I love my mama

at Norris Hot Springs in Montana

sky blue sky

I can't get over the sky here. It is a blue I have never seen, almost purple at times. The way it contrasts with the canyon walls and rocks is something I never get tired of looking at.

These petroglyphs are in Bandelier, near the ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi. The spirals are common and probably have a connection with water or some sort of migration symbol. The Park is full of archaeological sites, over 3,000 someone told me! Every day I come across something that reminds me of the people who used to live here.

"hana got ran over by an elkhorse"

I was off trail hiking yesterday and stopped to take a break to look at my map to find the trail that would lead me down into the canyon. I started to hear some commotion in the woods and it sounded like something very big was coming in my direction. I look up and see 2 bull elk jumping over a downed tree into the clearing and trotting right toward me. After I clicked a picture, I stepped to the side because I thought they were going to run me over. Apparently, he hadn't noticed me standing there, because when I moved it sent him and his buddy flying back into the woods.

good thing they are vegetarians

Petrified Forest National Park, AZ

What is now a high, dry and very windy place used to be a floodplain with trees and dinosaurs. When the area was flooded and the trees fell, they were washed downstream and over time covered by silt, mud, and volcanic ash. This was over 225 million years ago and since then the trees have turned into quartz (because of silica in the groundwater) they will forever be preserved as petrified wood.

We had fun- Mexican food and margaritas, late night cookie run, reminiscing about home and catching up on life.

1st day of work

Spent most of the day driving around with Dale, my supervisor, seeing the sites and getting oriented or orientated, whichever. I met some of the rest of the crew at Bandelier and went for a short hike later in the day. Turns out, Steven Soderbergh is directing a spy thriller ("Knockout") right here in the park! So, naturally we stopped by the movie set, ate some of their snacks, met the main actress, and watched them get ready to film a car chase. They had these fake trees, along with...get this...NYS patrol cars! Part of the movie is set in upstate NY, so they had fake cop cars, cops, and changed the road signs to Moose Crossing and Entering Adirondacks.

here i go, or there i went...

It was quite a trip. To start out, I spent a couple nights with Lindsay in Yellow Springs, OH, hiking, eating pizza and trying the local brews. Then on to St. Louis and Tulsa where I would try out couchsurfing, much to Uncle Joe's dismay. As it turns out, it was great! My first couchsurfer friend, Amy, took me out to dinner and then to see the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra perform at Powell Hall (in the picture below). She even made me swedish pancakes in the morning before I left.
Next, i met another couchsurfer in Tulsa, OK and we drank a beer out back of her apartment looking at the Arkansas River, then went out for some Vietnamese food and milkshakes. Got up in the morning and headed to Texas. The next time I was out of my car it smelled like shit and I knew I was close, ha! Kristen showed me around town and fed me well. Last stop: Bandelier National Monument Park in Los, Alamos, NM. For the first couple hours of driving in NM, there was a whole lot of nothing. Then, as Sante Fe approached, I began to see the tail end of the Rockies and some of the canyons and mesas that make up northern New Mexico.

Bouckville to Bandelier

Cruise ship visitors

So, another part of my job here is to talk to visitors who come to Kodiak via cruiseship. When I drive into work, the cruise ship tied up at the dock almost dwarfs town- these things can get pretty big and require hundreds of staff to run them.

We have had some interesting visitors- Jacques Cousteau's son was on board one ship, a lady came in who was an entertainer for the cruiseline and she busted out some opera in the middle of the visitor center, a little old lady I spoke with knew Bouckville and the Antique Show! Mostly I talk with an older, retired crowd, usually couples who are often sporting matching rain gear which is cute.

Bear!

I am living on an island with roughly 3500 bears, that means about 1 bear per square mile. You would think I would have seen one by now. It's not like they are small critters. Well, I finally saw one! There is a male juvenile bear hanging out and fishing right down the road from where I live and I caught him playing around in the river last week. I got this shot of him coming toward me up the river.

shipwreck

This is the before (1949) and after (2009) pictures of a shipwreck down on the VFW beach in Monashka Bay. It was an iron ship called The Santiago and was built in 1885 in Scotland. Apparently it was a record-breaking fast schooner that later turned into an oil barge that was used here by the Navy during WWII. It was beached in 1941 because of a leak in its hull.

sparklers are fun

Chad took this picture out at Pasagshak on the 4th of July. We all camped out there for the night.

