DISTRACTIONS

Naomi and Darcie's Day Trip to the Lost Lakes Trail

2007-08-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday Darcie and I had planned to make a day of it at Hatcher's Pass (~2hr drive north of Anchorage). But, as we pulled out of our driveway we could see the ominous clouds in the north. Looking south, there was nothing but blue skies so heading south was the obvious choice. We drove ~2hrs to the Primrose trail head (about 20mi. north of Seward) which is the north end of the Lost Lakes trail that is often hiked/ran/biked as a traverse. Time would only allow us a quick up and out which was fine. We hung out at the top for about an hour taking pictures, sipping tea, and disecting men, err... discussing life issues I mean! ;)
That evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset over Turnagain Arm and sightings of Beluga Whales skirting the coast line in search of silver salmon. Not a bad end to the day!

Thank you Darcie for a WONDERFUL day!! :) :)

View from the top of the trail

Fantastic glaciers

Darcie and I are such posers

One nice photo of me :)

Oh yeah! This is a kick-ass trail!! :)

Pretty blue flowers (sorry, didn't look up the name!)

Sunset over Turnagain Arm

Alaska summer

2007-08-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

After much heckling I'm finally updating this blog with a brief synopsis of my life for the past 2.5 months. After my last posting, I divided my time between writing my thesis and hiking with friends and probably many other things that take up our time in this precious life. At the end of July, I left for Kenai (not only is it the name of a peninsula, a river and a mountain range here in Alaska, it's also a city) to attend Helicopter Underwater Egress Training (HUET) for my potential job as a Marine Mammal Observer off the north coast of Alaska (I'll get into that later). Basically, in a HUET class you learn about ALL the things that could go wrong in a helicopter or on a ship, really wrong like end of the world, Hindenberg and Titanic wrong. Then they put you in a helicopter simulator in a gumbie suit and dunk you in the water many times...upside down...oh and during that time you need to punch out a window and swim out of it. Yep, you could say intense! I did pass the class, however, and feel much more confident if I'm ever in that situation.

The most crazy thing of all happened the first night...in the bar... You can't even guess where this is going. After a few drinks what happens usually? People get interesting that's what happens. A guy and a girl decided to engage in a very harmless and very fun arm wrestling match and many of you out there know I've been guilty of this many a time. Unfortunately, as she was leaning in for the kill, a horrible sound filled the room. Somehow her muscles had exerted too much force on her humerus and it broke, yeah broke and in fact, she broke her humerus in THREE places!! Poor girl is now recuperating in California, but hasn't let this experience deter her excitement for moving up here. She says as soon as she heals she will be driving back up here!

Fourteen hours after getting back from that training I was on a plane to Bethel, Alaska (~1 hr flight west of Anchorage). We (me and my boss, Craig Ely) then took an hour flight further to the west to Chevak and boated ~2.5 hrs to Old Chevak where we met the other guys on the crew. We were all out there to band and sample geese for avian influenza. We banded and sampled ~500 geese (Emperor, Cackling (a.k.a. Canada Goose), and Greater White-front) in 3 days with the help of 23 kids from Chevak. Not a bad run if you ask me! Five days after we got there, Craig left and Dan Rizzolo with 4 others joined us 4 already at Old Chevak and we then boated up the Manokanuk river to repeat the process at that camp. Unfortunately, due to nasty weather, we all sat in a weather port for a week trying to desperately entertain ourselves and frantically praying that the skies would part just to have one banding drive. It did stop raining for the most part on the last full day that we were there so we headed out ~10pm and proceeded to catch 19 Emperors, boating back in the dark (thank goodness some people had headlamps!). We only got ~4hrs of sleep that night because we broke down the camp nice and early the next day. When we got back to Chevak those of us that had been working with the kids were instantaneous stars. Many of the kids found us (word spreads quick in a small town) to say hi and to get the latest news of what we were doing, why we were there, how long we were staying, and yada yada yada. After much packing, repacking, moving boats, and missing flights, we finally returned to Anchorage late last Wednesday night.

This past week, I've been attending the last of the training classes for my observer position at LGL contracted by Shell Oil Company. I guess I should explain what I would be doing. I was supposed to be on a boat off the north coast of Alaska for ~6 weeks looking for marine mammals and recording their presence. However, there's been a stall in Shell's plan for drilling in the Beaufort Sea because their permits were not in order. So now, I'm waiting to see what happens with that and of course, finishing the now gorilla on my back, a.k.a. my feces, err...thesis.

