So it has been HOT !!

not that I am complaining.  Have spent time at the pool everyday. Even bought a new swim suit for 245 cords = about 12 buck.  A bikini no less. My one piece finally bit the big one and they don't seem to sell anything but 2 pieces down here. So I bought one with as much fabric as I could find...which...well isn't saying a lot.

 

Any hoo...who knows if I will wear it at home. (Ha)

Have been to every restaurant in town I think...Big Wave Daves, Iguana, Jerry's Pizza, 2 of the other pizza shops and the Bamboo Beach (?)

 

Kathy gave Chizpa and the other 2 dogs baths yesterday.  It was about 95 degrees. Chizpa got loose and rolled and rolled in the dirt. Kathy was beside herself.

 

Have gotten most of my homework done. Still working on my case study.  I need to print that and make edits it is too hard to do on the computer for me.

Well am off to do something strenuous like nap in the hammock.

 

See you all this weekend

 

Beth

O.k. so I haven't blogged everyday about my vacation in Nicaragua. I guess that means I am haing too much fun to be tied to my computer. That and internet access can be a but tricky.  Have no new pictures not much has changed.  The pool is still clear and cool. The Mojitos are still tastey.  I have been out on the all day sail yesterday that was fun a bit gusty but fun. Am sitting by the pool getting ready to work on my capstone paper for my readers and writers class, but thought I would do this before I had to move up the hill to the other pool where there are outlets to plug this bad boy in. I am running low on juice, but I needed internet for the other class. I haven't found an outlet down here yet. 

 

All of the supplies I was asked to bring made it down in one piece, thank goodness. 

TTFN

OMGs!

 

I passed I passed!!

Whoo Hoo

 

I passed the MTELs !!

April vacation is appraoching slowly.  Headed back to Nicargua for 9 days.  Am looking forward to the warm weather and doing absolutely nothing.  The glow from the last visit has worn off and I am back to the daily grind.  This will be the last vacation for a while (hopefully) with student teaching beginning in the summer. Cross your fingers for an MTEL passing grade

Home and missing it already.

 

It was always about 80 something. I was never cold.

 

Days were spent by the pool, walking in the bright sun shine and eating some awesome food.  Power was out for a few afternoons but that is par for the course I am learning here in Nicaragua.  It was o.k. my online class suffered but I did get most of my reading for grad school done (by the pool of course).  Let's see I went on the all day sail. It was fun especially when we got some good wind and the boat tipped so we were almost perpendicular to the surface of the water.  We saw some dolphins feeding and playing in the distance and lots of pelicans diving into the ocean. 

 

Went on the canopy tour. It was so cool to zip through the trees. Not much wildlife ...a few monkeys.   At one point I think we were about 60 feet or more off the ground.  I would do it again in a heart beat.

 

I met the coolest couple, Ruth & Jerry.  He is 93 and she turned 83 (forgive me Ruth) on the 25th.  They have traveled everywhere.  Their stories were amazing. I could have listened for hours.  Both are from Canada.  They had never been to Nicaragua before and decided to come and stay for 2 months. Now that is the life.

 

Had breakfast at Big Wave Daves, banana pancakes.  Dave came to San Juan like 10 years ago and just never went home. He married a local woman and they have a small son.  There are lots of stories like that around here. The owners of the Gato Negro are from Vermont. There are lots of Canadians here too.

 

I traveled on a local shuttle bus...truck... to a nearby beach called playa Madera (I think). I keep getting the name wrong.  :)  It was a great surfer beach. Unfortunately my escort, Jim, slipped on a rock and slashed his knee to the bone in 2 places.  Luckily he could walk because I never would have been able to carry him back to the beach "snack shack".  We tied his shirt around his knee to stop the bleeding. There was no cell phone service so we had to try and bum a ride from someone so we could go to the hospital.  The bus/truck shuttle we took down was not goingback for 2 hours.  One guy came up all surfer dude and said "That looks bad man. My friend would take you back but he just got here and the surf man." Good thing it didn't involve an artery. Well we got a ride from another shuttle type service that brings surfers to the beach.  This van was basically held together with some shoe string, duct tape and chewing gum.  But they drove us back and dropped us at the bottom of the hill where the emergency clinic was located. The ride only cost 5 bucks. At the clinic the doctor wanted to know if it was a machette wound.  Then he poured a disinfectant on it and I thought Jim was going to pass out from the pain. But luckily no.  He had them wrap it up because he had called Dr. Jim an ER nurse turned vet to come take a look at it.  So the Doctor at the clinic wraps Jim up and we wait for Dr. Jim to arrive.  Dr Jim takes us to the vet clinic where Jim gets about 20 stitches.  So a few firsts for me. See the inside of someone's knee and a sucturing procedure.  Can't say that has ever happened before on a vacation. Anyway Jim will be fine in a few weeks. 

