Blueberry Hunting

First things first.  I'm back from Pittsburgh and somewhat recovered from a week of no sleep.  My trip home was nothing short of awful and believe me when I say I'm never flying United Airlines again, but I think that's a story for another day.  The good news is that I'm home and so is my luggage - even though we didn't make the trip back together.

This weekend we went blueberry picking.  It's kind of a big thing up here, and while I was used to the you-pick thing in Oregon - where you just show up at somebody's farm and grab corn or pumpkins or a christmas tree and then pay the farmer some money - blueberry picking in Alaska is different.  You don't pick the blueberries from a farm, you pick them from the wilderness!

These are wild blueberries!

 We first noticed the blueberries were out when we were wandering around Flattop the day before I left for Pittsburgh.  The primary purpose of the adventure was to try out my new camera lens (thanks home energy credit! Now I have the power of zoom!), so when we saw all the blueberries, we weren't equipped to bring them home with us.  Here are some pictures from that trip though:

The mountains were totally shrouded in clouds.  It's been pretty rainy here lately, which is actually a nice change of pace from the recent hot dry weather.

As we walked over the ridge, we came upon this sight which I can only describe as surreal:

Can you see the Asian ladies picking berries with their cone-shaped hats?  It honestly felt like we were transported to another country.

The blueberries can be kind of hard to spot because they grow really low to the ground and they look a lot like (what I think are) gooseberries, which taste like garbage.

See - here's some blueberries (not the red ones, dumb dumb):

and these are the gooseberries:

gooseberry:

blueberries:

Andy could be a hand model.
Also, yes I did repeat pictures, but I only had this one for reference.

So like I said, we were ill-prepared to bring berries home with us last weekend, so this weekend we bought some buckets and headed out.  Now, you'd think we'd just go to the spot where we had seen so many, but we were worried they'd be picked over after a week and we thought it might be fun to go somewhere different, so we headed out to Hatcher's Pass.  (We've been there a couple times - last fall, over Memorial Day weekend with the Woods, and last month with my parents.)

It was raining in Anchorage, but beautiful once we got past Palmer.  What a pretty day!

Once we got out of the car and walked a ways, we quickly realized there were no blueberries around.  Since Hatcher's Pass is where everyone I know goes to pick them, we were disappointed.  I did finally see some after hiking a bit, but they looked like this:

blueberries are supposed to be blue.

At least we had a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery!

And Ripley got a chance to hunt some ground squirrels:

My new camera lens, is really great.  How did I live without it all this time?!
Old range: 18-55mm, new range: 18-250mm!!

So we hopped in the car and headed back to Anchorage - stopping in Eagle River on the way to check out a spot Andy's coworker told him about called Harp Mountain.  

The trailhead was at the end of a residential street and basically went straight up the mountain.  After hiking for about 15 minutes, we finally found some berries! 

Ripley found the whole process fairly boring at first.

Until he figured out what it was we were doing up on the mountain.

Once he realized we were doing something food related, he was like a truffle smelling pig - he had a knack for locating those berries and ate about three pounds of them.  He even stuck his head in our buckets a couple of times when he realized that was easier than picking them with his mouth.  Tricky dog, that one.

We got a decent amount, but decided we needed to have MORE so we headed back to Flattop on Sunday and picked in the spot where we saw them last weekend.  The berries there were more plentiful and much bigger than the ones on Harp Mountain, so I think we found our spot!

Here's the final haul after they were all cleaned.  Picking the tiny stems off of them was by far the worst part of the whole process.

 It's hard to tell, but that is a LOT of berries (that's our biggest tupperware).  Based on the lines in our bucket, we picked about three liters.  (I'm too lazy to convert that into some more acceptable form of measurement).  I think we may go again this weekend and pick more.  I see some freezer jam (and maybe a pie?) in my future!

I can't sleep...

...so I might as well blog.

Still hanging out in Pittsburgh, which has been fun. True to past conferences, I've wormed my way into hanging out with a group from another state - this time I've found a delightful group of Arkansans. (Is that right? Arkansans? If not, they should adopt that because its really charming, though I might just feel that way because I'm saying it in my head like "Ar-Kansans" instead of "Ar-kan-saw-ans", which seems more correct? I don't know, this is what my brain is deciding to do at 4:26 a.m. eastern time rather than sleep, which is all my brain has wanted to do while I sit through the conference. But I digress.)

