Monica left Zach a little gift of a "growing frog" that she found at Pier I. Simply put the frog in water and 2-3 days later it would be 3 times the size! We were skeptical.
Wow, it did work! We put it in a vase on the counter and looked at it every morning to see if it had grown. Once out of the water, it took a few days to return to the smaller size. According to the package, it can grow and shrink many times. Very fun.
The red Jeep was all washed and we were ready to put her on Craigslist. My boss had expressed interest in the Jeep as a vehicle for his college age son. I gave him a courtesy call to let him know that I was going to advertise her.....and that I really didn't feel comfortable selling an auto that we knew needed some work to him. A few hours later I was talking to Mom and Dad and they happen to mention the Cash for Clunkers program.....we hadn't thought of that. Cal Worthington Ford is open until 10 pm on Sunday so we thought we would go check out what they had to offer.
It was pretty amazing what they had to offer. Halliburton employees get great X-Plan pricing due to a Ford/Halliburton agreement (we buy many, many Ford's every year in the US). Then there was the $3,000 in rebates from Ford.....and then $4,500 for my Jeep! All the discounts would apply! We looked at our car options and decided that, if we were going to purchase a 3rd car, that it needed to be a small commuter car for Doug to drive downtown everyday. We looked over the line-up of Ford Focus vehicles and selected a blue one with a nice selection of options including a "sync" system that allows Doug to speak commands in the car for the cell phone and I-pod music. Part of the Cash for Clunker program involves the older model cars to be destroyed. Doug had put in an expensive air filter for volcano ash, so while our vehicle was being processed, we ran to WalMart to get a cheap filter and some McDonalds as the kids were getting hungry.
Good bye old friend, it sure was hard driving away without you!
I thought that I would be the one to be upset over the Jeep. She was my first new car that I had worked to pay off.....lots of great adventures. In the end, I knew it was time, she was having too many problems. What we didn't expect was that Zach would melt into huge crocodile tears as we drove away. He was quite attached to the Jeep. I think he was fine until he understood that the Jeep would be destroyed.
1996 and 154,000 miles, but she looked great. Always garage kept, she was a great car.
Doug has been enjoying the Focus as a commuter car. His truck is BIG for parking downtown every day and isn't the easiest on fuel. The Focus is automatic which is nice for the in town driving. His Ford F-250 is a great vehicle for our weekend adventures - great for pulling the camper & hauling the ATV or snowmachine.
Well, the Jeep that we love so much is starting to leak quite a bit of "fluid" on the garage floor. It is time to post her on Craigslist to see if there is interest in a 1996 Jeep with 154,000 miles on it. To help with showing her we took her to the car wash. I had been to the Monster Wash near Halliburton, but according to Doug didn't hit the "fun" lanes.....the ones with the lazer light show!
We pulled up to the entrance, paid and let Zach decide on the selection of the show that we would see. As we would be in water, he determined that the underwater show would be the best. We tuned our radio to the appropriate channel and pulled forward.
The room went dark. The water started to spray. And then.....sea horses, mermaids and dancing fish with musical instruments started to dance in front of us.
Lights in sync with the music on our radio! How fun!
It was a great show and a fun way to get the car washed. Sam woke up half way into the show and wasn't too sure what to think! We will be back! Perhaps next time we will do the Monster Show!
Zach in the wave pool.
Sarah and Jacob in the wave pool.
Going down the lazy river.
More lazy river fun.
Zach and I going down the Master Blaster water slide at the park. He wasn't too sure at first. He didn't like riding this slide a year ago, but he tried it again, and then I couldn't get him off of it!!
Zach zipping down the big orange slide at H2Oasis.
Zach and I had a good time. It is not too often that we go to H2 in the summer. It was a good use of a rainy Saturday, and the added bonus is that in the summer it is not real crowded. Good to know for our next rainy day activity. 
I offered to drive, so I picked up Matt, and his friends Jeff and Jason at his house after work Wednesday night. We even had a condo waiting for us. This was really nice because it meant that we didn't have to get up at 4:30 for an early morning drive down to Kenai. We would get there the night before and be well rested for a full day of fishing. 
We had a nice drive down to Soldotna and arrived around 8:00. We stopped and grabbed a quick bite at Dairy Queen and then headed over to meet Mike at the condo. The condo was great, right on the water. 
Mike had his boat waiting already in the water for the big day of fishing. Mike used to be a guide on the Kenai, so he had all the gear and the know how on what we needed to do to catch the big fish.
The Kenai River is the most popular sport fishing destination in Alaska. Each year there are two runs each of king salmon, silver salmon, red salmon, plus a run of pink salmon every other year. The world record king salmon, which weighed about 44 kg (97 lb), was caught in the Kenai River in 1985. The king salmon fishery is not as prolific as in other Alaskan rivers, but the Kenai is known for its large fish. A typical king in the second run, beginning in mid-July, weighs 40–85 pounds (18–23 kg), with considerably larger specimens not uncommon. The "Lower Kenai" is notorious for its run and sizes of its king salmon.
We got up around 6:30 to be on the river at 7:00. There was a light drizzle, but no wind. It was still a little cool, so we all had our fleece on. The boat we used seats four fisherman and the driver. It has a 50 hp four stroke engine. The Kenai river is the only river in Alaska with a horse power and four stroke motor restriction. This is due to the high number of boats that fish the area each summer. The higher horse power engines create too much of a wake, damaging the sides of the river, and the two strokes were spewing too many pollutants in the fish habitat. 
Now, you apparently only fish for kings out of a boat, and you fish for red salmon along the shore. I think that this is due to the fact that the Kings swim in the middle of the river and the reds swim closer to the bank. The Kenai river has a number of "fishing holes" that somehow attract the monster fish. Mike had local knowledge of these "holes", so we started out our day by going up stream to a well known hole. Each hole has a name (I don't remember any of them), and attracts scores of boats drifting with the current, each hoping to get a chance at catching a world famous Kenai king salmon.
So you start at the top of the "hole", point the boat up stream, and then run the motor just enough to slow the boat down so it only makes about 1 mile an hour progress down stream. Think of it as backing down the stream very slowly. The river is moving pretty fast, so this takes some skill. The driver has his hands full during this process and must be aware of all of the other boats in the area (25+) and navigate around logs and other debris floating down the river. Needless to say, the boat driver does not fish. It was really cool of Mike to take us on his boat and give us the opportunity to fish for a giant king. Once the boat makes it to the bottom of the hole, everyone pulls up their trolling gear and the driver motors quickly to the top of the hole where the whole process starts up again. A "drift usually takes around 20 to 30 minutes. You may do 6 or six drifts per hole, if no one is having any luck at that particular location, you move on to the next hole.
Fishing in the boat is actually pretty easy. Mike would give the command to put our line in the water, and then he would tell us how far he wanted our line out from the boat. The "bait" is a spoon lure with a sinker designed to get the lure to a certain depth. The reel had a line meter on it, so it was super easy to pay the line out to the prescribed distance. In between putting out our lines and reeling in the lines at the ends of the holes, we had about 20 to 30 minutes to sit and B.S. We had some pretty lively conversations. I told a number of my funny work stories from my days as a cameraman. We came up with a great business idea for serving coffee to fisherman out of a boat on the river, and discused other various topics guys bring up while fishing. We had a lot of laughs. What I am holding in the picture is part of a fish that was floating down the river. Someone apparently had fileted a salmon and this was one of the discarded bits. Everyone got a laugh at my prized salmon, and there was talk for a while of getting it mounted, but in the end we decided that a picture would be good enough.
This is what serves at the bathroom on a Kenai fishing boat. I won't go into detail, the picture pretty much says it all.
Unfortunatly no one on our boat caught a Kenai king salmon. The whole day we only saw three boats catch a fish. There were around 100 boats out fishing on the river, so no one was really having too much luck. The river was partially to blame. The Kenai pennensula has been receiving a lot of rain lately and apparently it is harder to catch fish when the river is running high. The fish too can be quirky, no one really knows how many fish are in the river on any one day. You really need a big run of fish to swim up river to keep things interesting. We were doing everything right, it just wasn't our day. That it why they call it fishing and not catching!! We had a blast anyway, and Mike invited us to come down again next year and try our luck. We packed it in around 2:00, loaded the truck, and then took Mike out to lunch. Then we headed back to Anchorage and discussed our river/coffee/get rich quick sceme the whole way home. It was a great day, got to meet some new friends, and hey, I didn't have to go to work. Sign me up for that any day!!
Seward is one of Doug's favorite places. We didn't have any big plans for the weekend so decided to head to Seward for a weekend of camping. Seward is nice, except that always seems to rain there in the summer. This weekend was no exception, it rained. We hoped to go hike around Exit Glacier, but the rainy weather changed our plans a little. After stopping at the Safeway grocery store for chicken sticks and potatoes, we were happy to find a camping spot over looking the water. A nice view to sit and look at while we had lunch.
We decided to take a walk to look at the harbor. The rain was a light mist by this point. In Alaska, you take what you get. If you wait for the perfect conditions, you may be waiting for a while!
Overall, this summer has been quite dry which has lead to the most impressive spread of wild flowers we have ever seen. The fireweed are no exception. When the fireweed have bloomed all the way to the top, summer is just about over - we are glad to see that we have some time left! This summer we didn't do much for weeding in our side yard and in the back bushes, the fireweed have come up along with wild daisys and other flowers. We need to take some pictures.....our lazy gardening has paid off!
