Yum!

Yesterday, this fish was swimming in the Gulf of Alaska. Today, it went swimming in my belly. I got my Halibut Nuggets! (See yesterday's post) So blissfully delicious.....They were tender and flaky, there was no oily aftertaste, they didn't fall apart in your hands when you took a bite, and they didn't need the ketchup. Thank you Joe! You worked your delicate just-salty-garlicky-peppery-enough magic again. The only thing I am not happy about is that there are not any leftovers.
For any of you that choose to visit us, I promise you at least one dinner of Halibut Nuggets ala Joe. Chances are, you'll also catch the fish you are going to eat. It will be an adventure you won't forget! :)
And now I am off to bed. Gotta prep for our weekend camping trip in the morning!

Soaking up the Sun

I'm pretty sure that days like today are the main reason that people choose to live in Kodiak. This very well could be one of the most beautiful days I have ever seen. Sure, that opinion is probably swayed by the fact that I'm comparing today to the last 110 cruddy days we've had but nevertheless, it was a day to be remembered. The temperature hovered in the mid-60's, the sky was bluer than blue, and I took the opportunity to pull my capri pants and a tank top out of storage. Nothing was keeping me in the house as I've been told that one of the best ways to cope with living out here is to take full advantage of days like today, where you can actually get out and do stuff without wearing head-to-toe rain gear.

I spent the morning welcoming in a new Coast Guard family that arrived on the ferry today after spending the last 3 weeks traveling from Connecticut. They were happy to finally arrive and I was thrilled that they were able to have such nice, warm first day here although I'm sure plenty of people have already told them not to get used to it. I HOPE they haven't been told that but if I know anything it's that people love to shower positives with negatives. I myself have been trying to keep from being that way and it's a struggle sometimes. The wife, Joellen, and I enjoyed a nice breakfast of egg sandwiches and fruit at Java Flats and then took some time to get to know each other over our coffee. I can tell I'm really going to like her - she's a good person.

Afterward, I had coffee with another dear friend then headed home to spend some quality deck time with the dog. The rays of the sun hit our back deck in such a comfortable way that I love hanging out there on my patio chair with Jack, a drink, and a snack. I throw my feet up on the railing and exercise my brain with crossword puzzles while my skin soaks in the warmth. Jack sprawls out on the wood and suns himself, getting up every now and again to beg me for some of my snack. Even HE seems to know the importance of these sorts of days. We stayed out until the bugs got too interested in us then headed in for a reprieve.

To top everything off, I had a new adventure today. My friend, Lindsay, and I hiked to the top of Old Women's Mountain. Hiking Old Women's is just one of those things that everyone does at least once while they live here and I have intended to do it, but up until my invitation from Lindsay today, had not yet done so. I would guess it is about 3 miles round trip (2500 ft. to the top) and is a rocky, relatively steep trail. It basically just goes straight up until you get to the top and you return down the same trail. The views on the way up and from the top are gorgeous. You can see all of Kodiak City as well as the Coast Guard base. I could see my house too!

Can you see my house in this picture? :)

Being up there kind of helped me get a better understanding of the "lay of the land" around here and it was exciting to see the green starting to show up on the surrounding mountains. I liked that I got a nice workout from the hike and the big side-bonus was that Lindsay and I had some great conversation through our huffing and puffing and were able to grow our friendship a little more. She is also one of the "good people" and I know I will be blessed through knowing her.

Joe had the right idea about today too. He headed to work for half of the day then pulled out his halibut gear, hopped on a boat, and spent the afternoon fishing with friends. And now that we have freshly caught halibut in the freezer, I'm so excited for him to make his world-famous (in our little world) "halibut nuggets". It's the one fried food I DON'T feel guilty about eating way too much of!

I really hope that you had a beautiful day too, no matter how simple or busy it was. Sometimes you have to remember just to stop and be happy simply because the sun is out. And when you do, wish it my way, ok?

School's out for summer!

