From snow to sand to snow again

First I must apologize to everyone who constantly checks my blog and is disappointed because I have been lazy and not updated you since November. This may only apply to my grandmother, but even so I ask for your alls forgiveness. We finally have internet in our house again! Which is the main reason I haven’t been online enough to update.

So what’s happened since Thanksgiving… Well Christmas was white here for sure. Lots of snow. New Year’s Eve was also white. Aaron and I drove out to the mountains on New Year’s to stargaze in 10 degree weather. We brought sleeping bags and laid down on a trail in Hatcher’s pass. Before we set up camp I had to pee really bad so I just propped open the car door and did my business. (Mind you we are kind of out in the middle of nowhere at midnight so not many people were around or were expected to be around. I don’t usually pee in public wherever) Anyway, midway through my car potty break, I saw headlights coming straight at me. I tried to finish as fast as possible, pull up my britches and just as I did so, a cop stepped out of the car. Good timing. Luckily he didn’t say anything about using a restroom, but he did ask us if we had seen any flares on the mountains. We answered no, we hadn’t seen any flares, just illegal fireworks going off in the valley. He thanked us and went on his way. But not even 2 minutes after he drove off, we looked up and saw a bright red light on the top of the nearest mountain. The red light then split into 4 red lights and we knew we had found the cop’s suspects. They weren’t people in danger. Instead they were crazy Alaskans who decided it would be fun to hike up to the top of the mountain and ski down it at midnight with flares in their hands. Watching it was pretty neat. I think I know what my New Year’s plans will be next year- who said you have to be original?

Seven days after the new year, I hopped on a plane and headed south. Destination: Maui. Sick of the cold, snow and darkness, Aaron and I went to a friend’s destination wedding in Hawaii and made a mini-vacation out of it. We did some snorkeling, beach bumming, and on the last day we drove out the Hana Highway. It is a very long very windy road that takes you around the Maui island. There’s a waterfall at the end of the 54 mile stretch that consists of 7 large pools that flow one into the other. It’s really pretty- but then again so is the rest of the island and I’m not sure the waterfalls were worth the carsickness and 6 hour drive it took to see them. So if you ever make it to Maui, don’t skip the Hana drive because I said so. But when you’re hurling your breakfast over the guard rails along with the guy who’s in the car behind you- don’t say you weren’t forewarned. Overall the trip was good. It was nice to see the sun and not be bundled up in so many layers your cheeks are the only thing that it can touch. I didn’t get a tan, but come on people, tans are so out. Health and not getting skin cancer are in. (This is for all those at the office who gave me crap for not coming back with a few more freckles!)
The last piece of advice I’ll give in this section is if you reside in Alaska or anywhere like it, don’t take vacation in early January. Coming back to reality is not easy! All that acclimating to the cold I had done before Hawaii was completely wasted. I turned into a big wimp whining about digits on the thermometer. I suggest waiting until February or early March so that when you return to Freeze City (as my sister likes to call Anchorage) from the tropics, the days are getting longer and it’s starting to warm up ever so slightly. Makes the transition a little easier. I know, smart huh?

Now that we’re back in town and no vacations planned for awhile, I have been trying to keep forcing myself to get out and do things. When I go a couple weeks in the city here without getting out and doing outdoor things, it’s easy to get a little down. We went on a hut trip last weekend and I was so glad I forced myself to get out in the cold- because every time I go out to the mountains, lakes and rivers I remember why I love Alaska so much. It is gorgeous. On the trip we hiked up a mile or two on a narrow snowy/icy path packed down by all the snowmachiners. When we got to the top we put on our cross country skis and skied across 2 frozen lakes surrounded by snow covered mountains. The second half of the second lake had no snow on it, just pure ice about a foot thick. My skis were not made to be going across terrain such as iceblocks- so I did a lot of unplanned and unwanted 360’s. Or maybe 180’s or 570’s because I would spin around and be facing the exact opposite direction staring at Aaron skiing behind me. Looking down through the ice scared me a little bit. Back in Virginia we don’t walk across frozen lakes or even ponds that much. Not too often can you trust the ice is thick enough. While we were skiing I kept hearing big booming sounds so I stopped to listen and realized it was the sound of the ice cracking and shifting on the lake. Talk about unnerving. Of course it was fine and you could have probably driven a truck over the ice but it still didn’t stop the quickening of my heartbeat every time it happened! The sunset was so pretty over the mountains that right before we got to the cabin, we plopped down in the middle of the lake and made a cup of hot chocolate. I can honestly say that was the first time I’d boiled water and made hot chocolate on top of a lake. Well actually Drew boiled the water and made the hot chocolate, so I guess it was the first time I’ve ever drunk hot chocolate on a lake. The boys did a lot of the work on the trip so I can’t take credit for much haha. When we unpacked we split wood and started a fire in the wood stove. Aaron brought his 22 so we shot at some things. Then drew brought the fixings to make fajitas on the wood stove for dinner. We played cards by candlelight until about 9:30 and then went to sleep whooped. We had hiked/skied 5 miles and without artificial light it’s hard to stay awake very late. We woke up the next morning, made coffee and oatmeal (Drew was very prepared) and then headed back to the car. My ski boot had been rubbing on my ankle and was killing me so after a mile of pain I decided I was just going to take my skis off. Drew fixed up some sweet looking makeshift snow shoes for me to walk back in. I had on wool socks, foot warmers, down booties, plastic bags, house slippers, duct tape, and gators. My makeshift snow shoes worked so well, I beat Aaron and Drew back to the car! Of course I got a lot of funny looks from the people on snow machines wondering what in the heck I had on my feet. We had such a good time that we are planning another hut trip in a few weekends so I’m looking forward to that.

