The Freckled Diaries

Reunited!

You can't tell but she's purring up a mighty storm in this photo. I've been away since Saturday in (or on my way to/from) South Bend, Indiana for my grandmother's funeral. 

Now, before I come off as heartless or something for not being terribly broken up about my grandmother, you have to understand that I am one of many grandchildren and the combination of the hundreds of miles of distance between us and her general antipathy toward children (yes, even though or maybe because she had nine of her own) we were never really close. I was there to pay my respects, to support my mother and to see some far-flung family members for the first time in a long time. That's just kind of how it is, and I wish the whole grandparent thing had worked out better (I never really knew any of mine--one because of estrangement, one because of an early death, one because of an early decline into Alzheimer's and one because of....her) but it didn't. So that's why I don't sound like someone who just lost a grandmother.

Anyway, because I'm generally Not A Fan of air travel (for many and varied reasons, the major two being death and destruction, followed closely by how much of a freaking hassle it is), I decided to take the train. The Capitol Limited is a train route run by Amtrak between Washington DC and Chicago, with stops at some major towns/cities (including South Bend) along the way. It leaves DC shortly after 4pm and arrives in Chicago shortly before 9am the following day. The return leaves Chicago a little before 8pm and arrives in DC at about 1pm the following day. Always looking to try something new and intrigued by the prospect of two full nights of sleep in the same week (there and back), and having noted that even first class accommodations (a sleeper car) were competitively priced with last-minute air travel, I decided to give it a whirl.

I don't know why people travel any other way. I cannot say enough nice things about Amtrak and the service. I snapped a few photos, I don't know how well they turned out though. Basically, with the sleeper car (an extra charge on top of your VERY reasonably priced ticket), you get a little private room with two (very large and comfey) airplane-style chairs facing each other. Those chairs can be pulled out to make a twin sized bed at night time. There's also a pull-down bed from overhead that makes the second bunk (if you're traveling in a pair--if not, you get your choice of bed!). You also have all meals included--and these are real meals, ordered from a menu complete with daily specials while sitting at a table with REAL silverware (none of this plastic crap) and tablecloth. In both directions I got the herb roasted half of a chicken with mashed potatoes because I've been on a real big roast chicken kick these days. You get a salad and dessert as well. Breakfast is also quite nice with lots of choices, made to order. Just lovely. The sleeper car attendant takes down what time you want your bed put together and takes care of all that. On the way there, I chose the top bunk, on the way back, the bottom. I think the bottom was all-around better and more comfortable but who can resist the top bunk?

I loaded up my iPod with Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica (yes, yes, I know) and just kind of relaxed. I got to bed early both nights, and woke up having slept for 8 or more hours feeling like a new person. It was great.

 

Entering my little sleeping area.

 
 Top bunk!

The funeral proceedings itself were simple but nice, and even though the circumstances were sad, the family was happy to be together again. It's always good to see them and every time I do, I resolve to get out to Indiana, Nebraska or Idaho (where they all live) more often.

 

Of Boats and Adventure.

Prologue

This entry was originally entitled "Feeling Lazy" because I was just going to throw up some photos from the weekend and be done with it but then as I started typing about my love of boats I really got on a roll!  Until I was in my 20s, the only boat I'd ever been on (besides a canoe) was the Lake Champlain Ferry. It's rather odd for someone who loves water as much as I do, but I just never had the opportunity. My parents are Midwesterners, who are by and large not known to be a seafaring people, so maritime exposure was minimal in my house. But I've been on a few ever since and love them!  What follows is my slow realization that boats=major adventure!

...

So I'm just going to put up some of my more favorite photos from the Chesapeake boating excursion (work bonding experience, tons of fun), with a link to the Facebook mini-write up and more pictures at the end. Sorry, that's all I got. Had another social dance (aka ballroom dance) class tonight, not sure I ever wrote up the first one. Another day. For now.....have I ever mentioned how much I love boats? Ok, fine, I don't gush about my love of boats nearly as much as I thought I had in that post. But Catherine-of-Alaska-Living-Fame knows the truth. She also knows how I almost literally gave myself pneumonia because I insisted on standing on the bow as much as humanly possible even though it was literally glacial temperatures out there and the boat was speeding along. Rebecca also witnessed such shenanigans while we made our way to the Inauguration via water taxi (sadly, no picture). Or, you know, ice taxi. The water taxi got a little stuck on a part of the river that the Coast Guard ice breakers hadn't been to in a while. But it eventually got moving at warp speed again--with me at the bow. And ditto on the junk boat in Halong Bay. I think I must have spent the entire two day tour with my feet dangling over the edge.

