Couldn't resist breaking the silence in order to post this fantastic video made by my Alaskan friends, answering that age old question: "So, how does someone with the power of 10,000 American voters spend the day?"
As most (if not all) of you probably know, I am no longer in Alaska... my glorious clerkship year has come to a close and I am back in California. I have been planning some "sum it all up" posts for a while, including a rundown of all the awesome stuff I did since I last posted here, but well... maybe it'll have to be a 2008 New Year's resolution.
...but I just couldn't resist this post. Flickr recently added a new feature which allows you to track various stats related to your photos, including providing a list of referring websites. Most are pretty predictable--web searches, the odd photo on someone's blog (some people I know, some people I don't). One referrer for one of my photos, however, is far from typical.
This photo was linked from a forum on a website called Puffy Central, a UK-based website which is
only about puffa/bubble/down (call them what you will!) jackets and sleeveless vests. It is not about ski jackets, or any other type of jacket!
Puffy Central has puffy jacket meetups, lots of photos, puffy-related fiction, a discussion forum specifically for puffy vests, and an XXX photo gallery. I guess my downfall (if being featured on the website can be considered a downfall) was including the word "puffy" in the title of my photo.
I feel particularly embarrassed because I really have never thought of myself as the "puffy jacket" type, let alone the "pink puffy jacket" type. When I bought that jacket at the North Face Outlet in Berkeley, I demanded that a store clerk explain to me why they don't make stupid men wear stupid pink jackets... he tried to tell me that they were starting to make them, but I didn't believe him. But one of my friends later assuaged my uneasiness by saying "well, you have to have SOME way to advertise that you're female when you're wrapped from head to toe in lumpy winter gear."
A few other Alaska-related web searches that led to my photos (linked to a likely result from my photostream):
About a million years ago (in June), my friend Rebecca discovered a brand new bluegrass festival starting up in Sutton, about 50 miles from Anchorage. After attending a local festival, the Ocean's Fest (which had its own awesome events, including a shrimp-shucking contest and a bucking salmon ride), we packed up for some car camping and bluegrass listening at the Granite Creek Bluegrass Fest. It was a gorgeous setting, with a view of some stunning mountains (the Chugach, I think) directly behind the stage:
The crowd seemed mostly local (to Sutton), and I'm sure us kids from Anchorage stuck out like so many sore thumbs. But we scooted around on the dirt dance floor with the best of them. The musicians were incredible (some who we saw earlier that day in Anchorage, and a couple of months earlier in Juneau), bolstered by a really, really great sound system. (The sound system makes all the difference, as we discovered, in a bad way, this past weekend in Homer...) We all bought t-shirts (the mark of any event we're really in love with), and trudged back to our campground only when we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. The bands kept playing as long as it was light -- that is to say, all night, as far as we could tell -- and we fell asleep to the faint sounds of fiddles and banjos...
The next day, we did an awesome 11 mile round trip hike along the south fork of the Eagle River. The hike was mostly flat through lovely sunny tundra -- great way to clear your head after a night of music and dancing. Along the way, Dave jumped into a pond to retrieve what ended up being a really gross and slimy sheep's horn:
I really love this cheesy group shot we took at the top -- don't you think we look like we're selling outdoor gear, or guided hiking tours or something? Group shot with Eagle Lake Originally uploaded by t-dawg.
I have been shamed into posting by one of my friends telling me over and over how much my blog sucks right now. The only sort of excuse I can offer is that I've been so busy gleaning every last ounce of enjoyment out of my Alaskan summer that I haven't wanted to waste a single second indoors. I've been busy enjoying the outdoors until late in the evenings--softball games, frisbee, and stunning hikes at 10pm in the never-absent sun are hard to trade for poking away at a keyboard alone in my house.
Today, this excuse is not getting in my way: I'm sitting out in my cute front yard, enjoying a very welcome day of sunlight after a week or so of dull gray -- clouds, and rain, the summertime bane of an Alaskan's existence. All I can do at this point is randomly blab about awesome things I've done in the last couple of months but haven't posted about.
To tide you over until the few moments when my first backlog-reducing post appears, please enjoy this recent Economist article about how Alaska politicians suck almost as much as my blog.
A couple more notes on the half marathon. My friend Bill wore a GPS thingie, and so you can see our route! If you click on the picture, it will take you to the Map My Run site, and you can zoom in and out and scroll around and whatnot.
