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Still catching up a bit.. Up Mt. Roberts with Jono, Sara, Grandpa Bob, Nana, Carrie, Torsten, Matt and Suka. We got some good sliding down the snow in at the top. Matt ran up and down with Suka while everyone else went up the tram.
As usual, there a lots of photos in the gallery.
Torsten makes lots of great art. Here are just a few of the recent drawings to share. One of Torsten’s first pictures were of his good friends DeeDee and NeeNee (DeeDee has a peanut on his nose–can’t you see it?). Next is a picture of Torsten and Carrie (Torsten is giving Carrie a hug). Then Torsten with a Rainbow (Torsten is 4, as you can see in the signature).
To say it once again–what a weekend! We loved hanging out in Tenakee. Here’s a sunset photo:
Here’s a photo of Torsten and Adam playing down on the beach:
Torsten joined us in using binocs and spotting scopes to whale-watch all weekend:
We started out the summer (Memorial weekend) with a fantastic camping trip with Nathan, Amanda, and Adam on Portland Island (track down the blog entry). The 2008 summer went out in a similarly fantastic style–a weekend in Tenakee Springs (with Nathan, Amanda, and Adam–we need to hang out with those guys more often, if the weekends keep turning out like these did… 🙂
The above panorama does an ok job of capturing it.. You can click on either the image or this link to get a “.mov” which should fire up in quicktime and let you pan and zoom and navigate around the panoramo. Use the arrows to navigate and shift/control to zoom in and out.
Carrie and Torsten flew out on Ward Air direct to Tenakee on Thursday. Matt stuck around Juneau to get the “SEAMONSTER 2” proposal in, and teach the first class of the semester (both worked out well, I think..).
On Friday, Matt went out on Alaska Seaplanes and went through Angoon. Our introduction to Tenakee was fantastic. First, we all had a good soak in the hot springs. We enjoyed walking down main street. Carrie loved the store and the cash register:
We walked about a mile to the cabin that Nathan had just helped put up..
What a location! We had a delicious crab meal on Friday night. Nathan pulled ’em up, with the help of the boys. After the boys examined the crabs, the crabs got their revenge by chasing the boys around (with Nathan’s help…), and then we got our revenge (and dinner)–yum!
We loved our Tenakee visit for many reasons–I (Matt) was happy to relax in preparation for the upcoming semester–I really needed it! Here’s a few photos from main street and the public restroom (below high tide line!)
Part of the amazing experience was whales (humpback) swimming by at least once a day, along with seals, sea lions, lots of birds, fish jumping, etc. etc… The final day, we had at least 17 whales (we decided it was either about 20 hyperventalating whales or 40 normally-breathing whales!) and we had three whales breach at one time–fantastic! And the berries were at their prime and the bushes were full.. The hike back out to catch the ferry home was long, and the whole weekend was phenomenal but tiring:
More pictures are at the gallery, as usual. The ferry ride was long (with a stop off in Hoonah), but the whales followed us, and we got another nice breach. We’re scheming on finding some miracle way of buying a cabin out in Tenakee…
Another classic from Torsten. I helped Beth with the REU renewal proposal, and now I’m deep (or trying to get deep) into the SEAMONSTER renewal proposal. After that the magnetometer proposal… So I’m always working on the proposal. This afternoon, Torsten stumped us for a few minutes by saying “Are you working on the proposal in the sink?” Finally we realized he was talking about the (garbage) disposal in the sink–good connection!
Carrie got to play host as the Auke Bay Coop gang went to NOAA Lena Point for their Sea Week Experience. Touch tanks rule! Here are a few picture of Torsten during the visit:
Torsten loved having his checklist of critters to find!
As always, more photos in the gallery.
Hop in the way-back/catch-up machine for a trip to May 7, 2008. Matt got to go along on the Auke Bay Coop Field Trip to the Intertidal area of Auke Rec. It was great fun as the kids explored under rocks, found fish, eels, crabs, and even a small octopus!
More photos in the gallery.
It is catch up time (Matt had his “number 14” tooth pulled (a big one!)), so he’s in recovery–it is a good time to catch up on blogging!).. Here are some more July 4 Juneau parade highlights. The gang (except for Jaye–these are her pictures, but it does have Carrie!)
Torsten’s favorite moment of the parade (and this guy drove a good long way)
The miners were out in force (campaigning against ballot proposition 4 on the Aug 26 election), but they brought lots of big cool trucks:
This was probably the funniest float, although there were several good ones:
There was a great turnout for the annual Peace Crane march by the Veteran’s For Peace:
This is a catchup of the blog of a fun day way back in April (the 17th). We woke to a major snow storm. The rate of accumulation was about 8 inches per hour for 2 hours at our house. Incredible! We got good family photos of everyone, including the dogs–the fact that the dogs are accumulating snow indicates just how fast and heavy the snow was.
Carrie has worked away on the community garden plot we are sharing with Chip, Missy, and Adelie this summer. (In this rainiest of rainy summers–at least it seems like it. It was the second rainiest July on record, in future-hind-sight). Chip and Matt have had better luck on the Second Life Garden, but did put in some time shoveling the dirt around early in the summer. Torsten and Adelie are great at the garden-here’s a photo of Carrie and Torsten working away..
