Several weeks ago, One Aisle Over traveled up the Gastinaeu Channel to Haines, AK. We played at the Annual Haines Brew Fest, and boy, did we have a good time. We took a long weekend (Friday-Monday), played the Brew Fest on Saturday and took the rest of the weekend to bop around Haines and see some beautiful country. The Ferry ride itself was phenominal (see pictures below) and Haines is a georgeous little town. We stayed at Ron Horn's home (the Presbyterian pastor in Haines) and he was a gracious host.
The Brewfest itself was wonderulf. We were the main band, playing for 750 people who were in attendence. We received some really great feedback and sold several CD's...all in all it was very encouraging. We played a few other times through the weekend: once in front of a great coffee shop with amazing scones (see picture below) and once on the return trip on the Ferry. For both of these little sessions we put out my violin case as an after thought, but ended up making over $100! It was a great little surprise and again, very encouraging.
While staying with Ron Horn, I learned a lot about photography. He is a wonderful wildlife photographer and took me under his wing, teaching me how to use my camera and tempting me with amazing lenses. One morning he, Chris and I got up early to go look for wildlife to photograph. Our first sighting was a beautiful cinnamon colored black bear, and I was so excited to see it I forgot I was the one holding the camera. Oops. Didn't catch that shot, to say the least. But we did see a moose, swan and swallow (see below) :).