From My Window - Installment #1

I like living downtown!

For many years it's been a dream of mine to live in a downtown high rise but only during the work week. When the weekend rolled around or when I had time off work, or retired, I would be at my out-of-town "weekends house". There I would have a vegetable garden, fruit trees, a cow, chickens, pigs and a bounty of flowering plants for an endless supply of color on the kitchen table. There would be a separate screen house where I could do all the canning without making a mess of the main kitchen and in the off-season a large greenhouse would provide tomatoes and other vegetables year round.

With this move the first part of the dream has come true, I get to live on the 10th floor of a 14 story high rise overlooking downtown Anchorage. I'm simulating the second part of the dream by having tomato, cucumber, basil and sweet potato plants growing in the house taking advantage of the warmth along with the 19+ hours of light each day. If my real garden starts looking productive, I'll post some pictures of that.

I bought a new camera and, although I'm still trying to learn how to get good pictures out of it, wanted to share some of what I see from my apartment window. All the pics are zoomed in, some more that others.

The picture above is a narrow view of what I see every morning when I wake up. The road on the left is 4th Ave, where the Iditarod ceremonial start takes place (if you watch the Discovery Channel CD about the Iditarod you can see my tall 14 story apartment building in some of the shots). The water is Cook Inlet and across the inlet is Mt. Susitna, which I've posted pictures of in the past. The long white building (mid/right area of photo) is the Alaska Railroad station where I disembarked last summer after the train ride from Denali National Park. Behind the building is a tide flat area where people fish for King Salmon.

I see planes taking off and landing at Stevens International Airport and many of the small planes taking fisherpeople to the roadless areas of the state fly over and very near the corner my building.

Zoomed in pics of people fishing for King Salmon (north of train station).

The Ulu (oo-loo)Factory.

An ulu knife, said to have originated with the indigenous Inuit people.

Downtown Anchorage market. Geared toward tourists but will have produce later in the season.

Photo of wind chimes that were given to me or bought by me to remember people. L to R: from Alena, Ryan, and Kyla. The one on the far right is a reminder of my grandma.

Plane about to touch down at Stevens International

Alaska Railroad Station

A ship headed to the harbor.

Sun behind the clouds.

Last, but not least... Denali Sunset:
What luck! I woke up at 12:30 on June 4 and the sun was just setting. I looked out the window and saw Denali! This zoomed-in picture was taken that morning (June 4, 2009) at 12:45 AM. Tomorrow, June 18 sunrise will be at 4:20 AM, sunset will be at 11:42 PM for a total of 19 hours, 53 minutes of daylight!

I see so many great things from my window!

Orca, Halibut and Rubber Boots

Seward, Alaska
Memorial Weekend, 2009

When I go on an adventure I generally leave home very early in the morning or immediately after work so I won’t missing spending time at my destination or waste a vacation day. Since I moved to Alaska I’ve been working at slowing my life down, not forcing things and just doing what it feels like I want to do at any given time. I’m taking more time to plan a little and not having my fingers in too many pies at once. So far it’s working for me.

The day I went to Seward, instead of leaving at o-dark-thirty like I would normally do, I puttered around the house, tended to my seedlings, leisurely packed for cool weather, stopped by my garden, got my fishing license and finally arrived in Seward after a very leisurely drive, stopping along the way to enjoy the scenery and get to know my new camera.

Seward is a pretty, walker friendly little town, set between the Kenai Mountains and Resurrection Bay. Except for the drives to and from, the weather was overcast and cool. On Friday I went on my first Alaska hike and, being a little worried about bears or other large critters (moose, to be exact), had several one-sided conversations with various people. I also did a little light singing. At one point along the trail, I heard a noise approaching from behind…! My heart skipped several beats until I discover the sound came from a pair of hikers and their unleashed dog. If the foliage had been evergreen instead of deciduous, I could have easily believed I was hiking in Western Washington. After the hike I gathered some rocks along the beach before heading back to the hostel for some hot tea. Most of the beach rocks in the area are very small, flat black rocks.