We walked docks and looked at all the boats. I am sure a boat is in our spring plans, Doug has been saving every month and is chomping at the bit for something of his own to get out on the water with.
Seward has a nice harbor, the wait is YEARS for a slip. When we moved to Houston and went to the marinas we asked "how long is the wait for a slip." We were given a blank stare and "when do you want a slip", there were plenty available. Had we been smart, we would have put our name on the Seward or Whittier list in 1998 when we moved up & paid the annual fee - 11 years later, we would probably be about near the top of the wait list.
Kevin, Kirsten, Kiana (4) and Kaelen (2.5) are good friends who live in Seward. Kirsten and I became good friends during our graduate school work. Kevin is a commerical fisherman who we were lucky enough to catch in Seward between fishing trips. Kevin and Kirsten had us for dinner, the kids all had a great time playing. Kevin made hamburgers which were wonderful - I need to get his recipe as they were made from the same beef that we have. Several of us went in together and bought a cow from a dairy in Palmer - the steaks weren't the best, but the hamburger and roast I did in the crock pot were wonderful.
Kevin and Kirsten have several acres which includes a large front lawn; it was perfect for the kids to play with the 4 wheeler. Their house is a duplex; they live on one side and rent out the other as a vacation rental. In the summer they are quite busy with people staying for 2 days to a couple of weeks. This winter we are going to take them up on their offer to stay. While we were there the vacation rental had people including 4 children. Those children came out to enjoy the fun in the front yard. Sam enjoyed having a friend his size and playing with the wagon.
Our church, St. John United Methodist Church, does a fantastic job with a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the kids. The camp was from 9 am - noon, Monday to Friday. We invited Zach's good friend, Nora, to go with. It worked out well as Doug took both kids in the morning and Laurie picked them up, gave them lunch and kept Zach all afternoon until we picked him up after work. Zach and Nora were in the Green Grizzlies group.
On day one the kids got their shirts to match the color and name of the group that they were in. Both Zach and Nora came home singing songs that we had never heard of. Apparently kum-by-ah and the other songs that we knew from VBS have evolved over the years.
VBS must now have a "kit" that the church purchases as all the crafts, paperwork, shirts, etc all had the same theme and branding. It was a well organized event. Laurie was able to attend the muscial production on the last day, she got a good laugh out of it, apparently it was more boom-box music than children singing. Everyone had a good time. The weather was perfect so the kids could play outside. Zach and Nora had a good time walking to the stream behind Karl and Laurie's house and catching little minnows in the afternoon.
The tunnel from Bear Valley is actually released on the half hour so we arrived about a half an hour early (I forgot that the tunnel from Bear Valley was on the half hour). The delay worked out well because our friends who were running late were still able to make the same tunnel as us. The extra time gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs and watch the train as it left the tunnel bound for Anchorage. It was a little windy on the Bear Valley side, so Zach took the opportunity to measure the wind speed with my anerometer.
Here we go through the tunnel!! Funny thing about the tunnel is that you never really know what you are going to get on the other side. While it is only 2.5 miles to Whittier, the weather can be dramatically different. I have seen it sunny with calm conditions on the Bear Valley side, and cloudy, raining, and blowing 30 kts on the Whittier side. We crossed our fingers for good weather, and fortunatly we're rewarded with sunny skies and warm temps.
The boat launch was not too big of an ordeal, and we were under way within the hour. After a short stop at the fudge shop for some sweets for the road, we piled into Karl's boat and were off.
Renee didn't go on the trip to Squirrel Cove last year due to the fact that Sam was just five months old and probably too young for the trip. This year however, both were ready for some adventure!!
It was a bit cloudy on Friday, but that didn't stop us from exploring in the bay. Karl brought his dingy and rowed the kids around the bay . . . 
. . . while we explored it with our Zodiac and 10 hp motor. Zoom, Zoom!!
Zach really wanted to try his hand at driving the boat, so I set the motor to a bit above idle and let him tour us around the cove. He picked it up pretty quickly. I had him do several manouvers to get used to the controls. Some people just never get the hang of tiller steering (Renee), and I think that it is an important skill for Zach to have. Plus it was just fun watching him learn, you could see the wheels clicking in his head and he figured out the basics of small boat handling.
Karl brought two shrimp pots so we headed out to get them in the water for an overnight soak. Hopefully tomorrow we will have some fresh shrimp for dinner. Sam loved hanging out in his backpack on the boat - the warm air blowing in his hair.
We had been told the water near the bird rookery was a good place to drop a shrimp pot. The rookery is near a beautiful water fall not far from the Whittier harbor. It was a convenient place for us to drop the pots on the way to the cabin.
