Silver and Gold

SILVER. We have our first visitor! Gran (previously known as Mom, previously known as Deb Rogers) has arrived after three flights, one four hour delay, one missed connection, and an astounding twenty-eight hour travel day without sleep. To quote the weary traveler, "I could have gone to China and back in the time it took to get to Alaska!" Future visitors: Please don't be deterred! It is super cool here! You just have to make it. Here are some of Gran's first impressions:

• Huge taxidermied grizzly bears "decorating" all the airports.

• Pilot of 16 passenger flight to Kenai teaching everyone what to do if he became incapacitated (Anyone here a pilot?), and then using a flashlight to check that the edges of the door had  closed (Isn't there supposed to be a light-up button on a panel or something for that? Anyone here a pilot?).

• Eighty-two year old gal sitting next to Gran explaining that she had chartered a small plane to land on a beach to see bears, contingent on her being able to help the pilot push the plane around before taking off again (oh yeah, we Alaskans are a hearty bunch).

Also of note, Gran arrived with a silver whistle on a cord at the ready around her neck. I convinced her that the library preschool story time this morning should be a pretty safe and bear-free environment. The whistle is currently tucked in her pocket. On the flip side, Gran is much relieved to know that Alaska does not have any snakes (escaped pets aside). Bring on the bush-whackery!

GOLD. Last weekend we were doing some hiking and parked on a rough dirt road down by a little creek at the base of a mountain off the Sterling Highway. Turned out to be quite the hub. A crew of guys across a foot bridge were working on restoring an old cabin and building some yurts to be used by back country skiers in the winter (yes, J is pleased as punch). Then a bearded older man with a dog on a rope pulled his beater Subaru into the scene and let me know that this was his claim and he was out to get himself some more gold. Next, three kayakers appeared dragging their boats, asking if I was a miner. I said no, but that the man whose claim this was just headed over the bridge. They dropped their boats, yelled their thanks, and took off running after him. Did they need permission to put in at his site?  Should I have gotten his permission to be hiking here? Maybe there was a gold country etiquette that I had missed. Or maybe they were  planning on boating and doing a little gold panning? Alaskans do like to pack in the activities while the sun is shining. No. Apparently there was a ladder stretched across a lower portion of the creek as part of the miner's prospecting set-up: a deadly strainer for the boaters. Goodwill reigned and the boaters returned with assurance that the ladder had been removed. Coincidentally, with a bit of chatting we realized one of the boaters had a second home in Hood River and shared many common friends with us. With promises of passing along hellos, they suited up, popped on their spray skirts and headed into the whitewater down the valley. We headed into the fireweed and blueberries up the valley. 'Tis a small, golden world!

Small yellow sign officially marks the claim.

Blue gold.

Guns, Berries and Volcanoes

GUNS. So we went for a few big hikes last weekend to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. On one of them, there was a gal who pulled into the trail head at about the same time as we did. At first glance, she looked like a hip happening Hood River-ite...  lululemon yoga pants, trendy headband, lab on a designer leash... however a few other things stood out: namely, she had no water, no snacks, and was carrying a massive rifle. And there we were feeling pretty darn prepared with our bear spray at the ready on the back of my pack (which, mind you, included lots of water and snacks... I still count dehydration as a big consideration, even if it doesn't have claws and growl). Regardless of our lack of packing heat, we managed to survive. Here are a few pix and maybe even some videos of the scene if I can figure out how to add that to my post. (Ah, it was easy... nothing too exciting - just giving you a feel for the scenery.) Speaking of figuring things out: I think I changed a setting so that now everyone can make comments if they wish... go crazy.

J and Indigo on Summit Creek Trail

BERRIES. Indigo and I went to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge this week for a free lesson on edible berries. Amazingly, the program met the needs of both a thirty-six year old and a three year old! We played identification games, ate berry snacks, read berry books, followed the tracks of native animals that eat the berries, painted with berry juice and went on a hike to actually find all the berries. Save for poisonous Alderberries and Devil's Club (Jesus Stick is okay), we could munch everything around: Trailing Raspberries, Blueberries, Lowbush Cranberries, Highbush Cranberries, Bunchberries, Watermelon berries, Crowberries, and Cloudberries. Yee ha! I see a pie in our future.

