Greetings from

I've Decided to Blog Again

2010-12-03T16:14:00.001-08:00

I've decided to blog once again. I kind of like it as a log of my life.

I started this blog when I was in Alaska. I still miss AK a bit, and I have a feeling I'll end up there again at some point. For now, I'm still working full-time in Wisconsin and taking graduate classes. I take the GRE soon. Gotta finish school before I can plot other things :P I want to teach myself html (found a book at Goodwill). Whenever I have time to learn, my website will be way more awesome.

This summer has been really busy. Actually, so is this fall/winter. Anyway, reflections on this summer first.

I went to the Boundary Waters with my brother. I love traveling with my siblings. We don't mind not showering and doing things cheaply, and there's that whole deal of what happens on this trip you still have to see this person for the rest of your life. David emailed me Wednesday asking if I wanted to kayak to the Boundary Waters, so I took off that Friday. I want to go back at some point for a longer trip. He lives in Minneapolis, so I met him there. We rented a canoe through the U of M and drove to Ely. We had a good dinner and picked up some supplies in Ely, but the place we planned to camp was full. We just slept in the car in the parking lot. It wasn't bad, and saved us a few bucks by not paying for a campsite. The next morning we paddled through a few lake and wide river. We got a bit lost at one point, but we camped on an island. The best part about the island was that we got to watch a turtle lay eggs. I got a video of her laying an egg. The next day we paddled to some awesome lakes--they were more remote since we were getting farther in, and definitely scenic and absent of people. We had to paddle out this day too--met up with a bit of wind on the way out. Got a late dinner at Town Hall in Minneapolis...I didn't get back to Madison until 4am and had to work the next day. I definitely paid the price at work on Monday, but worth it to fit in a Boundary Waters trek.

I went with both David and Kathryn to Colorado. We truly traversed the whole state. We drove to Denver and Boulder first, went to Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, and through Monument Valley in Utah. In Denver, we made sure to visit Casa Bonita (South Park reference). In Boulder, we toured the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory and hung out on Pearl Street (basically State St. with a mountain backdrop). In Mesa Verde we climbed Longs Peak..well almost. It was storming before we could reach the very top. I was kind of glad because we were reaching the scary drop-off point of the hike. Rained and hailed on us during the hike too! Definitely awesome views and met tons of marmots of along the way. Mesa Verde was cool--beautiful park and some history too. Monument Valley was beautiful and surreal. I've never seen red sand or western landscapes like that before. Above are pics.

Prairie Strip

2009-07-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

I work near the Madison airport--I can walk there in 10 minutes or less. Along that walk, there is a strip of restored prairie. I really enjoy making this walk on my lunch break, and I brought my camera this week:

Yellow coneflowers blowing in the wind.

Close-up of a purple coneflower.

For these next couple images, I played with the color settings on my camera:

CSA

2009-02-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

Justin and I are joining a CSA! I am super excited about this. We decided on Vermont Valley Community Farm. It has a lot of pickup locations which is convenient because we will probably be moving in late-July and since my job is a temp one I could have a different work location.

I had learned about CSA's in my environmental studies classes. The basic concept is to treat the farm as a business. CSA members purchase annual shares in the farm in exchange for a box of vegetables each week. Most often these farms are local and organic. Local farmers now have a business instead of just land, so it can prevent them from selling off land when they need money to retire (thus discouraging sprawl). CSA's keep dollars in the community. They encourage organic and sustainable farming as well as healthy eating. Many insurance agencies even offer rebates if their members belong to a CSA. For more info on the awesomeness of CSAs, go to this website: MACSAC

Right Brain, Left Brain

2009-02-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

I took a few online tests to see if I am right brain or left brain dominant. Left brained tend to be more logical and analytical while right brained are more creative. Most lefts showed that I was lightly more left brained that right. The split wasn't a huge disparity though. Here are the results for one of the tests:

Thank you for taking the Creativity Test. The results show your brain dominance as being:

Left Brain	Right Brain
54%	46%

Your left brain/right brain percentage was calculated by combining the individual scores of each half's sub-categories. They are as follows:

Your Left Brain Percentages

60%	Verbal (Your most dominant characteristic)
44%	Sequential
34%	Logical
32%	Linear
25%	Symbolic
7%	Reality-based (Your least dominant characteristic)

Your Right Brain Percentages

34%	Intuitive (Your most dominant characteristic)
32%	Nonverbal
32%	Fantasy-oriented
28%	Random
28%	Concrete
24%	Holistic (Your least dominant characteristic)

Website: Right Brain Left Brain Test

Quick Update

2008-12-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

I fly back to Wisconsin tomorrow! I plan to go back and add entries from San Francisco on here. I've been super busy--I think every evening I've done something here!

Also, I think I will keep my blog up after I return to Wisconsin. Stay tuned for the Epilogue to my Kodiak Travels and further adventures!

Not in Alaska anymore!!!

2008-11-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

I have officially left Alaska. Monday night we went out for pizza and a movie, and Tuesday (my last night in Anchorage) I made dinner for everyone. I went for a short hike at Kincaid Park since I had a lot of packing to do. I shipped another box home. My backpack was still pretty full though! Anyway, I made potato chickpea curry, roasted asparagus, mustard greens, and blackberry cobbler. I also had beer and salmon hor'deourves on hand. I love going all out for hosting dinners. I think I definitely want to do more of it when I get home. I have missed having my own kitchen in Kodiak. So far at home I have hosted a taco dinner for my guats, a Polish dinner followed by a bowling outing, and a Europe party. For Tim and his friends I think I will make some of the same dishes as in Anchorage, but make poached salmon instead of curry. I think it would be fun to make a salmon dinner for people back home as well.

Late Tuesday night I flew out of Anchorage. I had a connecting flight in Seattle and arrived in San Francisco at mid-day. Tim had work for a few hours, so I stowed my bag and walked around downtown a bit. I stopped at the Visitor Center and this cool mall thing. I was still wearing hiking boots, layers of fleece, and a winter coat. I felt a bit out of place and thought wow people are actually dressed in nice coats that aren't ski coats and people actually wear heels here.

I retrieved my bag and took the BART (subway) to meet up with Tim. He lives in Oakland right near Berkeley. I like the old architectural details of his apartment. There is molding in the living room and the kitchen has a baseboard.

That night we went into the Mission neighborhood to a bar called Amnesia. I made a point to remember the bar name after I found out it was Amnesia, hehe. I actually was able to head out without gloves or a hat. I only wore a light rainjacket and wore shoes that weren't boots, athletic shoes, or some sort of hiking shoes for the first time in awhile, lol. I really liked the bar. It reminded me a bit of Maduro in Madison. They had an awesome beer selection. The first beer I got was Duchess du Bourgogne. It's got caramel flavors and is delicious. I had it the first time at Maduro right before I left Wisconsin. The second beer I got was a Dogfish Head Palo Santo. I had been reading a New Yorker magazine on the plane, and they had a long article on Dogfish Head Brewery in it, so I think I was influenced by reading the article to order Dogfish Head. The bar also had live music. Two jazz bands played. I reveled in watching all of the activity on the city streets at night.

Today is Thanksgiving. This morning Tim and I went for a walk in Berkeley. It's a really nice neighborhood. It was fun to check out all of the houses and their gardens. Looks like there are some cool coffee shops and a big park too.

We are heading over to Tim's friend's sister's house for dinner. We made cornbread and a sweet potato dish to bring over. Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, and I have pics to put up. May try to do it later in the day.

Last Days of Work!!

2008-11-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

I leave Kodiak 3 days! I fly out next Tuesday to Anchorage and spend a week there, then spend a week in San Francisco, and then finally return to Wisconsin.

Friday was my last day working with most people since Saturdays there is limited staffing. A potluck lunch was held in my honor. We also took some photos. Someone had donated this bear mask, so we used in as a prop in several photos.

From left: Lisa, me, Cassie, Margo, Tina. That's a lot of brown uniforms!

Last night I did some laundry in anticipation of packing. I'm going to ship home my giant rolly suitcase so I just have my backpacking pack to carry while I travel. It's not that much more expensive to ship home since I'd have to pay lots of fees for a second checked item. I also watched High School Musical 2 last night. Tina and I are going to see HSM3 tonight. She wanted to catch a movie with before I leave, and HSM3 is what was playing (there's only one screen at the Kodiak theater). I had seen the first HSM, but the not the second. I actually liked it. Usually I'm not huge on the Disney Channel stuff, but the songs are catchy and the kids have some sweet dance moves. Tina had not see any of the HSMs, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of it.

Another Winter Hike

2008-11-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

Last week Friday I went with Margo to the Coast Guard bowling alley. Her boyfriend Roger is on a bowling team, so we watched them bowl and play darts. Suprisingly I was semi-good at darts.

Last Saturday I ate dinner at the Powerhouse with Margo, Roger, and their friend Josh. The Powerhouse is a Japanese restaurant. Really good sushi, although the pieces were really big so it was messy for me to eat. One awesome thing they have there--heated toilet seats in the womens restroom! You could even turn the heat up or down as much as you want.

Monday of this week I went hiking with the same group I went to dinner with at the Powerhouse. We hiked up Little Monashka mountain. There wasn't really a trail up it, so it involved lots of bushwhacking. We also had to cross a stream and a river. We saw snowshoe hare, fox, and deer tracks in the snow. Also saw some black-tailed deer. Unfortunately my phone fell out of my backpack on this hike. I was able to get a replacement phone though because I had insurance on my lost phone and there is an AT&T store in town.

Snowshoe hare tracks

Gorgeous winter view

Margo, Roger, and I on Little Monashka Mountain.

An almost full moon gave us light for the last part of the hike.

After the hike we gathered for steak and beer and Margo at Roger's house. Nothing like a triumphant dinner after a day of hiking.

Winter Hike

2008-11-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

Since Halloween some other stuff I've done:

--saw a movie with Lisa and her husband Bill

--collected a little more beach glass. I never did get as much as I meant to, but oh well. It might be good cuz then there will be less to actually find a use for, hehe.

--observed the mountains turning whiter

Margo is my SCA replacement (she will work 6 months in the same vicinity I did). We got to go on a hike day last Friday for work, and we went to Chiniak Lake. This was my third time doing that hike. I had done it once in summer, once in early fall, and once in winter. It was a nice hike, and I got some good pics in the snow.

Me making a snow angel.

Chiniak Lake on the right is frozen. To the left is the ocean.

Margo

Chiniak Lake through the seasons:

A few more winter scenes from the hike:

After our hike we stopped at Java Flats. They are really good sandwiches and cookies there. Not a bad day of work!

Halloween

2008-11-08T12:56:00.001-08:00

Halloween in Kodiak was a fun day. I dressed up as Pam Beasely from the tv show The Office. We got to hand out candy to kids who stopped by the Visitors Center, and everyone dressed up for it.

Cassie the Witch Doctor giving candy to a little skunk.

Me handing out candy.

Candy selection at the VC.

Clockwise from top left: My Pam Beasley DunderMifflin mug (Pam works for the Dunder Mifflin Paper company on the show), a ghost, a spooky cup filled with blood, and my attempt to put a stapler in jello (a gag they have done on The Office)

After work I went to a party at Tina and Paul's house. They had this awesome shot luge. You pour liquor at the top of it, it slides over the ice, and you catch it in your mouth at the bottom.

Me being Pam Beasely at the party.

There were three people dressed as Sarah Palin at the party, and one person dressed as John McCain.

More Kodiak Cruiseship Debate

2008-10-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Article published in the Kodiak Daily Mirror on a recent town forum to discuss number of cruise ships visiting Kodiak:

Forum: What is ideal number of cruise ships?
Article published on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
By JAN HUISMAN
Mirror Writer

In a town hall-style meeting in Fishermen’s Hall Wednesday night, more than 40 Kodiakans voiced strong and often contradictory opinions on the cruise ship industry in Kodiak.

After holding steady for the past decade at eight or nine per year, the number of cruise ship visits in Kodiak doubled to 16 in 2008. Next year, 24 ships are scheduled to arrive.

The Kodiak Island Convention and Visitors Bureau organized the forum. Janet Buckingham, executive director of the KICVB, said the bureau and the City Council wanted to poll public opinion as the city starts to plan for infrastructure and economic issues raised by the cruise industry’s growth in Kodiak.

“What is the appropriate level of cruise ship visits for Kodiak?” Buckingham asked the audience. “What benefits do cruise ships offer Kodiak, and what concerns do you have about cruise ships coming to Kodiak?”

A working town
A large number of audience members spoke with alarm about the increase, citing towns in southeast Alaska as examples of what Kodiak should not become.

“I have a friend in Ketchikan,” Sylvia Panzarella said. “She gave me a little forewarning to pass on.”

Panzarella said the Ketchikan waterfront was full of jewelry and tourist stores owned by the cruise ship companies. High rents forced local businesses out of downtown. Locals no longer go to the waterfront, and in the winter, downtown becomes a ghost town.

“It’s fun the way we have it now, and I feel like it’s manageable. I’d like to keep Kodiak real, because there are many places in the Southeast that have become Disneyland,” Panzarella said.

Harry Dodge, owner of a lodge in Uyak Bay, read two letters on behalf of friends who decried the impact the cruise industry would have on Kodiak’s unique appeal to extended-stay tourists.

“I’m not against cruise ships, but I am concerned about the limits,” Dodge said. “Many of our guests have expressed appreciation for the fact that Kodiak is a working town and not a tourist trap,” he said.

Dodge said the number of cruise ships should not rise above the projected 2009 level.

“We have the opportunity to preserve Kodiak’s integrity, to keep it a special and unique place while welcoming guests from around the world,” he said.

Business opportunities
Dave Schmidt, owner of MemoryMakers Tour and Guide Services, agreed Kodiak’s appeal was its authenticity of a working town, but he did not think the current level of cruise ships harmed that image.

“I think (the 2008 season) went over well,” he said. “It was a perfect amount of cruise ships, I think. It wasn’t too many, and anything less than that I think people wouldn’t necessarily make that kind of money off of them.”

One man expressed a desire for a centralized shopping center near Pier 2, where the cruise ships dock.

“I’d like to have a building there, and I’d like to make a couple hundred thousand dollars off these people when they come to town,” he said. “I’d like to see every cruise ship come here. I’d like to make money. But keep it localized and keep it centralized in one area.”

John Whiddon, president of the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, said the growing industry could create business opportunities.

“If it grows to 30, 50, 60 (ships per year), there will be opportunities for lightering companies and all kinds of things – business opportunities get created.”

Buckingham told the audience cruise ship passengers often come into the KICVB asking for services that do not exist, such as rides to Fort Abercrombie or sightseeing boat trips around the island. In an interview last month, Buckingham said Kodiakans should take advantage of these requests.

“I think there are opportunities to be had, being real creative,” Buckingham said.

Infrastructure lacking
Several audience members expressed concern the cruise industry is placing a burden on Kodiak’s already creaking infrastructure.

Mike Sirofchuk, a Kodiak State Parks advisory board member, told the audience of a controversial plan to create a parking lot near the military museum in Fort Abercrombie State Park, to accommodate buses with passengers from the cruise ships. The plan is stalled due to opposition from board members to paying for the cruise industry’s needs, he said.

“It concerns me at the same time that we’re talking about needing a new high school and lots of other construction reports are being made, that we’d put any money into infrastructure for an industry that we know from other places really doesn’t care about our community,” Sirofchuk said.

Another woman agreed, citing the poor state of the road system.

“Are we going to put up a lot of effort into servicing an industry up front, when we don’t even have decent infrastructure to take care of this community now?” she asked.

City Manager Linda Freed said Kodiak received $250,000 in grant reimbursable funds to make a comprehensive plan for Pier 2, a multi-use dock used by the cruise ships, large fishing vessels, the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson and the state ferry Kennicott.

“My recommendation to the City Council is not to spend any money on improvements for the cruise industry, specifically until we get through this planning process,” she said.

