A jaunt through the woods 6.10.2010

Quent and I decided to take the rowboat for a spin. Quent rowed over to a trail that paddlers use to portage their canoe or kayaks to get to another body of water. Another boardwalk trail...

She tried and failed 6.10.2010

After our short walk through the woods, I asked Quent if I could try rowing. He said, "Go for it!" And try I did. And failed. Miserably. It was actually quite pathetic. I was SO uncoordinated.

El Capitan Caves 6.11.2010

We were pretty fortunate to arrive at the cave the time we did because were were just in time for a tour.  There were a lot of people going on the tour, so we had our own personal tour with a guide.  We walked up the many hundreds of steps to the cave entrance.  The guide showed us signs on the tree of flying squirrels...honest.

The cave entrance.

We walked a few hundred feet in when we came to this bat gate.  It's to keep unwanted humans out, but allows bats to fly through since it's their home in the winter.  Pretty spooky!  It was an impressive gate.

We weren't allowed to touch the walls of the cave, which is understandable for preservation reasons, but one couldn't help but touch such a formation to find out if it was as slimy as it looked.  (It wasn't)

Our happy little group.  This was the only picture of Quent in the cave.

I seem to recall Woodsen hitting his head on the rocks a lot.  Good thing he had a helmet on.  It was tricky ducking under some of the rock.

One of my least favorite things about Southeast Alaska (there aren't too many) are all of the boardwalk steps.  Thankfully, Ketchikan has a lot of trails that I refer to as "normal".

We drove through Whale Pass (nobody blink or they might miss it) to another cave.

It was pretty cool!

Sweetwater Lake cabin 6.11.2010

This was our last night on Prince of Wales. We stayed at the Sweetwater Lake cabin. The four of us piled into a rowboat with our gear and Quent rowed us less than a mile to the cabin. It was an overcast evening, but the lake was calm and beautiful. We were enjoying the calm while there was a storm brewing in Ketchikan.


One of the cool (cough) things about this cabin was the door less outhouses...

Such a beautiful spot!

I was enjoying the campfire "stools".

We had another mouse visitor, which I wasn't too happy about. Would Woodsen and I spend another night chasing mice? I did wake up in the middle of the night because it was probably about 90 degrees in the cabin. It was a gross, stifling heat. Woodsen accidentally turned the stove to "high" before going to bed. Oops!

We took the IFA "Stikine" ferry back to Ketchikan on the 12th of June. We had to get up at 4:45 to have enough time to pack up and drive back to the ferry terminal. Once we boarded the ferry, I smelled the after-effects of what one does when feeling seasick. I guess it was a pretty crazy ferry ride the day before during the storm. After spending four nights on Prince of Wales and not seeing much of civilization, it was interesting going back to Ketchikan. I missed the quietness of nature.

These were the last of the pictures we took while Natasha and Woodsen visited us. It's always so sad saying goodbye.

Storm 10.13.10

Tonight thru tomorrow will be our third storm this week.  This is our current forecast according to Wunderground:

... High Wind Warning remains in effect until 10 am akdt

Thursday...


A High Wind Warning remains in effect until 10 am akdt Thursday.


* Wind: sustained winds 45 to 55 mph with gusts up to 90 mph.


Precautionary/preparedness actions...


A warning means that high winds are already occurring or


imminent. These winds could pose a threat to life and property.


People are urged to secure loose objects that could be blown


around or damaged by the wind.


Be sure to protect boats and aircraft.


These winds could cause branches to fall onto power lines.


This statement will be updated by 11 PM akdt tonight or sooner if


conditions warrant.

Octopus 9.28.10

This morning shortly after I arrived at work, a customer came in and asked if Paul Allen had come in to order coffee.  My boss and I looked at him and were like, "Paul Allen?"  He then described that Paul Allen's yacht was right around the corner, in the ocean of course.  So we walked outside and sure enough, there was this huge yacht.  Who is Paul Allen?  The co-founder of Microsoft.  This yacht is currently the world's 9th largest superyacht.  And it was here in Ketchikan!  I thought that was pretty cool!  And as far as I know, Paul Allen hasn't stepped foot into the coffee shoppe...  Maybe I'll bring my camera tomorrow morning and see if I it's still there.  I found more info (and pictures) about the Octopus (yacht) here.

Flowers & seedlings 5.29.2010

I think I have become a big fan of spring (my favorite season is fall) because it means less rain. We do get rain in the spring, but they are more like scattered showers. And I also love all of the flowers popping up! This is the first time in my life that I have been interested in having a flower and vegetable garden. I have flowers I would like to plant, but I wanted to see what came up in our flower beds this year first. Next year I will definitely be planting more! So with all of the beautiful flowers in bloom, I snapped a lot of photos. This is the first of three blog posts all about flowers.


Rhododendron

Quent and I bought some vegetable seeds and here we were planting them in pots to start inside (which are still inside as of 8-13-2010). We started our garden a little late, but that's ok. Now we know for next year. We also planted beans in our little raised garden that Quent built.

Flowers 5.28.2010

These are pictures I (Christina) took from the flowers in our yard.

There was much anticipation in the rhododendrons in our yard because we had no idea what colors were going to pop out once they were bloomed.  Ketchikan is a pretty colorful place in the spring and early summer because of these beautiful flowers!  There's a "yard" in our neighborhood covered with these flowers and it's absolutely beautiful!

Purple columbine

I'm not sure what this flower is called, but it's a plant we picked up from Wal-Mart.

Flowers 5.26.2010

Here is the last of the pictures for this flower series.

Camera Play 5.15.2010

Quent was enjoying a photo shoot on the Deer Mountain trail while taking a short hike.

Skunk cabbage

This is the top part of devil's club.