Hrm, I wonder if I like boats so much because the relatively few times I've been on them I've been having a grand adventure? Or do I love them so much therefore anything involving them becomes a grand adventure? I think I need to spend more time on boats to test this theory. Oh! Croatia! Another time on a boat. What fun.

And now without further ado....my Chesapeake adventure.

The most perfect weather....

And a pretty awesome boat (this was our twin boat that went by)

I'm very excited to be on the boat!

So I took lots of pictures of myself

 relaxing....

Hiding from the sun....

And admiring the scenery.

Yay Annapolis!

 (And crabs!)

All in all an awesome day. Which you can see more of on Facebook if you're so inclined (this link lets you see 'em even if we're not "friends").

School, Scotland, Wanderlust and Questionable Sanity

Today (tonight, really) I had my first class of the semester.  It's the "Libraries and Information in Society" core course so not too terribly much to report awesome class-wise (that should be tomorrow and Thursday), but I did see my seat buddy/ group project partner from last semester's classes and it was nice to catch up.  I told her about Alaska, she told me about Scotland and just as I finished my oft-repeated sigh of "oh, I have always wanted to live there, I gotta make that happen one day", a girl sitting in front of us piped up saying that she had lived in Edinburgh after college and (a) can show me how to get a student work visa for up to 6 months (b) her old roommate is a librarian there and could help with the finding of a job (c) knows how to find short term furnished apartments.  Awesome.  Add the fact that I could probably squeeze in a class or two to apply toward my degree(s) (I'm working out the history component) and that could be basically awesome.  

It's not the permanent move I've long wanted to make but it's a start, and now that this is becoming more reality I'm not sure if I'm totally up for a permanent move to someplace I've never been, even if it does seem like a match made in heaven.  Or, well, I'm not sure if I'm totally up for a permanent move at all to anywhere because I seem have a strong aversion to making permanent decisions (God help me on that front or I'll never marry!). But if I were up for a permanent move somewhere, Edinburgh would be top on the list along with Philadelphia (home), Portland and Seattle. I had others (extremely random others) listed but then, upon reflection...no.  I wouldn't wish to end up in those places permanently...not saying that I wouldn't DO it, I just wouldn't make it one of my "genie wishes".

There are also seriously promising avenues on the international development front.  In fact, the American Library Association has a whole "working group" for international sustainable library development within its International Relations Roundtable and on TOP of it, one of the members just so happens to be a Catholic professor.  Add the encounter last semester with the new president of the International Federation of Library Associations (who happens to be African and have contacts with some programs for library development that I found on my own), and that, too, is a promising avenue.  I doubt that any of this would result in long-term relocation because the nature of these programs is to get them to be self-sustainable. For me, that's good and bad (and for the libraries, all good, obviously). 

The good is that I do like to keep on-the-move and really don't like feeling "stuck" anywhere (even if I like it there) but the bad is the exact flip side of that coin and it is that when you're living and working somewhere you love it's really hard to move on.  This insane conflict of desires is a constant in my life and I'm getting kind of sick of it. But just think, the longer time you spend in one place or doing one thing, that is time that you are necessarily withholding from other, possibly more interesting,  prospective living and working situations.  Basically, every month you spend in DC is one month you won't be able to spend elsewhere.  Every day spent on one project or in one job is a day you can't spend in your "next" project or job.  It's maddening.

But either way, on the development front,  3-6 months of work developing specific outreach programs, funding projects or library worker training (or just helping get a new library off the ground) would be both fun and rewarding....I'm just sure I'd want to stay longer while having the drive to go back home and also wanting to live someplace entirely new.  Crazy, I tell you.

