on the Spit

Heavy snowfall this winter has presented a challenge for spring sports.  Although temperatures have been above freezing during the day for almost a month now, there is still snow on the ground, and where the snow has melted it is still wet and mucky.  Today as we were walking on the Spit trail we were tickled to see the Homer High School girls varsity softball team practicing in a tide zone.  At high tide this area is covered with water, but it provided a good field (albeit a windy one!) for the girls to practice on.  One girl was late and had to jump across the incoming stream of the high tide. 

I appreciate the creativity of the coaches in finding ways to make practice happen.  This was certainly better than the boys team, who saw the baseball field was free of snow so went up there to practice and large gouges of grass were obliterated where boys had slid.  It was with good reason that all sport games scheduled for this weekend (soccer, baseball, softball, track) on the Kenai Peninsula were cancelled.  Everyone is hoping but not too hopeful that they'll be playing games next week.  Right now the middle school track season has been condensed to 1 1/2 weeks (all 4 meets in 8 days!)...but that's only if enough snow is gone for Thursday's meet to be held.

I don't know if the girls appreciated the view, but it was a glorious sunny day and the mountains were gorgeous!  Plenty of people pay money for this view, which we get every day!

Sea to Ski Triathalon

Gutsy girls did the ironwoman section of the Sea to Ski Triathalon--5k run, 7k bike, 5k ski. Looks like they had fun from finish line smiles!

Once more my daughter surprised me. The Kachemak Ski Marathon wasn't enough--she wanted to do the Sea to Ski Triathlon. Aurora was going to get a team together and do the run, her friend Ziza was going to do the ski, and they tried to find someone to do the bike leg but were unsuccessful. Days before the race they decided they would both do the entire race together. Two days before the race it occurred to me that Aurora doesn't even own a bike anymore, and ours are too big for her so I would need to find a bike for her. A willing friend who is the same height as Aurora fixed that problem with a very nice mountain bike. Saturday I took the girls out to the spit for a bike ride; neither of them has ridden a bike more than 5 times in the past 2 years so they wanted to make sure they knew how to do it! After the bike ride I drove the course so they could see where they were supposed to go.

The course starts at Mariner Park near the base of the spit (the 'sea' in Sea to Ski!). A 5k run of flat or gradual uphill follows the Sterling Highway up to West Homer Elementary. There the racers grab their bikes (or if they are part of a team, tag off their team member) and head up West Hill Road (up, up, up the ridge in Homer--ALL uphill!) to Highland Road, a dirt back road that meanders along over to Roger's Loop Road. The Highland half of the road was in good shape, hard packed dirt and not too wet. As it made its way up in elevation to the Sprucewood side, the road was covered with inches of slush with 2 ruts where cars had driven, with rivers of water running down the ruts. Yikes! This was the point I told the girls they could ditch now if they didn't want to do it, but they both agreed that it looked like FUN! Coming out to Roger's Loop, a right takes them 1/4 mile to the skiing portion (for a total of 7k of biking) where they ditch their bike and helmet and don their ski boots, grab their poles and ski away for the final 5 kilometers. The ski portion is mostly flat and a very fast, fun section--a breeze after that bike ride.

The girls were convinced they wanted to do it, and were just going to have fun and not be competitive (ha!)....just finish. As their pit crew, I was making sure they had the gear for each leg of the race, which felt crazy--run (running shoes and clothes), bike (helmet, bike, gloves, jacket) and ski (skis, poles, boots, dry clothes, dry gloves), and drink and food at each stop. And of course I had to have a camera.

This year right around 40 people signed up for this, down from over 120 last year. I suspect that slushy, snowy road scared many people away! Few kids were doing it, and fewer (if any!) were doing the whole thing, so the girls were a bit nervous that maybe it was too much. The parking lot at Mariner Park was a slushy mess when we arrived at 11:30, and by 12:30 for the pre-race meeting it was under 5 inches of icy slush water. The temperature was right around 40 degrees, which everyone agreed was delightfully warm (it's all relative!). People were hopping from ice berm to ice berm to avoid soaked feet. The start was moved from the beach to the entrance to the park so the runners wouldn't have to soak themselves crossing the parking lot.

