7 Years of Art

"When Fireweed Goes to Cotton . . .

. . . summer's soon to be forgotten."

This is an airy little saying in Alaska that became almost uncomfortably appropriate during my last few weeks at the lodge.  Time had flown by.  Like all summers, although it was packed full with all sorts of adventures, it felt too short and like I hadn't done all the things I'd meant to.  It was difficult resisting that paralyzing feeling that I had squandered all my free time.

Fortunately, Megan and I found ways to pack in a few more adventures while the end of our season rapidly approached.

A well-timed work party allowed us to take one more hike through the wild and untamed Alaskan landscape.

And of course, no Alaskan outing is complete without the discovery of even more mushrooms.

Perhaps if Megan weren't so darn photogenic, I wouldn't wear her out with my picture-taking as much.  Just look at that contraposto!

The place was called Troublesome Creek and while we didn't quite make it to the end of the trail (we were worried about not having enough time to eat more s'mores) , the views we saw and the greenery around us was well worth the trip.

There was also one of those pump-wells out at the trail head.  But although it has a drinking fountain-like spout on it you're actually *ahem* not supposed to *cough cough* drink from it. (Oops . . .)

One of Megan's requests before departing the land of the North, was to eat at the lodge's fancier restaurant, the Mountain View.  This is a plan I was certainly not opposed to. although my wallet was starting to wilt.  Three of us went and while I looked for something somewhat budget-friendly, but a little more exciting than soup or salad, Megan outdid us all by ordering the King Crab legs.

They were enormous.  I'm not sure if you can tell, but those large legs have already been cut lengthwise.  None of us had ever had shellfish very much, so discovering how to pry the meat out of the smaller legs was a bit of a challenge.  That is, until the restaurant manager paid us a visit and gave us a thorough and enlightening demonstration.  It was delicious!  I'm not big on seafood, but crab happens to be one of the few types I don't mind, and this one was particularly amazing.  

As for myself, I had duck, marinated in maple syrup.  It was also very good, but I felt like there needed to be bacon crumbles on top.  (I'm somewhat of a closet maple-bacon fan.)

We concluded our meal with a brownie, practically overwhelmed by an enormous scoop of Tilamook Vanilla ice cream (Alaska has also made me fall in love with Tilamook ice cream).  Megan had a glass of chocolate mouse.  

CAUTION: the next image contains a small amount of blood and gore.  Squeamish, scroll quickly.

So, I also managed to incur a parting injury from Alaska.  To be honest, I'm surprised I lasted nearly the whole summer without needing any band-aids.  The story goes like this.  I was walking down to dinner one afternoon.  I was enjoying the sights, the smells, the sounds.  I noticed some little mushrooms (of course) growing by the path that I hadn't seen before.  I stopped to look and give my greetings.  As I stood to leave, I got a sudden rush of excitement (does this happen to anyone else?  you just feel totally and completely and wonderfully alive for absolutely no reason at all?).  I took one step, preparing to jog the rest of the way down the hill, when my foot caught on the dirt, a rock, my other foot, something, and I found myself skidding downhill at an alarming speed.  It was over in probably two seconds, but I rolled myself over to discover a mess of tattered jeans the likes of which you could find in only the most emotional of teenager's closets.  Not only were my jeans a mess, but so were my knees.  I somehow avoided scraping up my palms (I don't remember ever landing on them) but both knees looked absolutely morbid.  After throwing some angry mumbles at the path behind me and picking out some of the large pebbles, I limped the rest of the way to the lodge where I shanghaied Megan from her dinner under the pretense of needing her to tend to my wound (in actuality, I wanted to show off my battle scars).

I limped for a couple days and fought with several kinds of bandages trying to get them to stay, but in the end it finally scabbed over and I'm just about as good as new again.

Before leaving, I was also given a pretty cool opportunity by one of my managers.  She asked me to design a sign for one of the lodge's attractions: The Hudson Theater.  It's a place where we show videos, have nature talks, and where guests can meet cool mountain climbers (like Howard Carbone and Melys).  I had a lot of fun designing and drawing the sign, and the best part is that I got to do it on the clock.  I got paid for art!

Anyways, here's a little before and after of the sign.  Unfortunately, a week or so later, it got left out in the rain and was kind of ruined.  I don't mind, but I do feel bad that I didn't have the time to fix it for them.

Speaking of managers, have I mentioned how fantastic mine were?  Seriously, I got to work with some of the greatest people I've ever met.  In the gift shop, two of us were leaving early for school, so my manager put together a bit of a farewell party, complete with moose meat enchiladas and strawberry cheesecake.  It was nice to have fun with everyone, but it was hard knowing I wasn't going to be working with these people anymore, and might never even see some of them again.

Alaska, with all its marvels and wonders, pales in comparison to the people I met.

