Another year, another Crabfest

Here in Kodiak, the last day of school marks the start of Crabfest. This local event has been known to disappoint folks from big cities expecting something a little more, um, big, but this year everyone was excited about Crabfest. The reason was simple: the weather. We had a streak of exceptionally warm, sunny weather that had the whole town grinning from ear to ear all weekend. 


The weather made it easy to stay out all day Saturday, starting with the morning parade (Iris got to march--with me, of course--as a "Shrimper").

Interesting piece of trivia: These friends will (sadly) soon be moving to the New Orleans area and will live very close to where we lived in Metairie, Louisiana over a decade ago.

Rainbow once again rode a horse and enjoyed it with serious intensity.

We also discovered that Rainbow absolutely loves king crab. She ate about $20 worth of it over the weekend.

That's her "rock star" face. She makes it when shes happy or excited.

After looking at booths, eating crab, and having a (short-lived) adventure in the bounce house, our first day of Crabfest ended with a toddler passing out on her mama's back. She woke up from that nap muttering, "Where we going?" I loved her presumptuous question, the idea that there was certainly somewhere interesting to go, and her readiness to go there. It's summer. I want to have that openness and readiness, too. Let's get going, summer. Kodiak, here we come!

Easter

Since my daughter has turned two, I have felt more pressure (coming only from myself, mind you) to do more traditional activities during holidays. This presented a bit of a challenge at Easter time, since Rainbow's food allergies essentially prevent her from eating eggs or candy (other than the expensive "allergy-free" sweets you can get at health food stores). This did not deter us from going on not one, not two, but three Easter egg hunts and from dying eggs (I can't eat them, either, so she didn't feel quite as left out as she would have otherwise). 

Sunshine? No coats? Yes, Saturday's weather was that awesome.

The city-wide egg hunt at Baranov Park (within walking distance of our house) featured 5,000 eggs. Even timid kids like Rainbow actually stood a chance of getting a few eggs.

Unfortunately, all of the eggs had chocolates in them which Rainbow couldn't eat, but she didn't even seem to mind giving  them all away to other children. 

Our eggs didn't turn out very bright because  we used organic, cage-free brown eggs (yes, we are those kind of people), but Rainbow still had a lot of fun coloring them.

Easter Sunday's weather was more typical of Kodiak and of what I expect Easter's weather to be like--cold and wet. 

Almost every egg hidden in our yard was covered with slugs. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get Rainbow to pick them up at all. 

After hunting for eggs in our own yard, we went to another egg hunt at a friend's house. We didn't have an Easter ham or any of the other traditional foods, but we had a fun day anyway!

A sunny day and a snowy day

I keep hearing people who have lived in Kodiak longer than I have saying that this has been a difficult winter with an abnormal amount of rain and even less sun than usual. So last month when we had a "warm," sunny day one weekend and a snowy day the next, both were unusual, and we got out and enjoyed the weather as much as possible.

We had a picnic at the end of the road at Chiniak. It only takes a little over an hour to drive out there (well, longer if you have a recently potty-trained toddler who is obsessed with peeing outside).

There are always wonders to be found on the beach.

It may surprise you to know that Kodiak gets very little snow. March 20 was our first real snow of the winter--and our very first opportunity to take Rainbow sledding. She loved it!  

It was a good thing we went sledding in the morning, because even by noon much of the snow had melted. That's very typical for Kodiak. 

XTRATUF

Before I moved to Kodiak, I had never heard of the word "XTRATUF." When I first saw it written, I thought it was an egregious spelling error. Now the word is a part of my everyday vocabulary, and I think of Xtratuf boots as a totally legitimate, year-round, all-purpose footwear option. 

These boots are such a part of Kodiak's culture that the theme of

Crab Fest last year was "Xtratuf Small Town." The boots themselves are an emblem of the informal and egalitarian values of our community, as they are worn by everyone from hard-working local fishermen to immigrant cannery workers to teachers to doctors. Xtratufs are worn to the grocery store, to the beach, to church, and to work. They are worn with fishing gear, with workout clothes, with church clothes, with work clothes. And they are worn by young and old. 

Now they are worn by my two-year-old daughter, who got her first pair about a week ago. She was delighted when she realized that the boots allowed her to splash in deep puddles and even stand in the ocean like Daddy can. I was delighted watching my child--born in Maryland but for all intents and purposes an "Alaska baby"--enjoy her new boots. 

I know there are things that Rainbow is missing out on by growing up here. We don't have a children's museum, or a zoo, or a water park. We don't have a Waldorf school, or a Montessori school, or a foreign language immersion school. We only have one stop light, one move theater, one high school. But we have eagles, and sea lions, and otters, and starfish, and sea anemones. We have tide pools and lakes and rivers. We have forests and beaches and mountains. And we have our Xtratuf boots that help us keep our feet dry and warm as we explore that great outdoors.

Finally, a sunny day

It's been a while since I've written a post, and that is due mainly to three factors:

1. A ridiculous series of illness in members of my family beginning in November
2. Gloomy, cold, rainy weather 
3. Full-time work

That is not to say that we haven't been enjoying ourselves up here on Alaska's Emerald Isle. It's just that we haven't been doing much that is "blog worthy." 

Today we went on our first real outing in months, to nearby Anton Larsen Bay. There was no wind, the sky was a glorious cloudless blue, and we were quite comfortably warm in our winter layers. 

It almost made me like February.

Almost.

Female common merganser

View of the quiet and calm bay

Picnic in the car before our hike

Frosty rose hip

Walking along the trail--the plastic grates help keep it accessible for off-road vehicles even when muddy.

Fall

I don't know exactly how many minutes of daylight we are losing each day right now, but it's enough of a difference from day to day to be noticeable. It seems like one day I was walking to work with morning sunlight; the next I was walking to work as the sun was rising; and the third I was walking in the dark. There will come a time when I am also walking home in the dark.

But that time has not yet come! For now, as our time allows, we are trying to enjoy the fall colors. Last Sunday, when we woke up to an unexpectedly rain-free morning, we took some time do a family photo shoot with my talented friend Jessica. Here are some of the pictures she took. 

 

Berries and birthdays

Since I started working full-time in August, and we moved to a new apartment near the beginning of September, we haven't had nearly as much time to enjoy Kodiak as we would like. We have, however, had a little time to celebrate two things: the autumn berry season, and Rainbow's second birthday.

This summer, I didn't pack away nearly as many salmonberries or high bush blueberries as I had hoped to. With the summer berries long gone, my last chance to stash some free fruit in the freezer came in September, when low bush blueberries and low bush cranberries (a.k.a. lingonberries) are usually at their best. We  were disappointed to find that this was a bad year for the blueberries, but we did manage to get a few cups of lingonberries while also enjoying the gorgeous views from the top of Pillar Mountain. 

September 6 marked Rainbow's second birthday. We celebrated the following weekend with a few of her friends. In true toddler fashion, she refused to eat cake when it was time to eat cake and showed no interest in opening presents until all but one guest had left. But what a joy it was to celebrate two years with this delightful person in my life!