Sunrise

There was a pretty sunrise Sunday morning - and clear sky!  We walked over to the marina to take some pictures then made an impromptu decision to take a drive and enjoy the sunshine. 

 There were a bunch of seals in the harbor!

 And a bald eagle checking things out.

Because it was so nice, we headed up the road, stopping along the way to take pictures and play in the streams, swing from a tree swing, and peer into a pond.  Good times.

Fungus!

There’s some really beautiful fungus in SE Alaska.  I guess it’s because it’s so wet here that it thrives – and we’ve seen dozens of different types.  We saw this and thought it looked like flowers – beautiful! 

Steve licks a glacier

Went up to Mendenhall in search of bears and coho salmon.

Saw salmon, not bears, but Steve did snag a piece of glacier from the lake.  Then he sampled it.  Tastes cold. 

Most awesome card ever.

I got two birthday cards this year that had something to do with poop.  Coincidence, or does it say something about me??

Alaskan Brewery

 

You gotta love brewery that gives free samples!  The Alaskan Brewery was started in Juneau in the mid-80s and is hugely popular – because it’s darn good beer and because the brewery tour has free beer samples.  The ‘tour’ is really only a short presentation and video about the brewery, then slide up to the bar in the gift store and sample away.   

They make the award-winning Alaskan Smoked Porter where the barley is smoked over alderwood, just like the salmon is in these parts.  It’s really, really good, though it’s more of a ‘sipping’ beer - I couldn’t drink a lot!  They ship all the raw ingredients up by barge except the water.  The plant recycles it’s CO2 and they use the spent barley for fuel! 

Latest wildlife sightings – eagles and sea lions

We hiked the Point Lena Trail (or maybe Lena Point Trail?) today.  It’s fairly short – probably less than a mile each way, but leads to the small cliffs at the end of Point Lena. 

We diverged from the path a few times to scramble along the rocks and despite a week with no rain, it was a muddy trail.  The tide was out and exposed the different layers of barnacles, kelp, and mussels.  There were a few tide pools and we saw some small darters, anemones, and hermit crabs. 

The coolest part though was the 4-5 sea lions surfacing just off shore.  There were probably feeding and you can hear them when they come up for air – their breathing is surprisingly loud – we heard them before we could pick them out in the water.

There’s also a lot of eagles around, feeding on the coho salmon that are coming in to spawn.  We saw these over by the Macaulay hatchery. 

Cooking in an RV

  Moroccan style beef stew with carrots

So I’ve gotten a few questions about what it’s like to cook in the RV.  Well, it’s easier than cooking in the sailboat!  We have a small kitchen space with a fridge, propane stove (3 burner) and oven, and a sink with two basins.  

The hardest part is the small amount of counter space.  You have to be a lot more…deliberate…when you cook in such a small space.  You get out your ingredients and prep as much as possible before you start.  Set up chopped ingredients or spices on a plate or in small bowls and put the big container away (takes up too much space).  I don’t anticipate making any (or many) big, elaborate meals.  One pot or crockpot is good.  

We haven’t used the oven yet for cooking, but did turn it on to make sure it works (it does).  It’s very small – only about 14x15 inches and only about 4.5 or 5 inches tall!  No roasting chickens or turkeys in there.  I worry that such a small size will make things burn, since food will be so close to the flames…we’ll let you know how it goes when we finally use it.

We purchased a small plastic bin for collecting dirty dishes somewhere other than the sink, that way you can still USE the sink to rinse or get water or wash your hands.  The tote also comes in handy for drip drying dishes once they’re washed if we don’t dry them and put them away immediately. 

You can’t let dishes pile up – so we wash small batches more often.  The down side to that is that we don’t keep the water heater turned on all the time so it takes a bit of foresight.  We turn on the water heater and let it heat up water for 15-20 minutes before we wash.  It saves propane that way (but makes washing your face before bed a bit chilly).

Overall, we’re dealing with the small kitchen just fine.  It’s a bit more work than a big kitchen, we’re finding that everything is though, when you live in a small space.