On a happier note - Christmas!  The lodge has a tradition of celebrating Christmas in August.  It stems from an occurrence in Yellowstone some odd years ago where scores of guests found themselves snowed in by a freak blizzard.  Making the most of the wintry conditions, they made decorations, stoked the fires, and thrived on Christmas cheer.  Now, in commemoration, many lodges, including our own, celebrate Christmas in August.  Unfortunately, Megan and I were set to leave the day before the actual celebration, but we were still able to enjoy some of the preliminary activities.  Such as cookie decorating!

And the gingerbread house contest.

This is my favorite, made by the Naturalists

And this is the gift shop's entry.

Plus, we got to help put up and enjoy all the trees, ornaments and . . . other decorations.

It was certainly a very nice way to end the season.  However, mine and Megan's adventures weren't quite over just yet.  On our very last day, the day that we'd be boarding our last motorcoach to Anchorage, we decided to pack in all the goodbyes and final farewells that you just can't fit into your 50 lbs of luggage.

To be honest, I didn't go to Alaska thinking I'd make very many friends, but looking back now, I can't imagine having gone through life never knowing some of these people.  Sure, it's a little corny, but I mean every word of it.

Megan and I also managed to get in one last trip to good ol' Talkeetna.  We went to it's most recent establishment, "Mountain Juice" and got some hip and healthy beverages while basking in the history of the restaurant's mascot, Ray Genet, mountain-climber extraordinaire.  We then made a quick stop in at some of our favorite gift shops, ordered a last meal from Mountain High Pizza Pie, and made our way back to the bus stop.

DISASTER STRIKES!  The bus has left without us!  How were we supposed to get back in time to finish cleaning and packing before our ride to Anchorage?  The ride from Talkeetna to the lodge takes an hour and there wouldn't be another bus until 3, getting us to the lodge at 4, giving us only one hour to do everything we'd foolishly left until the last minute.  Well, there was only one thing to do:

Yup.  We hitchhiked.  Having never done this before, we were somewhat nervous and unsure of all the protocol.  Fortunately, we met another hitchiker, a Jamaican in a similar predicament, having missed his bus and needing to get back to work.  All three of us were newbies, but we gained confidence in solidarity.  In just a short time, we had secured a ride with two guys returning to Anchorage from a fishing trip.  Unfortunately, we only were able to get halfway, though, as Anchorage is in the opposite direction from where we needed to go.  So, there Megan and I were again, in the same situation, only without the option of waiting for the 3 o'clock bus.  Having become more experienced at this new trade, however, we soon had another ride from a kindly old man from Idaho who was extremely deaf.  I'm not exactly sure how we were ever able to communicate to him where we needed to go, but somehow we made it, with just enough time to finish everything, give out some more hugs, snap a few photos, and make it on the bus.  And before we knew it, we were gone, on our way to Anchorage and one last day of adventure.

Once in Anchorage, Megan and I found our way to the Alaska Backpacker's Inn, a somewhat quirky little hostel.  We went to bed early as Megan had contracted an unfortunate sinus infection and I began to fear for her life.  The next day, having somewhat improved, we stored our luggage, checked out of the hostel, and began to walk.  Being Greene's, Megan and I have somewhat of a sixth sense for bookstores.  We quickly discovered C&M Used Books and were greeted by this site upon entering the door:

Around the next corner, we met this guy.  We spent an hour or so browsing, but didn't end up buying anything, as they only took cash and neither Megan nor I had any on us, but it was certainly one of the more memorable bookstore experiences I've had in my life.

We then headed for the mall where we picked up lunch and a few final souvenirs.  Then, we finished off our day at the Anchorage Museum.  I won't say too much about this, as I talked about the Anchorage Museum in my last post, but getting to see the rest of the museum only increased my approval and love of it.

 At this point, Megan and I were ready to be home.  We trudged back to the hostel where we called a cab to take us to the airport where we then spent the next 12 hours waiting for our flight (we did this because we're cheap college students who didn't want to pay for a second night in the hostel).  Nothing particularly interesting happened during those 12 hours, so I guess that brings us to the end. I feel like I should leave some parting sentiment about how Alaska changed my life, perspective, and hairstyle or something like that, but I get the feeling you guys have already been able to tell how much I absolutely loved this past summer.  And I hope you're all ready for more, because Megan and I fully intend on returning next year for another three months of mountains and adventures.

PS - I do remember that this is supposed to be an art blog.  Before I left, I gave each of my coworkers some Alaska-themed art to remember me by.  Some turned out better than others, but overall, they were well received.

A Festival, A Birthday, & A Wedding

It's been a while, but never fear.  I'm still alive and well.  My time in Alaska this summer is quickly coming to a close, but I still have lots of stuff left to do.  One of which is to write this blog post.

So let's get to it!

