Everyday on the way to work I drive through about five miles of Kentucky. The bright blue “Welcome to Kentucky” sign is positioned on the steel beams of a bridge that takes me across the Ohio River, from the aviation state to the state of unbridled spirit. This is my favorite part of the drive. Beneath me a wide river of deep blue water ripples gently, glistening in the sunlight or peacefully lapping in the rain, depending on the weather. On either side of me, extending up and down as far as my eyes can see are thick green trees, many of which are starting to turn muted shades of orange, yellow, red and brown. A large lighthouse that I’m fairly certain is now someone’s house, with a clean wooden dock and heather red roof juts out from the shore into the water. It’s so scenic that for a moment I forget where I am. I forget that I’m not in Door County or Vermont, but between Cincinnati, OH and Highland Heights, KY on my way to work. Every day as I drive by I think how peaceful and perfect and full of hope this place is. Then another thought, without fail, enters my mind: “I can’t wait until we can open our own little equity theatre, tucked away somewhere beautiful, just like this. Then this will be what I see when I open my eyes every morning and this will be where we do the work we love to do and live the life we want to live.” Then the road becomes bumpy with potholes and cracks, the lanes merge, the person in front of me slows down because she doesn’t know to shift her car into 3rd gear to make it up the steep hills in this area, and the traffic backs up as we round a sharp curve. And I’m back in the real world.
A cold snap is coming through. This weekend we’ll have lows in the 30s and highs in the 50s. I’m grateful for this because it’s the first real push into autumn. The sun is tucked away, the wind is blowing swirling leaves across lawns and driveways, and it’s cool enough to bundle up in a pretty fall sweater with a hot tea or latte in hand but it’s not so cold that you’re uncomfortable. The humidity is gone, the squirrels, birds and neighborhood cats are out in full force, and I can brew up a batch of homemade chili in the crockpot, throw some pumpkin snickerdoodles in the oven, and curl up with a good book or a photo project I’ve been working on. Yes, there’s a lot to love about autumn, and I’m ready to love on it…in between all that moving and work nonsense that is.
Fall also inspires me to get creative with my cooking. Last night I made chicken cordon bleu and baked up two mini cinnamon apple pies I’d prepared and frozen in personal-sized mason jars. I’ve found a pumpkin mac n’ cheese recipe I am just dying to try, and I think I may have to cook up a batch of chili or stew and baked cinnamon vanilla pears in the coming weeks. I’m also anxious to put up a Halloween decoration or two! Halloween and Thanksgiving are my two favorite holidays and I’m always bummed that they get skipped over so often in anticipation of Christmas. I won’t have time to dress up this year and I’m sure I have a show or something on Halloween night that would conflict with any planned festivities anyhow, and I don’t see the point in spending money on useless decorations, but I’m thinking I’ll make a decoration or two with craft supplies I already have on hand so I can at least still celebrate the season in style. I’m thinking a few bat and ghost cutouts to join the pumpkins and possibly a leaf wreath.
So far, this whole iPad thing has been working out. Also, she’s kind of a beaut. The red on white is a strikingly handsome combination. And the wireless keyboard, which I’m breaking in as I type, is pretty sharp too.
Front and back Zagg protective shields were excellently installed by Best Buy, for a nominal fee of course, but absolutely it well worth the cost to have them installed by, well, anyone other than Ted or I. Your iPad will be thoroughly protected from anything short of a nuclear disaster, but installing them is a giant time-sucking, mind-blowing, frustration-inducing, pain in the ass, the likes of which Ted never wants to repeat and I never want to attempt. I’m nearly 100% convinced that the reason the Zagg protective shields have so many negative reviews is because putting them on is like the brain surgery of the technology world, even if you have stable hands and the patience of a saint. Between the hazards of dust, fuzz, fingerprints, stickiness, bubbling, and lining the thing up correctly with the cutouts for buttons and cameras, etc. $15 suddenly seems like the bargain of a lifetime. Money well spent, we think. Plus I feel much more comfortable with my iPad knowing that it can’t get dirty or damaged as easily. The iPad is a delicate beast and I’m a paranoid person…so together with the screen and back protectors, we make a good combination.