Saturday dawned a little grey and windy but not too bad, weather wise. Before checking in for my boat tour, I stopped by the Kenai Fjord National Park office to get my National Parks Passport stamp. When I checked in for the tour I was told that there were weather warnings in the area and I had three options (1) reschedule the trip, (2) go on the trip and if we didn’t make it around Aialik Cape and into the Gulf of Alaska to see glaciers I would get a bit of a refund or (3) cancel for a full refund.

I selected curtain numer two. I was prepared to battle seasickness with a huge piece of ginger root and water and my focused intent on seeing some whale and puffin. As the boat got going, I stayed out on the deck experiencing the spray until we were told that, because of rough water, anyone not already doing so needed to sit down.

The ginger partially worked. I didn’t get sick but felt close a time or two. The climax of the entire trip was when we saw a pod of 8 or 9 orca. The scenery was beautiful! If it wasn’t for the ever-present mountains, I could have thought I was at the Oregon Coast or taking a ferry trip in San Juan Islands. We saw a couple of puffin, orca, sea otter, seals, sea lions, cormorants, common murres, mountain goats and more. The closer we got to leaving the bay and entering the Gulf of Alaska to round the cape, the higher the seas were. We experienced 15 minutes or so of 8-10 foot waves and after a couple of 14 footers the captain decided that it was time to turn back. Our goal had been the Aialik Glacier.

The captain was also a great tour guide and I learned a few new pieces of information. For example: did you know that puffin take to the water soon after hatching and don’t set foot on land again for four years or so when it’s time to come to shore to mate? Mountain goats often die from falling off cliffs? Orca fall into one of three subgroups: transient, resident or off shore. Not much is known about the off shore group but a good amount is known about the others. There is physical, habitat and feeding differences between the transient and resident pod groups and it is believed that they do not interact with one another, not even for mating purposes. Follow this link for some good basic information: http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/episodes/killerwhale/indepth-orcas.html. The following link is to some orca footage, captured by Donna Graves-Faught. The reward is toward the end of the video. Thanks, Donna! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_lnn4sJz5E

I had a great time and the fact that we didn’t see the glacier was not a big deal. It allowed us time to see wildlife of the bay which we would possibly would have missed seeing if we’d gone out to the glacier.

Sunday was my halibut fishing day! I was prepared to bring home a lot of fish and had dressed to battle a day of standing around waiting for the fish to bite while hoping the skies didn’t open up on us, sending water from above. I donned my rubber boots, my motorcycle riding gloves, two pair of long johns, lots of layers of shirts, wind pants and a snow hat. I was toasty warm and dry.

The fishing charter I took was in a small 6-person boat. After discussing expectations and showing our fishing licenses to the captain, we left the dock at 8:30 AM. A bit of stormy weather was still hanging around from the day before so we had to stay within the confines of Resurrection Bay and it took us only 20 minutes or so to get to the first location. After puttering around to find a good spot, we dropped anchor in 240 foot waters. The captain set up our lines and within less than 10 minutes my fellow fisherpeople and I were getting bites and landing fish.
No halibut but some fair to middlin’ grey (Pacific) cod.

We stayed at that location for a couple of hours, until the cod had passed and all we were pulling up were arrowtoothed flounder which we didn’t keep. Arrowtoothed flounder are generally not kept for eating because “a proteolytic enzyme released from a myxosporean parasite causes softening of the flesh” (http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/species/Arrowtooth_flounder.php). Yuk!

All in all from the time we left the dock until the time we returned, we were out on the water for 10 hours but it felt like only a few. I never tired from standing, got sick only once and was the only one on the boat to hook a halibut! Some of you know that sustainability of fisheries is a concern of mine so I rarely eat fish. I want to make sure, as best I can, that the fish I eat and serve is caught in a manner that causes little disturbance to ocean habitat, is not a species that is overfished or one which is caught using practices that results in a large amount of by-catch. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guide is my seafood buying bible. http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx . Okay, I’m getting down off my soapbox…

For sustainability reasons, I had decided that if I caught a halibut under 30 pounds or so, I would not land it. It takes a long time for a halibut to grow and become of mating age so when the one on my line was estimated to be only 15-20 pounds, I let the line go slack so that it fell off. I knew that I’d not have another chance to catch one on the trip because we were nearing the end of the day and were at the last stop before making a bee-line back to the dock. We were all pretty tired by then and sat in the cabin of the boat, warming the bodies we suddenly realized were chilled.

