Taking The Waters

This image "borrowed" from the Facebook page of my friend and property owner, Debbie Boyle. Taken two days before we jumped in.

I had the best Saturday night! Friend Marianne is house sitting for the weekend at our friend's place with this sauna. We started the fire, made dinner, willed her little one to sleep and then she introduced me to the magic of sauna. Three rounds of serious sweating in 180 degrees, broken up by plunges into the icy lake. Let me remind you that it was 45 degrees out and other lakes in the area still have ice on them. Every time we ran into the lake, I screamed loud enough to wake all of Nikiski, or maybe just the one neighbor within miles.
When we were done, neither of us could stop talking about how wonderfully refreshed we felt. The baby was still sleeping like an angel and we were soon to follow. By the time I go home at 11, the sun was just going down and I fell into bed and slept until 8:30. Welcome back, summer! It's going to be a good one.

Alaskan Chateaus

A long time ago I said I'd post pictures of some true Alaskan type properties. These are two from Homer, more on Homer later. I meant to get a bunch of pictures to illustrate the independent, artsy nature of the community, but got sidetracked by my amazing day trip to Tutka Bay.
I went on the trip to Tutka Bay Lodge as part of the Homer Shorebird Festival to have a cooking class/lunch/tour/hike with the owner, Kirsten Dixon. I came across the event online and didn't realize it was a big deal until I met a baker at Bishop's beach (seriously) who was very excited for me. She confessed to having once stalked Kirsten in the Anchorage Costco but never worked up the courage to talk with her. Again, more on this trip later. I'm just waiting for one of the women from the trip to email me her photos because she had a fancy camera with it's own designated backpack so I'm sure they'll be better that mine.
Ok, back to the shacks. Don't get me started on the F'ed up priorities of today's Americans. Debt up to the eyeballs, worship of material things, more possessions than they can ever use, things replacing relationships, walls and technology replacing experience, no connection to nature, the worst nutritional choices possible... like I said, don't get me started. So, although these homes are unconventional, I admire them for the fact that they A)probably don't carry a mortgage and B) were probably built by hand.
I already sound like a raging, stinky hippie right now so I might as well go ahead and confess my obsession with all forms of residences that are: mobile, tiny, space and budget conscious, cheap, self sustaining, etc. My one requirement is a shower. Foregoing the right to shower is like one step away from patchouli, earth dancing and dreads on white people. Not ok.

This is really all it would take for me...

She's Crafty

When Kell's Bells and I were in Juneau, I sorta made her buy a roll of bus tokens after a recommendation from our friends at the Triangle Club. Way more tokens than we could ever use on our short trip. I joked with her that I would either sell them to my other friends outside the liquor store (the ones that came to my aid when I smashed my face) or make jewelry.
Here's my handiwork. The plan was to give it to Kelly but to be honest, I really didn't want to hand it over. Unfortunately, this was the only coin shaped that way in the whole roll. So, if you're out there, riding the bus in Juneau, I'll trade you 5 shiny new tokens for one of these older, prettier ones.

Question

It was the truck that originally caught my eye but that's a good question, Neighbor.