A return to "normal"

What a whirlwind year we've had.  One year ago today, the kids and I were moved out of our Homer house and living in temporary quarters while waiting for the HICKORY to return home from an extended trip to the Bering Sea.  Less than two weeks later, we drove out of town on our way to California.  Today we are waiting on a ship to return again, this time from a dry dock period that has had it away from homeport for over three months.  And somewhere in the middle, we lived in California for 7 months, and moved back to Alaska.  We still can't quite wrap our minds around how this all came about.  Our time in California seems sort of like a dream at this point--did we really live there, or was it just a vacation?

My unpacking "help"

 We've had people question our choice to pull the kids out of school mid-year, especially since we knew ahead of time that the ship would be going to dry dock pretty much right after we arrived, leaving us essentially as a single-parent household while trying to settle into a new town.  It seemed even crazier to some since we first were told that the dry dock would be occurring in Alameda, the very same town we were moving away from.  But we would do it all again, in exactly the same way.    Yes, Mike left after we were only in Sitka for two weeks, before we even had our furniture in our house.  The poor guy hasn't slept in his own bed on a regular basis since January.  But since it hadn't been that long since we lived the ship life, we were able to slide right back into routine.  It helped immensely that we had school and other activities to keep us busy and help us meet people.  We all made more friends here in two months than we made in seven months in CA.  We even have a nice older neighbor across the street who brings us cookies and dog treats.  The kids excelled in school, thanks to their new teachers jumping right in to assess their abilities and taking the time to challenge them.

A fish out of water

Mike was able to come back to visit for two separate weeks over the 3-month period, but his time here was anything but normal.  The first week was consumed by probably the first ever honey-do list I've given him, full of moving-in chores that I ran out of steam to complete on my own.  The second week was all about our boat.  Yes, our boat. We're doing Alaska the right way this time, which to us means having the ability to fully take advantage of the amazing natural resources around us.  So the time in Seattle afforded Mike the opportunity to find us just the right boat for fishing, camping, and exploring.  We had to put the boat on a barge to get it here, and it conveniently came during a time that Mike was here to help get it fully outfitted and in the water.

Our new money pit

Somehow, we managed to be together for Mothers Day

In the past four months, Emerson turned 6 and Midas turned 11.  Charlie grew into a full-sized dog.  Ava had a fabulous ballet recital, Emerson played on his first t-ball team, and both kids have been participating in regular swim lessons.  Mike and I celebrated 11 crazy years of marriage, with many crazier years to come.  It snowed and melted, spring sprung, and our garden grew.  Summer has come, and I now have a first grader and a third grader.  How is that possible??

Only in Alaska do you spend the last day of kindergarten digging pits for crabs with your classmates at the beach.

Ava loved her teacher so much that she wanted her again for third grade.

Rough life these guys have.

When we are all finally reunited and the ship is back where it belongs, we will get back to "normal."  We are all looking forward to our first regular weekend of regular things, like coffee and pancakes, and a morning trip together to the beach.  Just to have a week with work during the day and coming home in the evening will be fabulous.  Even some normal time with the ship deployed, doing real work, will be a welcome routine for its new captain.  We have quite a bit of fun planned for what I see as our "bonus year" of Alaskan summertime, and I can't wait to get started!

Home(r)sick

It's been a little over a month since we left Homer.  It feels so much longer than that. Just last weekend, I remember saying that I hadn't really had time to miss it yet.  Well, apparently I did this week.  While I do still like it for the most part here in Alameda, I'm starting to notice things that I really miss about living in Alaska.

My girlie wrote this earlier this week; I agree!

I'm starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. While the houses here are nicely arranged for maximum privacy on tiny lots, the lack of space is becoming more noticeable.  We are lucky to have a yard at all.  I know that.  But our backyard fence extends directly from the corner of the neighbor's house.  The distance from my back door to the one behind me is about the length of our driveway.  It took some thinking to realize why this lack of outdoor space is getting to me.  This is the most city-like place we have lived in the past ten years!  A-ha!  In Homer, we may have lived in a duplex, but we could see about 8 miles across the bay and into the mountains from our windows.  Even in Connecticut, we lived on a 2-acre lot and rarely saw our neighbors (unless their pup ran over and snatched a toy or shoe from the yard, hehe).  I joked with Mike the other night that our house feels like a mini compound, but it is kind of true.  All of the windows are strategically placed for privacy, but we can't even see the street from inside.