But then we come around to the constant sticking point.....the cats.  What to do with the cats? They do qualify for the special US/UK pets program that does not require quarantine but I kind of question Penny's ability to survive the stress of that particular trip, as well as much longer ones (most of the development stuff I've looked into has been in Central and Southern Africa). This is the same cat who wound up in the kitty ICU the one and only time she was present to witness a move.  What was wrong?  Respiratory distress brought on by stress related to moving. I kid you not, I have a cat with a nervous condition.  Something tells me that 6 to 12 hours in a cargo hold (after several hours of driving to airport/being in airport) would not do the wee beastie any favors.  

Can you leave kitties behind for 6 months? The longest I've left them was for 8 weeks, once for the campaign and once for Vietnam.  Does it even make sense to bring them for such a short term?  What happens if I DO wind up moving permanently? I don't want to leave them behind but I don't want to risk killing them (or, well her...Toby would be fine because he really doesn't care what you do to him as long as it doesn't involve water and provided there's food afterwards).  I love them, but I kind of get a little regretful about the roots that they've given me.  Stupid roots.

So....in case you haven't caught on, the wanderlust is gnawing at me again. I have no big trips planned (I WAS going to do the January term class in Nicaragua but it apparently filled up in a matter of hours), and have been discovering and re-discovering just HOW MANY options there are in this field and it's kind of overwhelming....like "trip to the fabric store" overwhelming, not scary overwhelming, and I suspect that this is the source for this particular bout of the travel bug.  For the record, though, I have visited 10 international library development sites, 6 cities' Craigslists (for apartments) as well as a few Edinburgh specific rental websites, and 3 international pet moving specialist companies all in the past hour.  

AWOL

On Thursday afternoon as I was finishing up some errands I realized that earlier in the day I'd finished my work for the week and that I had no responsibilities until Tuesday when classes started up again so I went up to visit my family.

It's nice being so close to "home" (it's strange to think of Philadelphia as home now that I haven't lived there since the 90s) so that these sorts of impulse visits, or casual trips are possible.  We didn't do too terribly much, but you don't need to when visiting family.  

My mother was always a pretty serious gardener and would can or otherwise preserve her bounty in the summer months (which I think is part of the reason that my home food preservation efforts don't seem as insane to me as they do to other people) but she has scaled back in recent years, mainly since she broke her back last year.  But since I've been getting into it, and she always enjoyed it, we decided to do some projects this weekend.  Unlike Northern Virginia, Southeastern Pennsylvania still has a good bit of land that hasn't been paved and McMansioned over and this land is amazingly close to highly developed areas and is still used as small scale, family type farms.  I'm not sure how that happened but it did and the end result is that with the slightest bit of research it's possible to find several small family farms within a short drive from our house (turns out my dad, an avid road cyclist, passes these places with regularity so they really ARE very close to the house).  

We went to one such place, Pete's Produce, and I was absolutely amazed by the quality, variety and quantity of produce there.  The one local farm (near-ish Vienna)  I've visited around here (and as far as I know, the only one that close to me), while still great totally pales in comparison.  Maybe the soil here is bad, or maybe these Vienna farmers aren't quite as good, or maybe the terrible heat and humidity does have that much of an effect on plants (I've read that spinach doesn't do well here because of the godawful weather) but seriously, Pete's was great.  Bell peppers of a huge variety of color (even purple, which I'd never seen before) and of a "normal" to "large" size (as opposed to my farm's sad puny sizes and a near total lack of anything but green), and just a much greater variety of stuff and lots more of it.  Sigh.

Anyway, we got out of there with a crate of Roma tomatoes (25lbs), 24 bell peppers (green, red, yellow and orange), 3 onions, a "sugar baby" watermelon, a dozen eggs and some homemade salsa.  The tomatoes happened this way: my dad wanted "3 kilos" (why he uses metric I'll never know) to make and preserve a tomato sauce so 7lbs went to him, then my mom and I canned the other 18lbs whole in quart jars.  I now have 4 quarts of whole Roma tomatoes to add to my stash.  But the real story of the weekend was the peppers.  My first attempt at relish is an astounding success and I will be repeating this in the very very near future.

