Kodiak Solstice Weekend

Last weekend we availed ourselves of some 15,000 mile round trip tickets between Dutch Harbor and Kodiak for a mini summer solstice vacation. We also got to visit Team Wilyo and see Gramps one last time, which was great. And of course, we took care of a couple health related missions.

The prenatal visit was kind of a bummer. We are planning to change horses mid-stream and go with a new provider. Our current choice, randomly selected from the internet list of Anchorage midwives, is simply not cutting it. They don't seem to exude positive energy or joy, two things which are fairly important in the birthing process.

The crappiness of the organization was underscored by Boppa's visit to the podiatrist. You wouldn't expect a toenail issue would be such fun, but the vibe at the podiatrists office was pure positive goodness. At any rate, experiencing the two extremes back to back helped us realize that we need to shop around a bit more before settling on a midwife and/or doctor.

And then... it was off to Kodiak, the Emerald Isle, a fabled place we've heard much about from our dear Bethel friends. It certainly lived up to the hype. Expecting gray rainy skies, we were delighted to find blue sky at the end of the road.




Boppa was excited about the tasty waves, but alas, he neglected to bring his surfboard. Next time! None of the local options offered rentals, unfortunately.




Alaska's very own rocket launching complex is at the end of the road.

Florida may have its gators, but no rocket launchpad is complete without a herd of bison milling about.


The coastline speaks for itself.








Interesting geography.







An example of why it's named Fossil Beach?




Trying hard to capture a good self portrait...



Lots of glorious places to camp.



And so ended our journey to Pasagchak, Surfer's Beach, the Launch Complex, and Fossil Beach. It was time to head north, and start enjoying a few of Kodiak's five coffee shops. Mmmm... coffee shops. Admittedly, there were some in our party who don't seem to enjoy lazily lounging around a coffee shop whiling away an afternoon. So our visits were quite short, although the Fly-By Coffee shop had a lot to keep Mister entertained. Float planes landing in the lake behind the place, a well stocked selection of rugrat books, toys, and highchairs, and even a kids play area outside. Now that's a thoughtful coffee shop!




But winning the coffee shop competition was Mill Bay. Sure, they weren't quite as kid friendly, with lots of expensive looking breakable stuff in reach of the rugrats, but they made up for it by serving exquisite French pastries. Authentic. The owner and chef used to be the personal chef of the President of France! And you can taste it in the pastries.



Senor can vouch for it.

Two surf shops in Kodiak:





Well, to be more accurate, two shops that sell surfboards.

This one's for Aileen.



One really cool thing we didn't expect to see was this whale skeleton. Wow, is it huge! You kind of have to see it in person to appreciate it. And you can for free if you're in Kodiak! Hooray for free museums.



Exploring the end of the road to the north. We were hoping to find white sand beach, one of Kodiak's few white sand beaches, but the sand was in fact quite black. We attempted to hike to the beach, to no avail. The lush forest was plenty entertaining for Boodah.







Unfortunately, it was at this point in the adventure that our much abused camera finally met it's doom. Sort of. It no longer zooms in, but otherwise works. Oh, dear. We've already replaced it with a cheaper model, which should be arriving from Maine any day.

Some extreme rope swing fun. Somebody went to the trouble of erecting this rope swing at the top of a steep hill. When you swing out, the ground disappears quickly on account of the hill's steep slope. It amounts to quite a thrill.






Day two in Kodiak was cloudy, but the sun returned on Monday, the last day of our adventure. We started strong and finished strong, as Coach Hawkins would say. We enjoyed a very tasty Big Al's calzone picnic lunch, drove to the top of a mountain for a nap, and called it an adventure. Hooray for Kodiak! The Emerald Isle lives up to the hype!

The King

In exchange for some recently provided emergency babysitting, a huge bucket of freshly caught king crab appeared on our doorstep. Boiled and ready to eat! Mmmmm.. . So fresh, so tasty! Sweet, succulent and tender! We shucked it, ate a bit, and froze the rest for future tasty goodness.

And to think, if we owned our own small boat and a crab pot, it would be a free summer long all-you-can-eat king crab buffet. I guess the same would also be true if Boppa could get a little better at crab hunting mano a mano.

Super Stealth Gramps Trip

Due to a freak incident of Alaska Air award ticket availability, we were able to get Gramps out here for a 2.5 day visit for a mere 7,500 miles. Perfect timing for Father's Day weekend!




Lots of fishing...



Boppa with a real monster, and Gramps in the background.



Here's Gramps giving us some fillet lessons.


And thanks to Nana, Senor was plenty entertained with his new armada of boats during all the fishing missions. Senor loves his boats, but for some reason he doesn't like putting them in the water. (I guess the 35 degree water temperature could have something to do with it.)



Now we're stocked full of fresh fish. Mmm... Thanks for coming to visit, Gramps! Have fun in Bethel and with Team Wilyo. See you in August!

Chocolate Cigarettes

Oh, the joys of wrong candy! We used to enjoy a candy version of these in our youth. I think for some reason they've been taken off the market in the US. But not in Germany!

Thanks for thinking of us, TVJ!

SEAWEED.

It's what's for dinner.

That and some raw sea urchin eggs, and snails. Let's not forget the fish. Mmmm. We're trying to join the eat local movement.

Our house smells kind of like boiled snail shells and sea urchin entrails (bad) at the moment, but we're airing it out. Let the chocolate-coconut scented candles burn with all their might.

We'd like to thank Akiko for showing us the ways of harvesting the sea's bounty.

Look at the pure bliss on Boppa's face as he enjoys raw freshly cracked sea urchin gonads. Mmmm. Feeding caviar taste with a cabbage-soup pocketbook, as the old trusty Cooking Alaskan has written. (P. 150).

Seaweed hunting. Scissors work best, but Boppa likes the John Rambo effect.

First, the seaweed. Mister gave it a shot. He enjoyed it, but it was a bit too chewy for him. It made for the perfect greens to compliment our Dolly Varden dinner. Crunchy. And thanks to Amy for the beginner level chopsticks we used to help us feel authentic.




Okay, let's start at the beginning. Here's Boppa bringing back yet another pot roast pan full of fresh fish. (The pot roast pan is necessary to fend off marauding eagles. Caught fish must be stored inside, or else they become eagle snacks the moment you get three feet away.) One of these Dollys was the main dish of the evening.



Mama and Mister stay entertained in the car.


Gone are the days when Mister doesn't notice the camera.

Actually, Dollys have been the main dish now for 7 evenings, going on 8. We aren't sick of them yet. But hopefully we'll start catching some salmon. The previously mentioned rockfish only yielded enough flesh to be a mere appetizer to our southern themed Friday night dinner of ribs, deep fried rockfish, and Key Lime pie. Mmm. That was friday night. Then came the Saturday night mentioned above. Between the seaweed and the fish we didn't take in too many calories Saturday night. Thank goodness we were able to make up for it by eating 6 slices of Key Lime pie.

Thanks for letting us be part of Team Sea Bounty!



Clockwise: Mama, Akiko, Ms. Lee, Yuma, Paxson, Naho.