On Sunday (July 24th) we went to Third Beach.
There are lots of pictures below the fold.
Category Archives: Home Life
La Push day 2
We planned to leave the cabin at 10:00 and were very close to on schedule. We drove the short distance to the parking lot for the trail head for Second Beach and walked through the woods to the beach. Barb and I walked from one end of the beach to the other as did several others.
I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
La Push day 1
We left home about 11:00 AM, 15 minutes earlier than planned. We arrived at the Seattle ferry dock at 11:30 and were about car number five in line for the 12:20 ferry to Bainbridge Island. Had we arrived perhaps 10 minutes earlier we probably have been on the earlier ferry. No matter. There were no hard deadlines we had to meet.
We had a pleasant ferry ride and continued our drive. We arrived at our cabin in La Push at about 5:00 PM. We settled in and had supper then started finding other people.
Barb called it a snowball as we found more and more people and our group grew. Here is what it looked like when we had a little more than half of our group:
Bob and family came in about 9:00. We stood around and talked with them for a while then Barb and I got a little chilled and tired of standing and snuck off to the cabin about 9:45. Max drifted off his cousins to the RV spot where Steve and family were parked. They had a fire pit and food so people hung out there until late.
Sign of the times
Seen recently.
What a rack!
I don’t think I have never been this close to an elk in the wild before:
Barb’s birthday hike
Barb decided she wanted to go on a hike for her birthday. She spent a lot of time trying to find just the right hike. Not too short, not too long, not too long of a drive, not too much elevation gain, and absolutely required was “a nice view”.
She settled on Cedar Butte. It was only 30 minutes away from home, 900 feet of elevation gain, and 3.8 miles round trip. It seemed pretty reasonable. But what about the view? I’ll let you decide.
Dawes Glacier
On Monday, May 16th, aboard the Celebrity Solstice Barb and I got up early, 4:24 AM, to get good indoor seats for our possible visit to a glacier.
The first glacier we attempted to visit, at the end of Tracy Arm, was blocked by small icebergs. So we turned around and went for plan B. This was Dawes Glacier.
The video below was this second attempt. When we were about a mile away Barb expressed her opinion, multiple times, that it was time to turn around. We continued. We got within about a half mile of the glacier then did a 270 degree turn before leaving.
The scale of the glacier was hard to comprehend. It is so big it seemed much closer than it actually was. We got to within about a half mile of the face. The face was several hundred feet above the surface of the ocean and a half mile across.
The ship is 1041 feet long and 121 feet wide. I created the image below from a screen shot of Google Maps with the Celebrity Solstice represented by a rectangle approximately to scale at the point of closest approach:
One of the possible excursion was to depart the ship and get on a tour boat which went into shallower and narrower waters to get a look at things much closer than what the Solstice could. Barb and I did not do this but others did. If you were to go on a cruise like this don’t count on getting so close to a glacier from the main ship. The cruise director told us that in doing this for 11 years he can count on one hand the number of times the ship has gotten this close to a glacier.
Here is the tour boat as seen from an upper deck of the ship:
Here some of the many chunks of ice we saw in the fiord. They are incredibly blue. This is because the ice is so thick. The ice absorbs all colors other than blue. Blue light is transmitted and scattered. Because sunlight has all colors present some of the blue light comes back out to give the ice a blue color.
This was the high point of the cruise for us.
Some of the other events of our Alaska cruise were:
- Departing Seattle
- Whale watching and sunset
- Quote of the day—Chelsea Karthauser (hike to see a glacier near Juneau)
- Saxman Totem Park
- Quote of the day—Barb L.
- Float plane to Misty Fjords National Monument
Float plane to Misty Fjords National Monument
After visiting Saxman Totem Park we wandered around Ketchikan for a while, we ate lunch on the ship, then waited for the bus to pick us up and take us to the float plane excursion to Misty Fjords National Monument.
The float plane trip was pleasant and although the scenery was pretty amazing we thought it was similar to that which we find close to home.
Saxman Totem Park
We got up early on Sunday, May 15th, as we were coming into Ketchikan. We got a table next to the window in the cafeteria and watched the scenery go by as we ate breakfast.
We then went up on one of the upper outside decks and watched as we pulled into dock.
Quote of the day—Barb L.
I recharge the ridiculous and it just all comes out.
Barb L.
May 15, 2016
[We were in Ketchikan, Alaska waiting for the bus to take us to the float plane for a trip into Misty Fjords National Monument when Barb, as is typical when she is happy, spontaneously erupted with funny stuff.—Joe]
Departing Seattle
Friday the 13th we departed Seattle on the Celebrity Solstice for a seven day cruise to South East Alaska. We were told this was going to be the largest cruise ship in Alaska. It is quite large and even though we had one of the cheapest cabins it was, at least to us, luxurious. The glass elevators, the live tree suspended in the “courtyard”, the fountains, the lawn on the top deck, the hot tubs, the swimming pools, the food, the views, it was all amazing.
Whale watching and sunset
After supper last Saturday Barb and I watched whales and the sun set. It was very pleasant.
Quote of the day—Chelsea Karthauser
I’ve been trained for bear encounters. So if we see a bear, what you need to do is, gather around in a circle with me in the very center.