So, I thought I'd find us some nice open space with wild trees rather than landscaped ones and get away from the city.  And I came across an unexpected hurdle.  Campgrounds here get booked up months in advance.  And while most of them allow dogs, most hiking trails and many beaches nearby do not.  We were hoping to venture down to Big Sur for a weekend, but the earliest available is not until October!  And even then, we'd have to board poor Midas if we wanted to hike anywhere.  And Yosemite--forget it, unless we want to try one of those concrete and canvas "housekeeping tents."  We need to sit down with our calendars now and book camping spots for next summer.  Yikes.  In the meantime, we may try our luck with some of the walk-in sites that can't be reserved in advance.  But with a 2+ hour drive to get there, we'll have some sad kids if we can't find a spot for the night.  In the meantime, we were able to reserve some Coast Guard lodging at Lake Tahoe for Columbus Day weekend.  In October, because that was the first available weekend.

Aside from the lack of open space and freedom to enjoy public lands with our pup, there are a few other things I'm missing.  Like a good, non-chain coffee place.  Or any coffee place with a drive-thru.  I had forgotten that the little espresso drive-bys are not a nationwide phenomena.  Another not-so-little thing that I'm missing-- knowing people everywhere we go.  We certainly got used to Homer's small-town friendliness.  People say that Alameda has the same feel, but I haven't gotten a chance yet to meet many people.  I think this will probably change once school starts back up (one more month, yay!).  I did find a new place to work out, thanks to Groupon.  I took my first class at Rise Bodyworks on Monday, and I could barely walk Tuesday and Wednesday.  I take that as a good sign!

Okay, pity party over. But if anyone who knows this area has suggestions for weekend getaways, let us know.  I feel like we must be missing something, because it can't be this difficult to get back to nature without planning months in advance.

We have been starting to explore the surrounding cities, and have lots planned for this weekend.  Last weekend, we ventured to Oakland.  To exit Alameda, you have to go through straight through Oakland, so we thought we'd better get familiar with the better areas of town.  We visited Peerless Coffee, since I'm holding out on using my very last bag of K-Bay beans.  It is a pretty large roasting operation with tons of different varieties.  And they even requested my info for possible wholesale orders of my reusable coffee sleeves.  We also checked out the Pedalfest bike festival in Jack London Square.  We stayed for several hours, with the kids riding in a bike parade and then watching mountain and BMX bike shows.

This weekend, we want to visit Berkeley, both to find a few shops (running shoes, fabric, REI) and to go to the Kite Fest.  Alameda is also having a huge Art & Wine Festival this weekend.  And we have a sitter booked for tomorrow evening so we can have an adults-only bike ride to Park Street for dinner.  We are really loving the bike-friendlieness of the area. Mike is still riding to work most days, and Emerson even learned to ride sans training wheels this week!

AK to CA: Day 1

Homer to Anchorage, AK

Today was our shortest drive but most likely the toughest day. We had both vehicles since we are shipping the second tomorrow morning from Anchorage. Drives are extra long without a front seat passenger. 

First, there was a promotion! Congrats to our new Liuetenant Commander. 

Then we had to say goodbye to Homer. But we didn't really say goodbye. Just see you later. I even left about 8 bucks on my K-Bay Caffe account (whoever gets there first can have a mocha on me!). I wanted to stop at the Baycrest overlook to take in the view one last time, but I was afraid I'd turn around and go back to town. 

Our drive was easy and sunny. We stopped at our usual places, including Cooper Landing. 

We are staying at the lodging at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. A 3 bed/2 bath unit for 80 bucks...can't beat that! We have already overdosed on city life. Olive Garden, Target, and Kohl's in one evening may have been a bit much. 

The Nana is en route, and we will spend tomorrow grocery shopping for our journey and getting in our last Anchorage favorites. 

