Skiing!

After a long day of diving to finish our Rescue Diver course Tasha and I headed home from work. We were greeted by a very excited Chuck who told us to get changed cause we were going skiing. We added on some more layers and we all piled in the truck and headed down to mile 12. At mile 12 there is a groomed cross country ski trail and since I have very little skiing knowledge it was a great place to start. Tasha put on a pair of skate ski's and hooked Coho up in his harness so they could skijor. Meanwhile Chuck gave me some pointers on what I should and should not do. I picked up on the level surface stuff pretty well but going downhill was a bit of a disaster. My downhill adventures always ended up in a fall and to add insult to injury Coho always came over to make sure I was ok by humping me. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it so I can't wait to ski some more.

Seldovia!

The weekend after Thanksgiving Tasha and I went on a little weekend getaway. On Saturday night once Tash got back from work we packed up the car and we headed to Homer. We were able to book the couples getaway package at Lands End which was a great deal. We got our room, dinner for two, a glass of wine, and breakfast in the morning all for $140. After driving the three hours on icy roads in the dark we finally made it to Lands End just in time to get our free meal. We booked it to the dining room where Tasha enjoyed her King crab legs and I enjoyed a lovely Halibut Iliamna. Everything was delicious! With our full tummys we decided to do some exploring. We put on our bathing suits and checked out the hot tub, sauna, and current pool. Later we retreated to our room where we discovered a multitude of beds. Alaska does a great job of taking a tiny room and having it comfortably sleep 5-6 people. After having our choice in sleeping area we decided to get some sleep before our big adventure the next day. The next morning we woke up, made ourselves breakfast at the yummy buffet and then headed out. First we stopped at the Eagle Lady's place to observe some Grey Crowned Rosy Finch then we headed to our plane. It was a little four seater and the flight over to Seldovia was a little bumpy but the views were amazing. Seldovia is a very tiny town that has a lot of chainsaw carvings. There was next to nothing open so Tasha and I decided to just go for a long walk and explore the town. Along the way we took photos of all the chainsaw carvings, watched some sea otters play in the harbor and froze our butts off. It was around 6 degrees outside, BRRR! That night we stopped by the little conveniencee store and bought the ingredients necessary to make microwave nachos. Turns out our room had a huge kitchen but no stove only a microwave. We watched far to much Nip/Tuck that night while eating our delicious nachos. The next day we only had a short time before our flight. So Tasha went on a morning hike while I stayed back and explored town a little more. At noon we flew back over to Homer. This time the flight was much calmer and beautiful. We shopped around Homer and then started the drive back to Seward. It was a great trip and a lot of fun!

Election Day!

Turns out Election Day can actually be pretty eventful here in Alaska. It all started at 7am when Tasha and I woke up early so we could go cast our vote before work. I put on my anti-Palin shirt, "Drill Palin Not Alaska" and my Obama pin and off to the polls we went. After some glares one of the older women at the polls told me I needed to zip up my jacket. Well after refusing and standing firm on my first amendment rights since Alaska does not have crazy laws about what you can and can't wear to the polls I was allowed to cast my vote. Then it was off to work. Later that evening the festivities began when we heard McCain's "throwing in the towel" speech. After another one of Obama's "I'm Awesome" speeches we popped the cork on our champagne bottles and headed to the hot tub. It was a festive evening and I for one find it refreshing to finally have an adult in the White House! There is finally a glimmer of hope for our country and I think this election spoke volumes about how Americans feel about our current situations. It is time for a change and it is time for us to make America a better place!

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can!

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

We will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.

Halloween!