“We do need to establish capital improvement priorities. There are significant infrastructure improvement and repairs that need to be made in this community, and so do we want to spend money, even if it’s state money, doing things to Pier 2 that the community doesn’t fully support?” Freed said.

Infrastructure issues raised by the audience include the need for a sidewalk along Shelikof Street, transportation options for passengers to ride around town, and scheduling problems at Pier 2.

“Do we currently have the infrastructure to accommodate increased cruise traffic?” asked Dodge. “If so, are fishermen and the state ferries taking a back seat to cruise ships, and should they?”

Harbormaster Marty Owen said scheduling at the dock is done on a first-come, first-serve basis. This year, the Alaska Marine Highway System was early with its schedule, so cruise ships must schedule around the ferry.

In an interview about the cruise industry last month, Owen said federal security regulations for cruise ships demand that the harbor set up barriers the day before a cruise ship arrives. When a cruise ship comes to town, fishing vessels are displaced from Pier 2 for two days.

“I think more than a couple a week would start to tax us a little bit,” Owen said.

The perfect number
A common theme expressed throughout the forum was the need to come up with a desired number of cruise ships.

“If we can establish an amount of cruise ships that we want to come to Kodiak, then people could build an infrastructure around that amount of people,” said Mark Majdic.

“They can say, ‘OK, we need this many taxis.’ People could say yeah, ‘I can start a business,’” he said.

Owen told the audience the cruise industry in Kodiak is small compared to towns in southeast Alaska.

“We’re kind of self-limiting here,” he said. “We’re on an island, out in the middle of the North Pacific. They really don’t like to come here too often, because the chance of getting passengers seasick is increased every time you cross the Gulf.”

Whiddon warned against making too many plans and investments for a fickle industry. He said we should not assume growth, since a bad economic year or high oil prices could cause vessels to stop coming to Kodiak.

“It’s not really up to us to decide how we handle the cruise ship industry,” he said, telling the audience not to panic about the growth projected for 2009.

But several audience members spoke with admiration for the town of Sitka, where they said a grassroots movement led to the creation of a legal limit on the cruise ship industry.

Freed said she was not certain about the legality of limiting the number of ships to come to Kodiak.

“It is possible that it may be able to be done under city law. They could pass an ordinance that says we’ll only accommodate this number of vessels,” she said.

Casey Janz expressed the desire for a grassroots campaign to take control of the planning issues surrounding the cruise industry.

“When you go over that point of too much, then what happens? Is it too late?” she asked.

“How do we become that grassroots group that determines how we want to see it happen here, instead of having it happen to us? It doesn’t sound like at this point there’s anything in place for us to have any say in it,” Janz said.

“This is the beginning,” Buckingham responded.

First Snow

2008-10-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

We have gotten some snow now in Kodiak. You could see the mountains getting whiter the past few weeks, but now we have snow down lower.

Looking out of the upstairs Visitor Center window. The snowy mountain on the right is Barometer.

This is the path I normally ride my bike to work on.

A Madison-like evening

2008-10-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today was a clear day, but very windy. There was a super strong wind I had to ride against on my bike commute in to work. It felt like it would push me backwards at times!

Even though I was unable to take an InDesign (design program) class at Kodiak College since there weren't enough people signed up for it, I was still able to borrow the textbook for the class from someone who had taken it the year before. I have been going through the lessons at work, but I think I might feel a time crunch to get through the whole book if I didn’t put in some outside time into it.

Consequently, after work today I set out for the Harborside Coffee Shop. I ordered a black coffee, and it was delicious. I suck at making coffee. Plus, the past week I’ve had some trouble falling asleep, so coffee and tea have been necessary beverages during the day. I sat there for about an hour. Every so often I’d glance out the window at the mountains. They are starting to get covered with snow again. I felt a Madison-like hominess sitting in the coffee shop playing indi/alternative music with my textbook and laptop open. I was the only one in the shop though, and it closed at 7pm. I didn’t feel like going home yet, so I headed for the library.

The library is where I am now. I glanced at the thermometer display outside Mack’s Sporting Goods, and it read 36 degrees. It’s pitch black out now. Definitely starting to feel a bit like late fall and early winter. I think I will try to head out to coffee shops and places after work. It’s a good way to pass the chilly winter evenings. Walking around downtown in fall/winter evening darkness feels very homelike too, hehe. I’ve been good about reading in Kodiak. I haven’t read for fun regularly in a long time since I had so much to read for school. I recently finished A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It's a humorous take on hiking the Appalachian Trail. Pretty good; I recommend it.

Upcoming Plans

2008-10-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

I have only 28 days left in Kodiak! I get back to WI in 44 days. Part of me is super excited to get back home, but it will also be sad to leave. I'll also be tasked with jobsearching and going through all of my stuff when I get home.

I am excited for Halloween. I have decided to be Pam Beasely from the tv show The Office. Tina is having a Halloween bash at her house. We also get to give out candy at the VC. Check out the email I got:

Hi all,

Great news! The VC is proud to be participating in this year's downtown 'trick or treat' event on Halloween, Friday October 31. Along with many other downtown businesses and organizations, the VC will be on the trick ortreat loop. We will be welcoming kids from 3:30 pm until we close at 5:00pm. If you would like to donate candy, please let me know. I have heard that it is common to go through 4-5 bags during the event! Happy Halloween!

Some nonpartisan election websites

2008-10-03T15:09:00.001-07:00

Holla,

I have a post of what I've been doing the past week are two ready to go; just need to add a couple of pics.

I found these two websites that are nonpartisan and useful for sorting out what is true and what the record is during the debates and really any time.

PolitiFact

Fact Checker

I also went to the PBS website and took this quiz on policy questions, and then they tell you how alligned you are with the presidential candidates. You can then compare to other people matching your demographic information.

Click below to take the quiz yourself!

PBS Election Poll and Policy Stances

Last Day of September

2008-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

So I have adjusted to Fall now I think. Fall is my favorite season. I thought I would miss the fall colors of Wisconsin here in Kodiak, but it isn't too bad. There is some color changes--the hills are getting brown, and the cottonwood trees are turning yellow. The weather feels clear and crisp...okay, except when it rains it doesn't. It still rains a lot here. But when it doesn't, it feels awesome outside.

On the day after the large cruise ship came in I went for a hike on Near Island. Somehow I hadn't really made it over the South End of the Island very much. There is this cool trail that skirts the coast and then curves back around to come back towards the big boat harbor. I was going to walk all of the way back home, but a guy in a HarborMaster truck stopped to give me a ride home.
Here are some pics from my Near Island excursion:

Sometime during that week I went for a beach glass collecting excursion. I rode my bike to where the trailer park is and collected glass for a bit.

Last Thursday (Sept. 25th) I held a mini "training session" for my coworkers. I made this Excel program to record our attendance. I also explained how to use the program Justin wrote when he was here.

That Thursday was also the premiere of Season 5 of The Office. I'm not a huge tv-watcher, but The Office is the one show I really get into. Bob, an SCA from Anchorage, was in Kodiak to help plan the landscaping outside of the Visitor Center. I brought over some buffalo meat, and we made tacos and watched The Office at the bunkhouse.

On Saturday there was a respected climatologist in town to give a lecture at the Visitor Center. For more on this, see the next post. After the lecture I walked around outside for a bit. First I went down my the downtown docks. I saw some starfish and an octopus in the water! It was normal to see starfish, but the octopus was an unexpected sighting. Later I walked around outside at the park near my house to look at the stars. It has been awhile since I have seen stars. I was a beautiful, clear night to look at them.

Sunday morning I watched the Packers lose to Tampa Bay. Poor Aaron Rodgers is now being compared to Favre all over again. Rodgers hurt his shoulder, and now they are saying how Favre was always there. Rodgers also threw his first interceptions of the season while Favre threw a record 6 touchdowns for the Jets. It will be interesting to see if Rodgers will be able to start this coming week.

The Brewers won though! It was the last game of the regular season, and Milwaukee needed a win to score their first playoff berth in 26 years.

Sunday afternoon I met up with Bob to climb Barometer Mountain. Most of the snow that used to grace the mountains seen from the top of it had melted. All of the wildflowers were gone as well. However, there were some fall colors and a fall chill was in the air. I noticed this morning that I have a small pushkie burn on my forehead. Pushkie, called parsnip back home, is a plant that will burn your skin if you get the juices on you. It is an invasive weed that I actually pulled for my job a few summers back, but it is a native plant here in Kodiak. You can see the fall hues a bit at the top of the mountains in this photo. I was tried to do a badass mountain-conquering pose. I think I should have gone with getting my picture in the air jumping off of the rock. Ah well.

After climbing the mountain and refueling on pizza, we watched some bears by the Russian River. I had heard from numerous visitors that the bears were coming out regularly there.

Monday I had to go in to work for a few hours to help finish taking inventory of our giftshop. It wasn't too bad.

Oh yeah, I got my ears pierced. I think I got them done about 2 weeks ago maybe? I have to leave in the studs for a bit longer before I can wear different earrings. That makes 3 piercings in 1 year for me, haha. I don't think I'll get anymore now that I have my earlobes and left cartilage pierced. I had never had a piercing before the three this year.

Daily Mirror Climate Change article

2008-09-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we had a world-reknown climatologist speak at the Visitor Center. I pasted a local newspaper article about the event below. One criticism I have about his article is that when it talks about ways to reduce energy use it only mentions what can be done on an individual level. That is needed, but we need to also make sure that we transform how we get energy. I thought it was interesting that Dr. Schlesinger was very much for hydrogen cars and solar energy. He did not present nuclear as a viable energy alternative. I know some people are for nuclear energy because it burns cleaner than coal, but I think the problem of storing the waste outweighs any clean burning benefits especially when there are much better alternatives for getting energy. Anyway, here is the article:

Nobel laureate talks climate change with Kodiakans
Article published on Monday, September 29th, 2008
By ERIK WANDER
Mirror Writer

Comparing a failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to “playing Russian roulette with the Earth’s climate,” Michael Schlesinger warned of the potential impact of global warming in his talk, Climate Change 101: Some Hard Truths You Should Know at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge visitor center Saturday evening.

Schlesinger, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a member the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the Arctic region is an important predictor of worldwide climate change and global warming.

“The Earth’s climate is changing, with the global temperature rising at an unprecedented rate,” Schlesinger said. “These climate changes, including increases in ultraviolet radiation, are being experienced particularly intensely in the Arctic.”

Schlesinger said the Arctic plays a special role in the global climate, predicting climate change for the rest of the world.

He said world leaders should be aware of climate change trends in the Arctic when developing strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is essential that decision makers have the latest and best information available regarding ongoing changes in the Arctic and their global implications,” Schlesinger said.

Schlesinger presented an Arctic Climate Impact Assessment conducted by two of the Arctic Council’s working bodies, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program and the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna.

The assessment, conducted over five years, represents the first comprehensive evaluation of Arctic climate change, Schlesinger said.

Included in the assessment are projected trends for the Arctic cryosphere, projected impacts on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, projected impacts in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas and projected social impacts on Arctic residents.

“Alaska is the one that will be most impacted in the short term,” Schlesinger said.

Schlesinger’s current research focuses primarily on understanding the effects on climate of what he called “human-induced melting” of the Greenland ice sheet and understanding the influence of the sun on climate.

“If the Earth’s atmosphere did not contain water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone, which make up less than 0.25 percent of its composition, the average surface temperature would be zero degrees Fahrenheit,” he said. “The fact that the temperature is a life-supporting 60 degrees Fahrenheit is due to the seemingly minor greenhouse gases.”

Schlesinger referred to the impact people have on the environment and climate change as the “human-caused greenhouse effect.”

“Since the industrial revolution, humans have added carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — and by deforestation,” Schlesinger said. “This added CO2 decreased the radiation emitted out to space by the Earth such that it was less than the radiation absorbed by the Earth from the sun. This caused the Earth’s surface to warm toward restoring the balance.”

Schlesinger said it is important for each individual to do their part to stop global warming and that it can begin on a small scale, at home, at work and in everyday life.

Schlesinger directed audience members wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to Oregon State University’s Campus Carbon Challenge Web site, which details 50 ways “to reduce your carbon habit,” including categories such as on the go, at home, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, don’t trash it, while shopping and at the office.

“We must make the transition this century from the greenhouse-gas-emission age to the post-greenhouse-gas-emission age,” Schlesinger said.

Mirror writer Erik Wander can be reached via e-mail at ewander@kodiakdailymirror.com.

Daily Mirror Cruise Ship article

2008-09-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

Last week Friday we had a ginormous cruise ship. It was 3 times bigger than the ones we had earlier in the summer. The ship had 2670 passengers. We had about 1200 visitors in the center that Friday. It was pretty packed! I thought the Kodiak Daily Mirror (the town newspaper) had a decent article on the cruise ship industry, so I pasted it below.

Swelling season:

Local officials, businessmen discuss current,

future effects of cruise ship industry on Kodiak

Article published on Monday, Sep 22nd, 2008

By JAN HUISMANMirror Writer

The last cruise ship of the year came to town Sunday, concluding the biggest cruise ship season in Kodiak to date.

The Diamond Princess was also the largest of all ships to visit Kodiak this year; its 2,670 passengers raised the population of Kodiak city by about 40 percent for the day.
“Did you see the ship today?” residents asked each other, voices expressing a combination of awe and dread.

After holding steady for the past decade at eight or nine ships each season, the number doubled to 16 this year. In 2009, 19 ships will sail to Kodiak.

In a small fishing town like Kodiak, cruise ships do not come and go unnoticed. Residents, storeowners and community officials are keeping a keen eye on Pier 2, where large ships, including cruise liners, dock.

Harbormaster Marty Owen’s take on the cruise industry highlights considerations being weighed by the rest of town.

“They help pay the bills, I’ll say that,” Owen said, referring to the $15,400 the Diamond Princess paid in docking fees for its seven-hour stay on Sunday. The Diamond Princess also will be paying local longshoremen to tie up the vessel.

But the cash does not come without a price.

“They’re a lot of work to cater to, kind of a high-maintenance customer,” Owen said.
Post-9/11 regulations require barriers and fences be set up the day before a ship arrives. This takes a lot of work and planning by harbor staff, but also puts the dock off limits to other boats. Aside from cruise ships, Pier 2 is used by large fishing vessels for loading and offloading. The ferry Kennicott also berths at the dock.

“If you bring in the Diamond Princess, which is nearly 1,000 feet long, you know it gobbles up the whole dock,” Owen said. “There’s two days where fishermen are displaced.”

With 16 cruise ships coming to Kodiak, Owen said balancing the needs of fishermen and the demands of the cruise ship industry is not a problem.

“It’s manageable right now. What could become a problem though, let’s say it doubles the following year, and it doubles the year after that. Where do you draw the line? I think more than a couple a week would start to tax us a little bit.”

Business opportunities

Jack Maker, City Council member and local gift shop owner, said tourism is one of many important elements keeping the Kodiak economy afloat.

“We’ve lost a lot in our fisheries, and we need to take advantage of any industry out there that can bring some of the money that we’ve lost in our economy back,” Maker said.

Maker’s gift shop in the Kodiak mall, the Treasury, can count on an additional $300 to $500 in sales on days cruise ships are in town. Yet Maker is quick to emphasize that cruise ships in no way determine the fate of his store.

“The general public’s perception is that cruise ships are big money for retail businesses, but they really aren’t,” Maker said, adding one fishing crewman coming off a successful trip can spend hundreds of dollars in a matter of minutes.

“You can’t make it here without every demographic that’s out there providing customers,” Maker said. He said cruise ship customers are constrained by size limits on their flights home, unlike local customers or people coming off the ferries.

“The locals are our bread and butter,” Maker said.

Janet Buckingham, director of the Kodiak Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, said Kodiak has yet to realize the full potential offered by the cruise ship industry.

“I think there are opportunities to be had, being real creative,” Buckingham said.

