To & Fro: beautiful

July 18, 2012

Kauai's Biggest Little Town

On the advice of a local, we took a spectacular drive to the west shore, from Poipu to Hanapepe Town, the art capital of Kauai. Hanapepe, kind of fun to say, right? Every Friday, Hanapepe comes alive and celebrates local artists who open the doors of their galleries and even line the main, and possibly only, street in the town with their art. Everything from pottery to jewelry to photography. Amazing.

It's hard to believe this tiny gem of a town was once one of Kauai's largest towns, filled with soldiers during WWI. The town hasn't changed must since, it's historic buildings are so authentic it has even been the location for some movies, including "Lilo and Stitch". Except now the buildings are filled with little shops, local eateries and art galleries.

We took a walk on the "Hanapepe Swinging Bridge". A little scary, and rickety, but an adventure and touristy thing to do.

As we walked from shop to shop, we stumbled upon this little courtyard concert and sat and listened for a good hour. We like to think we blended in with the locals with our sun-kissed skin and hair.

If this was a preview of what it's like to live on Kauai, sign me up!

Spring.

This afternoon we took advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk around Westchester Lagoon. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we were entertained by all the of the birds that had returned from their winter vacation. Spring is officially in the air.

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In hockey news, the Alaska Aces beat the Stockton Thunder 4 games to 1 to win the Western Conference Semifinals. They now face the Las Vegas Wranglers in the Western Conference Championship! Let's go Aces!

Also, our roomie Kane Lafranchise was recently crowned champion of The Hockey News' "Coolest Names in Hockey" poll. Thanks to everyone that voted for him :)

Breaking Up

Spring is in the air. I know, officially spring started in March, but that was in the rest of North America. Not in Alaska. We set the record snow fall on Easter weekend... I don't call that spring.

In Alaska there is a season that comes between winter and spring. This season is called breakup. For Alaskans breakup is a word that creates excitement. It can be both dreaded and beautiful. Ugly, yet oh so awesome. Grass, and garbage, are slowly emerging from underneath the massive snow banks, my allergies have decided to make an appearance because of all the dust and dirt on the roads, water is pouring off the eaves like it is raining cats and dogs, small lakes are popping up in parking lots, potholes are large enough to swallow a car, rain boots are fashionable and our car is crusted in an inch of dirt. Not only is breakup about all of the above, but it also means sun is pouring in our windows at 6:30am, we're able to fire up the grill, take after-dinner walks and it gives us a reason to wear sunglasses at night. I've even seen people in tshirts and shorts, despite it being only reaching the mid 50s, maybe even low 60s if we've lucky. But that's Alaska for you - Breakup is what we live for. It's the reason why we put up with 8 months of darkness and 11 feet of snow. We know what comes next, and summer in AK is sooooo worth it.

View from our window at 10:45pm. And it's only going to get better.

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Thought I would share this beautiful picture from alaska.org.

This shot of Anchorage was taken at 10:30pm earlier this week.

(source)

For those of you interested in crossing Alaska off your bucket list, alaska.org is a great resource for all things to do and see in Alaska! They even have an iPhone app!

The View from Point Woronzof, Anchorage

Today we went on an adventure by the airport. We were on the hunt for the breathtaking great grey owl (yes, I am obsessed with owls). Unfortunately, we didn't have luck with the great greys, but did see a bald eagle and a northern hawk owl, just as remarkable. We took a walk down the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail and got a beautiful glimpse of downtown Anchorage, all while airplanes took off right over our heads. Such a cool, and beautiful, day!