I’m also loving the wireless keyboard. Not only is it attractive (Duh. Isn’t good looks the most important quality here anyhow?) but it makes typing so much quicker and more accurate. For my tastes the iPad’s little pop-up on screen keyboard is great for quick little things – like jotting down notes or updating a status, but the keyboard is nearly necessary (again, this is just personal preference) for anything more lengthy than a few lines of text.
Ted also got me an iTunes gift card for my birthday, with which I can purchase movies, music, iBooks or apps. Because I’m extraordinarily cheap nearly every single one of my apps is free. But if you’re a little more fancy or you do work on your iPad that requires some more pricy apps like Ted does (he has lighting software and stuff on his), then going crazy on apps can get expensive fast. However, if you’re like me, you search out the free stuff and splurge on the few goodies you can’t resist. Here’s a few of my favorite apps:
– Blogshelf ($4.99) – This is the only app I have paid for so far. I love my blogs and this app organizes them all in one easy, convenient location iBooks style so I can easily see a bookshelf full of the blogs I read regularly. I don’t even have to have a wifi connection to do it…it updates when it connects to the internet, and then I can read it when I’m away from wifi. All I have to do is click on the “book” and the blog comes up. Easy as pie.
– Pandora (Free) – Free music. If you’re unfamiliar with Pandora (I boarded the Pandora train late in life too, so no shame) it’s essentially a radio. You type in the name of an album, artist, song, or genre of music you like and a radio station of similar tunes plays for you. You can thumbs up the song if you like it and want to hear more of it, or thumbs down it to skip ahead to the next song. I love it for exploring songs from musicals I haven’t heard yet without having to purchase the CD until I know I love it. The musical nerd in me is feeling highly fulfilled.
– All Recipes (Free) – I use this website all the time for recipes when I’m looking to try a new dish. So, obviously, I love the app. I can take the iPad into the kitchen with me, search for a recipe and it appears on the screen with a well-layed-out list of ingredients, pictures, and step by step instructions.
– Easy Note (Free) – This is the app I use to make notes, to do lists, grocery lists, and to generally organize my life. Super handy.
– Angry Birds Rio (Free) – Let me explain: Angry Birds and the monkeys and birds from the animated movie Rio. How can you not love this game? .
– Intellicast HD (Free) – The best app out there for everything and anything weather related! It’s awesome. I can see radar in motion, hourly, daily, weekly forecasts, weather alerts, precipitation and probably a hundred other things. It’s fast and accurate.
– Fast Food (Free) – This app does so much more than locate restaurants. Based on your location it lists the closest restaurants, gas stations, coffee shops, free wifi hotspots, ATM’s, and hospitals. It kind of rocks. It also gives you great info on the restaurants, like menus, hours, and nutritional information.
I have a slew of other apps I’ve downloaded and am enjoying, including Flixster for movies, TV Guide, and Clock Pro. For more specific things the GasBuddy (gas prices), Zillow (real estate if you’re looking for a new place to rent or buy), TripAdvisor, UrbanSpoon, USAA (banking), and Yelp are pretty exciting.
Starting this week I am teaching a weekly musical theatre workshop to elementary and middle school aged children. This is nothing new to me, but every group of kids I’ve worked with has a different dynamic going on. Whatever the dynamic may be, it always takes some getting used to and a short period of adjustment for the first day or so until I can figure out who each kid is, what they want to learn, how they learn best, what this group’s quirks are, attention span, ratio of movement oriented games to quiet time, etc. Some classes are obedient learners and eager to please. Others are rambunctious and want desperately to be doing anything that allows them to roll one another in lengths of carpet then promptly unroll each other off the edge of the stage. This class is a little of both.
Since these kiddos were, apparently, informed at registration that this was a drama class (it’s a musical theatre class, by the way) I asked each student what they wanted to learn in our class over the next 12 weeks. I received a few heartfelt responses along the lines of wanting to learn how to not be scared onstage, or how to act without being goofy, or confidence in their abilities. However, I was simultaneously flattered and horrified that a majority of the class thinks that I am the ideal candidate to teach them stunts and romance.
Today it is raining (um, again.) and I would like nothing more than to curl up on the couch with my forest green knit blanket, a carton of Haagen Dazs sweet chai latte ice cream, my next book obsession, Heaven Is for Real and a cuddly ball of orange fur known as Sancho.
