Poseidon, one. Mike, zero.

Hello everyone! I just returned from a week spent exploring the farthest reaches of Kenai Fjords National Park on the park's boat "the Serac." The purpose of our trip was to examine a bunch of culturally significant sites that had been cataloged during a previous archaeology study, in order to determine whether there had been any disturbances/changes to said sites in the past 17 years.

You may have noticed my "poseidon, one..." title. This refers to the butt-kicking (and subsequent hurl-fest) that I received from the great sea God when I decided to skip my customary dose of sea-sickness meds prior to embarking on a four-hour journey through the rough seas of the gulf of Alaska. I had decided on an early trip that dramamine didn't work for me, as I usually feel a bit queasy even when I take it. Well let it be known that it WAS working, and that my punishment for failing to take it was swift and severe. The only upside to my experiment was the sense of elation I felt when we arrived at McCarty Fjord and the seasickness abated. It felt SO good that it was almost worth being sick..almost.

The trip itself was a hoot, if you consider 4 days on a small ship w/ four 50-60 year old ladies a hoot. In all seriousness my sailing companions proved to be great company, though I quickly grew tired of being mothered the entire time. Life on this ship proved to be vastly more comfortable than was life on the U.S.S. Kearsarge/Iwo-Jima . Our meals were all cooked by the deckhand/chef Marybeth, who used her allotted $20 per person per day budget to create fantastic meals, complete w/ appetizers, desserts, and snacks galore. A glimpse at some of our fare:

- Halibut tacos made with halibut caught the week prior by our captain, Jamie

- Coconut and pecan glazed sweet potatoes cooked for 6 hours in the crock pot

- Yogurt and granola + blueberries, strawberries, coffee and more

I could go on and on but it's hard to beat meals prepared from fish caught THAT DAY and placed on your plate a few hours later. At one point Jamie and I worked out that we had consumed $140 worth of Halibut given current market prices, and all it cost us was 20 minutes with a fishing pole and 40 minutes of prep time.

The archaeology bit proved to be a bit less exciting, as I am not a huge fan of digging 15x15cm pits in the middle of random depressions in the ground. Luckily two close encounters of the bear kind and multiple glacier viewings (see photos above) kept things interesting. Seeing a giant black bear only 20' away makes the knees weak, though I was full of bravado after our first bear hightailed it into the alders upon seeing/smelling us. The second bear encounter sucked the bravado right out of me when a black bear continued walking towards us despite our braves cries of "go away bear", and the fact that I was presenting my can of bear spray like I was about to put two in his chest, one in his head. We backed slowly away from the bear and onto the beach, and he must've gotten bored because he turned away, lumbered to the edge of a lagoon, and swam off into the sunset. Whew!

All told I had a fantastic time viewing parts of the park that are rarely seen by visitors unwilling/unable to afford the $500 dollar water taxi that is required to access the Kenai's most remote areas. Alaska is continuing to blow my mind, and I can't wait until I have my first visitors from the lower 48 (my sister in July and my girlfriend in August).I posted a short clip below this, and hope it will give ya'll a nice glimpse of the place I live. Enjoy.

Cheers,

Mike