 

Saw the lunar eclipse sitting on the beach. It was really neat to see the moon turn crimson and watch the palm trees sway in the breeze.

I saw the sothern cross for the first time.  It was a very Jimmy Buffet moment.

 

Hope to go back for April vacation. :)

Let me say it again....AAAAHHHHH

 

It is warm and sunny.  After a quick breakfast of sweet bread and peanutbutter I headed to the pool for water areobics. And spent the rest of the early afternoon reading by the pool.

 

The drive from the Managua airport to San Juan del Sur was different.  The roads are paved but not well. At times it felt as though we were in a giant slolam as we weaved between the pot holes.  Also there were quite a few people out either riding their bikes or walking down the side of the highway. (highway - a two lane road, one lane traveling in each direction). We also passed some people sleeping on the side of the road, not off to the side but right up next to the lane.  Thank goodness Rommel, although he introduced himself as Alex, was driving otherwise I would have definitely killed someone. I never noticed these people until we were basically on top of them.  It was a 2 hour 20 minute drive.

 

I have finished some of my homework and now need a break from the computer so I am off to the pool again. I will post some pictures as soon as I can talk to George about how he has this computer configured.

 

Adios  

Can you believe I leave tomorrow and my suitcase is still empty

This time last year ...I was in London.   I had just met Dame Judi Dench and was gearing up to ring in the new year listening to the chimes of Big Ben. This year I am babysitting.  It feels rather anti climactic 2007 was in a like a lion out like a lamb.  Hopefully 2008 will be more exciting.  The unfortuante thing is I guess I need to make my own excitement.

 

I am not big on new year's resolutions but...if I were I would make one to have things be more exciting in a fun not dramatic way. If I have learned one thing from karma I have learned that you need to be very very specific.

 

 

 

So I have one more class for this semester....woo hoooo. Say it with me people.  One more semester of class, a weekend in Jan. A Monday night class and an online class and course work is complete.  Taking the MTEL in March. Doing student teaching in the summer and Sept & Oct.  And hopefully all goes well and I will be graaduated and a licensed special educator by December of 2008. 

 

And if I ever say that I want to go back to school again for anything, please please tie me to a chair until I come to my senses.

So I have been so busy as of late that I have barely had time t breath let alone truly travel.  It seems that am destined to become a solo traveler whuch has its good points no one to argue with about what to do or where to go and its bad points no one to share the adventure.  Those that say you can have it all are either lying or are living in denial. As grad school is coming to an end, yes there is light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a long and sometimes sufficating tunnel but ther is light in yonder window.  But I digress....

 

I am going to Nicaragua.  So cool I have not been to central America yet.  I am really looking forward to it.  Although I am worried about my ability to comprendo el espanol, but I figure I will get by.

 

Life happens whether we are ready or not and worrying about has not done me a whole heckofa lot so I say forget about it. It is what it is and I have no control.  I therefore am relinquishing control or any thoughts of control I may think I might have had over my life.  I am putting my life in the hands of the feather on the breeze. 

 

So I will enjoy life. Beginning my new years resolutions early I guess.  I will look to the positive and my only true goal will be to fill up the pages of my passport and continue the adventure that is my life.

Well just got back from a performance by Debbie Reynolds. She turned 75 on April 1st.  She gave a 90 minute show filled with songs, flim clips, impersonations and jokes. Mostly dirty jokes. :)

 

After the performance we asked around and found out she would be signing autographs and we headed for the line.  It was about 1/2 an hour after the show when she came out and greeted everyone. She signed autographs and posed for pictures.

 

A woman in line with us asked me to take her picture and asked if I would send it to her. She was willing to pay. :)  I took Prudences picture and emailed it to her...no charge :) Poor woman got lost on the way to the show and missed all of the 1st act. She only saw the last 20 minutes. But she was so excited to meet Ms. Reynolds.