Visitors coming off the ships usually have between eight to 10 hours to spend in Kodiak. They come into the KICVB office asking about tours and activities that simply aren’t being offered.
“Besides bear viewing, probably the second largest request we get is, ‘Do you have just a tour where we could go out around the island or on a boat for a couple hours?’” Buckingham said. She said many cruise ship passengers independently book bear viewing or kayaking trips before they arrive.

“We love those passengers because they’re the ones that spend money,” Buckingham said.
Cruise ship passengers on average spend less than independent travelers to Alaska, according to the Alaska Visitor Statistics Program. But because independent travelers to Kodiak often take expensive sightseeing, hunting and fishing tours, Buckingham said, they spend $2,062 per person, more than twice the state average.

Shopping expenditures, Buckingham said, are a close second to tours and entertainment.
“I’ve spoken to some businesses that say they count on the cruise traffic to make their whole season,” Buckingham said. “It can’t be denied that they do bring revenue.”

Real Alaska town

For every local business owner pleased with cruise tourism, there is another who could gladly do without.

One business owner who requested anonymity so as not to seem unaccommodating said cruise ship passengers almost always come in, look around and ask questions, before leaving without making a purchase. Their presence makes him drop what he is doing for up to 20 minutes, often in vain.

“I think I’ve had two sales,” he said. “For the most part, it’s kind of a pain in the butt.”
Ben Millstein, owner of the Kodiak Island Brewery, used to offer free tasting and tours. He said cruise passengers took full advantage.

“It made us really busy and almost none of them spent any money,” Millstein said. “It made me feel like just about not showing up when cruise ships were in town.”

The brewery now charges $5 for tasting and tours, which Millstein said helps offset the cost.
“It’s a busier day, but the sales are a little bit more labor-intensive. They’re not spending a lot of money,” Millstein said. “But the people are nice and I’m not complaining.”

When asked to describe the allure Kodiak has for their customers, a spokesperson for Princess Cruises – which accounts for half of all ships that come to Kodiak – described Kodiak as a “hidden gem.”

“We have a draw,” Maker said. “We’re an actual true Alaska fishing town and I think that has some appeal because we’re not so commercialized.”

Indeed, cruise tourists seem to uphold a romanticized vision of the Kodiak bear, crab fishing and life on the frontier. Conversations with cruise ship passengers in town with the Tahitian Princess last week revealed awe and admiration for the people who live on Kodiak, and a mythologized view of what life here is like.

Despite the revenues that cruise ship tourism may bring, many Kodiakans hope their town stays hidden. Discussion about the cruise industry with local residents often includes a comparison to places in Southeast Alaska, where cruise ships flock by the hundreds in the summer months.
“The biggest concern that I’ve heard people express over the years is that they don’t want Kodiak to become a Juneau or Sitka, where the cruise ship industry has come to dominate, to a large degree, the economy and the community in the summer,” said Linda Freed, Kodiak city manager.

Cruise tourism in Kodiak is a perfect example of the age-old paradox of mass tourism. The more tourists flock to the so-called authentic Alaska fishing town, how long does it remain “real”?
Maker believes the combination of Kodiak’s remoteness and its specific draw as a non-commercialized town guarantees that cruise ships will never come in droves.
“I can say with quite a bit of certainty that that will never happen,” Maker said. “We’re so far off the beaten path.”

In other words, Maker’s theory says Kodiak’s combination of location and appeal may place it in a kind of self-regulating equilibrium. If too many cruise ships come one year, the appeal will be lost and fewer ships will arrive the next year.

Yet towns of yore in Southeast Alaska may well have thought the same. Lorene Palmer, president of the Juneau Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, said Juneau has been getting more ships each year for the past decades. They’re also getting larger.

“I don’t think anyone was really expecting the growth over time,” Palmer said. “This year we hit 1 million passengers between May and September.”

Buckingham of the KICVB thinks Kodiak will also see continued growth.

“I think it will continue to increase, because Kodiak is really becoming known as a destination,” she said.

Neither the KICVB nor the city government actively promotes cruise ship tourism.
“We don’t seem to really have to,” Buckingham said.

A spokesperson for Princess Cruises did not say whether the company plans to expand its Kodiak-bound fleet in the coming years.

Freed said the city has been allocated $250,000 in grant reimbursable funds in order to make a master plan for the harbor facility. The funds came from the $50 head tax charged to cruise ships for each passenger they bring to Alaska. The city will hire a consulting firm to help formulate the plan.

“The idea is to get community members involved,” Freed said. The city wants to hear from local residents and stakeholders in order to identify both the opportunities and problems presented by a growing cruise ship presence in Kodiak.

Buckingham said a public forum will be announced in the coming month.
Mirror writer Jan Huisman can be reached at jhuisman@kodiakdailymirror.com.

salmon jump

2008-09-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

The past week I made this awesome Kodiak card game. I put the Refuge's logo on the back, and the front are pictures of things Kodiak. It's an a memory, go fish, and old maid game for kids. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I also edited this brochure started by one of the other workers on this big painting we have in the Visitor Center. My kids program this week is on how animals (and people) stay warm in winter. I plan to read a book I got from the library called Animals definitely should not wear clothes to act as an intro for talking about how animals stay warm in winter if it's not a good idea for them to wear coats. It's been kind of nice having more quiet time at the visitor center since we moved to our fall hours.

Last weekend I spent watching football. I watched the Jets game and the Packer game. Sadly, I was not able to watch the Packers this weekend because I only get games that are national or make it into the Alaska market. I haven't watched football as intently as I used to the past few years I guess mainly because it took up such a chunk of time on Sunday which was prime homework viewing time. I feel more inclined to watch this fall because it makes me feel tied to home, I really have nothing better to do when the weather is poor, and because I really like watching football! I did go for a brief hike on Monday. I am now off on Sundays and Mondays. I hiked on the Island Creek Trail, which I had not been on yet. It follows Island Creek, which flows into Island Lake. The creek was pretty turbid, but I did see some salmon in it. I saw one trying to jump up this waterfall!

I do miss the other summer interns because now there really isn't anyone else in Kodiak I currently know well in my age group to hang out with. For example, I watched a made for tv movie on the Lifetime channel this Saturday night. It was on Coco Chanel and the lady I live with had it on. I definitely missed home this week, which I think is allowable in a timespan of 6 months.

Oh, I bought my ticket home finally this weekend. I leave Kodiak November 18th. I will spend a week in Anchorage and a week in San Francisco before arriving in Milwaukee Friday December 5th at 6:12pm. Have not yet looked into arrangements for what I will do exactly in those cities yet.

For Halloween I have decided to be Pam Beasley from The Office. From the thrift store I bought a green cardigan this weekend. It is totally something Pam would wear, and it also is something I can wear casually as well. All I need is some Dunder Mifflin stuff and a couple more office-y type wear from the thrift store. I am looking forward to Halloween a lot.

The presidential campaigns are heating up. It's been interesting to watch the coverage of Sarah Palin and the national media's portrayal of Alaska. If you want to know who I support, think about this: I work at a wildlife refuge in Alaska. Which party is more likely to drill in another refuge in Alaska for oil? Also, I basically agree with Obama/Biden more on foreign policy, taxes, the economy, and healthcare. The debates should be interesting.

Also, randomly, but I think it would be sweet sometime to build a bookcase. They build ones on HGTV in like 5 minutes for a dollar. haha. Anyway, I really do want to build a giant bookcase. Like a huge white one that takes up a whole wall. Other skills I hope to acquire someday are deer hunting, additional computer software skills, additional cooking skills, canning (like some berries), additional design skills, composting (indoors and outdoors), better hair-doing skills, and hip hop dancing (like those sweet hardcore dance classes at fitness places).

The Rest of Justin's Trip to Kodiak

2008-09-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Events: Wednesday August 27 - Wednesday September 3, 2008

Wednesday I had to work. Justin came with me to volunteer at the Refuge and wrote a program to get our door counter software to automatically enter how many people come in the Visitor Center in a spreadsheet. After work we stopped at Kodiak Island Brewery. Sadly they were out of their limited edition Russian Imperial Stout brew which was soooo good. We got a growler of their Imperial Sunshine beer, which is also delicious. For dinner we cooked bacon wrapped scallops....well overcooked them a bit. Oh well.

Since the apartment we got to stay in is above an assisted living home and across from the senior citizens center, I took a photo of the seniors crossing sign.

Justin with empty beer bottles consumed over the week he was here. It's a pretty good selection---Dunkelweiss that Justin had brewed, a Cantillon Lambic we had hauled back from Belgium, a growler of beer from the Kodiak Island Brewery, a Guinness special brew (I forgot exactly what was different with that version) I had bought on sale a few weeks ago, and a Deschutes Black Butte Porter made by a place in Oregon that was from a 6-pack purchased in Kodiak.

Thursday I had the day off in exchange for working on Sunday. The weather turned out great, and we hiked up Pillar Mountain. bike ride to mill bay beach, fort abercrombie. bike back. eat at el chicano's. watch alaska geographic video.

Pillar Mountain overlooks the city of Kodiak.

Looking down at Kodiak from Pillar Mountain.

They are building windmills on top of Pillar Mountain. When I last climbed the mountain it was foggy out and I think I was on the other side somehow, so I hadn't really seen the extent of the construction until now. Hopefully the windmills will generate lots of clean power!

Looking towards Monashka Bay from Pillar Mountain.

I think these might be Three Sisters. I'm not sure though. One of the views from Pillar Mountain.

After hiking Pillar, we biked out to Fort Abercrombie State Park. I took Justin on the same hiking loop I had taken Chrissy because I think it's a great "Best Of" loop of the park. On the way we stopped at Mill Bay Beach. It was high tide and we saw a seal. At Fort Abercrombie, a whale had washed up on one of the beaches. It looked like it was starting to decompose and had been bashed against the rocks a bit.

I took Justin out to where I had spotted some puffins with Chrissy. They were still there! Can you see them in this picture? They like to nest in the cliff. These are horned puffins. Horned puffin have a white belly and tufted puffins have a black belly.

Horned puffin in flight!

For dinner that night we ate at El Chicano's. I really liked my quesadilla.

Friday I had to work. Justin came with me again and finished writing his program. We got lunch at the Chowder House...it was extra crowded because there was a cruise ship in town. After work we hiked on the northern part of Near Island. Here is a photo of the Near Island Bridge.

Then we rode our bikes to the trailer park where the beach with lots of beach glass is. This is Justin in front on Mission Beach, which is on the way to the trailer park.

Saturday I worked. It was still clear out, so Justin hiked up Barometer Mountain. I climbed this mountain earlier in the summer. Justin visited the Alutiq and Baranov Museums in the afternoon while I was at work. For dinner we ate at Henry's Great Alaskan Restaurant. Here are some photos of the trail and the view from the top that Justin took while hiking Barometer Mountain.

Sunday was very rainy and windy. It even blew the doors open at work. Justin hiked the south park of Near Island and stopped at the floatplane harbor while I was at work. Here is a pic of the floatplane harbor.

Justin was supposed to fly home Sunday night. He got delayed because of the weather, and his flight was bumped to Tuesday (there were no available flights on Monday). On Tuesday he had his flight cancelled twice due to weather. He finally made it out Wednesday morning. Luckily he could do some work on his laptop from Kodiak. He also got to spend a day in Anchorage on Monday because he had a long layover there.

Justin's departure coincided with the end of summer hours at the visitor center, the last of my visitors to Kodiak, and the departure of all of the other summer seasonals. Thus, it felt like an abrupt change to Fall for me. More reflections on September thus far in the next post.

Trek to Pasagshak and Chiniak

2008-08-31T12:51:00.001-07:00

Events August 25-26th (a Monday and Tuesday): Trek to Pasagshak and Chiniak

Justin and I arrived in Kodiak on the ferry from Homer early Monday morning. We stopped to exchange our gear sets and get groceries before starting the drive. This is a map of the Kodiak road system. Pasagshak and Chiniak are two ends of the road system, each about and hour from downtown Kodiak and about 45 minutes to get from Pasagshak to Chiniak.

At the start of the drive the road was blocked by horses. We pulled over to look at them. I rolled down my window to get a better view of the horses. Upon rolling down my window I heard a terrible sound....the sound of air leaking out from a tire. We had gotten permission to use the Fish and Wildlife truck, so it was equipped with a variety of tools. We found the ones needed to change the tire, but were having trouble figuring out how to get the spare out from underneath the truck. Some people in a camper pulled over and helped us change the tire. We decided to take our chances going the rest of the way without a spare. Well, and I knew there wasn't another spare back at the Refuge. The tires on the truck are on their last legs; the Refuge has new ones for them to put on in October (they have studs so can't put them on before). Here is a photo of the horses on the road.

We continued onward, weaving in and out of bays. The road goes past 3 bays--Womens, Middle, and Kalsin. Here is a shot of one of the bays.

The road comes to an intersection where you can either head out towards Chinak or head towards Pasagshak. I have been to Chiniak before, but not Pasagshak. We started the drive towards Pasagshak. Crews had just finished paving the road, so we had to look out for construction activity on the way there. The road was formerly gravel. We passed the Kodiak Launch Complex. I am not sure what exactly is launched from there, but here is the sign outside of it.

We passed a buffalo farm while driving.

Our first stop of the day was Fossil Beach. I think I should have made sure to go at low tide so we could walk more on the rocks there, but it was still cool. We hiked up on a bluff and got a good view. On the bluff were a series of 3 bunkers. Here are some shots of us on the bluff. The third photo is of Justin on Fossil Beach. Note that he got some Xtra Tuffs (big rubber boots) from the bunkhouse to borrow.

The second stop of the day was to another beach. The beach is known by several different names---4-Mile Beach, Surfers Beach (people really do surf on this beach), Bear Paw Beach. This beach was awesome!! So gorgeous. The waves and sand and view was great! Here are some shots of the awesome beach:

Artistic shot of our XtraTufs at the awesome beach.

Fossil Beach was the end of the road, so we backtracked to hike on the Pasagshak Point Trail. The fireweed was gorgeous and in full bloom along the trail. The pink flowers in these photos are all fireweed.

Justin standing over some fireweed. You can see the clouds/fog is starting to roll in.

As we were hiking, the fog continued to roll in. When we reached Pasagshak Point, here was the view. There's ocean behind those clouds.

After returning from Pasagshak Point, we stopped briefly at the Pasagshak Recreation Area. Several people were fishing on a river there. Then we headed towards Chiniak to find a camping spot for the night. I had been down this road before and had remembered that Roslyn Beach was a nice area. We set up camp on the beach there. We didn't have burner or anything and it was too rainy and windy for a campfire, so we had a smorgasbord of granola bars, fruit cups, and chocolate. It was pretty tasty actually. Here is our tent on Roslyn Beach.

The next morning, we drove to the end of Chiniak Road so that we could hike around the lake. I had hiked part of this trail earlier in the summer, but I hadn't been all the way around the loop. The trail starts by going over an old military road. The road has lots of potholes and puddles.

The old military road leads to Chiniak Lake. Upon reaching the lake, we saw a juvenile bald eagle.

The eagle had some trouble flying to get away from us.

Since he couldn't fly very well, he swam away from us. It was weird so see an eagle using his wings to swim. He swam all the way across the lake before hopping out to perch on a rock.

Here is a view of Chiniak Lake when Justin and I were there.

Here is a picture of Chiniak Lake when I was there with Arley about a month earlier. You can see how the wildflowers are past blooming now.

I really like the Chiniak Lake loop. It's great for birding. I finally saw some harlequin ducks! I had been wanting to see them ever since I did one of my kids programs on them. The loop goes past a gigantic old bunker. The loop comes out at a salmon stream. We could see some salmon trying to swim upstream, and also some dead ones that had already spawned.

We drove back to town and stopped at the Rondevous on the way back. The Rondevous is a restaurant/bar. I got halibut tacos and Justin got the halibut burger. For the afternoon we decided to climb Pyramid Mountain. It would be the large pointy mountain in the center of this photo. The road sign about road maintenance is more of a warning for winter. The road turns to gravel after the first few miles, and I don't think it is well plowed during winter.