Two of the six passengers were headed back to the East Coast within a day or two so opted out of sharing in the fish catch. The remaining four of us each went home with slightly over 9 pounds of cod. I put my mother lode on ice and headed home that same night, stopping along the way to take a nap. The next day I “played foodsaver” (inside Kinser family joke, right Ryan!) and put the fish in the freezer.

I knew it would happen…I’m hooked!! Kelley and I used to do a fair amount of fishing when the kids were little and I really liked it. Over the years I’ve grown impatient with inactivity but I’m settling very nicely into a more relaxed mode and am in a much better “space” to be a fisherperson.

Within the next week or two I'll be going out on a boat to fish for King Salmon. A high percentage of people fish for King from the shore but if a boat is available, it's nuts not to accept the offer! The two fishing poles I ordered have arrived and, after my garden is fully in and I retrain myself about how to tie a hook and what lures to buy, I’ll be hanging out at the lakes and rivers making friends with the mosquitoes!

This posting was a long one. You deserve a prize if you read the entire thing. Let me know what you want your prize to be (Okay, now, be reasonable. I didn’t win the lottery, simply landed a few cod!).

Birch Trees, Full Moon, Sunset at 11:30 PM!

Just a quick note to say that things are going well. I've been working on my garden (more about that in a different posting), and enjoying the sunshine. I can't remember the last time I experienced so many days of sunshine in a row. I'm so glad it's warming up enough to expose more than just my face to the sunshine that I did the pathetic thing people do who live in cold weather areas...At the first sign of slightly warm weather and sunshine went out wearing a skirt and a sweatshirt at the same time!

That was the outfit I wore when I walked down to the Anchorage market last weekend. The market is up and running every weekend through the end of the summer and is just a few blocks from my house. I discovered that at this point in the season vendors have only non-food products/arts and crafts for sale so I'll wait until a little later in the season to go again. I don't need any crochet-top dish towels.

Birch trees before they leafed out. Sunday, May 3

Full moon visible from my window at 2:30 AM on Friday, May 8

The main reason I wanted to write this posting is to show you the sunset I saw from my window at 11:30 PM on Friday, May 15. Official sunset time that evening was at 10:38 PM.

I'm headed off to Seward on Thursday and will be there over the Memorial Day weekend. I have reserved space on a halibut fishing boat and will also go on a whale watching, Kenai Fjord National Park tour that stops on Fox Island for a salmon dinner.

I'm asking you to send positive vibes my way so that I will see some whales and other wonderful sights and that I get a halibut for my freezer! If I get a halibut I'll save some for us to have for dinner when you come to visit.

Mt. Susitna - The Sleeping Lady

April 30, 2009

In my recent homesick blog, when I listed some of the things I like about Alaska, I mentioned that I liked seeing our "Sleeping Lady" across the inlet. As the snow melts, it is more difficult to see her outline but I caught the best picture yet as sunset the other day with my new camera so now is a good time to share the legend with you.

Mt. Susitna, referred to as the Sleeping Lady lies directly across Cook Inlet from Anchorage and is readily visible for miles around. The outline of the mountain looks exactly like a lady lying on her back, covered by a blanket. Here is an abridged version of the story, which has been told by word of mouth since the 1930’s.
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Long ago in Alaska there lived a race of giant people along the shores of Cook Inlet. The land was warm then and fruit trees of every kind covered the land. Wooly mammoths and saber toothed tigers roamed the forests, but they did not hurt the gentle people who lived there, because peace ruled the land.

A young man named Nekatla and a fair maiden named Susitna were very happy as they were soon to be married. Their happiness was marred by news that a fearsome people from the north were ravaging villages and killing people. Nekatla and Susitna lived amongst a peaceful people who had no weapons of war. The village elders did not know how they would protect their people. After much discussion the people decided to follow Nekatla’s plan to meet the fearsome people with gifts, not weapons.

