Tracy Arm Fjord

On our bucket list of things to do while here in Alaska was to cruise the Tracy Arm Fjord.  We got the chance on Memorial Day of this year while John and Lizzie were here visiting.  Just when I think Alaska cannot get any more beautiful or amazing, it astounds me again and again.

We cruised aboard the Adventure Bound along with its sister ship the Captain Cook (pictured), traveling 40 miles south of Juneau into the fjord, passing beautiful waterfalls and amazing blue icebergs along the way.   It was a cloudy, overcast day but that just made the whole landscape even more dramatic.

The further into the arm we got, the more the giant icebergs were joined by small pieces of ice from significant calving taking place at the glacier.  It was beautiful but the made the trip slow going as the captain expertly steered us clear of any pieces too large to bounce off the boat.  The iceberg you see above the water is about 15% of the total size of the iceberg; most of it is below the surface.

 Oh, the wildlife we saw along the way!  Magnificent!  In the video, you can hear the ice thumping off the hull of the boat.  And while it was slow going, the advantage was it provided lots of nice resting places for seals and their pups. Some stayed put and just checked us out; others, like the two in this video, popped back into the water.

Seals, brown bears and black bears, oh my!

And then, of course, there's the glacier itself.  We spent time just drifting and listening to the sounds of the South Sawyer Glacier.  Just breathtaking.

Such intense coloring.

It made for a long day but so worth the trip.  I can't remember the last time the girls fell asleep for a nap but I suspect the lull of the boat was just too much to resist.

A rainbow for our journey back to Juneau.

Mountain girls

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!”

― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Last Day of School

It really doesn't come much better than this school year for us.  The girls both had teachers they just adored.  And both seem to find their groove in the classroom and in their after school activities.







Cora & Mr. Savikko - Guitars and singing, soft lights, salmon painting.  Couldn't ask for a better kindergarten teacher and experience.























Addy & Mr. Cramer - Meal worms, learning how to scratch on a turn table, and Electric Girl.  2nd grade was awesome!

Wild Edibles...from our yard

It's back...the rhubarb plants, that is.  As you can see from Cora's face, she's wondering if this is the year I will use enough to stay ahead of the plant before it starts to look like "Audrey" from Little Shop of Horrors.

So far I've made rhubarb strudel bread, 2 batches of rhubarb chutney and vanilla rhubarb simple syrup to be used later this summer in my rhubarb fizz cocktails.


This year, I also harvested some spruce tips from the gigantic spruce trees in our yard.  This particular batch I used in some spruce tip shortbread cookies.

Maiden Voyage of our Kayak

Some people buy jewelry or go on trips for their anniversaries.  We bought a kayak.  It was the end of the season sale from a local tour company and it's been stowed in the garage since then.  We finally got to take it out on its maiden voyage.

Graham took a day off from work and we set out at Auke Rec.  After we sort of got the hang of it, we paddled over to one of the small islands.  It was such a cool feeling to walk around on the island knowing that there was no one else there at the moment and probably very few people who could say they had ever set foot on it!

We had a little harbor seal pop up to say hi to us.  We stopped paddling and just floated for a bit to watch him.  Shortly after we started paddling again, I turned around and wouldn't you know, directly behind us was the seal.  Apparently he wanted to check us out just a bit longer. 

We had such a great time that we picked the girls up from school and had them give it a go.

Addy liked kayaking but she also just enjoyed soaking up the sun with a good book.  I love that in the background you can see Graham and Cora just making their way back to the beach.

Mother's Day Low Tide Adventure

A -4.7 low tide was predicted for Sunday morning around 9am.  Lowest tide of the year.  That alone would have been enough to motivate us to get out and enjoy searching the tidal flats for sea critters.   It also happened to be Mother's Day and sunny!  We joined forces with our friends the Kellers and off we went to the Rainforest Trailhead on Douglas Island to hike the illusive footbridge to Shaman Island. The footbridge to Shaman Island only reveals itself at very low tides and if you walk out,  you have to make sure you time your return before the footbridge is back under the water.

We found more sea critters than we could have imagined.  In fact, at one point, I felt like I could hardly walk because everywhere I looked there was an anemone or star fish and I was worried I would crush them with each step.  In the bottom left picture, can you spot the baby eel?  Sometime when you talk to the girls, ask them what happens when you try to feed an eel to a sea anemone...(just a hint, it involves lots of people shrieking and laughing)

The kiddos really had a great time exploring and showing each other their finds.

I claimed this star fish as my own - purple!

Our favorite find of the morning had to be this big, beautiful sun star.  The color was just breathtaking.  I love that you ended up with two views: one from the phone I used to take a picture and one from our friend's phone capturing all our looks of "wow!"

With such a low tide we really did have a good couple hours to spend on the island but eventually it was time to head back to the big island.  After we made our way across and were hiking back to the car, we kept turning around and watched the footbridge get smaller, and smaller, and smaller.  To the point where we looked at the people remaining to cross and wondering how fast they could run.

Definitely a Mother's Day to remember!

First fish for dinner

Some of our dearest friends here recently purchased a boat and they have been kind enough to take us out on it a few times.  The first time, wouldn't you know, was pouring rain and despite our best efforts we didn't even catch any fish.  

The girls were fascinated by watching Trevor bait the hook with herring.  And held tight to their poles in hopes a great king salmon was going to give them a nibble.  

Our second trip promised better weather and as it turns out, better fishing.

We thought for sure Graham had hooked a halibut...but no, just a sculpin "lovingly" referred to more commonly as a double ugly.  Cora calls is a double disgusting.

But then Graham pulled up a rockfish!  We kept it, filleted it and had it for an appetizer with our dinner.  It was delicious!