Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Back to the Juneau.

I'm back in Juneau

&


I miss Sitka.
&
I'm sad I had to say goodbye to my loverboy.

However, it is good to see all my old friends from Juneau.
They cool peeps.
 Hiking to a cabin for the night.

Orcas. -in the wild.

 baby starfish on ma face.

jellyfish.

diving whale.diving eagle. on the way back from hoonah.

 pretty flowers.

Mt. Juneau.

Mountain goats.er. unicorns.

Meditation. on top of Mt. Juneau.

 Mt. Juneau start.

Waterfall.

Tree ma friend.

Pretty flowers.

Sandy beach.

Bye. Bye. Cruise ship.
 Laying on zee beach.

artistic.



PS: Short story about the Hike to Mt. Juneau.

I walk outside on my day off and it's sunny and bright, so I think to myself, man I should hike. I stand and I stare at the mountains, that aren't bare, and decide right then and there, I want to be up there.

A random person from Brazil who happens to work on the cruise ship asks me for directions to a trail and I give him the directions and say that I am thinking of doing a hike as well. He asked if I wanted to come, and I said yes, if I can choose the trail. We ended up doing Mt. Juneau which is a pretty steep hike up, but worth it. After a long hike, running out of water and drinking my new brazilian friends water as he drinks out the stream and walks barefoot like a champ, we finally made it to the top. We had a little under an hour before we had to hustle down, he had to get to his ship by 3 pm and we left the top at 1:45 pm. We ran downhill and man, did that hurt my legs, and then he abandoned me and sorry, I'm going to run the rest of the way (he could not be late since he worked on the cruise ship). So he ran, and I walked down the rest of the mountain and good news, he made it at 3:00.15 pm., just in time that he didn't get in trouble. I made it home by 4:30 pm, I kept getting distracted with tree hugging and viewing and observations of the earth as I walked on down that mountain.

The end.







Running wild in free in this bright yellow sun, as it shines down once in a blue moon in this mostly rainy state of the loom.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A little MooshyGooshy side of me...

Zee best week of Alaska
...........

Is the week my lover boy came to town. He makes me happy and he brought the sunshine.

Here is a link to a movie of his trip to visit me: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5qqUq4A_I&list=UUBuqjLaNLSt5BDQ6-bWFB0g&index=1&feature=plcp



Cha.cha.check it out.





Anyways, 
So I'm going to go a bit mooshy goooshy for the first time on this travel blog of mine.
I have a lover and we have been together for quite some time now.
More than 4 years that tis.

He has been with me throughout all of my wandering soul moments.
When I moved to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania for the summer of 2009
When I moved to Fiji in July 2010.
When I decided to stay longer in Fiji So I could travel to New Zealand and Australia in November and December 2010.
(to scope it out so we can move there in the future of course)
He has always wanted to go to New Zealand.
& I would love nothing more than to return there.

He has been with me when I graduated University and decided I had to go somewhere for the summer, like Alaska.
Luckily,
after all these times I have put him through our long distance relationship status,
he came to visit me in Alaska.

that made this week he was here, the best week of my being in Alaska.

Love you my peanut butter cup.


Otay.Otay.

So While he was here,
We spent the first rainy day eating breakfast til early hours of the afternoon and then decided to walk through the Sitka National Historic park. This park has several totem poles from the Tlinget tribe posted into zee ground around the area and a nice easy trail to frolick about on. We did this and enjoyed the view, watched the salmon run, and ended it by going to the local brewery. Soup, beer bread, beer samples, root beer, and beer, and loverboy, sounds like a chunk of heaven to me and it twas. 

We took a hike, the next day, literally, and went on a trail that passed two waterfalls and ended by a lake, where there was a boat. "We're on a boat, We're on a boat," Psych, boat was nearly sunk, we got in, and got right back out. It had a huge crack in it and well, wouldn't have made it very far with us in it.  After getting home, we decided to bike to one of my favorite local hangout spots and sunset watch spots, Seamart! Seamart is a grocery store and it's open 24/7, it has a big parking lot and a short trail by it along the water. We biked out there, got some ice cream, drank a lil juice box wine and watched the sunset. It was quite beautiful and one of those moments I had been dreaming of since I got here, him with me, watching the sunset.