My carton would be endless, and the book excellent and addicting. Sancho would snooze on my lap, and I’d indulge in a mid-afternoon nap myself. I’d take a break to whip up a batch of scrumptious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and to stir the crockpot which would be, miraculously, cooking tasty black bean burgers and sweet potato fries for dinner. If anyone knows where I can find this crockpot, let me know.
Evidently, or so my calendar tells me, I am supposed to be simultaneously at work, at the grocery store, at strike, doing laundry, preparing a lesson plan, printing directions on a mysteriously disconnected printer, driving to work in the rain, teaching little kids musical theatre, cleaning, and moving a houseful of crap into an apartment.
My posts have been a little sparse lately, and in all honesty, they’ll probably continue to be so for the next few weeks. Autumn, my favorite season, is setting in here in Ohio – the leaves are starting to change color, the rain has picked back up, and cool weather is breezing on in, but so is the reality of our street being under construction while they put in a sidewalk, moving, maintaining both the house and the new apartment, cleaning, paiting, working four jobs, and keeping up with all our other obligations. Finding time to cook a decent meal, or plan schedules, or spend quality time together, or even think, much less finding the time to actually blog is a far-fetched challenge right now, but I’m going to do my best to keep up with it! Please bear with me. Lord knows how I’m doing to remember a new address on top of all this!
Lately (and finally) I’ve been reading The Help. I literally cannot get my nose out of this book. It is so good. It absolutely sucks you in and keeps you there. I love it! Clearly, this is a problem considering I have no time whatsoever to be reading. I’ve resorted to reading at what I’ll refer to a “job #1” when we’re slow. Which, lucky for me, has been often. I’ve managed to read the first 338 pages in the past three days at work. I was number 200-and-something on the waiting list for it at the library. My turn finally came and I was so darn busy that I just couldn’t get to it in an adequate amount of time to get the whole book read. And since there’s about a million people on the waiting list behind me also wanting to read it, the library wasn’t allowing renewals. One of my co-workers very kindly lent me her copy since I became quickly addicted to it in the nine chapters I read before it was due back. If you haven’t read this book yet, it is worth all the hype. I think it’s a keeper for our bookshelf and Ted and I are both anxious to see the film.
And since fall had officially fallen around these parts I’ve started in (again, on an extremely limited basis) on some of my favorite fall recipes! I’ve stocked up on cans of pumpkin for my pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe, and we have our fresh pumpkins lining the door, waiting to be carved and gutted at the end of October, their innards turned into pies and their seeds roasted and seasoned. But my favorite quick fall recipe is so easy and so tasty you’ll be amazed you didn’t think of it before. I eat it by the batch and take it to any and every potluck or picnic. It is delicious with just enough hints of summer flavors and just enough notes of fall to make it perfect for September.
Ready for your mind to be blown? All you do is cut up a few granny smith apples into bite-sized pieces, mix them with vanilla yogut, dried cherries or cranberries, walnuts, and ground cinnamon. Mix, chill and devour. You might want to make a large batch…just a word of advice from the person who eats it like candy.
Last night Ted and I signed the lease on our new apartment and got the keys. I detail-cleaned the place from floor to ceiling (it’s amazing and disgusting what cleaning crews miss!) and then we spent the evening painting two walls accent colors. One of the living room walls we painted a pencil lead gray color with just a touch of blue in it, and one of the dining room walls we painted a nice shade of mossy green. It looks great and helps the place to feel less like an apartment and more like home. The transition from house to apartment is a big change, so anything we can do to make it feel a little more our style is a good thing. So we taped off the walls, tarped over the carpet and set to work with the brush and the roller. Since none of our stuff is moved in yet we had a pizza delivered and took a break to eat pizza and soda on the living room floor while our walls dried, just like college kids – our first meal in our new home! Then we drove over to ETC to catch the understudy performance of Next to Normal. We’re pleased with the look and I think it’ll compliment our furniture nicely. We’ll post pictures soon.
In other new and exciting catch-up news, our family welcomed a new baby this past week. My neice, Halle Grace, was born on Sept. 18 in Virginia. She’s cute already and I look forward to meeting her before she turns five. I hope.
