July 30, 2005

My parent’s visit went quickly. It was a great visit. They helped us settle into our new home. We showed them a small sampling of our new state. I got to fish with my dad and I wasn’t a total failure at finding some fish for him to catch.

On Tuesday, we went to Independence Mine. It was a beautiful day, unusually clear. We drove up to the mine and toured around. It was cool and breezy, but once we started walking, we were all comfortable. Even on our third visit, the place is still fascinating. They have done a good job of capturing the mine’s history and some of the photographs reveal amazing details. My dad seemed to enjoy the historical component and even shared his story of mining coal in Pennsylvania when he was young.

My mom enjoyed the views. We noticed a glacier hanging from the Chugach Mountains across the Matanuska Valley from us. She took a picture. When we got home, I looked at a topographic map and determined that the only glacier that we could have seen from that angle was the Eklutna Glacier, a glacier that Kris and I have ridden our bikes near. The straight line distance was over 35 miles, yet the view was perfectly clear. Distances seem shorter here. I can’t think of a single place in Ohio where you can look out over a valley and see 35 miles away. And that is just a typical view.

As we climbed around the mine, I was yet again amazed that Mom wanted to climb up the hills. Throughout their visit, she kept leading the way up hills and Tuesday was no different. We climbed to the mine entrance and took a look, but then she wanted to head up higher. We took the hiking trail that goes above the mine and provides fantastic views. When we reached the highest point, we had a decision to make on which way to go down. I decided we would complete the loop, even though I knew there were some steep sections on the other half. We negotiated the steeper parts. I provided Mom with some assistance, but as the trail flattened a little, she said she was fine. I turned to lead the way and shortly afterwards I heard it, the sound of sliding gravel. I know the sound well. I have slipped and fallen many times on the mountains. I turned in time to see my mother hit the ground. Luckily, she mostly just sat down. Unfortunately, she did get her hands extended in an attempt to catch herself and ended up with some wrist pain on one side and a bit of a scrape on the other hand. I felt bad for leading her into trouble, but she seemed to take the fall with a sense of humor. At the top of Hatcher’s pass, she even charged up one more trail with Kris while Dad and I set up lunch.

Wednesday was their last day here. Dad suggested we go try out the fishing here by our condo. We put on our raincoats and took our light tackle. We were targeting trout and dollies since the silvers would only be just beginning and it was only legal to fish them downstream of a street that is about a mile away. We walked to the creek and found a spot to try. I cast my #3 vibrax spinner across a bend in the creek and watched it spin in the clear water. I let the spinner drift across to the eddy on my side and as it got close, I saw a big fish come up and grab it. It was only hooked for a few seconds before the spinner shot out of its mouth and into the weeds behind us, but it would have been a huge trout so I am thinking it was a silver salmon. My first cast into my new fishing neighborhood and I hooked up. Is that a good omen?

We worked our way downstream, trying different spots along the way. There are numerous trails that lead from the paved trail down to the creek, so it is possible to get in quite a bit of fishing without using waders. At another location I watched as a huge fish mouth appeared from under the bank and swallowed my spinner. I protested verbally, but it was too late. I knew immediately that it wasn’t a trout and I knew I was in no position to fight a silver with 8 lb test line. The fish ran and jumped. I tried to steer it but it ran to the near shore along some logs and sticks. The fish stopped moving. I lightened the pressure on it, almost letting the line go slack and the fish swam back out away from shore. When I re-engaged the fish, it turned to run and the line snapped. I am pretty sure my line was damaged by the debris because it snapped with much less pressure than I had applied before.

The creek seemed clogged with spawning kings. It was amazing to see such large fish in such small water. Behind every group of kings, we could see our target, smaller fish that had to be trout or dollies waiting for a free meal of eggs. We cast, sometimes right over the top of the kings, letting our spinners drift back to the smaller fish. They made very little movement toward or away from our lures. They seemed entirely apathetic. We tried to sweeten the offering with fake eggs and even real eggs, but we couldn’t coax a bite from the trout. We worked our way down to Taku Lake and even threw a few casts there. A small fish followed my spinner, but we still couldn’t catch anything.

We worked our way back upstream with limited success. Dad finally coaxed one small dolly into biting. It was still fun. It is always fun to see the fish, even if you can’t get them to bite. Two hookups with silvers seems promising for when the season opens in my stretch of the stream on August 5. I will be using heavier gear as this will be quite a sport trying to land big fish in small water with lots of debris.