Final (for now) Homer Adventure

Our first experience living in Alaska, ten years ago now, was in Kodiak, where hiking trails into the mountains start right on the road system.  We could walk to the end of our neighborhood for an afternoon jaunt up Pillar Mountain, or drive an hour to the "end of the road" to explore the cliffs and beaches of Pasagshak alongside roaming bison.  After settling into Homer we realized that we would need a boat or spendy water taxi to reach the trails across Kachemak Bay.  At the time our kids were just 3 and 5.  Too young to chance spending nearly $300 to get to the trails and gamble on how far we could make it before losing steam and needing a nap.  We made do with the trails near town, but they just don't have the same Jurrasic Park feel that you get hiking in and around the Alaskan mountains, with devil's club leaves bigger than your head, towering spruce and cottonwoods, and a carpet of ferns, dogwood, currants, raspberry, blueberry, and watermelonberry (yes, really!).  Now that the kids are two years older, and the ship schedule finally coincided with a sunny summer weekend, we knew it was now or never.

Grewingk Glacier in the background

Alaska is having a record-setting warm spell right now.  I had forgotten what summer was supposed to feel like.  We are so used to the rainy days with occasional sun, that over two weeks of sun and heat with no end in sight has left us a bit out of sorts.  It is a good way to break our bodies in for California!  Sunday morning was clear, calm, and very warm...perfect for our trip across to Glacier Spit with Bay Excursions.  Our mission: to hike the loop from Glacier Spit along the Glacier Lake Trail to Grewingk Glacier Lake, and then to the Saddle Trail and the beach for pick-up.  The total distance was 4.7 miles. We arranged for the maximum amount of time that the water taxi could give us so we wouldn't feel rushed (which turned out to be key for this trip).

On the beach at Glacier Spit

We started along the beach at Glacier Spit, and found several tiny bleached sea urchins to add to our collection of beach treasures.  We entered the trail at an old tree with a huge trail marker on it, signed in at the logbook, and read the "bear aware" reminders.  Bears are the main thing that kept me from attempting this trail on my own with the kids.  But we have done enough Alaskan hiking by now to know what to do.  We carry bear spray, keep the dog leashed, walk with the kids sandwiched between the adults, and make constant noise.  The need for chatter led to some fun conversations on the way to the lake, including discussions on geology, history, plant life, our upcoming adventure to California, and just how lucky we all are to see places that so few humans have been to.  We encountered monster mosquitoes that bit through our insect repellant and clothing, saw more piles of scat than we could keep track of, and even a few tracks that were not easily identifiable, but no bears.  Not even the scent of a bear.  And some of the scat was very fresh.

The terrain was very interesting, starting in a forest of spruce and cottonwood, and then emerging at times into the glacial moraine, the area that the glacier once covered and has since retreated from. The moraine had considerably shorter trees and brush, along with lots of gravel and boulders.  It was also very hot; we were surrounded by mountains with no breeze, and the Alaskan sun can really beat down on a clear day.  It took us about 2 hours to hike the 3.2 miles to the lake.  We were so happy for some cool relief that all but one of us peeled off our shoes and socks to dunk our feet in the lake.  Which was COLD.  Of course it was cold; it was full of ice burgs.  The shock when wading in was surprising nonetheless.  And the rocky bottom and beach weren't conducive to wandering around barefoot on our tender Alaskan feet that haven't seen the light of day since they were last out of state.  But we did it anyway, for as long as we could stand, because we don't often get barefoot weather.

Postcard-perfect day at the lake

The lake was even more awe-inspiring than I had expected from all of the photos of it I have seen.  It was just full of floating ice chunks, ranging in size from a baseball to a tractor trailer.  Floating along with the breeze, they look deceptively light.  I waded in to pull one out for the kids and dog to munch on, and a chunk the size of a soccer ball felt like it weighed about 50 pounds.  The shapes and colors in the ice were fascinating.  It was no wonder that another twenty or so hikers appeared out of the forest behind us to take it all in.  We spent about two hours picnicking and wandering the shore, and even found a huge rock face to climb.

Human feet were not meant for water this cold!

Iceburgs!

Rock climbing

The hike from the lake along the Saddle Trail was both the quickest and most difficult part of the hike.  It travels through dense forest, along a ravine, and then has a descent full of switchbacks down to the beach.  The trail was much more narrow than Glacier Lake Trail, and this is where we saw the very fresh bear scat.  We also came upon several groups of hikers heading in the opposite direction, so we hoped they had scared away any wildlife hanging around.  After following the steep stairs down to the beach at the end of the trail, we relaxed in the hot sun while waiting on our water taxi pick up.

