Listed below is a recap of an adventure that happened pre Thanksgiving….I am trying to catch up!
——————————————————
I have worked at Crate and Barrel off and on since 1998. I think I finally went full-time in 2013. If you saw my home (and now my storage unit) you would definitely say that I love the product. Cause I have a ton of Crate glasses, vases, plates, baskets, etc. packed up and ready to come to Alaska. Hello Serenity Wine glass…I do miss you ! Oh Basketweave…it was so weird not eating my Thanksgiving dinner off you. I miss my store, my coworkers and yes Lord, that awesome discount! As anyone who has worked retail knows…its a given that you are working weekends. So my very first Saturday in Alaska…I didn’t know what to do. It felt weird not being at Crate…heck it felt weird working a straight Monday thru Friday work week.
In addition to my love for Crate and Barrel, I have a love for crabs. To my everlasting regret, I didn’t get to enjoy some Maryland crabs before I left the East Coast. I told my sister and she was like…don’t worry we will get you some Alaskan King Crabs. So when I had been here two weeks without any crabs, I had to let a sista know. Add to the fact that it was a weekend and I wasn’t at Crate…well…what’s a Miles girl supposed to do??? She goes crabbing that’s what!
In Maryland we are very fortunate. While in season, it seems like blue crabs are abundant…like rain in a rainforest. You can get them at the grocery store, at the wharf, at your local seafood shop, or on the side of the road. If you are like Jocelyn and I, you can get them with a chicken tied to a piece of string, dropped off a pier in Annapolis, Maryland. Here’s what we learned to do one summer: you buy a drumstick or a thigh, tie one end to the chicken and the other to a pier (for best results the string should be pretty long), throw the chicken as far as you can and wait for the string to “walk.” Once the string starts walking, you slowly pull the string ever so gently back to you, and if the crab hasn’t dropped off….you use a net to catch your dinner. Jocelyn and I enjoyed the solitude of sitting on the pier, conversating with each other (as well as with Johnathan and Imara) and enjoying the Maryland scenery. It also got to the point that I began to hate paying for crabs as I felt that I could catch better than what was being sold at my local store.
So why not try to duplicate this method in Juneau, Alaska? It can’t be that hard, ya think?
For one thing…they really don’t have piers…at least not at Echo Cove. So we couldn’t tie the string and throw the chicken in the water to catch some unsuspecting crab. We also didn’t have enough string. So we waded into the water and while we had on boots they weren’t wading boots so we could only go so far. So we are not in the deepest part of the water and neither is our string. So Yeah…this is NOT going to work. So in the midst of deciding that this is not working…Jocelyn thinks she sees something in the woods and wants to talk about Rules of Engagement. Rules of Engagements I say again, oh so innocently. Yes, she answers. Rules of Engagement for BEARS?!
Yep…that is Monday walking to the car.
I. AM. SO. DONE.
And for the inquiring minds out there….no I didn’t eat crabs that day. I finally had a Dungeness Crab that I bought at the Fred Meyer, which is an upscale Super Walmart. Any Alaskan will tell you the best way to catch a crab is to have a boat/kayak and a crab pot. So we will see how this rolls next summer.
Below are a couple of pictures of Jocelyn, Johnathan and I coming back from Echo Cove. We did a quick stop on Egan Highway to bring you the following: