Self Serve

Spent two great days with SERVAS hosts Mark & Pat in Anchorage. This is what was in the garage for our consumption at any time. He makes fantastic home brew! They had a pot luck with a bunch of other Anchorage SERVAS members. What an interesting well traveled bunch. 

Now that we have wifi I can post a few pictures and thoughts the next couple days. 

The weather has been amazing. Never thought I'd be in flip flops and no jacket in Alaska. Did a hike up Flat Top just outside town yesterday afternoon. 

We are now on Kodiak Island and predictions are for continued great weather.  We are delighted with our B&B here as well. 

Ready to Travel

In 2 days we head out on a BIG trip. Three weeks in Alaska. The planning began about a year ago and the time to check one off the bucket list has finally arrived.

First up will be a stay with a couple in the SERVAS travel organization who live in Anchorage. I encourage you to check out this great international organization. The link will take you to a TED talk that discusses the idea behind SERVAS at 8:45 into the talk., or you can find them at www.usservas.org. You do home stays for at least two nights in order to get to know your hosts. The main premise is to promote cross cultural understanding.

After that we head to Kodiak Island for a week. We have scheduled a trip to a remote lodge to do bear watching with Kodiak Treks. If you don't hear from me again after August 5th or so...you get the idea.

Saw a great post on the site of a fellow paper artist I met at Interlochen Arts Academy this summer about packing your art supplies.  Find her blog here. Here is her rendition for storing brushes:

Scounged around in my supplies and came up with this:

I used buttons to hold the elastic to the non slip rug "stuff" I had on hand. the film canister tops hold gouache of different colors I can use with my copper plate nibs I'm taking along. The nibs are being kept safe int eh little clear plastic screw top container in the lower right. A glue stick, small scissors and my trusty 8X10 journal of choice I shared a few posts back complete what I'm taking on this adventure.