I have to say most years Halloween comes and goes and I don't make much of a fuss over it. This year however Tasha and I decided that it would be fun to all dress up as Smurfs and have a night out in Seward. Around town Tasha is known for having some pretty awesome costumes for Halloween so we had to make it good. We had quite the cast. Chuck played the evil Gargamel, Tasha took the role of Smurfette, Gwen played Papa Smurf, Natalie was Farmer Smurf and I took the role of Painter Smurf. Everyone was quite astonished at just how blue we were. Numerous people wanted photos of the elusive smurfs and the really drunk ones wanted to touch us. (awkward) We entered two different costume contests in town. At the first one we lost to Bob Ross which was ok because that is quite the unique costume. At the second one we ran into our arch-nemesis the Alaskan Smurfs. Yes, that's right in a town as tiny as Seward we did run into another group of Smurfs. It was crazy! They all played a typical Alaska stereotype such as, Commercial Fisher Smurf and Ididatrod Smurf. Our blue coloration definitely secured our Smurfiness and numerous bar goers believed there should of been a Westside Story beat down in the streets. Anyway, they ended up giving first place to all the smurfs so we split the prize money 50/50. All in all it was a fun evening and all the blue came off in the end without any staining!

Winter Is In The Air!

A couple of things have happened in the last couple of weeks so I figured it was time for an update. At the end of September our Director of Husbandry sent out a center wide e-mail saying that he was giving away his 1986 Ford Bronco for FREE. I was pretty excited to hear this news since the Marshmallow Mobile is not exactly a prime winter car. Well as luck would have it I was actually the first person to respond to the e-mail and am now the proud owner of a new Bronco. It came with summer and studded winter tires and it has four wheel drive. So I am set for the snow which is good since we are already getting it. Normally, Seward does not start to get snow until Halloween with the earliest recording being October 15th. Well this year we had our first snow about 2 weeks early. Brr!!! Luckily the first snow did not stick around long but the temps and regularly in the 30's now. In other news Chris came to visit for 10 days. It was nice to have a familiar face around even if he did enjoy the cold weather way too much! I was able to take some time off work so we were able to hang out and have fun. Chris brought one of his kites along and we attempted to fly it but as luck would have it we actually had very little wind while he was here. Before he left we went up to Anchorage a day early so I could get some errands done and while we were there we went out to dinner one night and then went to see The Dark Knight. It was a really good movie, I definitely enjoyed. Otherwise life is pretty much the same up here in the North. I suppose I am as ready as I can be for the immense amount of snow and shoveling that I will soon be doing.

Rain, Rain, Rain!

Well it is September and I guess in Alaska that means lots and lots of rain. Today marks the 18th straight day of rainy yucky weather. However, to keep myself busy and distracted I have been spending my time diving and training the birds. I mean if its going to rain this much and I am going to get wet I might as well fully submerge myself. Today marked the completion of my Advanced Open Water Certification so I am pretty excited. Since arriving in Alaska I also completed my Dry Suit Specialty Cert. and got to dive in our Harbor Seal Habitat with three of the seals. A very very cool experience. On the training front I have been doing a lot of work with one of my little kids that hatched when I was an intern here. Nemo has had a bit of an attitude and is our little savage attack puffin at times. So my goal was to break him of his biting and try and make him a little friendlier so that we could use him for educational talks. Well so far Nemo and I have been quite a team. I have yet to lose a finger so that is always a positive however, it has only been a week and a half so things could turn south at any point. Yesterday I attempted to do some puffin painting with Nemo and as you can see from the picture he is a bit of a messy painter. We normally have the puffins walk through paint and then walk across some paper well Nemo was doing great until he slipped and face planted. It was pretty funny and he was a trooper and never once got nasty. Hopefully we will see a break in the weather soon although we are already starting to get termination dust on the mountain tops. I guess summer here is officially over even though it felt like it never really started.

Winding Down!

