First Friday Art "Walk"

Some of my favorites from the Altered Books Art Show.  The
dress was life-sized and unbelievable.  Made completely of paper!

It wasn't really an Art Walk.  It was more of an Art Drive.  Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?  I suppose we could have walked it, but the locations of  the participating galleries and businesses weren't exactly close together.

They probably spanned about 2-3 miles if we walked the whole route through town.  Which is absolutely do-able, but pair that with 35 degrees out, and it's a different story!  Yes, we've acclimated to the temperatures, but - um...no thanks.  Probably more realistic in the summer.

So we drove to a few of the venues that were involved, but the one I really wanted to see was the Altered Books Art Show.  I love that type of stuff.  Creativity and books = YES.  These are some of the unique altered books

I liked this one the best!

that were on display. I thought about submitting something, but I learned about it a little too late.  I think I'll mess around with creating something for next year's show. 

Book lamp, anyone?

We also checked out one of the coffee houses that had a photography exhibit featuring the work of one of our next door neighbors.  I don't know her very well, but her work is brilliant.

On a side note, Kodiak sure does love its coffee.  There are at least 5 or 6 coffee joints around town, and they're all pretty decent.  Now 5 or 6 may not seem like much, but we're talking about an "in-town" area of only about 3 miles.  Plus, there really isn't a whole lot of variety in shopping or restaurants here.  So, 5 or 6 decent coffee joints is a lot.  And not just decent by Kodiak standards. - Real decent.  I'll get into that a little more later.

So, the exhibit at the coffee shop had a collection of photos of the spectacular natural landscapes of Kodiak, along with some other metal and photo artists that were on display:

These are our neighbor's photos

Metal pieces on display at Harborside

We finished our evening at Noodles, which is Kodiak's excuse for Thai food.  Can't tell ya how much I miss good restaurants.  They're very few and far between on Kodiak.  I guess they know they don't have to be very competitive.  But really?  If someone came in and actually made an effort to be excellent, they would make a killing.

Hubby before a meal that can only be described as Eh

There are a handful of decent spots, but not many.  There just aren't a lot of places with simple, good food to eat.  We're not talking fancy here, just well prepared, high quality food.  I can count on one hand the places where I'm a repeat customer. 

There are a few small pockets of excellence, but the majority of restaurants here are downright meager.  It's not even in the same realm as the top-notch restaurant variety we had in Key West. - But I already know that these are two islands that can't even begin to be compared.

The hubby and I have talked about how successful a simple soup vendor would be here.  Even just as a food truck.  Make a few top-notch soup varieties and rotate the recipes throughout the week.  It'd be golden.  I already picked a name.  Ready?  Soup...There It Is.  It's completely nerdy, but Saturday Night Live and early 90's hip hop fans will get it.  Everyone else will just think, hmmmm. What can I say?  I'm a sucker for dumb puns.

Of course, we're in no way looking to get into owning a business here.  It's entertaining to have those fictional conversations that aren't real goals, but are still solid ideas.  And it's always kind of fun to come up with pretend business names.  Wait, you don't do that too?  ;)  There's always the possibility we might dip our toes into being entrepreneurs at some point, but that time isn't now. 

How's that for a "restaurants on Kodiak suck" tangent?  So, the First Friday Art Walk was a fun evening with mediocre at best Thai food as the closer.  Even though it was an art drive.

Ta-ta for now.