The girls had a good run. When they arrived at West Homer, we had bikes, clothes, food and drink ready. They eschewed food and drink, and didn't want much more clothes (Ziza did the whole thing in shorts and a t-shirt, no gloves or hat!). Off onto the bike! The really nice bike loaned to us served Aurora well and she passed a lot of people on the uphill. After cheering on the girls at one point on the way up West Hill, I rushed up to Roger's Loop to unload all the ski gear.

When I arrived at Roger's Loop, it was snowing. I was shaking my head, thinking about Ziza in shorts and a t-shirt, soaking wet and probably freezing. It was really fun watching the bikers come zooming in, dropping their bikes and running over to their skis, boots and poles standing ready in the snow. The organized pit crew who had done this before had milk crates for the athletes to sit on while they changed into boots. I dumped out one bag of clothes and had the girls sit on that. Aurora came through looking strong. The first words out of her mouth were, "That bike was SO FUN!" She was bubbling over with enthusiasm. I helped her get her shoes and socks off, got fresh gloves on her hands and off she went. Soon Ziza came through and the first words out of her mouth were "That was SO FUN!" referring to the bike ride. I offered her a jacket, but she said she was hot so she skied off through the falling snow in her soaked t-shirt and shorts. I was shaking my head thinking her mom would kill me!

After grabbing bikes and loading up, I dashed off to the finish line at the DOT parking lot on the Sterling Highway, the same place we'd finished the Kachemak Ski Marathon a few weeks ago. Not long after I arrived Aurora skied into view, smile on her face. She looked very muddy...and very happy. Shortly after Ziza arrived, zooming in at a super race pace with great technique, smile on her face. The girls were full of giggles and stories, and had fun raiding the snack table (Reese's peanut butter cups even!). A plethora of door prizes allowed every competitor and volunteer to get not one but two prizes in the raffle.

I have always wanted to do the Sea to Ski but never gotten a team together. Now that I've gotten an intimate view of how the race works as pit crew for Aurora and her friend, I think I may be ready to do this! Like Aurora said, the bike uses different muscles than the run, than the ski, so they were complementary. Both the girls are jazzed and looking forward to doing this again next year. They both came in right around 1 1/2 hours, so I'm sure they'll want to do better next year, though the course route and conditions vary from year to year making cross-year comparisons iffy at best!

A daring competitor just got his skin dirty instead of his clothes in the muddy bike leg of the triathlon!

Diamond Creek to Bishop's Beach Hike

Denver has been needing to get in a 5-mile hike using a compass and map to orient to fulfill a rank requirement for Boy Scouts, and we've planned to do the Diamond Creek to Bishop's Beach hike numerous times this winter and had to cancel due to horrible weather conditions. This weekend, with relatively little planned and the weather forecast for 'partly sunny and 30's', we decided it was worth a try.

I was nervous about the conditions of the road and trail down to the beach so on Saturday while Denver was in basketball I drove out to Diamond Ridge Road to take a quick scouting hike. The mile-long road from the Sterling Highway down to the trailhead was not plowed (in fact, it was under about 5 feet of snow), but snowshoers had packed it down, so while there was 5 inches of fresh snow on top of the packed trail, it was still relatively easy walking. Twenty minutes got me to the trailhead, so I figured we'd just have to add that much time to the hike. The trail down along the edge of the Diamond Creek canyon was in good shape too--just snow, no ice, so I was comfortable with taking the kids down it.