Here is the start of the trail going up Pyramid Mountain.

Near the bottom of Pyramid Mountain looking back at Anton Larson road (the one we drove on the reach the trailhead).

Looking out towards Anton Larson Bay.

Our car in the parking lot viewed near the bottom of Pyramid Mountain.

The parking lot viewed from higher up on Pyramid Mountain.

Justin on the trail.

We saw some snow near the top.

The climb to get to the very top part was very steep. I was worried about clouds coming in, but they didn't really affect our view too much. We still got 360 degree views. There was some fog, but for the most part we were above it and it just passed by in some of the valleys below.

After our hike we went to Safeway for groceries for the week. Then we got dinner at Taco Bell. A Taco Bell/KFC had just opened in Kodiak a few days ago. The restaurant was the first of either chain on the island, so we went sort of for the novelty I guess. Anyway, the restaurant was packed. We waited at least 20 minutes to get our food. Here is a photo of the drivethrough line.

That night we got to sleep in an apartment downtown. Arley had stayed there for the summer, but since it was now empty and being rented by the Refuge for another month we got to use it since Justin and I are both considered volunteers for the Refuge.

Voyage to Homer, AK

2008-08-31T12:50:00.001-07:00

Events Thursday August 21 to Sunday August 24,2008

Justin arrived in Kodiak Sunday night! We camped out at the Buskin River Recreation Area, which is the same are the bunkhouse is and where we have had bonfires on the beach. It was rainy that night, but I had Justin bring his tent up and it once again proved a steadfast shelter against the rain. Friday I had to work. It was the Salmon Camp counselors last day of work, and they were going on a hike up Womens Mountain. I sent Justin along the hike with them. Their visibility was okay. Not total fog cover, but not clear views. Tara's mother had arrived in Kodiak a day before Justin, so I sent Justin with them to the touchtank after his hike. I also showed him the visitor that day. In the evening we went to Sue's house for pizza. Sue is the education specialist, and was having the pizza dinner as a goodbye party for the Salmon Camp counselors.

The ferry left that night at 9pm. There is a large Refuge Visitor Center in Homer, and the Refuge had arranged for me and the other two intern workers to go to Homer and see it. Justin planned to do some volunteer work for the Refuge, so he was able to stay in the bunkhouse and ride in federal vehicles. We both fell asleep really early because of the combination of dramamine and beer. I don't think you are actually supposed to mix the two....I made us both take dramamine because I was worried about getting seasick. It was a really smooth voyage though. Justin had a beer at dinner, and we split one on the ferry. There are two ferries that dock in Kodiak--the Tustumena and the Kennicott. We rode the Kennicott, which is the bigger ferry. I took these pictures later on when we were in Homer, but here is what the ferry looks like:

Sat

We woke up early in Homer. The Kennicott ferry arrived there at 6:30 in the morning. Karen from the Alaska Maritime Refuge was nice enough to pick us up. I had met Karen before in Kodiak because she is a naturalist on the Tustumena Ferry. When she is in Kodiak waiting for the ferry to leave again she works at our Visitor Center. We all got breakfast at the Two Sisters bakery outpost on the Homer Spit. The Homer Spit is this long, very skinny 4-mile peninsula that extends out from the city of Homer. It's pretty much a really long dock that you can drive out on. For more info on Homer, here is a link to their Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer,_Alaska . Karen set us up with a Fish and Wildlife vehicle and a room in the Homer bunkhouse. Justin and I were pretty tired, so we took a nap in the bunkhouse before heading out for the day. We only had a weekend in Homer, so we crammed a lot into it.

The first thing we did was visit the Pratt Museum. The Pratt Museum is sort a nature, culture, a little bit of everything museum. A lot of the information I had seen before in Kodiak's museums, but it was very well displayed. One new thing to me was their exhibit on the Exxon Valdez spill. My first experience with Valdez stretches back to kindergarten. I still remember checking out a picture book with photos of the oil spill from the school library. Like a lot of people I think I kind of assumed that most of the major damage had already passed or was taken care of. To an extent this is true, but in some parts you can still find oil under rocks on beaches. This is a photo of me in the native plant garden outside of the Pratt Museum. Low and high bush cranberry bushes were growing there. The berries were ripe, so Justin and I ate some. I think I'm holding some berries in my hand, but you can't really see them.

We got lunch at Cosmic Kitchen. Justin got a halibut burger and I got a salmon burger. Both were very good. Homer has several art galleries and several shops. We looked around in a few of them. I really liked the art in the Fireweed Gallery.

Next we headed to the Meadery, as in a place that makes mead. Mead is made with honey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead We sampled several of the meads. We also got to try to cyser after talking with the server a bit. Cyser is mead mixed with juices as I understood it. We each bought a glass and a bottle of mead.

Next we headed to the Carl Wynn Nature Center. I was a bit disappointed in the Nature Center. You have to pay to use the trails, and they aren't even super scenic. I still enjoyed myself there. The fireweed was in bloom, so that looked pretty cool. The drive to get there goes up into Homer's bluffs, so the drive there had some great views. We did get caught in a downpour without raingear. It was a soggy walk back to the car.

This is a shot from the trail with fireweed in the foreground and mountains in the background. Okay, this does look pretty scenic. I am spoiled by all of the good hiking in Kodiak that I expect postcard views every time. Kodiak does have better hiking trails than Homer I'd say.

Fireweeed. I had tried some fireweed mead earlier, but I didn't really like it.

Moose exclosure. I thought this was interesting because in WI be have experiments done with deer exclosures. Basically one part of an area is fenced off to moose (or deer) browse, and you compare composition of the fenced off part to the rest of the area to see the ecological effects of moose (or deer). In WI deer are way overpopulated and are changing forest compositions by their selective browsing.

Being raised in a busy suburb close to Milwaukee, I found this sign amusing. It also shows how hard it was raining.

This is a view on the drive back to town. You can see some of the fog over Homer.

Justin and I were a bit wet from being caught in the rain on our hike, so we stopped back at the bunkhouse to change clothes. Then we went to the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center. The Visitor Center in Homer is home to both the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and the Kachemak Bay Research Preserve. Homer also has a larger population and gets more tourists than Kodiak, so their Refuge Visitor Center is much larger than ours. One thing I found interesting is that Homer includes a section on WW2 as part of their refuge displays. I liked how they had a kiosk with short videos that showed research going on in different parts of the Refuge. That is one thing I think could be incorporated more into the Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center; some way to communicate the research going on in the Refuge would be cool.

After the Visitor Center, we stopped at the Salvation Army. Well, I told Justin we were going there, hehe. Justin is well aware of my family's love of rummage sales and salvation army shopping. I found this cool purse and some long underwear.

Then we headed to the Homer Brewery. I bought a pint glass there. I also bought a pint glass from the bar we went to that night. I think I may need to think about the number of pint glasses I have because I am starting to accumulate a lot of them. For dinner we went to the Sourdough Express. I goofed up are schedule because they are most reknowned for their breakfast, but we still had a good dinner there. Oh, and we looked at some Homer floatplanes. Here is a shot of one with the fog as a nice backdrop.

That night we went to a bar because it was one of the few in town that had a selection from the Meadery on tap.

Sunday morning we met Tara and her mom at the ferry dock. They came in the on the ferry Sunday morning, and were staying longer than us. Tara is staying an Alaska for an extra week to travel around a bit. We got breakfast at Two Sisters Bakery. There we saw a lady I know from the Audubon Society hikes in Kodiak. From Two Sisters we walked along the beach. A short trail called the Beluga Slough leads from the Refuge Visitor Center to the beach. We stopped briefly in the Visitor Center again and looked around in some shops on the Spit. Justin, me, Tara, and her her mother had booked tickets aboard the Danny J boat to go to Halibut Cove for the afternoon. Luckily the weather had cleared so we weren't rained on and had decent views! Here is a shot on the Spit.

This is the harbor in Homer.

The Refuge has a program to lend out binoculars for free, and they came in handy on the boat! Here is Justin and Tara looking for wildlife.

Along the way to Halibut Cove we went past Gull Island. Gull Island is a giant bird rookery. We saw tufted puffins, comorants, and mures.

Gull Island

Birds flying away from Gull Island

I still am excited to spot jellyfish. I had never before seen one in the wild before coming to Alaska. They have gotten much bigger since earlier in the summer.

Jellyfish.

Almost to Halibut Cove. I thought this archway looked cool.

The town of Halibut Cove.

The whole town is built on pilings of wood structures like these here. This is a website with some info on Halibut Cove. The yearround population is only 22, but they get lots more people in the summer.

This is the mail delivery boat. See the USPS logo?

Halibut Cove Post Office

This is the restaurant where we ate lunch. It was called The Saltry.

Justin's meal. He got a buffalo burger. Notice the bear paw made of mustard. I got a salmon sandwich.

We went on a short hike up a hill. Here is the view.

Halibut Cove also has a couple art galleries. The second one is the most famous/interesting. Diana Tillion paints with octopus ink. I talked to her a bit since she was in her gallery. She's lived in Halibut Cove since 1952.

Once we got back from Halibut Cove, we went to the Salty Dawg Saloon at the end of the Homer Spit. Justin bought a sweatshirt with this place's logo. It looks kind of unique and is near the end of the Homer Spit, so it's a big tourist draw. The walls of the bar is covered with dollar bills people have written on among other things.

We found another Treeman! Actually, we found that it said Freeman. I thought it said Treeman and went over to double check.

Justin and I headed back to the bunkhouse to pack up before boarding the ferry to go back to Kodiak. We upgraded our cabin so we got a porthole. We explored the ship and watched the sun set. The ferry left Homer at 9pm, so it was dark again for most of the ride. This is our cabin with a porthole.

Justin and I leaning out over the ferry deck.

Sun setting over Homer.

Sun setting over Homer. I think that purplish part is actually rain.

Closeup of the rain falling from the cloud.

Sunset over Homer.

I circled Mt. Augustine, which is a volcano.

August 17th-August 20th

2008-08-19T18:32:00.001-07:00

This post is on events August 17th-August 20th.

This was the last weekend the bunkhouse crew was in town. The team that had been the field for the summer returned too--they were the ones researching Kittlitz's Murrelets. One of the field team is heading home, and the other two are staying. They are headed back into the field right again in a couple weeks though. So I'll be the only intern person the next few months. It will be interesting to see how work changes because we will be moving to Winter hours and my kids program will only be twice a month instead of once a week.

Saturday night I hung out at the bunkhouse. We mainly ate food and watched tv and movies. I slept over since it was pretty late and there was an empty room at the bunkhouse. In the morning I climbed Womens Mountain with Tara. She has a GPS, so we looked for a geocache. Geocaching is where people hide items and then post their GPS coordinates. People can write down the coordinates and then go hunt for the treasure. Our geocache had a notebook, some random toys, and a disposable camera. You leave the geocache where it is so other people can find it later. You can add to the treasure or take an item out. We just took our photos and signed the notebook before rehiding the treasure. See http://www.geocaching.com/ for more info. Here is a photo of Tara and I shortly after finding the geocache.

I think the Old Womens Mountain is named as such because there is an old military road on the mountain, and the mountain faces Womens Bay. I really like Old Womens Mountain because you can walk along the ridgeline a long way after a brief hike to get to the top. A lot of the mountain trails in Kodiak are a grueling climb up with a gorgeous view, but you can't really walk around a lot. I did this trail for the first time when Chrissy was visiting, but it was really foggy. When I went with Tara it was a clear day. Here is a view of the trail following the ridgeline of Womens Mountain:

This is monkshood. I have heard it is poisonous. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on monkshood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconitum

The trail loops back towards a clear lake. This is me on the ridge looking down towards the lake.

Coming closer to the lake. you can see how clear it is.

Coming to the lake. We saw some people jump in for a minute swim just to get some photos. It looked pretty cold.

Wildflowers in an alpine meadow on Womens Mountain.

In the left of this photo, you can see the neighborhood of Bells Flats in the valley. It's a neighborhood about 10 miles out of downtown Kodiak.

The Kodiak Island Raceway is near Bells Flats. Here is a zoomed in shot of the raceway as viewed from the top of Old Womens Mountain.

After Old Womens, I headed to collect some beach glass before Tara met up with me again to drive me into town. We stopped for some avalanches (shakes) at the Harborside Coffee Shop and drank them while walking on the docks.

Monday August 18th

Monday was my hike day. It was pouring rain outside, so I decided not to do a lengthy hike but to explore places I had not been yet. I ate lunch at Java Flats, which is a new coffee shop/restaurant near the Bells Flats neighborhood. They have really good cookies. My salmon spread and caper sandwich served on a croissant was also very good. Next I drove down Anton Larson road because I had never been on it. The road is very pretty because it passes through some mountains. It turns to gravel after the first couple miles on it. The road is only about 12 miles long and ends at a boat launch. This is where the kayak companies most often launch from. There a few trails starting off of Anton Larson road, but I have not been on any of them yet. I drove slowly so I could find where they started and would know where to go if I returned to hike them. Here are views of Anton Larson road:

I still had a couple hours left in my hike day, so I headed to look for the Pillar Creek/Beach trail. I thought it would be a short flat trail that would still be pleasant in the pouring rain. I didn't find the Pillar Creek trail. I guess it actually go along the edge of the mountain. I did find Pillar Beach though. It was pretty cool to watch the waves while standing in the windy drenching of rain. I am very thankful to own a full suit of raingear, haha. Here are some views of Pillar Beach.

On the way back to downtown Kodiak, I stopped at Mill Bay Beach when I looked out my window at it. It was high tide and the waves were huge! The rocks where I posted pictures of Chrissy and I climbing on were now surrounded by water! I can't seem to find my photos from Mill Bay Beach. I'll keep looking and update this entry if I find them. I think this photo below is from Mill Bay Beach, but it could be from Pillar Beach.

Monday was Arley's last day of work. Most of us gathered at the brewery and then the BnB bar to send Arley off. The brewery currently has the best beer ever (even though as I am writing this it has now ran out). They brewed this awesome Russian Imperial Stout. So good.

On either Tuesday night I collected wild blueberries. There were lots of them around Island Lake, which is near WalMart. I used a mix to make muffins with them.

Kittlitz's Murrelets

2008-08-15T17:56:00.001-07:00

So the three people I met at the start of summer have returned from the field. Here is an article from the Daily Mirror about their research.

Feather in the cap
Researchers tough Kodiak’s backcountry to provide new science on rare bird
Article published on Friday, August 15th, 2008
By ERIK WANDER
Mirror Writer

Three researchers returned to civilization Thursday after 10 weeks in a remote part of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge studying a rare bird.

Amy Westmark and Erin Burkett, volunteers, and James Lawonn, a seasonal wildlife technician at the refuge, documented the nesting activities of the Kittlitz’s murrelet, about which little is known.

The crew established a base camp about 10 miles southwest of the village of Karluk near the Sturgeon River.
“It’s very remote,” Lawonn said. “It’s only accessible by helicopter.”

They spent about eight hours a day systematically searching by walking parallel to each other about five meters apart on rocky slopes, criss-crossing mountains in the hope of flushing a bird and locating its nest.

“We’re not sure where the bird is. It could be anywhere in the landscape, so we have to cover an area in a really efficient way. We’re basically like a lawnmower. We cover every bit of the mountain,” Lawonn said.

Once a bird was flushed, the researchers identified the species, located the nest, measured the egg and began to monitor the nest from a non-invasive distance.

It took five days before they flushed their first bird. Burkett reacted with relief and excitement.
“Oh, that’s why we’re out here. We almost forgot,” she said. “It was pretty exciting when we saw the first one.”

The crew confirmed four nests in their 10 weeks in the field and found several they suspect are Kittlitz’s murrelet nests. This they considered a success.

