SELDOVIASo, here we are: Sean and I set up the van in my mom's driveway. We started cooking meals for all 5 of us (me, Sean, Mom, Bret (brother) and Erin) in her little tiny kitchen. We shared her space, her food and her view for over two months. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful perch.
This is the view from her house
She also has a nice flat area in front of her house, great for potlucks.
My Dad's house is great too. The black gravel beach creates its own little climate. It radiates heat on a sunny day, and it wards off the fog when it comes up the bay.
Wild flowers grow on the cliffs just down the beach from him
And the woods surrounding his house are lush and filled with berries and mushrooms and beautiful plant life.
The porch of his shop is perfect for hanging out. You can watch the weather change, spy on all the boat traffic in the bay, and pet his dog Roxy, who is very sweet.
You can walk up the bay on various trails and beaches
And interesting things happen in his house too.
Town is beautiful. There are so many places that just take my breath away.
And the people are one of the town's best assets. All sorts of people co-exist and relate to each other on a daily basis. It is fun to watch people from totally different backgrounds spending time together and appreciating each others various talents. There are frequent potlucks at people's houses, and most of them include music (which Sean got involved with right away) and fresh seafood or garden veggies.
Town doesn't make much of a dent in the forest, or the shoreline. The plants and the tides make their way into the city limits and become a huge part of the city scape itself
Art:
I have taken a lot of time to do art this summer. I have only been working between 3 and 4 days a week. That and the long daylight hours give me a lot of time for creativity.
Being around my family helps too. I get to play with clay with my mom, and I get to marvel at my dad's various projects.
I was also welcomed back into a community of artists. I had the opportunity to learn about paper making with local artist Andy Dunham.
Beach hiking:
I have lots of favorite places here. I brought Sean to a lot of them, including lots of the beaches around Seldovia. The beach between Barabara Point and Seldovia Point is pretty close to my mom's house, and just requires a short scramble down the bluff. The beach has lots of interesting secrets, like petrified wood and fossils.
It is also a great place to watch birds. We saw Eagles and swans among other things.
This year was a good snail year. Everywhere we went they lay in thick carpets over tidal rocks.
The lichens and plants along the shore are also very colorful.
Bret and Erin introduced us to a new way of enjoying the coast. We discovered the joy of pack rafting.
You can carry more rocks home in a packraft than you can in a backpack!
Mountain Hiking:
The mountains are also very accessible from Seldovia. Some of it requires a bit of bush wacking, but it is well worth the effort
My brother is probably the most knowledgeable hikers in the area. It was like having a private guide at our disposal. 
Going into the alpine is like going back in time. While summer is in full swing at sea leval, spring is just begining in the mountain meadows.
Erin's mom and aunt visited for a while, and rented kayaks for us. 
We also had some unespected visitors. While in Homer for a concert, Sean ran into a girl we had met in Haines, and he convinced her and her friend to come see Seldovia. I also saw Katie Hopkins, who I met in Eugene, when she came to visit her uncle in town.
Homer was also pretty accessable for us because my friend Monica is now the captain of one of the tour boats out of Homer, so we could get rides with her whenever we wanted to go over to the big city for anything.
We made it in time for salmon, and spent a lot of time canning and freezing fish for the winter
People who visit Seldovia often ask, "So what do people DO around here." I want to say, "A lot more than you could possibly imagine."
More soon!!!
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