Now that things are a bit less crazy, I'm sure I will have more time to keep this thing up. Check out the link to the right. I just created a Picasa web album with highlights from the past 2.5 months. Enjoy!! :) :)

Picnic at Port Woronzof

2007-06-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

Group shot, back row: Gretchen, Ann, Erin
front row: Me, Ayme, Dena, Tracy & Heike (the star! :)

Last Wednesday at the pisco party, it was decided to go on a bike ride to Port Woronzof for our annual picnic! Yea!! Unfortunately, our brave watermelon/large-dangerous-knife toter couldn't be there, but yes, Melissa, we were all thinking (& talking) about you!! We miss you!! I tried to make up for it with a half of watermelon, but apparently cut up watermelon doesn't do to well on the back of a bike. The weather was a bit cold and windy, but we had fun none-the-less and stuffed our faces with yummy goodies that everyone brought.

I wished I would've gotten a picture of Dena walking down the beach with 3 bags full of wine, beer, rum, coke, and FOOD!! Dena, YOU ROCK! :) She's still trying to live down the chili incident (inside story), poor girl, I think she's going to hear about that for the rest of her life! I can relate! Tom, your hair looks GREAT!! :) :)

So my question to everyone, what's up for next Wednesday night??

Beginning of the feast.

Ann & Erin in deep discussion (although not too deep, check out the brewski! ;)

Tracy and Heike (future organizer of girls night!)

Nic (always the poser) & G

The picnic site.

Lenticular clouds over the airport were oh so cool.

More lenticular clouds.

Bike Ride at Eklutna Lake

2007-06-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

Group pic: Jill, Beth, Sue, Nicole, & Me
(yep, I took the picture! can you believe it??)

Last Sunday, Sue and Beth pulled up to my house in the diesel Dodge Ram and we loaded up my bike for a fun-filled day at Eklutna Lake (25 mi./40km northeast of Anchorage and also where nearly everyone gets their water supply!). The day started out a bit slow what with pumping up the bike tires, blowing up the bike tires, and replacing the bike tires. But, we soon were off down the trail with the ATV's buzzing past. Yep, we ended up going on ATV day which was a little annoying (loud noise, exhaust, and large amounts of dust), but it didn't seem to dampen our spirits as we were cheering and yodeling all the way home! :) To celebrate the wonderful day, we stopped in Eagle River for a much desired cerveza. Mmmm...always a great way to end the day! :)

I feel so lucky to live here!! :) :) Thank you ladies for a GREAT day!!

First bike ride of the season is always a complicated and time-consuming process.

Although, Nicole took time out to enjoy Beth's super, high powered bike pump, that was until she blew a hole in her own tire!

It was a STUPENDOUS day to get out, as you can see.

Nic & I took time out from our hard cycling efforts for a pic, yes, I'm still the one taking the pic (I've gotten really good at that, don't you think??)

The first of many group shots of the day. This was my artistic attempt.

This time I set the camera on my bag, yep, lots of ground in there!

Don't they look cute in the field?

My favorite group shot of the day, had to climb a hill for this one! Thanks Nic for the idea!

Beautiful view towards Serenity Falls.

A closer view towards Serenity Falls.

Resting on the bridge.

Hanging out on the bridge, deciding our next move which was a unanimous vote to feed our faces!! :)

The ride home. :( Most of me didn't want to go back, but my aching wrists were pretty happy!

The end of the trip. This is a lovely time of year to see wildflowers.

Pisco Party 2007

2007-06-07T01:26:00.000-08:00

Group pic, back row: Me, Gretchen, Erin, Ann
front row: Ayme, Lynn, Nicole, Sue
(sorry, Danie wasn't there yet!)

Jeez! Is it really June 7th?? How is that possible?? Well, I have been absolutely HORRIBLE about keeping up this blog, but for 2 weeks after the amazing kayak trip, it was pretty cloudy and dismal. One day, I did go for a great bike ride with Nic to Kincaid where the sun decided it was time to show itself (thank god!). Then had a great night at Gretchen's helping her burn her pile of rubish - although this bonfire wasn't NEARLY as exciting, i.e. no cops to mouth off to this time! No camera was there to document either of these events so I've now gotten better about bringing it. I MUST document all my time with my lovely ladies!! :)

I'll start with Pisco Party 2007. In Chile (& Peru), there is a national alcohol called pisco (I liken it to tequila, it seems to have the same effect on me!). If you mix pisco with lemon juice, powdered sugar, and an egg white, you come up with a truly YUMMY, although powerful drink called a pisco sour. Just see the pictures below! I invited my lady friends over to Tony & Tracy's (where I was house-sitting) and unbeknownst to them had a little shin-dig providing all the libations, as Nicole would say. It was great to see everyone together after 7 months of being away and "out of touch". They are truly some of the best girlfriends anyone could ever ask for. I always feel so lucky when we are together, whether it's on the trail, on the water or just hanging at someones house. I never walk away without a smile or laughing, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING IN MY LIFE!! :)

The hardest thing about posting this blog was choosing which pictures to post. There was MUCHO documenting happening that night (thanks to Ann!), so I decided to include most of them!! Enjoy and laugh as much as I did! ;)

Another group photo, closer up. Don't you feel sorry for Nicole??

