Newfoundland part 1: From Northwest to Northeast

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

One of my favorite things about Alaska are the serendipitous opportunities that come up that you never would have expected -- some even coming up years later. And that's exactly how I found myself on the island of Newfoundland this past weekend. 

Working in Nome, AK for two summers I made so many great friends, one of whom happened to be a student going to college in St. John's, NL. We stayed in touch over the last couple years; he always invited me to come to Canada, I always said I would someday. Finally sucked in by my wanderlust again, I decided to make that "someday" last Thursday. I booked the cheapest ticket I could find, loaded my backpack, and took off for a whirlwind weekend with my friend I hadn't seen in two years on the opposite side of the continent from where we first met. Whoever would've guessed!

Inspiration for the (Female) Adventurer's Soul

I confess: I'm a sucker for a good story with a strong heroine, and we're not talking Scarlett O'Hara here. We're talking that rare breed of female lead that somehow seems to elude most mainstream media, disproportionate to the number of male protagonists that dominate our literary landscape and cultural narratives.

Although this topic is of mild interest to me, until now I have typically shied away from addressing it, frankly because I don't want to be pegged as some feminist whining about the patriarchy. That's not why I'm writing this. I am writing it because I think there are a lot of other people out there -- men and women alike -- who enjoy hearing the stories of female characters just as much as I do, and just as much as we all like stories about male characters.

Hiking in Oregon

This year I've spent the holidays in central Oregon, and it is WAY too gorgeous here to keep it all to myself so I wanted to share a few pictures. Yesterday I went on a hike with Peter and his sister up to Black Butte, a mountain that peaks at 6,400'. I've never seen such vivid colors in my whole life! Here are a few of the highlights:

Thanksgiving and the folly of profligate consumerism

I didn't expect my jaw to drop today when I ran out for a quick trip to the store to return an unneeded item. But drop, it did, when I parked at the shopping center and saw a line of tents set up in front of Best Buy. Today is Wednesday, two days before Black Friday, and a day before Thanksgiving.

I wasn't even ashamed to stride up and snap this photo in front of the crowds of shoppers already shuffling in and out of the stores. I felt a wave of nausea as I turned away from taking the photo to hear a family next to me bribing their child with candy. It was as if every disgusting stereotype of American consumerism was happening right then and there in the worst way. And it's not even Black Friday yet.

The Power of Kindness and a Very Small Instrument

In Nome, I learned to swing dance. In Sitka, I learned to play the ukulele. I guess I like to take up completely irrelevant skills whenever I go to a new place. I think it's becoming my new thing. In both cases though, these opportunities were afforded to me by incredibly generous people in incredibly serendipitous situations, so I wanted to take some time to pay my respects to my ukulele guru from this summer.

Her name is Jeannie and she's a little fireball of energy. With her signature buzz-cut hair, baggy overalls she wears all the time and contagious smile, she's hard to miss. And indeed, she has made a lasting impression on me and the entire town of Sitka.

Summer 2014 Film Montage

I've had terrible writer's block lately. I mean seriously, I've started and stopped about half a dozen posts since my last one, and just can't seem to find the words to say what I want to say. So instead, I ventured into my other creative outlet, and finished editing together my film montage of footage from this summer. I hope you like it.

Huge shout-out to Charlie Jones for letting me use her music in the background!

My last week, mostly in photos

Caution: This post is mostly going to be a HUGE dump of photos from the last week and a half, so if you're looking for deep reflective writings, give me a few days. Otherwise, if you're content with pictures, carry on. You have been forewarned.

My last couple weeks in Sitka were a great balance of work and play. I had a bit of comp time to use up and some annual leave, and with one of my best friends visiting, I was able to get out and have some extra fun in the great outdoors.

Local 1st graders studying macroinvertebrates

In addition, with my newly acquired camera, I was tasked to shoot photos for the park for work on several days, which to me, doesn't even feel like work at all. One of the park's biggest programs was a week of salmon education for every first and third grader in Sitka. We set up stations along the trail where the classes would rotate through to learn about salmon biology, life cycles, predation, and survival. It was pretty fantastic. I mean seriously, how many kids do you know who get to dissect a salmon in first grade??

The visitor center where I worked all summer

My favorite view (and my future house, FYI)

My other favorite mountains

Indian River estuary

My favorite part of the trail

Last whale flukes of the season

One of our other big end-of-the-year events was the National Public Lands Day beach cleanup. This is a national event where public lands across the country engage their communities in volunteer projects. We didn't expect many people to show up in Sitka, but we turned out to have over a dozen participants! Growing up in Florida, I've done my fair share of beach cleanups, but I must say, this was definitely one of the most epically scenic ones I've ever helped out at.

Families spread out along the beach

We found an otter skeleton!

Those mountains.

After my last day of work, I had a few days before my flight back to Florida, so one of my colleagues was generous enough to loan his kayaks to my friend and I. It also turned out to be the one sunny, non-windy day we had all week -- I couldn't believe how fortunate and grateful we were!

We muscled the kayaks down several blocks to the water, and took off across the glassy harbor out to the open seas. The water was crystal clear, so you could see the kelp almost all the way down to the bottom. Sea lions cruised along in formation in the distance, and we even spotted a sea otter doing rolls and flips at one point! A pair of puffins also graced us with their presence, an extremely rare sight so close to shore.

Paddling with a view

Although I didn't risk taking my D7000 along on this endeavor, I did have my GoPro and spent the whole time filming and taking photos from my kayak.

Smooth seas

Fresh snow barely visible on the mountains

We threw in a line to see if we could catch any coho, but we were much too far from any river mouths. At one point, we paused to untangle the line, and when we reeled it up, we found we had caught a tiny rockfish! It must have been THE laziest rockfish on the planet, because it hadn't pulled on the line at all or even put up a fight. After a couple photos, we released the poor guy and he swam away just fine.

The laziest rock fish

After 19 hours of flying and a lot of mixed feelings about leaving Sitka, I'm back in my hometown for the time being.

Washington looking all epic on the flight home

Not gonna lie, I really hate this feeling of limbo, of not knowing where I'm headed next, of having bigger aspirations than I can currently fulfill. But here I am. I will try to keep blogging as I embark on my next adventures, and maybe try to backpost some of the stories I've collected over the summer, now that I actually have some time to sit back and reflect. Til next time!