Seward with KC - Alaska

This weekend was epic. It started with my having a fight with an asshole couchsurfer that checked into my previously sweet couchsurfing situation but that’s not an Alaska story so just suffice it to say: he was a jerk. AFTER that, amazing epicness started. I drove to Girdwood (about 45 minutes south of Anchorage) because my friend Katie Sismour had arrived in AK and was hosting a brunch. We ate, I met her delightful boyfriend, and we went for a hike. I continued down to Seward where I met my friend KC at his workplace in the middle of a wine tasting (oh, a glass of wine?! ok). As it’s off-season right now, we had a hard time finding a place to eat at 8:30 at night and settled on a place called Thorns Showcase Lounge, Home of the Butt (halibut). That place was a trip. Padded upholstery that looked like it came from a 70s casino. Every wall was fitted with display cases for various strange unique bottles of alcohol and there was ONE waitress for the entire restaurant. She did a great job and the burgers were spectacular.

The next day we had coffee in the hotel room - the windsong lodge where KC works generously gave me a room in the hotel for free as they aren’t open - and we took a leisurely departure as we needed to have coffee and appreciate the view.  On the way out we stopped for some hard boiled eggs at the cabin the employees are currently using as a hang out (soon to be an Air B&B) and as we left I heard some new noises so, of course, I go to investigate. It’s a man with a huge portable mill, milling these big old spruce trees.   We talked to him for a bit and watched the mill work (video in the photo album) before heading off down the road.

Our first stop was IRB Knives.  This place has a HUGE knife out front that is coated in old CDs for the silver part, a mannequin of a woman that, apparently, he dresses daily in his ex-wives clothes and then inside it’s a tiny cozy little shop. He currently had a visitor when we arrived so while he talked a bit about the knives, the visitor, Bob White, mainly dominated the conversation with a story about how dogs were always in his garbage so he set a snare trap. When he heard the rustle of the trap, he walked out there with his gun (to shoot the dogs) and saw a bear.  He promptly called Animal Control. At this point, there was a digression into the annoyance of Fish and Wildlife and regulations and yada, yada, yada. Anyway, he continues on with the story about darting the bear with lots of asides about how the wildlife guy was too tentative and nervous and slow.. Bear gets darted...and it ends there because once the bear was off their property they didn’t seem to care much.

At this point, the owner offered us a tour of the shop. OK! And off we go past the sign that says “men only” and back into the world of a knife maker. The owner was more than generous and polite and kind with his time and energy and explanations.   He showed us the furnace, the two hydraulic hammers and demonstrated the bigger one by smashing coins. (fun) He showed us his stash of handles that included various horns (moose, impala, musk oxen, bison), wood - some that smelled like burnt popcorn when sanded (we got a demonstration) and then sandlewood to clear the air. He made all custom knives and was even making one from someone’s medical piece of titanium that was in their leg. He put the screw in the handle.

Finally, he was telling us about his love of tequila with a chaser of oranges with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I mention that I had a tequila toast at our wedding and the next thing I know, he’s pouring us shots!

While we’re standing there a man from Utqiagvik, Alaska starts sharing pictures of the whale he and his village harvested.  As a subsistence hunter he’s allowed to shoot 17 whales. Well. more precisely, he can take 17 shots. If he doesn’t actually get a whale with one of those shots, he loses it. I've added photos he shared of the harvest. I'll put them at the VERY end. You have been warned.

Finally after pictures were shared and tequila was sipped, KC and I head off on our way to Homer, Alaska.   We stop in Soldatna, AK for lunch at the Kenai Brewing Company and detour into Ninilchik for a peek at the Russian Orthodox church.  Ninilchik is an old Russian settlement and the older people in this community are still speaking a version of Russian that was spoken when the Russians came over in the late 1700s. Pretty crazy!  

