The Grand Opening

After spending a week in Sitka, riding to PA on the Eyak in gale force winds and spending four days working my butt off, it is finally finished. Problem Corner Cafe has officially open for business.

Today was my test run. I sold 18 burgers and a few mochas. All in all, I would say it was a darn good day. And I for one am glad. So many people have put some much time and energy into helping with the shop that I want it to meet everyone's expectations; and I think that it will. After today's test run, I have every faith that this summer is going to be a good summer.

It took a lot to get here - let me tell you!

Friday, back in Sitka, I called Dave on the Eyak to figure out what time I needed to start loading my stuff onto the boat. He said he would be at the city wall for loading at 2pm. So, knowing the Eyak and knowing Davy; I had my first load to the boat at about 2:30. Really, I should have known better than to even show up that early. I still had to wait a half hour to load my stuff. After my pallet of grub and gear from Costco was loaded onto the boat, I asked them what their plan was for the day. I still had a pallet full of fridges and freezers, as well as a plethora of other items strewn across town: some at my mom's house, some in Harmony's storage locker, some at Sarah's house... I was quickly told by Dave that the weather was not looking good, so they wanted to get out of town as quick as possible to try and get ahead of the blow. So, I jumped into go mode and drove to the storage locker. I loaded all the freezers and fridges into my truck, and absolutely everything else into Sarah's Subaru wagon (thank god she had a wagon...I always kind of wanted to give her a hard time about it because it is kind of a "mom" car, but I was sure grateful she had it that day.) We also had to get my luggage and different bits and pieces of equipment I had at my house.

We got it all into Sarah's car and organized in an actually pretty nice fashion. I threw a lot of equipment (toaster ovens, crock pots, coffee pots) into large trash cans that were then taped closed - hey, you do what you gotta do; everything made it down with out breaking. I also frantically through books, cords, plug-ins, ice cube trays and everything else that I had accumulated for the shop in to boxes and crammed them into Sarah's car as well.

When we got to the Eyak, someone else was loading stuff, so I waited for about 20 minuets, then we got all my stuff on board. Man I had a lot of stuff, but I'm going to be living down in PA for the summer and running a business, so I think I deserve to pack heavy in this situation.

After the boat was loaded and the passengers were ready to go, we of course ended up staying in Sitka for 3 and half more hours. That is how it goes with the Eyak... it is all HURRY UP AND WAIT. But, we eventually were on our way. Leaving the harbor, I could tell it was going to be a bumpy ride. It was pretty rolley even 10 minutes out of town. I took two seasick pills about 5 hours before we left, so I figured I would be good in that department, but those don't help the feeling of seasickness. Yes, the pills make it so I don't actually vomit, but when I am standing up, I still get the gross headache that goes along with being seasick. After about 2 hours of hanging out in the wheelhouse chatting with Dave and the rest of the crew, I called it a day and went to bed. I woke up as we were going around Cape Ommaney and had to use the bathroom, but when I stood up I got thrown across my little "state room" and thought better of it. I laid back down and thought to myself "just fall back asleep; just fall back asleep." Cape Ommaney is usually about an hour and a half out of PA, but It took longer than that due to the weather. It was blowing 40 knots and the seas were averaging 15 feet, with some 20 foot waves - thankfully my little pep talk worked, and I was able to fall back asleep. I woke up as we pulled in to PA a few hours later - THANK GOODNESS!

The four days that followed my arrival to PA were eventful and stressful. We didn't have the right fitting for this, we had the wrong part of that, we miss calculated how much material we would need, we couldn't connect our water, our water heater wouldn't work, or pluming was not designed the way we thought it was, there wouldn't be a plane to bring parts for a day and a half, the Eyak left Sitka without our parts.... the list goes on and on, but I won't put you to sleep by explaining all of it, although it would probably be a good way to vent. Just know that Mike and I ran into a lot of problems and stressed out about it all, but in the end it all worked out. It took longer than it could have, but also not as long as it could have.

I opened today, like I said in the beginning. All is going well so far. One of my mini fridges doesn't work, which sucks, and it took me a good couple hours to get my espresso grinder to work, but it seems to be working pretty well now. I think I need to make the grind a tad bit courser, but It has been working fairly well so far!

The first drink I made was a vanilla breve mocha (a mocha made with half and half instead of milk, with a little vanilla syrup). I made it for Dave on the Eyak cause the boat pulled up to the dock right as I got my espresso grinder fixed, so I wanted to try everything out! He told me that was his drink when we were riding down the weekend before (although he said he liked praline flavoring, but I am not that fancy).

Tomorrow is the GRAND OPENING... today was just the test run. I hope everything goes well.

PICTURES SOON!!!