Amikuq

Amikuq means octopus in Alutiiq. An Alaskan native, Herman (or the Hermanator as he is known in some parts of AK) caught two octopuses yesterday morning and he shared them with us for lunch! He kept one tentacle raw, that was good, then cooked up the rest and we dipped those in yummy sauces, even better. My belly was full of octopus :)

Far Side

warm and fuzzy critters!

I know you might have been thinking, Hana has seen a bear! no. But, I have seen a few others mammals lately. There was a fuzzy red fox curled up near Buskin Lake the other night. The fox is one of just six native land mammals here on the island. There is of course the Kodiak bear, red fox, ermine, tundra vole, river otter, and little brown bat. We have bats living near (in?) our house, so that was an easy one to spot. I have yet to see an ermine and a bear. I did see tracks of a bear down on the Buskin beach the other morning, must have been in early to get some breakfast.




Palin is resigning?

Wind power project

Three windmills were put up in the last couple weeks on top of Pillar Mountain, which sits right behind the center of town. Kodiak Electric Assoc (KEA) is in charge, and they plan to produce 95% of energy sales with renewable power by 2020! The primary renewable power source is the Terror Lake Hydroelectricity project. Rumor has it that the windmills will provide 25% of the power.

Cool beans.

while james was here...

I was lucky enough to have James come and visit for almost 3 weeks! We saw a horned puffin down in Gibson Cove and humpbacks off Miller Point. A bunch of us made a bonfire down at White Sands beach, Chad made us dinner one night with Sockeye salmon he caught, we ate brunch at Mill Bay twice because it was so good, hiked Barometer Mt, went to the VFW beach where there is an old and rusty shipwreck in the sand...we were busy! BUT, we also had time to watch a couple John Wayne and Clint Eastwood flicks-gotta love old westerns.

poo

Yes, that is bear poo.


I'm getting closer.

summer solstice :)

We had a little over 18 hours of daylight yesterday. The sunrise was at 5:07 and did not set until 11:14! Carla made us "Kickass Halibut" for dinner to celebrate (she caught it herself just a few feet from her cabin in Homer). She got the recipe from a 90 year old woman who has been in Alaska for over 50 years. It was hot! Carla is a ferry naturalist as part of her job, so she rides the ferry from Homer to Kodiak twice a month and talks to people about the wildlife and natural history of Alaska.

Happy Trails

So, as part of my job I started a family nature club called Happy Trails. It's sweet because it is open to everyone and it's free! We meet every Saturday at a trail head or beach on the road system for some fun outside. Today, I organized a flower scavenger hunt and then we used some watercolors and made paintings of flowers. Next week, the kids are going to become Spruce scientists at Near Island. The Sitka Spruce is the only evergreen on Kodiak Island and it's the Alaska state tree!

beer and mexican food

We stopped by the brewery down on cannery row by the harbor for some brewskis last night, which we quickly chased with some Mexican food from Martha's. My favorite so far is their malty North Pacific Ale. They recently came out with a new lager called Sarah Pale, ha!

Martha's is an interesting place. She runs her business out of a mobile-home-ish vehicle and serves homemade, fresh mexican food at 2 different places in town, one for lunch, another for dinner. We got a 1/2 order of nachos, took it in the car and devoured it. So good. An extra bonus: for lunch she parks right next to where I work (I have vowed to only eat there once a week).

Fiddlehead quiche

James is in town! We made dinner for everyone at the bunkhouse last night and included some local edibles. I made quiche with fiddleheads (picture) that James and I picked on Near Island. Maybe we’ll make a yummy beach green and sea lovage salad tonight.

Fiddleheads are the young, tightly coiled fern fronds, so named because they look like the scroll of a violin- just a little tidbit for ya.

AK

Everything is bigger than average here...the moose, the mountains, the bears, mosquitoes and even some vegetables.

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Check out the latest from the Anchorage Daily News:

http://www.adn.com/life/story/807240.html

got crabs?

Crab Fest!

some highlights:

-Hobo Jim @ The Rendevous

-King crab legs

-Survival suit race

-riding the "Tornado," an amusement park ride set up on the spit, with Margo in the rain and cold

-Blackened butt wrap

-Kodiak Island Drummers show and workshop

-Balalaika Players @ the Baranov Museum (Russian folk songs)

-Erica's reading of her dirty fishergirl poem "I wanna get you in a bunk" at the Fisherman's Poet gathering