Peach-Pink Sky from Bishop's Beach

I love the delicate peach-pink of the sky with just a hint of Mt. Augustine in sight on the horizon across Cook Inlet. This is another Bishop's Beach view. I'm working through pictures from that folder that I have taken over the years. I am still struck at how many of my photos have to do with the play of light in some way:  sunrises, sunsets, brilliant glows from behind clouds, or like this one, whole-sky-glows. One of the neat parts of living in Alaska is the light. It changes dramatically from one season to the next, and from one place in Alaska to the next. The difference between a sunset in Anchorage and Fairbanks a few weeks ago was an hour, setting at 3:30 in Fairbanks and 4:30 in Anchorage. That would create a different atmospheric quality. To me the play of light and dark in Alaska is a fascinating show that is constantly changing.

Whale on Bishop's Beach

I have walked Bishop's Beach many times and taken many pictures, but for all the times I've gone back since I took this photo in December 2008, I have never been able to find this stone again--the one that looks like a beached whale. I snapped this on whim like I always do, and it has made me do many double-takes since--I saw a beached whale on Bishop's Beach?!

I happened upon it just as the tide was coming in, and the white stuff is actually frozen ice like a freeze-ice slush, washed up.  I entered this picture in a photo contest a few years ago through the Islands and Ocean Visitor's Center and it won an honorable mention, which got it enlarged and mounted and returned to me after the display period. It now hangs on my living room wall to enjoy often.

A Trip to Cordova--First Basketball Games of the Season

Fate would have it that our first basketball game of the season, only 10 days after the start of practice, was in Cordova, which is one of those epic journeys. The boys varsity, girls varsity and girls JV coaches are all new this year, having just moved here from out of state, so not only was it their first game, but it was their first time in the bush. It turned out to be an exciting weekend in unexpected ways.

Because the girls coaches are both men, a female chaperone was needed, so I volunteered--both for the trip to Cordova but mostly to see the kids play.  Here's how it worked out:

A relic of the past: a phone booth
with a phone in it, just across
the tunnel in Whittier

We all met up at the high school at 7 a.m., loaded up the bus and took off. I rode with a parent who was taking their car over to Cordova on the ferry. At 10:44, with seconds to spare, we drove through the tunnel to Whittier. The bus was a few minutes behind us and didn't make it so they had to wait till the next tunnel opening at 11:30. We checked in for the team, which meant getting the tickets for all the kids, confirming spellings and trying to track down the middle name of one person (a required piece of information!). It took a few phone calls but we got the tickets and handed them over to the coaches to pass out once they got there at 11:45.

Whittier is such a small little berg--and yet so isolated with the tunnel on one side and the water on the other, mountains hemming it in. While we were in Cordova the Alaska Dispatch News had a headline article that Whittier is going to be the scene of 90% of the filming of a new big budget thriller, "Hunter Killer," that is slated to begin filming in January. That will put it on the map, for those who might otherwise miss it! Personally, I love coming to Whittier though I hope to make it when the weather is nice sometime and not just coming through to catch the ferry!

If there is a word that sums up sports travel in Alaska, it is waiting. One needs to become sophisticated at "killing time," and while I knew this intellectually, it was fascinating watching kids' (and my own!) use of time. The waiting was on the bus, almost 5 hours, then in the ferry terminal, 45 minutes or so, then onto the ferry for 3 1/2 hours, then into the school where the JV boys immediately changed and began warming up to play the first game and the varsity teams suited up and...waited!

But I get ahead of myself.  Here are some pictures showing the process: 

Waiting in the ferry terminal. What to do without electronic devices?!

Loading gear onto a cart for the ferry so the kids wouldn't have to lug it around during the ferry ride

Vehicles wait in their lanes to load while a Lynden Transport semi disembarks from the ferry

Cute bear prints show the way on the walkway to the ferry from the terminal

Crossing the dock to enter the ferry

The car hold, which will be mostly filled by time it is loaded today

Comfy seats with plenty of legroom, tables, benches--lots of seating and sleeping options on the ferry. Just one deck since it is the fast ferry (a catamaran).

