Fall Equinox
posted by
Erin and Begee
@
10:54 PM
Today is the first official day of fall. Or as our former co-worker reminded us in an email earlier today, for her, in Antarctica, it is the first official day of spring. Spring sounds much more promising.
Winter in Alaska is coming fast. It's getting darker and darker everyday, the fireweed is all gone, the humpbacks are migrating back to Hawaii, the puffins are flying out to sea, and there is snow on the mountaintops - snow, or "termination dust," as Alaskans call it - the scariest sign of all that the summer is over. The cruise ships have left, the train is done, the restaurants are closing, and the gift shops are all having huge end of season sales. Seward is becoming a ghost town.
Normally, as the summer ends, we would be packing up and getting ready to go somewhere new. We are leaving in less than ten days... but for the first time, we are coming back. For the winter. The long, dark, cold winter. Our first in Alaska.
We're heading to New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity - better late than never, even if it is only for a week. We wish we could do more, do something better to change the world, but on two seasonal workers' incomes, this week will be a good start. We'll be painting, building, hammering, sweeping, and all sorts of other exciting vacation-type things (who needs to lay on the beach?). Then we'll be seeing our families in Ohio and Colorado. Not exactly migrating to Hawaii - but we've already tried that route once. It's time to try our first winter in Alaska.
You can't call yourself Alaskan (not that we're even sure we would or could call ourselves Alaskan anyway) without spending a winter here. We might as well see what the fuss is all about - hey, it's not Antarctica, right? (Not yet, anyway.)
Tonight we made halibut quesadillas from halibut we caught in Homer earlier in the summer. It was our first time deep sea fishing, and our first time in Homer. We're having lots of fun firsts trying to cook all this fish, and we had lots of fun firsts this summer. These firsts may not be the same as moving to a new job, the thrill of the wanderlust, but they make life exciting, nonetheless, even if in a different way altogether.
We're working at different places from each other now that the summer is over, and we're not sure what to expect. We're not sure what to expect out of our trip to New Orleans or our first winter here either, but we're excited, nervous, and hopeful all the same. Tonight we'll go outside and try to catch the first Northern Lights of the season and remind ourselves what an amazing place this is that we get to experience, and how lucky we are to experience it, even if it is going to get really, really cold really, really fast!
erinbegee-9-21-06 tagged map by user - Tagzania
Winter in Alaska is coming fast. It's getting darker and darker everyday, the fireweed is all gone, the humpbacks are migrating back to Hawaii, the puffins are flying out to sea, and there is snow on the mountaintops - snow, or "termination dust," as Alaskans call it - the scariest sign of all that the summer is over. The cruise ships have left, the train is done, the restaurants are closing, and the gift shops are all having huge end of season sales. Seward is becoming a ghost town.
Normally, as the summer ends, we would be packing up and getting ready to go somewhere new. We are leaving in less than ten days... but for the first time, we are coming back. For the winter. The long, dark, cold winter. Our first in Alaska.
We're heading to New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity - better late than never, even if it is only for a week. We wish we could do more, do something better to change the world, but on two seasonal workers' incomes, this week will be a good start. We'll be painting, building, hammering, sweeping, and all sorts of other exciting vacation-type things (who needs to lay on the beach?). Then we'll be seeing our families in Ohio and Colorado. Not exactly migrating to Hawaii - but we've already tried that route once. It's time to try our first winter in Alaska.
You can't call yourself Alaskan (not that we're even sure we would or could call ourselves Alaskan anyway) without spending a winter here. We might as well see what the fuss is all about - hey, it's not Antarctica, right? (Not yet, anyway.)
Tonight we made halibut quesadillas from halibut we caught in Homer earlier in the summer. It was our first time deep sea fishing, and our first time in Homer. We're having lots of fun firsts trying to cook all this fish, and we had lots of fun firsts this summer. These firsts may not be the same as moving to a new job, the thrill of the wanderlust, but they make life exciting, nonetheless, even if in a different way altogether.
We're working at different places from each other now that the summer is over, and we're not sure what to expect. We're not sure what to expect out of our trip to New Orleans or our first winter here either, but we're excited, nervous, and hopeful all the same. Tonight we'll go outside and try to catch the first Northern Lights of the season and remind ourselves what an amazing place this is that we get to experience, and how lucky we are to experience it, even if it is going to get really, really cold really, really fast!
erinbegee-9-21-06 tagged map by user - Tagzania
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