A Visit to the Doctor

Zach woke up and mentioned a few times that his throat was hurting. It looked a little red, so I thought I had better take him to the doctor to get it checked out.

They gave Zach an Otter Pop to "calm" his throat while we waited for the results of the strep test to come back. They know all the tricks at the pediatrician's office - what kid wouldn't feel better with an Otter Pop!

Well, the test came back positive. We had 2 options - 10 days of antibiotics taken twice a day or a one time shot of penicillin. I was keen on the shot, Zach was not. We got the prescription and went to the car to call Doug. Doug was also not keen on another thing to add to our "to do" list for 10 days. A little bribery of some Lego's and Zach and I were headed back into the doctor's office to see about the shot.

They warned me twice that he wasn't going to like this. Zach's little rear end cheeks are small so they put the antibiotic into two needles and two nurses hit the two sides at once. Zach was a champ, I could tell it hurt, but it was quick and over. We walked around the parking lot for a few minutes to make sure there was no allergic reaction. As McDonald's is across the street we ventured over there for lunch and to be close to the doctor's office for a little while longer. Zach took a long nap in the afternoon and was feeling like himself by evening. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

White beaches

We slept good on the boat and woke up to a fairly nice day. After breakfast and some fun with the zodiac & kayaks, it was time to start thinking about exploring another bay.

We had NEVER seen such a concentration of jelly fish! They were in large groups around our boats. Someone mentioned that they congregate there as they are attracted to the fresh water from the local stream.

Pete and Tori suggested a 20+ mile trip to Deep Bay. Karl and Laurie decided to stay at Long Bay and enjoy a long kayak paddle. We packed up and headed for, yes, the white beaches of Deep Bay!

The weather was great, it was a fun afternoon of playing on one of the beaches and just relaxing!

Sam's pants got quite wet, so he went without them.

Good times! Deep Bay is beautiful, we will be back!

Jelly fish, snow ball fights and great friends

We had planned to go boating with Karl, Laurie, Nora & Lake for the weekend. Susannah and Vanessa were heading off to their great Mt. McKinley adventure which included a bus ride all the way into Wonder Lake. Friday night was spent with everyone doing laundry, food preparation and packing for the weekend adventures.

Doug got the boat in the water and I was warming up the engine. The boat had been at Ellis' shop all week while he adjusted this and that; the boat seemed to be running a little "rich" the last time we used it. It still was, which made some initial smoke around the boat. How else do we say "hello the Huntman's are here!" As I was messing with boat, I noticed Patience being loaded in the water next to us. We got to know Pete and Tori via their son, Tristan, and Zach being in the same class at Camai. I yelled hello and Zach followed by leaning over the side of our boat and screaming "there is bad air on our boat!" Ok, perhaps the CO alarm had gone off, but let's not announce it to everyone in the harbor! Especially friends with a $200,000 Glacier Craft!

We got out of the harbor and met up with the Hulse family, they were ready for a fun weekend with their sea kayaks. I called Jack from work, he has the same boat as us and happened to be putting his boat in at Whitter about 30 minutes after us. We never were able to meet up over the weekend, but he was able to tell Doug how to turn the choke down which took care of our engine problem. No more "bad air on the boat!!"

Our destination was Long Bay, a place we had never been before as with our sailboat it would have taken all day! We anchored and rafted up. Sam enjoyed visiting on Karl and Laurie's boat and seeing Rosie.

We hadn't been there long when Patience showed up. They were coming to let us know that Jack had been radioing us (we didn't hear him) and to see what our weekend plans were. We have must been fun, because Patience rafted up to us and we all enjoyed the weekend together. Tristan and Kensie showed off their shrimp that they had just pulled from a neighbor's pot.

Pete and Tori.

Kensie had no fear of the shrimp, she was a cleaning machine! They de-head them and then just take home the tails to eat. What a great idea! That is what we are going to do going forward, much easier to clean on the boat than at home trying to deal with the whole body when cooking.

Sam didn't quite understand that the heads were being removed and tossed into the water. Pete handed him a shrimp and he immediately threw the WHOLE shrimp overboard to the cries and laughter of all around. No more shrimp for Sam!

Zach and Tristan - good buddies. I hope he always has such wonderful friends.

Zach, Kensie and Nora were doing a little fishing over the far side of the flotilla.

Sam and Porter enjoyed sitting on the side of Patience looking at all the jelly fish in the water.

The grand raft-up. It was still and calm in the bay, so Doug's anchor held all three of us. It is funny to see life via a child's eyes. We were all rafted up and Tristan looked at Karl and Laurie's boat and said "they have kayaks, not fair!". Later he was on Event Horizon and was impressed by the walk-through transom and commented to his sister "they don't have to wear shoes as they have carpet!" All the while, Karl/Laurie and us are admiring Patience. The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side!

Karl, Nora, Lake & Rosie out for a paddle.

It was time to go exploring! Tristan wanted to ride with us as "Doug's boat is faster" than the zodiac they have.

Pete, Tori, Kensie and Porter in their zodiac.

We all found a great place up the nearby stream to get out and explore.

Pete's boat was out of the water first and before I knew it, a huge snowball was heading toward us as we were docking. It hit Zach on the shoulder scaring him more than hurting him. He made sure to get Pete back!

The wildflowers are beautiful!

Back at the boat we realized it was 6 pm and no one had really eaten lunch! So lunch/dinner was served with most of us having hot dogs & reindeer dogs! Good camping food!

Sam and Lake enjoyed playing in the front of our boat with Matchbox cars.

The kids were going to go with Doug & Karl to take Rosie to shore for a potty break. As Rosie was being put in the zodiac, it slowly floated away from the boat and too far for us to reach. The kids thought it was just great fun to be "stranded" on the boat.

Pete was already at shore with Porter, so came back to make the big rescue!

Let's try this again!

Pete and I were chatting as Rosie was being de-watered on shore. He had a line in the water and all of sudden pulled out a small flat fish. He was a super hero when the kids returned!

With Pete's catch, Zach was now really wanting to catch a fish. Pete hooked him up with a real hook and lure and the fishing began! Zach all of a sudden got excited that he felt a pull and was sure he had a fish! He sure did, Zach's first fish. Not a lot of eating on that one, but a first fish none the less! It got thrown in and was promptly picked up by a sea gull that saw it floating by the surface!

Happy kid!

Sam worked on thinking about falling asleep. Yeah.....wish full thinking, but at least he was content to stay in the bed.

Lake was also thinking about going down for the night. Either thoughts of sleeping or a drink of Karl's beer.

Zach later on got fish #2. As it was also small, it was left on the hook and lowered back down in the hopes of catching something a little larger.

Zach had really wanted popcorn earlier and hadn't forgotten about that. We have a microwave and Patience already had their generator out on their deck. A little swapping of power cords and we were in business. I was glad that I had 3 bags on board so there was enough to go around for everyone!

Not long after the popcorn, the topic of large marshmallows came up. We had ours on board and it was decided, by Doug, that smores in the microwave would be a really great treat before bed. I could see the look of semi-confusion on our friend's faces - smores in the microwave? They turned out great. What a fun way to end the evening!!