June 29 2008

Being anxious to get farther south we decided to push the night and drive from Liard Hot Springs rather than camp there for the night. We were pleased to find a pull out at a view spot that did not have a no overnight parking sign by it. This really is a different trip than the time I came through 10 years ago. I remember on that trip how far I felt I was from everything. I found the area isolated and empty. Where as on this trip I felt that I was very close to things. It filled my soul to have the privilege of being in such a place. The vast stretches of untouched forests are simply amazing. Those forests are a place where trees fall and no one hears them.

I was surprised to learn that we were next to the terminal range of the Rocky Mountains. It is always fun to find a land mark like that. When we are in New Mexico I would like to try to get to the southern terminal range so that I will have been to both ends of the Rockies.

If I read the sign right and remember my pictures correctly that is the terminal range of the Rocky Mountains.

A mountain sheep

We didn't have any activity planned for the day other than driving. We stopped for a while for the kids to play on some playground equipment at one of the gas stations. We met some people who were school teachers with the summer off taking their family from Pennsylvania to Alaska. They were a lot of fun to talk to and seemed to be enjoying their road trip. It was tempting to just stay at the RV park next to the camp ground for the night but we decided to push farther south because it seems it is often easier to get miles (or kilometers while traveling in Canada) in the evening than in the morning. To many consecutive evenings of driving are a recipe for getting the kids to start fighting but we guessed and were right that we would get away with it this evening.

We had all of the tanks which needed to be empty full and all of the tanks full which needed to be empty so we got a full hookup site in Fort St. Johns for the night. I wasn't over or under whelmed with the park for quality. It was nice to have a place to sleep.

The exciting part of the morning driving was that after only a little more driving we arrived at Dawson Creek, mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. We celebrated finishing the Alaska Highway portion of the drive by buying a couple of pizzas for lunch. There was an internet hot spot in the parking lot by the information center but I wasn't able to connect to it from inside of the trailer and found the sunlight to bright and the wind too strong to make browsing on the internet practical outside. I went into the information center hoping to find a bench from which to work. I realized of course that being an information booth they probably could tell me exactly what I wanted to find on line anyway. It is funny how technology sometimes becomes a crutch. The information desk was in deed helpful and we got more ideas of fun things to do in Edmonton than time to do them. There is a small museum attached to the information center. We decided to take the kids through the museum both to get them some more time out of their seats and to make some steps back toward our original charter of the travel and work toward learning as much as possible not only from books but especially from the new places we visit.

Once inside the museum I found myself disappointed that we had not gone in the museum on our way up the highway. There was a lot of fascinating information about the construction of the highway. I don't feel verbose enough to mention much of it here but a couple things that stood out to me were that even though the percentage of African Americans in the military was somewhere around 3% the percentage of soldiers working on the road who were African American was on the order of 40%. It is sometimes hard to remember how different the world was not very long ago. Another thing I thought was funny is that since the punishment for driving a truck off the road was 5 days in KP. The fact that KP was heated and the truck was not meant that there were several trucks which were deliberately slid off the road in order to offer the driver a chance to warm up. The military changed their policy to be first the truck needed to be pulled out and then the driver could go to detention.

A very basic fact that I had missed was the reason for the road in the first place. The road was constructed as part of a military objective in World War II. It is easy to think of a road as simply a road and not give much thought to its presence. It is hard to say if the highway had an influence on the war but for what ever reason it makes me think of the road differently knowing that it was constructed for a war.

The day's driving got us to Williamson Provincial Park about an hour out of Grand Prairie by around 5PM. Not wanting to try and cheat another evening out of the kids we stopped for the night. The park is gorgeous. There is a huge lake and lots of cut grass to play on. The kids were also happy to have playground equipment. On the drive I was telling Lexie that you just never know when you are going to have a lot of fun. When on thinks back on the highlights of one's life those moments that stand out the brightest are often spontaneous and unmeditated. They are moments at which one is living for the moment and nothing else. While it is uncertain how long the memories will last this evening did provide those sort of moments. After dinner with near perfect out door weather we started a fire to roast marshmallows, played our story game where one person will start a story and then everyone else will take a turn continuing the story and finally played a version of charades in which I was the "animal wizard" and would turn the kids into animals, the only way they could be returned to their human state was for a human to guess which animal they were. I was delighted with how well David played the game. He made a wonderful lion and then a wonderful little frog.

