Well, it's about that time. We leave Homer tomorrow to begin our journey to California. We aren't saying goodbye, just "See you later." We will be back, whether it's with the Coast Guard or otherwise. We just love this little community at the end of the road. We pick up The Nana in Anchorage and then we'll be on our way. Here's a little rundown of our stops:
Homer to Anchorage: 220 miles
Anchorage to Tok, AK: 320 miles
Tok, AK to Haines, AK (passing through Canada): 440 miles
Haines, AK to Bellingham, WA: aboard the AK Marine Highway (the ferry!) for 3.5 days
Bellingham, WA to Portland, OR: 265 miles. Extra day here--Oregon winery tour for The Nana and Mike, and probably the Oregon Zoo for the kiddos
Portland, OR to Crescent City, CA: 320 miles
Crescent City, CA to Garberville, CA: 110 miles. We will take it slow to explore Redwood National Park
Garberville, CA to Alameda, CA: 210 miles. Home!
I will be posting our daily adventures whenever we have an internet connection. If you have any suggestions along our route, please let us know! Restaurants, attractions, pit stops, etc. all welcome! We have never gone this route past Tok, so it is all new to us. Let the adventure begin!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Human feet were not meant for water this cold! |
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| Iceburgs! |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| We will be back! |
Sunday, June 9, 2013
A little game
Since I still can't fathom how I'm going to drive myself out of town and over the Baycrest hill, leaving the mountains of Kachemak Bay behind, I've started playing a little game with the kids. As we think about how it will be to live in California, we are finding some amusing small-town-Alaska details of daily life that we have gotten used to.
We will miss seeing the bald eagles at the dump...but we will not miss loading up our stinky trash in the back of the Pilot to get it there.
We will miss catching up with friends in line at the post office...but we are excited to have mail delivered right to our house.
We will miss our favorite Safeway cashier (Carolyn!)...but we will not miss spending at least $25 every time we walk into the grocery store.
We will miss having the extra income (cost of living allowance!) to buy good quality outdoor gear...but we are so looking forward to not having to wear at least 3 layers every time we leave the house, or packing snow pants or rain pants in the kids' backpacks for school. Where they also need an extra pair of "inside shoes" because their outside shoes are almost always rain or snow boots.
We will miss the Homer Spit trail...but we are looking forward to not having to drive to get to a paved surface for our bikes and runs.
We will miss being able to let the dog ride around everywhere with us in the car...but not the wet dog smell that seems to happen every time he comes along.
We will miss our weekly "surprise" box of fresh produce...but we will not miss having half of it show up unusable from its long journey to get to us.
We will miss our favorite restaurants...but we will not miss being limited to three places to choose from when we go out to dinner.
We will miss the Alaskan wildflowers...but we are looking forward to growing flowers in our own yard nearly year-round.
We will miss going pretty much anywhere in jeans and hoodies...but buying a summer wardrobe for the first time in several years will be fun!
And on the game goes. We will be fine once our adventurous trip south begins, and probably even by the time we get to Anchorage to ship our second car and pick up the Traveling Nana, but getting over that first hill will be quite a challenge.
We will miss seeing the bald eagles at the dump...but we will not miss loading up our stinky trash in the back of the Pilot to get it there.
We will miss catching up with friends in line at the post office...but we are excited to have mail delivered right to our house.
We will miss our favorite Safeway cashier (Carolyn!)...but we will not miss spending at least $25 every time we walk into the grocery store.
We will miss having the extra income (cost of living allowance!) to buy good quality outdoor gear...but we are so looking forward to not having to wear at least 3 layers every time we leave the house, or packing snow pants or rain pants in the kids' backpacks for school. Where they also need an extra pair of "inside shoes" because their outside shoes are almost always rain or snow boots.
We will miss the Homer Spit trail...but we are looking forward to not having to drive to get to a paved surface for our bikes and runs.
We will miss being able to let the dog ride around everywhere with us in the car...but not the wet dog smell that seems to happen every time he comes along.
We will miss our weekly "surprise" box of fresh produce...but we will not miss having half of it show up unusable from its long journey to get to us.
We will miss our favorite restaurants...but we will not miss being limited to three places to choose from when we go out to dinner.
We will miss the Alaskan wildflowers...but we are looking forward to growing flowers in our own yard nearly year-round.
We will miss going pretty much anywhere in jeans and hoodies...but buying a summer wardrobe for the first time in several years will be fun!
And on the game goes. We will be fine once our adventurous trip south begins, and probably even by the time we get to Anchorage to ship our second car and pick up the Traveling Nana, but getting over that first hill will be quite a challenge.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
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.
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!
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.
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.
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| Gull Island |
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| Sea lion on the rocks |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Outside Beach, at the end of the Otterbahn Trail |
Sunday, June 2, 2013
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.
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".
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.
Monday, May 27, 2013
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.
Friday, May 24, 2013
The Nomadic Newells Celebrate a Decade
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| Homer, AK |
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Nomadic Newells! It has been quite a journey.
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| Kodiak, AK 2003 |
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| Newport, NC 2005 |
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| Atlantic Beach, NC- USCGC Staten Island 2006 |
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| Ledyard, CT 2008 |
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| Newport, RI 2010 |
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| Juneau, AK 2012 |
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