 

Mom took my picture with Ms. Reynolds who signed my Vegas picture. She said, "Hey I look good. Where are we?"  It was from the Orleans Hotel in Vegas in 2002. She also signed my book-Her autobography. 

 

It was a fun day.

Well I traveled to Florida this past weekend (Feb 16- Feb 18) to Orlando to attend the 2007 Mega Con.  Traveling in Feb. is always an adventure. It took about 8 hours to get there with delays in Boston and D.C.  I arrived at 11:30 p.m. having been scheduled to leave Boston at 3:45 p.m.  So Friday was a complete wash. But no matter didin't have much planned anyway.  Saturday headed on the shuttle to the convention center.  The lines were impressive.  Once inside I walked the dealers room. Found some photos to purchase and then waited in line for my autograph.  Chatted with a few people in line. 

 

All in all ...It was a lot of fun. Met some really interesting people.  Got some autographs and some pictures.  Mary McDonnell was very nice as was Jamie Bamber. 

Another bea-u-ti-ful day. So much so that I have a slight sun burn even with block 50 on.  Guess I was out longer than I thought. 

 

When back to Chiniak today for a look around rather than just the drive.  The restaurant ...Road's End...was open but no pie   So I just had a burger after my hike.

 

O.K. so the road to Chiniak is a dirt road that gets worse and worse the farther you travel into Chinook and away from the city of Kodiak.  On the map it describes a part of the road as unmaintained and unsuitable for vehicles. Unfortunately they don't tell you where this unmaintained part of the road begins, so you just have to guess...well at least I have t guess.  So as the road narrowed and became more pothole infested I made a command decision that this was the definition of unmaintained and unsuitable so I found a place to park and set off on foot. 

 

After about 1/2 hour following this road and trying to avoid some of the biggest puddles I have ever seen in a road I came upon a lake which was separated from the ocean by a small strip of grassy land and a little beach. The road came even smaller and very close to the lake's edge.  I heard what sounded like a car so stopped to listen.  The local will drive just about anywhere it seems.  To my surprise a tow truck emerges from the woods.  I stay put because there is nowhere for me to go to get out of the way except for where I am currently standing.

 

The truck passes me and I follow along behind. I have no idea where the road will end up. I turn a corner and see the tow truck backed up to the edge of what looks like a beach.  I walk on past onto the beach.  So this tow truck is here to help this guy get his Ford Explorer out of the sand.   It didn't take long but boy did this guy look embarrassed. 

 

I walked the beach and explored the tide pools.  Then I went looking for the World War II bunkers.  And found about 4. I also saw some of the most beautiful coastline oh and Puffins Tried to get a picture of them but don't think I was successful.

 

Trying to book a kayaking tour for Saturday.

Whoo hoo  ....Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy....

O.k. I'm channeling John Denver but when you climb a mountain and watch an eagle soar it sort of happens.

 

Today was an absolutely amazing day here in Kodiak. The sun was shining the sky was blue. I was in short sleeves at one point but that was more caused by the uphill climb than the actual temperature.

 

I hiked up Barometer Mountain today. Not all the way to the top because I couldn't figure out how I would climb down and I didn't want to get hurt out by myself. So I opted out of reaching the summit.  But I was high enough to see all the way to Long Island which is the farthest Island within view of Kodiak. 

 

It was a challenging climb but the view was worth it.  It was so cool to have lunch and watch the eagle glide on the warm up drafts.

July 25, 6:30 ish

 

Well it was a mixed bag today.  I got started just after lunch to explore the last main road of the island, Anton Larson Road also known as the Pass.  This road is paved for the first 3 miles and then becomes a hardpacked dirt road similar to the Chiniak Highway.  The pavement ends just after the golf course.  The pass brings you to Anton Larson Bay where you can hire a boat to go fishing or to take you to a village located on the otherside of the island called Port Lions. 

 

While hiking I saw signs of deer but no bears.  As well as a few rabbits.  At one point I followed a four wheeler trail which eventually turned into a smaller trail.  At times it was challenging to find the trail but a little hunting got me back on the right path.  This time I wasn't soaked from head to toe due to the rain but I was wet from the knees down from all the water on the underbrush.  My shoes proved to be more water resistent this time out. Although I did get muddy...very muddy.  My pants are a fun shade of brown from the knee down. Thank goodness I can do laundry.

 

After a few hours strolling through the woods I packed up and headed back. Hopefuly tomorrow will sunny and I can climb Barometer Mountain.  It is basically a hike straight up. The view should be quite impressive.