Nekatla and the other men were expected to return quickly so Susitna continued the wedding plans. She went away from the village to gather berries and make baskets for the wedding. As the days came and went there was no word from the men and Susitna grew weary and decided to lay down to rest.

Word soon came to the women of the village that all the men had been killed by the fearsome people. The women went out in search of Susitna and found her sleeping so peacefully they hated to wake her. “Let her rest in peace some more. Why break her heart sooner than we must”, they said. So they wove a blanket of soft grasses and wildflowers and gently laid it across the sleeping Susitna. “May Susitna always dream of her lover”, they said.

That night all warmth and joy left the village. It grew colder and colder. Susitna settled more deeply into sleep. The fruit trees froze and began dying like men in battle. The tears of the villagers gathered into clouds that rose into the air, falling back to earth as Alaska’s first snowfall.
Today, Susitna still sleeps peacefully. You can look across Cook Inlet from Anchorage and see her lying gracefully and peacefully asleep. In the winter she is covered by a lovely blanket of white snow. In the summer, her blanket is soft grasses and wildflowers.

It is said when people of war change their ways, peace will rule the earth. Then Nekatla will return and Susitna, the Sleeping Lady will awaken!

Breakup Is Messy

(In the customary sense and as it refers to Alaska!)

Talkeetna, Alaska April 17-19, 2009

Spring in Alaska is known as “breakup” and Anchorage is both dusty and muddy as a result. Dusty, from the residual sand and gravel that was spread on roads and parking lots all winter, and muddy from all the melting snow that has accumulated in the thousands of pot holes throughout the city.

Muddy water is also very present in the road ridges /channels that have been formed by years of use by cars with studded tires. Rutted Seattle freeways are nothing compared to all the main thoroughfares around here. In fact, the second weekend I was here I crossed a street in a 90 degree fashion and thought I had a flat tire because my car was limping and rolling across a 4-lane street deep with channels created by studded tires.

Okay, back to the subject line discussion… Last weekend, in Talkeetna, I got up close and personal with breakup when the driver side of my car ended up in a ditch (I wish now that I’d taken a picture). In order to reach the B&B I was scheduled to stay I had to drive on an unpaved road that had, I’d say, 4-5 inches of slush and crusty layers of snow on it. While attempting to read a road sign (yes, I had my glasses on!) I ended up with one wheel off the road and the more I tried to bring it back out the further the car kept slipping until the entire driver half of the car was off the road. It was tricky getting out of the seat and climbing uphill inside the car to get out and have a look-see. A very nice lady with a Suburban pulled the car out. I guess there are limitations to how well a rabbit gets around in the snow!

After the car got stuck again, this time on the lengthy unplowed driveway of the B&B, I had a peaceful evening of reading and listening to the neighbor’s sled dogs barking (he's an Iditarod contestant) and doing a little letter and journal writing.

The next morning, because I didn’t want to get stuck in the deep slush again, I checked into a different lodging establishment (I highly recommend it: http://www.susitna-river-lodging.com/) before driving out to Denali. The road that allows private vehicles into the park had opened the previous weekend and when I heard about it, planned this trip. Personal vehicles must turn around at the 13 miles mark and the only wildlife I was able to see inside the park was the Ptarmagin with it's winter white coat still on. I did, though, get some footage of two caribou eating along the side of the road, 50 feet or so from my car.

Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful day but nice. I spend close to seven hours driving but if you know me, you know that I love to drive. It is very relaxing, therapeutic and gives me time to think and plan. An added bonus is now that Bluetooth exists I can talk to myself and anyone seeing it will assume I’m talking on the phone and think nothing of it!


The picture to the left is of the Alaska Range and was taken from a lookout area just before descending into the Talkeetna area.