Ted and I also welcomed a new addition to our little family….my iPad 2! It was my wonderful birthday present from Ted, my parents, and Ted’s parents. And she’s lovely! I spent about two weeks frantically researching every iPad 2 case in existance searching for just the right combination of protection, style, and functionality. After a lot of mind changing and trial and error, my decision is an obvious choice but it was a hard one to come by. I selected the white iPad 2 with the glossy clear Zagg front and back screen protectors, a red leather Smart Cover, and this sleeve from DoryDesigns on Etsy.
Ordinarily I’ve not a red girl – I tend to stick with greens, but I’ve always wanted the white iPad and the red color complimented the white iPad just so vivdly while still looking both fun and professional, plus it’s a (PRODUCT)RED item so I know a portion of the purchase goes toward a good cause. The sleeve is playful yet protective and original, so that made me happy. We’re going to finish getting it all set up this weekend and I can’t wait to start using it!
So I guess that’s about it for this week’s game of catch-up. I know of I’ve also been slacking on Open Letters Thursday and Epic Fail Friday. Not because I haven’t had plenty of snarky passive-agressive thoughts twirling around in my mind or because people have suddenly smartened up (ha! Oh my goodness, no!), but because sometimes life throws other plans your way. I also hope to resume these happy little rituals shortly. :-)
Last weekend was our last free weekend for a while. October is going to be slammed with the big move from house to apartment, as well as a packed theatre schedule for both of us, but Ted especially. October is also prime pumpkin patching season, an experience we do not miss out on. The first year we were dating I was a recent Texas transplant aching to enjoy a real autumn with real autumn festivities, so Ted took me to a pumpkin patch to pick out my very own pumpkins. The next year we got engaged in that same pumpkin patch. The following year we were married in October, surrounded by pumpkins. So it follows that this year we had to find time to do a pumpkin patch so we could carry on the tradition with our first year pumpkin patching experience in Ohio as a married couple. I called around to several farms trying to find a pick-your-own patch that allowed pumpkin picking in mid-September, and our chances were looking slim, but I finally found one! An hour and 15 minutes away. Each direction. Near Beavercreek, Ohio which is practically Dayton. Yes, Beavercreek. I know.
It was a bit of a trek, but boy did we find a gem! This place is not only a pick-your-own pumpkin patch, but also a ginormous corn maze, and a petting farm with tractor rides, corn cannons and fire pits. Jackpot. It’s called Adventure Acres and it’s one of the top 10 corn mazes in the nation in addition to being the biggest corn maze in Ohio. We will be returning next year. Want to know why?
That right there is an aerial view of over 11.5 miles of this year’s corn maze. For real. Is that not the most amazing corn maze you have ever witnessed in your life? Enlarge this beast (seriously, do it) and you’ll see they’ve spelled out Adventure Acres, 1851-2011, 160 years, have a tractor, a horse head, a barn, a silo, and a windmill – all carved out of 8 ft. corn stalks. You could literally spend the entire day playing hide and seek in that maze. It’s more challenging than it looks! The best part is that on weekends they’re open until midnight so they gear you up with a map, flashlights, and a glow-in-the-dark necklace (so you don’t get run over by a tractor on the farm…I’m not kidding) and off you go to get lost in the corn maze beneath a full moon and starry, starry country sky. As if that weren’t awesome enough, they also have a Clue/Who Dunit?/ Farm Scene Investigation game in the maze. You’re given a booklet with 7 farm animals, 7 farm weapons, and 7 farm locations and based on clues you have to find hidden in the maze, you determine who kidnapped the missing Farmer Joe. The more little clue stations you find hidden in the maze, the more coupons you can win for free stuff at the stores in town. Amazing, right? It was fun.
Right when we got there it was already sunset, so we piled on a tractor and headed out to the pumpkin patch where we dug around in the leafy greens for a while until we selected and picked our pumpkins for year…and what beautiful pumpkins they are! We ran amuck in the corn maze for a while and discovered whodunit, then we shot ears of corn out of a cannon at pumpkins, hay bales, and a gong (I think my backyard needs one of these), and then we hung out with the horse, duck, goats and barn cats for a while. There was also a nice little fire blazing in the fire pit. I don’t have great pictures because it was night-time, so please excuse the lack thereof, but it was loads of fun and we’d love to go back again…pronto! Bringing a group of pals here in October is just about one of the most fabulous outings I can think of! Wanna come?