“So many resources are being put into this study, so these nests are really valuable,” Lawonn said. “Before this year, only about 40 nests had ever been found, so we found 10 percent of the world’s nests.”

Lawonn said the group’s study consisted of two parts.

“One was to definitively establish that they’re nesting here, and we did that. The second part is, What exactly is the success of these nests?” he said.

The success of the nests, it turned out, was not good. All four nests the group discovered and monitored failed. None of the eggs hatched. At least one was eaten by a fox.

Another part of the group’s daily routine was audio-visual, which consisted of recording every sound or sighting of the bird early in the morning when Kittlitz’s murrelets are most active.
“We’d be up, in the dark, at 3 a.m., sit down with a clipboard and a little AV checklist and you just sit and wait if you can hear any and possibly see them,” Burkett said.

When they weren’t working, the three members of the research crew took turns cooking dinner, surviving on “a lot of pasta, carbs, stuff that cooks easily over camp stoves,” Westmark said.
“We’d make huge slop pasta messes,” Burkett said. “Mashed potatoes, prison food.”

On their one day off each week, they often fished for dollies in the Sturgeon River, Lawonn said.
Burkett said they played a lot of Scrabble, read a lot of books and slept whenever they could.
They also had a satellite phone, “So if we wanted to talk to our loved ones, we could for a couple minutes a week,” Lawonn said.

All three researchers said they had no trouble filling the down time.

“A lot of stuff you take for granted can take a while,” Lawonn said. “Even doing laundry on your day off. Suddenly two hours are gone.”

“Cooking and just camp stuff in general takes a little longer,” Westmark added.

Burkett and Westmark said it was good to be back in town and strange to see people after being gone so long in the wilderness. The first thing they did was go to McDonald’s. Lawonn enjoyed two 12-inch Subway sandwiches.

The researchers agreed that although all four nests they discovered failed, the 10 weeks they spent in the field were worthwhile.

“We didn’t have any fledgling birds, but you forget that this is pretty important,” Lawonn said. “It’s baseline data. Basically everything we learned is new to science. This is a big thing, because this is what Kittlitz’s murrelets do during the breeding season.”

Westmark, Burkett and Lawonn will hold a public presentation at 5 p.m., Saturday, at the KNWR Visitor Center. They will show pictures and the gear and gadgets they used, and speak about their experiences in the field.

Mirror writer Erik Wander can be reached via e-mail at ewander@kodiakdailymirror.com.

They are giving a presentation at the refuge visitor center this weekend on their research and time out in the field, so I may have more details to add after this weekend.

This weekend marks the laast weekend that all of the summer workers will be in town. Well, Andrea left last week, but everyone else is leaving this coming week. I think two of the murrelet researchers will be staying until November though.

Stoplight Article from the Kodiak Daily Mirror

2008-08-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

The Daily Mirror is the local newspaper in Kodiak. Recently a stoplight was added at an intersection. Here is the article about it:

Kodiak intersection set for fully functioning stoplight
Article published on Friday, August 15th, 2008
By ERIK WANDER
Mirror Writer

Kodiak drivers beware. The city is about to become a one-light town once again.

On Monday, a new, state-of-the-art traffic light at Rezanof Drive West and Marine Way will go into flash mode, Jason Baxley of the Alaska Department of Transportation, said.

On Tuesday or Wednesday midday, the signal will be fully operational, complete with red, yellow and green lights.

“Part of it is to let us know it’s working,” Baxley said of the minimum 24-hour flashing period. “And we’ve also got to let everyone know it’s on and working, so they know something’s about to happen.”

Baxley said a light at the same intersection was first installed in 1984 but went into permanent flash mode after just a few weeks because of faulty sensors embedded in the road on Alder Lane.
“They got it on for a very short period of time,” he said. “Then they got it into blinking mode for 23 years.”

Baxley said he doesn’t foresee any such problems with the new light because of advancements in technology.

“The software and hardware have come such a long way since 1984,” he said. “We feel pretty confident.”

Baxley said the light will improve traffic flow at the Y intersection by providing gaps and making it easier for drivers to make turns.

“It’s not going to be a big change,” he said. “But it’s a change from what everyone is used to.”
Baxley, who served as project engineer for the Y intersection project, said he considers the overall project a success.

“The project had its challenges,” he said. “But it came out rather well. I’d like to thank the people of Kodiak. It was a challenge for us as well as for them. But we’re pretty much done.”

First Week of August

2008-08-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some highlights of the beginning of August. The summer is going fast! Most of the other summer workers will be returning home soon.

The rest of Chrissy's week-long visit:

I worked the rest of the days she was here, so most of the time she hiked while I was at work.

One night we went out to the Powerhouse for dinner. The Powerhouse has Japanese food. That meal I learned how to eat edamame. I've only had a taste of someone else's a few years ago. I was eating the entire pod before I realized they left me an empty bowl because you are supposed to only eat the bean inside. Anyway, it was really good. I ordered some sushi rolls and salmonberry wine as well. When we got back from dinner we mingled with locals due to the arrival of the daughter of the people I live with. She lives in New York and will be in town visiting for a week or two.

Another day we returned to Fort Abercrombie State Park. The weather cleared up a lot the last couple days Chrissy was in town, and I wanted her to see the view from Miller Point when it was clear. We also hiked along the Wildflower trail a bit. We saw lots of wild roses in bloom. We also saw lots of puffins. This was the closest I had seen them so far! They next in the cliffs, and once I was at an angle to see where they were flying into/out of on the cliffs I was able to pick out a bunch of birds close up.

Chrissy's last afternoon in Kodiak was spent watching bear videos. Now she knows lots about bear behavior, including feeding, communication, and mating. She also knows about bear safety and how to act in bear country.

On Chrissy's last night in town we met up with Tara to get dinner at El Chicano's. It is an awesome Mexican restaurant. It was the first time either Tara or I had been there. I ordered black bean soup and a taco. Definitely will have to go back there again sometime because they had a huge menu.

Work Update:

I can't remember if I wrote about my loon kids program, but I think that was my favorite program so far. I had 2 volunteers, so after group time set up 3 stations. Mine was origami, which worked for the older kids there. I learned to make a paper bird in my 3rd grade class one day, and I remember unfolding it and examining it afterwards to figure out how the folds were done. Ever since then, I 've know how to fold birds! The other stations were making Loon Ranger badges and learning how to portect loon habitat, and coloring in loon shapes. I liked how I could have different difficulty level activities all at once to cover different age ranges.

This past week's program was on Rocks. We had a "Rock Sharing Circle" to start where I passed a rock around and everyone had to say something about rocks. The main focus was on where rocks come from, so I exploded a volcano. I pretty much wanted to do a geology FUN session just so I could explode something.

I only do the kids program once a week, so the rest of the time at work is spent helping the visitors who come to the center, planning, and working on various projects. I am just about done with an activity booklet for kids on Kodiak that I made.

My Weekend of Fishing and Racing:

I have not yet been fishing in Kodiak. I haven't really been fishing in general since I was in middle school. The only place I have ever fished in on Lake Onland in north-central WI at the family's cottage. The Salmon Campers (they stay at the bunkhouse) have fishing poles and have been fishing the whole summer. Since they are returning home very soon, I decided I had to take advantage of this expertise and bought a weekend fishing permit.

Friday night I actually did not go fishing. Instead, Tara, Austin, and I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing. They were pretty cool. I liked the parade of nations and the torch lighting best. Also, Tara made halibut and challah bread. I got the recipe for challah bread.

Saturday Tara and I rode our bikes from the bunkhouse to the Kodiak Island Raceway. We watched some 4-wheeler and dirt bike races. There was also a race with 3 cars. One of the cars flipped over. I found out there is a demo derby over Labor Day Weekend. Justin will be visiting then, so I want to try to go to it. I have seen a couple demo derbies with my family at the Ozaukee County State Fair. During halftime at one they once had 3 school buses go at it. Another time we sat in an area where there was no breaker wall and got covered in mud. Here are some pics from Friday night at the Kodiak Raceway:

The start of a 4-wheeler race. A lot of the racers were just elementary school kids.

Look at them go!

Tara and I outside the raceway.

After the races we rode to the Russian River to fish. We used lures as bait. Right now is when most of the fish are Pink Salmon. I snagged a few. Snagging is when the lure barbs catch on the fish's body, but not in it's mouth. You can only keep fish that you hook in the mouth. We weren't planning to keep the fish from the Russian River though because it would be a pain to haul back on our bikes. It was super buggy by the Russian River. This is the first time I have been bothered by bugs a lot. The bugs weren't mosquitoes, but small annoying biting things that swarmed around my head.

Here is a shot of me fishing at mouth of the Russian River.

And me fishing in a far view at the Russian River. We were at the mouth, so it is right next to the ocean.

And a view of me looking back towards the mountains instead of out to sea.

Here is Tara with a pink salmon.

A closeup view of a pink salmon. Pink salmon are also called Humpbacks or Humpies. They are not good to eat when they get a large hump because it mean they are to broken down and close to spawning. Their flesh breaks down when they spawn.

The sunset looked really pretty as we were biking back from the river.

Sunday morning I watched part of the USA vs. China basketball game. Tara made french toast out of leftover challah bread. Then we set off for the Buskin River to go fishing. Austin joined us after awhile. The Buskin River is very close to the bunkhouse. It was a sunny day and a very pleasant spot to fish. There were lots of other people fishing that day too. I snagged a ton of pink salmon, and caught two. Of those one was too turned (ready to spawn) to eat, but the other one was a keeper! I bled out and fileted a fish for the first time. I have not eaten it yet. It's in the freezer, and I may try to smoke it.

Me with some fish I caught. Also, I am wearing Tara's visor. I am not a Red Sox fan. I'd say I am neutral towards them.

Me fishing on the Buskin.

Some pics of Tara, Austin, and other fisherpeople on the Buskin.

After fishing, Tara and I collected beach glass on the beach off of Boy Scout Lake. Overall, my weekend fishing was a good one.

Last Week of July

2008-08-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a recap of the last week of July.

Monday

Monday I came home with a sack of fish. The Salmon Camp leaders had gone fishing the whole weekend, and gave me some salmon and halibut. I went for a walk to Near Island after work. I took some photos from the top of the bridge leading to Near Island. The first photo is from my first week here and the second is the last week of July. You can see how much snow has melted!

I also saw some salmonberries on Near Island. This is a photo of one. Salmonberries are a common berry in the Pacific Northwest climate (Kodiak is technically the most northern extent of it). They are not as sweet as I thought they would be. They still taste good, but are not as sweet as raspberries and blackberries.

Tuesday
Went to Near Island again after work. The weather was warm and sunny, and it was gorgeous out on the trail I walked to.

Wednesday
Worst day ever. First I locked myself out of the house. I was already using the spare key...I had lost the original on a bike ride/hike. The family I'm staying with is out of town all of July. The family friend who I could call for a spare key was out of town, and her tenants could not find the correct key. I ended up calling a locksmith. I did not find out the son was in town and had gotten into the house while I was calling the locksmith. To top it off, I finally went to the grocery store after all of this and realized I forgot my wallet while I was waiting outside the store. After that I just went to bed. The weather was super nice out though. It got up to 73 degrees! I wore flip flops, capri shorts, and a tank top. Only one other day has it been warm enough to do this.

Thursday

Super nice out again. Marks the second day of the summer I wore a tank top, flip flops, and shorts. After work, the Salmon Campers and I went to the Harborside for avalanches. The Harborside is a coffee shop facing the harbor, and avalanches are equivalent to candy shakes. Like a Dairy Queen blizzard or McDonald's McFlurry. We walked along the docks in the sun while eating our avalanches.

My friend Chrissy arrived in Kodiak that evening. She got a beautiful view of Kodiak on her flight in. We stopped at the grocery on the way home, and when we stepped out the town was bathed in fog. I could see the fog rolling in coming up to the grocery store, and it had arrived by the time we got out. The fog stayed for 3-4 days before clearing up for the last few days of Chrissy's visit (She stayed in Kodiak for a week).

For dinner I cooked up the salmon and halibut that the Salmon Campers had given me. Chrissy's first meal in Kodiak was of fish caught by friends! I think both fish turned out super delicious. I chose recipes that kept the focus on the fish and just added some spices. The halibut I broiled in the oven with butter, salt, garlic, and dill weed. The salmon I poached with Sauvignon Blanc wine, onions, and dill weed. We stayed up late eating fish, drinking wine, and killing time.

Friday

I had off of work and borrowed a bike from the Salmon Campers, so I gave Chrissy a bike tour of Kodiak. I wanted to show Chrissy the best of Kodiak, so the first place we stopped at was Jackson Trailer Park. For real. That's because the beach near the trailer park is awesome for collecting beach glass. I think it is where the dump used to be.

The next stop on the tour was to Mill Bay Beach. There are some weird rock formations on the beach, so we took some pictures there (see below). We did a little bit of tidepooling. Saw some hermit crabs, sea anemones, barnacles, limpets.

Chrissy biking

Mill Bay Beach

The next stop on the tour was Fort Abercrombie State Park. Fort Abercrombie has a military history museum at a part of the park called Miller Point. Kodiak was built up during WW2 because it was a strategic defense against the Japanese. You can see tons of bunkers and old military roads throughout the island. We didn't enter the museum, but outside is a cannon of some sort from WW2. Here is Chrissy examining it.

Suprisingly, I had not yet taken an Alaskan license plate photo. I try to take a picture of license plates in every new state or country I go to.

This is a shot of Lake Gertrude. You can see how foggy it was. We watched kittiwakes fly around (they look like seagulls).

We hiked out on the Piedmont Point trail. There are some steep cliffs on this one. We saw puffins from the cliffs. I'm glad I brought binoculars! The family I stay with said I could use them. They have come in good use in Kodiak. I am considering buying my own because I think I would use them when I get back to WI as well.

We also walked on part of the Connector Trail. This trail is very mossy and forested.

On the ride back to town, we stopped by the Mill Bay Coffee Shop. They have really good bakery there. We also browsed the adjoining bookstore. Most of the stuff was kinda pricey, but it was cool to check it out.

Friday evening there was cookout at the Visitor Center for the staff. On the way to it, we stopped downtown and got a photo by the Welcome to Kodiak sign.

Saturday

Chrissy and I went on the Audubon Hike to Swampy Acres Loop. It was a pleasant, flat hike along an old military road. I don't think it was one of the more scenic hikes of Kodiak. We got to talk to some locals, and it was foggy anyway though. Also, I had never been on this hike before. In town we stopped at the Alutiiq Museum for a grass basket showing. I thought we would just watch someone make one, but they put us to work splitting spruce roots to make a basket. It's a lot of work! We were not interested in making a basket ourselves and so left pretty quickly. It was neat to see the work that goes into making the baskets though.

That night we hung out with the bunkhouse crew and had a bonfire on beach. We saw a juvenile bald eagle from close range. You can tell he is a juvenile because his feathers are mottled still and not a uniform color.

Sunday

Chrissy and I went on the Audubon Hike to Old Womens Mountain. This is another hike I had not been on yet. It was very foggy, so we didn't get to see mountain vistas. However, there were some awesome wildflowers. I liked this hike a lot because it was a shorter hike to get to the top of the mountain than other ones, and there were areas to walk along the ridgeline for a long time. I definitely want to come back to this one sometime. The ridgeline was really nice to walk along, and we could see an alpine pond.

Back in town there was a celebration in the park next to the Visitor Center. It was the Baranov Museum's 20th Anniversary. The museum was granting free admission that day, so we checked it out. We also watched the Kodiak Island Drummers perform for a little bit. I really like watching the drummers; they're so cool! Chrissy and I got lunch at the Chowder House. We had some delicious smoked salmon wraps.

Next stop of the day was the Kodiak Island Brewery. My supervisor Tina's husband works there on weekends. He gave us a brief tour of the facilities. The brewery is small--only 1 room, so I can officially now say that I have toured the Kodiak Island Brewery. I got some of their Russian Imperial Stout. It is soo good! I think I need to investigate Imperial Stouts more.

