I'm still Folked Up!

Back in the early 2000’s, I was slightly obsessed with David Gray and Elliot Smith. And last year I went on a huge Joshua Radin kick. (<---It helps that he is pretty, I mean, just look at him!). But I don’t normally listen to folk music and I almost never listen to bluegrass, unless you count Alison Krauss. So logically, I shouldn’t be a huge fan of the Alaska Folk Fest, but I’ve never been very logical. Folk Fest rocks. I was completely surprised by how much I loved it the first year I was up here, and now it’s something that I look forward to every spring. Musicians from all over the state and Canada come up to perform and every year there is one ‘headliner’. This year, the main band was De Temps Antan from Quebec. If you ever get a chance to see them live, I highly recommend it. I doubt I will rock out to their music on my next road trip, but they were fantastic. And the violin player was amazing. AMAZING. I played violin for 14 years and I’d have to play for about 100 more if I ever want to sound that good.

Folk Fest marks the beginning of spring for me. And this year, Folk Fest coincided with a week of sunny, warmer weather and my first mountain goat sighting. Nothing says spring like mountain goats! Oh sure, I saw my first robins this week too, but that’s not as cool to say.

My parents were also visiting this week and we went on a helicopter ride, out to the fish hatchery, and I took them trap shooting. We also got to see the Coast Guard shoot a howitzer into the mountains as part of the city's avalanche control. Guns and fish, nothing is more Alaskan than that!

The helicopter ride was so friggin' awesome. My favorite photos from the ride:

I like to call this my 'Lord of the Rings' shot.

Here's what it looks like to look down from a helicopter.