Kaptivating Kenai

(Yes, I know "captivating" is not spelled with a "K." Our high school spelled everything with a "K" to match "Kenai." For example, our mascot? The Kardinals.)

So, it is such a pretty day here, and I am sipping coffee and looking out at the beautiful Kenai River while typing this from my parents' office. I could get used to this.

Here's what we have been up to ...

Monday morning, I woke up, did a little work, blogged a little, and then got dressed for the day. My mom and I went to the Soldotna Mall to get pedicures at a new mani/pedi shop that has opened up, and Josh took Doug's truck into town to meet up with PJ and his brother, Bryce, at Short Stop. Short Stop is essentially a gas station in the middle of Soldotna, but it has a very small, indoor miniature golf area and some video games. Josh and I spent countless hours here in high school. Josh was always trying to beat some kung fu video game and held the high score for who knows how long (he reported, sadly, that it is no longer there), and eating a ridiculous amount of joe joe potatoes. What can I say ... there's wasn't a lot to do around here. :)

Mom and I arrived at the Soldotna Mall. Now, "mall" might be generous. The Soldotna Mall is more like an indoor strip mall attached to a grocery store and a Gottschalks (the only department store on the Kenai Peninsula).



Um, so ... I saw this shirt in the mall. I remember seeing it after 9/11 in the Soldotna Mall, and I was equally shocked and appalled to see it again. Seriously?



The pedicure was great. Although, my mom, in typical pushy-Italian-mom fashion, insisted the lady sanitize her tools (not that I blame her) and then wear gloves. The lady scrubbed the hell out of her feet (my mom is pretty ticklish), and I cracked up, later telling her it was revenge.

Our pretty toes.



The rest of Monday was pretty low key. My mom cooked the most amazing salmon for dinner. Then, we met up with PJ, went to Dairy Queen (also a staple from back in the day), and then back to our house.

Tuesday, we got up, got dressed, and headed into Kenai to pick up Doug's truck (he is at work until Friday). Josh wanted to drive around Old Town Kenai for a bit, so we did.

Here's a picture of Kenai Joes, one of the oldest bars in town. It's for sale. Josh wants to buy it. Haha.



We walked along the bluff for awhile. It was so pretty, and I took a gazillion pictures. Here are a few ...











Mom and Josh.



The next stop on our walk was the Russian Orthodox Church. It is a Kenai landmark and as pretty and quaint as I remembered it.





We walked from the church toward Veronica's, the coffeehouse we used to go to and my favorite hang-out spot.



Flowers in front of Veronica's.



The outside of Veronica's. We used to go for the live music where local musicians played acoustic guitars and sang what probably could best be described as folksy indie music.





As we continued our walk, we passed this law office. My mom joked that I should work there. There was a time I would have been annoyed at the thought, but it doesn't sound so bad lately.



Further along the bluff.



Flowers.



Josh.



We stopped at a little pottery shop/art gallery in Old Town and poked around. We got ready to leave, and the car died in the middle of the parking lot. Josh volunteered to walk to the pick-up truck (yes, Kenai is that small).



Mom and I stayed behind, and she called Doug to see if she could fix it. But, no luck.



Josh arrived with our ride, and we were off.

We headed back to Soldotna and ate dinner at a new restaurant called The Crossing that opened up since we were last here. It's owned by the parents of our friend from high school, and my mom and Doug gave it raving reviews, so we were excited to try it. I had the bacon-wrapped filet, and it was terrific! I think it is, by far, the best restaurant in Kenai and Soldotna! Two big thumbs up!

Back at the house, I lazed around, read a book, and vegged out. Josh and PJ went out to Hooligan's, and I stayed home to spend time with my mom. It was very relaxing.

Today, we are headed to Homer. I am supposed to be ready in 45 minutes, so I should probably get it in gear. More soon.

Hello again, Alaska.

We are in Alaska for a week for Josh's 10-year high school reunion. Already, this trip has sent me down memory lane. So, a little personal background before I launch into our trip: I grew up in Camarillo, CA. My parents are divorced. When I was in eighth grade, my step-dad's job transferred him to Alaska. My mom, sister, and I moved to Kenai, Alaska about a week before I started high school. I lived in Kenai for four years and spent the summers with my dad in Camarillo. Josh and I went to high school together (he was a year ahead of me). Our friend PJ (who now lives in L.A. also) was Josh's best friend in junior high and high school. PJ's mom and my mom became best friends, so we spent a lot of time with PJ and his family in the high school days.

We arrived in Anchorage at around two in the morning on Sunday. My mom was in baggage claim waiting for us with both of her Yorkies, one in each hand. We hugged, gathered our luggage, and went outside to find Doug who had pulled their new camper around outside baggage claim. Now, I had mocked the camper when they bought it (I'm not exactly the camper type), but I must admit, it was a very comfy three-hour ride back to Kenai. My mom brought two bottles of wine and snacks, and we drank wine and chatted while Josh snoozed.

We pulled into my mom's driveway at five in the morning, and Josh and I headed to bed. We woke up at 11:00 a.m., got dressed, and headed out to pick up PJ who got into town Wednesday.

Doug let us borrow his pick-up truck. The "Anyone Can Become An American, But You Have To Be Born a Texan" bumper sticker has since been replaced with "Bush/Cheney '04" stickers. When I said I needed to borrow some Goo Gone to remove them, I was told that he would bring me a magic marker to change the 'o4 to '08. Scared at the thought, we peeled out of the driveway and headed "for town."

Mom and Doug now live in Soldotna, but when I lived here, we lived in Kenai by PJ's parents. We drove through Soldotna into Kenai, and both Josh and I could not get over how everything was pretty much exactly the same. It was ... surreal.