Leaving Whittier behind...view from the solarium

Beautiful views on the ride to Cordova

We were blessed with mostly calm seas besides one stretch where there were gentle swells

A real-time map showed the progress of our boat across Prince William Sound

These kids are experienced travelers. They know to take their pillows with them wherever they go...and their electronic devices, decks of cards, food and water bottles. Once everyone had dropped their stuff in a seat on the ferry, most kids made a beeline for the coolers each team had brought along. Lunch for the girls (I was the foodmeister for the trip, a job the chaperone often takes on) was make-your-own sandwiches, go-gurts (yogurts that don't need spoons), carrots and trail mix. Kids came and got their food, ate and wandered off to do homework, sleep, play cards, talk, or get on their electronic devices. I expected all the kids to be glued to their electronics, but they were not. There was quite a bit of interaction, and the card games (Egyptian Radscrew, popular among high schoolers here) got loud. We had 27 people on the ferry between coaches, a bus driver, a chaperone and administrator coverage, so we took over the whole front section of the boat. I would guess there was another 20 or so folks on the ferry in addition to us.

Cordova ferry terminal

By time we arrived in Cordova it was dark, so just the harbor lights were visible. The bus was waiting to shuttle the teams the mile or so to the high school. Downtown Cordova is like any small town U.S.A. What you see in the picture below is the few blocks of downtown, with the blue high school in sight at the end of it. I gathered that there are 3 bars, a handful of restaurants, a downhill ski area, a grocery store and more. I saw a Catholic church, Baptist church and the Orthodox cemetery. The elementary school is newly remodeled and is very nice; this weekend it was the scene of a Christmas craft show which I visited.

Christmas lights grace Cordova's downtown

But all this I will discover later; for right now we had games to play. There is not a lot to do in a town this size so everyone shows up for basketball games. We had 4 Homer fans there, but the rest of the gym was full of Cordova folks. I did notice that a few local folks clapped for Homer, which I appreciated. Our JV boys lost badly, our varsity girls just squeaked out a win (Cordova doesn't have enough girls to field a JV team) and our varsity boys won a hard-fought game. The games in Cordova are streamed on asln.net, so plenty of folks back home were watching. New for this year, the games are posted online after the streaming so folks can go back and watch them later, which we did this weekend.

Home for a few days

The boys got 2 classrooms to sleep in and all the girls and I got a room. Once again, the kids' experience was evident. Once they were shown their room they went into action pulling out air pumps for their mattresses, unpacking sleeping bags and claiming their space. One girl even had a 3-foot-thick air mattress! I was the "key" person for the weekend, so when no one was in the classroom the room was locked, and if someone needed in they would come find me.

Cordova High School agreed to feed us 4 meals for $22 per person--dinner Friday and all meals on Saturday. We were scheduled to take a bus to the ferry at 8 a.m. on Sunday so that breakfast was on our own. It was typical lunchroom food, but it was food, and it was prepared for us. We likely couldn't have eaten cheaper than that even if we'd brought our own. So after the kids played Friday night they all headed down to the cafeteria to grab their dinner. 

Once the games were over and fans left, we had the school to ourselves. Kids wandered downstairs to shower, hung out in the classrooms playing cards, went to bed early or hung out while the coaches sat in a strategic spot in the hall and kept an eye on things.

Saturday games were scheduled for 3:30, 5:00 and 6:30, so we had all day to wait around. Originally we had breakfast planned for 9 a.m. but they moved it back to 10 a.m. and even then we had to wake most kids up (teenagers!). After breakfast was study time for the girls, then lunch, then a walking tour through town, then back to prepare for games. The day went by fairly quickly. Once again the JV boys were trounced, the girls won by 17 points due to a great effort on the press, and the boys lost in closely contested game.

One parent who brought her car over offered to let me drive around, so I got a brief tour of the area Saturday morning, out to the airport, up to the downhill ski area, and around town.  Here's my photojournal of it:

The Orthodox church cemetery

At the airport--left back to town or right out to Childs Glacier. The road to glacier was icy so I skipped it...this time. I'll be back!

Each bridge on the 12-mile road to the airport is named after someone from Cordova who served in World War II

A glacier in the distance, across the outwash area. Not too long ago this area was covered with ice

Eyak Lake is a great feature of Cordova, with 19 miles of shoreline and an average depth of 8 feet

The spillway at the mouth of Eyak Lake

The old, moss-covered Episcopal Church in Cordova

The newly-remodeled elementary school is very nice!

View of Orca Inlet and the ski chalet from partway up the ski hill

A mile or so from the ferry, the City of Cordova has a few tent platforms for use

Painted dumpsters are a common sight in Cordova

Once again, the school cleared out after the games Saturday night and we had it to ourselves. This time the boys set up their card games in the cafeteria while a few studious kids hit the books. Others shot around in the gym, while the girls got the projector in their classroom hooked up to their laptop and streamed movies from Netflix "on the big screen" while cuddled up in their sleeping bags. 