The beach at the Saddle Trail, right around the corner from Halibut Cove

Upon returning home, where it felt impossible that just an hour before we had been in the wild with just each other and our hiking packs, we all realized that it was probably the best family day we have ever had.  Everyone truly enjoyed and appreciated the experience.  The kids walked almost 5 miles, in the forest, in bear country, followed all of the rules, and had fun doing it.  The parents were able to enjoy finally doing the kind of hiking we have missed for so long.  The dog swam so much in the lake that his feet were pink from the cold.  And the 5-year-old said, all on his own, "I can't thank you enough for taking us on that adventure today."  If you know said 5-year-old, you know that is quite an accomplished day.  Worth far more than the water taxi fare to get there.

We will be back!

Seldovia, Revisited

As we are wrapping up our time in Homer, we are trying to fit in a few more adventures.  Luckily, the weather has been unusually cooperative.  Today we decided to head back to Seldovia, a little village across Kachemak Bay.  Adventure Girl and I visited the first summer we lived here, and we have been wanting to go back with the whole family.  Unfortunately, the Coast Guard has had other ideas lately, so we settled for taking the boys and a friend instead.

We chose Rainbow Tours this time, as the fare on the Seldovia Bay Ferry has gone up quite a bit over the past two years.  Child fares are more reasonable on Rainbow Tours, but if you are traveling with adults only the Seldovia Bay Ferry is still the way to go.  While the trip overall with Rainbow Tours was fine, with friendly crew and a nice boat, it wasn't as promised on their website.  We were sent over on the Discovery rather than the Rainbow Connection, which lacked some amenities (the bar!).  A cold beverage on the ride home would have been welcome on such a warm, sunny day.  The trip over took two and a half hours, so we didn't arrive in Seldovia until 1pm.  The Rainbow Tours website says that they board to return at 4, but we were told we were leaving at 3:30.  And leave we did, as soon as the last passenger (and our traveling buddy, who thought she'd have more time for a drink on the sunny deck of the town's bar) set foot on board.  So, we were only in Seldovia for two and a half hours.

On the other hand, the high speed ferry no longer goes to Gull Island on its way to Seldovia.  Rainbow Tours does.  So we were able to see plenty of sea otters, a tufted puffin, and even a rare sea lion, which are seldom seen in Kachemak Bay.

Gull Island

Sea lion on the rocks

Otters playing with Mt. Iliamna, an active volcano, in the background

Short trip aside, we still hurried and fit in our top two to-dos: hiking the Otterbahn Trail and getting ice cream in town.  We were met at the harbor by a volunteer Seldovia guide--a black lab!  We brought our own dog on the boat, as it was encouraged by Rainbow Tours, and the native dog led us around all afternoon.  He hiked with us to the beach and back, and would only move forward if someone threw him a stick.  Very Alaska!

Midas and his new friend

We are glad we made it across the bay again, but I would splurge on the Seldovia Bay Ferry next time, just to ensure that we get to spend more time there.  Because a beach like this deserves a little extra lounging.

Outside Beach, at the end of the Otterbahn Trail

All in a Homer Summer Saturday

Summer has finally arrived in Homer. So much that I got a surprise sunburn while staying out of the way of the movers last week. The kids even ventured into the sprinkler...and came out shivering, of course, since 58 degrees now feels hot to us. 

The moving truck loaded up and moved on out a day early (Two guys packed and loaded our 2000+sq ft house in two days! Love SourdoughTransfer!), leaving us camped out on air mattresses for three nights while cleaning out the house. This is the first time I have done all of the movers and clean out solo. I hope I never have to do so again! Whew. 

We were technically homeless for about 6 hours today, after leaving the house and waiting to check into the furnished apartment we are staying in. Packing the car this morning was unbelievable. I usually stay out of the way while the man with the muscles does it. I wonder if any neighbors sat inside laughing with their morning coffee while watching me try to hoist bags into the rooftop box on our Honda Pilot. I'm 5'0". I'd like to think that if anyone did see me teetering on my toes on the back bumper that they'd have offered assistance. 

