Before It's News: Valdez Fly-In

Valdez, where mountains meet the sea! I had never been to this gorgeous little town, so when the opportunity came up to fly out and cover the weekend celebration of pilots showing off their mad aviation skills, I quickly jumped up and said "I'll go!"

I flew out of Anchorage early Friday morning and made it to Valdez long before many of the pilots began arriving, so what do I do? Look for another story of course! It turned out all the students from the junior high/senior high (it's all the same since it's such a small town) were having lunch with some of the Warbird pilots. I shot them hanging out with the pilots and interviewed the one lucky student who actually got to ride in one of the fighter planes. I turned it into a VOSOT to go with my package once I got back into Anc.
I left out the part of the interview where the student told me it "wasn't that cool to ride in the plane because my dad has his own plane." while it may sound kinda snotty, I think she was just being your average 12 year-old... But this got me thinking, we live in a state where having your own plane really and truly changes the way you can experience Alaska.

The fly-in was interesting for me, because it was my first time being in a single engine plane. We left Valdez and flew to a secluded island where all the pilots (who were interested) could fly and enjoy breakfast together before heading back to the runway to show off their aviation skills. On the way over I looked out the window and saw all these brown specks moving on an enormous rock. Naturally, I was baffled and trying to figure it out when my pilot says, "Look at all those sea lions!" He flew a lot lower for me to see them and it was amazing! I couldn't get over how there were hundreds of them just lounging around this rock and they're so big in real life!

Ultimately my final story was just about the weekend and all these pilots getting together to show off, but I also got to experience the AK life at 10,000 feet for a brief  moment before getting back to work!

I Used To Be A Cool Kid...

Now, I'm just an adult. I'm not naive, I knew this day would come but I also wasn't in a hurry to get here. The Monroe piercing I have proudly rocked like its nobodies business for over 5 years now is officially retired!

In short, it came as a reality check from our new News Director, Lindsay. She was very pleasant about telling me it had to go, but also realistic---are other markets going to let me go on air with it? Probably not. Which is why when I got the phone call, I just simply went into my bathroom and took one last photo (pictured below) and that was that. 

Lindsay just got into town today after driving for 6 days and she watched our 10p newscast...I was the lead story and by 10:15 I got the phone call. Again, she was pleasant about telling me and didn't actually give me a deadline for when it had to come out, but I figure since we are officially meeting in person at our 1:45 afternoon news meeting, it was best to make a good first impression and not have it in when we meet. 

This is what I look like for work today:

To get even more sentimental, click here to see the last time my Monroe ever made it on TV....and witness the night, I became an adult!

Photo Snack!

I found this picture in my phone and thought I'd share it. It's nothing special, just a snap from the photog when we were set up to go live. This particular live shot was actually done in our parking lot because we have a homeless shelter across the street and earlier that morning a man was fatally beaten by four men who are now awaiting trial in jail outside the shelter. None of the men involved or the man attacked were utilizing the shelter at the time.

"Melt Your Heart" Moments

Everyone knows life is full of those "melt your heart" moments but few can melt my heart as fast as seeing Mr.Motley all curled up under the covers waiting for me to start petting him.

I sent him to live with my dad about 5 months ago, and I miss him a lot, but I was working too much to give him the proper attention he was used to. Eventually, I do plan on having Mötley live with me again. In fact, I am determined to make that happen. It just isn't while I'm in Alaska, because I really needed to be able to make some personal sacrifices to further my career down the road. 

I know dad is taking great care of him and Mötley probably even likes living at his Opa's house because he gets spoiled even more there (as if that was possible!) I also think its great for my dad to have Motley's company, I joke that the best part of me is still living at Emerald Creek as long as Mötley is there! 

But seriously, how precious is that little face poking out of the covers?! He started doing that back when we lived in Kentucky, he would bed down under the blankets and stay there all night, or somewhat work his way up to the pillow next to me like a proper human. I'm pretty sure Mötley does not realize he is a dog, he knows he's my little boy!

Photo Snack

I love moose. I especially love when I see this moose and her calf every Friday evening. The two have been hanging out in front yard pretty frequently this fall. I live about a block away from the coastal trail, which is my favorite place to run but also puts you into the woods throughout the city so to encounter moose and other wildlife is common. I noticed a black bear has also noticed the moose duo hanging around the yard because bear scat started showing up very recently as well. They aren't hibernating yet, so I guess it is just part of how Mother Nature designed things. And for the record, I have at least 1000 pictures of moose since I moved here but I will still continue to take pics every single time I see a moose! I can't help it!

Just Another Friday...

Not everyone can say they left their breakfast sitting on the counter to go shoot an APD SWAT standoff, unless you work in news! It started out like this, sleep in, cruise headlines on twitter, make breakfast, hear APD SWAT are involved in a standoff 3 blocks away...and then my day starts.