We finally arrived in Homer at 6pm and went for a ride out on the Homer Spit. The longest naturally occurring spit in the world.  A spit, for those of you that don’t know your natural coastal features - is a long stretch of sand that sticks out into the water and is attached on one side. This one is a very permanent feature and has lots of businesses and residences on it. Although, I’m not sure they are permanent residences. I think they are all just vacation homes.

After the Homer spit we wandered past a ridiculous looking restaurant with HUGE Alice in Wonderland cups on the top.  Aptly named “Cups Cafe” it had the best reviews on google and we went in to dinner. It was SPECTACULAR. My shrimp and scallops were perfectly cooked and KC said his steak was the best he’d ever had in America.  He went back to thank the chef and invite him to eat at the Roadhouse in Seward (where KC is the executive Chef). After dinner we were going to meet one of KC friends at a dance hall called “Alice’s Champagne Palace” where a band called “Rose’s Pawn Shop” was playing. I know. That’s a lot of names and nouns.  It was spectacular! We danced until the band quit - about midnight and went over to our hotel (just next door) for some much needed rest.

The next morning we went down to the local crepe place, Wild Honey, where they replaced the “crepe” with egg if we wanted and had a delicious breakfast before heading up to skyine drive to get spectacular views of the Katchemak Bay.  The peninsula is usually cloudy and raining but we had two gorgeous blue sky days!!

On our way out and back to Homer we saw 5 moose. All of which were just hanging out by the side of the road. Unfortunately that last one decided to dart in front of our car.  Terrifying! KC was driving at the time and successfully braked and missed it and we, thankfully, saw no more moose for our ride.

We got KC back to Seward by 4:30 and I set off to stay the night with Katie in Girdwood.  On the way, I saw all these people pulled over at the side of the road and standing in the water with nets.   I parked to go over and explore and they were all netting Hooligan! I had to wait around for about 45 minutes before someone caught one but it was pretty great! I mean, great and also a bit lackluster because it’s just a tiny little fish.  One of the guys was telling me that earlier today (when the river was higher) his friend had caught 2 bucketfuls! So cool! By the time I finally got over to Girdwood, Katie was having a hang with friends and they invited me to join them for hotdogs and smores. Never one to give up free food, I agreed.

Excellent end to a delightful weekend!

View across the docs in Seward, AK

Remember how I mentioned that titanium knife with the bolt in the handle?  

Tequila shots with orange and cinnamon. The man pouring is the knife maker. 

The river across from the WindSong lodge. 

The Russian Orthodox church in Ninilchik. 

Three cups restaurant - best steak in Alaska according to KC. 

A tiny little hooligan. 

My very annoying couchsurfing counterpart. He doesn't fully understand the "couch" thing. 

WHALE HARVEST PHOTOS BELOW.  CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

I’ve re-attached the photo link here and re-organized the photos so that the new ones are on top.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wjwHxAoTKLhXXPSq8

Day Five Alaska - Seward and Hope

 Wednesday Day Five in Alaska -Seward and back to Hope

We woke up when KC arrived at 8:15 telling us he wanted to take us out to breakfast.  OK! Don't need to tell me twice! I was up and ready and in the car waiting before Jams or Jamie were out of bed!  Take me to food!

We had breakfast at place in town called The Goldrush.  Pretty delicious and as they gave me an extra stash of hollandaise I was pretty pumped for my eggs benny.  Jamie had biscuits and gravy (spectacular), KC had corned beef and eggs (great!) and Jams had eggs benny with tomato and bacon (can't go wrong there).  Most importantly, the coffee was strong. We took a leisurely breakfast and then went down to the Sealife Center to meet the fiancé of an old college acquaintance who got us tickets.  (Matt Murphy was my acquaintance, for those of you from UMASS. Murph from Earthfoods)

The Sealife center was GREAT!  Started with some small exhibits of Alaska and commercial fishing, moving into some tanks with local fish and then it opens up to a great touch tank area.  Aside from poking the anemones, I love watching barnacles fan out and try to catch nutrients in the water. That's a gorgeous thing to see if you want to check it out.    By the touch tank, you can look out and see the animals that are being rehabilitated.  Two otters, a baby seal, a bigger seal and LOTS of birds. The woman who got us tickets told us they just got a 3 day old baby otter and a bearded seal!  (don't tell anyone, there hasn't been an official press release yet!) We didn't see either of those things but I enjoyed knowing they were there.

