Blue Mussel Cabin

Well, I'm pretty certain that there are some fun excursions I'm forgetting to add, in between my last post about Sticky and this one. But these pictures are so great and we had so much fun that I am preempting order in favor of chaos and joy!

Okay, so to get to the Blue Mussel cabin we first drive out to Echo Cove which is at the very "end of the road" in Juneau. It's about 40 miles from our house. We took a 12-ft inflatable raft with a 5-horse outboard and loaded way more than we needed into it, plus ourselves and the dog.

Off we go!

The weather was sketchy as expected, but some sun was peeking through.

Home Sweet Home for two days and nights.

Saturday morning we took a hike to a meadow about a mile away from the cabin.

Lots of interesting trees, rocks and vegetation along the way. Giddyap!

Skunk cabbage and Amy.

Fairly fresh bear scat. Hmm.

Gwen named this 'Thunderstorm shelter rock" which was kind of odd since we live in Alaska where thunder is very rare.

In front of the meadow, there was a huge tidepool for a wealth of exploration.

Sea urchins on the march.

Amy's hermit crabs are fighting for dominance of the palm.

Since my lymph node removal surgery, this is how I hike.
I look like a Gomer Pyle-esque POW.

Might I also add that the exact pose I need to maintain to keep the fluid from pooling in my finger and wrists is the same one I use to praise God for this life I live and enjoy? I am often marching through the forest singing at the top of my lungs! :)

At the cabin, someone left me a bit of luxury to enhance my stay.

Beautiful views surrounded us. This is a mountain on the north side of Berners Bay called "Lion's Head".

Nope, that's not an eagle. It's a dragonfly! There were hundreds and hundreds of these guys flying all around, keeping the other biting bugs away. We never used a drop of spray to keep us from getting all' ate up'.

We could have, however, used some sunscreen. The dog is demonstrating how difficult it was to find some shade.
Good Keta.

Sunday morning, I woke up to Greg and Amy snuggling on the picnic table overlooking the water. Precious!

The girls had their own loft to sleep in. Here they are yelling, "Photobomb!"

So, there's a lot of emphasis in nature photography on waterfalls. What about the poor "landfalls" or "sodfalls"?

We could hear dirt trickling all night long.

Patootie!

Greg and the girls took a hike above the sodfall on Sunday morning. What a lovely way to honor the Sabbath day.

Greg engineered up a seasaw after Gwen found the wood and the rock and the idea.

Here's Gwen with her "cancer ribbon". She was excited to share this picture on the blog.

While we did not see any bears, we spooked one out of its bed after our Saturday hike. On Sunday, the dog was doing this brown bear imitation in the rocks.

We think Keta (rhymes with cheetah) was a little sick on this trip what with the vomit and other issues. She is better now that we're home but still lethargic. Maybe she's as wiped out as we are! It's a lot of work to go camping all the time!

All packed and loaded up, waiting for the tide to come in so we can launch. We must've looked like the marine version of the Beverly Hillbillies! :) Gwen's cringing from the sun - we're not used to it in our rainforest!

Two girls happy to be heading home, but also happy with yet another Alaska adventure!