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Boundary Waters canoe

 The canoe trip through the Boundary Waters in Minnesota was great.  The recipe for success was six adults, three 3-year-olds, two 1-year-olds, two big (18′, I think) canoes, lots of life jackets, not too many paddles, some fishing poles, lotsa bug spray and sun screen, and a little patience.  Add a portage and lunch break to taste. The results should look something like this:

The canoes were from Sawbill Canoeing outfitters. Most of our photos are from the portages and lunch breaks, but you can find all of them in the gallery by clicking on any of the pictures.

The portages went well, and we managed to make it all in a single hike (compared to one other group that did three hikes across!!)–thanks all to the experts Ellen and Greg.  Portaging the younger kids was more awkward than the canoes–not balanced, squiggly, prone to snoring.. They did schedule in a few rest breaks.

Carrie-ing a canoe

The canoeing was great, but exploring the shore and beach during a lunch break was fun as well (and photogenic).

What a great day with great friends!

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Minnesota

We all went to Minnesota July 4-14 for a great vacation. First, we met up with Nana and visited family and friends in northern Minnesota (Aurora, Vermillion Lake, Ely..) This was lots of fun, and the start of some good lake time.

Next, we stayed at Nana’s friends Harry’s place on the shore of Lake Superior just outside of Grand Marais–a very nice place. Next we went to a cabin on Devil’s Track Lake and met up with Ellen, Greg, Taj, Mia, Kate, Tom, Janna, and Carmen.

Torsten and Taj were excited to see each other!

Torsten and Matt got some kayaking and fishing in, as a warm up for lots of time on the water during the whole vacation.

There was lots of good fishing going on from the docks:

The whole gang ate together (Carmen is hiding behind Carrie, Greg is taking the picture)

We got (Lake Superior) beach time with friends

And some good sleeping had to happen sometime:

Of course there was lots of canoeing

The day long canoe in the Boundary Waters was great, but that will get its own blog entry.  After the canoeing, it was time for an ice cream break:

 

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Boundary Waters, preview

Carrie, Torsten, and Matt are all up in Minnesota for a good vacation–away from cell phones and internet (mostly).  We met up w/ Torsten’s Nana (Jaye) and saw lots of family on various Minnesota Lakes for three days.  Then we caught up with Kate, Tom, Ellen, Greg, and all the tykes.  We have six adults, three 3-year-olds, and two 1-year-olds.  Yesterday we had an awesome canoe through the boundary waters (all of the above in two canoes!?!), then last night the moms all went out for dinner and catching up while the dads fairly successfully got everyone fed and to sleep.  Here’s a photo preview, with much more to come:

A view in the canoe Playing during the lunch break

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Wahoo Waylon!

I was down in the Bay Area a few weeks back, to attend the International Symposium on Digital Earth (and present Sensor Webs in IPY, here’s the power point, if you are interested). The conference was really great, and afterwards I got to catch up with Tom, Laura, and Waylon! Waylon and I made funny faces at each other in a yummy restaurant. We mostly tried to make sure we weren’t looking at the camera at the same time–but we missed it once…

At the ISDE (conference), I got to play with the “One Laptop Per Child” prototype–pretty cool:

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Sand in Them Thar Hills

I am on a blitz-trip to catch a bit of CEDAR/DASI (Distributed Array of Small Instruments) in Santa Fe and collaborate with folks at NOAA/ESRL (Earth Sciences Research Lab) in Boulder. Thursday night to Monday night, but I still feel like I’m gone too long! On the drive up from Santa Fe to Boulder, I stopped for some hiking at Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is pretty amazing–I recommend it. I only had the cell phone for some goofy self-portraits–sorry. There was a decent thunderstorm kicking up in the mountains behind the dunes and at the visitor’s center they had some fulgurites they’d found in the dunes.

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Father’s Day in Haines

After the great bike ride fun (see previous blog entry), we enjoyed the post-race dinner, and then searched out a quiet camping spot.  We went out to the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site and found a really great spot.  After sleeping in a bit, we woke up, had coffee and hot chocolate, then started packing up.  Carrie finished this up while Torsten and Matt went down to the lake to fish and do some father/son bonding on Father’s Day.  Carrie came down and joined us after a bit.

We have some great fishing movies, but I still have to compress those for posting.  In the meantime, enjoy this still shot (and I’ll post a bunch of movies as a separate blog entry).

We went into Haines and had some “famous” fish and chips for lunch at the Bamboo Room, played at the playground, and went to join in with all the other unique, individualists who drive subarus and bikes, just like us and everyone else. 🙂

 

As always, check out the whole gallery (includes the bike race and fishing).

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Kluane Bike Race

We had an awesome adventure last weekend centered around the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Race. It started out with a beautiful blue sky, flat water, fast ferry ride from Juneau to Haines. Carrie, Torsten, and Matt were on the ferry with Adelie, Chip, Missy, Mark, and Julie. Chip “Dr. Blokus” brought along his favorite game..

Blokus on the Ferry (Adelie and Torsten)

After grabbing dinner and some new fishing gear for Torsten, we went on up to Haines Junction (Canada) and camped with a lot of bikers. Here’s the start of the race on Satuday.

Carrie, Chip, and Matt rode as Team US Postal Service, with Missy acting as our team captain. Julie and Mark rode the whole race (150 miles–the race was 148.1, but they rode bikes from the campground to the start of the race). Chip rode legs 1-4 (69.4 miles) of the race, and was a bit wet and cold. Once he got up into the mountains, the skies cleared up and things warmed up, just in time for Matt to hop on to ride legs 5 and 6 (36.3 miles). Carrie got this great shot of Matt heading down the road after the station between legs 5 and 6.

Here’s Chip after Leg 4, escorted by Missy, Adelie, and Torsten:

After thoroughly enjoying Leg 6 (check out the altitude profile of Leg 6!), Matt handed off to Carrie (here she is riding off down the scenic road), who did Leg 7 and went on to do about a third of Leg 8 (the line at Customs to get back into the U.S. was a killer!!). Carrie rode a little over 30 miles.

Chip cleared customs and jumped right back in to join Mark and Julie at about midway through leg 7. So the US Postal Service team “cheated” (by covering parts of legs 7 and 8 twice) to get the red lantern (last to finish). But we had a blast and that was our only goal. Here’s the whole team (along with the “finishers”–Adelie and Torsten).

As usual, the whole gallery is available.

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Stop and smell the roses

Or blow the dandelions! Carrie and Torsten met up with Joan and Eva down at the duck pond (Rotary Park) and Carrie got some great photos. Check the gallery.

We are having a fun and busy summer–and a hard time keeping up with blogging and e-documenting it all! Torsten is biking, enjoying swimming lessons (movie) (and swim pictures), and plenty more. We have a slew (or a few, depending on if you are T’s grandma or not!) of movies are posted at http://talus-and-heavner.com/movies/

We’ll sort and blog those movies sometime… So the sentiment of stopping and smelling the roses is a perfect mantra (as we pack to hop on the ferry up to Haines this weekend).