Next day, Tuesday, 

Next day, we kayak on a day which held lots of sunshine and about a mere ten minutes after we got out on the kayaks, a giant cloud of fog comes down and stays on us for the rest of the evening. However, that did not stop us, we kayaked out and about by the river opening where the salmon were at Sitka National Historic Park. We chased the salmon, made funky movies and then went where the birds were in the open water. We learned that the sea lions were also where the birds were. I learned, that I am slightly frightened of Sea Lions when I am in a kayak, they kept staring at me, right in the eye. We chased the sea lions too and well, I am very grateful they did not tip me or Reese over. Hallelujah.

Last night with Reesie Roo and I took him to a fancy dinner at a place called "Ludvigs." Was it delicious yes, we got salad, soup, bread, steak, asparagus, & chocolate torte with raspberry----amazing. What I must mention is that before we went to this fancy dinner we went on a hike to no where in particular, but it was up to a muskeg area and then a river full of salmon. We got to the river and got a bit distracted, nearly lost track of time and had to power walk it back so we could catch our dinner reservation. We got back to the hotel, I swung on my dress of tribal print and we danced off to the fancy dinner together after stopping for five minutes at the not cheap, but crappy hotel.

That night was also our first night in a not cheap, but crappy hotel together. How Romantic??? Don't worry, I brought my bamboo sheets and put them on the bed so we could get more comfortable. It worked like magic. Bamboozled check.


The last day comes after we wake from the not cheap, but crappy hotel with my bamboo sheets. We have a bit of a lazy morning and then think, well we still have a lot to do. We pack up, run to my apartment and pack our stuff (we could not stay in the apartment the night prior which is why we stayed at the hotel), and grab the bikes. We bike to the end of the island to the rope swing and plunge into the ocean of Alaska. We jump into the water together and relax on the hammock. Then we bike out to the Fortress of the Bears and say "errrro Bears, how Bearry nice to see you." Next stop, we hit Whale Park and then the Raptor Center, we look for whales and eye the eagles. We walked up stream a bit at the Raptor Center and I also caught my first fish in alaska, with my bare hands. Was it hard, sure, did I catch the same fish twice, yes, did we get it on film, of course!

The adventure with my lover ends as we grab his luggage (and mine that I don't want to keep out here with me) and lug it to the bus, walk it to the airport and plop down and order some delicious sandwiches, of course, after basically starving all day (we didn't really get a good chance to eat any meals) anything would have tasted good at that point.

I must say, I really wanted to jump on the plane with him, Alaska is wonderful, but my lover is more wonderful and saying goodbye to more wonderful, sucks. I watched him fly away on the plane and was a walking waterfall home. 

Sad day :(
But,
Cheers to a great week with my love.lubdub.

Photos of zee best week of Alaska below:


Rainy.Rain.Rain.

 Brewery.
 Hike with ma like.
Kiss for the mister.
 Kayak with the hipster.
 Love for my mister.
 kiss for my lover.
 pose for the shutter.
 Here my tambourine mutter.
 we look good togutter.
 berries fo' one'anutter


Rope Swingin' 
 
Cha.Ching.
& Barehand fishin'

He is my bundle of fun.sugar.bun.



For My: Peanut Butta Cup

Thanks for coming out babe, best week ever. I am so glad I got to share this with you and I love you.

Love,
Your Cookie.

Monday, August 13, 2012

He's Here....

Lover made it to Alaska

 & I could not be any happier!

I just love him.

soooo much!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Gettin' Tougher

As time has gone by, year after year, to this twenty-second year of my life, I feel like I have grown to be a pretty "tough girl." Sure I have my moments where I turn into a slight pansy (when it comes to lifting things), but overall, I feel like I am pretty tough. That is, up until the moment I moved to Alaska. I'm definitely still tough, but just not as tough as I thought I was.
Here in Alaska, at least the southeast part, it rains and rains and rains, sometimes it feels like a constant rain. I suppose its mroe of a drizzle though, a constant drizzle with the occasional sideways rain. It's fairly cold for a season that is considered summer, about 40-50 farenheit. It's part spring and part winter with a chance of summer, maybe even two days of summer.
I love winter and I love the snow, but let me tell you, this rain is not snow. I can't snowboard on it, but I can swim in it, it will just be a bit chilly. I love water, but not constantly pouring on me, so maybe if summer could show its face one more time while I'm out here in Alaska, that would be nice. From what I hear, the weather is all downhill from here and summer is over. Thanks for your honesty my fellow alaskans.