Indigo fills her bucket in our neighborhood after class

BERRIES AND GUNS. Apropos of our class, some new friends invited us to go blueberry picking. Most of us have done this, right? You get your bucket or your baggie and you head to a patch on a hill, or to a blueberry farm, and you can wear your old sneakers and act sort of leisurely about the whole affair. Ha! Apparently not so in Alaska. I ended up being extremely flattered that this family thought we could hang with them. The picking "site" was several miles up the side of a very steep mountain, the climbing of which involved clambering over fallen trees and kick stepping into mud while grabbing at prickly vegetation in an attempt to stay upright. Near the top,  I got an on-the-spot rifle loading and shooting lesson "in case" I needed to use it while I was picking (okay, red flag - who needs a gun when they pick blueberries for goodness sake?!). Bullet, shell, magazine, chamber, pump... not usually a part of my blueberry picking vocabulary. Indigo just stared. And, they loaned us these hand-held blueberry picking tools  to be more efficient about things (ie less chance of getting eaten by a bear). So there we were, tin pails, picker tools, guns and all. Did I mention these friends brought their 10 month old baby? Once again, we did not encounter a bear, although a herd of mountain goats did visit our patch just as we were leaving. Honestly, a GREAT trip, but oh so very Alaska Adventure.

The amazing blueberry picker

Our new friend Jodie extreme blueberry picking

Indigo goes for it

VOLCANOES. In other news, J has one more element to his daily weather monitoring: volcanic action. For those of you who don't know, J is an official weather buff who spends quite a bit of time checking various websites and comparing forecasts. This used to be limited to factors like temperature, precipitation, wind direction, etc. He can now add to his list the color alert for active volcanoes in our area... For example, orange alert: "Volcano is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption, timeframe uncertain, OR eruption is underway with no or minor volcanic-ash emissions [ash-plume height specified, if possible]." (a la the Alaska Volcano Observatory website -  you too can follow the action!) Do you have an ashfall preparedness plan? Stay tuned for ours...

FLASHBACK. And in response to some inquiries about scoot biking, Veronica's, Ice Cream Newton, tenting with child, and the stuffies, sparked by my last post:

Scoot biking queen

Princess luncheon at my beloved Veronica's

The "set-up" in back of Ice Cream Newton

Indigo's menagerie

Coming Into The Country

The beginning:

Our Chevy Astro Van, lovingly named "Ice Cream Newton," was packed to the gunnels. Every time we opened the slider door, a first aide kit, a blue kid potty and at least one rogue water bottle would come flinging out. Apparently our three day yard sale (made good money),  twelve UPS boxes (spent good money), and truck load of Goodwill donations had not done the trick. Thankfully our Pacific Northwest family provided the perfect regrouping/repacking ground...

Team Leslie, The Grammies, Julie-Dave-Owen

At last we were ready to hit the road for reals... The plan was to make our way up to our future home in Kenai, Alaska, taking the full month of July to explore and enjoy a la British Columbia, the Inside Passage, the Yukon, and finally our new stomping ground: the Kenai Peninsula. Yee ha!

WHISTLER. After crossing the border into Canada, we stop at a Safeway (gotta stay in the comfort zone). But, already things are different. Their deli has green onion cakes - amazing. We get back Loonies and Toonies for change - cool. Indigo's yogurt is "cerise" flavored - ooh la la. Right away, we really feel like we're on an adventure. Maybe even an international adventure - double cool.

We get right to it and bust our the mountain bike upon arrival at our campground. Several rides, hikes, gondola trips, and tubing adventures later, we keep on keeping on.

Kim and Indigo take the gondola to the top for some sledding and ice cream!