Also, I thought some of you might be interested in knowing the musical inspiration which guided me along the way. The following are all the songs I listened to all the way through during the half-marathon (not in this order--I remember my first song was "Take It Easy"--quite appropriate, but I did not follow its advice, and ran my first few miles quite quickly):
Keys To Your Heart // 101ers It's Five O'Clock Somewhere // Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett Falling For the First Time // Barenaked Ladies Don't Worry Baby (Single Version) // The Beach Boys Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) // Big & Rich Toxic // Britney Spears Summer of '69 // Bryan Adams Everytime We Touch // Cascada Lady Marmalade // Christina Aguilera Down On The Corner // Creedence Clearwater Revival The Sound Of Settling // Death Cab For Cutie Long Time Gone // Dixie Chicks Heaven // DJ Sammy & Yanou Take It Easy // The Eagles Til I Hear It From You // Gin Blossoms Feel Good Inc. // Gorillaz Behind These Hazel Eyes // Kelly Clarkson Since U Been Gone // Kelly Clarkson The Gambler // Kenny Rodgers Just Dropped In... // Kenny Rogers & The First Edition Mr. Brightside // The Killers Something's Gotta Give // LeAnn Rimes Perdido En Un Barco // Mana Buscandola // Mana Some Jingle Jangle Morning // Mary Lou Lord Billie Jean // Michael Jackson Float On // Modest Mouse Ride Wit Me // Nelly Bizarre Love Triangle (Extended Remix) // New Order Tell It To Me // Old Crow Medicine Show Steady, As She Goes // The Raconteurs Pon De Replay // Rihanna Portions For Foxes // Rilo Kiley La Tortura // Shakira Te Dejo Madrid // Shakira Suerte // Shakira The Rubberband Man // The Spinners Santeria // Sublime Here I Go Again // Whitesnake
Quite a few of my friends trained for this event, keeping each other motivated and doing long runs together. (I was a little behind on training due to vacations, and am sort of antisocial when it comes to running, so I did almost all of my training alone, but we did a lot of sharing tips and tricks and experiences and routes.) Two of my friends even ran the full marathon!
The weather on the day of was perfect--cloudy and cool. The course was really great--the first 2/3 or so was on trails I had never run on before, which kept my perspective quite fresh, and the last part was familiar, which was very comforting--I could mentally prepare for exactly how much farther I had to go. The only surprise was a MOUNTAINOUS incline just before the end, which caused me to exclaim to John and Rob upon seeing them just afterwards: "I want to die right now!" But I made it, in 2:36:33.4 (no alias this time). Immediately afterwards, I stuffed myself full of cinnamon raisin bagels and orange wedges, which have never before tasted so delicious.
Since the race, I've spent quite a lot of time on Hal Higdon's website, wondering if I'll ever talk myself into doing a full marathon... but let me tell you, the thought of doing ANOTHER half after doing the FIRST half was just horrifying to me this weekend.
UPDATE: My friend Vik spectated and took a bunch more photos of the race, including this great group shot from just before the start:
Last Thursday, June 21, marked the summer solstice--the longest day of the year, and the glorious day of my birth. I had an amazing day filled with treats and adventures, making it quite possibly my Best Birthday Ever, and certainly Most Unique Birthday Ever.
I began the day by sleeping in until 9:30. (This means I slept an additional 5 hours after sunrise, which was at 4:20am, but sunrise is kind of irrelevant nowadays...) The day shaped up as the warmest so far this year, and we took advantage by having an outdoor reindeer sausage picnic. My coclerks brought me this delightful cake in the afternoon. After work, we had a delicious outdoor dinner at the Gumbo House, followed by a softball game against a snarky, cheating team, who we beat to retain our UNDEFEATED status. Ninjustice was served, and so were many beautifulcupcakes.
After softball, we headed out to take advantage of a local favorite Solstice activity: a nighttime hike up Flat Top. Alaska's summer is messing with my body clock even more than the winter did--it is light ALL NIGHT now. Legitimately light. On a clear night, you could sit outside and read a book all night long. So in order to not waste one minute of the light on the longest day of the year (not counting the hours I slept through), we set off for the trailhead, and started our hike at about 10:30pm.
About half of the hike is uphill, and the last bit is really steep rock scrambling. We reached the peak at just a little before sunset, which was at 11:43pm. Here's a nice shot of me and my coclerk at the peak, with Powerline Pass behind us:
Sunset itself was kind of anticlimactic, though, because it continued to be light, and because the spectacle of the actual passing of the sun below the horizon was blocked by smoke hanging in the Anchorage Bowl, blowing in from bunch of local wildfires. (We've had really hot dry weather recently, which has resulted in a lot of bad fires, including this one, two doors down from my house, in which two of my friends lost their home.)
The hike was amazing--there were lots of revelers at the top, the views were fantastic, and there were a fire-juggler and a fire-breather to entertain us. We hiked back down around 1am, and it was still plenty light enough to safely see all our footholds on the way down. Best Birthday Ever...!?
