My Birthplace

Most of you know I'm from Alaska. Some of you know I was born on the remote island of Adak at the end of the Aleutian Chain. To give you an idea of how far away that is, it's about an 8 hour flight from Atlanta to Anchorage and another 4 hour flight from Anchorage to Adak. It's pretty much almost to Russia. Here's a map.



Some interesting facts about Adak and the Everitt family:

1. There are no trees on the island, and the wind is always blowing - on average 60 mph. In fact, at the elementary school they had to build a tunnel for the buses to pull up to because the wind would knock the preschoolers down when they jumped off the bus and blow them down the road. Can you imagine what a sight that must have been!
2. My dad was on a first name basis with the military police on the island. Although he remains fairly tight-lipped about his Adak escapades, evidently he was a bit of a rabble rouser back in the day. I love it:)
3. My dad used to trap king crabs and he and my mom would host king crab party's where they served more crab legs than you could ever imagine. To this day my mom does not care for king crab because she ate so much while they were there. That's pretty much the same way I feel about salmon now.
4. On Adak my mom quit worrying about keeping everything clean for me when she caught me eating out of the dog bowl. We also lived in the military housing, which was essentially 2 duplexes connected by an inner door, and sometimes I and our Scottish terrier, Chauncey, would escape to the neighbor's through the adjoining door.

Anyway, this is the reason I'm on an Adak kick today.



When we were home for Christmas, I happened to mention to my dad that the painting above was one of my favorites that he's done. At that time it was hanging at our farm 40 minutes away, so after making my comment I thought nothing else about. But lo and behold when I walked into the garage the next day guess what was sitting there - the beautiful painting. He'd driven all the way to the farm to get it for me. Not many things bring me to tears, but that just about did me in. And what's really special about this painting is that it is of the stormy seas of Adak where I was born - painted nearly 25 years ago. We're eventually going to frame it, but for now kind of like the ragged look of the aging canvas. It goes really well the with other nautical painting in our den, compliments of my husband - please excuse the crooked picture.

I'll have to say I have some very talented men in my life!