 

 

 

MARBLE CANYON. Believe it or not, it was hot. And sunny. We actually needed to bust out our sunscreen and lather it on. Not only that, but with the day light lasting longer and longer, we were actually getting sunburned overnight. Took a few days to realize why we were all sporting bright pink cheeks every morning.

J and Indigo take a dip to cool off.

SMITHERS. Indigo buys her first stuffie. Seriously, this is important. We told the poor kid that if she sold a lot of her old toys, she could use the money to buy new toys along the way. Of course we needed to create some sort of guidelines to avoid a three year old consumer monster. We loosely decided that items purchased at visitors centers were fair game. So "black bear" joins the crew in Ice Cream Newton. We also begin the great playground census of 2012. If you're curious about a playground between Oregon and Alaska, odds are good we can tell you all about it. FYI spiral slides rock, tube slides bonk grown-up heads near the bottom, and kaleidoscopes attached to the playground are a huge bonus. Anyway, we managed to again get out the mountain bikes for some fun boardwalky goodness, and the bathing suits for some much needed cooling off.

Ready to hit the lake for a dip.

PRINCE RUPERT and THE INSIDE PASSAGE. After a much anticipated breakfast stop at Tim Horton's, we got in line at the ferry dock for our thirty plus hour sail up to Juneau. Wow. Absolutely glorious. We slept out on the deck of the solarium, oohed and ahhed at the scenery, read, journaled, and ran all about. And bought another stuffie (okay, so it's not a visitor center but the gift shop on board was surprisingly educational), sea otter.

Indigo gets her journaling groove on.

Fast friends.

JUNEAU. Okay, so it finally started raining on us, we can't lie. And it was a total bummer. The famed mountains of Juneau, the sparkling blue of Mendenhall Glacier... well, we made the best of it and found a kick-butt crab shack. And then a waffle house. You get the picture. And a stuffie - polar bear. Okay, so we weren't even near a visitors center. The poor kid sold a lot of her stuff, right?

Indigo, eater extraordinaire, vies for more coconut crab cakes.

Iceberg tidbit.

HAINES. Yes! Arriving on another ferry jaunt just in time for J's birthday. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Alaska "jungle" hike.

A birthday brew.

Indigo took this picture!

Ferry wonderful.

Haines totem.

Bday ride.

Fireweed.

Yes, she is a Leslie!

Day after birthday ride.

A beautiful place to be camped... ahh.

THE YUKON. Okay, the first thing to say about the Yukon is MOSQUITO WARS. Some of you may have been wondering about the biting little boogers... after all, Canada and Alaska are notorious. Well honestly, J and I didn't have much trouble at all the whole trip, and once we hit the Kenai, there were very few skeeters at all. However, in the Yukon, it was a different story. And for Indigo, with her tender, plump, juicy, blood-filled limbs and face, it was Team Leslie against Team Skeeter. And it was ugly. No exaggeration: we would get in Ice Cream Newton, close all the doors, and there would be well over one hundred mosquitoes in the vehicle. If that doesn't give you the heebygeebies, I don't know what does. Indigo would be suited up, covered from head to toe, head-net and all, and J and I would go ballistic, whacking the ceiling, dash, windows, floors, until they were all (mostly) dead. Indigo knows that most insects are insect friends, but not the human biters. We got pretty good at it. Usually just two or three cowardly skeets would be lurking in the back of Ice Cream Newton, and after driving for a minute or two, Indigo would give the alert. The front seat passenger would unbuckle, leap backwards, and whack the heck out of them. Point for Team Leslie.

J does back seat duty while Indigo waits to take her f-ing net off.

Other than the skeets, the Yukon had some pleasant surprises. This far north, we were literally wearing our sunglasses at night, and would stretch the days out until eleven became a standard bedtime. Indigo scored another stuffie, weasel, this time from the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge visitors center (back on our game). We saw a grizzly cross the road right in front of our car. And we found some funky little spots to add pizazz to the vast wilds.

