halibut cove...act three

taking a break from packing. haven't been to byers lake so not sure what to pack and how. did purchase a wagon to drag the 1/2 mile to the cabin with wood and stuff. in the winter you would tow a sled loaded with stuff. hopefully, this works. took me the better part of the afternoon to get the thing together. borrowed a few tools from the neighbor across the way. we haven't really had much interaction of late. we had a strange conversation at one point and it's been a bit awkward since so probably good to break the ice and get some assistance with this project. not good to hold on to the past. a remark is a remark and hopefully it won't be repeated. anyway, there are a few bolts that i wish i could have gotten screwed in better but it should hold up. (famous last words eh?).
liked the picture above. taken in halibut cove. i think these today are all from our first trek into halibut cove last weekend. still several pictures to load from that trip. raining now so not sure how many pictures i'll take out at the cabin. haven't spent much time planning. for the moment i think only sandra is joining me for one night. will actually be cool with me chilling in a little cabin in the woods with the dogs and reading and such. just gotta figure how to get all i need out there. only 1/2 mile from the car so i can make a few lazy treks back to the car. suspect bear and mosquito's could be a bit thick so will have to be careful.

feel a bit overwhelmed by my growing to do list. have to find a pet sitter for the big july trip and so far not being very successful. haven't heard from the flooring folk with the estimate, so not sure if i'm supposed to be waiting for an email or just go to lowes and arrange this all. the car needs its 50,000 mile check up and the bumper needs to get fixed..blah, blah, blah. i know my to do list is probably way shorter than the average persons, but it's still out there, hanging over me.

no cake this birthday, but i did have a tasty birthday s'more. above is me being a total freak around the camp fire. who know i could look so wierd. reminds me, need to pack my dog hat and skhoop for this little w/ender. and mosquito stuff. check

work was pretty breezy this stretch. can't complain. not much happening in the peds icu this week, good for all the kids out there. found a great little b&b in juneau, but they are already booked for july. bummer.

the saltry is fancy alaskan style place. we stopped in saturday to make reservations for sunday. in the end we grabbed soup and salad and a drink on saturday anyway. guess the place is pretty steady in the summers. they bring tourists over for a meal and to shop around halibut cove and what not. they stay on the family trust owned boardwalks. it's a quaint community but there is obviously some difference of opinion as to whether tourists should be welcomed there or not.

i think that can be pretty common in those little communities. you risk all that you love about a small hamlet like this by opening it up to the general public. at the same time a small hamlet like this often is on the verge of financial failure and tourism does bring in dollars. obviously some money coming in as this rope is located in a horse paddock. there looked to be maybe a dozen horses on the island that we saw. having horses in a remote location like this is pricey. makes you want to know where they are riding. must be much more to this island than we had access to. would love to wander a bit, but it felt very restricted.

this old boat was also in the paddock.

the dog walks have been short and sweet this week. mostly i walked the bog or neighborhoods or the dog park at university lake. another article was written in the anchorage daily news about university lake. there are always those who wish it wasn't an off leash park.always a bit of a battle to keep it. that park is so popular at this point there may be mutiny if they try and shut it down. i'm not a fan of our current mayor. he seems set on taking away everything i enjoy, not a fan of outdoor recreation, dogs, arts....the guy just sets me off a bit to look at him. have other, work related, history with him and he just annoys me.

the local paper also had an article about our neonate intensive care unit and the fact that it currently has an outbreak of MRSA. not really sure how this happened. most people are probably now colonized with it and hospitals lean towards being more and more family friendly. who knows, hospitals are colonized with bugs no doubt. always funny that people are shocked that people who are very ill and compromised would get an additional infection while hospitalized. you are sick, surrounded by other sick people. we do what we can but there is always risk of infections and complications. we stick tubes everywhere and those all add to that potential. did field a few questions in the peds unit related to this.

really loved how they had put these glass floats into the fencing. love the floats and this looked pretty cool. great way to utilize all those glass floats people have laying about thier properties. i have just one i think, found on kayak island. we found 7 on our weekend out there.

we exited out kayaks on this little dock on the friendlier end of town. i was quite nervous to do this new exit in a kayak. with everyone stabalizing our boat we all got out safely. we helped each other and once the initial nervous landing was over it went pretty smooth. we pulled the rental boats up on the dock. the other boats had ties and could just be tied up.

when we stopped at the less friendly end of town we were told the only coffee we could get was 8 miles across the bay in homer. this little shop actually closed at 4pm but she stayed open late to accomadate us chilly kayakers. very nice!

that guy also told us we couldn't even be on the boardwalks unless we had a reservation at the saltry.

coming into halibut cove it was still pretty much high tide. there is a section between the friendly and unfriendly end of town that is only accessible at high tide. when we came through this day we were crossing with probably 2 feet of water at some points. when we left we left another way and ended up going around the island on the outside. the water wasn't too choppy for us so we were lucky. didn't take too long to get back to camp.

the arch.

these are part of the saltry and the buildings and boardwalk owned by this family trust. you can stay in one of these little cabins i believe.

the danny j is the halibut cove ferry, seems to mostly bring tourists over, but i suspect locals make use of it. several artists in town. we stopped by a gallery of a long time artist there who recently passed away. she painted utilizing octopus ink. she had some beautiful paintings, would have liked to have purchased on with the octopus ink. pretty amazing. guess it's so concentrated that she needs very little. she learned to harvest the ink from the octopus years ago with area biologists i believe. the octopus are not harmed. they do get a needle poked in them.

did love all the boardwalks out there. very cool looking.

wish the boardwalks were more extensive or that whatever back trails people use out here were more welcoming.

these are at the saltry where we had a snack. i just got a salad and in the end it felt like just an appetizer to me and i was subsequently i felt very hungry paddling back to wright beach. it was a teaser meal.

it was nice to get in out of the chill. it never poured rain, but it was just damp.

lots of pretty flowers

one of a few art galleries. this one had some nice pottery. the pottery at the saltry was all handmade. fun to finish your meal and enjoy the plates beauty. many get broken apparently in this process so they utilize those to decorate the tops of the tables at the restraunt. those were cool as well.

just a few pictures of hte community...from the boardwalk.

the dock with our little kayaks waiting for us.

the dandilions are in full bloom across town. always the battle with the dandilions. of course, i pluked several out and left them in a pile on the driveway. that seems to hurry them along in the process to fluff out. so probably counter productive.

the sandbar divides inner/outer waters. fairly calm this day on both sides.

the friendly dock in town.

loved the houses and kinda bummed i didn't flip the camera into black and white at least a few times while out in halibut cove...will have to return again.

lots of places have thier own docks. looks like a sweet life to me out there.

will have to get up early tomorrow and get my crap together. want to take my day pack as i will hopefully get some walks in, but will be taking my backpack....hmm...it is easier to get dropped at a beach. one thing i've discovered up here is that each little adventure you take no matter how small has it's own little idiosyncrosies. these require just a bit of variance in how you would pack your gear. can't always just have a bag of gear to toss in. the dogs also complicate it. how do i get dog beds in for them, dog food, water and food bowls. oh bother!

these are taken of the public city dock, which wasn't the nice end.

would still return to halibut cove. it's 11pm and i should go pack some more and turn in early.