As the summer comes to an end I have had to say goodbye to some really amazing people. At the end of July we had a really fun beach bonfire going away party for our volunteer Janice. She was from Australia and worked out on Eiders with me for 2 months. We had a crazy time and it was an absolutely beautiful evening. The sun was shining and there was only a light breeze. Thanks to Tasha we had a very warm toasty fire all night which allowed us to toast some marshmallows and pop some popcorn. The next to leave Seward was our intern Kelsey. Kelsey and I became good friends and Seward and work are just not going to be the same without her! Her last day at work just happened to be my birthday. So we of course needed to celebrate! We started the night off by going to our favorite place, The Roadhouse for some yummy nachos! Then of course we had to stop back by the house to watch Michael Phelps make more Olympic history. Then we were off! We started at the Alehouse where we played a round of pool and then joined a group of guys to play some darts. I partnered up with the one guy Luke who is a dog musher for the one dog sled tour group in town. Tasha and I spent quite a bit of time talking to him and he was really psyched to meet people who lived here year round. He was a cool guy and a relief from the typical skeevey guys in town however, he was the worst dart partner ever. Later we all headed to the Yukon where there was a live band playing. Along the way we stopped to take a group shot of us all riding the Orca as well as some other random pics. The Yukon was pretty crowded but the band was good. We all did some dancing and it was a nice end to the night. Sadie announced it was my birthday in between one of the songs and got the whole band and bar singing. It was a great night with great friends and another highly memorable birthday compliments of Alaska! The next to leave town unfortunately is our Americorp Sadie and her husband Sean. I truly don't think you could think of anything bad to say about these two. A truly unique pair! They are also going to be missed and we all wish them the best and hope they come back to visit us soon.

Halibut Hunting!

A few days ago my mom came to Alaska for a visit. It was nice and we had a good time. I got to take a few days off work and see some things in Alaska I had yet to see. First we took a little trip to Homer. It is about 2.5 hours from Seward and fairly similar. Both are small towns that sit right on the water except Homer is way more artsy and hippie. We stayed at a cute little B&B that was right on the beach. It had a lovely outdoor hot tub that I couldn't get enough of. From the hot tub I could see 7 glaciers, the Homer spit and St. Augustine Volcano. Very Impressive! On one particular night in the hot tub I watched three guys kite boarding which was pretty cool, seeing as the water is quite chilly. After our time in Homer we headed back to Seward. So for the first time my mom got to check out what I call home. I think her words were "it's quaint"! She loved going to the SeaLife Center and seeing the puffins. She even got to meet Nemo and Dory, my kids from my summer of 2005 project. The Sunday before she left we went out on my friend Jeff Roy's boat to do some Halibut fishing. We had a decent day for fishing, it was raining and a bit chilly but the water was pretty flat. Tasha came along as did Jeff Roy's mother in law. Tasha and I were the boat rock stars catching the majority of the fish, including her 45lber!!!!! It was a lot of fun and I even have my first fishing story, The One That Got Away! I had the very first catch of the day in Pony Cove and it was a Silver Salmon. It was a fun catch and as I raised it into the net the hook ripped out of his mouth and plop he fell in the net. Except there was a splash and to our surprise the fish was gone and that's when we found a big hole in our net! Bummer, but thankfully the Halibut were biting and we reached the boat limit. Back at the dock we took pictures of our catch and cleaned/filleted the fish. Tasha and I took our portion of the meat back to the house to vacuum seal and freeze. Later in the week mom and I again went back on the water to do a boat tour. It ended up being a beautiful day. The water was so flat and we even had sunshine for most of the afternoon, otherwise known as cloud failure here in Alaska. It was a nice 10 day visit and I got to give her a pretty good feel of what I do and what life is like here.

Day at the Beach!

So maybe summer finally has arrived in Alaska. The last two days which just so happen to be my weekend have been absolutely amazing. Temperatures in the 70's and not a cloud in the sky so it was time to head to the beach. I took Coho along and we had an excellent day romping around, playing fetch and doing some swimming. I found a nice piece of driftwood to prop up against and I did some reading and snoozing. All and all it was an excellent weekend and hopefully the weather will stay like this since we had 3 straight weeks of rain.