The kids liked getting out on playground equipment.

We shared a wonderful evening as a family.

Natalyn taking her turn as the animal wizard.

I thought it was great to see Canadian geese in Canada. I am not sure that this was not my first time to see wild goslings.

We got started relatively early in the morning to try to get to Edmonton by noon. We made it by 1:00 Mountain Time which proved to be soon enough. We went straight to the Fort Edmonton Living History Museum. I was very impressed with the fort. The exterior walls were about 25 feet high with a large look out tower in the fort. There were several people in costume who would answer questions and give information about the time period. I was impressed to see a narrow covered wagon and realized that I had failed to ever think about the large western migration that had happened in Canada. When people came from Europe I always took it for granted that they came to the US but the fact was that many went to Canada. After the fort there are different streets representing different time periods starting at 1885 and moving into the 1940's in about 20 year increments. I was impressed that in the 1900's people lived in Edmonton year round in wall tents while they were waiting for their houses to be built in the midst of a labor shortage. I continue to get more and more interested in wall tents.

The kids made themselves a nest out of lawn clippings. I am sure they understood the reason they needed to do it.

The kids observing and old chess set (the chess set isn't in the picture)

Fort Edmonton

A trip back in time.

After finding the first two RV parks we tried full and finding that despite Lexie's best efforts at selling the idea, the kids were not absolutely enthralled with the thought of seeing dead people without their skin, we decided to move south toward Drumheller and skip a trip to the local science museum we had been considering. We did find that the Body Worlds exhibit which we are interested in seeing will be in Salt Lake this fall. I was a little superstitious about our decision not to see the exhibit in as much as we were in line for the exhibit in Phoenix and got out of line the same day we got in the car accident. So far if there is a curse attached to skipping the exhibit it has passed us over.

The evening driving got us to a Wal Mart about an hour north of Drumheller in Stettler. It was nice to find a free spot to camp for the night. A very unpleasant discovery that evening was that somehow a mouse had gotten into our trailer. Fortunately Lexie was very brave and was much quite rational about the situation. In the morning we bought several supplies for killing and scaring mice.

Having learned in Edmonton that Canada Day was on Tuesday July 1st and was resulting in full campgrounds we made securing a camp site the first order of business upon arriving in Drumheller. We were pleased to get the second to last site available at the park which I am not really sure is even a true site in that we are parked in a driveway next to the campground owner's house using water and power from the house. At any rate it has a huge tree for shade and the park has a good location in town.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum is great not only in name but in content. Seeing the displays in the museum got me excited to finally learn the different epochs and periods of the world's geology. The museum is organized as a trip through time showing fossils oldest to youngest. A simple and obvious discovery I made at the museum was about how intimately linked geology and paleontology are. Knowing the time period of the rock one is examining is a great step toward understanding what one might find in the rock. I think it would be fun to get good at prospecting for fossils. I took a look through the gift shop but didn't find a "how to" book about hunting fossils that quite matched the criteria I was searching under. I resolved to do some research once I had internet access again.

David has a habit of grabbing his hair and sucking his thumb when he is a little unsure of things.

Natalyn taking a brief look at the history of the world.

The museum had a ball pit the kids loved.

Ty looking at a saber tooth cat display.

This T-Rex find is less than 10 years old however new research has revealed that the arms are not anatomically correct. There are only two complete T-Rex arm fossils found to date.

After a couple of hours everyone was done with the museum so we went back to the trailer for dinner. After dinner we went to see the "World's Largest Dinosaur" a 100 foot T-Rex model. For $10 we were able to climb up the inside of the dinosaur for a unique view of town. I am sure in the late Jurassic period many paid much more for a similar view.

The world's largest dinosaur.

Dallin, Ty and Natalyn on the toe of the worlds largest dinosaur.

Through the bowels of the beast.

A unique view of Drumheller. Or maybe a better way to put it would be a view unique to Drumheller.

The kids loved playing in a free splash park under the dinosaur. In the heat I found myself drawn to walk through a couple of the sprinklers as well. I am not sure what the actual temperature is here but coming out of Alaska it sure seems hot. I know it is the most practical to have the baby in Idaho but that hasn't stopped me from whining to Lexie about leaving Alaska. With that said I am excited to get back to Idaho, I am just not excited to get back to heat.

