Right now I am sitting about 38,000 feet above part of the Alaska Range as I return from two weeks out of town for work. As you have likely heard from either of us if you asked any time in the last whenever; things are busy. But sometimes it is a good busy. I have spent the last two weeks in the Northwestern reaches of the country. I began my travels with a week of training in Seattle, Washington and finished off with a week at the U.S. Coast Guard base in Kodiak, Alaska. Having never been to Seattle before, I was excited to visit and see the sights, and attend a training seminar somewhere in the middle of that. Back when we were living in Jackson, some of our friends made a trip out to Seattle and absolutely loved it. They were ready to move to Seattle when they got back. I totally understand why. What a beautiful place. Seattle was very green and the Cascades and Olympics are amazing. I mean, we live in Denver and we see mountains every day, but these are different. There’s the whole lush rainforest/glaciated mountains thing going on, which is very different than the ruggedness of the Rockies. I had great views of the Cascades and Rainier as I flew in, and it was the coolest thing with a low cloud cover shrouding the bases of the peaks; it looked like all these castles in the sky as you saw the tops of the tallest peaks jutting above the cloud line. Of course, I guess you have to be a mountain person to really appreciate it. When I met one of my co-workers from Boston, she complained that she didn’t get to see anything flying in. I said surely she saw the mountains. Her response, “Yeah, but mountains are all the same.” Apparently she did not get the tour de Seattle en route to landing as I did; we flew out past Rainier, north all the way over/past/around Boeing, and then straight over downtown and the Space Needle as we came in. The really cool thing in Seattle was to see the Cascades off to the east, and then to look across Puget Sound to see the Olympics towering off to the west. Wow. The seminar was good and hopefully I passed the certification exam, but I had a better time hanging out in downtown Seattle. The absolute coolest part of the whole training seminar was the fact that a lady who works for REI corporate was attending the training as they pursue becoming carbon neutral by some date in the future. I saw her name on the roster first thing and easily picked out the woman who rode in a Novara bike, had an REI backpack, REI quick-drying pants, layered REI shirts, and an REI Elements jacket. Needless to say, we talked, exchanged business cards, and she promised to send 30% off coupons to all the people in the class. She also told me if I have any ideas for energy efficiency improvements at the Denver REI flagship to let her know. I’ll be starting on that right away. Then she asked one of the local guys how to get to the Seattle REI flagship from where we were. No joke, she really did. So, my networking accomplished, I set out to enjoy the city of Seattle rather than focus on studying for the exam, which after taking the exam was a completely wise decision because it covered material taught in some other seminar that we were obviously not attending. I got the best hamburger in Seattle (it was okay), went to the top of the Space Needle, contemplating riding the futuristically retro monorail (think Gotham City), saw the public fish market at night, and failed to find the first Starbucks (we did see the Starbucks headquarters on the way to the airport though). I also found what was an outstanding Greek inspired restaurant called Lola. If you are ever in Seattle and looking for a nice dinner, I would highly recommend Lola; there was only one thing on the menu that the waitress did not say was excellent. And definitely try the coconut cream pie, it was good stuff. Very good stuff.
I left Seattle on Friday, on my way to Kodiak. The flights were indescribable. Flying out across Puget Sound and over the Olympics was a whole collection of insufficient adjectives. Somewhere midway across Puget Sound I think God prompted me to turn around, and I was met with a full view of Rainier. I think I said, “Man God, that is good. That, is good,” and proceeded to stare (gawk?) until Rainier was out of view. About then we were over the snow covered Olympic Range and I used the new word I picked up from my co-worker, “ridiculous.” If the plane had an ejector seat (and I had a parachute), I would have pushed the button. One of these days I want us to come back and spend ridiculous amounts of time exploring those mountains. We can do that when we climb Rainier. All that said I am glad I didn’t eject from the plane at that point (aside from the fact that I did not have a parachute) because of the rest of the flight to Anchorage. In Peru, we flew over the Andes and I thought that was one of the most beautiful flights I’ve been on. I think I have a new favorite. We hugged the coastline for pretty much the entire flight, so it was all mountains and water the whole way. The water up along the Pacific Northwestern coast is like coffee. I love the smell of coffee, it is so good. I don’t like the taste of coffee (nor the whole caffeine addiction thing). Sometimes, some times, the smell of coffee is so good that it is good enough to convince my taste buds that it has to be good if it smells like that. So I decide to try the double mocha latte espressochino with snickers and hazelnut cream because “it doesn’t taste like coffee” and then I realize it’s all a bust and the girl at the counter scammed me for $6.95. That’s what this coast is like. The coast is just magnificent with mountains and cliffs and dark rocks standing in contrast to such blue and beautiful water. You could almost think it was Hawaii or something. It looks so good, how can you help but want to swim in it (and I’m even uncomfortable about the whole swimming in the ocean thing)? But yeah, it’s about like when we used to swim in the Snake River in Idaho; wait for your body to go numb and then you can enjoy the water. But yes, the coastline is beautiful and the mountains are beautiful. And then, as we got close to Anchorage, we flew over the Chugach Range and I didn’t even bother with the insufficient adjectives. It’s times like that when you realize why God called creation “good” at the beginning. Somehow, that is what described this. Good. I have never seen mountains like that. They were endless. I mean, I know when you fly over the Rockies there are points where the mountains extend on all sides and look like a sea of peaks, but not like this. And not with the snow. The mountains were so pure white, the snow cresting on ridgelines and peaks so sharply it makes all those other “knife-edges” look like ones that somebody forgot to sharpen. And the mountains were everywhere. As far as you could see in all directions. I had told myself I was going to do work on the plane (it was a workday and all) but I think I stared out the window in awe for all three and a half hours of my flight. Well, okay, I think I stopped staring quite as much when we got close to Anchorage, but most of the flight was just awesome. I wish I had been able to take pictures of everything, but in a way I’m glad I couldn’t because then I would have been focused on getting good pictures instead of just enjoying it all.