Summer Solstice

Wow! So its been over a month since I moved to Alaska and things have been moving right along. Last weekend was the summer solstice which is fairly traumatic here in Alaska. With the Solstice being our longest day it also means that Winter is not too far off. Since we are so far North we are actually able to notice just how rapidly we start to lose light. Anyway, this also marked the return of Tasha from the field. (yay!) I unfortunately was unable to attend the weekend festivities because I had work. I was also supposed to have 6 Spectacled Eider ducklings hatch. Unfortunately things did not go according to plan. We lost 2 ducklings early on, about a week before they were supposed to hatch. Then we slowly started seeing issues with the remaining 4 and unfortunately none of them were able to hatch and survive. This is unfortunate on many levels specifically because I now won't have babies til mid-July and it throws a wrench into the research project. The SPEC. babies were supposed to be the baseline for a study that is going to take place next summer. The only slightly bit of good news is that since there are no ducklings I finally got a weekend which meant sleep and good times! Yesterday I went on a float trip down the Kenai River. Gwen (a fellow co-worker) and I drove to Cooper Landing about 45min from Seward and not only went rafting but found the Sun! It was a beautiful day, nice and sunny and quite the relief from the very persistent rain and chilly weather Seward has been having. The trip was great! We saw a momma Merganser and her babies, Harlequins, Gulls, a Kingfisher, a couple Bald Eagles and of course a big old brown bear. There is some fantastic Salmon fishing on the Kenai and so people do something called Combat Fishing. This is when tons of fishermen stand about 3 feet apart and fish along miles of the river. It is a ridiculous sight to see and of course an excellent place to see Bears. After our trip we headed back to Seward briefly stopping at Tern Lake to see Momma Loon with her baby. Later that night we had an office boat party on our boss' boat. It was a sloppy good time for all involved!

The Neighbors

Well as more and more snow melts the more visitors I get. Today I got home from work and was getting ready to go for a run with Coho (the dog) when two very large moose just sauntered through my front yard! So to give you an idea of how large moose are... I could of limboed under them. I mean seriously we are talking some big creatures. (see moose next to greenhouse photo) Then yesterday a friend and I were coming back to my place after dinner when we saw momma brown bear and her cub chilling in Resurrection River! It was pretty awesome!!! Lets just hope they don't want to pay me a visit.

The Marshmallow Mobile!

So this past Tuesday I went to Anchorage with Tasha so that I could drop her off at the airport and buy myself a car. Well ladies and gentlemen I introduce you to the Marshmallow Mobile! It is a 93 Ford Escort Wagon with under 100,000 miles on it. It made the 2.5 hour drive from Anchorage to Seward without any problems. So far it seems to be serving its purpose so I can't complain to much. Plus I got the guy to knock $250 off the price so again no complaints!

Settling in!

Well its been almost 3 weeks since I arrived in Alaska so I figured it was time to start filling everyone in on what’s been going on. I am living with my friends Tasha and Chuck and their amazing dog Coho! Tasha and I work together in the Avian Department at the SeaLife Center. They have a very cute cabinesque home slightly outside of town. So it’s a 3-mile bike ride to work. On the yucky days we drive in but with gas prices at $4.60 a gallon and rising its tough to make the justification sometimes. The people in my department are very nice. There is Heidi who is the Curator, then there is Tasha who is Senior Aviculturist, Gwen is the level 2 Aviculturist, Nicki and myself and level 1 Aviculturist's. Then we have Sadie who is a very awesome girl who is our Americorp volunteer and works out on Eiders with me a lot. We also have Keri who is out Seasonal Aviculturist, Kelsey who is our Avian Intern and lastly there is Janice who is from Australia and is volunteering with me on Eiders for the next two months. So that’s the whole crew. Currently, I have over two dozen Spectacled Eider eggs and about 5 Stellar Eider eggs. Right now most of the Spec. eggs have gone into incubation so in about a month I will have ducklings. So a quick play by play of my day goes as follows... Come in to work around 8am, meet in the office to get on overview of the plans for the day, head out to the Eider research area and check on the birds as well as look for any new eggs. If there are eggs I pull them for measurements and labeling. Once that’s done its food prep time followed by cleaning pens and pools. That takes me to about 11:30-12:00pm. After lunch I go back out to check on the birds and depending on the day depends on what I do. Lately, I have had some meetings as well as reorganizing the lab so I know where everything is. I also have been setting up cameras on some of the pens so I can observe the birds from inside the lab. So I think that about covers it. I miss the east coast and everyone from back home and I look forward to seeing everyone again. Cheers!