Today is the last day of school. As many of you may or may not know, I am a substitute teacher for the Kodiak School District. I work at all of the schools, from elementary to high school. I started on April 16th and have been called in to work every single school day since.
Initially, I was scared. I mean, do you remember how we used to treat substitute teachers when we were kids? They were the victim of every prank, never knew our real names, and spent a majority of the time trying to keep the sound level of the class just low enough that other teachers didn't come running. Would I be able to handle classrooms full of scheming children determined to make me cry? As it turns out, I WAS able to handle it and the kids were actually pretty cool. So far, they haven't even TRIED to make me cry.
Yesterday, I was the music teacher at one of the elementary schools. I walked into a kindergarten classroom, sing-a-long video in hand, and quietly waited while the teacher finished up. "Alright class, let's get ready for Mrs. Z!", she said. "Mrs. Z is so beautiful today!", one of the little girls piped up, obviously appreciative of the simple dress I was wearing. I couldn't help but smile. I LOVE kindergartners and their expressive opinions.
When I was the culinary arts teacher at the high school I learned how to make homemade cornbread. How did I not know how easy it is? I also quickly learned what a salmon tranche was so I could guide the students in making one. Somehow, no one got burned or cut a finger off when we made rice pilaf flecked with bacon and onion. We almost set off the smoke alarms in the school, but my belly was filled with yummy food that day!
I have been a weightlifting teacher, a computer graphics teacher, and a P.E. teacher. I've communicated with disabled children through velcro pictures, played freeze tag with fourth graders, examined very realistic Alaskan animal poop replicas with first graders, and directed the band through songs that I played back when I was in high school. I'm also garnering a nice little collection of artwork on my fridge from doting second graders.
Everywhere I go, kids wave and shyly say "Hi, Mrs. Z!" I'm becoming friends with teachers and aides and other substitutes. Slowly but surely, I feel like I'm becoming a part of the community of Kodiak and not just of the Coast Guard base.
Thank goodness I didn't let fear stop me. I'm having such a good time being a teacher without all of the responsibilities of making lesson plans and grading papers.
But as I said, it is now the last day of school. I look forward to going back to work in the fall but like most of the kids, I'm anxious to get my fill of summer fun over the next three months. I'll keep you posted!

Waist Deep in the Buskin

Last weekend, Joe took me fishing. He knows that I'm a spoiled rotten princess and need conditions to be perfect before I'll go and last Saturday, those conditions presented themselves. It was hovering just above "too cold", the wind was calm, the lake was potentially fertile with fish, and I had some new waders that I wanted to try out. Plus, fishing was a much needed break from house cleaning.

Joe got everything ready, helped me wedge into my waders, and drove us down to Buskin Lake, which is about 2 miles from our house. The day was gorgeous and there were only a few people fishing on the bank of the lake. I wondered where we would plant ourselves and Joe pointed across the lake to a quiet, empty spot in the water. I looked for the trail that would take us over to the spot and quickly realized there wasn't one. My waders (and balance) were getting a true test because we were navigating to the spot through waist-deep water precariously lined with slippery rocks. Thank goodness I spent so much time last year perfecting the strength of my stabilizer muscles because I easily made it through the soft current with barely a stumble. The neoprene of my waders sucked tightly onto my legs and torso, but not a single ounce of water soaked through. This was really cool!

We got to the spot and threw out our lines. It was iffy as to whether or not we'd catch anything but I didn't care because I loved the feeling of standing in the middle of the lake with the pressure of the water heavy against my body. There were patches of powder blue sky, the air was calm and carried the sounds of birds, bugs and splashing fish, the landscape around us was expansive and magical with rolling hills and snow-capped mountains, and Joe was right there, full of patience,  giving me pointers and support. There was something meditative about casting and reeling, casting and reeling, even if the fish completely ignored me.

Best of all, an otter popped his head out of the water right in front of me and I absolutely love otters. If I had to pick an animal that embodied who I feel I am, it would be an otter.  He might have visited longer (and I might have gotten a picture) but I started hopping up and down and squealing to Joe that I had seen an otter, so the poor little guy took off to try to get away from the crazy lady. I think I scared away all of the fish too because between Joe and I, only one fish was caught and it was a tiny one, too young to realize he was in a dangerous spot.

We didn't end up staying very long because the wind started picking up, but it was a good afternoon and a new adventure for me. I also noticed that Joe's happiness tank was filled up a little more because of the time he got to spend with his two favorite things: me and his fishing pole. I really need to stop being such a princess and do this more often.....Joe deserves it. :)

Fort Abercrombie

I woke up this morning to a gray sky, a realization that we had missed church, and Joe saying, "Want to take a drive today?"

"Sure!", I exclaimed, excited that I wouldn't be stuck in the house all day doing laundry and whining about the lack of blue skies we've been experiencing. Spending a day with Joe exploring our island home sounded fantastic. We jumped out of bed, scarfed down our oatmeal and yogurt, filled our travel mugs with coffee, threw Jack and our raincoats in the truck and headed out, hopeful that the rain would hold off for the afternoon.

We have lived here for almost four months and have only explored about half of the 100 miles of paved roads that Kodiak offers. Our drive today ended up being relatively simple and landed us at Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park. Fort Abercrombie is about 8 miles from our house and has hiking trails, campsites, WWII building remnants, and a military museum. I was awed by how beautiful it was. Let me show you a little bit of what we saw:

The forest is filled with moss-covered trees. I loved all of the patterns and shapes that were created by the bright green bulbous blobs of moss.

There were so many branches on all of the trees. Wouldn't it be fun to climb this one?

 The trail around Lake Abercrombie had gentle slopes and turns and was very easy to navigate. I had no trouble hiking it in my Converse. :)

We found a happy tree and put on our biggest smiles. Joe looks kind of scary with his biggest smile on.