Since August, I've been working 4/10s which in reality usually ends up being more like 4/11.5s but I don't mind because I truly love my job and feel like I'm making work I can really be proud of. However, it does have a tendency to catch up with me by Friday. So by the time I logged 49 hours Thursday and knew I'd be working a full day Saturday on a sweeps story, I was day to take advantage of sleeping in and catching up on my laundry.

It may sound lame, but I reserve my Friday mornings for catching up on the weekly episode of Nashville and Grey's and then I get ready and take Cade of whatever else I need. This also means, I take my time enjoying 2 cups of coffee and something other than cereal, or toast and fruit for breakfast. I had just finished making my sweet potato and ham breakfast when Stevie and I decided I should be the one to go to the standoff. 

It wouldn't normally be me on a Friday, but we are having some interesting changes in the office right now and our staff is stretched pretty thin. I knew we needed this coverage, I wanted to be there and I knew I could turn a solid package out of it, so I got in my car and headed over to the standoff. 

Once I was there, I realized this was a much bigger story than just one MMJ, so I called in Whitney to be the reporter on it and had a pm crew do a 1-2 punch with a community angle for the story. It worked out well, I could shoot b roll while whit could line up interviews. In the end, the standoff really wasn't all that eventful. Sure SWAT used less lethal force but the suspect ended up turning himself in very in eventfully. In fact, none of the tv crews even realized it happened because the suspect actually ended up turning himself over fairly easily, it just took like 6 hours! Whit actually ended up editing the package so I could go back to enjoying the rest of my off day, but I'm actually really proud of some of the footage we got together and want to keep at least some of the VO for my own personal gratification.

Hand Tramming!

 I wanted to do something "Uniquely Alaskan" over the early fall weekends, so after hearing about these hand trams, I thought they would be perfect. Essentially it's a metal cage you pull yourself across the river in and then keep hiking into the woods to get to one of AK's many beautiful waterfalls.

But of course, to get to where the trams begin in Alyeska, you have to take the Seward Highway. We happen to look over and see the whales bubbling at the surface. Not that you can tell from my photo, but that is indeed a whale on the left hand side of the shot!

 Stevie & Al (pronounced (El because he's British) are two of my most favorite people in AK. Stevie and I work together but also hang out...A LOT! Al works for Pebble Mining, a highly controversial mining project in the state, but we don't talk shop too much around him haha!

 While I was waiting for the tram to get back to me, I saw these mushrooms. Theres absolutely nothing special about them, I just thought they looked kinda cool.

 It's about a 1 mile hike to the trams, but it's so scenenic and nice that aside from the acute paranoia I have about running into bears EVERY single time i go hiking, it never actually feels like you're working out. That's one thing I love about AK, exercising is a lot of fun when you do these outdoor activities and hikes.

 Naturally, I had to take a selfie at the midway point above the water!

 Once we kept hiking on the other side of the hand tram, this is where we ended up. The splashes felt great across my face, because it may look simple enough, but hand tramming takes some effort! Hello, triceps!

 I joke Stevie is the peanut butter to my jelly in the newsroom, but it's true. I adore her and have a great time every time we hang out.

This was about 5 minutes before I took a nasty slip on a few rocks climbing out of a little trench along the river. I was left with a few nice bruises and the air knocked out of me on that one....it's ok Alaska, I know it wasn't your fault the tread on my merrils failed me. 

Photo Snack!

Often times I find as I drive along the Seward Highway, I look out my window and realize I'm living in a dream world. Alaska, I love you!

Photo Snack!

Sometimes you see things that can only be justified by one sentence, "Only in Alaska!" This is one of those moments. I saw this corral of kegs at the Girdwood Forrest Fair. While I applaud Girdwood for having the saying "Keep Girdwood Weird" seeing kegs of beer being kept cold in the Bier Garten by the river was not weird at all, I thought it was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant using resources like that....and it made me smile!

Before It's News: U.S.S Anchorage Arrives

For those of you unfamiliar with the U.S.S. Anchorage, it's a Navy warship christened in it's namesake city in May. This was a massive celebration for the city and turned the state's largest city into a Naval hot spot for a few days.

Because this was a huge story for us, I had the pleasure of working solely as a reporter with our Chief Photojournalist, Daniel Hernandez. The day the ship came in we arrived at Port around 7:30 AM. I'll never forget seeing the USS slide along the water as she pulled into dock. It's massive and looks so sleek gliding through some of the ice we still had skimming the top of the water. It was a breath taking sight and I actually turned to Daniel and said, "Oh my gosh, it's like walking up on this gigantic interactive painting!" For a brief moment, we both forgot we needed to work and just soaked up the presence of the ship.

We interviewed families who had traveled to see their Seamen, and of course the Captain and various crew members. itvwas so emotional and overwhlming so Obviously, this caught me off guard as I'm putting the mic on Capt. Stewart, but without a beat I sarcastically popped back and we both laughed. There's something about owning your craft and knowing how to make sarcasm charming.....it's a feature I love finding in others!

A great rule of thumb for me is, if I'm giving you a hard time and busting your chops, I'm very fond of you. I always say if I don't joke with you, then there's a problem!

