Friday, June 4, 2010

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS JUNE ALREADY


Can you? Weren't we just talking about spring?
It is so nice and warm here, very different than
the usual weather in a rain forest. Everyday we
wake up to birds singing their lungs out and
the sun shining. There is evidence that it rains
during the night when we wake up, but it has
stopped by morning. I'm good with that!

Something woke me up in what I thought was
morning and I was like Man, it feels like I barely
slept. I looked at the clock and it was 3:00am.
It is fully light outside with birds singing and
everything awake at that time. What makes it
hard is it is still light at 11:00pm too. I think
we have something like 17 hours of full
daylight now.

Tourists are now back in full force. Yesterday
we had 3 full sized cruise ships in town, which
makes for a lot of extra bodies roaming the
sidewalks. I made the mistake of having to go
downtown for something and got caught in
the wave of people randomly wandering in
front of the car while looking at the sights.

Have you ever seen those movies of people
trying to drive cars in the countryside and
huge herds of sheep and cattle are blocking
the road and just standing there? That's
what we have here, only the sheep and
cattle are carrying Holland America
tote bags and wearing bright pink and
green stickers on their clothes telling
them which ship to get back on.

Here's the goofy part--the people they
meet when they get off the ship are
selling things like fishing trips, ATV
day trips, etc and they don't even
live here! No kidding! I drove past
there and the people lined up along
the sidewalk hawking their wares
are people that come into town for
the summer and deal with the tourists.
Then they go home, wherever home is.

Most of the tourist shops here are owned
by out of state people and a lot of the
people that work in them don't live here.
We have several that stay boarded up
all year and the owners show up just
in time to open them up for the tourists.
Then they leave the same day the
last cruise ship is here and take all that
money with them back to wherever
it is they call home.

It's like when you travel somewhere and
buy something that you thought was unique
to that area. Then you pull it out of the bag
later and realize there is a tiny Made in China
sticker on the bottom. Blech.

If you are ever planning on taking a
cruise to SE Alaska you may want to
contact a bed and breakfast or the
Chamber of Commerce in the towns
you are going to and just ask them
if they can recommend any LOCALS
to take you around. ASK before you
spend your money if that store is
owned by locals. That way the
money you spend there actually stays
there and benefits the local economy.
Plus you are going to see a whole
different part of Alaska than you will
see on a tourist bus.

O.K., sorry, got that little rant off my chest.


It was busy last week with my older
daughter's birthday party. She turned 19
and just left for a month to stay with
Grandma and visit friends. Her cake was
a bit of a challenge for me...she had a
piece of artwork that she drew of a
lady's mask and we decided to duplicate
that onto her cake:

Kind of a Picasso. In cake.

I didn't realize until I saw the pictures that the 19 I put
on there looks like a nose.



These were for the local high school's graduation party:



A fun birthday cake:



This coming week I will be making several fun
cakes, one of them is for a 50th anniversary, so
lots of gold.

I have a new car coming up this month on the
ferry for the bakery. My jeep has just gotten
too small to do deliveries from, so my husband
scouted around online and found a nice used
Ford Bronco that will work really well for me.
The back opens up nice and flat to hold lots of
food and is easy for me to get to. Plus it's 4 wheel
drive, which is essential. Our good friend
drove it from Kelso, WA all the way up to
Arlington for us and now my daughter will
drive it up to Bellingham to the ferry for us.
First she is going to fill it to the gills with
things like dog food that is soooo expensive
here because of the weight.

Off to the kitchen to start making some
flowers for a Hawaiian bridal shower
cake next week...


2 comments:

Schnitzel and the Trout said...

I love to hear to advise to the tourists. People can be very naive when traveling. I also had a nesting feeling come over me as I read about filling the new car with dog food. Planning ahead is so important. And the cakes...well, they are too perfect. You are very talented.

Anonymous said...

You make the most beautiful cakes that I have ever seen. I am constantly amazed at how creative you are.

Kate xxx