Prelude

T minus 29 days.

I have always been most comfortable in the outdoors. 

I do't sleep well inside. Give me a berth on a rolling sea, a tent high in the mountains or a perch on a windy beach and I am at home. 

When I was young I lived and worked in Alaska. I left there long ago and life happened, family and work separated me by a gulf far larger than any physical distance could. 

I always dreamed of going back. When one goes to Alaska, one never truly leaves. The spark had always been in my heart.

And then suddenly, the kids were grown and things weren't quite so imperative anymore. So Dee and I embarked on a great adventure almost a year ago. For those of you who know us, you know that Modern Alchemy was launched out of passion, and continues to be just that. We knew that it would never be something that would make us monetarily rich, but oh how rich we've become in the course of that year! 

What a journey it's already been.

We've moved from the coast of Texas, to the verdant inland of Victoria, where we took an enormous financial beating, but made some lifelong friends (as well as encountering some rather unsavory individuals as is always the case) then back to the open expanses of deep South Texas near where we grew up, where we now live adjacent to our oldest and dearest friends in a quiet ranch setting.

Throughout our 22 years of marriage Dee always told me about how she dreamed of going to Alaska, In the past several years she quantified this by saying: "I want to go to Alaska, but not just to visit....I want to stay and work for awhile". So last fall I began to search in earnest for somewhere that would see us for who we are, and what we do. 

The money was ancillary. 

I submitted our information, our bios and our passion for cooking and working together and we were noticed by a well established lodge on the Kenai Peninsula. After a bit of getting-to-know -you interviews we were hired. We'll be working from June first through the middle of September, then taking a circuitous route home to Texas via Kodiak and other destinations. There'll be lots of "firsts" First time ever we've been away from our families for any length of time, but we are excited and confident that things will be just fine. First travel via air since 9-11...

And, this is the first post of this amazing journey. We will update it to the Modern Alchemy Facebook page whenever we post (which will be often). Won't you join us?