Food Trip!

According to the Unalaska 2012 Visitors Guide, there are 62 real things to do in Unalaska. I think I’m about two-thirds there. The things I love doing the most are all the food related activities! So we went salmonberry picking from July to August and just this week went blueberry picking. 

We also tried fishing and got myself a fishing license last July. The sales rep told me since I am not an Alaskan resident yet that it will cost me $125. That was some expensive fishing lessons and I’m still learning how to fish! The sales rep was quite amused when I asked if I have to buy bait. He gave me some valuable tips in his Russian accent – “You know the salmons they are only here for one reason – make babies. You don’t need bait because they don’t bite, you just snag’em. “Sounds easy, no? Until now I still haven’t caught one even if there are hundreds of them :-)

Luckily, some kind souls gave away their catch and that is how I learned how to make pink salmon sardines. Yum! Isn't it just cool to find your food source other than from the grocery aisle?!

They grow everywhere, on the side of
the road, beside the river and all over
the hills.

They look beautiful but they are "seedy".
I've read somewhere that the darkyellow-orange are tastier thanthe red ones.

Red, succulent salmonberries. I think
they are called salmonberries because
they are as red as the king salmon? Maybe.

Blueberries!

Unlike the salmonberry that grow during the summer
months,the blueberry are sweeter after the first
frost which is between the months of September
to November.

My tour guide. He has been all over the island thanks to his after-school program. 

Hundreds of pink salmon in the lake! But you can't
fish in closed waters to protect the salmons and give
them the chance to spawn.

After spawning the next generation of salmons, they
die or get eaten by the eagles, foxes and other birds
that abound here. The circle of life right before your eyes.

Pink Salmon

Pink Salmon roe or as my son calls them salmon babies.

Pink salmon sardines in corn oil. Delicious!

Of Robert Freeman, the WWII Memorial Park and Cemetery

My youngest had been nagging me to accompany him to the WWII Memorial Park & Cemetery. Apparently he was curious to see the bunker and the poem and dedication written on the monuments. Well, I thought why not indulge him?  How many young kids nowadays would be interested to see relics and read epitaphs on old tombstones of dead soldiers?

After running around and reading all that was written on the tombstones he asked me to read to him this particular monument.

When men go down to the sea in ships,
'Tis not to the sea they go;
Some isle or pole the mariners goal,
And thither they sail through calm and gale.
When down to the ship they go.

When souls go down to the sea by ships
And the dark ship's name is Death.
Why mourn and wail at the vanishing sail?
Though outward bound, God's world is round.
And only a ship is Death.

When I go down to the sea by ship,
And death unfurls her sail.
Weep not for me, for there will be
A living host on another coast
To beckon and cry, "All Hail".

Adopted from Robert Freeman

"What does that mean, Ma"? He is at this stage when everything ends with "what does that mean, Ma? So I explained that when sailors die, we should not cry for them because their spirits live forever in "some isle" - heaven and God "a living host" is there to greet them "All Hail". At that moment I was transported back to Prof. Manuel's English Lit 101. She constantly admonished us to "read between the lines". I was about to tell my son about reading between the lines but that would bring a barrage of "what does...." and we would be stuck here till sundown. I wouldn't want to stay any longer and the sad tolling of a bell makes the place feel gloomier. 

WWII Memorial Park, behind the flags is the cemetery
and if you look closely the cross is different from what
we are used to. That is because Unalaska was a thriving
Russian port and brought their Eastern Orthodox religion
with them. They are called "patriarchal cross", with a
smaller crossbar above the main cross.

Standing near his "favorite" memorial. Can't wait
to bring him to Washington, DC and check out all
monolithic monuments there.

Erected in memory of those gallant men whose lives were lost during
the air raid at Dutch Harbor by the Japanese Air Force
June 3rd and 4th 1942

This is a Peace memorial, written in languages of
the different nationalities that now live here.

This memorial is dedicated to the men who served, fought and died
with the 206th coast artillery anti-aircraft regiment, 1941-1944
World War II

SS Northwestern propeller. Destroyed during the Japanese air raid in
WWII. Dedicated to the men and women who lived and served
during the Aleutian Campaign.

More photos here.