The kings will probably be done spawning by then. We saw a dead one already on this adventure. It was huge. Dad said he thought it seemed pretty stupid to be standing there in the woods by a stream filled with fish with a large dead one on the bank at our feet. It seems like an attraction for bears, but I reminded him that he was actually in the middle of the city. Later that day, I pointed out the headline on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News, “Urban Campbell Creek Runs Brown With Bears”. Apparently there are lots of bears, including grizzlies, only a couple miles upstream from our area. They don’t make a habit of coming down to our area, but I think I will be carrying some protection from now on.

We finished my parent’s visit with a nice dinner downtown. We walked around to some of the gift shops and Mom found a souvenir. It was a pleasant afternoon.

Somehow in the process of leaving, my dad forgot the fishing poles. I am sure there is no way he could forget them coming here so maybe it was a subconscious effort to keep fishing here. I suspect that we were so focused on getting the fish packed up that we forgot the poles. In his defense, none of us noticed the missing piece of luggage. It is a small package so it probably won’t cost too much to ship. Besides, I think they had their hands full with the luggage they had, the addition of a fish cooler, and Mom’s sore wrist.

We took them to the airport in the evening and said our goodbyes. It felt a little lonely as what might be our last visitors for the year left. We had such a great visit and it had come to an end. We felt a little melancholy. On the other hand, we have a lot of excitement in our lives at this point. So it was with some mixed emotions that we left the airport. We stopped at the apartment to pick up a few more items. On Thursday, we hauled two more loads and spent a couple of hours cleaning the apartment.

Then we went appliance shopping. The process was exhausting. We stopped at Sears, a local store, and then Best Buy. We had planned to shop a few more places, but Best Buy had some good deals. In addition to their good deals, they didn’t nickel and dime us on delivery and disposal. There was a deal on buying three of the same brand, so we kept going from dishwashers to refrigerators to ranges, trying to find the best combination. The clerk was helpful and patient. We finally decided on a Frigidaire set that met our needs without having too many gimmicks. We bought all white appliances which will brighten our kitchen considerably.

We also picked out a GE microwave that was on sale. That was the critical item since we had been living without a microwave in our condo. I don’t know how people survived before microwaves. You actually had to plan ahead for food and make sure things were thawed!

The total bill for our appliances was about $2100. That was a couple hundred less than we had planned to spend and we got more features in the range and dishwasher than we had expected. As the clerk was ringing us up, she said “oh, the computer says to give you a $50 gift card.” That was an unexpected additional bonus. Then she printed out two rebate forms totaling another $70. It was like they were giving us money since we wouldn’t have purchased the appliances at this point in our shopping if we weren’t already excited about the prices. We left feeling like smart consumers.

Yesterday we met with the apartment manager. He went through the apartment and filled out the final paperwork. He will deduct our electric bills and the carpet cleaning (part of the contract) from our deposit, but everything else was fine. I suppose it should be since we only lived there a few months, but you always worry that they will charge you for minor problems that were there when you moved in. I guess I shouldn’t have been concerned since the manager has been really great to deal with the whole time we lived there. So we will be getting another check in the mail for our deposit. The money was always there, but we never thought about it when assessing our financial situation so it feels like we are getting a bonus, a little more cushion in life to enjoy the remaining time we have before returning to the real world of jobs.

We did some shopping. We are looking for many items for the condo to make life more organized and easier. It is uncomfortable to be in an accumulating mode again, but it is fun to shop. For whatever reason, buying things feels good and that, ultimately, is the basis for our consumerist economy. We try to be critical on every purchase, trying to make sure that it is something we will really use. Anyway, it is fun to be on a spending spree in the name of setting up our new home.

I installed the microwave. It was a bit of a project, but it was fine. I used to really enjoy that kind of work. I don’t find that I hate it now, just that it isn’t as much fun as it used to be. It is still rewarding to complete a project and see the results. It is still rewarding to know that I didn’t pay outrageous rates to have someone else do it. At least it was a nice compact project and we now have a bright white microwave that clashes with our other dingy looking appliances.

Today the range was delivered and I installed that. Last night I pulled out the old one and cleaned - yuck! Installing the range is a simple matter of hooking up an electrical cord and adjusting the leveling feet, no big deal. Now the range is as bright and white as the microwave. The refrigerator and dishwasher weren’t in stock so they are still a couple weeks away.

The range did arrive a little beat up. The rear panel was bent quite a bit and there was a minor bend in the drawer. The delivery person said that things get beat up getting up here implying that this was normal. Since none of the problems was visible from the front, I went ahead and accepted the delivery since I knew that any functional problems would be handled. It all seems to work fine. I really am not a nit-picky consumer. I straightened a few things as I installed it.