Alaskans waited for hours and hours each day the ship was here to go on the tour. It actually created quite a traffic jam and frenzy. During the media tour I could hardly think about how I was going to write the story because being on an active duty warship is crazy cool!!!

Watching the ship come in was like seeing the most amazing 3D painting coming to life. It was breath taking.

Daniel and I got back to the station around 1 and he had my script by 4. I finished recording the track and went home to hang out with Mr. Motley before heading back to the station to get everything ready to go live at the "Dock at The Block" Party.

Daniel and I were both really happy with the final package, but due to the difference of I'm a salaried employee and he's hourly, I had to do my live shot with our PM editor/photographer. It's rare I get to do live shots because we only do news at 9 & 10 PM and when you work dayside your shift ends at 5:30.

But it was really important to me to be live and have a really solid presence with this story so I coordinated everything for the shot. We head downtown and that week we had actually been starting the 9p news about 6 minutes after the hour because of ad sales. So I thought it was getting a little late and I'm getting nervous waiting for the live cue. I've run live shots as the photog so I know how I like things and it sometimes impacts the way I do things in front of the lens because I want to make sure everything goes smoothly, so I ask the PM photog to call the control room and they realize on the phone, we're suppose to be live at the top of the show because this was the lead story of the day.

As the PM photog is on the phone with PCR, someone calls out my name from over my left shoulder and I make the mistake of turning to say "hello" right as the photog says "Oh crap, we're live! Torrie you're live! go go go!"

So, how does this live shot kick off? Well due to the few second delay the comes with using LiveU backpacks you get a nice shot of the side of my head and my best deer in headlights face. Once I realize I'm live though...I hit the ground running and do my intro without any (other) issues.
It turns out the ENTIRE crew in production control forgot we had a live shot and later admitted that's where the ball was dropped.

In the end, the final piece came out really well, the live shot on the other hand was a lesson to learn. 1-Always be on stand-by!!!
 I'm pretty sure PCR also learned to never forget live shots =)

Halibut: The other white meat!

 Since living in Alaska, I eat a lot more fish, which I LOVE! I've always been a fan of seafood but to actually be able to catch what you're eating is amazing. Not only does it taste better when you eat it because it's so fresh, but it's also very primal. Like it awakens this inner cave woman who's 100% self sufficient and ready to survive in the wilderness on her own...well, I won't go that far, but you get the point!

 

So let me tell you about halibut fishing....I did not get sea sick, I caught the first catch of the day and I saw at least a bazillion otters which are by far the cutest sea animals I have ever seen. We couldn't get close enough in the boat to take a good photo but they are so cute! They play with their little paws in the water and float on their backs. I want one, they are so adorable.

The Bait Halibut Seem To LOVE!!

 

We all got up super early that morning, drove almost 5 hours down the peninsula to catch the charter boat, loaded up, and prepared to fish on! Once we got back to shore, the deck hands cleaned and gutted our fish and we drove the remaining 4.5 hours back to Anchorage, only to spend another 3 hours vacu-sealing our fish and stocking up what we would put in the freezer or in my case, choosing what to mail to GA I actually ended up taking Kenai Reds and Halibut back with me as a carry on and avoided mailing the fish and I was able to actually cook my favorite halibut recipe for the family. Garlic, parmesan panko halibut, for those of you wondering

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The Amazing View As We Fished.

All 60+ pounds of the halibut I then got to take home and vacu-seal for another 3 hours!

However, I must admit when I hooked my first halibut, I did yell out, "What's that?!" An honest mistake really. =)

13.1 FREAKING MILES!

13.1 FREAKING MILES! That's right, this chic did her FIRST HALF MARATHON! Technically, according to my GPS App we did 13.9 miles, but really---who's counting? Am I proud? Yes. Was I prepared? Not as much as I should've been.Will I do it again? YES!

Don't get me wrong, I am by no means an elite runner and  I am in no rush to tackle my next 13.1 but I would like to do at least one each year. Preferably in a different state so my medals are eclectic.

Speaking of medals, does anyone else notice my medal says "2011" on it? Apparently, the race sponsors of the Zombie 1/2 did not order enough medals and since I finished toward the end of the heat, I got a 2 year old medal. Hmmmmm, not so excited about that! It was kind of like crossing the finish line and being told, "We're really happy you finished but you weren't fast enough to EARN this years medal." Not cool. Lets not forget the water stations were out of water by mile 8...also, not cool.

I couldn't have done this race with out my running partner in crime, Angie Schleyer. She was with me every step of the way and motivated me to fight through the pain. Even though she could have left me in the dust because she is much faster and fit than I, she didn't and for that I am forever grateful. I couldn't have crossed that finish line without her!

We saw some beautiful sights along the way, including a bull moose in heat at mile 11 signaling out his "helllllooooo ladies, I'm lookin' for ya" mating call which only heightened my paranoia slightly, the fall colors along the coastal trail, and a couple of soldiers who found the marathon so easy they were actually smoking while gliding along the course. Interesting.