The next day we finally made time to check out the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. I love me some animals and I’ve been craving zoo since we moved here, so it was about time we got around to it! We’d heard from multiple people that it was a wonderful zoo, so we were excited. We saw a lot of neat creatures and had a great time exploring. While we were in the Night Hunters exhibit (which featured a lot of wild cats) one of the zookeepers had a large snake out that we could pet. She was standing in front of the bobcat’s home and the bobcat was going positively nuts with desire to get his paws on that snake. He was pawing at and licking the glass, desperate to take a bite, but drat! that glass wall!! It was really cute. We also caught the cat show where the animal trainers show off the porcupine and a few of their most talented felines. They have a fishing cat that loves to dive right into the water to pull out meals, a jumping cat that can launch itself high into the sky without a running start, and of course, the cheetahs. They have a little fluffy toy attached to a string that gets pulled across a long expanse of land. What’s really cool is that using this system they can show you a cheetah run so you can actually see their cheetah, Sarah, go from 0-60 mph is mere seconds. It’s really awesome to experience!
The big sea lion was sunning on the rock and the little guy dove up from under him and pulled him backwards into the water. I love the expression on the sea lion's face!
After the zoo we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for the Packer game. It was an excellent final weekend of freedom!
So I guess that about wraps up the honeymoon blogs! I think you can tell from the pictures that we had a really nice time and enjoyed the cruise and Alaska tremendously. We’d definitely recommend Holland America; we’d definitely recommend Sitka and other less popular ports of call; we’d definitely recommend choosing adventurous excursions; and for goodness sakes we’d definitely recommend packing a raincoat, waterproof shoes, a great set of binoculars, and some Bonine! There was only a five hour time difference between Alaska and Cincinnati, but that jet lag absolutely ruined me. For the next week and a half I was, ironically, downright exhausted and useless. Our anniversary trip to Door County, scheduled for two weeks later, could not come soon enough!
After our wedding in Door County we decided that if we could possibly make it happen schedule-wise and financially, that we’d journey back to Door County every year in October in celebration of our anniversary. Well, this October is jam-packed with work and moving priorities, so we booked ourselves a weekend in September. We took a four day weekend, drove to Green Bay for the Packers home opener game against the Saints, and then spent two days in Door County before driving back to Cincinnati on Sunday. It was a marvelous little getaway! We enjoyed perfect, cool weather, the leaves were just starting to change colors, the Packers won, there was a great fly-over with four F-16s at the game, we got to see family and celebrate all the August & September birthdays, and hit up our favorite Door County hotspots. It was glorious!
We made sure to dine at The Cookery, Goats on the Roof, and to make fish boil reservations at Square Rigger Galley, the amazing little beach-side restaurant in Jacksonport where we booked our rehearsal dinner. The food, as always, was totally superb. I dug into the world’s best hot chocolate at Goats on the Roof (which is about 65% whip cream…love), along with Swedish crepe pancakes with fresh lingonberries, Swedish meatballs, and Swedish fruit soup (fruits stewed in juice and cinnamon, served chilled). Eating at The Cookery is always a treat because their menu is so simple and teeming with comfort foods, but the ingredients are so local, so fresh and they pair unexpected combinations of ingredients together in such a refreshing way. They had salted caramel ice cream, which was as delicious as it sounds, and a butternut squash soup infused with roasted red pepper glaze and apple cider that was beyond tasty. The fish boil was out-of-this-world perfect, as it has been the past three times we’ve done it. Both the atmosphere and food are do-not-miss fantastic. We also made pit stops for cherry gelato at Double Delites (where we took a few of our wedding photos), and the Confectionery where I downed the biggest, most delicious caramel apple in existence. We did, in fact, do more than eat though.
We reserved tickets for a performance of American Folklore Theatre’s hit original musical production of Guys on Ice, we dropped in at Cave Point state park to take in the cliffs that are part of Niagara Falls and build a rock castle, we browsed the Fish Creek shops and walked the little main streets, and we took our families’ cherry orders and bought enough dried cherries, cherry salsa, Orchard County fruit wines (the ones served at our wedding), and cherry oil to leave with two bulk boxes of cherry-stuff and a few illicit-ed stares. We also drove up and down the Door Peninsula soaking in the lovely little villages and scenic sights. We sat on the beach and walked in the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, stayed at a little B&B called Trollhaugen in town of Ephraim where we were treated to the fireplace room. We made a wonderful fire in the fireplace at night while we settled in for a movie, and the next morning we had the most delicious B&B breakfast – waffles, hand-whipped cream, four berry sauce, pastries, and more – all homemade.