Word had been circulating since we'd arrived that  big storm was coming in and that it was unlikely we would get out on Sunday. The decision was set to be made by 7 a.m. Sunday morning whether the ferry would run or not. The Cordova bus driver was our go-to person for this:  he would contact the ferry and let us know whether we were on or not.  Come 7 a.m. Sunday morning I got a text from the boys coach, "Ferry not running today." So we were stuck for another day! We set up a breakfast that kids could get whenever they woke up from food I'd brought (Homer's The Bagel Shop bagels!) and just let them sleep in. 

I went to the Catholic Church service with another parent, her daughter and my daughter and enjoyed their little kids' Christmas program, "The Real Story of the Christmas Star." It was cute. We skipped the potluck and church-decorating afterwards, which I am still regretting. The food smelled divine! It was nice to be away from the school for a bit; the constant bouncing of basketballs was getting to me!

This day played out much like the previous one, punctuated only by meals. The kids attempted to study. The girls watched the game from the previous day and had a short practice; the boys ran a practice as well.  A run to a local convenience store got the kids set up with their junk food fix after dinner.  An epic game of Bump was a highlight of the evening (shooting baskets and trying to get others out...I'm not quite sure of the rules), then epic games of cards into the wee hours of the morning (the guys) and movies (the girls). 

This weekend was a study of sleep deprivation for me. My Thermarest didn't hold air, the heaters sounded like lockers being slammed, the door would clunk shut when folks went out to the restroom, and each time someone turned over their mattress would squeak. Although I wasn't getting sleep, I was getting work done. The college semester ended Saturday night so I found myself on my laptop grading papers, messaging last-minute panicked students and resetting tests. By late Sunday morning my final grades were submitted, which had to be a record! Usually I take till Tuesday to get it all done and wrapped up, but I had lots of unoccupied time.

Monday morning dawned with another text:  still no ferry. Swells were still at 7 feet, too large for catamarans, which can get a wave underneath and crack down the middle in high seas.  This time the girls were awake at 7 a.m. and they were not pleased to hear they would be stuck in Cordova for another day, during finals week no less. A pow-wow of coaches ensued. Our bus driver has another day job he needed to get back to so he and his daughter flew out at 9 a.m. They would hitch a ride back to Whittier to get the bus. Another parent arranged for their daughter to be flown all the way back to Homer. Coaches were in contact with the principal of Homer High (yep, my husband) and he was working on the plane ride out angle. There was no assurance we would get out the next day, or the next, or the next on the ferry. But the planes were still flying.

The classrooms were needed so we got all the kids up and out, with their gear stashed in the mat (wrestling) room. A new phase of waiting began. Different place, same activities. Tension was palpable; kids needed laundry done so the school offered their 2 washers. Finals were on everyone's mind. Meanwhile back in Homer parents were getting antsy--they wanted their kids home.

Finally a deal was worked out:  one way plane tickets for all 27 of us were available on Alaska Airlines for $244 per person on the 1:30 p.m. flight.  Our bus driver could get the bus up to Anchorage from Whittier and pick us up and get us home.  Figure it out: 27 people. That is going to take a lot of fundraising to cover this ride out of the bush. The coaches balked. Funds are always tight on these teams with the immense cost of travel. Alaska Air had given them 10 minutes to make the decision; that is as long as they would hold the seats. I put in my 2 cents as a parent, and finally they decided:  Go for it!

The school went into action to get a purchase order rushed through the district office to pay for this. Alaska Air wouldn't take a PO so the district office had to pay with a credit card. Meanwhile, Cordova bused us all out to the airport and the payment hadn't gone through yet so we couldn't check in. Once again:  the waiting game, this time in a small airport terminal. I was on the phone with the high school secretary, who was on the phone with the district office, who was on the phone with Alaska Airlines, and finally they said payment went through and the airport check-in folks tried again.  Success! It was paid for and we were in!

The airline was generous and didn't apply weight limits, which was a tremendous relief because the kids had packed for a ferry, not for an airplane ride. Kids added tags to bags that didn't have them from the ferry, dumped out liquids from their carry-ons or put them in their checked bags, and queued up in line to check in, one by one. The school had gotten the list of all the kids' names, birthdays, etc. and faxed it to Alaska Air so kids were checked in off of that. It was an amazing feat for just a couple hours work.

