...And All The Salmon You Can Eat.

So here we are, the fabled salmon bake at Pioneer park. We were extremely glad for the small crowd. You see, the day before, Sarah Palin had been in town and the place was swamped. There was no chance at getting all upons that deliciousness. Thankfully though, we had other business while everyone else was Palin around with Sarah, and it was the next day we'd scheduled for eating obscene amounts of...everything.


Salmon, cod, halibut, prime rib, salads of various sorts, bread, and not pictured, desserts. It was all...very, very good, let me assure you. The salmon was great, but ohmygosh, that fried halibut was amazing. The steak was good too...and nice and rare! Let's pretend this was my only plate...because apparently its unseemly when a girl can put it away like a lumberjack who's not watching his waistline.


As you can see, we all ate to the point of discontented contentment. (I laugh every time I look at this picture. Boardy, Lena...priceless.)


Further evidence.


Now, there are some wonderful wood carvings about P.P. This is of course, a totem pole. The Native American totems throughout the Alaskan landscape inspire a sense of wonder at the indigenous peoples intricate use of storytelling through artisan craft. Often, family histories, religious belief, and stories of cultural importance are displayed upon these totems.

However...

Last time I checked, the wooden kitchen spoon wasn't intrinsic to the Inuit culture. Perhaps I'm way off base, but Pioneer Park, I think maybe you're fudging a bit on your authenticity.



However, I'll forgive you because you've got a giant carved salmon that you can ride. As you can see, Boardwalk, Jail, and Chance are all happy to have their quite respectable picture taken.


Being respectable, I find, is highly overrated.


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At some point during this trip, we ended up at a little coffee shop in Fairbanks. College Coffee is the name I believe. While I don't recall if I drank anything, I do recall that there was a rather boss musical circle that day. (Sarah, the above shot is for you...and yeah, also for me.) They played mostly in the Irish style. I nearly had a conniption when they busted out Swallowtail Jig. They were a talented group of fiddlers, pickers, drumers, and flutists. We highly enjoyed the concert and stayed a good while to listen to them.


Anytime a man wears a kilt, he gains my respect. I also seriously wanted to steal his belt buckle.


We did a lot of other things, such as go to Value Village, where I purchased a sweet hot-pink Salty Dawg hoodie. Chance, not sure she bought anything, but she made the trip in style via her dog/monkey hat and safety goggles.


At one point, Lena and I hung out downtown...where she went swimming in the town fountain. I really am unsure why I didn't join her.


I did however go swimming later in the Salcha River with Shortline and Chance. Let me just say that Alaska in July is not warm, not when you're from Alabama. No, it's not warm at all...and the water, well, it just follows suit. However, the swim was tons of fun no one lost any fingers or toes, so I'm calling it a great success!



Of course we went four-wheeling. I love the fact that this little stretch makes it look all safe. This little stretch is a lie. The Brinks (one of which is pictured here driving) are always kind enough to lend us their rides, couches, and food whenever we're in Salcha for any span of time...they're great hosts, great folks, and just awesome people. If everyone was as kind and accommodating as them, we would live in a far different and far better world.

Oh, I went to North Pole, found Santa. He wanted to go on break...I wanted a picture. I didn't get any coal this year so I guess I didn't annoy him too much. (I need a bigger Santa. There was not enough lap on this one.)

Well...there you have it. My completely odd blog about Camp Baldwin/ Salcha/ Fairbanks/ Wherever/ Whatever else. However, all tales are not told...and never will be, but there's still more. I happened to find myself in Denali one day and an Ice Hotel a bit later...so maybe I'll update again tomorrow...or three months from now. Who knows? I certainly don't.

Dancing in Fat Mud

So, camp ends. However, that doesn't mean the fun is over, oh no! Immediately after camp, Lena, Boardwalk, Chance, and Myself headed down to the Tanana River for some...river...stuff. (This is from two different areas of the river, on two different days.)


This is right outside of Delta Junction.


We forged the river, strong current, knee deep water, and the stones on the bottom tried to eat my feet, but no oxen died, we didn't drown, and nobody got Dysentery! We also discovered the wonder of 'fat mud,' at least, that's what we call it. The best term to describe it is 'gushy.' More on that later...


I believe this is midway between Delta and Salcha. It's just a huge flood plane and it's lovely. It was so green at the time, the river was high on the banks, and the mountains were so gorgeous...


see?


Considering the wildfires absolutely ravaging the entire landscape, we were lucky to see anything. More on that later too. They were spectacular though, the smoke plumes were huge.


Anyway, back to good times. Lena playing in the fatmud. Here, it's just a hand, but pretty soon, we took a step further...


...and got knee deep! Now, I must say, this is actually a dangerous thing to do. People have gotten stuck and died in the mud, but well, we're just horrible examples ok?


I'm knee deep here...in this horrible picture...where I apparently have elf ears.


There was no solid ground! Chance and Lena, all of us, we just kind of plopped our way through the mire. It was great! That mud, makes the most satisfying sounds ever, just so you know. The gushiness of that stuff is absolutely spectacular!


The haze in the sky made for some gorgeous sunsets. This is right outside of Fairbanks.


It's simply serene.

Alaska, July 2009 cont.

One of these days, I'll catch up on this blog.

In the meantime, trekking back to Delta Junction...




During a break one day at camp I got use of a car and a few minutes to just go out and drive...by myself. I loved it. There's a buffalo farm just up the road and I wanted to swing by and see them. I've seen buffalo before, my dad's boss used to farm them, my sister was chased by one, and we've actually got some hybrids just down the road from where I live, but still. They were just out there, being...buffalo, and that was pretty cool.


I love the fact that there is this much land and nothing in it.