To get back home, we took a walking detour. We stopped by the various stuffed bears in downtown Kodiak---at the Best Western Hotel, Bank, and Mack's Sporting Goods. We spent some time reading magazines at the Fly By Coffee Shop. For dinner Chrissy cooked some omelettes.

Recent Events and Musings on Kodiak

2008-07-30T00:25:00.002-07:00

I am finally caught up on my blog.

Eagles:

This weekend I didn't really do anything too exciting. I went to a talk on eagles on Saturday. At one part the eagle dude talked about how in January 2008 a truck hauling fish waste in Kodiak was not covered properly. A ton of eagles spotted the fish waste and went for the truck. However, the eagles got stuck in the fish goo. It was the equivalent of them getting covered in oil from a spill. Out of 50 eagles in the truck, 19 of them died before they could be rescued. Almost all of the rest were saved though. First the eagles were repeatedly washed in Kodiak before being sent on a plane to Anchorage for further cleansing. The story made national news---here is a link to one of the national news stories on the eagles--http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,322313,00.html Here is another story out of the Seattle Times http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004123916_deadeagles14.html

Here is a section on Food and things I have been cooking:

Last week I had the Salmon Camp people over. I refer to them as the Salmon Campers because they are the interns who help run our kids nature camp at the refuge, called Salmon Camp. They wanted to watch my tv since I get better cable than the bunkhouse. I provided homemade cookies and rhubarb muffins as well. There is a bunch of rhubarb growing at my house, so I made muffins with a few stalks.

I made halibut lasagna over the weekend. It turned out alright. I think I may have undercooked the lasagna noodles or let them dry out too much. Also, I accidentally used expired half and half. That part I do not think affected the recipe too much. I bought whipping cream which is what the recipe called for. I accidentally grabbed half and half from the refridgerator though. The cartoon best used by date was in June, but it wasn't opened. I didn't get sick anyway :-)

Yesterday I returned home with a sack of fresh fish. The Salmon Campers went fishing most of the weekend. They shipped a bunch of fish home, and filled an official Visitor Center bag with halibut and salmon. I haven't cooked the fish yet, so I either need to cook it very soon or freeze some of it.

Upcoming Plans

I have been in Kodiak for 2 months and about 10 days now. My friend Chrissy is coming to visit this Thursday. Justin is coming to Kodiak at the end of August. The work schedule through August is being assembled, and my work days are most likley going to change. All of the other interns are leaving at the end of August, and the Visitor Center is open less during the Fall and Winter.

I have decided to travel for a few weeks after my time in Kodiak. I've settled on 2 cities as a feasible travel plan. I want to spend about a week each in Anchorage and San Francisco on my way back to Wisconsin. I will miss Thanksgiving, but I will for sure be back for Christmas. My buddy Tim lives in San Francisco, so it will be good to have people to still celebrate Thanksgiving with. Also, Tim messaged me with the following questions on Kodiak after I asked if I asked if I could crash his Thanksgiving:

"how is life up in alaska? are you loving it? what do you look forward to most when you get up every day? are you homesick at all? do you feel like you're in a completely foreign and unknown place? i've kinda thought about alaska a lot and it seems so very foreign to me and i imagine being there to be a wickedly cool, but strange experience. i still think it's awesome you're up there."

I have adapted my reply into a list of pros, cons, and observations of Kodiak. I suppose it is a good reflection at the 1/3 point of my time here:

Pros:

--Really awesome hiking. You can be in a wild mountain area only a short ways out of town.

--Really awesome views. On sunny days Kodiak is gorgeous.

--I have had a good time hanging out with the people in Kodiak, and everyone is really friendly.

--Good wildflower and wildlife viewing.

--I got to go sea kayaking and ride in a float plane.

--I decided to collect beach glass since coming here because there is so much of it.

Cons:

--I miss the people back home and do get homesick sometimes.

--I miss familiar places of home and discussions of sports and news local to WI.

--Everything is expensive here because it all has to be shipped to the island.

--Not a huge selection of urban things to do and places to shop because Kodiak is small.

--Hot weather in Kodiak is anything above 70, .

Other musings:

A lot of careers are in the armed forces or in fishing or mining. Well, mining isn't really in Kodiak, but watching the local news (which is out of Anchorage) you can tell the economy has extractive resources as a big part of it. In general, subsistence hunting and fishing is a common pastime as well. Alaska is a conservative state. Kodiak is an island, so like other islands it is somewhat isolated. Kodiak and most of Alaska is sparsely populated, and this is the least populated place I have ever lived in. I have temporarily lived in even more rural places than Kodiak, but as far as permanent living (say at least a month) this is the most rural. Granted, I have only lived in Glendale, WI (a near suburb of Milwaukee) and Madison, WI (a mid-size city). I think all of this travel has made me realize I have a large amount of WI pride since I've lived there my whole life.

Overall:

Overall I am really glad I did the internship. I've seen some amazing natural sights and have met some cool people. I think I would have regretted not doing one last extended trip (I'm pretty sure I will look for a full-time job in WI after this...don't count out extended travel completely though!!!). And I'm doing it by myself too, so I guess there's more room for "personal growth" or whatever. Also, I really like that I have some time to think about what I want to do next and get it in my head that whatever I decide does not have to be permanent. I think I am less nervous about entering the so called "real" working world. Still very glad I decided to become a wanderer for a year. Five years ago I had never seen an ocean in real life. Now I have been to 12 additional countries and 7-8 new states. Still a very small part of the world, but definitely lots of different sites.

Other Thoughts:

I have started to watch the news sometimes. I pretty much only access news on the internet normally, but I have been watching tv more lately. Senator Stevens of Alaska was indicted today. That's the big story in Alaska. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/washington/30stevens.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The airport in Anchorage is named after Senator Ted Stevens, so I wonder if they will rename it if he is found guilty.

I caught part of the Brewers game. So far the Cubs games have been a disaster for Milwaukee.

Allright, enough with my superlong text post. Peace out.

Chiniak Lake

2008-07-30T00:25:00.001-07:00

Monday July 23rd was my hiking day for work. It was also Arley's day off, so we headed to Chiniak Lake. Chiniak Lake is at the end of one of the branches of the road system in Kodiak, about an hour away.

On the way there we passed some cool beaches. I think we stopped at Roslyn Beach. The views from the road out there were pretty sweet. There really is not too much at all on the way out, so you just wind around the bays. Here is one view from the road as it went past Kalsin Bay.

After about 30 miles or so the road splits. One end goes to the Launch Complex and Pasagshak State Park. I plan to drive on that end of the road when Justin comes up to visit. The other fork goes to Chiniak. This road turns into gravel right away. Chiniak is a small town....very small...the 2000 census found the population to be 50. We stopped outside the small post office to get a photo. One 4-wheeler was parked outside of it.

We drove on the gravel road until the end of it. Here is a view almost at the end of the road. This turnoff is very wide and straight---it is an old WW2 runway for planes. On both sides of the runway was lupine, lots and lots of lupine. Lupine is my favorite wildflower.

Most of the lupine on the runway sides was in bloom. Lately a lot of the lupine I have been seeing has been going to seed. The seed pods are very fuzzy. I think the seeds might also be poisonous actually..I can't remember exactly on which parts and the extent of lupine is a bit poisonous. If you look back in my blog you can see lupine before it blooms and in bloom, so I've been keeping a lupine picture record of sorts this summer.

Chiniak Lake is cool because once you walk aound the side of it there is a strip of land where the lake is on one side and the ocean is on the other. We spotted a juvenile eagle while walking out to this strip. The juvenile eagles are not pure white, but mottled in color. I was really glad I had brought my binoculars because there were tons of birds to look at. Gulls, kittiwakes, oystercatchers, eagles, pigeon gillemots, and pretty sure Wilson's snipes. We saw these birds that darted into their nests in the dirt cliffsides that we later identified as bank swallows. Out at Chiniak Lake is an old WW2 bunker. Old WW2 buildings and roads are pretty much all over Kodiak. Here is a photo of Arley standing on top of the bunker:

In this photo the lake is on the left and the sea is on the right. In the background are the mountains and in the foreground are wildflowers.

The following photo is my favorite of the bunch, and is my current computer screen background. It is of Chiniak Lake with a great view of the wildflowers.

Most Recent Weekend Recap: Mountains of Hiking

2008-07-22T01:24:00.001-07:00

Note: I have gotten behind on my blog, so this happened about a week and a half ago.

My legs muscles are quite sore. They are starting to recover now, but I hiked a ton this weekend. I also chose mainly mountains because this weekend the weather was awesome. Thus, there would be no fog, rain, or clouds to obscure the view at the top of mountain peaks.

Friday I hiked up Barometer Mountain. This is a very steep trail. Pretty much the steepest trail I have climbed in Kodiak yet. It was made for a mountain goat. Since I was doing the trail on my own and it was outside of town, I first had to bike about 5 miles to get to the trailhead. I had a bit of trouble finding the main trail at first, but once I got to the trail I saw lots of other people on it. The trail is very rocky and very steep. The view at the top was great though. Here are some photos from Barometer Mountain:

This is a view of the Kodiak Airport. The runway is at the left.

I watched a plane take off. You can see the plane just lifting off at the end of the runway.

Now the plane is a bit higher.

L Below the L is downtown Kodiak. I rode my bike from there.

This is an Iris.

The steep trail.

Friday night my boss Tina held a fish taco dinner at her house. Her husband Paul is a very good cook, and the halibut tacos with assorted sauces were very delicious.

Sunday I went on the Audubon hike up Kashevaroff Mountain. This trail was also steep and strenuous, but definitely not as steep as Barometer. The views were awesome from the top. All three of the Salmon Camp peeps (who live at the Bunkhouse) came on the hike.

That's me!

Previous weekend: Bonfire, Kareoke, Heitman Lake and Peak

2008-07-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

Yikes, I have not been good at updating my blog the past few weeks.

Last weekend (July 12-13):

Friday night we had a bonfire on the beach out near the Buskin Recreation Area. We found some good driftwood and it hadn't rained the past few days, so our fire started pretty easily. It got dark around 11:30pm or so. The moon looked cool while we were walking back from the beach.

Austin

Arley and Jade

We saw the moon! This is a rarity in the summer since it doesn't get dark until 11 or 12.

Before the bonfire we went to collect some beach glass. There is a good spot in a place that must have been a former dump or something. There are car parts buried in the hillside, and lots of rusty mechanical parts line the beach. Most of the glass wasn't frosty like true beach glass, but I got some good big glass pieces that could work as tiles for something.

On Saturday I worked since I swapped days with Andrea. Saturday night Arley, Jade, and I went out to Tony's and Bernie's. Bernie's has kareoke. I got a bunch of people to come up and dance when I kareoke-ed "Dancin' in the Dark".

Sunday I went on the Audubon hike to Heitman Lake and Peak. This is one of my favorite hikes so far. There were good views, but the hike was not exhausting.

Wild Geranium

Some kind of flower that is an Orchus. Not an Orchid, but Orchus.

I have had the whole house to myself because the people I live with are in Russia for the whole month of July. I have been watching more tv lately because they have good cable tv package. Mostly I watch HGTV for the design shows or movies. It's kind of nice having a big living space all to myself.

My last kids program was on bats. My latest design project at work has been to create a kids/family activity booklet to go in these backpacks we let people check out (it's like a library system). I have lots of edits to make on it, so it probably will not be done for at least another week. I think it is coming along nicely so far though.

Fourth of July Weekend

2008-07-07T18:30:00.001-07:00

My Fourth of July was rainy and cold. This Monday was the first day it had not been dreary outside for the past few days. Here is an article from the local newspaper, the Kodiak Daily Mirror:

Summer weather soggy, cold
Article published on Monday, July 7th, 2008
By ELIZABETH CALDWELL
Mirror Writer

This summer may be shaping up to be one of the rainiest in Kodiak’s history.
Daily precipitation records were broken over the holiday weekend on July 4 and 5. On the Fourth of July, 2.67 inches of rain fell, making it the fifth rainiest July day on record. The previous record was 1.06 inches in 1958.

On July 5, 2.07 inches of rain fell. The previous record stood at 1.77 inches in 1952.
Overall, during the rainy spell beginning on July 2 and ending July 6, the National Weather Service estimates 7.71 inches of rain fell.

The rainiest July day recorded in Kodiak was on July 20, 1998, with 3.54 inches.
So far, this July is the ninth rainiest on record.

Daily precipitation records and temperature records were also broken last month on June 25 and 30.

On June 25, 1.51 inches of rain fell. On June 30, a record-breaking low of 37 degrees was recorded.

Mirror writer Elizabeth Caldwell can be reached via e-mail at ecaldwell@kodiakdailymirror.com.

It's not too bad because a lot of the rain has been falling in more of a mist. I dislike days when it downpours though. It was a weird Fourth of July being rainy and cold! There were supposed to be fireworks at midnight (that is the earliest it's dark enough for them), but they were cancelled because of the weather. The weather is supposed to be decent the next few days, so I'm looking forward to that! Also, if you are visiting me in Kodiak bring a raincoat. :-)

A Virtual Tour of Where I Work

2008-07-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a virtual tour of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, which is where I work.

First we will start on the outside of the building. The center opened in November of 2007, so everything is new.

I am allowed to drive the Fish and Wildlife truck to the grocery store and library and such. It stays parked outside of the Visitor Center. The truck is complete with a federal license plate and Fish and Wildlife stickers.

These next two photos are for my dad. Every time I mention driving the truck he asks me what kind it is, and I respond that it is a white one. I have never bothered to examine what kind it is. Here are the official truck markings:

Now we will head inside the Visitor Center. Here is a map showing all of the Wildlife Refuges in Alaska. The Refuges are outlined/shaded in orange. I drew a purple circle around Kodiak Island. This is a closeup of Kodiak Island and some neighboring islands. You can see how the Refuge (colored in orange) takes up 2/3 of Kodiak Island.

Here are some of our bears. We do not have any taxidermy bears; they are all artistic creations. this is my favorite of our three bear exhibits. The bears look like they were carved out of wood, but it is really some sort of artist clay-type stuff. This one shows a mother and her cubs fishing for salmon.

Here is a closeup of our fish display. They used real fish as casts to create the exhibit fish.

This is our bird exhibit area. It also displays some native plants. You can push buttons to hear the calls of some of the birds on display.

An oystercatcher. I talked about this bird in a previous blog post.Here is the eagle. He is one of the birds you can push a button to hear his call. I am used to/do not mind listening to the other birds except for the eagle. The eagle sounds super annoying to me. He makes this loud, obnoxious scream. Here is what an eagle sounds like: http://www.hangingrocktower.org/calls/baldeagle.htm

Let's make a pitstop on our virtual tour of the Refuge Visitor Center. The bathrooms are located against the green wall because "Green Means Go". The inside of the bathrooms are actually red though. Here is a photo of me waving into the mirror in the womens bathroom. I am wearing my uniform. It's not the official Fish and Wildlife uniform, but my SCA clothes. Technically I'm a volunteer for the refuge.

Now let's head upstairs to get a good view of the gray whale skeleton. This whale washed up on a Kodiak beach in 2000. It was buried in a pit for 4 years to let the flesh decompose. Once it was dug up the bones were assembled.

Also upstairs is a painting by Bruce Nelson, a local artist. The painting was inspired by the story of the whale. He rode in a plane over the refuge to find a suitable spot to paint. Thus, the painting is based in the reality of the whale, but it is not of the exact spot the whale was found.

Since I am a staff member at the refuge, I can take you to Employees Only areas of the Refuge Visitor Center. Heading back downstairs let's go into the copy room. Here is our ginormous copier. It is also a printer and fax machine. It's pretty spiffy.

On top of the copier is a sign about butt photocopying statistics. Not sure if this stat is true or not. I did not put this sign on the copier; it was here when I started the job. Also notice the rubber poo. The rubber poo gets moved around the office a lot. It's been in people's mailboxes, by the paper cutter, and in the Emergency Chocolate Drawer that we will visit later in the virtual tour. I think it looks nice next to the butt photocopying sign.