Back to the Arkansans: They're all very friendly and, like the other groups I've hung out with in the other conferences, seem to take pity on me for being the sole representative of my state. I also very much appreciate the fact that, unlike people I met at the last conference who came from states that will remain nameless (hint: rhymes with Nohio and Wentucky), they are not treating me like a traveling sideshow because I happen to be "from" Alaska. At the last conference someone asked me (not sarcastically) if people really live in igloos in AK. Is this a myth perpetuated in the Midwest or something? I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that in a non-joking way. Also people didn't seem to comprehend the fact that though I live in Alaska now, I did spend the prior 30 years living in states that are far less exotic to people from the boring middle states (my dad grew up in Ohio, I'm allowed to call it boring.) so I'm not technically "from" Alaska. It is oddly reminiscent of how, back when I studied abroad, Europeans would exclaim "Cool! Nirvana!" whenever I mentioned being from Seattle, despite the fact that Kurt Cobain had been dead for almost a decade at the time. 

Wow I am going on some fantastic tangents today. Did I mention I'm not sleeping? Time check - 4:35 a.m.  This is the third night in a row I've woken up from a deep sleep between 1-2 and not been able to get back to sleep until about 5. It is really a great experience, especially when you have to spend your day listening to people talk about things such asset valuation for non-traded securities and other hot topics in securities regulation. The upside to this conference is that unlike the one I attended last year in Kansas City, I actually feel like I comprehend about 50% of what people are talking about, compared to last year when I was googling most of the words coming out of the speakers' mouths. 

So I did actually take some pictures over the past few days. On Monday the Arkansans took me to a restaurant they'd heard was good. It should be - the cheapest entree was over $40! I had soup which was kind of gross, and a salad made of primarily iceberg lettuce.  My fellow diners said the steaks were fantastic, but I wasn't about to spend $50 on a steak (So I spent $30 on two mediocre starters.  Showed them!) They also had a ginormous wine list featuring a lot of wines you can buy in the grocery store (even in Alaska) for exorbitant prices. Don't get me wrong - Andy and I are regular consumers of the 14 Hands red blend, but I wouldn't pay $65 for a bottle of it, not even if it was served to me by people in tuxedoes. I guess this is why the Pittsburgh bigwigs BYOB and keep it locked up:

As in Mario. As in one of my three go-to responses when I get a hockey question in Trivial Pursuit. (The other two being Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky. You now have a 33.3% chance of getting that elusive green pie piece should a hockey question come up. You're welcome.)

On Tuesday the Arkansans mentioned a local brewery located in an old church. I was immediately sold on the idea. A couple of them voiced some (not serious) hesitation about drinking in church (they are obviously not Catholic), but got over it pretty quickly once we got inside and were blasted with the sweet stench of fermentation. 

Every church should have a full brewing operation in its apse. (That is the technical term for the spot behind the altar. I learned this in art history class in Salzburg. More trivial pursuit ammo for you. Again, you're welcome.)

The atmosphere was excellent. I was really impressed. And yes, it was a real church at one time. 

The ceiling was the best part I think:

I had a delicious IPA. It was an excellent contrast to the Amstel Light I was "forced" to drink at the conference-sponsored mixer on Monday night. 

They had a beer there called the "unholy matrimony" which I almost had because I loved the name, but it was described as being heavy on the malt, which is not my cup o' tea (beer?).

The food was also great. I had a reasonably priced pizza and likely horrified my new friends by eating almost all of it. It was not exactly what you would describe as "personal sized." Remind me of this moment next time I complain about my clothes not fitting properly, please. 

Here's a horrible picture of the outside: 

I loved this place. Probably the best thing about my trips to Pittsburgh so far. If you ever happen to find yourself in western Pennsylvania, you should go.

Speaking of going, I should probably go. Since my alarm's scheduled to go off in an hour I don't think I'll try to sleep because at this point I think I'd feel worse if I did, but I've subjected you all to enough of my ramblings at this point. Don't worry - by next week I should be back to posting pictures of my dog and my husband, who I miss a lot. Maybe my insomnia is due to my inability to sleep without a 75 pound dog on top of me?

(I am a horrible wife and don't have any pictures of Andy on my phone...however I DO have a picture that he put on my phone as the default wallpaper. After thoughtful contemplation I decided it would be appropriate to share it with you.)

I'm sorry that image is now burned into your brain. I'm hoping it's like the creepy video in The Ring and now that I've shared it, it'll stop haunting me. 

Back in Pittsburgh

After yet another harrowing full day of travel, I'm back in Pittsburgh for another conference. Unlike last time when they stuck me almost literally in the basement, I have a room with a view worthy of my high roller status. Check out the view!! (Taken with my phone's fancy panorama feature no less).

Off to get some food and crash. More from Pittsburgh later!