I believe that sums up the most interesting points of my life here the past couple months. My puggle is doing well. He is getting the snip snip on Monday and I’m hoping it will calm him down some. He knows how to sit, lay down, and roll over on command now. He’s brighter than I thought he was going to be :) Other than that it’s just work and class- same old same old. And as always I’ll try to work on adding some pictures later to the blog for your viewing pleasure

winter toys!

It snowed 5 inches last night. I went to bed with it only dusting- and woke up to almost half a foot of white fluff. Just a glimpse of the Alaskan winter to come :)  Luckily I went to a ski swap at the Anchorage High School on saturday and got a sweet pair of down hill skis and a pair of cross country skis for a great deal. The down hills are supposedly $700 without bindings and I got mine for $280 with bindings. They are so pretty! I'll have to post pictures haha. The cross country skis I got for a good ol' 20 dollar bill. They look like they came straight from the 80s's. Can't get much cooler than that.  

I see the moon, the moon sees me... at 9 am

The darkness during the day is starting to get noticeable. It is pretty strange driving to work at 8 in the morning while staring at a full moon and a seemingly midnight sky. I'm not sure why they follow daylight savings time up here... the hour made no bit a difference, except made nighttime fall at 5:30 instead of 6:30. The shortest day of the year is in December so we still have more daylight to lose. Although it's strange to have so little sun, at this point it is not much different than Virginia. Plus I'm in an office all day with lights and no window to the outside so it could be midnight all day and I would only notice the darkness going to and from work. The only negative result so far is that our weekday after-work-hikes have ended. I suppose I'll just have to soak up as much of the sunlight as I can midday on the weekends. I still love it up here. I hear January and February are the worst months though, so I'll update you again when the new year rolls around :)

It has only snowed (dusted) once, which is apparently odd because it is usually snowing a good amount by this time in the year. I have my snow tires on my car and I'm ready for the avalanche. Or snowstorm. Or just some inclement Alaskan weather. One quirky characteristic of Alaskan roads/highways are the two tire track ruts dug out 6 inches deep in every lane. A lot of people put their studded tires on early in the season and since there is no snow, they just end up carving out paths in the pavement. The ruts can be kind of dangerous when it gets icy because your tires get stuck in them and lead you along kind of like you're a train on a track- and when you try to get out of them to switch lanes, you could possibly be catapulted across the highway. Mom is probably reading this right now and freaking out/acting calm/still feeling motherly worried. But no need to fret, I'll drive safe I promise. Everyone here asks me "So have you driven in snow before?!" and I'm just thinking... is snow that different here than the white crystallized frozen water that falls in Virginia? The way they ask it just makes me think there's some humongous scary snow bunnies disguised as snowflakes that are going to fall from the sky and beat me up along with my car and toss me off the road before I can blink. I was pretty sure snow is snow is snow. Now I'm not so sure.

Homer feels like home

Last weekend Aaron and I went down to Homer to do some winter king fishing. His hippie friend Drew came along with us. Drew has a lot of girl-friends (to clarify, friends that are girls) and he's been trying to set me up with some so I can start making friends. I've been realizing lately how much more difficult it is to meet people after you're out of college. Where do you find them?! The gym? Where you're all out of breath and sweaty? Work? Where you're already around them for 9 hours everyday and would rather not see their face again when you get home? Church? yea maybe. Well I'm trying it all and hopefully I'll start taking classes at University of Alaska Anchorage next semester and maybe I'll meet some cool people there. Anyway, back to fishing. We did really well! We went out fishing in the Kachemak Bay and we got 4 kings on saturday and 6 kings on sunday. The limit is 2 per day per person. An interesting fact about winter King Salmon is 1 out of 10 is a white salmon- which means its meat is white instead of the red/pink color. And they are delicious. We got 2 white kings, but ended up giving one of them away unintentionally to one of Aaron's friends that has a crab pot, pulled the crab pot, and gave us a huge crab in return for it. While we were fishing we were catching Pollock left and right. If we had actually been trying to fish for Pollock (which is just a fancy name for the fish they use in Mickey D's fried fish sandwiches- the stuff in frozen fish sticks..etc) we would have been the most successful fishermen I know. But since we weren't, and we just wanted kings, it was ultra super annoying. King salmon take down the whole rod and run the line out when they bite. Pollock just swallow the bait and get dragged behind the boat until we see the rod quivering slightly and know we've caught a little turd. We lost a lot of little herring bait to those dumb fish. I caught the biggest king while we were out. He was about 18-20 lbs. Pretty little guy. They have the shiniest silver scales with a strip of purple and gold high on their side.