Going to church in Drumheller was very nice. The people were extremely friendly, we got an invitation to hang out at one families house during Canada Day and another family said they would try and meet us at the museum so that their boy could play with Tyrell.

After some discussion we decided that even though for some reason it felt odd to celebrate another country's holiday it really didn't make much sense to skip Canada Day while in Canada so we decided to extend our stay in Drumheller and are now planning to depart the day after Canada Day.

David looking for fossils.

Tyrell having a fossil find inspected.

Walking through the badlands.

Our guide explaining an insituo fossil.

Ty holding a part of a fossilized leg bone.

The cacti had wonderful blossoms.

The playground next to the museum is terrific.

June 25 2008

On a Thursday afternoon I decided to do my run on the Herbert Glacier trail. I had heard that the trail had been significantly upgraded such that it was now flat and smooth enough it would be an easy place for the kids to ride their bikes. On the way out we split into two groups. Lexie walked with Natalyn and David. I ran with Ty and Dallin. We didn't intend to get all of the way to the glacier (it is about 4 miles each way). After what felt like a good run and too much whining from the boys we turned around to meet Lexie. I was thrilled with the quality of the trail and happy with how well I did running. After meeting up with Lexie we walked back to the car as a family. On the trail there is a very old rusted out car. The kids had a lot of fun exploring the car and pretending to drive it.

I had a great run on the Herbert River Trail.

The Herbert River

The kids enjoyed exploring a rusted out car.

When Lexie lived in Alaska the first time one of her favorite thinking places was AJ falls about a mile up the East Glacier Trail. For all of our intentions to make it out there we still hadn't and so we decided to devote the next Saturday for a family hike up to the falls. I had forgotten how beautiful the East Glacier Trail is. I was also very surprised at how different the vegetation on the trail is when compared to the West Glacier Trail on the other side of the lake. The kids enjoyed looking at the several creeks which ran under the trail. After I finally gave up on David's pace and put him on my shoulders I found that the East Glacier Trail felt even more familiar with weight on my back. Almost all of the other times I had hiked the trail were in route to climb Mt. Boulard. The children enjoyed playing by the water fall. We all agreed that Lexie did have a great thinking place.

The family in front of the Mendenhall Glacier.

David had his own pace for the trail. Appropriate in a way I suppose a glacial pace on a glacial trail.

Dallin by AJ Falls.

Sundays did get a little better for me after I figured out to generally avoid talking to people because that reduced the likely hood of bringing up the fact that I had come to Juneau for a funeral. I found church very empty and lonely in as much as my memories of Juneau church building were tied to attending with the Turley family. Kim and all of his kids have left the church. Between having a death to think about and having the "all a big lie" position the rest of the family took about the church I felt very torn and isolated. As I am writing this I am realizing that I brought on a lot of my isolation by pushing people away. With that said it is hard for me to see another way to do things in as much as with such charged and emotional issues when people get too close they get hurt. I find myself in hell thinking about the doctrinal choices of A) The church is lie or B) The Turley part of my family is cut off for being faithless sinners. At any rate I haven't found a lot of comfort in religion when dealing with Barb's death.

With time in Juneau winding down we finally decided to splurge on a trip to the Salmon Bake. I worked three summers at the Salmon Bake from 1992 to 1994. Coming back it was amazing to realize that 14 years had passed. I was delighted that the fish was every bit as good as I remembered. I found myself a little antsy every time a bus of people came up in as much as it felt strange not to be doing anything other than eating. I was a bit surprised that the kids didn't eat more salmon, normally we can't have a meal with fish without the kids insisting that we take a picture of the fish they like it so well. They liked the salmon they just found several other things in the buffet they also liked. I didn't mind the kids having fish on their plates because it saved me a trip back to the grill to get more salmon. I finally stopped eating because I was starting to worry if I ate anymore I would throw up and I thought that would be embarrassing.

The Salmon Bake was great!

