Our new home

4-24-2014

     Our new house is not really a house. It's more like a shed with a window. I call it our walk-in closet with a bed. At least it's a full size bed and not a twin! There's a small porch off the front, just enough space for a chair. I wonder if we'll be able to add more on, so the deck could wrap around the side and we could sit and look into the woods, rather than at the mud out front. 

     The whole parking area in front was just torn up last fall for a new sewer system, and it froze before the rest of the dirt could be put back, so there's a huge pond/ mud-pit in front of our house. On the other side of the mud-pit is the Bunk House. It's not really a bunk house any more, but that's what it used to be and that's still the name. That's where the kitchen is, and the bathroom. Two bathrooms, actually. We could each have our own if we wanted to. And there are three refrigerators, so we're covered there. 

     I'm planning on making a lot more meals ahead of time and then freezing them, so we can have relatively fresh stuff without actually getting fresh ingredients every week. The closest store with fresh food is an hour and a half away. And it's 5 hours to Anchorage for any bulk item food. I'll be shopping for the whole month when I do. It's a different way of living. 

     The trees are all the same, boring, tall, scraggly mountain pines that aren't very pretty. It makes me miss Washington, and the temperate rainforest. A few things really make me miss it there, but so far I really like it here. The people have all been really great so far, and there's a sense of peace and independence that I just haven't found anywhere else but Alaska. 

     The mountains are not visible through the trees where we are, but a quarter mile down the road in any direction provides spectacular views. The mountains are so big here, and relatively spread out. It's like looking at three Mount Rainiers along a single horizon, with mountain sized foothills behind us, and wrapping around the sides. I wish I could take a picture but it's always just hazy enough that the snow blends with the sky in my photos, and the pictures all fail to represent what we're actually looking at. Just like Mount Rainier. You really just have to see it in person. 

     I'm excited to get out and explore it all. I really can't wait to fly over it. I'm not sure how likely that is for me, but it's a certainty for Luke. There is so much to see.

Haines

Sorry for the major delay everyone!

4-22-2015

     We woke up in Haines and I looked out the front window of the Pilot to see mountains outlined by the colors of the sunrise. The orange and pink hadn't yet taken over, and a silvery grey blue color of the sky still reflected off the lake. We were parked on a hill just above the boat launch, so we had a good view. I got out of the Pilot and walked down the bank we were parked next to, all the way down to the river that fed from the lake, and soaked in the outdoors. Ducks were riding along in the current, dodging the rocks that stuck up here and there. Swainsons Thrushes trilled from somewhere in the trees across the water, which bubbled along making music of its own. 

     It was a great start to the day. At first I thought it was going to be the only good part about the day, because we had a hard time finding any place open for breakfast, but we ended up with some delicious breakfast burritos from a great little cafe attached to a little market. We even had great luck finding a place to stay for the the night! We ended up stumbling upon some neat little rental cabins on the way to Battery Point, which was also a cool hike. The whole area was super cool! Green, mossy forest, with little streams here and there... It was beautiful. I definitely wouldn't mind going back.