As always, our time in Door County was just perfect and we had a beautiful weekend! Clearly, we love this place!! Oh, to spend the entire summer here doing professional theatre! Our day will come :-)
Victoria was all about laying low. After we sailed from Ketchikan on Friday afternoon we had nearly 30 hours at sea before we reached Victoria, British Columbia. In that time at sea we took in (rather, we participated in) a marriage game show, and I bundled myself up in cozy wool blankets, whale watched, snoozed on the lounge chairs on deck, and continued to stuff myself silly. It was awesome.
The excursions offered for Victoria weren’t all that exotic or enticing. They primarily consisted of horse drawn carriage rides through the city, high tea at the Empress Hotel, pub crawling, or an excursion to Butchart Gardens. The photos from Butchart Gardens looked phenomenal and I wouldn’t have minded spending an evening traipsing through the gardens, immersing myself in fragrant blooms and fireworks, but ultimately we decided against buying into an excursion in Victoria. Having studied abroad in England and traveled to Germany, I’d already been on a horse-drawn carriage ride, participated in afternoon tea on a daily basis, pub crawled, and seen outrageously beautiful gardens on castle grounds. Ditto for Ted. For starters, all of the above were ridiculously overpriced, and we didn’t want to spend our limited hours in Victoria doing something we could do in Ohio. We’d read that Victoria is a lovely city and a walker’s paradise, so we decided to hoof it and spend our 7 pm-12 am port time cruising the city on foot.
We walked several miles through a quiet historic residential neighborhood, past the famed Empress Hotel, through a downtown port-side market, and into the business, pub, and shopping district. We listened to several talented street musicians (including a middle-aged dude dressed as Darth Vader playing speedy violin jigs), stopped in gelato bars and fudge shops to ogle the selections, stumbled upon a Roots store (my fav. hip Canadian sportswear store!), dropped into a fabulous and unusual games/toy store recommended by the DJ on our cruise who co-hosted the game show we participated in (we ran into him on the streets of Victoria and hung out with him for a bit), and then capped our night off with a beer at the pub. Victoria is a young city, a place teeming with people and nightlife late on a Saturday evening. It was really low-key, but a great way to experience Victoria.
Ketchikan – Alaska’s first city and salmon capital of the world – was another port we were excited to stop at. This was our shortest jaunt of the three Alaskan ports of call. We docked at 7:30 a.m. and all board time was 12:30 p.m. – a mere five hours to take in an excursion and explore the city’s offerings.
As fans of the Discovery Channel show “The Deadliest Catch” we knew we had to sign up for the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour as soon as I read about it! If you’re unfamiliar with Deadliest Catch, it documents fishing for Alaskan King Crab and Ophelia (snow) Crab in the frigid and unforgiving waters of the Bering Sea. It is one of the world’s most deadliest jobs, but it also a great thrill and it reaps great financial rewards for the men brave enough to risk their lives out on her violent and icy waters to bring home an annual supply of crab. The crabbing boats are bare bones, the pods that they drop and pull to catch the crab in are heavy and slippery, sheets of ice form over the deck and machinery at an alarming rate and must be continually chipped off, the seas are rough and storms prevalent, and it is often snowing with temperatures of 20 below zero. In these conditions (before the rules of crabbing were changed) the men used to work, performing taxing duties, for upwards of 20 hours straight with perhaps only a 4 hour nap and meal time thrown in there somewhere and then they did it all again the next day until the crab season ended. Many boats sank and many men were lost. The boat we took our excursion on, the Aleutian Ballad, was overturned by a freak wave in season two of the show and somehow righted itself before sinking. Lots of excitement! So you can totally see why we wanted to check this out for ourselves firsthand, right?