After dinner we walked to a waterfall that is directly behind the Salmon Bake and then came back to roast marshmallows. Being at the Salmon Bake was great in that it offered a great place to think about life and its changes. I had spent so much time at "the bake" as we called it that for a while it had literally become my world. It was funny to me that I was still finding myself getting excited talking about things like the decision to put the salad bar in front of the grill instead of behind the grill. Things that seemed so important when I worked there such as sauce consistency, an even fire and perfectly cut fish were almost meaningless. Not meaningless in that they were all done well and made for a great meal but didn't carry any of the meaning I felt they did when I was there. Out of body would be an overstatement of the experience of being bake at the Salmon Bake but it would get one thinking in the right direction. The roles of that kind of work are so tightly defined that it was almost like being able to sit back and watch myself and think about who I used to be.

Ty and Dallin enjoying themselves after dinner at the Salmon Bake.

Even though it was late having been at the Salmon Bake got me excited to go back to the old location of the Salmon Bake where I worked my first two seasons. The drive up to Gold Creek was a lot of fun in that I explicitly remember the way but would find myself knowing when to turn. It seemed that every corner brought back memories.

As a funny note about how our two year old David is learning about his world from a different perspective than our other kids is that almost every time we drive by a propane tank David will get excited, point and say "PROPANE,PROPANE!". Finding places to fill propane bottles just didn't make the other kids "need to know" list at that age.

Friday night we went to Turley family friends, the Lohrey's house for dinner. I met John and Diane the first year they moved to Juneau which I believe was also the first year they were married. It was every bit as much fun as I remembered visiting with them. I learned John has a through hike of the Appalachian Trail if not formally on his life list at least high on his would be nice to do list. I got really excited thinking about how much fun the trail would be. I can't see how my current life situation would allow such a trip. The hike is over 2000 miles long and takes about 6 months. But I found I did really enjoy thinking about it. Before leaving on a mission Mariann and I had been talking about doing the Great Western Trail which is a trail that goes from the Canada/Montana border down to Mexico. Between kids college and marriages we haven't made it yet. The Appalachian trail is interesting in that it would be a much easier trail. Funny to put a word easy any where in a description of a hike like that but it really would be easier in that since the east is so much more populated there are many more places to resupply. In fact some people do the trail with day packs and sleep at motels along the way. Lexie had trouble seeing what the point of such a hike would be if you were just going to go to restaurants and motels. I can't think of many things that sound like more fun than coming in from a twenty mile day to an all you can eat restaurant and then crashing in a motel. The hike would not be a wilderness adventure but it would be a lot of fun and I believe it could be a soul adventure. There is a part of me that needs to know if I am one of the people who starts and finds a reason not to finish or if I am one of the people who can undertake a trail that size and hike it to the end. For my current situation I am satisfied with the thought that if I can get far enough ahead on my work once we are back east I am going to have Lexie drop me off for 20-40 miles of the trail and meet me at camp sites with the trailer.

Our Saturday in Juneau we spent whale watching. My cousin Kathy was able to get us onto a tour for free. I was very impressed at the great views we got of the whales. The whales didn't do much other than breathe and go down for more food but it was still nice to get so close to them. Hearing a whale breath is quite spectacular. It seems odd to say we spent the day on a 2 hour tour but that seems to be the way days work lately. We went shopping and then went over to Kathy's for dinner and the day was over.

A wet but wonderful whale watching tour.

More fodder for the thought of getting a camera with a good telephoto lense. That is a whale and its baby from as close as it is legally allowable to be.

We got a treat on Sunday in that four black bears came into the campground. Lexie and David were the only ones to see all four but the rest of us were able to see two of them. They were climbing on some of the campground equipment. I got the feeling that the bears were having fun. In the haste of getting out I unfortunately forgot the camera but decided it would be better to just watch the bears than risk missing them while I went for a camera.

We were scheduled to leave at 6:45 AM on Monday which meant we needed to be up before 4 to get to the ferry terminal the required two hours early at 4:45AM. Things went smoothly and we didn't have any trouble getting there. I continue to be thrilled after being somewhere for a few weeks how easy our house is to move.

Back on the boat ...

This was a great idea that didn't last nearly as long as it should have.

