The Cracked Van Newton and the Haunted Van Gilder

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THE CRACKED VAN NEWTON. Ice Cream Newton, our beloved Chevy Astro van, has been sporting some significant cracks in her windshield for several years now. No biggy. Just about every vehicle in Alaska has dings and cracks and holes and rust... we're all about practicality, not aesthetic perfection. But when that practicality is compromised, in the form of the rubber gaskets that presumably block water from flooding the inside of Ice Cream Newton, we take notice. And when the duck tape holding down those rubber gaskets begins to go "fwap, fwap, fwap" at cruising speeds above 10 mph, you know it's time to actually deal with the situation.

Enter, Seward. A quaint ocean-mountain town without a stop light and, come to find out, without a windshield replacement shop. No, to get something fancy like that done, you need to schedule a week day appointment in the metropolis of Soldotna, or Anchorage, both 2 hours away. I tried for a weekend gig and a kind (tongue pressing against my cheek) gentleman told me,

"Honey, I didn't move here to handle glass on my Saturday, you know what I'm sayin'? There's fish to catch and moose to shoot."

THE HAUNTED VAN GILDER. Finally I tracked down a shop in Soldotna that had an open appointment on a day I was going to be in town for a committee meeting. When I mentioned I was from Seward and needed a guarantee that the job could be done well that day, or I wouldn't be able to get home, the guy got excited...

"Seward! I lived there for 10 years when I first moved up from Georgia... worked at the Van Gilder Hotel. You ever been there?"

"No, I don't think we have... I think I've seen it though."

"Well you should go by; it's a beautiful hotel, just beautiful. I was into restoration you know, that's why I took the job. But the haunting was a little much."

 "The haunting?"

"Yeah, I had at least three days when I told my boss I had to leave, it was just too much... You see in the winter months we would close the hotel down and just work on stuff, and take reservations for the busy summer. One day I went up to the second floor and opened a supply closet. Next thing you know, every sheet and every towel is flying up off the shelves, flying out the door, hitting me in the face and making a huge mess all over the hallway. Another day I was going up to THE room, the room where Fannie was killed back in the day.  I was trying to hang up a framed plague in there and as soon as I started hammering on the wall, the window blows open, wind pours in, lamps fall over, pictures crash down from the walls... I was like, 'okay okay, I won't hang up the plague!' Guests too... tons of people staying there would report hearing loud stomping up the stairs in the middle of the night, doors slamming, that sort of thing... it's like sometimes the murder would get reenacted."

So according to the Seward City News and the Van Gilder Hotel website itself, a woman named Fannie Guthry-Baehm really was killed by her husband in the hotel in 1950. Now considered by many locals (and clearly my windshield repairman!) to be the resident ghost, Fannie shows up on all the Alaska ghost hunting websites as a must visit in Seward...

HALLOWEEN. Our trick or treating options just got a lot more interesting! We'll let you know if we cross paths with the undead!

Fall Festivities

 FALL. Ahhh... Crisp days, yellow leaves, orange pumpkins, wood stacking, apple cider... Ahhhh...

Kim helps haul wood over the bridge to the Manitoba Yurts as part of their "Woodstock" event... we stay there so often, it feels like a second home!

Many hands make light work! And the 30 some helpers were treated to live bluegrass music and a chili feed afterward... wish that happened after chores at home!

EQUINOX. Fall also means that marked transition from more light to more dark... and as in past years, we celebrated the equinox with the annual potato parade and gleaning. This time, however, we pulled in new friends, a borrowed garden (Wells Fargo, despite its questionable business ethics, offers up community garden space here in town... sweet!), and a more spectacular backdrop...

Indigo picks low bush cranberries so we can have sauce at the post-parade feast.

Even ZigZag gets into the costumery as we prep for the parade...

Time to harvest!!

Biking back with our garden bounty to eat!

SEWARD MUSIC AND ART FESTIVAL. We had heard about this event when we lived in Kenai, but never made the drive. Now, we were able to make the walk! A super home-grown weekend celebration, the festival featured an Egyptian theme with decorations made by Seward school children, including Miss Indigo. Bands and performers from Alaska and beyond lit up the stage (30 person orchestra covering David Bowie, anyone?), the beer garden cranked out Midnight Sun and Kenai River Brewing faves, and food trucks set up shop with gooey cinnamon rolls and cheesy spinach bread, while local artists and craftspeople sold everything from salmon leather wallets to Kodiak sea glass jewelry. We went every day! (Now, keep in mind that unlike other more populated places, Seward is two hours away from any other major town... when something cultural comes around, you have to take advantage...)

"Walk like an Egyptian..."

A performer from Anchorage who did aerial art on a fabric rope above our heads!

Indigo's class made the eye poster hanging above the beer garden

INITIATION DUST. So there is a name up here in Alaska for the very first snowfall that covers the tops of the mountains and marks the end of Summer... "Termination Dust." However, as a family that gets pretty darn excited about the fluffy white stuff, Team Leslie calls it "Initiation Dust," and each day more and more is accumulating up high. As expected, we've been getting outside as much as possible to enjoy the changing landscape and watch as the snow level drops lower and lower... 

Check out that Initiation Dust!

Of course J needs to check it out up close and personal...

A September ski down Mount Tiehacker above our home town and Resurrection Bay.

Sometimes we play down low too!

DATE NIGHT... ALASKA STYLE. Yesterday after school, Indigo went to a friend's birthday party. Translation? J and I got our first date night in a while! We decided to catch the last bit of sunlight and head out on a mountain bike ride before grabbing some appetizers at Chinooks down at the boat harbor... you know the family mantra: "Do it all!" 

We drove along Exit Glacier road and pulled over with a view of the glacier itself, spilling down out of the mountains with a pale blue glow. Our trail, the Resurrection River Trail, snaked along the river, hemmed in on one side by rocky cliffs and steep rain forest, with peekaboo glimpses of the glacier around each corner. J, Mr. Safety himself, was quick to point out that this was serious bear country and an active time of day for them too. Plus being on bikes made our potential bear encounter fairly dramatic; if we came across a bear, we would likely just run into it, literally, and have it pissed off from the start. So he made sure we each had a bear spray in our water bottle holster - if one of us smacked a bear, the other would want to have the spray close at hand! 

We started pedaling and J called out a loud deep "Hey Bear!" every 30 seconds as I just tried to get some balance and momentum and not careen off the trail. Finally in a groove, we swooped about for a while, over rocks and roots, bridges and creeks, and sometimes patches of wet dark mud... wet dark mud with BIG bear prints in them. We stopped. Bear prints that covered up the old human footprints and still had squishy edges. They were fresh. "Time to turn around?" J asked. "Hey Bear!" I yelled. We turned around and started pedaling back the way we had come, acutely aware of how the cliffs and the river created walls on each side of the trail - if we did see the bear, we and it wouldn't have many options of where to go. Gulp. The Hey-Bearing became like a song, especially loud on blind corners. Squish. I looked down and saw my fat tire had plowed through a huge pile of berry-laden bear scat that was not there on our way in. "Hey Hey Beeeeeear!!!" Our hearts pumping faster than they should given the fairly flat riding, we continued hooting and hollering our way along the trail, hoping that we wouldn't have a bear crash our date; a third wheel is no fun, especially a massive one with sharp parts!

We made it back to Ice Cream Newton unscathed, and headed back into town for some much-needed wine and halibut cheeks. Even something like a date is just a bit more intense up here!