Our crew were David, Terry, Derrick, and Brian – real crab fisherman who left behind their families every crab season to make a living and only hoped to be lucky enough to return home. At least one of our crew was even featured on seasons of Deadliest Catch. These guys are not only hardcore fisherman, but also really neat guys with big hearts, a strong love and sense of gratitude for what they do and the opportunity they have to share their passion with so many people, and a great sense of humor! In between pulling Alaskan King crab, Ophelia crab, Dungeness crab, Starfish, Rockfish, Crayfish, and Octopus out of the sea for us to observe and hold, they also explained fascinating history and facts about the ship with us, and entertained us with awesome stories – some funny, some unbelievable, some touching, some sad, of their years as crab fisherman. Though it was cold, windy and rainy, we loved taking in their tales, the boat trip out into Canadian waters, and spending some quality time with the sea life! And if there’s one thing I love, it’s animals! The octopus was kind of my favorite with the king crab coming in close second. Ted was pretty psyched for this trip as well since he’s big into Deadliest Catch!
When we returned from crab fishing we only had about an hour and a half left to see what we could of Ketchikan. I’d say Ketchikan is the middle ground between the touristy jewelry strips in Juneau and the great outdoors of Sitka. I’d really wanted to stop by the picturesque Creek Street, you know, this serene image of Alaskan city perfection…
…but we were short on time and the walk to Creek Street and back was a little longer than we could manage since the Oosterdam’s captain was sure to inform us that Ketchikan is the port that people most often get left behind at. Instead we opted to meander slowly and casually through town to explore the port area and seek out some reindeer and salmon jerky. It was also my 25th birthday so I was also pretty excited to head back to the ship, partake in the clam bake, enjoy a fabulous dinner at the Caneletto, and do some whale watching. We saw one and it was awesome!
There’s much more to Ketchikan we’d like to see, but that’s another trip! In the meantime, I found this picture from Glacier Bay that I forgot to post, so here’s one more for you. Are you sold on Alaska yet? We are!
“The Proposal” may very well be one of my most favorite movies in existence. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds are unspeakably funny together and have some seriously genius comedic chemistry going on. This movie certainly wasn’t the reason we decided to honeymoon in Alaska, but let’s be honest, the scenery was impressive. We were a little excited that the ship we’d selected cruised to Sitka, a quaint and rather refreshingly un-touristy little town where very few cruises or sight-seers bother to go. We didn’t learn until just recently that while Margaret Tate and Andrew Paxton travel to Sitka, AK to meet the parents and the break the news of their engagement, that Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds traveled only to the oh-so-exotic local of Rockport, Massachusetts to shoot the film. We probably should have researched this ahead of time because we definitely trolled the town looking for familiar sights.
For all the reasons that Juneau was our least favorite port of call, Sitka was our favorite port of call. We loved Sitka. We liked its Russian roots and architecture, totem poles, the quiet main drag, mountainous backdrop, friendly folk, adventurous outdoorsy activities and the tiny little port where everyone docked their personal boats that are, undoubtedly, used as transportation from the little island nooks where their homes are located across the Sitka Sound and into town for work, groceries or socialization. Furthermore, while we liked the town itself, we also had a fabulous excursion experience and it was the only one of our Alaskan ports where we were treated to beautiful weather. We were in port from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (less a half-hour each way for tendering), but we found it wasn’t enough time to do all that we had wanted to do. I’d still like to see the Fortress of the Bear and the Raptor Center one day. Not to mention the Sitka Sound is littered with little islands to explore! Many of these islands are residential – as in, the only thing on the island is your gorgeous house, but many are just teeming with bears, eagles, and lush and intriguing forest plants. Also, please click to enlarge picture #8, because I want that house immediately!
Please enlarge this for proper reading, because you know you're in a small town when one of the advertised things to do is "get a haircut."
So, what did we do in Sitka? Well, Sitka is home to an ancient, once-active volcano named Mt. Edgecumbe located on Kruzof Island. Funny story: The last time Mt. Edgecumbe erupted was in 2220 B.C. And in 1974 when a local prankster named Porky Bickar threw 100 old tires into the crater and lit them on fire, sending black plumes of smoke spiraling into the air and frightening the residents of Sitka into thinking their volcano wasn’t quite as dormant as they thought. Now there’s a local with a sense of humor!
Is there a better way to explore Mt. Edgecumbe than by ocean raft and 4×4? Nope! So we booked an excursion with Ocean Raft Adventures to shoot across the Sitka Sound in a high-speed raft (and see great wildlife along the way) to Kruzof Island and then bump up to the top of the volcano in a Yamaha Rhino 4×4.