We had several hours to kill, so we started at the Bagel Shop on East End Rd. Michela always knows our order! Sooo delicious. Then it was on to the beach to let the poor dog run off some energy before being stuck in the car for the rest if the day. Don't worry, it was about 45 degrees and overcast today. No doggy danger. 

Next up was an event at the library where the little man got to measure his height against the tires of a grader and a dump truck before taking to the driver's seat of an excavator. 

Then it was on the the garden club's plant sale, where the kids volunteered as cashiers selling plants grown at their school's greenhouse. All by 10:30am!

We stopped by our favorite Saturday place, the farmers market, to help plant starts in the children's garden and eat some kettle corn. Every single place we went, we ran into friends. That's one if the best things about small-town living. 

We headed to Cosmic Kitchen for some real food to balance out our popcorn, and then spent the rest of our wait at the playground. It's hard to believe that it's been open a year now! And we were the only ones there at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon. Weird. 

What a day! There's so much going on here in the summertime that its hard to do it all. But we will do our best in the less than 3 weeks we have left here. After unloading the entire car, we are settled into our temporary quarters and I am beat. The neighborhood is a little sketchy. We saw a pair of young bull moose fighting on the street corner. Ha! I'm going to miss small-town Alaska "problems".

Getting to the fun part

This is a test post from my phone, since that is usually how I post from the road. Lesson 1 learned: the Blogger app doesn't auto save a post in progress if you switch to another app. Grrr! 

We took a break the other day from prepping for the movers to finalize our upcoming trip. The adventure of getting to and from Alaska always allows us to explore places we have never been. This time, we are driving from Homer to Anchorage, Tok, and Haines, where we will board the ferry with our people, dog, and SUV. We'll cruise for three and a half days to Bellingham, WA. Then we plan to spend time in Seattle, Portland, and the redwoods of Northern California on the way to Alameda. It will take us 12 days. If you have any suggestions of places not to miss along our route, please let us know!

We have spent the last 4 days getting as ready as possible for the moving crew, which arrives Tuesday. They drive a tractor trailer down from Anchorage and load everything into wooden crates. 

When you do a military contracted move, the moving company does all the packing. We aren't actually allowed to pack anything ourselves. If we do, they will re-pack it. But we do have to weed out anything we don't want packed (food, chemicals, trash, etc), and remove everything from our walls. We also have to unhook all electronics. We try to organize everything as much as we can, trying to avoid opening up boxes of random stuff packed together on the other end.  When we moved to CT, it took us 6 months to find our Crock Pot because it was packed with an old computer in a box labeled "books" that sat unpacked in our garage. We have heard horror stories of live cats and full trash cans getting packed in boxes and loaded on the truck. 

Tomorrow it's one last day of prep, and then 3 days of mayhem before cleaning out a gloriously empty house on Friday. I'm really looking forward to this week being done, because then we move into a vacation rental for the rest of our time in Homer and just enjoy being at the end of the road. 

I {heart} AK

I opened my window this morning to the sight of no less than 20 boats shooting across the bay, like it's the Memorial Day weekend tourist influx. Only it's the second half of March and 25 degrees outside with snow clouds rolling in.  People have asked me countless times just what it is that we like so much about living in Alaska.  It's hard to put into words, but I think I have finally figured it out.  Seeing all of those people freezing out on the bay at 8:30 on a late winter Saturday morning, participating in the Winter King Salmon Tournament, perfectly depicts the Alaskan spirit that we have come to love so much.

Alaskans aren't afraid of a little weather.  If they were, they'd be one miserable house-bound lot.  Style here revolves around being protected from the elements.  Instead of DKNY and Coach and Calvin Klein, it's Patagonia and Bogs and Xtra-Tuf.  If Alaskans want to add a little flair to their everyday, they do it with the color of their down jacket or embellished back pockets of their Silver jeans.  No one is afraid of getting a little dirty.  In fact, it's pretty impossible to get in and out of your car without transferring some of the road filth from it to your clothing.  It's the same out on the water.  If there's a fishing season going on, you can bet that there are boats out there working in all but the very, very worst kind of weather.  If you've ever watched Deadliest Catch, you've seen it yourself.  That is probably the most realistic of the Alaskan reality shows out there.