Getting on the plane to Anchorage

Out of the bush! In Anchorage for the final leg of the journey home:  a 5-hour bus ride

For me there was a sense of unreality about this. The plan had been to get on the ferry and here we were getting on a plane to Anchorage! Two parents were still stuck in Cordova with their vehicles till the ferry could go (it would end up finally going on Wednesday). I hadn't wanted to ride the bus, but I was so relieved to be out of Cordova and moving homeward that I wasn't complaining (though my numb butt was!). 

Ahhhhhhhh! The joys of traveling to sports in Alaska! Another epic journey!

Horseback Riding the Switchbacks

Many times when we head down the switchbacks at the head of the bay, there is a pickup truck with a horse trailer parked at the trailhead at the top of the switchbacks. Horseback riding to the head of the bay is a fun activity for those who want to get a sense of the wilderness near Homer. We were actually 4-wheeling when we took these pictures; the horses and 4-wheelers have to co-exist but in most areas there is lots of space to spread out. The trail rides take folks up to the area where the Kilcher's let their cattle roam, which folks can see in the Alaska reality show, The Last Frontier.

Kelp Line

I don't know if I ever posted this picture of huge piles of kelp and seaweed washed up on Bishop's Beach. I took it Sept. 30, 2009 and am forever amazed by it. These piles are two feet high, more than two feet wide and stretch as far as the eye can see. That's a lot of kelp and seaweed! I have heard we are not supposed to collect kelp or seaweed, so even though I really want to in order to add it to my compost (after rinsing it with clean, non-salty water), I have resisted. On a day like this when abundance was evident, it was doubly difficult to resist.

Crazy Weather

This is crazy weather for Homer, with temperatures hovering around 40 for the past 2 months. Rain every day is not fun. What this looks like on the ground is ice. At some point it snowed, melted enough to turn into ice, and then rained on the ice. The rain is cold so rather than melting the ice, it adds to the ice, getting thicker with each rain. Today I saw the borough truck go by three times sanding our road.

In the past few days it has alternately rained, freezing rained, sleeted and snowed--with that mix happening one right after the other. My daughter is new at the winter driving scene and I have found myself praying a lot lately, particularly as I already went off the road back in October and we were out of one vehicle for nearly 2 months while it got repaired. I know how backed up the collision shops get:  months. My advice to her has been to never hurry to get anywhere and don't worry about the impatience drivers behind her. The important thing is to get there safely.

So while the side roads in Homer are covered with ice, the main roads in town are clear. But one never knows what temperature fluctuation in a particular spot will result in ice, so caution is the word at all times, in all places.

Icy, icy, icy driveway leaves me scooting carefully

My son told me last night while researching his Caring for the Kenai science project that the average temperature in Alaska in the winter has risen by 6.4 degrees over the past 50 years* (about 3 degrees warmer in the summer). Like I told him, Six degrees lower would be snow now rather than rain. Unfortunately the winters will be wetter and the summers drier according to the article, which translates into more ice and less snow in the winter. As my husband said, "I don't know if I want to live in Homer if it's the banana belt. Maybe we should go to Georgia. I hear it's cold there right now."

*Denver's source can be found at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/impacts-adaptation/alaska.html.

Daily Smoothies--Making It Local

People who know me know I love my daily smoothies. It is my morning ritual each day to get up and scavenge through the fridge and freezer and counter for fruit and vegetables to go into my smoothies. Every so often it strikes me how much of what I put into my smoothies was free--locally grown (or the cost of getting to it). The picture above is the "stuff" that went into today's smoothie. All those nice, neat bags of frozen stuff belie the hard work it took to get them there! Here's a run-down of where it all came from:

Kale:  The purple leafy stuff in front is kale from our church garden. No one cleaned it up this year so the kale is still going strong. Every so often I go and pick more for my massaged kale, kale chips and smoothies. I have lots of kale frozen in the freezer for when it finally gets cold enough that our kale is either buried under the snow or killed (many frosts and snow haven't hurt it yet!).

Rhurbarb: The jar to the left of the kale is canned rhubarb from my patch. A couple summers ago (before my kids started harvesting my rhubarb to sell to Bear Creek Winery) I canned up a huge batch and have been eating it since, throwing it in smoothies and my wildberry crisp. I also have frozen rhubarb as well, which I will use when my canned stuff is gone.

Carrots:  A couple days ago we used up our last fresh carrot from the garden. It was a sad day as we use lots of carrots. Now we have carrots from the garden frozen. If I had a root cellar the carrots could keep in sawdust all winter. And actually the carrots that we harvested 6 or 7 weeks ago that were in the fridge were doing just fine. I like to put some in the freezer to have them cleaned and ready to throw into soups and stews...and smoothies.