We arrived in my old neighborhood. I have always been very nostalgic for the house we lived in during high school. Josh and I even had our first kiss in the garage of that place. Bug and I were devastated when mom and Doug decided to sell it. We're sappy like that.



We arrived at PJ's house and met his mom's new puppy, Bonita. She is half Chihuahua, half Poodle. PJ calls her a Beanie Baby. She really does look like one.











PJ in tow, we drove past Josh's old house and then north to Nikiski where a new brewery has sprung up since we were last here: Kassiks. PJ has raved about the beer after his last trip to Alaska, so of course, it was one of our first stops.





And, the verdict was ... two thumbs up!! We tasted all of their beers on tap, and then selected growlers of our favorites for the bbq we were having at PJ's house in the evening. We are apparently not the only fans. The place was packed!! We ended up having to wait awhile to get our beer. I passed the time by taking some candids of PJ and Josh.





I captured Josh in the middle of a rant about beer. This picture cracks me up!



We left Kassiks and headed to Carrs, the main grocery store in Kenai. To call Carrs a grocery store is really inaccurate. It is more like town square. This is the place where you will inevitably run into people you know (or who know you) and where high schoolers come to hang out (or at least did "in our day"). There is no mall in Kenai, so if you were an aspiring mallrat in the 1990s, Carrs was your place.

Luckily, we escaped Carrs without seeing a soul we knew, stopped by the liquor store, and then headed back to PJ's house where we had dinner, played Wii, and then played a card game called "Screw Your Neighbor." I suck at this game.

Around 10 p.m., we started to fade, and headed back to my mom's house to sleep. It was still light outside, which was pretty wild.

This morning, I was up early to log in and do a little work while everyone is sleeping. My mom's new house is on the Kenai River, and the office is on the second floor with a gorgeous view. Somehow, it made work feel less work-like.





While I was working, Josh dug through my closet and found his old football sweatshirt he gave me when we started dating.



Yes, that says 1994. Jesus.

I am going to crank out a little more work this morning, and then start the day. More soon ...

Memememememememe

I have been memetagged by my favorite Monkey. I never participate in those "50 things about me" email chain letters, but whaddathehell...I can try this...So, eight facts about me...

1. When I was 14, I moved to Alaska from Southern California. In fact, we arrived in Alaska less than a week before I started high school. I had never seen snow, so it was quite a shock. I lived in a small town called Kenai for all four years of high school. Despite some of the background, family drama that resulted, I ended up having a really good high school experience. Since there is nothing else to do in Kenai, I joined every activity and organization under the sun and made a lot of close friends. I also met Josh in high school. My mom and step-dad still live there, and although I look forward to visiting (it really is a gorgeous place), I cannot imagine ever moving back. Ever.

2. I went to private, Catholic school for eight years. Yeah, eight years. I met some of my very best friends there, and overall, I would say it was a good experience. I did, however, have a couple craaazy nun teachers in fourth and sixth grade. Sister Anita (4th grade) was especially rotten.

3. I have held some pretty terrible jobs. I gutted salmon in a cannery in Alaska for a summer. Basically, that means I stood by a conveyor belt in a room as cold as a refrigerator, dressed head-to-toe in rubber, and used a metal spoon that spewed water to gut fish as they passed by on the belt. (I couldn't eat fish for years after.) I also spent the summer after my freshman year of college as a roustabout on the paint crew of an oil rig in Alaska. I would take a helicopter out to the rig Monday morning and live out on the rig until my 'copter ride home Friday evening. There was only one other girl on the rig, and my crew and I spent the day painting every part of the rig you can imagine -- from the engine room to the heliport -- for twelve to fourteen hours. I even hung in a "man basket" far above the ocean to paint the exterior of the rig. The good news: it was great money for a college kid! I also held a bunch of server jobs and was a sales assistant at a low-end department store and a kiosk in a mall. I guess it ended up being good experience considering the type of law I now practice. :)

4. I was a Homecoming Princess in high school and college (yes, from oil rigs to rhinestone tiaras). I swear, I did it for the college money. :) Being in the Homecoming Court at the UW was actually pretty cool because we got to stand on the 50-yard line during halftime. It was kind of a rush.

5. I love to travel. I have studied abroad in Rome, Paris, and the Greek Isles and have seen a lot of Western Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France). My grandma took me on my first European trip when I was 12, and I have been hooked ever since. A couple years ago, I went to Turkey, and I would love to go back and spend some time in Istanbul. Last year, I went to Brazil with Heather. I really want to go to South Africa next. Or India. Or China. Hmmm. So many amazing places left to see!

6. I have two dogs, Woody and Ella. Woody is a wire fox terrier, and my grandma adopted him from a rescue in 2002. She passed away in 2003, and he has been my companion ever since. He was with me for all three years of law school and even drove cross-country with me as my little navigator when I moved back to L.A. Ella is a Yorkie and is nine months old. She is a little devil, but her puppy energy keeps our little old man young and playful. :)

7. I have a magazine addiction. I don't really even read them very closely, but I just keep buying and subscribing to more and more magazines. I never even make it through all of them, cover-to-cover. Josh is always after me to throw them away, but I can't. I may want to read them someday. :)

8. When I was little, I spent all my summers in Ontario, Canada where my family had a little cottage on a lake. My sister and I would catch frogs and swim all day and then hang out with my grandma and family in the evening. The cottage was nothing fancy, but I think it was the most wonderful place on the planet.

Now, I have to tag more victims: Sarah, Heather, Mrs. Shorty Cake... you have all been tagged. So there. :)