This was some serious FUN. Glacier trekking was amazing, but this was just crazy, wild fun! We had such a great time! We would gladly book this adventure, or a different one, from this company again. Our guides were kind, funny, and had biology degrees so when we stopped along the trail to check out a small clot of salmon running downstream, or to see porous, spongy moss ground cover and huckleberries in a clearing on the island, they could tell us all about it. Another thing we loved about this excursion was that there were only six of us plus our three guides. A nice, small group is definitely the way to go! We started out at their little hidden headquarters shack off the main drag of Sitka to suit up in mustang suits (tip: pee before you put the suit on). Once properly geared up like astronauts we walked to the dock, piled in the ocean raft and took off for a high-speed, bumpy ride across the Sitka Sound. The weather was just incredible and highlighted how completely breathtaking this part of Alaska is, but the waters were still a little choppy that day which made the ocean raft even more fun! We’d hit big waves and be instantly airborne, flying through the air until our raft plopped down on the water again with a mighty splash. It was so much fun – we were all laughing and totally enjoying it. Our raft captain would stop the raft every time we spotted a sea otter, eagle’s nest, geographical point of interest, or school of flopping fish so we could get a good look. Fun fact: Did you know that the reason fish jump out of the water and belly flop back down is because they are pregnant and trying to break the sack in their bellies that the baby fish are in so they can give birth? We saw lots of that! The 45 minute raft ride to the island gave us a lot of time to enjoy the scenery and check out the wildlife.
When we pulled up to the island the rest of the guides were ready and waiting. They gave us helmets and showed us to our two-seater 4×4’s. After a five-minute safety briefing about how to operate the 4×4, the emergency breaks, what to do if steam comes pouring out of the engine, what to do if a bear attacks the caravan, where the bear horn and bear spray are located, what to do if you flip the 4×4 while bumping up the mountain and how to hold your body in the event of a rollover and other such comforting information (at about this point I started to wonder just what we’d gotten ourselves into…), we loaded up in our 4x4s with a guide in the front of the caravan and another guide in the back and off we went, up the volcano! Again…so much fun!! The island used to be, and I guess still is, used for a little bit of military stuff. So the first little stretch of roadway (the “practice course”) is somewhat paved. I use that term loosely. At a certain point there is a little bridge over a stream where you can watch the salmon run and, if you’re lucky, spy a bear who is also watching the salmon run. After that bridge though the road goes away and becomes an extremely rocky, uphill path with huge boulders to topple over, deep trenches to sink unevenly into (as you wonder if this trench will be the one to roll your 4×4), massive mud puddles to splash through, low hanging tree branches to get whacked by and sharp curves to screech across. You can see how this was totally awesome, right? We were throttled and jostled up the volcano for another hour, stopping to check out more wildlife, great views, or neat plants. At one point we came to a lake of mud. Yes, a lake. It was really that big. I joked how wild it would be to drive through it, not knowing that our guide had every intention of actually leading us through it! We reached the top of the mountain, covered in mud and still vibrating from the motion of the 4×4.
The view was tremendous! Our guides unpacked a snack of homemade jelly shortbread cookies, cheese scones, and a thermos of creamy tomato soup for us to eat while we took in the view. There was a patch of wild huckleberries nearby so we snacked on a few of those and learned more about the Alaskan landscape. After the break we rolled back down the volcano, splashing through more mud puddles and getting whacked by more tree branches that we drove too close to (Ted claims it was to avoid boulders or trenches, but I’m not so sure about that…) and then we rafted back to Sitka.
Totally worth every penny! Please take this excursion if you go to Sitka. Or better yet, you can treat us to this excursion again if you’re feeling generous :-)
In case you’re wondering what the heck some of this stuff is, allow me to explain. The sweet little thing swimming is the water is a friendly sea otter who was showing off his tricks, an eagle with her nest is pictured in the next photo, and if you look closely at the photo that looks like nothing but shallow water and rocks, you can see two dark gray salmon swimming center. The craters are volcanic ash. I’m making a face in the picture with the huckleberries in my hand because Ted and I both spied a prime, fat and juicy huckleberry at the exact same moment and he beat me to it, leaving me with the dinky ones. The lighthouse is another one of those little island treasures scattered throughout the Sitka Sound and the last picture is that same house, which I still want, by the way.
In a dream world we’d pick up and move to Sitka, get a little island house and a small boat, and start our own theatre company in Sitka. Oh, what a world it would be!