Just another day on the USCGC HICKORY

Alaskans drive in pretty much any weather, too.  Here in Homer, we spent the better part of the winter driving around on sheets of ice.  I felt like I was auditioning for an episode of Ice Road Truckers at times.  Since we can't use chemicals on our roads to melt the ice and snow (for the safety of the wildlife), road maintenance in the winter can be pretty sketchy.  But we still take the 220-mile drive from Homer to Anchorage, keeping in the back of our minds that we can always turn around and head home if it gets too difficult.

The appreciation that Alaskans have for their natural resources is just amazing.  Animals are still hunted more for food than for the trophy to hang on the wall (although a new caribou rack for the den is always a nice bonus).  All kinds of plants are consumed and preserved in the summertime.  Did you know that you can, in fact, make pesto from stinging nettles, when they first they sprout in the spring?  Catching big fish is nice, but filling your freezer with salmon and halibut is more important than how much each one weighs.  The farmers' market parking lot runs out of space in the summer, full of people buying locally-grown produce and handmade items.  Protecting natural resources is also very important here.  With the drilling that Shell is hoping to start in the Arctic, and the presence of a jack-up rig right here on the Homer Spit, Alaskans are very vocal about protecting their shorelines and ocean-dwelling creatures from the potential dangers of oil drilling.

People here aren't afraid of a little hard work, and the fact that you have a job at all far outweighs the prestige of your position.  No one really cares whether you are a coffee barista or deckhand, or bank manager or real estate agent.  Own your own business?  Fantastic.  And thanks for creating jobs for more Alaskans.  Females are viewed for the most part capable of doing any job that men can do.  I know several female fishing boat captains, North Slope workers, and bush pilots.  Alaskan women are tough, and Alaskan men seem to appreciate that.

Perhaps the best thing about Alaskans is their sense of community and helping each other out all the time.  I can't tell you how many times just in the past two years we have lived in Homer that a family has had a house fire or medical emergency, and the community has stepped up to organize fundraisers and household goods drives to help out their neighbors.  There is always an auction or yard sale going on to benefit one local organization or another, and opportunities abound for volunteers looking to help out.  Local businesses consistently support all of these efforts with donations of goods and services.

While I could live here my whole life and never tire of the view of the mountains and the bay, the eagles soaring overhead and moose wandering the neighborhood, it's the Alaskan community that I will miss most when we leave.  And that's what will, hopefully, one day bring us back.

Year-End Update

Wow!  How is it already the final day of 2012?! This year has just flown by, mostly because we have really settled in and become a part of the Homer community.  Thought I'd better catch up on posts, since I am way behind as usual.  How about this...my New Year's resolution is to get back to writing more often.

We spent much of the year, especially the latter half, as a family of 3.  The HICKORY was busy.  Much busier than the average buoy tender.  They were gone all summer to the Arctic to supervise Shell's oil drilling that never actually happened, back for 3 weeks, and then gone for 7 more.  After arriving home just in time for Halloween, they had to turn around and head out yet again for a couple more weeks of work.  We were able to spend Thanksgiving together (and even managed to squeeze in a trip to visit friends in Juneau), before they left yet again.  You know it's not normal when they have to request a waiver from the higher-ups for the number of days they have been away from homeport this year.  We were lucky enough to also be together for Christmas (we haven't missed one yet, surprisingly) and even set out on a post-holiday ski vacation at Alyeska Resort.  The ship was on standby, so of course it was recalled about 12 hours after we arrived.  Back four hours through the mountain passes and icy roads we went (curing me of ever wanting to drive to Anchorage again in the winter!) so the ship could go assist with a rogue oil drilling rig that came free from the tug towing it.  Across the Gulf of Alaska.  In the winter.  In a typhoon.  Thanks yet again to Shell for their lack of knowledge of operating safely in Alaskan waters.  They have been the main drain of our family time this year, not to mention what they have cost the Coast Guard.  More on the latest, holiday-interrupting incident here.  I have grown to really despise Shell, if you couldn't tell.

Our weather has been completely different than last year's. After the early October snow, we didn't get any more until Christmas Eve.  We spent all of November in the single digits, with plenty of ice to contend with.  It warmed up in December, but that led to rain.  After the nearly two feet of Christmas snow, the rain returned in a big way.  The snow is all but gone and the roads, yards, parking lots...everything... are all coated in ice again.  We are actually looking forward to school starting back up so we have something to do again, other than watching movies and playing with play dough.  

