Ok so I'm not shooting in Alaska, but my mom and stepdad moved up here this past year so I popped up for a visit and I HAVE to tell you all about it...mostly because you're my captive audience but it's also A-mazing!So they live in a small town called Kasilof (Kah-see-loff) which is on the Kenai Peninsula in South-Centural Alaska. The cabin is situated on a lake, not that you can see it for the 2.5 FEET of ice and a dusting of snow covering it. Let's bactrack, shall we? So I was picked up from the Anchorage airport around 9pm so we were on the highway LATE at night. I was half asleep when all of a sudden Doug (stepdad) slams on the breaks and says, "MOOSE!" He backs up to shine the lights on it and there, nonchalantly munching on a tree is the biggest (and only) bull moose I've ever seen! (picture somewhere). Down the road we also so a cow and calf pair and let me tell you, those things look odd. The best way I can describe them is a draft horse body and a camel head. They've got to be 6 feet tall at the shoulder like a Clydesdale, just big animals. The picture quality isn't that great because, although I love you all, I just wasn't willing to jump out of the car to get Goliath Moose's attention to tell him to smile for the folks at home. I'm telling you, I could comfortably take a nap in this guy's antlers, if only he'd let me without later trampling me.
I wish I had gotten a picture, and I will on the next clear night, but the stars; oh my goodness the stars! I've never been able to see so many stars in my entire life, I mean, you could see the stars between stars and Orion's full bow! Did you even know he had a bow?! I sure didn't!
Mom and I took a tour around the neighboring town of Soldotna (Sole-dot-na) and had lunch at this great pizza place called Pizza Boy's. Highly recommended if ever you come to Soldotna. Apparently, the landfill is somewhere along the highway which is marked by tons of bald eagles overhead. I guess the locals don't really like the eagles because they pick up bags of garbage and drop them on the highways and things in an attempt to break them open and get to the rancid goodies inside. Nothing in the back of a pick-up is safe either. Also along the way to Soldotna is the Kasilov River which is this great milky, ice blue. I'll try to get a better picture but the one I have just doesn't do it justice. To give you an idea of what it looks like, I've added a photo to this post, it'll be the only photo of a river.
Doug is the principal of Tustumena (Tus-too-meen-ah) Elementary School where I was show-and-tell. I was asked some pretty great questions including but not limited to, "Are you ever going to have kids?" Not at this moment kiddo, but thanks for asking. After school, it was time for some shooting fun with the Southern Chapter of the Kenai Peninsula Man Club. Sounds official, doesn't it? In reality, it's a group of teachers and principals who live in Soldotna and Kasilof (which is south of Soldotna, hence the "southern chapter") who go out and do "man things" while my mom is instructing their wives' Zumba class. Anyway, I had the rare honor of being invited to Man Club so they could teach me a thing or two about shooting. It was a great time with the old manual target thrower machine. That's got to be my favorite part about shooting, it's a tight-knit community that can strike up friendships because of this one passion in common. Good stuff, good stuff. We have yet to investigate Homer (the land of eagles, so I've heard so expect pictures) and maybe even a Kenai River Brown Bears hockey game! So consider this "Part 1" as there will be more pictures of the wonderful place called Alaska!Things I love about Alaska:
- The people. The people are all so down-to-earth here! There are no telltale signs of whether people have money or not; no class system; just people. I can dig that.
- The scenery. Enough said.
- Have I mentioned the awesome people??
Things I could live without about Alaska
-The cold. If you're standing out for a long time, for instance while participating in Man Club, everything goes numb if you aren't wearing the correct clothing. I was in a lot of layers on the top, but only had jeans on my legs...dumb move, missy, dumb move. My legs burned with cold. My face went numb to the point that I felt like a had to really talk big to force my mouth to form actual words. Ever get numbed by the dentist? Yep, just like that but your entire face.
I'm sure I'll continue to add to this list, but the "loves" certainly outnumber the "could live withouts"!