Back in July, Megan, Danielle, and I had the opportunity to go to the Trapper Creek Fireweed Festival.  Trapper Creek is the name of the town on my mailing address, though it's still a good 20-30 minutes from the lodge.  It's one of those towns that you can drive through without even realizing there's a town.  Kind of like Anatevka.  

Anyways, I'd been dying to go to some sort of festival all summer, no matter the size.  No summer is complete without walking in the hot sun, looking through booth after booth of handcrafts and homegrown preserves.

One of Trapper Creek's many four-legged residents

And of course, no fair or festival experience would be complete without devouring a plate of deep-fried something.  This summer featured a crepe-like dessert stuffed with chocolate and bananas.  It did not disappoint.

The Fireweed Festival was all sorts of fun.  I got to meet some lovely local artists, eat delicious food, and listen to good old hoedown music.  In addition to all of this, we also visited the Trapper Creek "Free Box."  It's a little barn where people donate unwanted things and other people can take them for free.  I was very proud of myself and only picked up a green, floral blouse and a book on Indian Basketry.  Afterwards, we visited the Trapper Creek cemetery where I had my first taste of Watermelon Berries (pictured above).  To be honest, I'm not a huge fan.  They do taste a little like watermelon, especially the water part.  But there's too many seeds.  It's like a tasteless grape.  But they sure look pretty hanging on their bushes.

Want to know something else that looks pretty?  Black Bears!  I finally saw one!  Apparently this guy has been hanging around the lodge all summer, but every time he showed up somewhere - the garbage cans, the laundry, the lodge entrance - I was not one of the lucky few to catch a glimpse of him.  Until this day!  I was coming down the hill to lunch and I spotted him crossing the road up ahead.  Luckily, one of our maintenance workers soon drove by on a golf cart and I was able to flag him down to let him know there was a bear heading straight towards all the guest buildings.  He drove around looking for the bear for a while, but couldn't find him and so drove off again.  Well, not ten seconds later, the bear reemerged on the road up behind me, crossed back over and disappeared off into the trees.

Luckily, this bear hasn't posed any major problems for us here at the lodge.  He's still a fairly young bear and is easily scared off by our golf carts.  Hopefully he'll move on to wilder country when the lodge shuts down for winter.

Iceland Poppy?

Want to hear a random fact about me?  I've spent more birthdays travelling than I have at home. Whether I've been at Girl's Camp or on Trek or in Europe or in the car driving through fields of Nebraskan corn, most of my birthdays have been celebrated in the midst of travels.  This summer, of course, was no exception.

It just so happened that this birthday also fell on a day when there was an employee shuttle to Anchorage, so Megan and I saddled up and were off bright and early.  After the nearly three hour bus ride, our first stop was a little thrift store called the Bishop's Attic, only a 20 minute walk from downtown Anchorage.  Of course, Megan and I hit up their book section first thing.  I didn't end up buying any books (a rather strange occurrence), but I did find a couple picture-worthy gems:

Poor Tom.  I sure hope he found a good job.

I also stumbled across this antique:

Once we'd had our fill of thrifting, we walked back to Downtown Anchorage to visit the mall and all the adjacent gift shops.

Yes, they mean real poo.  Moose poo to be exact.  Alaskans have capitalized on their tourists' desire for strange and unique gifts.

One of the highlights of the day for me was seeing this beauty drive down the road.  I love Alaskan bush planes.

When we got home, some of my awesome and amazing friends, threw me a little surprise party, complete with cake, streamers, and chips and salsa.  It was fantastic.  It was certainly a birthday to be remembered.

Even with all this partying, however, I'm still managing to find the time to exercise my creativity once in a while.  Partially because of some awesome work activities.

Like tie-dying pillowcases! (Mine is the green one, Megan's is the purple.)

And painting rocks!  I painted the one above, but not the one below.  That was painted by one of our Bulgarians.  Isn't it amazing?!

It also helps that I've found some artist friends up here as well.  I met Dustin towards the beginning of the season on an employee trip to Buyer's Lake.  Megan and I were hiking along slowly, looking for interesting plants and gathering driftwood, when we ran into Dustin and his girlfriend, Alex - also gathering driftwood.  It didn't take long for us to realize we all had an interest in art and were quickly exchanging sketchbooks and Deviantart accounts.  In fact, here's a link to Dustin's Facebook Page for his art: Dustin Rotkewicz Art. 

Anyways, Dustin and I decided we should do a collaboration/trade.  We chose a theme of Alaskan wildlife and each drew a lineart for the other to color.  I drew the Dall Sheep while Dustin drew those incredible humpback whales.  I love how they both turned out! (I think it's pretty clear that I need to start working on being more colorful, however.)

Megan and I, although our schedules are often hectic and don't always match up, have still managed to find some time to goof off together.  Recently we sampled a product from the gift shop: glacial facials!  It's essentially a little tube of mud, but as you can see, Megan and I had a lot of fun slathering it all over our faces.