The other two were are taken from my room. the first is of the frozen Susitna River (see the person on the river? It is a Denali Park shuttle bus driver having a brewski and playing his guitar and singing) the second is, what else, another Alaska sunset.
I stayed up late reading and, because I wanted the chance to see the Northern Lights and didn’t want to hear the sound of an alarm clock, decided to sleep on the couch knowing I would be uncomfortable and after a couple hours would wake up.

It worked!! The Northern Lights were faint but definite. It presented as a right arching curtain of light moving from left to right, followed by a much thinner more dense band of light. Very cool!!

I drifted off and woke up a couple more times, saw the lights and fell back asleep. By the time I got really uncomfortable it was almost morning and so, instead of messing up the untouched bed, just rolled onto the floor and slept on my sweater. Ahhh, sleeping stretched out flat on my stomach was just the ticket!

I stayed as long as I could, checking out exactly at the last moment because my room was so comfortable and peaceful. I’d talked to my sister, Alena, earlier in the morning and got close to finishing my book, Hannah's Dream by Diane Hammond. Thanks for the recommendation, Candis.

I think I might come back here this time next year. Any earlier and I’d probably have to listen to snowmobiles riding on the frozen river and any later I’d be into the higher room rate season.

All in all, great weekend. I stopped in Wasilla (yeah, you’ve heard of Wasilla!) to get fresh eggs before heading into Anchorage.

My next adventure is to start working on my garden!

Missing Seattle Family, Friends and Other Stuff

Okay...I was vacillating about whether or not to write about my current state of homesickness and decided that because it is part of my Alaska experience, I will. I'll keep it brief but if you don't want to read about it, skip down until you see the next "Okay".

I miss people; my daughters, my friends. I miss streets clean as a result of the rain. I miss my motorcycle. I miss the familiarity of the Seattle area. I don't like my new license or license plate. I miss being able to find things that I think I need at the store (fresh organic produce and meats, red worms for a worm bin, healthy house plants, any house plants other than the boring "normal" variety that look like death warmed over...).

I cried at the grocery store today when I found Cascadian Farm organic granola! Cascadian Farm is the blueberry farm in the upper Skagit Valley along Hwy 20. I see it every time I take my favorite motorcycle ride which leads me to Winthrop. On the several hour trip to Winthrop, Cascadian Farm is a great place to stop for antioxidants and a bathroom. (BTW...the granola is good! The variety I chose has a slight, but definite, molasses taste).

There are a whole slew of things making me homesick. Some of them are minor, others are a bit more.
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Okay...I'm done.

Now it's time to tell you about what I like about Alaska. I guess for now "Alaska" means Anchorage because, except for a few weekend jaunts, that's where my experience has been so far.

I like looking out my apartment window and watching the activity at the port and the railroad yard. I like watching the ice as it floats at a good clip along Cook Inlet on the drastic tides that challenge tug boat captains and cause bore tides. I like seeing our "Sleeping Lady" across the inlet, clear to my view or over-shadowed with clouds. I like watching planes take off and land at Stevens International Airport (where you will fly in when you come to visit me). I like the 30+ minute sunsets I see most days from my apartment window. I like that my commute to work is less than 15 minutes. I like my job. I like that my boss so readily explains things, shares stories, and is glad to have me here. I like watching from my office window as the jets take off. I like snow, especially when it's falling and when it rests on the trees. I'm beginning to appreciate the "Island Time" people keep around here. I'm glad that there are Democrats in Alaska and I'm glad we have NPR. I like coming home every day.

I like that email and instant message exist and that there are cell phone plans that allow me to call my children and keep in touch with friends.

I look forward to learning about Lisa. Who am I outside of mother and employee? Will I find a passion or continue to dabble here and there? I expect that the time I spend crying and getting over missing people, working in my garden, learning more about the plants and animals of Alaska, seeing the beautiful sights that surround me and meeting new people will help me figure out who I am and what the next phase of my life will be.

As I share my life, I want to hear about yours... what you're doing, what helps you to be happy and brings you joy, what causes you to worry or be sad, what are your hopes and dreams.....

I send my love out to each of you...I wouldn't be missing you if you hadn't profoundly touched my life in a positive way.

