Aloha

One of my Korean friends here in Anchorage is getting married in late February of 2010. Which is great and all that, but the exciting new is that she and her fiance' have decided to hold the ceremony in HAWAII! Kauai to be exact. Halleluja for a destination wedding! In the middle of a cold winter there is no place Alaskans would rather be than, um, ANYWHERE but Alaska.

The only hitch is that I rescheduled my jury duty summons to the first week of March, so it may mean a lot of time away from work over a short period of time. At this point I'm not concerned...lately I've been jonesing hard for a Hawaii trip. My parents both attended high school on Oahu (high school sweethearts, awww) so we took a couple family vacations to that island, and then I went on subsequent trips with friends and family to the other ones (Maui, Kauai and the Big Island). It really is paradise on earth.

Surprise, surprise -- I'm going fishing this weekend. We will be on the Kenai so that means some different photos for you, loyal blog readers. Cross your fingers for a BIG KING to jump on my line!

How cool is this?

EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Hiatus

I'm going to take a few days off from blogging -- be back towards the end of the week!

News roundup

It's been an exciting week for news, although I'm pretty sick of all the Sarah Palin stuff...let's all move on, shall we?

A small brush fire broke out a couple blocks from my workplace on Wednesday. From my office on the 7th floor I had a bird's eye view of the white smoke, and could follow the circling chopper that dropped water on the blaze. Firefighters put it out within a couple hours.

And then late on Wednesday night I was awakened by the sound of staccato gun shots, which turned out to be from ammunition exploding in a garage fire: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=10667441

The haze from numerous forest fires (71 active) is persistent. We haven't had a clear view of the mountains in days. Yesterday my car held a very light dusting of ash from the fires.

This hot and dry weather isn't helping anything -- back on the home front, I'm trying to keep our flowers, trees and bushes well hydrated.

If ya can't handle the heat...

I hope this pair is thoroughly and completely embarrassed -- hopefully they are on a flight back home if they cannot handle ONE NIGHT in our state! They weren't even hurt.

Anchorage Daily News -- Long Alaska day too much for campers from Outside

Hot hot heat

Um, can you say "BEST SUMMER EVER?!"

Last summer I only wore shorts once - yes, once. Actually, we didn't even have a summer last year...it was more of a gray and rainy extended period between spring and fall. The weather we've had so far more than makes up for last year. You should all come up and visit ASAP!

Yesterday's temp during my commute home:

Holiday weekend 2

Although the fishing was slow on Saturday, we moved to another spot on Sunday and our luck improved a bit. Many times we could see the fish fighting their way upriver -- it's just a matter of getting your fly to the right spot!

In addition to the three reds I landed, this guy ended up on my line -- he is ready to SPAWN! His head was pretty beat up and there was a wayward hook stuck in his skin. I thought for sure the fish was done for as I released him, but he appeared again near where I was standing in the river. These fish are crazy tough.

Combat fishing at the confluence.

Mim spotted this huge bull moose (complete with a still-growing fuzzy rack) walking down the road next to our campsite. We followed (somewhat) quietly and were rewarded with some neat photos.

D and his family are still down south fishing it up, so it's me and our animal menagerie holding down the fort.

Can it

It's hot here, peoples! The outdoor thermostat at our house read 80 degrees yesterday at around 6 p.m. One of the local weathercasters says it could be even hotter if the haze (from a wildfire near Denali) wasn't present. I would estimate that 99.9% of Alaskans do not own in-home air conditioning, so the heat is sort of an uncomfortable situation for us -- but I'm not complaining. This summer has been amazing!

Last night all of the doors and windows were open, and I had the ceiling fan running to move some of the hot air around. The reds we caught this weekend had to be pressure canned -- and having the cooktop running for 3 hours straight added to the indoor heat. Everything turned out great though.

My new favorite recipe: slices of onion, basil and canning salt.

Preparing to heat!

Finished product.

Holiday weekend 1

I'm tired. What should have been a jaunty 2 hour drive home turned into a slow 4 hour crawl. Our highway heading south from Anchorage is basically two lanes with occassional pullouts and extra lanes for passing, and apparently everyone was heading home after the 3-day weekend. It wasn't all bad though -- the skies were clear with bright sun and the temperature hovered around 69 degrees (even at 9 in the evening!) And no flying cargo boxes either, so everything is good.