They all seem innocent enough, right??

There was some serious discussions happening that night.

A little bit of drinking commenced. Cheers!!

Nicole LOVES pisco!!

Something tells me that she would like more. ;)

And then...things got out of hand...

This one was just too funny, I HAD to include it!

I know it looks like Ann and I would like to chop our arms off, but there really is a good explanation for this, I just can't remember it right now!!

After 2 piscos, I start to show my violent side, but Lynn

doesn't seem to be taking me seriously!

Sorry boys, but Erin's so cute, I'm making her mine! ;)

Pucker up baby!!

Actually, it was all quite controlled, the only thing that was uncontrollable was our cackling that rivaled the chickens. :) And there was only one casualty at the end of the night when my baby bit the big one. My laptop of 5 years was christened and ushered into the next world with a glass of fine Chilean wine. I don't know about you, but I can't think of a better way to go. ;)

Here's some more pics of just plain silliness and fun-loving gals!

Me, Erin, and the dearly departed. :(

Do you see the light??

I love Ann! :)

Cute girls, eh?? :) Aww, pisco brings out such happy people!!

They even let me join! ;)

I'm not sure what Gretchen just said, but Nicole is obviously unimpressed.

Seems like Erin's a bit skeptical! Jeez Gretchen what are

you saying to these girls??

Sue is crazy even with water!! ;)

Me, Erin, & Ann...with an unusually large arm!!

Me, Nic & Ann, can't get enough of those self portraits!! ;)

Danie, Nic, & Sue took time away from the Birthday book to smile, but Gretchen was far too committed for silly picture taking!

Here's to a great night with the ladies!!

YYEEEOOOWWW!!!!

Kayak Utopia

2007-05-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

Group shot: Sam, Me, Darcie, & Marcia

This past weekend (Fri. 18th - Sun. 20th), 3 other girlfriends (Darcie, Sam, and Marcia) and I went kayaking out of Whittier, Alaska (~60 mi./90km) southeast of Anchorage. All 3 days were out of this world. No clouds in the skies and birds everywhere! :) We kayaked 12 miles the first day to Surprise Cove (the camping spot was more of a mystery than the cove!). Marcia had a big surprise when she realized she forgot her tent poles! But, the ingenuity of the good doctor never ceased to amaze me! See pic below! The next day was spent soaking in the rays, drinking coffee, gorging on crack chips, chocolate, and whatever else we could find! We left that evening for Decision Pt. (~4mi. away) across some 2ft waves (no big deal) and Blackstone Bay. The next day we left ~noon (after a group massage-aren't girls the best??) and were riding the high tide in to Whittier by 2:30pm - again, what was the hurry to get back?? All of us could not believe how fast the weekend flew by and were more than a bit down to come back to town. Such is life I guess...
Enjoy the pics!

p.s. I must send a special thanks to Darcie since she was brave (and nice!) enough to share a kayak and a tent with me for the weekend. Anybody who's done that with me before knows just how tough that can be! ;)

Me kayaking (obviously)

Darcie kayaking out of Whittier harbor (isn't she so cute??)

Another group of kayakers leaving Suprise Cove

Lounging at Surprise

Sam taking in the view in her self-made brown kayak!

Marcia gazing at the view as we're leaving Suprise Cove

Sam kayaking towards Whittier (can you see her in the left corner??)

Blackstone Glacier

Whittier in all it's glory

Unknown glacier field

Another unknown glacier

Can you believe these are the same tents?? ;) I'm sure you all will be impressed with Marcia's tenacity (i.e. putting up a tent without poles!) just as I was!

AND NOW FOR THE BIRDIES!!!

I took a lot of nice shots of the whimbrels (or at least I think so!)

Can you say whimbrel-mania?? ;)

PIGU's!!! a.k.a. pigeon guillemots (but doesn't pigu (pronounced pee-goo) sound as cute as they look??)

A couple of marbled murrelets

Common Merganser taking off (my personal fave)

A pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes

And last, but certainly NOT least are my beloved Black-legged Kittiwakes

The Beginning

2007-05-24T13:32:00.001-08:00

This is something that I've talked about doing for the past 2 months and thinking about doing for the past year. I met many people on my recent travels through Chile and Argentina who gave me their blog sites and I thought this was such an excellent idea to see what direction these wonderful people had gone after our brief encounters. The reason I have called this blog "Distractions" is because it seems that I can find everything is substantially more interesting than finishing my master's thesis. The start of this blog will be slow, sometimes non-existent, but then will leap forward with lightning speed. Not unlike how time works I suppose. The many distractions that I will eventually post will all add up to what I call my life.