I know it may not sound like it, but we do still really love living in Homer.  I'm actually a bit appreciative that the weather and ship schedule have not been very cooperative lately, as it helps make thinking about leaving not quite as terrible.  For now anyway.  I'll leave you with a few pics of our November and December adventures. The ship has just pulled back into the bay, so we are going to dress up and treat the LT to a fancy New Year's Eve family dinner out at our favorite restaurant, the Mermaid Cafe, since he has been out in 20-foot seas and 60-knot winds for the past 72 hours.  I can't think of a better way to ring in 2013 and all the new adventures it will be bringing us.

Homer in Early November:

My very favorite people:

Thanksgiving in Juneau!  Mendenhall Glacier, which is open year-round.  We had such a great time hiking there in the snow.  We had less fun trying to fly out of Juneau in a surprise snowstorm.  Similar to living in Kodiak, the only way out is plane or ferry.  The city itself is really fun...good thing, since it's on our list of possible places to move.

Winter Solstice, December 21, 10:40am.  A balmy 5 degrees.

Early Winter

Just a quick update for those who like to stay in the know and aren't on Facebook!  I have several posts outlined in my head...but finding the time to get down to writing them just hasn't happened lately.

The LT has been gone for nearly 6 weeks.  By the time he gets back from this unexpectedly long trip, he will have been away longer than he was over the summer.  He actually missed the entire fall season in Homer.  He was able to come back home for two quick weekend trips last month (and we had some professional pics taken, below) while the ship was drydocked in Seward for emergency repairs, but when he returns he will find all of the mountains covered in snow and most of the trees bare.  Here's a great article about a rescue they helped with while on their way west.

We got our first real snowfall on October 16, over two weeks earlier than last year.  Most of it has melted away in the sunshine, but there is still enough left for the kids to find ice chunks to throw to the dog (and at each other).

Along with the early snowfall, we were treated to an early display of the Northern Lights last Friday.  I pulled into my driveway after a late evening at broom ball (at which I think I have improved since last year--thanks to some pretty intense circuit training classes) and found a spectacular display of green and red right from my own yard.  Last year, we didn't get our first peek at the lights until December, and we had to drive away from the lights of town and up the mountain to see them clearly.  I took these pics from my front porch.

Our time left in Homer is now numbered in months.  I don't even want to think about leaving.  But we have our list turned in to the detailer, so the waiting game is on until spring.  The LT got word that he made the list to be promoted to Lieutenant Commander.  It takes awhile for them to work down the list, so he will see the actual promotion sometime next year.  But at least it's guaranteed!

I have been sewing right along since he's been gone so much.  I have started doing more things for myself rather than to sell in my shop, and I've entered some of them in contests.  One of them, a laptop sleeve for Art Gallery Fabrics, even won!  I have 10 yards of fabric heading my way for that win.  I'm also up for another right now.  I'm in the top ten, and you can vote to help me win more free stuff to support my habit, em, hobby.

Great Alaskan Road Trip: Home!

We are back home in Homer.  I can't believe I actually did that trip...1,200 miles, on my own with the kids in the mountains of Alaska.  Wow.  We are all glad to be back to our own beds tonight, but both kids want to move to Fairbanks and live on the riverboat.  Photos to come tomorrow after I download and edit them.

Summer Adventures Begin at Home(r)

When we first moved to Homer, finding a playground was at the top of the kids' to-do list.  The closest one to our house is at Karen Hornaday Park, less than a mile away and a nice walking distance.  We made only one trip to that playground last summer, because once was enough to see that it just wasn't a fun place for small kids to play.  Many structures were missing pieces or just not built for little legs to climb (heck, I even had a hard time climbing up some of the ladders).  It was also very dirty, even by Alaska standards, with the base set in gravel and sand.  But the location is amazing- views of the bay and mountains, and right next to the hospital so kids can watch the helicopter come and go.  After emptying the gravel out of their shoes, the kids begged to go back to "the big Groton playground" that we used to frequent in Connecticut.  Um, that's 5,000 miles away.  Sorry.

