In the Good Ol' USA

How can I wrap up the rest of our Alaska trip in one post? I think it would be impossible... but I will do my best.

Deer hanging out in the yard...
One of the most memorable things for me was a trip across "the narrows" for a visit. Here is the boat coming to pick us up!..
Our expert captain...
Our new friends with Lita! This is one time, (along with many others) I wished our other kids were with us. What fun they would have had!..
The boat is rigged up on a rope and pulley system so they can move the boat with the tide...
We had such a nice time together as we sipped raspberry/nettle Tea and talked about life on the island. A lot like my own life in many ways... but really, so very different. The kids had so much to tell me too and I had fun telling them about where I live. The time was gone before we knew it and we had to head back across the water...


These nasturtium's were growing everywhere! Apparently they love this climate...

I have to post a picture of my Alaskan Sneakers. They were provided for us and we wore them much of the time while walking around the island. Also, see that ground I'm standing on? It is called muskeg and it is a spongy, squishy, wet bogland that is made up of layers of decaying and living foliage. So different from the hard packed ground we have back home...

This was the cool, drizzly day we left. We had a little time in the morning so Auntie Karen took me out to the shoreline to do some beach combing...
We weren't looking for seashells although I did find a few of them. We were looking for sea glass. It comes from an old "dump site" out in the water off the coast here and the glass pieces are washed smooth and they eventually make there way up onto the shore...
Mostly green and brown and clear glass. Very rare to find blue pieces...

While we where "combing" the guys were out "brushing". They were out climbing through the brush down into a garnet mine where they went garnet mining, with picks, and found lots of pretty garnets to bring back for the kids. These may have added a pound or two to our luggage but oh so worth it! The kids really enjoyed these treasures!..

This view (below) is near the garnet mine...


No pictures of the following, but so special none-the-less!
-Our friend Keith only lives about 20 miles from us here in Montana but we had to go to Alaska to really get to know him. :)
-A wedding reception of another Montana connection acquaintance, Ashley, and her new husband Marcus. It was neat to see their new home!
-I also enjoyed my time shopping around town with Auntie Karen, eating out a couple times, and just relaxing at her nice cozy home. It gave us lots of time to visit and now I miss that.
-Two fellowship meetings added the icing on the birthday cake.


When I was making the travel plans I emailed Uncle Joe and asked him if we needed passports to travel there. He emailed me back that no, we wouldn't need passports, "Alaska is in the good ol' USA", he joked. Yes I know (haha!), but... it just seemed like a place all it's own. And it was!

We will never forget this special place, these special people and the special memories we made while we were there!

Thanks again to those who shared it all with us!
Alison

Alaskan Rain Forest

We really enjoyed our Sunday walk through the rain forest. I wonder if Karen and I would have enjoyed it a little less if we would have seen this sign BEFORE we went on our walk. The men decided not to point it out to us when they saw it at the beginning of the trail, but I noticed Uncle Joe looking around for a big stick... (here, let me hit YOU with that!) Maybe us ladies should not have been yacking so much and paid a little more attention. Well, at least we had two men and a big stick to protect us...

Needless to say, it was a beautiful walk through the lush, green island forest. Huge tree, huge ferns, abundant mosses, huge patches of Devil's Claw, huge leaves... you get the picture. I can see why huge Mama Bear and her huge, little ones would want to hang out here. So glad we didn't run into them!

Another HUGE thank you,
Alison

For the Love of Silver

Uncle Joe took Randy stream fishing for Silver Salmon on both Friday and Saturday. These two are old fishing buddies and back here in Montana they enjoyed a number of fishing trips together. I think they had a good time and a successful couple of days. They limited out on Salmon and the first day they took them into a local fish processor to be smoked and packaged up.

I think they did a combination of fly fishing and bobber fishing between the two of them. Whatever they did, they were knocking 'em dead! Nice one Joe...
Apparently they where not the only ones who love the Silver! This little cub was hanging around the stream picking up what he could. They kept their eyes out for a Mama Sow but never saw one. Maybe he was all alone in the world...
But here is evidence that a bear of the bigger sort had been around fairly recently...
Nice...
A beautiful place...
These Salmon are in their spawning season. They are headed from the ocean up the streams to where they were born. When there, they lay their eggs and die. This pink color is very common during the time they are spawning...
They didn't keep any fish on the second day of fishing. Really you can only use so much fish I guess. Catch and Release works well... or giving it away to the big-eyed little boy just down the stream. He told his Grandpa "it won't even fit in the bucket!"
Do we have to leave now?..
Karen and I walked out to visit them. Here we are looking upstream...
And this is looking downstream. Randy said that as the tide would come in on the ocean, the rushing of the water going downstream would fade away and the rocks (in the picture below) would gradually disappear under water. Then before long the water would be flowing in the opposite direction! Nature continues to amaze!
They say a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work. But, work must be done and the fish left behind for another day...

Thank you SO much Uncle Joe!

Alison

Harbor Stroll

Both Randy and I found the harbor's very captivating. We enjoyed a couple harbor strolls when we were there. Many of the fishing boats were in the harbor while we were there. We learned about three different way the big fishing boats operate (and if I tried to explain it I would look like an absolute fool). Anyway, every boat was so interesting, like they all had their own personality.

One of the most interesting boats was this boat called the Saga...
It was fun to meet Captain Dennis of the Saga. This was part of their shrimp catch for the day...
Dennis is a storyteller and poet. We brought a little of Dennis home with us in his published book called In the Wake of the Alaska Mail Boat. It is a great book about the life of his father who ran the mail boat route for many years from Juneau going South. He has another book coming out soon about his own life of fishing and hunting in his native land and water. These are great reads!

The green building in this picture is a big cannery...
We saw many seagulls and a few sea lions. Someone compared these homely sea creatures to grizzly bears in the water. They can be big and vicious! We weren't sure how close we should get to this guy...
This is a very rainy place and in late September they head into their rainy season. We were lucky enough to get a couple of days where there was no rain and it wasn't completely overcast...
Some refer to this place as "Little Norway" of Alaska. It was settled many years ago by Norwegian anglers and to this day is largely populated by people of Scandinavian origin. Loved all the Norwegian details on the buildings and the spirit of hospitality and congeniality that we noticed from the towns folks and friends...
This little park on the edge of the harbor is a memorial to all the loved ones lost at sea. So many, many names printed on metal plaques around the park. The life, and death, of many the fisherman...
Along with all the boats, we saw many a float plane in the harbor. The quickest way to go from place to place!
Because this Island is more secluded by narrow passages, no large cruise ships visit here. Looking around as we walked along provided us with some insight into the character of a true Alaskan town... isolated, with an obvious spirit of community and self-sufficiency.

Oh, and I could get used to eating shrimp, salmon, crab and halibut every day... I really could!!! Thanks Auntie Karen for teaching me how to cook seafood the right way!

Up next... Randy gets to go fishing and thanks to Uncle Joe and our buddy Keith, we get to enjoy some of that fish!
(what you've all been waiting for)

Alison

A Birthday Surprise

a surprise trip itinerary in his birthday card at the airport!

Randy is celebrating a big birthday this year. It was a long time ago that I had the idea to surprise him by planning some kind of a trip somewhere, to a place I knew he would enjoy. Something with an airshow, hiking, or fishing destination.

Anyway, back in April/May, I was trying to decide where and how and what I should do. I couldn't get the idea out of my mind to go to Alaska. There's a special little place there where some special people live that we've wanted to go see for a long time!

I was a little nervous though. Okay, maybe a LOT nervous. I'm not a big airline traveler myself. Although Randy has flown all over the world for work, this would be only the fifth time I've ever flown somewhere in my entire life! I was nervous about making the travel plans, nervous about traveling with an infant, nervous about leaving the kids.

But I went ahead with it anyway and I'm so glad I did. I initially told Randy the time he would have to take off work and I told him the cost his "surprise" would be. I didn't want to surprise him TO much plus I knew he would see the cost show up in his financial records somewhere along the way and REALLY wonder.

So for 5 months I kept the surprise. Then as I was getting our bags packed and trying to decide what to take and what not too, the night before we left, he saw warm clothes and rain gear and a few other things that made him wonder if we were headed to "Uncle Joe's" in Alaska. He went to bed that night with a big smile on his face!

Here we are boarding Alaska Air very early in the morning, headed out on a new adventure...
Lita is ALL smiles as we wait for our next plane in the big bustling Seattle Airport...
The scenery out the window on our flight north was indescribable! Miles and miles of icy, mountainous, untouched territory...
Actually flying over our destination. You can see the island below where we will land later in the day...
Getting a bite to eat in Juneau!
As we are ready to board our plane at Juneau. You can see the top of Mendenhall Glacier to the right of Lita's head...
Destination...
I couldn't believe how smoothly our trip went on our way there! Lita traveled so well and it was a very positive, relaxing experience! I just felt all my worries and nervousness melt away.

We had such good days there and before we knew it, it was time to go back to the airport and head home.

Here we are with Uncle Joe and Auntie Karen (Lita's newest Grandpa and Grandma) waiting to board our flight home...
There was lots of turbulence as we headed back south. We stopped in Wrangell and Ketchikan and each stop made me feel a little sicker. Finally things settled down as we headed toward Seattle and my stomach settled down too. Lita did fine through it all. Here's our happy lap baby...
We had such a wonderful trip. I did miss the kids though and it was so good to get back to the other half of the family and feel complete again. Grandpa and Grandma did such a great job of keeping things running smoothly while we were gone! (THANKS!)

It's been fun to relive the trip over and over as we share the pictures and memories with the kids! Hopefully over the next few days I can share those pictures and memories on here with you...

Have a great week everyone,
Alison