Yukon mini golf (?!?!)

Practicing the perfect roast.

Ice Cream Newton, Kim, Indigo and our humungous tent.

Kluane National Park

THOMPSON PASS (near VALDEZ). A surprise and total highlight destination of the trip. Glacier hiking, summer backcountry skiing, and the most spectacular camping spot we may have ever had the pleasure to stay at, Blueberry Lake. Dropped down to visit the town for halibut and fries, but quickly headed back up for more time in this epic wilderness. Book-ended the venture with two stops to a bizarre purple Thai food truck with top notch eats and got our curry fix for the summer. Yes, great Thai food in Alaska, who knew.

Gotta get the July turns.

Not a bad idea.

Rock tower building at camp.

"I'm the queen of Alaska!"

SEWARD. Ahhh. We have a arrived on the Kenai Peninsula. After a brief stop in the town of Kenai to find a rental house (success!) and get our bearings, we're off again to pack in the remaining summer days with as much travel as possible. Seward delivers in a big way. Play ground census take note: Seward's waterfront playground may win the best-of-Alaska award. Aquatic Center (hello new stuffie - hermit crab), Exit Glacier (J sees a bear on hike), and fun downtown scene. A backdrop to it all is Mt. Marathon, where people race to see who can run up and down the 3,000 foot peak in under an hour (do the math on that one). Now that is the go-big Alaska we were expecting!

View from our camp.

Marine mammal amazing!

HOMER: After a drive back into Anchorage to pick up ZigZag kitty from his pet flight (rest assured, he is in great shape and absolutely basking in the midnight sun and space of Alaska), and a brief attempt at settling in a bit to our new home (more on that, fear not) we hit the road again. A note on driving: Although the Kenai Peninsula is on the road system of Alaska, that doesn't mean paved roads. All of the main roads are paved, but many of roads you turn off onto are not. Ice Cream Newton has not seemed phased. Also of note: many people selling baleen (as in part of a whale) on the side of the road - haven't figured that one out yet. And definitely lots of moose (alive, not for sale). The Kenai Spur Hwy seems like an almost for-sure moose siting route.  Back to Homer. We pretty much played our tourist card and went out to eat every meal, explored, hit a few museums (welcome new stuffie - sea jelly) and relaxed. Ah, and we got a Chariot for our and Indigo's strollering, biking and skiing pleasure.

The famous Salty Dog Saloon.

Love it.

KENAI. Home. After more than a month, we made it! Complete with a Safeway (no onion cakes though), Walmart (embarrassed to say how many visits we have made so far), and just about everything a regular lower-48 town might have. And a huge sandy beach with a snow-capped volcano backdrop. And bald eagles that are said to pick off wandering house-cats, Ziggy beware. Meow! We managed to score a funky big beach house above the bluff within walking distance to J's school and an Indigo-approved playground/park. (Housing Gods - Thank you!) Craigslist has been fantastic and we are now the proud owners of some furniture to go in said beach house. J inspired us to hit the Salmonstock music festival last weekend and he's already filled a new growler at three local breweries. (In Alaska they have a 2 and a half gallon beer container called a "party pig." We have yet to purchase a party pig.) Indigo has been attending the pre-school library sessions (books, music, art project, ect) while I am madly in love with the local coffee shop, Veronica's, tucked near the historic Russian Orthodox blue-onion-domed churches down the beach. Not exactly the rustic cabin tucked in the woods I imagined, but so far so good!

Rock hounding.

Salmonstock Festival girl.

Bubbles on her beach.

The new place.

Ice Cream Newton - showing her Alaska colors.

Our shared front yard.

Day hike hour from home.

Sunset north of town (think 11:00 pm)

Sunset on our beach.

"Finally I have my things!"

Phew. I think that's it. If you actually read all this, I commend you. If you just looked at the pictures, I can relate. Future posts will be MUCH shorter. Stay tuned for what will likely be weekly or monthly installments of Team Leslie's Alaska Adventure!