Now back to the public exhibit area of the Visitor Center. On this counter you can learn about Kodiak's native land mammals. You can touch some furs and animal skulls. On the brochure rack is the handout I created on Kodiak's native land mammals.

In our lobby area we have four posters about Kodiak bear. Two were taken from book covers. One was from the cover of Outdoor Life magazine. It shows planes firing shots at a bear. They really did this back in day because when people tried to have livestock on Kodiak they were afraid of the bears eating their animials. The final poster is of a women with a taxidermy bear. The photo was taken in the 1950s, and was made into a postcard in the 1970s. The bear is from Kodiak, but was placed in a Pennsylvania hotel.

Finally, we have a 12 minute film about the Kodiak Refuge. I cannot show you that on here, so now it's time to hit up the gift shop. Here is a shot of me with some finger puppets you can buy. In the background are the posters I was talking about. You can also see a bit of the green wall where the bathrooms are located.

Here is me showing a book on Kodiak bears you can buy. You may notice the bandage on my neck. I was experimenting with a curling iron on Friday. I have used hair straighteners many times before, but never really curling irons. I was still getting used to controlling the curling iron when I burned my neck. It better not leave a big scar.

To complete the tour of the Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center, I will take you behind the desk. This is where the Emergency Chocolate Drawer is located. The drawer is one of the most important in the Visitor Center. It not only contains chocolate, but also useful office supplies, a pair of screaming flying monkeys, and the fart machine.

Thank you for accompanying me on the virtual tour of the Kodiak National Wildlife Visitor Center. I do accept tips. :-)

Spruce Cape

2008-07-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I biked with Arley to Spruce Cape. It's not that far of a ride, only about 2-3 miles. There were lots of wildflowers in bloom! It was low tide, so we went looking for creatures. We mostly saw tiny hermit crabs. On the way back we spotted a deer. Here on Kodiak they have Sitka black-tailed deer.

Chocolate Lilly

Anemone

At work I have made a brochure on Kodiak's land mammals. Kodiak only has six native land mammals--red fox, tundra vole, short-tailed weasel (ermine), bear, river otter, and little brown bat. The rest are all introduced. Here is my brochure. You can't read the print, but it shows the general design of it.

Sea Kayaking

2008-07-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I got to go sea kayaking out in Monashka Bay with Andrea and Hans. Hans offered to take Andrea and I out. Hans has an old van rigged up to haul kayaks, so we took them to Fort Abercrombie to launch out into the bay.

It was really cool to watch the sun sink lower in the mountains. We went kaying from 8-11pm approximately...it's pretty nice not having the sun go down until 11:30 to 12 at night. I saw a ton of baby jellyfish in the water. This was my first time ever seeing jellyfish in the wild. We saw some birds and a harbor seal. We also tried to follow a sea otter to get closer to him, but he was quicker than us. You could tell he was swimming on his back in the distance at one point.

I got to go sea kaying again with Lisa and Arley. Lisa is the new volunteer coordinator for the Refuge. She is also my next door neighbor and likes to kayak. I rode in the double kayak with Lisa and Arley used the single one. We launched our kayaks only a few feet from where I am living in Kodiak. We kayaked in a big circle around Near Island. My favorite part was when we passed Bird Island---there were so many birds!!!!!! Entire sides of rocks seemed to be filled with birds. The birds were squawking like crazy on one of the small islands. We saw an eagle swooping overhead, so the birds were first squawking because of the eagle. They got additionally agitated when they saw us paddling towards their rookery. On the way back we paddled through Dog Bay (which is the harbor for the really huge boats). I did lose my sunglasses at sea though...they fell off my head when I them pushed back for a bit.

Friday night Tara cooked a really tasty Shabat dinner. She is not Jewish, but was in Israel for awhile last year I think. We had challah bread, chocolate cake made without dairy, and hummus. We also had grilled salmon that some of my coworkers had caught the other day. Friday after dinner we went bowling. It was a lot of fun, and we left just as the place was getting really crowded. I think it is a big high school hangout in town because they are not old enough to go to the bars. We are old enough, however, and went to Tony's. They had a live band that was not very good. The music played when they were not on stage was good though, and I danced with a lack of shame which is probably a good thing haha. An interesting tidbit is that Milwaukee's Best is actually a popular cheap beer to drink in Kodiak. I saw many people at the bar holding a can of the Beast. I drank the Kodiak Island Brewing Company's North Pacific Ale, which is very good and has a caramel flavor to it.

Right now I am reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I am about halfway through, and I am enjoying it a lot so far.

I've started to think a bit about what to do when my position in Kodiak ends. Been doing lots of pondering, and I think I have a rough outline for now. I've decided to move to the North Pole. There really is a town called North Pole in Alaska. How did I discover this? A McDonald's placemat. I have only been to McDonalds once since I've been here, and the placemat listed their locations. Once of the locations was the North Pole. Here is North Pole's city website http://www.northpolealaska.com/

My rough plan does not really involve moving to the North Pole. I will have spent about 10 out of the past 12 months outside of Wisconsin. My rough plan does involve doing something to make money due to the past year...well past 5 years really haha...of travel expenditures. Totally worth the money though. I highly recommend spending all your money on travel. That is why I did not major in Economics. As a Science major I do understand at least some math though, so don't worry. I have to say that one of the best parts of traveling has been announcing to my parents where I plan to go next and see how they react. Great fun.

Another Day, Another Mountain

2008-06-23T02:03:00.001-07:00

Saturday night the three other summer Fish and Wildlife ladies and I had a girls night out. The Sex and the City movie made its way to the small Kodiak movie theater, and we dressed up for the occasion. It may be the only time I wear a skirt in Kodiak. After the movie we got drinks at one of the local bars.

Sunday I again went on the Audubon hike. We went through Russian Ridge Forest to get up to Pillar Mountain. Russian Ridge Forest has only recently had trails put in it. The son of the guy who led the hike is a mountain biker. The son has made a bunch of the trails that double as hiking and mountain biking trails. This hike was very close to town. At the top of Pillar Mountain, you get a really good view of Kodiak and its immediate surroundings. It was lightly raining during the hike and wasn't too bad, but at the top of the mountain it was very windy. It was cool to hike up above the treeline to the alpine meadows and see the progression. One wildflower that was in full bloom was chocolate lillies. I could already identify some plants, but I'm learning more from the Audubon hikes. The hike leader took this picture of me and two of my coworkers and emailed it to us. It was taken at the very top, and I was very cold and windblown at the time!

Monday is my day to hike/explore. The naturalists on the Tustemena Ferry work at the Visitor Center when they come into Kodiak. Consequently, some days we have an extra person working. Since we don't really get any days to take off, my boss is rotating us to have semi-days off when we have a ferry person working. All we have to do on that day is come back at the end of the day to help close. I decided to hike around Boy Scout Lake because I had heard there was a beach with good sea glass there. There are a bunch of unmarked trails that start at a lake and then wind to the sea. The first beach I came across did not have sea glass, but it was very sandy. It was low tide, and it went out very far there. I saw lots of shells there from oysters. One really gross part of the exposed sand had a ton of worms on it. I have no idea why there were so many, but I was really glad I was wearing big rubber boots. Here is a photo of the gross worm area of the beach:

I also saw some oyster catchers on the first beach. See picture below of the two I saw and this link to the Wikipedia page. Wikipedia is so awesome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Black_Oystercatcher

The second beach I hiked to was the one with lots of sea glass. I collected about half a ziplock bag full. I want to get lots of sea glass before I leave. Here is an excerpt about sea glass from this webpage: http://www.rusticgirls.com/sea-glass-collectible.html

"Also known as beach glass, mermaids tears, ocean glass, and trash glass, this collectible is formed after years of tumbling in ocean waves, softening the sharp edges of shards of broken glass. Sea glass originates from man-made trash - bottles or jars tossed overboard ships or dumped with other garbage into the ocean, where they would break into pieces and tumble around. Most sea glass found today dates before the mid 1960's (when plastics became the norm).

A piece of broken glass undergoes a dramatic transformation on its journey to become sea glass. Once sharp, the shard's edges gradually smooth by tumbling against rock and sand. Over years water leaches out lime and soda from the glass, leaving a frosted surface where it was once shiny and translucent. This process is called hydration. Some pieces even have pit marks and other patterns in the surface, evidence of their traumatic metamorphosis in the sea. Sea glass qualifies chemically as a mineral gem."

I also pulled this photo of sea glass from the same website.

Weekend Update

2008-06-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

This week the cousin of a supervisor who was volunteering at the center went back to Denmark. We had a goodbye party at work, and on Tuesday we got together at the bunkhouse.

Wednesday was my kids program on octopuses. I think it went well. Next week I will be doing it on Sitka Spruce trees.

I bought an $8 basketball at WalMart because there is a court a block away from where I am staying. I've shot around a few times with it this week.

This Friday it was really busy at the Visitor Center because there was a ferry and a cruise ship. Kodiak gets about 15 cruise ships per summer, which is low compared to places like Juneau. It's kind of nice because the town isn't overrun by tourists.

This Saturday I went on the Audubon hike because I haven't gone on them the past 2 weekends. We hiked up Monashka Mountain. It was only about 5 miles in total, but it was very steep since the trail was not very well marked. Thus, we climbed straight up the face of the mountain for part of it instead of doing a bunch of switchbacks. Some of the wildflowers were starting to bloom. There was a lady who was good at identifying them to us on the hike. I saw chocolate lillies, anenomes, bush cranberries, and devils club. My favorite were lupine and forget-me-not. I did not get a good photo of forget-me-not, so here is a link to it. The Alpine forget-me-not is Alaska's state flower. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forget-me-not

Some lupine starting to bloom.

The view from the top of the mountain was foggy...we were basically in the cloud when we reached the summit. I got some good views while we were climbing up though. Pretty much all of the snow was melted, but we came across a small patch near the top. On the hike I saw and heard a ptarmigan bird http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptarmigan.

After the hike, I picked up the pottery bowl I had painted. I think it turned out well. I plan to fill it with sea glass.

The outside design of my pottery bowl.

The inner design of my pottery bowl.

My pottery bowl filled with sea glass I have collected here.

I also bought a stainless steel water bottle. The plastic in Nalgene bottles is supposed to be bad for you, and I also didn't bring any of my Nalgenes with me anyway.

My new water bottle

I found my camera!

2008-06-13T12:40:00.001-07:00

I have had a delay in posting this week because I misplaced my camera. I just found it right now though! It fell behind the trash can at work!

My beaver kids program went well. I read a beaver story, made masks, and dressed a girl up with earmuffs, goggles, etc. to demonstrate how beaver body parts are made for the water.

On this Friday I stopped at the Kodiak Island Brewery. They had this really good black currant beer.

Saturday I went Mill Bay Beach and hiked the Piedmont Point trail at Fort Abercrombie State Park. It was raining/misting lightly, but it was kind of cool because not as many people were out on the beaches and trails.

Mill Bay Beach. I picked up some sea glass here.

Shore to the left of Mill Bay Beach.

Looking back towards Mill Bay Beach and Kodiak.

View from Piedmont Point.

On the Piedmont Point trail, you pass some old WW2 lookouts and bunkers. I outlined one lookout in red, but it ended up kind of thin.

Here is a closeup of the WW2 lookout.

Lupine plants (before they bloom) covered in raindrops.

Lately at work I have been making a brochure on Kodiak's land mammals. I'm using this program called InDesign. I'm still a little slow at it since I had never used it before this, but it's pretty spiffy. This week for my kids program I will be doing it on octopuses. Apparently octopuses is an acceptable plural (I googled it).

Awesome Weekend!

2008-06-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

I actually started this entry a little over a week ago, but never finished it until I found my camera. It was really hard to pick which pictures from the plane ride to put on here. I have a ton more, and these are just a small fration since I went picture crazy on the plane!

Friday

It was very busy in the morning at work since a cruise ship and ferry arrived that day. The lady I live with had an extra steak that she grilled for me for dinner.

That night we had a bonfire on the beach near the bunkhouse. At first it was hard to start the fire since the wood was wet from the rain, but we eventually got a good fire going. We had smores and stayed out by the beach until midnight. By midnight it finally got dark outside, and I saw the moon for the first time in Kodiak. It was a beautiful sliver of a moon.

Saturday

I got to ride in a float plane over the refuge!! The refuge is only accessible via plane or boat. It was awesome! Taking off and landing in the water was very smooth, much smoother than on land. The views were great since the weather was so nice. We flew low, and even had the front window open a crack. I got great view of the mountains, sea, and vast stretches of land with no human habitation. I saw bears and whales from the plane. We stopped at two of the refuge cabins. I have a ton of photos from my float plane ride. The pilot and refuge director I rode with must have found me amusing since they fly often into the refuge.

The plane pictures are of the actual plane I flew in. They called it a beaver plane. I took these photos of it while it was coming back from refueling.

After my float plane ride, I stopped at the FlyBy Coffee Shop to finish painting my dish. Then I headed over to the bunkhouse to watch a bunch of The Office episodes. I filled in on the scenes when needed because I've seen every episode of that show multiple times. It is the best show ever. Arley and I rode our bikes back to town since we both are renting places around downtown Kodiak. It wasn't a bad ride, and a big part of it was downhill.

Sunday

I slept in. I like having one day to sleep in. That afternoon I rode my bike to Fort Abercrombie State Park. There is a small military history museum there. Kodiak's military was built up heavily during WWII because the Japonese had attacked some Alaskan islands in the Aleutian chain. I hiked two of the trails in the park. One went around a small lake, and the other went along some cliffs. The cliff trail had amazing views. At Miller Point I saw puffins! I had binoculars with me, and I saw them sitting in the water and flying. They are really cool looking, and almost seem unreal when you watch them fly because they are so colorful. I'm pretty sure I saw horned puffins. There are horned and tufted puffins on Kodiak Island. Here is a horned puffin link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Puffin. I also saw two eagles at Miller Point. I saw another eagle on top of a telephone pole that was right next to me while I was biking home. Eagles are almost as common here as pigeons are in other cities.

The military history museum, which was a former bunker.

The purple flowers are shooting stars. They are also native to Wisconsin.

View just to the left of Miller Point.

I was really tired after my bike ride. I actually went to bed early Sunday and Monday. Tonight (Tuesday) I have been cutting out beaver masks because I'm doing my kids program tomorrow on beavers.

2008-06-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

This week went by fast. I caught a cold at the start, but I feel it is on the tailend already. I think I just either get sick or have some sort of stress injury every time I go to a new place. I will divide this week into short sections.

Lunch-capades

Monday I ate lunch at Subway. They have the choice of salmon or crab/seafood in addition to the standard choices. I got the salmon, which was a smoked salmon spread.

Thursday I got lunch at the Chowderhouse. It looks like an aluminum shack from the outside, but is really nice on the inside. There is an awesome view of the sea out the windows. I got the halibut and chips. I didn't realize this was the most expensive thing on the menu, but they waved the tax for me since I had only brought cash. On the way back a lady stopped and gave me a ride back to the visitors center since it was raining. People are very friendly in small towns I guess, hehe.

FUN program

Wednesday was my first FUN session with kids and their families. I think I could have done better. I had no idea what to expect, and I didn't think that many people would come. It wasn't bad, but I definitely hope next week is awesome.

Today I interviewed with a radio station about the program. I should be on the radio sometime next week.

Here is a photo of the flyer I designed for the program:

Rain

It has rained here since Saturday, but today (Friday) it is finally sunny. It is supposed to be nice this weekend. I bought rain pants Monday, and have made use of them just walking to work. I also walk around town in these giant rubber boots, and it is completely normal wear. I even wore them to the grocery store, and I saw another person there wearing some.