Summer Bay, Humpy & Morris Cove

Have you ever been so awed by something that you feel your heart filling up with joy? That’s how I felt when I saw the vast and green hills of Summer Bay. I felt like running through the green grassy hills and singing “the hills are alive with the sound of music”. Corny, you might say but for some of us who used to live in a place so over-populated that it is common to see shanties with their hinay-hay (he he) blowing in the breeze, not at all. I remember my sister recounting to me her co-workers comment when she showed them a Google map shot of Cebu – “Oh, the place looks so uhm…. dense?”.  Comments coming from her tactful/politically correct Irish co-workers so used to having neighbors a mile away. But there are advantages to living in a “dense” place. Such as, you know the latest gossip from the artista to the politico, who has gone psycho and avoid, as well as well-meaning neighbors helping and consoling during difficult times, in short more human contact. Over here, I don’t even know who my next door neighbor is! But enough of that we can pontificate ad nauseam about the pros and cons of living in a da pilipins. I want you to see the photos I’ve taken. It might not do justice but I hope you see my point (and click) view. Don’t mind the ever present dust on the right side of the photos – sigh, fixing it will have to wait 'til our next vacation and have our Nikon cleaned.

Some of the photos are of old WWII relics that abound in this island. It boggles me more how this place look so peaceful when once it was a battleground between the US and Japanese armies. You can see more photos here.

Morris Cove ahead; old WWII building on the foreground

Morris Cove

Humpy cove, and no nothing to do with humping. The name  comes
from the  "humpy" pink salmons that swarm this cove in the summer.
The humpy salmon has a somewhat hump back, therefore the name.

Pile of driftwood on Morris Cove

Summer skyline & 4th of July

Summer’s here in Alaska and I am one happy camper.  While the lower 48 states are experiencing a heat wave, up here it is still a chilly 40-50 degrees with sunny skies :-) I guess the weather is one good reason to stay here – as my friend Hazel used to say, “You don’t sweat too much for a fat girl”. Yeah, you don’t sweat at all here.  And the skyline in Dutch is just amazing – from pale blue to brilliant oranges something that I haven’t seen in Cebu. Or maybe because we lived near the mountains then and now I live near the sea? Does it make a difference?  And the cloud formations are peculiar - see below.

Beam me up Scotty!

Red sky at night, sailors delight...

There's gold in them thar hills.

The palest turquoise blue - my favorite color.

The usual gray Pyramid Peak turned red in the late night sun.

The 4th of July, 12 midnight - You can tell that the city is an old hand at this and knows how to make a spectacular fireworks show. The amount of fireworks lit that night was about the same as the nightly Disneyland show which we were fortunate to experience last May. The only thing lacking with the fireworks display here was the background music to accompany the beautiful peonies, willows, diadems, roman candle fireworks that lit up Summer Bay road. One more experience that I will store in my memory bank – umm.. errr… faulty memory bank, that is.  Every time I see the diadems pulsating, I remember the time we went up the 10th floor of my office building and watched the fireworks display at SM. Do you remember we laughed so hard our stomachs ached, Joan? 

Bonfires on the beach, waiting for the show to start.

When you look at these photos, remember the sun sets in Alaska
past mid-night sometimes even at 1am!

This photo was taken past midnight when the sky grew darker.

Peonies. Daylight or nightlight (?) diminishes the effect of the fireworks. 

Shells

Disney fireworks - in contrast

Seagulls, seals and spring coming!

My friends back in Cebu keep on asking me if I miss Cebu already. It is not Cebu - the place that I miss but the friends that I have great memories with. The song, In My Life by the Beatles is playing in my head right now and sums it all up. Going back to the topic, no, I don't miss Cebu yet but I know the feeling will sneak up unexpectedly and reduce me into a puddle of tears. What keeps me from missing home and home will always be Cebu, is the surreal beauty of Dutch Harbor. It is just the novelty of it all that keeps me from missing home. 

Seagulls on the dock

The seals are here!

What I can do without though are the 80mph winds that literally rock the car back and forth or the blizzards that so suddenly come and make you instinctively grip the steering wheel more tightly because you can't see the road. The weather makes my heart pound so fast that no exercise has ever done! I know I will get used to it eventually but hopefully I won't find the weather mundane  because what else would I be excited about, no?

Dutch Harbor is also where you will find the "police blotter read around the world". It is often described as the "police blotter that makes for Great Alaska literature". You have to read it to believe it. I came across this last 2009 when my hubby moved here. You can find the archives at deckboss-thebrig.blogspot.com and the latest police beat news at dutchharbortelegraph.com. It will put a smile on your face!

Sunny Superbowl Sunday

I woke up with anticipation last Sunday not because I was a football fan but to finally experience this storied American tradition. And it was a super sunny wonderful Sunday!