Also- I got the job at Alpine Urology! Two weeks of solid work under my belt... time to go shopping! The pants and boots have been calling my name for awhile. That is the only thing on my agenda for today, a beautiful saturday. OH- that's not true. Apparently we are going to a haunted house out in Wasilla tonight. I dont know how keen I am about that plan, but it's something to do and it's time to get in the Halloween spirit. We have to dress up for work on friday so if any has some good PG suggestions of cool costumes, holla atcha girl.

The working world

I’ve been in Anchorage for about 2 weeks, and I have a job!! Well.. almost. I am currently doing a ‘working interview’ at Alpine Urology being a surgery scheduler. I get to talk about and hear about genitals all day long :) . It is pretty interesting stuff- it’s amazing how many things can go wrong down there. And how many different types of procedures they have to fix them. Then there’s the occasional really old man (and by really old I mean over 80) that comes into the office wanting a cure for erectile dysfunction. I just wonder if there is a point in a man’s life where he should just accept the fact that it’s not going to get up anymore… maybe I’m mistaken and that point doesn’t exist. Anyway, I like the job a lot so far, it keeps me really busy and it gets me into a medical office setting with good pay- can’t beat it really. To top it off, the view from my window consists of the Chugach Mountains peaked in snow. Gorgeous.

I went on a hike on Pioneer Peak yesterday with some peeps and it was a tough one. It was 5.5 miles to the ridge and another mile to the peak. I think we made it 3 miles up (maybe) and called it a day and had to hike 3 more back down. I then proceeded to pass out for 3 and half hours when we got home. The views were amazing as usual but I also forgot my camera as usual. Drew took some pictures for me so maybe he’ll email them soon. Today when I got off of work we went for a shorter, less strenuous hike, not straight up the side of steep mountain, and it was a good way to wind down the day. You can’t go for a walk or hike anywhere in Anchorage without being awed by the surrounding mountains, lakes and sunsets. I love it.

Hopefully my ‘working interview’ will turn into full employment starting Wednesday- I’ll keep you updated. And this weekend I am going down to Homer to do some winter king salmon fishing- back into the fish already!

Road Trip!

So Aaron and I started the drive to Anchorage on September 19th with only a slight detour to Nashville Tennessee to see a Titans game on the 20th. When I say slight I mean 600 miles out of the way, but what is 600 more miles when you’re already planning on 4,500?? The game was actually a lot of fun (I got my face painted with a Titans’ sword along with all the other 5 year olds). There was a sideline brawl and overall it was a close game throughout which made it that much more entertaining. After the game we hopped in the car and hammered out 400 miles to stay the night just outside of Chicago. On Monday we spent the morning and afternoon in the city. We went to the Shedd Aquarium on Aaron’s suggestion and my request (again I’m the little kid) and then we went downtown to Pizzaria Uno to experience some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. I was starving after walking around staring at sting rays and sea dragons but it only took one humungous slice for me to go from starving to absolutely stuffed. Verdict made- Chicago pizza is delicious- although it takes them 45 minutes to cook it so don’t go when you’re so hungry you could eat whatever is swimming around the touch tank at the aquarium.

Around mid afternoon we decided we would just go for it and head towards Montana. We drove a lot (I think?). To come clean and be completely honest- when I say “we drove” I really mean “Aaron drove and I slept”. It’s a commonly known fact that I don’t have to be anywhere near tired to conk out in the passenger seat as soon as we leave the driveway. To boot, Aaron hates sitting shot gun and would rather drive for 20 hours straight than watch me drive for 3. So what’s a girl to do? I let him drive. And I got enough beauty sleep to last me the winter :) . We stopped in Helena Montana and camped next to a beautiful lake surrounded by rolling hills. We went to sleep pretty early after so many consecutive hours of driving. I woke up at some point during the night and thought I heard someone or something outside of the tent. After laying there for a half hour trying to go back to sleep, my imagination kept on creating new scenarios of what exactly was outside of the tent and how exactly it was planning on killing and eating me. Crazy, I know. As much as I’ve made fun of Mom’s creative imagination that invents disasters when everything is fine, I have come to grips with the fact that I have inherited it. I had to wake Aaron up and ask him to peek out the tent for me and make sure everything was ok. After ignoring me once and telling me I was silly, he finally looked out the door to find a lake, some trees, and a starry sky. His report was, “Did you really wake me up to listen to the forest for you?” Yes. I did. Needless to say that was our one and only night of camping- but it was a pretty chilly night out so in reality I wasn’t really dying to do it again.