Other News

I haven't really done anything after work because I felt kinda sick the whole week. And it was raining. Tomorrow I get to fly into the refuge! They just approved that each of of seasonal people at the Visitor Center could go on one flight to the refuge. There was an opening this Saturday, and I get to go first since I'm off weekends! I'm pretty sure it will be a float plane. I think it should be really cool, but I hope I don't get to sick or nervous from the movements of a small aircraft.

Jeans do not work well in the rain

2008-05-31T16:53:00.001-07:00

Saturday

I went on one of the hikes that the Audubon Society in Kodiak run every weekend. Saturday the hike was to Cross Fox Lakes. Kodiak is known for its rainy climate, and I finally saw some of it this weekend. My rain gear and hiking boots held up well in the rain/fog, but I am definitely buying some rainpants this week. Kodiak is in the very northern part of the temperate rainforest climate zone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_rain_forest We took the trail until it was overgrown and we couldn't find it anymore. The trail was in a higher elevation area, so parts of the trail were still covered in snow. Here is a photo of us walking over some of the snow.

These were my jeans after the hike, and why I need some rainpants.

That afternoon I met up with the four girls staying at the bunkhouse and headed to the FlyBy Coffee Shop. Float planes actually land on the lake its window overlook, so when the weather is nicer I hope I get to see one land. This coffee shop also has a pottery-painting area where you can decorate pottery to take home. I picked out a bowl to paint. I kept it simple with geometric designs, but I think it will turn out nice.

After pottery we stopped at McDonalds. Two of the bunkhouse girls are leaving to do research in the backcountry for 2 months in a few days, so they wanted some last tastes of civilization. I can report that the Kodiak McDonald's is not really different from other McDonald's...except that the Dollar Menu items actually cost $1.50 since everything has to be shipped out here. There was also some type of hamburger called the McKinley Burger.

That night most of us young-worker type people for the refuge gathered at the bunkhouse. The original plan was to have a bonfire on a nearby beach, but since it was raining festivities were moved indoors.

Sunday

Went on another Audubon hike, this time to Termination Point. It was raining again, but someone had an extra pair of rainpants I used. This hike was really awesome. It goes past two or three beaches at the start. In nice summer weather, this is a good place to swim or have a picnic since some beaches are sandy and not rocky. Parts of the trail are near the edge of a cliff, and you could look down to see waves crashing against the rocks in the rain. Termination Point refers to a small peninsula that juts out in the bay. We walked to the very edge of it and got a great view of the waves crashing. My camera lens had a lot of raindrops on it in this shot, but this is the view from Termination Point.

Later the trail meanders through more protected stands of Sitka Spruce. Here the moss has built up a lot. At one part there was so much moss it felt like I was walking through a forest covered in green snow.

We walked off-trail a bit to inspect a beaver dam and pond. The pond was pretty big, and we saw one beaver swimming in it.

The only flower blooming right now is shooting stars. We saw lots of young plants that will bloom as the summer progresses, and I was happy that lupine was one of them. Lupine grows on Wisconsin prairies, and has a really pretty purple flower. The leaves are also radiate out from a center, and it reminds me of the design on the seat of the chairs at the terrace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupin This Wikipedia article talks about eating the beans, but I would strongly advise against this since it is a rare plant in Wisconsin. It might even be illegal to do so since the Karner Blue butterfly is an endangered species, and it solely uses lupine to reproduce. It would be a good native plant to use in a WI garden though!
I learned that you can eat the female Sitka Spruce tips, and that they are a good soure of vitamin C. The lady leading the Audubon hike talked of the spruce tips being used to make beer and tea. I found this interesting since Justin's homebrewing book has a recipe for spruce beer.

Finally, if sending any mail my way it is probably best to use this address than the other one I had sent in an email:

Elizabeth Appleby

c/o Kodiak NWR Visitor Center
402 Center St.

Kodiak, AK 99615

Federal Vehicles and Birthday Candles

2008-05-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I finished the flyer for the FUN (Families Understanding Nature) program I will be running. I'm now thinking of going to grad school for graphic design. I think I know I want to be some sort of designer...I'm debating on whether I want to design cities, things on paper, or something else. I think right now I'm between urban planning or graphic design. I'm really glad I didn't go to grad school right away so I have time to think it through and also do things like go to Alaska for 6 months!

Wednesday was my 23rd birthday. I got 2 cakes during lunch at work. They put 23 candles on them, and I blew them all out in one breath. After work I went for a hike with Tara. It was the last part of Near Island I hadn't been too yet. There were lots of trees hanging over the trail, so it was cool to walk through. I think it will be really beautiful in summer when everything is green and in bloom. Tara and I met up with Arley and went out to Tony's, a local bar. Some people there bought me drinks since it was my birthday. I don't think it was very smart of me to make more than one of them strong vodka gimlets. I actually introduced a bunch of people to this drink since they had never had it before.

One cool thing about my birthday is that I got messages from people wishing me a happy birthday. Some were from my Guats (the people I went to Guatemala with). This was the trip that started my travels, and was my first time ever out of the country. I think we should have a reunion in Guatemala someday since we all live in different places now.

Today at work I drove the Fish and Wildlife truck around town to deliver my flyers for the FUN program. I love driving government vehicles. I put one up at the Coast Guard base, and they didn't even ask for id since they saw I was driving a government vehicle and in uniform. It was cool to check out some of the coffee shops in Kodiak (I put flyers up at 3 coffee shops) since I will probably be spending time there in winter when it is dark after work and I can't go outside.

I copied this photo from a coworker's blog. None of my photos really have me in them since I'm the one taking them. This is on a beach in Kodiak. It's been in the 40s, 50s, and 60s here, so I wear hats sometimes.

I've Been Here 1 Week

2008-05-27T00:53:00.000-07:00

Today at work I organized the copy room. I got to use this cool label maker. I totally want one. Organizing the copy room sounds like a menial task, but I love organizing things. Especially closets and storage drawers. I also got to go to the Alutiiq Museum for free in the morning. The Alutiiq are the native people of Kodiak. Pretty good musuem; took me a bit to go through the small museum since I wanted to read all of the text in it. For lunch I got my last taste of Crab Fest--sourdough pancakes. Apparently there are some 100-year old starter batches of sourdough in Alaska.

After work I went for a bike ride. I wanted to go on a trail at Spruce Cape, but I think I just missed the entrance to it. I took a different road home and found an urban forest trail. This forest was very wet and covered in moss. Moss on the ground and moss hanging from the branches.

This photo is to show the mossy ground.

I also stopped at Mission Beach and found a bunch of beach glass. I hear there are several places in Kodiak to collect beach glass, so I will have to come up with some sort of mosaic or something to make use of this resource.

Crab Fest Galore

2008-05-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

Most of this weekend was spent at Crab Fest, although I did do some other stuff at well.

Friday

Friday during the day I had work. I had trouble sleeping the night before, so I was really tired. I did find out that I get to remake a sign/bulletin board at a head of one of the trails. I really like designing things like that.

After work I took a nap before I met up with Arley for crab legs. Arley is one of the other visitors center workers. These crab legs were huge! They were from king crab, which is also very spiky. The spikes sometimes hurt my hands. The stand we bought them from gave us these scissors-like tools to cut the exoskeleton so we could reach the meat.

Saturday

Saturday I went with my host family the the Crab Festival Parade. I kept taking photos of the fire trucks since they say Kodiak, Alaska on them.

After the parade I walked downtown. I wandered around a bit and purchased a pupusa for lunch. A pupusa is a dish from El Salvaldor. It was very good. Here is Wikipedia's entry for the dish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupusa. To me it tasted sort of like a corn tortilla bread with cheese in the middle. At noon was a Coast Guard search and rescue demonstration. They had some people in the water and rescued them with a helicoptor. Next they showed a plane dropping a device onto a boat that would help it pump out water if it was sinking.

The demo made me very cold since the helicoptor blades both created wind and blew salt water at us, so I walked to the indoor art display to warm up. The art display was all of local artists' work. I walked back to the waterfront to catch the Survival Suit races. Teams of four have to put on survival suits, which are these orange, bulky suits that protect fishermen from the icy waters if they know they are going overboard. After putting on the suits, team members have to swim to an awaiting boat and get in it. The team with the fastest time wins. I watched the first two teams before heading over to watch the Kodiak Island Drummers. The Drummers were really cool. It was mainly kids playing on drums (like the bongo type you play with your hands).

Survival Suit Race

I met up with some bunkhouse crew (people working for the refuge who are staying at the bunkhouse on the edge of town). I bought a dough buoy for dinner, which is pretty much like an elephant ear. The bunkhouse people don't get a bike like me, but they do get use of a 15-seater Fish and Wildlife van. I rode in the van with them back to where they were staying. I live in town, and the bunkhouse people live just outside of town near the Buskin Recreation Area. I went for a walk to a nearby beach with Tara and Jade. The beach was really beautiful. It had black sand, some cool rocks, and great views of the mountains and ocean. Back at the bunkhouse we watched a most excellent movie...Bring It On! Hehehe. The bunkhouse is stocked with movies, but they aren't the greatest. I found Bring It On to be hilarious, have great drama, and be full of great cheers. Two of the boys in the program went fishing while we watched the movie, and reported good success.

Jade throwing rock on the beach.

Oh yeah, we also found this eaten deer leg.

Sunday
Sunday I didn't get out of bed until noon. I still got to see the balalaika players at 1pm. The balalaika is a Russian instrument that looks like a guitar. Wikipedia, my reference for everything, had this entry on the balalaika http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balalaika.

I walked along the waterfront for a bit and read some of the signs by it. The signs told more about the fishing industry.

Then I rode my bike to explore part of Near Island I hadn't been to yet. I rode down by the harbor there, which is bigger than the one in downtown Kodiak. I also rode my bike to the float plane harbor. I didn't catch any taking off or landing. I got to see the planes docked, but I will have to go back some time to try to see them in action.

This evening the Salmon Camp head/Education Specialist had a barbecue for the employees. It was cold, but a lot of fun and good good. There were brats at this barbecue, so I felt some WI pride.

I have to work tomorrow since the Visitors Center is open Memorial Day and my days off are Sat. and Sun.

Crab Fest

2008-05-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

As usual this morning was spent in training and the afternoon was spent manning the visitors center. Tomorrow I get to design some flyers for the program I will be running. Computer design stuff rules. This is the first job I have had relating to my major that I actually like! Today I also got my uniform clothes/stuff from the SCA in the mail. They sent a bunch of buttons, so I have the option of lots of flair. They also sent a temporary SCA tattoo so that I will look super bad ass.

Today was the first day of Crab Fest. During lunch I got a bruinburger, which is a deep-fried hamburger. It's pretty much like a large deep-fried hamburger hot pocket.

After work I went to this sporting goods store that had a tent sale for Crab Fest. I bought 2 pairs of running/walking shoes. They were only $35 and $45 for Nike and Reebok brands. I do need one pair since I don't think my shoes will last the whole 6 months, but the second I just bought cuz it was so cheap! In general, things are more expensive here since they have to be shipped so far. Despite my low Americorps stipend I think the shoes are a good deal since I will never find anything that cheap outside of a major sale on this island.

After the tent sale I met up with some people I work with or who are working in other programs at the Refuge. I got a crab sandwich and I tried some of another person's crab legs. I have never really liked crab before, but this crab is really good! Will have to bring my camera tomorrow to get some shots of Crab Fest.

The local library was having a book sale for Crab Fest, so after dinner we went to check it out. I bought a book on Architecture for 50 cents. It's pretty spiffy. I am contemplating using some photos from it if I end up making a EuroTrip scrapbook.

I think I will probably write in this blog a lot since it's a good way for me to document my activities. This might be way too much information than any of you would ever want to know about my time in Kodiak, but just a forewarning that I will probably be posting a lot.

What a great view

2008-05-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty cool. For work we got to go to the Baranov Museum, which is a Russian Heritage Museum of sorts. If we're telling visitors about the sites, we need to know about them! Kodiak was the original capital when Alaska was held by Russia. I learned that Alaska's flag was designed by a 13-year old boy named Benny Benson. His drawing of gold stars set in blue won the contest for the flag design. Here is a more detailed version of how Alaska's flag came to be.
http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/flags/ak_flag.htm

At work I also had to read some info on computer usage and take some tests on it; boring but everyone has to do it. Found out more on what my job will be for the FUN program (FUN would mean Families Understanding Nature).

Crab Fest starts officially starts tomorrow. After work me and two others went to a display of pictures of Crab Fest over the years. Crab Fest starts tomorrow, and it is the 50th anniversary of the annual event. There was some delicious free food at this picture display, including salmon spread. Some of you who have had the pleasure of living with me might remember my other delvings into food pastes--ham spread, liver pate, frosting, nutella. This salmon paste was pretty tasty. We also went to see some watercolors mainly of natural scenes in Alaska by this one lady.

Later that evening I went for a walk on the Near Island Bridge and the Near Island North End Trail. It was awesome. I got some really great views from the bridge. The trail led down to the water, and I saw several eagles while I was hiking. I am really enjoying the sun not setting until 11pm so that I can fit it some outdoor things after work. It will not be so enjoyable when dark November comes around. Here are two pics from the Near Island Bridge. Views like these remind me why I go on these adventures.

The yellow circle is where I am staying while in Kodiak.

I started a Kodiak Blog

2008-05-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hey! I am starting a blog to write while I am in Kodiak, Alaska. Kodiak is an island about the size of Connecticut, but the town only takes up about 1/3 of it. The other 2/3 are taken up by a wildlife refuge. I'm here for 6 months--until mid-November doing an SCA AmeriCorps program. Basically I'm an environmental educator at the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center.

Where is Kodiak?? Look here for a map:
http://pix.epodunk.com/locatorMaps/ak/AK_27968.gif

I arrived in Kodiak on Sunday. I had 2 flights to get to Anchorage. I got bumped up to 1st class for free on both of them! That was my first time in 1st class, and it was awesome! Lots of good, free food and drinks. I got to Anchorage around 1am, and lounged sleeplessly around the airport until my plane left for Kodiak at 7am. Got a beautiful view of Kodiak from the plane on the way in. Lots of mountains--most are still covered in snow right now.

That first day (Sunday) was tough. I cried for about an hour. I had a great first day of work on Monday though, and now I am very excited to be here and explore the island!

Monday highlights include:
--Met people I will be working with. They all seem very nice, and I think we will get along. I think I will like this job. It is very front country, I get to lead activities, and I get to do computer design!
--Visited the Kodiak Island Brewery and picked up some Liquid Sunshine. The Liquid Sunshine is a California Steam Beer. Haven't had too many of those styles. Very good taste.
--The couple I am staying with in Kodiak made a salmon bake for dinner that I got to eat.
--Got a lecture on Kodiak bears. I hope I get to see one...in a safe encounter that is.

Tuesday:
--Got to visit a Fish Research area. There is a "feel tank" where we got to touch sea cucumbers, starfish, anemones, and some other sea creatures. There is also an enclosed tank that had crabs, halibut, and a bunch of other fish in it.

--Visitors Center opened for the afternoon, and I worked behind the desk. Not too many people came since it is early in the season, but it was nice to see what I'd be doing a little bit.
--Got to eat scallop pasta for dinner.
--Took some photos of my walk to work that I will post below.

It stays light here until about 11pm. If you would like a postcard from Alaska, send me your address. I didn't have internet until today, but I should have a connection from now on. My phone gets really good reception up here. Alaska is 3 hours behind Wisconsin, so when it is 8pm in WI it is 5pm in AK.

Here are some pics I took that followed my daily walk to work. Click on each image to enlarge it. I made them small so I could put them up faster.

My walk to work is along the shore.

Boats reflecting on the water.

These are for catching crabs. I go past some fishing/processing areas on the way to work.

Arriving at the Visitors Center. The building is new, and only opened about half a year ago. It's pretty spiffy inside. There is a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. They found the whale washed up on a Kodiak beach 4 years ago. They buried it and then collected the bones after it decomposed.