Goodbye sprinter and herro finter (fall/winter) or shousd I say Herro Safinter -salmon fall/winter time. Did I mention the salmon are swimming up stream to leave their babies. Some are making it up there, and others, they are passing out on the sides of the streams, its quite a crazy thing it is. Sooo Many Salmon! I went kayaking the other day and chased a few up stream, the water rippled like I have never seen it ripple due to massive amounts of frightened salmon (my apologies), but it was so neat to watch. I had to turn around to get back to the ocean and ended up scaring a few more salmon back to the ocean, I hope they had the sense to turn around and go back to the river. (I'm such a tease sometimes.)
Alaska is great, the rain, is not. Alaska is beautiful and the rain can be, but if it would just stop, I want my skin to get some vitamin D, hell, I want to show some skin for maybe an hour? I feel like I'm not asking too much to Mother Earths Alaskan parts. Please, mother earth, let the sun shine, let me show some skin, just for an hour, I have a fringe bikini thats yearning to be on me.


Anyways,
Just said goodbye to my bestie friend, she visited from Utah, now I await the lovers arrival this weekend. Life is good, I have kayaks I borrowed from a friend, and the salmon are going crazy, which means the bears are coming down. I must also add I have not seen any since I hike and walk with my tambourine, it must work as a good bear-scarer device (genius idea? one of many for me). I did however see bears in the wild about two weeks ago, a mama and her baby and another mama and her two babies, they were so adorable, and when we whistled, they ran. They so adorable though.


P E A C E
Also, I'm thinking a summer vacation when I get home, somewhere that is warm and I can run around barefoot.
Guatamala was my first thought, but plane tickets just went up $200
So now, I thinking of driving some of the Western U.S. just until I find sunshine.

This girl.... is super sunshine deprived.

Genny Visits :


From Hammocks in Fiji to Hammocks in Alaska
 Ludvigs
 StarFishes
 Bird Preservation
Sea Kayaking

Traveling with my Tambourine

Hiked Mt. Edgecumbe and on that same weekend it was
 Homeskillet Festival.
Homeskillet happens to be a music festival that is held here in Sitka each year. This year I was lucky enough to be able to go to it. Tickets were reasonable and the bands that were playing ended up being pretty marvelous. I had never heard of any of them and decided to youtube it so I could see what kind of music I was getting myself in the jiggy for. Ended up loving one of the bands "medicine for the people." If you have not heard of them, I reckon, you best be checking them out. They are very delightful people to be with and Hope, their percussionist is hypnotizing when she plays. I hung out with a few of them after their show and finally got the musical courage to whip out my tambourine and play with them. Who would have thought, I'm not musically challenged after all.

About my tambourine:

I do this thing, called traveling with my tambourine, it's kind of my thing, I bring it wherever I go. The first one I bought was in New York City, then I brought it back to Pennsylvania with me. It's name is "Rainee" after one of my good friends who worked with me in PA. From there it took flight with me to Utah and it lived with me there. Then when I moved to Fiji, so did my tambourine, and when I decided to hop, skip and jump to Australia and New Zealand, it also came with me to both those places, and back to Utah. Unfortionately that Tambourine broke, it still works, and I fixed it, but I glued the part together and decided it was time to leave that tambourine behind and get a sibling for it. It is currently living in Utah with my lover still. Needless to say, I invested in a new tambourine for me to travel with here in Alaska. It's name is "Bluebird" and it is very good at keeping me company and and saving me from bear chow.

Rainy:

Bluebird:

___________________________________________________________________________________
What have I been up too lately, in a visual sense?
Well get some control and use the scroll
to roll on down and indulge.

Nahko and Chase from Medicine for the people.
You can sleep on my floor anytime friends.

Hope: Medicine for the people percussionist.
She is a such a unique individual, very easy going!

Sunset: first night of Homeskillet Festival
Releasing Eagles back into the wild.
Mckay came to visit from Juneau with Jessica (not pictured)

 My couchsurfer and friend from Australia, Gabrielle.
She visited for a couple days and was an excellent adopted roommate for the couple days she was here.

 One of the most beautiful sunsets I saw here in Sitka.

 Fish net hammock my friend Cherissa showed me.

 Rope Swing.

 Of course, I had to jump in, 1, 2, 3, times.

 Had a friend take me on their boat to a float house, then we kayaked, then I fly fished for the first time.

 and I saw my first brown bears in the wild. mama and her babe + other mama and her 2 babes.

My adopted maltese puppy, Sofie.

 Another day, another sunset.

 Hammock time

Meditate...it's great.


Some may say I'm a dreamer, but baby, I'm just a doer. I make ma dreams come true.