 

 

Well it was pretty foggy this morning. We couldn't see Near Island. But suddenly around 11 am the fog broke and so did the rain.  Whoo hoo.  It was overcast but no rain So I jumped at the chance to get outside without rain gear.

 

I walked over the bridge to Near Island and down to the boat yard to watch the fishing boats.  Later I decided to walk up Pillar Mountain.  There is an unpaved road that winds it was to the top.  I made it about 3/4 of the way up but headed back down once I cold no longer see the road ahead.  It was kinda of neat to watch the fog/clouds roll in around me.  It had a dreamlike feel ...there were puffs of white mist that just floated by. Everything sort of shimmered around you as though it might actually vanish..wish I guess it did once the fog settled.

 

Debbie was able to fly out today.  I rode with her to the airport so I could bring her car back to the house.  Once she was aboard I headed out.  I noticed something I haven't seen in a few days     you guesses it a blue sky, so I had to follow it. I drove 30 miles from Kodiak city to Chiniak.  As I turned onto Chiniak highway I was met by a herd of cows.  Yes I said cows. Not you average Jersey black & white cows but more longhorned shaggy cows. If I hadn't been driving  would have taken a picture. The cows did well obeying the rules of the road they stayed to the right.  A few hundred feet later the pavement ended.  Now this is still the "highway" a dirt highway but a highway.  The farther I followed this bumpy dirt road the brighter the sky became.  I actually saw sun.    The coastline here continues to amaze me.  I found a restaurant along this highway called Road's End, but unfortunately it was closed.

 

I am hoping that the weather continues to improve. I have one more road to drive down and I can say that I have covered all of the highways of Kodiak. 

July 22,  at about 10:00 p.m.

 

 

It seems that I have been experiencing unusual weather patterns here in Kodiak.  The rain continues I have almost forgotten what the sun looks like.  Yesterday was a day spent mostly indoors, somehow I pulled something in my shoulder/neck and cannot -could not- turn my head without significant discomfort.  So I spent the day sharing Betts' heating pad and talking about everything under the sun while half watching the RedSox get whooped by the Mariners.  Later we watched the movie the Rookie so we are pretty much baseballed out. Wally, Deb's dad, was supposed to fly in from Anchorage today, but they need 2 miles of visibility to land and they didn't have it so the plane was diverted to Homer for refueling.  And a possible re-attempt, but the weather has not cleared so they flew back to Anchorage and Wally is hopefully coming in on the morning plane.

 

Lyle and Corky had their Sunday hike today. They have no regard for the weather. Debbie calls these little excursions "The Forced March."

 

I decided to go along again. Well it was raining pretty hard in the city of Kodiak and even worse by the time we reached the "end of the road" down by Barry Lagoon and the Kodiak Lanch Complex.  I dressed in as many layers as I could, put on my waterproof (a questionable description) hiking shoes, water resistent windbreaker and hat. W droe until the paved road ended then turned off onto a dirt road with lots of big puddles and pot holes.  We stopped on a muddy slope near a beach where we looked for fossils. Saw a bunch in the clif face and found a few in the sand and soft mud.  The beach was a dark black and gray colored sand. You could see a line in the cliff face that showed the layer of ash that once covered the island in 1912.  The wind just whipped the rain at you and caused the ocean waves to travel farther up the beach as they crashed. The storm had chrned the seas so much that there were huge piles of seaweed all along the beach.  Lyle commented that it would be pretty nasty here once the sun came out and the flies converged on the decomposing seaweed.  -Yuck

 

We did spot some reasonably fresh bear tracks but saw no bears. We saw plenty of bald eagles and a large doe.

 

After the beach we walked along the "old" road toward the launch site.  Sorry no pictures the rain was coming so hard I didn't want to take the camera out.  But there was a lone approximately 75 feet building that Lyle said opened up to reveal rockets. Under the building was a hole about 100 feet deep that held water whih the rockets turned into steam during liftoff. 

 

We walked along the ridge for a whie with the wind at out backs. The ground was soaked. My waterproof shoes proved to be falsely advertized, but I was wearing double thick wool socks so my feet were wet but not cold.  We traveled up a hill and through a valley a few times following small game trails that sometimes required pushing your way through the spruce.  You learn quickly not to follow to closely unless you enjoy getting a face full of prickily spruce needles from a swinging branch.  We walked al the way to an old World War II bunker and had a snack.  I had coffee in a mug just to hold something warm.  I wasn't cold until we stopped moving.  After a short break we were off again headed back to the truck.  I was all turned around and never would have found the truck on my own.  Although I didn't feel too badly since Lyle and Corky had had a conversation earlier on the hike about which way south was.  They had to take out the GPS tracker.