Scouting done, we started our plans. Low tide was at 10:54 a.m., so we figured if we got started by 9:45 we were in good shape. Douglas was just getting back from 4 days of chaperoning so we didn't think he'd want to join us for the 8 mile hike, so he would drop us off at the Sterling Highway. Sunday dawned completely clear without a cloud in sight and calm, but we still each brought an extra layer for feet, legs, head and face just in case the wind came up. A few snacks and water rounded out our packing.

A half hour hike brought us to the beach. The trail down, despite steep dropoffs, was comfortable hiking. Mudslides had already begun, covering the snow with the muddy fingers, some of them extending clear down the gully towards the creek. Every time I hike this trail I wonder how much longer it will be there before the entire hillside slides into the canyon, as there are fresh slides often, and the trail continues to be rerouted as the trail slides away.

The hike is simple. At the bottom of the trail, turn left and start walking till you get to Bishop's Beach in Homer. We walked close to the cliff at first, but when the tide was further out and hard-packed sand exposed, we opted for that since it is easier walking. We are not leisurely hikers. We tend to be pretty focused, so I wasn't surprised when Aurora took off, setting a tough pace. Denver had to keep re-orienting with the map and compass (kind of a strange thing to do when you can see exactly where you are and where you're going, but he was using the skills he needed).

Exactly two and a half hours after we'd started, we walked up to our car in the Bishop's Beach parking lot. We'd seen over a dozen eagles, a bunch of ravens, a few gulls, a couple rocks covered with cormorants (I think) and that was about it. It was a glorious, sunny day and a few times before a breeze sprang up I wished I had shorts on. The kids were down to t-shirts. It all looked so different than the other times we'd hiked it--probably because it was winter and the leaves cover things. And I was wondering why it was such a big deal...just an eight mile hike on the beach. It made me realize how the kids getting older makes activities like this easier. I don't wonder now whether they can make it or not. Now the question is how fast they will make it. And I appreciate once again living in a place as beautiful as Homer and that has opportunities for mild adventures like this.

When we do this hike from Diamond Creek to Bishop's Beach I get the sense that we are on a desert with the large expanses of sand.

An Alaskan Spring Break

We opted out of spending thousands on plane tickets Outside (the Alaskan term for everywhere else) for spring break, and images of hanging out at home briefly floated through our heads, but with jobs, sports and school our travel time is limited so we decided we needed to do something fun for break. One thing led to another, and pretty soon we had a whole week planned--from a wilderness campout to a fling in the big city!

Our trip started with packing. Our Durango was out of service, so we were going to pull off a camping trip, city trip and ski/snowboard trip with 4 of us and gear packed into a Subaru Outback wagon. We gathered items, condensed, repacked and finally ended up strapping the skis on top of the car and foisting a few items off on our friends who were going to meet us at the Upper Ohmer Lake cabin in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge Area near Skilak Lake. I kept laughing every time I looked at the car, thinking of the family vacation movies where the car is loaded down. That is what we looked like! The kids were squished into the back seat, with gear on their laps and under their feet. Caveat: I personally would not have put them through that level of packing, but I asked both of them if it was worth it to them to be squashed in there like sardines in order to go skiing/snowboarding at Alyeska. Both of them very adamantly said YES! so if they were willing to suffer so much for it, I was willing to go along with it.



Our first stop on our vacation was the cabin at Upper Ohmer Lake off Skilak Lake Road about 2 hours from our house, heading north past Soldotna. Skilak Lake Road is plowed irregularly in the winter (meaning, it will get plowed sometime, but who knows when?), but it hadn't snowed recently so I figured we wouldn't have trouble getting through. It was hard-packed snow, and was actually substantially faster than in the summer when washboards, potholes and sinkholes slow us down. Eight miles off the Sterling Highway, we pulled into the cabin parking area and began to unload.