A photo of the current playground, from the HOPP Facebook page

We went to a street fair later in the summer and were so excited when we discovered a fabulous group of community members there who were trying to raise funds for a new playground.  They sucked us in with tables full of bubbles and play dough and then told me all about their vision while the kids were occupied.  What a wonderful idea, especially for a town like Homer that has such a sense of community.  The Homer Playground Project (HOPP for short) raised funds all fall and winter, and now we're only a month away from "build week."  It's amazing to see SO many people from town get together to make something like this happen.  A design firm was brought in to plan the logistics.  It's the same firm that did the Soldotna Community Playground, about 75 miles from Homer, that my kids now frequently request to visit.  Still not quite close enough for an afternoon at the playground, but we'll stop by if we head up to do some shopping.

So, our first adventure of the summer?  Helping to build the playground!  The entire thing gets built in just one week, with about 100 people working each of three shifts per day.  We actually even cancelled a trip to Kodiak that I had booked for this week because we don't want to miss it.  Thanks to the playground design firm, HOPP has build week down to a science, from knowing how many hammers are needed to arranging volunteers for childcare (who will even be background-checked for safety) to securing food donations that provide each building shift with a meal and snacks.  It's a HUGE job to organize it all, and we've been helping out where we can.  The kids and I will be baking and freezing cookies for the snack table over the next few weeks.  I've signed up for a few building shifts.  The CGC Hickory is organizing a team to work some of the shifts as well.  We ordered our pickets so the kids will have their names on the playground forever.

Homer friends, here's the link to visit to find out how you can help out.  And believe me, if you don't sign up now, you wish you had when build week comes around and the whole town is buzzing with excitement!

Surviving Our First Homer Winter

It's been so long since I've updated the blog that you may think we got buried by a blizzard.  While that is technically true (more than once, in fact), we have officially survived our first Homer winter.  Honestly, at times it felt like the darkness and snow was swallowing up our days, but we managed to get out and enjoy lots of unexpected Alaskan winter surprises. Now that the days are (much) longer, we have a new appreciation for the extra hours of sunshine that we took for granted last summer.  While we still have a couple of feet of snow at our house (and about 7 feet at the top of the mountain behind town), we can feel spring coming in the mud puddles (ponds?) on the streets and the need for fewer layers of clothing.

This winter we learned that we had never truly experienced cold before.  We thought we had in New England, but Alaska was hit with an especially cold and snow season this year.  The entire month of January was spent below zero.  Sometimes TWENTY below.  For Homer, that's unusually cold.  We also had a ton of snow (maybe it followed us from Connecticut, where we had record snow last year?).  Anchorage is thisclose to getting record snowfall for the year.  Anything above 10 degrees now feels warm.  Crazy.  The LT escaped to Hawaii on the ship for "training" for seven weeks of winter, during which we had several back-to-back blizzards.  School closed once.  I learned to drive in whiteout conditions with drifted snow that felt like sand dunes.  I love my Honda Pilot.

Snowshoeing on Christmas...3 degrees

Post-blizzard Homer harbor

Right about the time that I couldn't take another morning spent plowing through the 5-foot drifts on our driveway and chasing hungry moose away from the preschool door, we joined The LT for a week in the sun in Honolulu.  What a fabulous family vacation...we lived in bathing suits and went through three bottles of sunscreen.

Top of Diamond Head

We went from a world of gray and white to Technicolor

All of the snow has its pluses.  Our whole family learned to cross-country ski this year.  Homer has a surprisingly fabulous network of groomed ski trails, with our favorite starting just 5 minutes from our house.  We also saw some spectacular sunrises (even if they weren't until after 10am).

Also a rarity for living this far "south", we we able to get the kids out of bed at night to see the Northern Lights.  Twice!  And I learned how to photograph them.  But photos don't begin to describe it.  You'll have to come visit in winter and see for yourself.

Now that we're back in the light, I have started planning our summer adventures.  We are already due to move again next summer, so we have to treat this summer like it could be our last in Alaska for quite some time.  The LT will be spending much of his time cooling off in the Arctic Circle (see this article and this article for more on that), so I will be going solo with the kiddos as the Adventuresome Three to see all that this huge state has to offer.  Stay tuned for our itinerary.