My one hour layover in Anchorage became three hours and three planes later. This is part of the Kodiak experience. You are not supposed to get to a place like Kodiak so easily. The flight from Anchorage to Kodiak was beautiful as well, and though I strained to see it, I could not catch a glimpse of Denali out the window (I figured you should be able to see a mountain that large from where we were, but we were just headed the wrong direction). I landed in Kodiak on what was “the best day all year” according to the local construction guys. I walked from the plane into the gate/terminal/baggage claim/rental car facility and waited for my bags with everyone else. I had rented a compact car from Budget but they were all out of compacts and upgraded me to a midsize car for no charge. Then they gave me the keys to a Ford Focus. The car had 148.5 miles on it when I picked it up. There were 562.1 miles on it when I returned it. How I put 413.6 miles on a car in one week on an island with only about 100 miles of drivable roads I do not know, but at least I got some good pictures. After getting my car and driving to the guest house on base, I decided to go check out town and find dinner. I drove over to town wishing I were a chameleon so that I could focus one eye on the road and the other eye on my surroundings. Kodiak is a pretty mountainous island and there were snow covered peaks all over the place. I completed my survey of town in about 15 minutes, making sure to stop at the one light in town (which is really just a flashing red light for a stop sign, not a true stoplight). There are about a dozen restaurants in town. After sampling most, I would recommend The Old Power House Restaurant (sushi) and the Channel Side Chowder House for seafood. If you can catch the Chowder House when they have King Crab legs, that is good, but the fried Halibut is really good too. You can shop at Safeway or Wal-Mart, but they are not always guaranteed to have what you are looking for. If they do not, then it is likely that whatever you are interested in is “on the barge.”
Since I had a weekend in Kodiak before starting work on Monday, I decided to take full advantage of the time and beautiful weather to see the far reaches of the island. I was going to see Orcas and whales and bears and Puffins and Eagles and more Orcas and Sea Lions and you get the idea. I knew that Kodiak was a wildlife refuge, but I did not realize until looking at the map in the guest house that the roads in Kodiak only cover at best a quarter of the island. In order to see the rest you either need a boat or a float plane, both of which the Ford Focus was not. So I drove out along the Buskin River up past the golf course, the ski hill on Pyramid Mountain, to Anton Larson Bay and enjoyed the scenery as I took pictures. It took me a while, because I think I averaged about 10 feet between pictures. The mountains on Kodiak are not extremely tall (the tallest one is like 3700 feet) but that does not keep them from looking impressive, especially covered in snow like they were. I was on a schedule on Saturday because I was told “we’re going to eat crab legs at 2:00” and I did not want to miss out. While eating lunch, we were afforded the opportunity to see a pair of Sea Lions swim through the harbor, and a whole host of birds (including a large Eagle) come gather scraps being tossed out. Saturday afternoon was spent eating King Crab, shooting the lever action .45-70 rifle one of the guys bought for hiking insurance, and driving to the end of the main road on the north side. The north side of the island was nice and includes Ft. Abercrombie state park and Miller Point where you can watch whales during the summer. One of the guys also said it is swarming with Puffins at various times in the year. The island was originally a military base, and you can see evidence of the history at Miller Point. After returning from our adventures, I drove out south on the road past the base to explore what I could. I made it to Kalsin Bay where I hung out with a Bald Eagle for a while in a landscape that reminded me of some fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings or something. Sunday, I went to church (I just picked one out of the phonebook) and then went exploring. I drove south again on the road and did my best to fight the urge to take pictures every 5 feet. The road follows the coastline, winding in and out along a series of bays that all had amazingly blue water. At Kalsin Bay, the road splits and heads toward Chiniak Lake in one direction and Fossil Beach in another. I couldn’t decide, so I drove both. I went to Chiniak Lake first and it was a good choice. The road continues along the coast for a while, with plenty of small beaches that you can freely camp on, and passing the Kodiak Winery (which is moving) and winding through areas where I was certain I was going to see a bear. I saw another Eagle hanging out on the “beach” (read, cliff) and got about 15 feet away before it decided to move to a tree. After reaching a point where I was going to be pushing the limits of the Ford Focus, I turned