Two years later

I'm pretty bad at keeping a blog, but that's all I have to say about that!

Updates on the kayak:
Last summer I fiberglassed it inside and out:

Also, I again had to move it from the place I was working on it because I was too optimistic about the time schedule and my availability. I moved the shell of the boat first in the daytime. And I had moved the frame outside of the building so I could move it whenever was a good time. Well, I was dishwashing some nights (in addition to my day job) and after a night of dishwashing it felt like the right time to go and move my kayak frame. Not long after I took the picture shown above, the cops stopped me on the bridge, made me set the kayak frame down and questioned me if I had been drinking, if I had broken in somewhere. I was laughing but they did not find any of it funny.  I shared the picture of the newspaper with my family and they thought I was maybe the guy sleeping in the 200 block of Katlian so I had to blur out everything else.

Okay, that's my kayak update!

I'd update more but then I would probably never finish this post. So last thing is, I have a Flickr account. I've lost photos before when I thought I was backing them up and on Flickr you can upload 1 Terabyte of photos for free!  So check it out if you want, I keep it updated sorta regularly.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94344415@N05/sets/

Sitka to Glacier Bay: Kayak Trip Pt 1

Ellen
Leader & Whale Whisperer
Element: Earth

 Julien

Artist & Big Eater

Element: Water

Jasmine
Events Coordinator & Yoga Master (and a bear)
Element: Wind

 Joshua

Maniac

Element: Fire

We took bicep pictures so we could have a before and after. The first day the four of us were not together. Ellen and Jasmine were the ones that were ready to go; Julien and I still had some things to pack up. I hadn't finished my kayak (as you know) so I ended up borrowing my friend Paul's, who is Julien's brother. Julien was in town visiting from Paris, France. While he was in town he made tons of amazing art.

On May 7th, Ellen and Jasmine left for Kruzof Island. Kruzof is the big island 7 miles West of Baranof Island and is home to Mt. Edgecumbe, the volcano that is pictured at the top of this blog. 7 miles is actually from where the two islands are closest, Ellen and Jasmine left from Totem Park which is about 12 miles from the coast of Kruzof.  

As they paddled, Julien and I finished up our things.  I had to move out of my apartment.  I was living in an apartment that is used for church volunteers.  I played the organ for church and was doing so voluntarily so I qualified. However, there are summer volunteers that come up to Sitka and stay about 2 weeks and make the church welcome to tourists Monday through Friday.  Those volunteers needed a place to stay so I had to vacate!  I moved all my belongings into the career center where I had an office or two.

Ellen and Jasmine made it Kruzof. We heard that much from them. We tried to keep cell phone use limited since there were no more opportunities to charge them. Julien and I left for the Chaichei Islands. We left from a spot closer to Kruzof than the girls and the Chaichei Islands are about 3/8 of the way there so we had a nice little early evening paddle.

I fulfilled a goal on the Chaichei Islands.  I drank Chai Tea while doing Tai Chi on the Chaicheis.  I had talked about it and I was able to fulfill it on the trip.  However, I sorta pretended to do Tai Chi.

Here is Julien with Kruzof and Mt. Edgecumbe in all its glory as the background.  The blanket of clouds is my favorite part.

Resurrecting the blog

Hi. Please bear with me while I try to start blogging again. I was blogging a bunch and then I didn't finish the kayak and then I went kayaking and then I stopped blogging.

This is the kayak as it looked on the 10th of September 2011.  I put a coat of epoxy on the deck.  Then storms came and I covered it with a tarp but the storms were strong and I was at work and then I had to do some repairs to the ends.  Now it's stored for a while.

My summer was a lot of biking and hiking.  And I lived with a piano and I played a lot of piano.  

These are my favorite photos from this last summer:

And I still need to actually do a post covering the kayak trip.

Coming soon

A post featuring pictures and stories from the Sitka to Glacier Bay kayak trip soon to come.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures.

Gone Kayaking

Hi.  Today I am leaving on a kayaking trip with 3 other friends.  I was hoping to finish building my kayak and even have time to test it out but things just didn't go as quickly as a procrastinating optimist would expect them to.  So... I was approaching the fiberglass step, I got all ready for it... but then it was clear that I would be late and left behind from the trip.  After the trip I will go visit family in Idaho and see my sister get married.  Then I will return to Sitka, find some kind of job and finish the kayak.

Ttyl!

Building the cockpit

A slideshow

Another picture

It's pretty :)