I have a lot of vacation time...please come and visit! I promise to be over this homesickness in the very near future. Better to wallow in it and feel it for a short, intense time than to drag it out!

Lisa/Mama

Homer Alaska

March 21-23, 2009 (posted April 4, 2009)

I took my first trip to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska this weekend. I left on the trip right after work on Friday, March 21 headed toward Cooper Landing for the night. I had a relaxing evening at a bed and breakfast then headed out the door at about 9:30 a.m. the next morning to make my way to Homer.

Within seconds of walking out the door a phenomenon occurred which has happened a few times since I moved here…the moisture in my nose froze! My first thought was to call Alena and tell her what had happened because she is always saying she’ll never go to Alaska during the winter because it’s too @$#% cold. As I made my way down three flights of stairs to my car with my much too heavy luggage (too many books and clothing layers) I thought "If it's cold enough to freeze inside my nose, I hope I don't have trouble starting my car". When the car started right up I knew it couldn't be as cold as I thought it must be. Well, I was wrong! The temperature was 4 degrees. I immediately got on the phone and left a message for Alena telling her that the inside of my nose had frozen in the 4 degree cold!

The drive to Homer on Saturday morning was beautiful. I stopped along the way to take pictures, even thought Mt Redoubt was erupting because I saw a plume of something coming off the top. Ended up it was just steam. The real eruption happened Sunday night around 10 p.m.

Earlier in the week when I’d told my boss that I was going to Homer he said I should be sure and go to the Salty Dog. I knew Julie Davis had been to Homer in the past for fishing so I called and told her my plans. She said “be sure to go to the Salty Dog”. With two recommendations, how could I go wrong? After arriving in Homer I drove along the spit of land, which is a major spot during tourist season, and found the Salty “Dawg”. I decided to stop in for lunch later in the day. Maybe some halibut and chips.

As I continued down the spit, with each turn of the tires I saw more and more and more bald eagles. They were as abundant as seagulls in a marina or port town. They were perched on rooftops, light poles, tree crags, etc. I got a few pictures, one that I knew Alena would love (flagpole). I also took some of what I love. Rocks, marina, beach, mountains. Wow!


After checking in at a bed and breakfast, and getting some great tips and pointers from my hostess, I headed back to the spit. I walked along the marina taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine. There wasn’t much to see because most of the area was still boarded up for the winter, plus it was cold and I was hungry so I ducked into the Salty Dawg to get a bite to eat.

Those of you who have been to the Salty Dawg are laughing just about now because at the Salty Dawg there is nothing to eat except minor pub fare. The place is very small with as much seating as the fire code will allow and one pool table that takes up an entire room. It was a sight to behold, with money and pictures of patrons from all over the world plastered all over the walls and ceiling. The first time I’d seen something like that was at the employee bar at Denali last year with Austin. I’ve added camping along the spit at Homer to my “must do” list for Alaska, maybe then I’ll go to the Salty Dawg and have a drink. If you want to join me, let me know! Sunset that night was beautiful and, as is normal for what I've seen so far, lasted a very long time. The first time I noticed an extended sunset I timed it once at over 1/2 hour.

The next morning I went XC skiing on my new waxless skis that I didn’t wax so they didn’t slide very well. That aided in keeping me upright and gave me a very good workout! It would have been quiet and pristine except for the noise my unwaxed waxless skis made on the snow so I had to settle for pristine.

As I got closer to Cooper Landing (the place I stayed Friday) I encountered snow fall. Once again I was glad that I’d purchased studded tires at the beginning of March to get me through what was remaining of the winter. As I got closer to Anchorage I saw quite the accumulation of snow that wasn't there when I left on Friday. It had snowed 4-7 inches within the area 50-60 miles around Anchorage and in town. Once again, I missed it! I know…I’ll get more than my fill next winter!

Before I left Homer on Sunday morning I got footage of bald eagles soaring along a cliff .

Julie: On the way back home I stopped in Soldatna to get a picture of the Kenai River which was so thick with ice it appeared to be frozen solid. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out...too much white!

Until next time...