Shelley's Second Encounter of the Alaskan Kind...(Guest Post)

One of many highlights of the trip: throwing bottles off a friend's backyard cliff. Kodiak no longer recycles glass, so rather than sending it off to the landfill, we threw it off the cliff and created beach glass. This is legal. I'm sure of it.

July 4th, 2009: One of the best Independence Days EVER. Our friend, Jeff, hooked us up with a small swarm of sea kayaks and we spent the day kayaking around little islands. We saw seals and birds and assorted sea things...much bull kelp. We also stopped at several islands for some Mount Rainier Beer...a new product for me.

At one point, Bruce saw me resting on a mound of mussels and noted that he "doesn't usually sit right on top of the mussels because he doesn't want to crush them"...seemingly implying that while I was sunbathing, I was, at the same time, crushing sea creatures. I spent the rest of the trip walking a fine line between exploring things and killing them..

Doing a little rock skipping at one of our stops sea kayaking. Generally, I found people from Kodiak were not impressed by my throwing technique. There was teasing. I felt shame.

Meghan, Zoya, and I took a hike up to the new wind turbines overlooking Kodiak. Pretty amazing up close...very Alice in Wonderland-esque...

Had an amazing time in Kodiak, gorgeous weather, and fantastic seafood. So glad I came back for the summer...thank you to my friends, Meghan, Bruce, and the wiener...





















I don't know who this is. She looks dangerous though.

A Swirling Proposal

On a COASST survey Saturday afternoon Meghan and I were the only humans on Spruce Cape beach. The beach is ringed with black rocks that make walking anywhere but the sandy surface a bit challenging. As I conducted the survey, walking down the length of the beach in an S pattern (like skiing) looking for birds, I pretended to find beach objects and put them in my pocket. Meghan sat with Rebel on the rocks near a tide pool. The sun was bright and warm. Offshore, fishing skiffs skimmed across the horizon, gulls squawked and dove to the sea. On the return leg of the survey I began to carefully prepare the contents of my pocket to show Meghan, four pieces of sea glass and a gold ring. I reached Meghan and knelt beside her, balancing on watery rocks.
“Hi Meggie,” my heart pounded “I found some cool stuff on the beach.” I held out my palm holding the precious pieces.
“Let’s see. Oh wow, beach glass. Wow a ring. We should return this, someone is probably looking for it, but cool beach glass.”
My heart stopped, “Meghan, maybe it could be your ring.”
“Oh no, it won’t fit me. It's too small. Someone is definitely missing it.”
“Meghan, I'm pretty sure no one will be looking for it. I think you should have it.”
Meghan’s expression then changed. “Bruce…”
“What do you think? Will you marry me?”
“Yes, Bruce.”
Meghan was completely surprised. After sitting together and enjoying the moment we walked out to the tide line on the rocks while peeking into tide pools. Anemones, chitons and crabs revealed their shapes and seemed to congratulate us as we hopped, rock to rock.

Meghan and the Dream of Seaglass

After only 15 minutes of searching Meghan displays her arcipluvian haul

Sunday after dinner we hopped down to a beach near town just past the shipyard. The sun had set and evening's light lingered as we scanned the rocky shore for shiny pieces. Meghan, as fastidious as a crab, soon found a variety of smooth glass scraps - several were larger and more colorful than pieces of hard candy. If I had not pestered her to leave the beach it seems she would have combed the waterline well into the the night. After returning home and spreading out her haul, Meghan became concerned that her hunt was so fruitful because we had trespassed - rendering her collection illegal. The next morning Meghan awoke from a dream admonishing her to return the pieces of sea glass to "Benny's Beach" and she became even more skittish about her finds. Luckily, yesterday she learned that the beach does not belong to "Benny" and is public. Meghan is quite happy to add the pieces to her quickly growing menagerie.