We wandered out into the aviary where there were puffins, cormorants, gulls, and eiders all just flying around.  Some of the gulls literally flew within striking distance of our heads. They look just like your everyday bird but Jamie says he overhead the guy talking about how they are a very rare species that only nests in three places in the world.  They looked like any run of the mill sea gull).

We wandered through the Salmon exhibit (mandatory in Alaska).  There's lots of types of Salmon here. Once the season starts (with King salmon), you can pretty much be fishing some sort of Salmon all the way through September.  The salmon life cycle, as you might know, is interesting. They are born, go out to sea (where we know very little about what they do) and then when they are about 5 years old, they come home to spawn. After which, they promptly die.   When they come back to spawn is when people are doing all the salmon fishing here. On their way home, they go through a crazy physical transformation. One of them develops a gonzo type nose. I'm not kidding - I think it's the sockeye.  Anyway, as they come back to spawn, they stop eating, they lose all the fat stores in their bodies and their meat kinda turns to mush. You can really only eat them as they begin their adventure. This surprised me because as they swim upstream they get redder and redder but, while salmon meat is red/pink you don’t want the salmon you catch to be that color.

After Salmon, we went downstairs to see the big tanks and watch the sealions, diving birds and seals from underwater. Dang-sealions are big! They are more closely related to bears than to dogs. They have ears, really long whiskers and are massive.   The male Stellar Sea lion (the ones up here) can get up to 2,200 pounds. THAT'S MASSIVE. It was captivating to watch them circle around. (also a little sad).

At that point we were just about at the end of the center and so after scoping out the smack of jellyfish (yes, a group of jellyfish is called a "smack") we wandered out.  At this point, we heard a story about a baby walrus that was brought to the Sea Life center and it was so young and sick and alone that they had to organize 24 hour cuddle sessions for it. For weeks!   How adorable! (and also sad).  

After our sealife center adventure we wandered around Seward a bit more. We stopped into the Seward hotel and met Robby, the manager.   There were lots of stuffed bears and Alaska things. The original was built in 1905, survived the earthquake and the fire. The new side was built in the 80s and they’re open all winter.  Mostly, it seems, because they house a lot of the railroad personnel. And they have little trinkets that tie them to the railroad too. The bell on the desk came from the railroad depot and the big bell on the floor was from the rail station and it used to ring when a train came into the station.   

Next, we went into a random gift shop that was Russia Themed but had lots of Alaska stuff.  Russian stuff makes sense as Russia was the first nation to claim Alaska but the small Peruvian dolls and Scandinavian keychains and Atlanta Georgia Jewelry - I had a harder time making the connection. Anyway, there were great carved stone figurines, lots of Russian dolls and various other trinkets. Smelled a bit like patchouli but looked like a swanky gift shop so that was another hilarious incongruity.  

Next, we crossed the street to the original Bank Building -Brown and Hastings. Those two came up for the gold rush and became good friends and opened some banks. They decided they needed a move and so went up to Turnagain arm and Knik arm areas and anchored themselves in the mudflats and opened a store/bank.  They called it "the Anchorage" or rather, people referencing where they were going called it the Anchorage and as they were the only thing around, it started to reference the whole area and the name for Anchorage was born. The bank then became the Bank of Alaska.

We had Gelato at the Sweet Darlings Candy Shop - Whiskey Cream, Brownie and Peanut Butter (KC had added in Vanilla).

