Roommate Trip

Our paddle out

Emily Buck with our whale friends

Whale Tail

The roommates with the whales

The river before the trailhead

Sunset on Salmon Lake

Old Growth

The crew

Sunset on our return

Last weekend we took a roommate boomsham in our new kayaks, 3 out of the 4 of us purchased kayaks this past fall. The kayaks have opened up MANY adventure doors and our accessibility is now 10 fold what it once was. This past weekend it was to the salmon lake forest service cabin. To reach Salmon lake we took a 6 mile paddle out to trail head and then a 2 mile hike to the cabin through an old growth forest. Before we hiked the trail to the cabin 2 humpbacks decided to put on a show for us, one word... AMAZING!

And a thanks to ... Emily Buck for her fabulous photography. She makes nearly all my blogs possible.

What did you do for Thanksgiving?

While the Bradford extended family gathered on the SC coast I also found myself on a beach this Thanksgiving season.

However instead of driving in a car and a staying in a fancy house (not that either of those things are bad) I took a troller, then a seven mile hike across Kruzof Island to a remote cabin with no running water and a wood stove as its source of heat. Instead of sharing the beach with hundreds of other travelers, it was a private beach with the only other people inhabiting it being the nine other people in our party.

While there other than eating the events were many: writing a Alaskan Ballad, endlessness songs, long romantic walks on the beach, giant swings, and having my friends wade through freezing cold 5 foot water at high tide trying to get across an estuary. The culminating event was a fiesta pizza from our local American, Mexican, Italian restaurant.

kayaking with whales

You know you're in Alaska when...

You walk up to a group of boys on the playground, one who is lying on a snow mound with his tongue hanging out and ask curiously, "boys what are you up too?" and one urgently responds "We are playing search and rescue, Brain got caught in an avalanche and is buried in the snow so we are digging him out!"

Things I am thankful for:

#1: SNOW! Which is currently falling softly from the sky. Yesterday we roommates had our first snowball fight of the season. It feels as if hot chocolate and mint tea are here to stay. Here is the view from my bedroom window:

This year I have finally invested in a few things that I should have done years ago, which brings me to the second thing I am thankful for... #2: insulated curtains. This weekend Ben Franklin, yes those are still around, had a large fabric sale, so I made my move. After looking at every fabric in the store I settled on a green, which matches my cobalt blue, fuchsia, and green duvet cover. Now I don't have to move to the far side of the bed away from the window to fall asleep at night.


Which brings me to the 3rd fabulous invention I am thankful for: A space heater! Saturday, the same day I bought my curtain fabric, my sweet boyfriend bought me a space heater. He told me it was insanely cold in my room and how was I ever going to get healthy living like that, so now my room is completely winterized. And I am sometimes getting what they call hot in my room. I didn't even turn on my space heater last night because I had gotten so warm the night before.


#4: Knit scarfs are also a lifesaver around here. In this picture above is the scarf I wear daily. It is one my cousins gave me for Christmas a few years ago, and I have been ever so thankful for it since my move to Sitka. My goal this winter is to become a more fluent knitter. Mittens and socks are my humble goal.

weather

Saturday November 14, 2009:
Here is the weather for my homes:

Sitka, AK 9:55AM:

44 degrees, feels like 33 degrees, cold and windy

sunrise: 7:42
sunset: 3:49

Total daylight hours: 8 hours and 7 minutes

Asheville, NC 1:56PM:

72 degrees, feels like 72 degrees, sunny

sunrise: 7:05
sunset: 5:24

Total daylight hours: 10 hours and 19 minutes

York, SC 1:57PM:

71 degrees, feels like 71 degrees, sunny

sunrise: 6:59
sunset: 5:20

Total daylight hours: 10 hours and 22 minutes

Reasons I haven't Blogged Lately...

Excuse #1: It has been too cold in my house and when I type for extended periods my figures get really cold and turn into what feels something close to an ice box. Even just now I just had to blow on my hands to warm them up. It is definitely getting colder here, we even had our first snowfall of the year yesterday!

Excuse #2: I have been terribly sick for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and I am doing good to get myself feed much less able to write in my blog, this too sadly is true! I haven't even been cooking! Which reminds me for all you chiefs out there you'll be impressed with this site.

Excuse #3: It gets dark now at 4:30 in the afternoon and therefore my blogging opportunities has decreases substantially. I don't know why AK insists upon conforming to day lights saving time. I know that Arizona has rebelled, and I think we should follow their lead.

Excuse #4: I think that I might have tried one or two times, but I haven't had much to say, not that my life has been dull and boring, but it might resemble that if one really were to study my recent activity level: I haven't run in months, climbed mountains, or really ventured out much these days. This of coarse being an involuntary choice of action due to an unfortunate series of events.