 

The final two hills back to the truck were basically all mud.  Luckily no one lost their footing coming down the first one.  Corky was having a little trouble going up the last one ...he'd take a step and just slide back down to almost where he started ... 2 steps up one slide back.  I thought he might slide into me and then we'd both end up in a muddy pile at the bottom, so I made my way up the other left side of the trail ... it was a little on the wet side with water running down but not as muddy as the side Corky was struggling with. Soon we were back at the truck with the heat blasting.  I think Lyle was concerned about my slightly blue tipped fingers. My only concern during theses "marches" is that I don't slow them down at all.  I do my best to keep up and not complain.

 

If I haven't mentioned it before...Corky is a very nice and unique individual.  If anyone watches "King f the Hill"  When Corky talks it reminds me of Bomehower ..so I only realy get about 3/4 of what he is sayng ...

and he is a tad bit hard of hearing oh and did I mention he has no periferal vision.  He is sweet he shares his biscuits with salmonberry jelly and candy bars with me.  

 

 

July 21  ... 10:30 p.m.

 

Oh what a world it would be.    Yes it is still raining.  Funny thing I seem to be handling it better than the locals. They are about ready to revolt.  The golf tournament was postponed until next Saturday.  Today had a bit of a lie in.  It looked cold and gloomy out so I went back to sleep. 

 

I know everyone back home is tired of the heat...so feel free to send it west and north. Let the sun dancing commence.   Supposedly the low pressure system will be moving out soon.  But who knows.  I have been playing a lot of scrabble with Debbie and her friends. I have consistently come in last. These ladies are cut throat. I have learned that qat is an acceptable scrabble word as it xylyl.  Who knew.  You can't use proper nouns but you can use words from other languages.  Bizarre

 

Okay so today's adventure began with Friday lunch with the girls at Henry's.  Then Betts lent me her car and I drove back to Fort Abecrombie to visit the military museum.  The museum is set right in an ammunicians bunker.  It was small which is a common theme among the cities museums.  The admissions was $3.00 which is also a commoninalty among the museums.  There were lots of maps and recovered artifacts from the area from World War II.  Most of the artifacts were severly rusted due to the highly moist climate up here.  They did have an operational ambulance and jeep as well as some field radios and a telegraph machine.  Unfortunately even with reading every exhibits descriptions the entire museum visit took about an hour.

 

So I went for a joy ride in Betts' car. I drove back down to Monashka Bay to where the road ends.  I have always wanted to go to "where the sidewalk ends". No I can say that I have.  With the weather ... at times I could only see the road a few feet in front of me due to the fog.  I stopped at an overlook we had visited last Saturday and could not even see the ocean the fog was so thick.

 

I drove around town and ended up at safeway-the grocery store. Believe it or not Wal-Mart has made it all the way to Kodiak.  A 12 pack of soda which they call 'pop' costs almost $7.00. And Newman's lemonade is almost $4.00 per 1/2 gallon.

 

I remain hopeful that the weather will break and summer will arrive.

 

About 10:30 a.m.

 

It is raining to beat the band !      The wind is blowing so hard it makes the rain crash against the windows. This was the first night I has trouble sleeping. The wind and rain pounding against the windows at odd intervales kept waking me up.  I think today will be a stay at the house day.  Yesterday I went to the movie theatre and saw the only movie playing, "Pirates of the Carribean". Which was enjoyable except for the parts that made me jump.   

 

Hopefully the sun will come back soon. It is challenging to do outdoor activities when the weather is less than cooperative.  Still 2 weeks to go so hopefully Kodiak will cooperate. I want to go kayaking and take a ride on a float plane.  Debbie knows a few pilots and will make a recommendation but she will not divulge any names until the weather clears. Its as though she doesn't trust me.     

 

The main talk of the town is how late the fish are this season.  But with all the rain lately they have finally arrived and there is much rejoicing.  About 10 days late has been the talk.

 

We have king salmon and moose roast for dinner last night.  My list of exotic foods keeps growing. Maybe I will be able to try some Caraboo too.