I chatted with Cliff in the attached gift shop where he tried to pitch the "Men of Seward" calendar and then we went to Ray's Reusables and chatted with Ray.  He's trying to make a go of a reused retail store in Seward. His old shop burnt down 5 years ago and he didn't want to end on that note so he started anew! I hope he can make it work but unless he figures out how to sell things on the internet, he's not gonna get very far.

Continuing on our full adventure of Seward, we went down to the pier to see if Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center was open (it wasn't) so went to Kenai Fjords Tour Company.  It's owned by the same company that KC works for (Pursuit) and we took some time looking at all their wares and trinkets which included some crazy whale, walrus penis, walrus tusk and mammoth bone carvings.  

Afterward,  we stopped at the Visitors center where I got an absurd number of pamphlets about the Kenai peninsula. (I’m sure they’ll all just sit in a pile until I throw them out).   We finished up our shopping, dropped KC off at his work/house and then went back up the Kenai to spend the night in that little cabin in Hope.

Day Four Alaska! Hope - Seward

 Tuesday Day Four in Alaska  Hope to Seward 

We woke up this morning to finish our ride down to Seward. 

We didn't stop too much on the way down. We got out at the top of the Turnigan Arm Pass but mostly we just cruised on down to Seward. We started by picking up an old Ice friend at his work, the Roadhouse.  He's the executive chef there and is setting things up for the coming summer.   No employees (and certainly no guests) other than the managers and caretakers so he was free to come and hang out with us!  We cruised the mile downtown to look at Resurrection Bay where we promptly saw some otters and then was told by the guy with Binoculars that we JUST missed the sea lion.  We saw the memorial for the Railroad as Seward is the end of the line and there was a fun memorial for a man I'd not yet heard of in my Alaska Research.  Jujiro Wada, a Japanese American expert musher who was hired to improve the mail trail up to Nome, proving that Seward was a viable option for commerce.   His work and improvement on the trail helped to concertize Seward as the gateway for trade and transportation.  See how helpful monuments are?! 

After walking along the waterfront for a bit we went over to a little Greek restaurant for lunch.  Jamie got the equivalent of a Fisherman's Basket but here, they called it a Gold Mine. It was mostly the same. No clams but yes on shrimp and scallops and the white fish was halibut. Pretty good!    I like to check out libraries in new towns so we walked over to the library and lo and behold! It was rainbow tiled!  The tiles were all blue and purple and green and shimmery! Kinda like a mermaid. It was spectacular! I got a lot of free magazines there (some new yorkers-score!).   

After all our wandering around we were finally ready to head over to Millers Landing where we were going to be staying in a dry cabin.  When we arrived, there were 17 bald eagles sitting on the shore eating a HUGE fish they caught.  And that wasn't a typo.  Seventeen bald eagles. It was SO INCREDIBLE!  (they're like pigeons here) Our cabin was called (still is, infact) the "rocket ship cabin" because it has a cute little belfry on top.  It had two old train cars near by that we went to scope out and then, as we were right by the shore, we walked down to look at the water where we watched a seal play along the shoreline.  After a bit, we got organized to go have dinner (pizza) and then head up to visit some friends of Jams who built their cute little house and are living off the grid. Check out their blog if you are interested and you should be interested because their blog title is pretty adorable. They are really rustic.  5 gallon recyclable toilet, heating water on the woodstove and using a water pump for the shower which is really just one of those big plastic bins that they stand in.  They are pretty spectacularly committed.   https://alaskabode.wordpress.com/

After our visit we went back to our little cabin, KC took the truck and went to sleep in his heated and cozy bed and we settled in for a night listening to the rain and the crackle of our wood stove.  

View from our little cabin -you can see the train cars too! 

Our Little Rocketship Cabin at Millers Corner. 

Millers Landing

Bald Eagles - as common as pigeons

Me, Jams, Jamie and KC!

Jujiro Wada

End of the Railroad!

Resurrection Bay where we saw otters and just missed the sea lion.