Two weekends ago, a bunch of my ladyfriends and I attended the truly fantastic Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshop. It was one of the best trips I've had this year, and one of the best experiences of my life! The entire photoset is available here.
The event took place at the Lost Lake Boy Scout Camp, up near Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway. It's a long drive from Anchorage, so we left the night before and spent the night at a campground just outside Denali (beware mosquitoes and the right to bear arms). The next morning we drove up through Fairbanks, and back down through North Pole to Lost Lake. We each took four classes throughout the weekend, and all of them were amazing.
The first night, a Katy, Kate, and I had the Backpacking class. We got to test out lots of equipment, and our guides, who lead wilderness trips for boy scouts from Lost Lake, gave us lots of tips about backpacking. Later that evening, after dinner, our group took off for a short backpacking trip. We only hiked about 20 min away, and set upour tents. The trail was punctuated with signs displaying thevariousBoyScoutvirtues. A little wandering led to the most beautiful lookout point ever, over the Tanana River. It was 10:30pm, and the sun was only baaaaarely thinking about setting. The sun sets even later way up north! It was absolutely the most beautiful view ever:
We also roasted marshmallows and sang songs with our guides. We packed up early the next morning and headed back to the group breakfast.
My next class was Survival. Kate, Rebecca, and I learned all about how to survive in the woods with minimal supplies. We collected materials from the forest then built fires using only a flint and a cotton ball soaked in hand sanitizer. Here's me with the fire I built!
We also learned how to build shelters in the forest. Kate and Rebecca and I chose a spot under a log, covered the floor with moss, horsetails, and birch bark, leaned logs against the sides, and shingled the shelter with more birch bark. (Birch bark is amazing--it holds together even when the tree rots, so the rotten wood can be slid out from the inside, leaving a hollow tube which can be cut lengthwise to make an amazingly useful big swath of bark.) We were even able to fit all three of us inside the shelter, although Rebecca was required to lie on top of me and Kate to squeeze in. I even made a moss and birch bark pillow! There we are, all crunched in there:
We all went home with little survival kits, which we've been instructed to carry with us everywhere, especially on bush flights.
My next class was Fishing 101, which was very informative but not that hands on. I did get to try fly casting at the end, and the instructor said I was a natural! My final class was called Pond to Pan, and it was fantastic--we learned how to kill, bleed, gut, filet, and cook fish! It was really quite bloody and gross, but really awesome. I feel like I really have a marketable skill now!
We also got to take home a TON of frozen fish--a huge BBQ is in order. I've had a couple of salmon BBQs recently, and I'm still working on perfecting my fish-grilling technique. I just bought some cedar planks at Costco and I'm excited to try them out.
At BOW, we also learned a ton of other skills--one night after dinner, they set up about 15 stations where you could go learn tricks like knot tying, fur identification, gold panning, and how to pee in the woods with your waders on. The next night, we had the Wilderness Olympics, and competed in teams to utilize all our newfound skills. My team got third place overall, and second place in the moose-calling contest!
All in all, a pretty terrific weekend, topped off by a beautiful drive back down the Richardson highway, past Glenallen, and back to Anchorage. I am now, truly, an Outdoors-Woman.
I don't know how I missed this, but a while ago, Letterman did an Alaska-related Top 10--Top 10 Cool Things About Being Stationed in Alaska. The list was read by servicepeople from Elmendorf Air Force Base, where I watch planes take off and land all day from my office window. You can watch the video here, or read the list here. My favorites are:
6. "One of the senior airmen is a moose" . . . 4. "On weekends, can take advantage of Nome's crazy nightlife" . . . 2. "If you want baked Alaska, just order 'baked here'"
The Nome one is funny, because, as you might remember, there actually is a kinda awesome nightlife in Nome.
Just saw this article in the Anchorage Daily News, indicating that downtown may be outfitted with free wi-fi sometime this summer. I wonder if its speed will be as molasses-like as mine, which I pay through the nose for... regardless, it's nice to see Alaska making strides in the technology department!
In other internet-related news, the Inupiat village of Shishmaref located on an island in way-northern Alaska has turned to the internet for help in saving itself from falling into the ocean. They've started this incredibly well-designed website soliciting funds and expertise to assist them in saving their town from beachfront erosion related to global warming. The website has some pretty amazing photos and video of buildings falling into the sea and other erosion-related destruction.
In other internet-related news, the Inupiat village of Shishmaref located on an island in way-northern Alaska has turned to the internet for help in saving itself from falling into the ocean. They've started this incredibly well-designed website soliciting funds and expertise to assist them in saving their town from beachfront erosion related to global warming. The website has some pretty amazing photos and video of buildings falling into the sea and other erosion-related destruction.
Recent photos
