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.

What was I thinking?!

This picture sums up in a way that words cannot how I feel this morning.

Greg and the girls went on an overnight boat camping adventure yesterday. They took the boat out to Berner's Bay and slept in it. Now today they should be fishing. They plan to be back by 7pm this evening. The low temp overnight was near freezing. I can imagine Greg looks about the same as I do, sensing that he may have had two little munchkins in his sleeping bag all night long.

In any case, the whole idea behind this madness was that I would get some peace and quiet; I'd be able to concentrate on some work for the soccer league and also the housework and also prep for my Sunday School lesson (I'm the new teacher of the grade 1 to 5 class). And as a bonus I'd get the chance to miss the girls. If you are surrounded/bombarded by them all day, as adorable and incredible as they are, it is uber-difficult to remember what a blessing they are and how fleeting childhood is, can-I-get-an-AMEN, ladies? So I was to get caught up on all my chores, basically.

Do we think that happened? (Do not answer that Amy, whom I ended up chatting online with long about 2:30 am.)

The answer is "not even close".

I ended up finally getting in the bed at 2:54am, but then I read for about 45 minutes.... what am I reading? OK, let's make this even more embarrassing/interesting: I was reading The Grass is Always Greener Under the Septic Tank, a very entertaining book by accomplished author, speaker and humorist, Erma Bombeck, circa 1972.

Please do not try to convince yourself that I am kidding because I am not.

In a related issue, I miss the girls (and Greg) very much (really, my eyes are a bit misty just typing this), but now I am really trying to get some stuff done. Through blogging, apparently. :)

I Spy

We all headed out to Pelican the first weekend of May for some fishing and to see our property. It was a great time to be out on the boat. The water was calm and the weather was clear. We didn't catch any keepers, but we had a fun adventure. In fact, as we pulled in to Elfin Cove, we noticed a familiar face greeting us. We didn't think we knew anyone in Elfin, but alas, we found a friend. The girls couldn't believe he was there. Maybe you can see him in the pictures?

What on earth is a big stuffed Mickey in a chair doing sitting out in the wilds of Alaska? It's a long winter in Elfin, I bet. Or maybe the paparazzi finally got to him.

non-aerial wolf hunting

Seriously, we went out looking for Romeo just after Amelia's birthday. Headed out to the Mendenhall Glacier, but didn't see him nor any sign of him. Instead of shooting the wolf, we shot ourselves.... with the camera! We don't use the guns for the wolves, only for the bears (see next post).Here is Gwen's first attempt as a shutterbug! She took this perfect picture of Amelia and I next to LOTS of snow... it is finally spring now, but we had a long, dark, snowy winter. Yay for sun! Yay for warm! Yay for no shoveling!

...but let's talk about presents!

Here's the birthday girl with her big sister at the birthday dinner. She's already gunning for the gifts methinks.

A great book (anything by Boynton is awesome in my, um, book.) from Great Grandma Lockwood aka GiGi. Also, see those little bookmarks in the lower left corner? Orange flower with green square below? Well, we planted those. They have seeds built right in to he biodegradable paper and now they are plants. If I remember I'll take a picture and show you. It was a fun project to do with the girls. Thanks GiGi!

Amelia LOVES her Doodle from Grandpa and Grandma. She and Gwen actually fight over it fairly regularly. Thanks a lot! No really, we enjoy it quite a bit. We spend many an evening playing "Mommy, what do you want me to draw now?"

It's a choo-choo! Which is what Amelia is actually saying a she pulls her imaginary train whistle string. This is a 3D puzzle train that moves, from Granny. Love it!

Just a beautiful girl with a cherub face moving on to the next present.

Strawberries for dessert. Looks like she approves, huh?Oh, and these next several pictures illustrate the ham side of Amelia. Once she opened this dress that Granny made, she had to try it on immediately and then model it for us. She has this new thing where she says "cheeeeee" whenever she wants to have her picture taken. (And she does it a lot!) So she had the dress on and kept yelling "cheeeeee!!!!!" in a squeaky, highpitched, adorable-yet-progressively-louder voice until I got the camera rolling. She's really quite the little insistent superstar. No hair, can't really talk yet, but she gets her point across with no problems and in a big way.

My mom also crocheted a few handpuppets/wash mitts for her. This seahorse is her favorite, which makes sense if you know how much she loves Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle.

Amelia is TWO!

Cake: scratch butter cream with whole wheat flour, in a stack of rounds
Frosting: store-bought cream cheese - verrrrry sugary!
Decorations: purple flowers and green leavesAmelia: preciousI'm not sure if she was thinking that she had to sneak up on the candle or what. She was kind of hiding her eyes and laughing about the flame. Maybe it was just too much for her. She LOVED the part when the lights went out and the singing began.....