The weekend in a nutshell: lots of fishing, sun, HOT weather, good food, great company and fun times all around. Oh, and I was able to nap in a hammock - does it get any better than that on a warm summer day?

Thanks Don & Mim for the tasty meals!

Everybody wants to hurry up and get to the fish, but first you have to walk from the campsite to the stairs leading down to the river, then over a trail of boardwalks before taking on the river crossing and another long trail to the best spot -- all in heavy waders and boots! Of course on the way back it's all uphill (hopefully with a pack full of salmon filets!) With the temperature in the (high?) 70's, I was ridiculously hot in all my gear.

The actual Russian River, before it meets up with the Kenai at the confluence. D likes to take Drift down to cool off and get some exercise in for the day.

Hanging out on one of the many stairs over the bank. At the end of the day, it felt so good to slip our feet into the water and cool down a bit ourselves.

This run of fish is waning, which meant slight relief from the crush of other anglers. We had a little more room to spread out. This area here is the ferry landing where people pay to park and catch a short ride over to the other bank - it's spendy, but more convenient than the couple miles we usually walk.

Oh yeah, and some other stuff happened this weekend too...

Happy 4th!

Hi all -- I'll be off for the next few day so happy 4th of July to everyone! D's brother and Uncle have arrived in town from Outside, and we'll all be converging for a fun fishing weekend. Will post photos when I get back.

Grow baby grow

After a slow start, my annuals are doing pretty well. The mix of sunshine and wet weather has really encouraged everything to grow, including the yard -- to D's dismay. He's going to be doing a lot of mowing this summer.

I need to go around and take some photos of all our plant life -- the geraniums are by far my favorites.

The cats are really enjoying Drift's kennel while outside...

I can't seem to keep them inside during the warmer months -- they just meow until someone lets them out or else we find the screen door open just a smidge (who says you need thumbs to open doors?)

I got your beauty tips right here

I was a bit perplexed when Drift started appearing with green streaks all over himself. Then we figured out that when he rubs his body against our neighbor's chain link fence, long blades of grass get in his way and leak onto his fur.

Or he is experimenting with eyeshadow.

"How do I look?"

Those orange cylinders are Drift's dummies for fetching. I wonder what people think of us when we're yelling "fetch your dummy...DUMMY!!!" at the dog in public.

Celebrity sighting

Oh my goodness, I forgot to post about my Bear Grylls sighting from Friday! Bear is this British mountain climber and explorer who has a show on the Discovery Channel called "Man vs. Wild." And he's, erm, quite attractive. (Don't raise your eyebrows at me...D knows all about my Bear obsession!)

A friend of mine is in town from Minneapolis so I skipped out on the fishing this weekend to hang out with the gang downtown. And who do I see walk into the outdoor area of Humpy's? Um, BEAR GRYLLS! I thought to myself, "that man bears a remarkable resemblance to Bear" before dropping my jar and realizing it was actually the man himself. I snapped a few across-the-patio papparazzi shots (he's the one in green):

No, I did not squeal in a high pitched voice or sprint over to Bear's table for a photo (both are actual behaviors exhibited by some "ladies"). I was impressed by us Alaskans -- for the most part everyone left Bear alone and let him enjoy a pint of beer (and hand-rolled cigarettes) in peace.

Fishin' 4

What, you want more photos? Of me? And fish?

Look at all the reds I caught! Well, maybe in fantasyland -- this was our combined haul from last weekend.

This is the first fish I caught that day -- I'm surprised he could swim at all, with the majority of his tail missing. Maybe a bear took that chunk?

Thanks to Mim for taking the following photos of me. I love having someone else with a camera around, otherwise I don't exist in photographs -- it's just D, the dog and the boat!

Midnight sun

Sunday was a stellar day in terms of weather. SUNSHINE ALL DAY! And mid-70 degree temperatures. D and I sat outside for a few hours on the deck (me: reading / D: boy crafts - fishing tackle) and we managed to get some color. Actually, I got a little color and D looks like he just returned from Hawaii.

Summer solstice has passed but the amount of daylight we are getting is still unreal. These photos were taken at about 11:30 pm on Saturday night: