The Rrrrrest of the Story

We have a waterfront lot about two miles north of the town of Pelican Alaska in a quaint spot called Sunnyside. Rumor has it that Sunnyside was a temporary Russian settlement for several years when some folks had to abandon ship in the late 1800s. We haven't found any artifacts to support that claim, unless the Russians were fond of blue plastic tarps, railroad spikes, miscellaneous hunks of styrofoam, enormous water-soaked wooden barges, or aluminum cans of Fanta. Anyhoo, it is a great place. I took tons of pictures. We're heading back this weekend, weather permitting.

Here's our beach:Greg surveying the barge:
So, about the enormous wooden barge... this is the story: According to local old-timer Bill Mork, Standard Oil brought a new tank to town back in 1945. It was to store the oil supply for the town's heating and cooking needs. That tank, while no longer in use, is still visible above the main boardwalk in Pelican. Standard brought the big tank in the only appropriate way - by barge. They waited for a really high tide and finally landed in Pelican to offload the tank. Bill says that "coupla" days had not only an extreme high tide, but also a huge storm. As the men (and possibly some of the sturdy womenfolk Pelican boasts) used pulleys and lines to get the tank in place high above town, gigantic waves of proportions previously unseen slammed the barge mercilessly for hours until it finally snapped free from the dock. The barge was tossed and pushed all throughout Lisianski Inlet and finally came to rest as the tide went out. Fast forward to 2001. We now own the barge. Kind of exciting to have a real piece of Alaskana. But then again, we'd like to douse it with diesel and burn it the heck off of the beach. It happens to be sitting on the best cabin site on the lot. Note to USCG friends: please disregard that diesel comment. We are totally, completely, kind of kidding!

Here is a shot of Pelican proper. You can see the current tanks up to the right side of this picture. The old tank from our barge is behind those new ones. Anyway, here are the girls tromping through our "meadow". This is pretty close to where we want to put a small (really small - like 10' by 16') cabin so we can stop sleeping in the boat each trip:Here's me keeping everyone safe with my big iron... a 12 gauge shotgun with with 00 buck shot (Greg also had his .44 mag with us for back up):I am really a crack shot, too. We did some target practice and I shot everything I intended to. Once Gwen saw that she seemed a tad more comfortable being with Mommy only and out of Daddy's eyesight. She's a little concerned with bears, as we all are and should be.

Moving along, here are the girls finding treasures: Finishing up another great outdoor meal:We have several seasonal streams plus one waterfall that seems to be available year-round. Just enjoying the shade - it was super hot out there last time!

On the way back to Juneau we stopped for a little fishing. Very little! Har! Amelia was the only one who caught anything.

She enjoyed the reeling:

She didn't seem too thrilled about the catching. Seriously! Look at that face! I can't believe how much she looks like my dad. He never cared for fishing either: Like I said, we're heading back to Pelican again this weekend if the weather holds. We'll hopefully have a chance to fish hard and get some meat in the freezer. And pictures for the blog.