Of course, there are mountains...everywhere you look, it seems you'll find one range or another.

I know it's Alaska, but for some reason this picture looks very "Swiss Alps" to me. I think it's because of that small building, which in my mind, is a dairy farm.


Yeah...I could deal looking at that every day.

I really enjoyed the solitude of those moments. I rolled down the windows and just allowed my head to clear. It's been nearly a year since that drive, but I still recall it fairly sharply. That land has great attitude.

Back at camp, it's campfire time. Now, campfire time is a great little thing. Mark usually brings a message full of insight and wisdom and it makes you think 'stop knowing me so well!' We also sing, dance, act retarded, burn stuff, and generally have a great time in Christian love and fellowship.


Here's some of that singing I was talking about earlier. Boardwalk and Lena were the music leaders during the week, switching out guitar and 'hold the poster' duty. If you look closely, you can see that we were bringing it old school with the classic musical number 'Pharaoh, Pharaoh."



Did you know that the simple addition of cut up pieces of garden hose will turn your fire an array of beautiful colors? Well, it will, and now you know. (I'm not sure of the toxicity, but well, we all die eventually.)


We usually burn a couple of cardboard cores the last night of camp. The winds were really,really high that night though, so we couldn't double stack them this year. I mean, we're all up for a healthy amount of carnage, but not the kind that requires life flight and alerting the burn unit.


I. Love. Fire.


All the girls of Cabin Three, Camp Baldwin, Delta Junction, AK, July 2009. I love them all. It was a great group, fantastically ridiculous, and ridiculously fantastic.

Eeeeeeeexactly.

Next time, some post camp activities: Fires, Fat Mud, Wolves under glass, and all the salmon you can eat!

Procrastination and Time in Alaska...

A little corner of Heaven at the end of the Alaskan Highway.

I've got headache tonight. So far, this year, nearly everyday I've had one. I hate it. It's my eyes; I know it. I need stronger contacts and it makes me feel about a hundred years old, though I'm only rounding on 29...good lands, TWENTY NINE! I know, 'that's not old!' but thus far, it's the oldest I've ever been and it feels like a hammer is bearing down on the last nail in the coffin of my youth. But I digress, as maudlin really isn't my style.

I haven't blogged since, Christmas Eve...really? Oh well, life. A lot of good things have happened since...and some things not so good...again, life. It seems to happen all the time doesn't it? I'm going to say I'm going to try to catch up a bit, post more, continue to use this little spot of cyberspace as my personally impersonal diary, one I don't mind sharing, and I hope I do...but who knows. At least tonight, I'm posting something.

I suppose I'll put up a bit more about Alaska, being as I never finished that whole episode...and it was an episode, as it always is! I miss it. I miss everyone up there. I doubt I'll be making my way up there this year thanks to the workaholic society that is America. 2 weeks out of 52 to ourselves? Really, that's just perverse. (That is a post unto its own though.)I have other spots I need to fill in on my map and well, tempus fugit. However, I had the pleasure of talking with my friends from the north, Nick and 'Dude-A-Cris,' yes 'Dude-A-Cris,' (though I just call him Dave-O) the other night and perhaps it inspired me to post a bit.

So, here's a bit...

Camp Baldwin, Delta Junction, Alaska. July 2009.

The familiar road to camp...

I drew those signs in '08 and it was a great thrill to see them painted and posted in '09. Vanessa did a smashing job with them. In that weird existential way, it feels like a little piece of me gets to stay there. (When did I start waxing poetic so much? Sheesh...I sound like such a pretentious crapweasel.)

Camp always provides a vast array of activities...of which I usually participate as it offers me a wonderful opportunity to punish my youthful advers...I mean, teach the children some valuable life skill.

Though it looks as if I'm pummeling Lena, she came back with a furious set of jabs. My unsure footing and high center of gravity led to her victory. I chose this shot because it looks like I'm winning. I'm petty, deal with it.

Trash Can...epic times. This game always draws blood and I'm sure a number of shoulders/knees/ankles have been separated from their subsequent joints...I won the first round and only bled a little!



"The Fortress of Doom!" We built this in the woods one day for paintball...it was magically awesome. It's just a system of plywood rooms/metal sheeting/refuse, but it makes for a sniper setup...even better when you set up a huge ladder so you can watch the action overhead if you're not in the round!

Hooray for paintball! No so hooray for getting shot in the hand 3 times...3 times!!!

In Alaska, there is a sore lack of water slides...especially in swamps in the middle of nowhere...so what's a camp director to do? Why build one of course! This is the Mark special. Plywood, a pit, a hose, a couple of giant spools and a lot of blue tarp and you've got yourself a right fine water slide. Now, it may be July, but it wasn't exactly warm in D.J...and well, the water wasn't exactly what I would term "fit for human life," but after a while, you know, after your blood congealed, it wasn't too bad. I picked up a shirt in Sitka at the surf shop that states "Euphoria is the first stage of hypothermia," truth.

It was good times all around.

In addition to the water slide, there was the water fight...and well, these Alaskan jer...er, delightful teens made fun of me mercilessly for the fact that I found the water so cold. (This was pre-water slide actually, so a bucketful to the face was you know...incredibly jarring. It was awesome fun though.)

After all the water shenanigans, we needed something to warm us up a bit...and a fire was just the thing. Also, we found out that direct heat should never be used with Jiffy Pop...if that direct heat is you know...fire.

There was a lot of other stuff, skits, games, crafts, tons of activities...and I'd love to launch into a litany of how awesome they were, but well, read my post from the previous year. This headache's getting pretty horrid and I don't much feel like writing anymore. Camp was and is and I assume always will be much more than the sum of its parts. It's games and fun and a time to let loose, but it's a lot more than that...and I'll save it for another post.