Talk Tuesday with Kristi Trimmer

This is the tenth installment of Talk Tuesday. Did you miss the other ones? Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7  | Week 8 | Week 9 . It amazes me that the Talk Tuesday posts are my most viewed posts – I love it! I collect the questions people ask me and answer them every Tuesday. Have a question for me about anything? Ask away in the comments below before next Tuesday.

 

How do you keep up your energy???

This past week, I have been very low energetically. When I am an emotional hot mess, I don’t have energy for anything. When I am not knee deep in tears, I can be the Energizer Bunny. I have a killer work ethic and can put in 10 hours without batting an eye. It helps that I am doing what I love. Sometimes I have to push myself to keep going. Like one past weekend, I had worked all morning, reviewed a brewery, gone on a drive, hiked a couple hours, then went fishing on my way back to town after photographing more glaciers.

I also try to eat as healthy as I can and get exercise in a few days a week to keep me going. I’m also highly addicted to Dirty Chais from Starbucks!

How do you drink for a living? Lol… I’m assuming you just sip to taste.

You would be right! I do not drink all the beer and wine that is poured for me. If you are sitting next to me at a bar, be prepared for me to pass over the tasters once I have taken my notes. Sometimes I am poured 16 2-oz tasters or all the beers a place has on tap! I take my pictures, taste each one, and typically pick out my favorites to finish drinking. That is usually 1-3, about the equivalent of one beer. Now, I am happy when the breweries send me home with growlers and the wineries tuck a bottle into my bag so I can drink it at leisure later.

I know it is hard to imagine, but I am working when at a wine or beer event or when I am interviewing. I am trying to decipher everything I am tasting, how it affects my taste buds and if it something I could recommend to my readers.I have a super palate (I need a cape!) and I am just trying to figure out what that really means. Then I have to get just the right photo – which has taken up to an hour for one shot! I do an initial shout out on social media and take notes to write up the blog post at a later date. Some beer posts are sold to other sites and I keep the rest for my site. Although I am working on an entire series on Alaskan Beers, next one is published this week in fact!

Are you even looking for Bigfoot?

I did when I went through Northern California’s Bigfoot country! But alas, I haven’t looked for him while up here in Alaska.

Biggest fish you’ve seen?

I have not done nearly as much fishing as I would have liked and have only seen a couple guys with fish in hands. I saw (and ate) this salmon when down in Seward. It was utterly delicious. I am now a huge fan of Sockeye Red Salmon!

Cost Comparisons vs. the Lower 48.

Ugh. Where do I even start? Gas stays right at $4/gal and the farther away you are from Anchorage the higher it goes, up to $5/gal. Milk and eggs flirt between $4-5 each and I saw a watermelon for $10 and I thought I was going to faint. To get my roots done in Phoenix it was about $45 and in Anchorage it is $80! To get a cut, color, blow out in Phoenix I was looking at $125 and here it is well over $150. Acupuncture and chiropractic services without insurance are about $40-60 in Phoenix and $75-200 in Anchorage. Beer is about $7-10 for a good craft beer here, compared to $4-8 in the Lower 48. My Starbucks drink here in Alaska is $5.45 and it was $4.95 in Phoenix.

If you had to pick one area in Alaska to live, where would it be and why?

I want a cabin on Resurrection Bay in Seward, Alaska as it might be the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I would want a house in the Winter though in Anchorage as it is a bit warmer and is where some of my friends are. Seward though, I could easily live there. I wish it had better cell and WiFi coverage, and because I have a completely Internet business, I would need to be in Anchorage part of the time. So, um… both!

This is Anchorage…

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Seward…  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you choose???

 

What has been your most memorable drive?

I would have to say it was when I took the detour to Stewart-Hyder off the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia, Canada as recommended by the book The Milepost. It was the first time I have ever seen a glacier, a glacier lake, and two black bears. I pulled over because this snow was so magnificently blue and I was mesmerized. It took me a few minutes of photographing it to realize I was looking at a glacier, Bear Glacier to be exact. The blue of that lake was not like anything I had ever seen in my life. Then a few minutes down the road there were two black bears eating dandelions on the side of the road. I got as close as I dared as I practiced on my BorrowLenses Canon T5i. My pics weren’t the best as I was just learning the camera, but if I close my eyes I can still see those cute bears.

To top it off, as I drove through Stewart I crossed the border into Hyder, Alaska. I had made it! I had touched Alaskan soil!! A sense of accomplishment washed over me as I felt tears of joy streaming down my face. I felt like I could do anything I set my mind to. I had just driven solo up from Arizona to Alaska!! I was completely stoked! Click on the pic to read that blog post!