The ferry ride was great. We were on the Columbia which is the biggest of the Alaska Marine Highway's ferries. Even though it is bigger than than the Malispina which we rode south on it has a smaller solarium and smaller play area. With that said on the Columbia the play area is inside the lower observation lounge which has tables in it. So it was easier to do other things while the kids played. I was even able to get a little bit of work done on the game. They had 120 volt outlets so I didn't need to worry about battery life on the laptop. I think that parts of the ship may have even had wifi access to internet. I saw a wireless network named Columbia but it had low signal strength and I didn't try connecting to it. Try as I might I couldn't justify the expense of traveling to Prince Rupert instead of Skagway for the return trip. At some point I would like to do a ferry cruise through South East Alaska. The ferry charges the same no matter how long you stop at any city. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to go up the coast jumping off at each town for a couple of weeks at a time.

My last Alaskan adventure was that due to an unattended vehicle without keys in front of me it was required that I back off the ferry. In the end it turned out to be easy in as much as I had four people helping me and I didn't need to actually back on the dock but was able to make a three point turn inside the boat. The 10 minutes it took to get off the boat were plenty to have four previously lively kids sound asleep.

The kids went from hyper to asleep in the few minutes it took to get off the ferry.

Going up the Chilkoot Pass got me excited thinking about the gold rush days. I read a little about the history on the ferry. After a few early casualties in the gold rush the Canadian mounties enforced that anyone crossing the border needed to be carrying a year of provisions with them. This came out to about two thousand pounds. That meant that people would make about 20 trips up the pass shuttling their supplies. I was inspired to think about the drive it must have taken to make such a trip.

Into Canada ...

There is gorgeous Alpine coming out of Skagway into Canada.

Our first night we found a beautiful camp site by the swift river. I am happy with the pictures I got but the beauty of the place really didn't fit into the pictures. In the morning we took a quick little walk to explore a bit. I am not sure how the vegetation we saw is described if we were in Florida we would call it a swamp but I don't think they are called that this far north. The river got me thinking about how much fun it would be to do a river float trip. The water was very clear.

The kids playing in a meadow in our swift river camp site.

On one of our stops at a gas station there was a house behind a field full of dandelions. Natalyn got very excited and said "mommy, mommy, it's a wishing house!".

Natalyn's wishing house.

The kids knew we were going to go to Liard Hot Springs so we had to answer and reanswer several times through the day questions about how long it would be until we got there. The hot springs did not disappoint. This time since Lexie knew about the cool pool she brought her swim suit and joined us. There were several small logs the kids would use as small boats.

Ty enjoying Liard Hot Springs.

A nice father son moment.

Natalyn taking a jump by the log.

June 12 2008

After finding a campsite in Skagway I made a bee line with the kids to the Alaska Fudge Company. The kids each got a thing I believe was called "heaven on a stick". I was marshmallows covered in caramel all dipped in chocolate. I was surprised how good they were. I normally don't like marshmallow treats. I think having fresh marshmallows helps a lot. After treats and dinner, yes in that order, we decided to go through with an earlier plan and add a little color to Kathy's rabbits prior to delivery. I was pleased with the result how ever the rabbits seemed to think they would look better in white and went to work grooming out the colored spots.

The kids enjoyed treats from the Alaska Fudge Company, I enjoyed that they didn't finish them!

The bunnies seemed kind of plain in white.

Kylie had nothing to do with this. Oh wait maybe she did.

The ferry in Skagway Alaska

I was pleased with how easy it was to get on the suburban and trailer on the ferry.

I was pretty worked up about getting the trailer onto the ferry in as much as having been charged by the linear foot for my ticket I expected parking on the boat to be quite tight. I was right the parking on the boat was tight but as far as the difficulty went I found it much easier to park on the boat than it had been to park in many of the campgrounds we had visited.

The kids enjoyed a little play room on the ferry.

We were delighted to see some whales.

Once on the boat we were delighted to see whales almost immediately. There were three whales spraying right in the Skagway harbor. On board the boat we found a little play room which the kids loved. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the ferry ride. The kids also had a lot of fun. At some point I would like to do a longer boat ride. I am not sure if I am ready to do a cruise but taking the ferry from Bellingham to Juneau sounds like fun. My favorite thing to do on that particular boat ride was to lay on beach chair in the solarium (an outdoor heated and covered section on the top of the boat).

Dallin enjoying himself on the solarium.

David showing more of why it's a good thing to be David.