It is amazingly easy and doesn't need to be canned if you're going to use it in the near future. And even if you don't have canning "stuff" you can still can it (you DO need mason jars and lids though).  Here's what to do--I highly recommend it 

Sweet Pepper Relish

If you intend to use it right away, it's all done!  Just refrigerate and enjoy.  I won't hazard a guess as to how long it will last in the fridge but just assume less than normal relish (there's no artificial preservatives in this relish, obviously) but still a fairly decent amount of time as vinegar, sugar and salt are all well known natural food preservatives and, well, you just used quite a bit of all three.

If you want to can this to save for later, just buy pint sized mason jars and run them through the dishwasher (or hand wash with very hot water).  Put the cans in the pot in very hot but not boiling water in a deep pot until you're ready to use them. Put lids and bands into a bowl and pour simmering water over them and allow to stand.  Never boil lids, you'll mess up the seal and it won't seal and you'll give yourself a headache.

Pull out the jar (use tongs or jar grippers), fill with relish, clean and dry rim very well (any little food particle will prevent it from sealing) and put lids and bands on (keep bands "fingertip tight" which means not loose but don't put any effort into making them actually tightened at all). Place back in pot upright (important: use a cooling rack or something similar to keep the jar from touching the bottom of the pot thereby preventing a jar explosion), bring to boil. Make sure jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water. Once the water is boiling, time 5 minutes (the recipe I found called for 5 minutes, other recipes may be longer or shorter).  

Remove from water, let cool.  After 12-24 hours, check to make sure jars sealed by checking the little pop top, and by removing the bands and seeing if you can remove the lid (you shouldn't be able to).  If the lid has sealed and you can't remove it manually, congrats, you just canned relish! If not, you have 24 hours to re-attempt a good seal.

Between 4 of us, we ate a pint in 2 days. On crackers.  It's really very very good :)

Kenai Fjords National Park and Alaska Sealife Center

In Which I Discover My Love of Puffins

We set out at the crack of dawn, err, I mean very very early in the morning but well after the crack of dawn for Seward, Alaska where we were to join the National Park tour offered by Kenai Fjords Tours. True to form, we woke up and left late so we were in a bit of a rush but we made it in plenty of time.  Enough time, in fact, to enjoy breakfast at a bakery in Seward.

Driving South, 20 minutes outside of Anchorage, 5:30am

  

Home again home again

Made it back....will update with more Tales from the North soon.  For now, I need rest and steam.  I contracted a mild-but-annoying cold in my last few days in Anchorage which was fine until it was time to get on an airplane at which point it became a severe cold and extremely painful ears.  I cried a good half of the way home, partially involuntarily (sinuses putting pressure on tear ducts I think) and partially "oh OUCH OUCH my ears!".  The right one is still hopelessly clogged, extremely tender, and it sounds as if I'm underwater.  I think the left one is alright, unless it's just alright by comparison.  I actually do fear for the eardrum itself in my right ear so keep your fingers crossed that it's alright!

Also, I've done all I can self treatment-wise.  My carry-on is practically a pharmacy (I got desperate in Minneapolis on my layover and bought all kinds of OTC meds), and have approached the point with them that I am actually concerned about the quantity I've taken (not overdose-wise but potential gross side effects-wise) and nada on the right ear.  The Mayo clinic's website says that I should see a doctor if it doesn't clear up in a few hours (it's been 8 hours) so I think that a call to my physician may be in my future. If it wasn't so tender to the touch and if I didn't have such a history of middle ear problems (as far as I recall, half my childhood was spent with ear infections, and I'm fairly prone to them as an adult too) I wouldn't be quite so concerned.

But I'm home.  Safe and basically sound (99.8% of me is unscathed).  And it's not hot here, in fact it's downright pleasant weather here--unusual for mid-June in DC (and rare to nonexistant for July and August).  And my apartment is pretty and my kitties are sweet and my bed is oh-so fluffy and comfey.  And a sore ear in exchange for an awesome 12 days with good company and adventure is a very, very good deal :)

Camping

Read all about it.....

Camping: the Readers' Digest Version

We made it in and out alive, and no worse for the wear*.  My friend Catherine is not a camper.  Or comfortable with wildlife, the woods, bugs, the cold or the outdoors and nature in general.  She is a very, very good friend for doing this with me.  Highlights included: a she-moose and her calf at our campsite, getting lost in the woods (briefly), record-setting low temperatures (seriously), soot-based war paint, and dominating Mother Nature herself with our superior log-sawing-and-burning capabilities.  It was a good time* and despite the (scattered) complaints we both had fun*.