Even with all the sleeping I did in the car, I did manage to see every big game species there are in Canada and Alaska along the way. We saw deer, antelope, caribou, moose, and even a buffalo! Somewhere in northern British Columbia, Canada Aaron woke me up at 4 a.m. saying “Colleen get up you have to see this!” I looked out my window and not even 6 feet from the car was a giant buffalo just walking down the highway! We followed him for 5 minutes or so and he never changed his pace or direction. Just kept on walking, klickety-klockety, down the white line. He was so big that I had my camera as zoomed out as far as possible and still only fit his head in the frame! I made sure Aaron kept the car in gear the entire time- that is one animal I did not want to see turn on us and decide he was tired of being watched. But he never did. Never even turned his head in the slightest he was so unconcerned with us. It was really neat to be so close to such a gargantuan creature and not be at a zoo.

Some time midday Friday we crossed the border from Canada to AK and the views were amazing. The St. Elias mountain range has some of the tallest mountains in Canada and the U.S. and they are simply breathtaking. I have decided that as many pictures as I take of all the sights in Alaska, a camera can never do them justice. The mountains are never towering enough, the water never looks as blue, and the sky not near as expansive. But I’ll post the pictures anyway in hopes that they will inspire you all to come visit and see the sights in person! However I would suggest a plane trip instead of driving 5,000 miles in 6 days...

Call me crazy

I really shouldn’t wait so long to update this thing, I just make it harder on myself because there’s too much to catch up on now! I’ve gone on a few more fishing trips, caught a couple more King Salmon (pictures to come) and some sockeye. August is silver salmon season, which I hear is a blast, so I’m excited for that. And this brings me to the biggest update that some of you already know about- I’ve decided to move to Anchorage for the winter. I’ve met a lot of pretty rad (for radical) people up here, and I suppose enough cool people to stick around for frigid weather and many consecutive days of darkness. I’m a liar I know. I remember saying there’s no way I’d brave the winter in AK, but hey, us women are allowed to change our minds. Many times. The Peace Corps didn’t work out unfortunately so I’ll be trying to find a job up here when I get back in mid-September. The back up plan to the back up plan (you always need a plan D… or G or H or Z) is substitute teaching and taking the rest of my pre-med requirements at University of Alaska Anchorage. I hope the level of Colleen’s randomness/spontaneity isn’t disappointing too many folks- I think it’s to be expected at this point.

Steve, my cousin and the owner of the Lodge, came in about a week ago and has been partying hard since the plane wheels hit the pavement. My dad Tom came up to visit as well and has been extending his stay perpetually, much to the dismay and frustration of his wife. Alaska just draws you in and keeps you here like a moth to one of those bug light things. Therefore if you ever consider a trip up here and find yourself staying or returning every year for the remainder of your days, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This coming week is my last week of work, although since I pushed back my flight home I may be helping out every now and then with the boat pull-out until I leave. It’s hard to believe how fast the summer is going by- and I’m sure all you school kids, parents and teachers know what I’m talking about.

My biggest task this summer was to keep Jeanne’s plants alive. I know with everything I’ve written about that doesn’t sound like the least of anyone’s worries, but I seem to kill every flora and fauna that comes into my possession. So I am happy to say that the annuals in the hanging baskets are alive and almost well. They’re a little droopy and some of the leaves are definitely dead, but I’m going to blame that on the lack of sunlight and too much rain recently. I’d say judging by the plants, I’ve had a pretty successful summer.

The last thing on my list of things to do before I leave is to learn how to smoke some of the salmon I’ve caught. If I cooked everything I have right now, I could feed every resident in Alaska and still have leftovers. Just buy me a few loaves of bread and I’d be like Jesus feeding the 5,000. I am exaggerating a bit- but it’s no wonder people eat so much fish up here. If I am successful, and if you are lucky, you might just get to try some smoked salmon in a can when I return. Don’t quote me on that though- because that means I have to learn how to can as well.

Alright, time to turn over some more cabins and clean up after nasty dip-netters. Shout out to everyone at home- I love you all! If I don’t add any more updates soon then I will be seeing you in VA muy pronto :)