It is a .3 mile easy walk back to the cabin. We had a sled that held a cooler and tub perfectly, and it was all downhill, so within 15 minutes we had all our gear and firewood to the cabin and we were ready for some fun. Trails meandered a few different directions so we followed one up the ridge across the lake from the cabin. As long as we stayed on the snowy trail it was firm, but if we stepped off it we plunged crotch-deep in the snow. A couple hours of exploring and we were ready for some mellow activity. We all grabbed our books and read, ate dinner and then decided to go visit Engineer Lake a few miles away to see the quintzee (snow shelter) that Denver built while on a Boy Scout trip there in January. Aurora ran the mile across Engineer Lake while the rest of us walked it. The quintzee had sunk down so wasn't habitable anymore but it was fun to see the site of Denver's 30 below zero campout. An evening of card games and reading was relaxing. We were feeling pretty luxurious sleeping in a cabin with a woodstove and table--comfy digs.

Next day our friends arrived in the afternoon. One of the advantages of being friends with a professional photographer is getting really good photos of shared events! Our friend Don had fun hiking around looking for good shots, so you're getting the luxury of his awesome photos in my blog for a change!

Karen and I skied up the lake, the kids ran around outside, chopped wood, sledded and had general kid fun. Later, after dinner we built a fire outside and ate s'mores and we got our purple squishy football out and the kids had a blast tackling each other in the snow. We ended the night with card games, gazing out the window at the falling snow.

Next morning we had to get out early to get to Anchorage for a doctor's appointment. It had snowed about 6-8 inches since we'd gotten there and the road hadn't been plowed so it took some attention to stay on the road. All was well till we got to Girdwood and they were shooting down avalanches. It was going to be a 40 minute wait, making us late for the doctor's appointment, so I called and got it rescheduled for the next day. We dropped off Aurora's snowboard at our favorite ski shop to get waxed and had lunch in Girdwood. By time we got back to the Seward Highway all the traffic had been let through but they'd closed the highway again so we ended up having to wait 50 minutes anyways!

The rest of that day was a whirlwind of shopping. It had been awhile since we'd been to Anchorage and had time to shop, and our list had grown long. We were short on space, though, so looking at rocketboxes (car-top storage) was first on our list! We ordered one, but that wasn't going to help our space issues for this trip, so the Costco run was a relatively skimpy one.

It was a radical change to go from remote cabin to hotel in the big city, but we adjusted to the luxury of hot showers and 24 hour coffee! Friday our plan was to go to the high school 3A and 4A (big schools) basketball consolation and semi-final games at Sullivan Arena. Douglas and Aurora had a much bigger capacity for that than Denver and I, so we dropped them off and Denver and I continued running errands. Sullivan Arena seats about 8000 fans, and for basketball they had a divider across the gym so two games could be going on at once. The best game was the boys Wasilla vs. Service Friday night which was very close.

Saturday morning we hauled all our gear out to the car and began the packing process once again. Amazingly, despite many purchases, we had space to spare once everything was packed! We headed up the road to Girdwood, were able to squeeze Aurora's freshly waxed snowboard in and headed to the slopes.

The amount of snow in Girdwood was amazing. Douglas was there a few weeks ago with the Boy Scouts for a ski/snowboard trip, and I hadn't really believed him when he said all the snowbanks were 12 feet high. After we'd gotten a day of skiing in and were waiting for the kids to finish up, we walked around town a little. The snowbanks were up to most second stories--easily double my height in snowbanks in every single yard. The picture here doesn't do justice to the amount of snow, even though those snowbanks are double the height of a car!

After a day of skiing and snowboarding, we were tired and ready to head home. Five days on the road in a packed vehicle and we were ready to see how much snow had fallen in our absence that needed shoveling (only 3-4 inches!). Longer daylight hours and clear roads made the 4 hour drive home fly by.

One of my friends said the longer she lives in Alaska the more she feels the need to "get out" during spring break. I know the feeling, as sometimes I have an incredible urge to get on a plane and visit "the rest of the world." However, our Alaskan spring break was packed, active and outdoors, so it eased our itch to get out--till summer!