The pots go down anywhere between 300 and 600 feet (91 to 182 meters). This isn't bad when you are putting the pots down, but not so good when you return to pull up the bounty. In past years we have had to just pull up the pots hand over hand. This year Karl installed an aluminum davit with a pulley. It is still manual, but you now pull down instead of up, which is actually supprisingly helpful.
We let the pots soak overnight and were rewarded with about a dozen shrimp waiting for us. Zach was not too sure about the shrimp when they came up. Nora on the other hand had no problems picking up the shrimp and holding them for the camera. I think that she even named a couple of them.
The shrimp are a pretty good size when you pull them up. We had them in our cury for dinner prepaired by Lori that night. It was funny how small the shrimp looked once you took the meat out of the shell thing, and cooked it up.
The cabin was great as always. It is nice to see that people really respect the cabin and keep it in pristine condition. Because the cabin is only accessable by boat, it is easy to keep out the riff raff. With cabins like this offered by the State and Federal Park systems, I doubt that we will ever have to buy a cabin of our own. Too many places to see, so little time.
The weather was really starting to get nice on Saturday, so we took the opportunity to explore the woods. The State does a nice job building and maintaining the boardwalk that criss crosses the woods. The boardwalk connects tent platforms with the beach, the outhouse, and the cabin. This is an excellent resource for people tent camping/sea kayaking. There are numerous other sites like this in the Sound. We saw other networks of boardwalk/tent platforms in; Suprise Cove, Entry Cove, and Decision Point.
Sammy got into the action this year too. He was more than happy to hang out in the backpack while we explored the woods. Sammy is just happy being a part of the action. He is light enough that you really forget he is back there.
The kids loved pretending that they were on a high seas adventure of their own. When they weren't sitting in Karl's row boat, they were throwing rocks, or looking for starfish, or balancing on tree stumps near the waters edge. Squirrel Cove is really the perfect place to have kids run around and explore, just like in the old days. You don't have to worry about strangers lurking around, there is no traffic with-in 15 miles and everything is au-natural. Note that Zach has his life jacket on. This is required when he is playing in or around the water.
After Saturdays dinner, a few of us decided to run around a bit more with the boats. The water was like glass, absolutly no wind, and decent temperatures. Renee, Zach, Sam and I went out in the Zodiac and headed west towards Decision Point. It wasn't 15 minutes later and we saw Karl and Nora tooling around on his boat. I could tell that Lori probably wasn't with them, because the boat was really clipping along, not the usual 12-15 knots. He admitted later that he had the boat going 32 kts, you know, to get the cobwebs out. His boat really looked good lit by the setting sun with the glassy water in the foreground.
Zach and I had gone out to explore in the Zodiac earlier in the day, and saw what we thought was a porpoise. Well, it was back, only it wasn't a porpoise, but a Minke whale! We hung out with the whale for probably a half an hour. There may have been two of the whales, just the way it was surfacing all around the boat indicated thay there may be more than one. At one point we had one of the whales only 30 feet from the bow of the Zodiac. We could easily hear him "blow" from his blow hole. It was really fun to see the whales up close and personal. Below is a description of the Minke whales for Wikipedia.
We were just getting ready to pack up and head back to the cabin when a huge cruise ship showed up. The pictures really don't do the ship justice, it was enourmous!! We probably only got within a quarter mile of the ship . . . which was close enough. We watched the ship as is sailed through Passage Canal and on to destinations unknown. Seeing the ship and whale was a nice suprise to an already excellent day.
The best day yet!! Sunny, no breeze, and it had to be 80 deg!! We had a quick breakfast and then cleaned out the cabin and packed up all of our gear from the weekend and reddied it for the ferry to Karl's boat. Because it was such a beautiful day, and we were in no hurry to get back to Anchorage, we decided we would all load up into Karl's boat and head out to Entry Cove for the afternoon. We pulled the Zodiac behind us to make it easier to get to and from the boat once we got to Entry Cove.
We literally had the beach to ourselves.
Sam was having fun wading in the water. The water was so clear it almost looked like a fresh water lake.
I don't know what they were thinking, but Karl and Zach went for a quick dip in the cove. The water was probably around 55 deg., Brrr!! The outside temperature however was probably in the mid 80's. When Zach got out I had him lay on the warm rocky beach, and then I covered him in smooth warm (almost hot to the touch) rocks. It was almost like an expensive spa treatment. With in minutes Zach was warm and ready for round two of swimming!!
I really like this picture of Zach sillohwetted against Prince William Sound. It is a cool pose too.
All good things must come to an end. We had lunch, swam a bit, skipped some rocks and explored in the dingy. A good day was had by all. Time to head back and get ready for the work week ahead. Weekends like this make getting through the long winters a bit more manageable. I am looking forward to next year and the fourth annual Squirrel Cove Cabin weekend. See ya there!!