 There were beautiful coves and beaches. When we were actually in spots by the water, the wind was very cold so we didn't hang out long.

Joe tried to convince me that I would get a weird flesh-eating bacterial growth (cephlopodic worms) on my chin if I held the moss too close to my face and I tried to convince him that his mom would love to see a picture of him with a moss beard....

I won!

If you come visit us, I'll tell you what was so funny in this picture. :)


The day turned out perfectly. The clouds never released their droplets and we didn't get eaten by a brown bear. We got to explore and enjoy another little part of our island. Best of all, we got to spend time enjoying each other in God's magnificent playground. I love it when Joe wakes up with an itch for an adventure!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It's raining today in Kodiak. As it is almost every day.

I should have seen this coming from the first day. Our scheduled arrival into Kodiak was the night of February 1st. We boarded the little plane (it held about 18 people) from Anchorage with Jack tucked cozily in his kennel in the back of the plane. The cargo guys said "Bye doggie! Have a good flight!" and shut him in with all of the luggage. We could hear it quite clearly as we were only separated from the luggage area by a very thin canvas-like wall. We took off and Joe and I spent the next 45 minutes passing the Nintendo DS back and forth across the aisle as we continued our heated Yahtzee battle. Thirty minutes later, we still hadn't landed. The flight is only supposed to be 50 minutes long so I was getting nervous. The pilot piped in that we had circled the island three times already and due to bad visibility on the landing strip we were going to have to fly back to Anchorage. Seriously?! Planes really fly back to where they came from?? In normal circumstances, a pilot would have known about bad visibility before he even left the airport and would therefore never have wasted the gas to fly over and "check". However, there is nothing normal about Kodiak weather. I know that now. We landed back in Anchorage and half the plane giggled when the cargo door opened and we heard, "You're back doggie! Have a good flight?"

The next morning we hopped on another plane destined for Kodiak and prayed that this time we would be able to land. We were getting worried about all of the flights Jack was having to take even though he was being quite a trooper and not giving us any trouble. Our prayers were answered this time. Forty minutes into our flight, we started descending. When I'm on planes, I always prepare myself for that part where you go through a cloud layer and it's a little bit turbulent. I don't necessarily like the bumping around but I do like the part where you break out of it and see the land below you and you know you are almost there. It's a brilliant moment. Our plane started down through the cloud layer. When we broke through I scanned the earth below. No land in sight, just more clouds. We kept descending and entered into another cloud layer. A minute later when we broke through I stared out the window again. Still no land. All I could see was another layer of clouds to descend into. When we broke through the third layer I peaked out the window again, afraid of what I'd see. This time, it was beautiful islands and inlets and mountains. We were finally landing.
I have flown many, many times and I have never had to descend through more than one layer of clouds before landing. The experience taught me something very valuable (and depressing) about Kodiak. The clouds above my head that are dumping rain on me day after day may eventually run out of rain to dump. However, there is another layer right above it just waiting to lighten its load. And another layer above that one.
We have had less than 20 days of sunshine since we arrived here 106 days ago. People tell me we might have a nice summer. I really hope so.....I just hate that they say "might".  And because I'm being so negative about it, I'm going to force myself to list 5 things I love about the rain:
1. My "happiness in a cup" (Starbucks nonfat latte with sugar free cinnamon dolce syrup) tastes better when it is cold and rainy out.
2. I love sitting on the back deck with Joe and our Wall-E heater watching (and listening to) the rain fall on the lake.
3. I am especially exuberant on days when it doesn't rain and I wouldn't be that way if it didn't rain so much every other day.
4. My raincoat is a very pretty color.
5. Rainy days are perfect for curling up with Joe on the couch and watching "King of the Hill".

There. I feel better now. Oh, and I am currently (and always will be) taking donations of Starbucks cards to fund my "happiness in a cup" addiction. Thank you. :)

And so it begins

At the request of my family, I am finally starting a blog. Granted, it is a great idea. I wish I would have done it sooner. I'm afraid of forgetting all of the amazing stuff I did last year when I stayed in L.A. with my parents while Joe was off being my hero and fighting for our country. I can barely remember some of the things we did in Marquette, Michigan and Homer, Alaska. Unfortunately, I don't have Joe's amazing memory. He remembers everything and it makes me jealous. His life must seem so much fuller because of all of the little experiences and emotions that aren't lost in the far-reaches of his brain. Luckily, he seems to enjoy sharing these remembrances with me, even if they are often accompanied by an I-can't-believe-you-don't-remember-this look. I can handle that look when I get the pleasure of getting to relive a moment that had been lost. But, I already digress. The point is that I've started a new adventure in Kodiak, Alaska, I want to make sure that I don't later regret not writing my thoughts about what I see and do here. So, here it goes: my blog has begun.