After getting the Auke Bay harbor in sight it seemed to take forever to actually get to it. We were all very excited about finally arriving in Juneau. Once in town I went straight to the Mendenhall loop campground in as much as I knew there were only 9 full hookup sites available and that all of my competition for those sites that day was on the boat. I thought myself to have a slight advantage over what some might in that I knew the exact location of the campground. We were delighted when arriving to find the quality of the camp site. It was by far my favorite campsite on the trip. The kids called it a close second to the state park we stayed in next to St. George.

Our campsite by Mendenhall Lake

The kids enjoyed having the bikes out again.

My cousins Mariann and Kathy met us at the campsite. I got a good laugh because through out the trip Kylie would mention at least once a day how much she missed her mom. After a good hug and possibly 5 minutes of time elapsing after meeting up with Mariann and Kathy Kylie had disappeared with her cousin Jessica. I guess that is the way things work, it is sometimes just nice to see people and know they are there. Any concern I had about upsetting Kathy by taking the liberty of coloring her rabbits was quickly dissipated when I saw her great reaction to them and also saw her dog. Just the week before she had shaved all but a mohawk like strip off of the dog and then dyed the mohawk purple. The dog was quite a sight.

Thursday we did our best at getting a day of work and a day of school in. I don't think either was very effective but sometimes just doing something is the most important thing.

We had a wonderful marshmallow roast (2 slides)

Friday morning Mariann and Kathy invited me out to go king salmon fishing with one of Kathy's friends. The weather was absolutely perfect and the fishing in terms of productivity was absolutely lousy. I think that is the way fishing works the catch is inversely related to the quality of the weather. Especially when I am not the one paying for the gas I chose good weather over productive fishing as what makes for a good fishing trip. It was great to be out on the water and I had a great time getting views of the several bald eagles. I was amazed at how many there were. At one point I think I saw 15 of them flying together. Something that drives me nuts about my camera is that one needs to be all but riding an animal to get a decent wild life photo. These eagles proved no exception. Despite amazing views of the birds all of the pictures came out making them look like sparrows. My frustration became a joke on the boat as in "Hey Dan there's another eagle why don't you get a picture of it".

There are about 15 eagles in this photo, trust me.

My cousins Mariann and Kathy

Saturday (May 24th) was the day of the memorial. Being Kim and Barb's sort of 5th child I was invited on the helicopter ride to spread her ashes over what they call the "Grand Child Peaks". There is a wonderful mountain range behind Mt. McGinnis and Mt. Stroller White with several unnamed peaks. While in the Juneau Alpine Club Kim and Barb unofficially named the peaks after their eight grand children. Now several of the local climbers refer to the peaks by their grandchildren's names. Once again we had perfect weather and unlike fishing where there may be room for opinions a helicopter ride is all about weather. The emotion of the ride was mixed. The distraction of being out in a helicopter on such a beautiful day in such a beautiful place blocked much of the emotion related to the reason we were out. Every now and then I would get ambushed by a wave of hollow sad feeling but for the most part I was just delighted to be out. I haven't climbed any of the grandchild peaks. At some point I will need to change that. It was easy to see from the helicopter why Kim and Barb liked them so well. As the last part of our helicopter ride we did a quick look for mountain goats and were pleased to find a few.

From left clockwise: Kim,Kathy,Laura,me,John,Mariann

Kim dropping ashes

We got some great views from the helicopter (13 slides)

The service at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center was very nice. The people from Barb's church brought an amazing amount of high quality food. I had fun meeting up with people that I hadn't seen in over 10 years. On the way out of the visitor's center some people saw a bear but we didn't.

On Sunday Kathy had been given permission to borrow one of the boats from the whale watching company she works for. About 30 people, friends and family went in the boat to Sawmill Creek in Berners Bay, another Turley family favorite place for camping to spread more ashes. On the way out we were delighted to get great views of sea lions and also a pod of orcas. On yet again another wonderful weather day it seemed all to soon that we were getting back into the boat to leave.

Ty on the whale watch boat.

We got a great look at some sea lions.

This is a picture of the boat we took to Sawmill Creek.

Lexie, Natalyn and David exploring the beach.

The kids had a lot of fun with their cousin Jackie.