*Statement subject to dispute.

A complete write up with pictures will arrive one of these days.  We're getting up in a few short hours from now to head down to Seward to catch a boat trip on Resurrection Bay to see some glaciers, fjords, seabirds, puffins, otters and maybe a whale or two.  Then we're going to go hiking on the glacier.  I did tell you she's a good sport, right?

Catherine has also requested guest author status to give her take on our camping trip.  I'll let you know when to expect that gem of even tempered, unbiased reporting.

More Alaska

We went fishing tonight.  It was cool and rainy and overcast and (in my opinion) just lovely....here's a couple photos that I'm pleased with :).  

Catherine and I didn't actually get to fish because it took a little time before she she ventured out of the car an into the rain, and then we went exploring and took a few pictures, and then needed a "restroom".  So by the time we trudged over the rocks to the fishing spot, the boys had figured out that this was (by technicality) a no-fishing spot, and the yes-fishing spot was off limits for other (army training) purposes that night.  So we left and went exploring a  bit more before heading home.  

We think we'll try again tomorrow.  I just enjoyed getting out and spending some time with the trees and the mountains.  FYI for those as fascinated by this midnight sun thing as I am, all of these photos were taking between about 9 and 10:30 pm. And it was rainy and overcast and yet still bright!

On the way to fishing....

Our spot:

River Rocks:

Me looking goofy on a downed tree

Exploring:  

Catherine being scared of the state bird (the mosquito)

In Anchorage

I got in safe and sound after a mad-dash transfer in the Minneapolis airport (landed 5 minutes after boarding for the second leg started).  First impressions were the stunning rugged beauty of the mountain range and the towering yet thin birch trees.  Really just impressively beautiful.  The very next thing I noticed is that a huge percentage of the Anchorage airport's traffic is cargo.  Just about every major carrier in the Pacific-bordering world had a cargo airplane there, full of frozen fish and related products I imagine.  I haven't ever been to an airport like it and it really was striking.

Then, finally the light.  I was an am perfectly aware that I am spending time close to the summer solstice at a very high latitude, and therefore sunset will be very late and sunrise will be very early.  I did not think that it would be really extreme because (1) I won't be here actually at the solstice and (2) there are far more northernly places and I've heard tales about the light from those places.  I was wrong.  What I didn't factor in is exactly how late is "very late" for sunset (today, 11:30pm) and how early is "very early" for sunrise (today, 4:28am).  I also somehow didn't factor in the fact that just because the sun has set doesn't mean that it is dark.  The five hours between sunrise and sunset are a weird state of suspended twilight--light enough to read a book by if you were so inclined.  That I did not expect.  And it is weird.

It is 11:12 right now and there is the telltale orange glow of dusk outside and it is nowhere near dark.  I kept waking up all last night thinking that it was morning, time to get up.  Nope, nowhere close.  I was up at about midnight, then 2am and then 4:30am, each time convinced that I'd overslept and my hosts were waiting for me.  Nope.

Check out this graph (location: Anchorage):  The yellow is sunshine, the purple is dawn, the pink is dusk and the gray is darkness. The vertical dotted gray line is today. Note the lack of gray. And the lack of purple, really.  We go from sunshine to dusk and back to sunshine. Cra-zy.  

Today was nice.  I eventually got up at 8 and then the movers showed up.  They've lived here since January but the Army can be kind of slow about things like moving household goods so (quite by coincidence) they arrived on my first day here.  There was much unpacking and happy reunification with longed for items, followed by a great sushi lunch, a trip to the recycling center (lots of boxes) and general erranding around town for food and a prescription (for me). We made a great ham dinner (yay ham...I never get it at home) and I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch already. Tomorrow we're going to get serious with our touristing plans but today was just a nicely domestic day.  

And breaking news, my friend Catherine (the same Catherine who commented the other day...I don't talk to myself) is reading the paper while I'm this and she's informed me that tomrrow's high in Washington, DC is 98 degrees (36.6C) .  I think that I am the happiest person in the state of Alaska right now.  Because I'm here and not there :).  

For the record, tomorrow's high here is a lovely 61 (16C).