Arctic Adventures: Volume 41 – XC Skiing

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In my opinion, winter is much more enjoyable (tolerable?) when you get outside and play in the snow. Justin & I discovered cross-country skiing in 2008 while living in New Hampshire, and we wasted no time picking up a used XC ski kit that winter. I still have the same skis and poles from 2008 and they’ve laid tracks and made memories in several states since then. And while I still will only consider myself an amateur skier, I’ve come a long way since our NH skiing adventures. 

A Gen Xer’s Ode to Cruising

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Allegiances run strong when talking about cruises. Team anti-cruise might be against it because of the potential for sea sickness, the misconception that it’s only for old fogies, the anxiety-inducing thought of being stuck on a ship in the middle of the 13,000-foot ocean, the temptation of food/drink 24 hours/day to make you gain a few lbs, and the whole environmental impact of behemoth floating cities. I get it. However, since Justin & I thoroughly enjoyed our 14-day transatlantic cruise on Holland America this month, I’m going to use this blog to dispel a few myths and defend why we love boat life!

Arctic Adventures: Volume 38—Dipnetting Take 2

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In the summer of 2021, Justin & I went dipnetting for salmon with my Uncle Fred here in Alaska. It was to be my uncle’s last trip, as it is no easy feat if you are in your 40s, let alone in your 70s as he is! While I promptly decided after dipnetting in 2021 that I was one and done, Justin was keen on filling our freezer with salmon whenever he could squeeze in a trip. The summers of 2022 and 2023 were just so incredibly busy, but this summer, a friend of Justin’s said there was an open spot on his privately chartered boat at the beginning of July, Justin said aye aye captain & anchors away!

27 Days in Baja, Mexico 

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In case you missed the several times that I might have mentioned it: we spent 27 days in La Ventana/El Sargento, a small hamlet on the Sea of Cortez (east) side of Baja California Sur. We’ve been there twice before because our friends Clara & Shadow moved there in 2018. And since we (I) need to…

Exploring Alaska: Spencer Glacier

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I have a penchant for exploring seldom-visited, off-the-beaten-path natural destinations, and since most of Alaska is inaccessible by roads, there’s no shortage of adventures I can dream of. Enter Spencer Glacier. I’ve had Spencer Glacier on my radar since we moved to Alaska. It sits 60 miles Southeast of Anchorage, but you have to take…

Summer 2023 Friend Visitors

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We’ve had most of our immediate family for a visit over the last few years since we made Alaska our permanent home, but we had our first set of FRIEND visitors! Pat is one of Justin’s buddies from high school, from the famed Seton Hall Prep Framily, which means that these 2 have been friends…

Currently: July

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Currently living/working: We are in the trenches of a very typical Alaskan life: juggling multiple jobs in the long twilight days of latitude 64. Justin guided 16 trips this month! All while squeezing in a press trip and a smattering of cleanings when he could. Meanwhile I guided 14 trips!! And I took on the…

Currently: April

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Currently living/working: Neither Justin nor I had any deadlines in April, nor any virtual presentations, nor much cleaning, nor any hours working at the library, so it felt like we didn’t work since we didn’t get paid! But, we were pitching and prepping for future projects, which is a very important piece of the freelance…

Exploring Hawaii: Oahu

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Going from Maui to the commercialized capitol island of Oahu was a bit of whiplash, but we were forewarned. The whole purpose of us spending time in Oahu was to visit Pearl Harbor National Memorial, and it was certainly the highlight of our 4-day trip.  It used to be that people just came to the…

Exploring Hawaii: Maui

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Our 8 days in Hawai’i in mid January included 4 on Maui and 4 on Oahu, which—let’s be honest—is just never enough time in Hawaii. Since this was our second time on Maui, we had already done the recon work and were armed with an agenda to explore new-to-us areas. As the second largest island…

Off-Season Visitor

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(I’m catching on a past event!) I like when visitors trickle in during our off season, as we certainly have more time and energy to host. So we were ecstatic when Justin’s sister, Jamie, decided to take an impromptu trip to Alaska in October! We hadn’t received any significant snowfall nor the true drop in…

Separate Vacations: Tennessee and Oregon

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We’ve always considered fall and winter to be our downtime since we have fewer jobs. We always stack writing projects for the winter, but they have sporadic deadlines and can be done from anywhere. So we travel!!!! Usually it’s a hello-goodbye tour to see family, but we also sprinkle in fun trips “outside” (outside=outside Alaska).…