around and headed the other direction. At one point, I had to slow down for a large (though slightly emaciated) horse (Clydesdale?) that was meandering right down the middle of the road. The next section of road led out to Pasagshak Bay, Surfer’s Beach and the missile launch point. This was the best part of my adventures. The road at this point left the coastline and crossed the peninsula to the other side. You reach a beautiful bay surrounded by mountains and then cross over the hill to a large sandy beach and a free roaming Bison herd. Kodiak Island is mostly a dark ash colored shale, so all of the beaches are a black/charcoal color. When you come over the hill, you see Bison, a large black beach, aqua blue water, snow covered mountains in the distance to the south, and a large island a few miles from shore. This is the place that you surf. Yep, surf. In Alaska. The waves were a decent size while I was there and I’m told can be pretty large when the tide changes. Although I am not much of a beach person, I decided to park and walk out on the beach and at least feel how cold the water was. I could have stayed all day. I stood on the beach enjoying the view and the breeze and then I saw the whales. I am not sure what type of whale they were, because most were too far out, but you could see and hear their spouts as they surfaced. Every so often one would come out of the water just enough to be seen above the waves before diving again. There must have been a dozen whales scattered around the bay. I did my best to capture them on video, but they would always wait until I gave up to surface again. I stood watching the whales with several other people for quite some time, before deciding to head back since I was supposed to meet the guys two hours ago.
When I was making travel reservations for Kodiak, I had a great deal of trouble finding an available hotel room. I could not figure out what was going on that everyone wanted to be in Kodiak, but something was up. Well, as I later learned, this weekend was the 50th annual Kodiak Crab Festival and everyone was there. People were even wearing t-shirts in the airport in Anchorage a full week before the festival. I mean this is exciting stuff. The Crab Festival began on Thursday and we were all curious to see what this was all about. We had already bought our t-shirts (you have to get them before they sell out; otherwise you’ll be waiting on the barge) and were ready for crab coming out our ears. Well, Thursday came and we cruised through the Crab Festival at lunch. Man, what an experience. One of my co-workers put it best, when informing another construction team member who was back home this week about what he missed. He answered the phone and shortly thereafter declared, “Man, Crab Fest is off the hook.” The Kodiak Crab Festival is a lot more like a small town fair. There are about two dozen booths set up on the harbor selling various crafts and food and then a small carnival area with rides. There are other events included, like parades, and something about paddling in a survival suit or something, but it was not as “off the hook” as we had been expecting. The other thing about the festival was that I only saw one booth selling King Crab legs. I thought I was going to be drowning in crab. I pictured the whole town gathered at the harbor, cheering as the next boat pulled in and dumped hundreds of crabs all over the dock, to be promptly steamed and freshly eaten. That was not so much the case. Instead, there was a plethora of some type of meat on a stick and sushi out of a booth. We did however try a bruin burger, described as “heavenly” by our hostess at The Old Powerhouse, and found them to be some interesting cross between a Krystal burger, a chimichanga, and a hot pocket. But hey, we had to have the full experience. I was also tempted to try the funnel cake sundae but I figured I had enough grease in my system from the bruin burger to last me for a few months and opted out of it. Another misconception about Crab Fest was that it was an all night party. I mean, the sun didn’t set in Kodiak until sometime around eleven and there were still traces of light well on to midnight, so of course everyone would be enjoying their meat on a stick until the last trace of daylight is gone. Crab Fest shuts down about nine. Which feels a whole lot more like six given the amount of light in the sky. But that’s how things are in a small island fishing town in Alaska. All in all, I had a good time and look forward to going back; maybe I can even catch Salmon Fest (if they have one).
For those of you who are thoroughly disappointed in this post and are thinking, “but where are all the pictures?” Do not worry, I included them all below. Well, not all. I took like 300. But definitely the pictures worth seeing. And the best video I could manage of the whales. I apologize now for the Blair Witchness of the filming; I am not a chameleon so I have to focus both eyes on the same thing at all times, which was not always the camera. If you would like to see more pictures, you can check them out here and here and here and here.