Monday we took as a casual play day. Juneau has built up a wonderful park by Twin Lakes a community project. We started the day letting the kids play there and then moved over to the Mendenhall Lake in the afternoon. Almost as a ritual I took it on myself to dunk myself under water in the Mendenhall Lake. The lake is literally ice cold in as much as its major tributary is ice melt from the Mendenhall Glacier.

We played at the park by Twin Lakes.

That is every bit as cold as it looks.

I raced the dog after a stick and won.

David entertained himself by throwing his show in the water and letting it float back.

This is a picture of me underwater and Jessica just coming up from the water.

After Monday most of the people who didn't live in Juneau had headed home and things had wound down around the funeral services.

Lexie reading to the kids.

We were able to get into a pretty decent rhythm of school and work. I was pleased to find that Juneau has a disc golf course. I have played several times and am having a lot of fun getting back into the game. The course is in an old growth spruce forest. The trees are gorgeous except of course when they get in the path of a disc at which time one gets thinking about chain saws rather quickly. Something I give this course credit for is that between the muskeg and the devil's club it is the most punishing course I have played on when it comes to retrieving a poorly thrown disc. Fortunately I haven't had too many throws go foul.

I absolutely love running on West Glacier trail next to the Mendenhall Lake. It took getting back on the trail trail to remember how much I love it. It is a little bit frustrating in that I can remember how fast and far I used to run the trail and unfortunately that is faster and farther than I am running it now. With that said my running is a lot better than it was a year ago and I am happy for that.

On the 31st of May we took a hike as a family to the face of the Mendenhall Glacier. My cousin Laura's kids Alan (18) and Darwin (7) accompanied us. The hike is about 2 miles each way and involves a bit of rock scrambling. I carried David the whole way and let him out to play at the glacier. Natalyn was able to hike the entire thing. I was very pleased at how well the kids did on the rock. If anything they were a little to eager to climb. I was also pleased with their reaction to the glacier. I it a great feeling to share something special to yourself and have someone else appreciate it. Especially one of your children. We let all of the kids on the glacier so that they could stand on it. We didn't have crampons so we couldn't really do anything more than that safely.

The kids did really well and had a great time on trail.

There were a lot of neat things at the face of the glacier.

I love the West Glacier Trail.

To be honest I really hated being at church on Sunday. It was very difficult in as much as the church building is a place I have strongly associated with Barb. Also talking to everyone there would bring up the reason I came to Juneau which would remind me of the loss.

The next week was another week of school and work. Wednesday had a very low tide so we went out with Kathy and "the girls" to look for creatures on the beach. We were able to find all sorts of things. There was a very odd worm that neither Kim nor Kathy recognized. I had fun digging up clams just for the challenge of getting them. The local butter clams have a neuro toxin in them that will kill you eat it. If I understood Kim correctly a single clam can have enough to be fatal. In World War II the spies would carry some of the toxin gathered from Icy Straits in case they were captured so they could use it to commit suicide. Tyrell was delighted to see several starfish. My favorite animals were the little crabs that look like dungeneos crabs but are much smaller.

Looking for critters at low tide.

Saturday we split between Sandy Beach and Cope Park. We bought some smoked salmon and pilot bread as a way to enjoy a taste of Alaska. The kids absolutely loved it. After the beach and the park we went over to Kathy's house she and Tim are remodeling. Remodel might give one the wrong idea in that it is really more of a rebuilding project they are doing. She had a large slash fire she was using to burn debris which we took advantage of to roast hot dogs and smores. Most of the time when I go to someone's house I am relieved I don't have a house because I see all of the little fix up projects that need to be done and get exhausted thinking about all the time effort and money it would take to get them done. Oddly enough Kathy's frame of a house didn't have this effect on me but rather got me kind of excited to think about building a house. I guess that says something about my personality. I am much more into building something new than maintaining something. With that said I am far from ready to give up the wheels on my house.

The kids got in some great play time after a hard week of school.

I was pleased to see Cope Park added a disc catcher. There is only one however the full course is over by the ferry terminal.

The kids made a friend named Christian. We built a network of sand castles.

We took advantage of Kathy's debris fire to roast hot dogs and smores.

This photo doesn't really fit anywhere but I am throwing it in because it is so cool. You get the feeling this person can and does go just about where ever they want.