Apples:  Next to the carrots are a bag of apples. Someone had an overabundance of apples this year and gave us 4 boxes of them. I made applesauce, but then a friend suggested just cutting them up and putting them in the freezer. That was news to me that you could do that, so for the rest of them that is what I did. They have been a wonderful addition to my smoothies, and a much cheaper alternative than buying them at $1.79-$2.99 a pound at the grocery store. That was an amazing gift getting apples!

Blueberries:  To the right of the apples are the blueberries, picked across the bay this summer. I'm a super lazy person when it comes to blueberries:  after I pick them they go into bags and right into the freezer without washing, so I often have to pick out the leaves (or leave them in!) when they go into the smoothies. This year was crazy-amazing blueberry year so I think I have enough to last me all winter for daily smoothies.

Zucchini:  In front of the blueberries is frozen zucchini slices. I tried slicing zucchini rather than shredding them this year for a few packages and discovered that they are mushy and disgusting so I am using them up in my smoothies.

Orange juice concentrate:  I put a couple tablespoons of orange juice concentrate in to sweeten my smoothies, if I don't have oranges. The concentrate is much cheaper though, lasts longer, and doesn't go bad. Usually I just use our oranges if they were bad and the kids won't eat them. Ironically, the kids like eating the orange juice concentrate for a snack.

Flaxseed:  I alternate between adding a few teaspoons of flaxseed or wheat germ. I accidentally bought two packages of flaxseed, not realizing I already had one at home, so for now I dump in flaxseed. Plus, Costco sells it so it is cheaper than wheat germ.

Protein powder:  Also a product of Costco, using protein powder is something I just started doing a couple months ago. I got a vanilla-flavored one so I no longer add vanilla (I always used to put in a teaspoon or so). There are 100 calories in one scoop, and what I've found is that it makes the smoothie smoother. This is a "keeper" that I suspect I would miss if I did not add. Luckily, a bag will last me 5-6 months since they are like $40 for the black bag you see in the picture.

Banana:  Not pictured, bananas are a staple "must" in the smoothies, as they also make the texture smoother. When Save-U-More has older bananas on sale for .60 cents/pound I stock up, peel them, wrap them in saran wrap and pop them in the freezer. Presto! The kids like eating frozen bananas for snacks also. 

Walnuts:  Also not pictured, I toss in a handful of walnuts in my smoothies, a habit from before protein powder to increase the protein content of smoothies. I still do...habit.

Rosehips, raspberries, celery, lettuce, broccoli, spinach--just about any other fruit or vegetable that is in my fridge and is going bad or not getting eaten or has been in the freezer awhile gets thrown in my smoothies.

The key to this entire system is the Vitamix--a $400 blender that turns it into a smoothie in moments. The Vitamix was one of the best presents I have ever received--and certainly one of the most used!  The freezer to store all the food in is an essential key too, and I don't have a huge second freezer so I have to plan what is most important to go into it. My smoothie makings probably take up a third of the space, vegetables for the family a third and fish a third.

I take my Vitamix out to my office with my smoothie cup and drink my breakfast at my leisure as I work each day. Yum!

View of Turnagain in Anchorage

This photo is taken from Kinkaid Park in Anchorage near the BMX site. I love the green sea grass and lighting with a spattering of clouds.

View of Turnagain Arm/Cook Inlet

Snowy Mountain Views by Summit Lake

The play of light on water and mountains is a stunning feature of Alaska. I'd never noticed light as much as I do here. There is civil sunrise, when it is light enough to see, and then the sunrise itself, but because of mountains, the sun can rise in one place, I can see it has risen, and not rise for awhile where I am at. There is the unique lighting that one can tell "feels" like winter--not the brilliant, harsh light of a sun at its zenith, but instead a low, angling light.

Right now it is 8:15 a.m. and pitch black, though I have my sunlamp on over my desk for some very bright wake-me-up light. We have three more weeks to go till solstice. Counting down the days till the days get longer. I can't wait! We finally got snow which is exciting--it eases the darkness of this time of year--but rain is on the forecast for the next 5 days as temperatures climb to the upper 30's.

Here are some photos of Summit Lake on the way to Anchorage along the Seward Highway, just south of Summit Lake Lodge. It was one of those days when I kept snapping pictures as I ooohed and aaaahed at the views.