I wasn't disappointed especially during the half-time performance by Madonna. She is 53 years old and still a kick-ass performer!  All the rest of the game was a blur and I didn't really understand a thing but was excited nonetheless when someone scored a touchdown and that now famous salsa dance by Victor Cruz. In between watching I gobbled these ersatz crab legs (the one we called kani in Cebu) dipped in Kikkoman and wasabi. Zinger! Joan, you will love these. Wish I could send some to you.

After the game we went grocery shopping with my hubby and son.  I was excited to see Captain Keith of the Wizard from the Deadliest Catch at the local grocery. I asked my husband if he thinks it would be alright to have our pictures taken. My husband had this amused look on his face and said why? Why???? Besides, he said, you are not even sure that is him. Duhhh, because he doesn’t watch the TV show like I do. I bet if there was an Angelina Jolie-look- a-like boat crew on the Deadliest Catch – he would be falling all over himself to have his picture taken. :0) 

Altocumulus lenticularis

Like the saying “behind every cloud is a silver lining”, we had that silver lining in the form of these beautiful clouds last Monday after that funky weather over the weekend. I have never seen clouds like these and so I googled and the nearest formation I can find is called an” Altocumulus lenticularis”. Whatever it is – it is simply beautiful. You be the judge.

The first three pictures above were taken at 1030AM when day breaks over Dutch Harbor. The last two pictures below were taken around 11AM without the pink hue of day break.

Snowpocalypse

Snowpocalypse – according to the Urban dictionary it means “snow + apocalypse = snowpocalypse.  When weathermen predict large amounts of snowfall in a short period of time.”  Last Monday, January 10 we woke up to the effects brought about by the funky weather that caused tons of snow falling on the whole of Alaska with a big chunk of it on Cordova. Not as snowpocalyptic as Cordova but it did make a big impact on my mundane life and one more experience I will never forget soon. :-)

It was a good thing my husband called me up early in the morning and gave instructions how to de-ice the car just in case. When I went down to heat up the car with a gallon of hot water with me, lo and behold, all the car doors were iced-up shut (I made that word up because I don’t know what they call that phenomenon over here)

It took about 3 trips back to our apartment to get hot water! That is about 2 inches of ice, not snow. My son and I had fun when we powered down the window and we broke the ice that was covering it up.

Ice on the side mirror, ice on the roof of the car, ice all over. I found out quickly that the ABS system of the car is a girl’s best friend in this weather.

The friendly neighborhood wildlife though did not fare so well. You see we have a bunch of foxes and eagles living near our complex. We did not see any of them this time. Not even the usual tiny fox tracks we see on the snow every morning. Here is an article from KTUU local channel on the effects of the weather on the eagles that are abundant in this island.   http://www.ktuu.com/news/dutch-harbor-seabirds-eagles-hit-hard-by-severe-weather-011012,0,308115.story

I want to show you what I call our “friendly neighborhood” wildlife. We missed them during the snowpocalypse.

  

But the people here are hardy people, it was business as usual and school was open despite the weather. Not something I was accustomed to because back in Cebu once the weather bureau declares it is Typhoon Signal # 1, no class for those in grade school and free time for my son and me, yipee!

My daily commute

Every day, I bring my son to school around 745AM and because it is winter, this is how my daily commute looks like:

Your body tells you it can't be morning because the moon is still up! The sun comes up 10AM in the morning here and sets sometime 6PM. I have finally experienced what "short days and long nights" literally mean.

Driving at this hour is a bit tricky the first time because you are adjusting to the terrain, the snow and the darkness. The second time I drove my son to school there was a blizzard going on. That was an experience both for me and my son. My son who is usually talkative and noisy was so quite at the back of the car :-) That shut him up for once. Add to that excitement (!) was the fact that the bay is on the other side of the road :-o EXCITING! one miss and you could have the scare of your life.

This driver had a close call:

You would think that blizzard and heavy snow is dangerous, no no no, not as dangerous as when snow melts and turns into mush. That's when you have accidents like this. There were about 6 cars that skidded and had minor accidents on this day alone.

This taxi was on the right side of the road and skidded down to the left side when it couldn't maneuver up the driveway.

This guy had to be rescued from where his car ended up - in the ditch.

The extractor on the rightmost side of the photo rescued a truck but ended up in the ditch too and needed to be rescued by his big brother - the tractor :-) These are just four of the six accidents that I took pictures of but I think you get the drift.


OHHHH ALASKA!