One of my favorite things to do in my time off, weather permitting, is walk down to the Chulitna River.  I believe I've mentioned it before, but it's this river just down the road from the lodge.  On my last trip, I went with my friend Danielle, who's fairly patient with me when I get sidetracked by all the cool things I find.

Like this beautiful fireweed specimen.

And this fantastic birch tree.

But we eventually made it to the bottom of the hill and decided to take some Instagram-worthy pictures of signs and things.

Now, normally when we visit the river, we go down to the north side of the river where the bank is fairly accessible and the pathway down not too steep.  But this time, we decided to have a little adventure and visit the south side of the river . . . where there is no path.  But we made it safely to the bottom, successfully avoiding all the patches of Devil's Club.  And it was well worth the trip. 

Although the highway is right above us and the opposite bank is heavily frequented by many employees, this little patch of wilderness felt very different from what we were used to.  It felt wild and untouched and just a little desolate.  I felt like a 12 year-old boy, whooping and hollering up and down the bank, excited and bubbling over with adrenaline.

We took our shoes off and let our feet sink into the cold, silty mud.  While the bank was firm enough to walk around on, we discovered that if you jumped up and down, the waterlogged ground became springy like a waterbed, and then eventually gave way and you'd start to sink.

If I had stayed in one place long enough, I probably would've ended up like this log.  I wonder how big it is and how long it's been slowly sinking into the mud here?

We also found several ribs.  Moose? Caribou?  Again, I've no idea how long these have been down here.  I wonder if they're the leftovers of a bear's supper.  So many mysteries!

We found a somewhat easier route back up the slope underneath the overpass.  The spell of solitude was broken somewhat when we discovered all the graffiti beneath the bridge, but crows nesting in the framework helped us feel that this place had been unvisited for some time.

All-in-all, it was a pretty fantastic adventure.

Which brings me to my next adventure: going home.

Well, sort of.  So, one of my very best friends in the whole wide world was getting married this summer and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids.  I wasn't sure I could make it, but everything panned out and I was able to fly home for two days to see my best friend get married to her best friend.

This adventure started out with a train ride.

Me and my travel buddy, Walter.

A sketch I did while waiting at the train station.

Getting back to Utah was quite the adventure.  I'm getting to be a well-traveled girl, but I really haven't done all that much travelling on my own before.  In Europe I was with my study abroad group, or with my brother's family.  But here, as soon as I left the lodge, everything was up to me.  I arranged the train ride (thankfully and gratefully provided through my employment with Princess Cruises) and then walked from the train station to downtown Anchorage, where I boarded a city bus to the airport.  If someone is looking to win a Nobel Peace Prize, then you might try looking into ways of making city bus systems easy to understand.  For example, an easy to read map with labelled routes and stops that actually make sense to the common human being.  Fortunately, I did end up on the correct bus and eventually made it to the airport where I waited for about six hours, because my flight wasn't actually until two in the morning.  Nevertheless, I had good books (Minus 148* by Art Davidson - absolutely amazing!) and a Wanderlusty spirit.

Then, before I knew it, I was back in hot, dry Utah.  It seemed almost surreal.

The wedding itself was absolutely wonderful.  I couldn't be happier for Leslie and Kevin.  They are two very marvelous human beings and I love them to death.  It was absolutely a blessing to get to be a part of their special day.

I wish the celebration could've lasted a little longer for me, but I had to be back on a plane again the next morning.  Have I mentioned that I love planes?  I love seeing them, I love flying in them, I love airplane snacks and the little napkins they give you to put under your cup.  And I especially love looking out the window and seeing sights like these: 

I think this is either Mt. Rainier or Mt. Hood.

Flying over some Alaskan glaciers.

Once I was back in Anchorage, I had a couple hours to kill before my bus arrived that would take me back to Talkeetna.  So I stopped in at the Anchorage museum and quickly fell in love.  It's a really nice museum and I highly recommend it to visitors.  I didn't get to see all of it, but they have a good variety of both contemporary art, natural history and science, and information on native cultures.

I was particularly smitten with the shadow this sculpture was creating.

From someone who once took a museum class and likes to pretend she knows a thing or two about the anthropological world, this particular establishment is doing an extremely fine job.  Just look at those fascinating masks!

A three hour bus trip, a short shuttle ride piloted by a grumpy old man, and another coach ride later, I finally made it back to the lodge and the room and the sister that have become my world this summer. I thought it might be difficult to come back after being "home," but in actuality, I found it relieving to be back and sleeping in a creaky bed, showering in a molding bathroom, and living off of junk food stored in the top drawer of Megan's dresser.  It doesn't sound like much, but if you've actually been here and seen all this scenery and beauty and all the little flowers and mushrooms, you'd understand completely.