Chelsea Karthauser
May 17, 2016
Guide for Gastineu Guiding in Juneau, Alaska.
[We went on a hike to see a glacier with Chelsea (her nickname is Whalebait, interesting story on how that came about).
If you ever get the chance ask her about the time she fell off the trail in the snow, lost almost everything, including her shoes, was saved by Devil’s Club, made her way around the mountain to the tram, where people took pictures of her but wouldn’t help her.
We enjoyed our hike but most of the time we could have easily mistaken the scenery for that which we could have found with ten miles from home. We could have seen the glacier with a ten minute hike instead of a three hour hike. Now, the people from Texas, Arizona, and Florida saw some things quite different from their home area.
Thanks Chelsea.—Joe]
Mother’s Day dinner
With both kids away at college and unable to do something in person for Mother’s Day I decided to help by taking Barb to dinner. I told her to pick anything she wanted within an hours drive. She suggested Red Robin and I frowned. I told her I was thinking of something more like the Space Needle or a nice steak house.
After considerable thought and my repeated insistence that she should not be concerned about the price she came up with I Love Sushi on Lake Bellevue.
It was very nice. The food was good and we had a nice view of the lake.
Joe and Barb’s unexpected bonus
Barb and I went on a walk to Poo Poo Point via Chirico Trail yesterday.It was a little more elevation gain than we wanted (1760 ft.). But it was supposed to have a nice view at the top. The weather was nice so we decided to go for it. We figured we should leave the house before 9:00 AM to be able to get parking easily.
We arrived at the parking lot about 8:15 to find the lot full and the sides of the road filled with cars. “What’s going on?” [Grumble, grumble] We found a place a couple hundred yards away that let us park for $5.00. [Grumble, grumble]
We were at the trail head at 8:27 and saw people with radios who explained this was the landing zone for paragliders and to not dilly-dally around as we cross the zone. [Grumble, grumble]
The hike was more than I was really prepared for. I got winded easily and sweat profusely even though the temperature was in the low 60s. There were a lot of people on the trail. [Grumble, grumble.] It was a nice trail though:
We stopped to rest many times and it took us an hour and 45 minutes to make it to the top.
It was a nice view. It was a very nice view:
But there were all these people:
Oh. They were launching paragliders from here! Cool! No more grumbling.
This was an unexpected bonus. More pictures below the fold:
Overheard
Barb is a very happy person and expresses this in many different ways. One of the ways is that she makes funny sounds at various times.
She works from home nearly all the time and sometimes when she “commutes” from the bathroom to her desk in the bedroom 15 feet away she will make sounds. Along with the hand motions of driving a car she will make sounds like, “Putt, putt, putt…”.
Yesterday she was kneeling on the floor next to a dresser as I was about to walk past. The area was a little tight for her kneeling at the same time I was walking through and as she shuffled back to get out of my way she started making the sounds of a truck backing up, “Beep! Beep! Beep!…”.
I couldn’t tell you how many different sound effects she has implemented. I just know they all make me smile and laugh. But I do know my favorite so far.
Last night she told me that sometime during the day she put on her holster and was practicing drawing and dry firing as it was suggested in class and the sounds sometimes just spontaneously came out during the practice session. The sounds? It was that of the spurs she imagined she was wearing, “Ching! Ching!”
RIP Smokey
Remember Smokey? He was 17 and 1/2 years old when Brother Doug and his family had to put him down today.
Barb’s first day of class
Today and tomorrow Barb is attending Insights General Defensive Handgun class. I’ve been teaching her how to shoot and she does well with basic shooting. She just got her holster on Thursday so I have not taught her much about the draw and only the basics of defensive shooting. But I think she is more than adequately prepared for the class:
Prerequisites:
CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT or documentation of good character AND BRING THOSE DOCUMENTS WITH YOU TO CLASS. You must be totally familiar and comfortable with your handgun. If you have never shot before or wonder how your gun works we recommend our Handgun Safety and Marksmanship class or our Basic Handgun Safety and Responsibility class.
Required Equipment:
Reliable, functional semi-automatic handgun; Belt holster (rigid) with sturdy belt; pants with belt loops; 600 rounds of brass-cased, FMJ ammunition (minimum); minimum of 2 magazines and a magazine pouch; Concealment clothing; Hearing and eye protection.
I think she may be a little bit nervous. She didn’t sleep particularly well last night and said she was thinking about the class a lot. But the clincher was that as she was just going out the door she noticed she was wearing her holster upside down.
Reason #1777 why my girlfriend is awesome
Barb sent me a text message today telling me she needed some help. She figured out where to store an item but it was too heavy and awkward for her to put it in the dead body storage area.
Yes. She discovered one of my pieces of furniture has a spot where you could easily store a dead body and didn’t miss a beat in recognizing it for what it was good for then found an alternative use for it since we don’t currently have any dead bodies without a storage location.
Isn’t that awesome?!
I suggested, and utilized, an alternate location to store the item so the dead body spot will be readily available for future use.
That had to hurt
I’m a strong proponent of women learning how to shoot guns even though they sometimes use them inappropriately:
The wife, 60-year-old Victoria Reid, was arrested Wednesday evening in Rockledge and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault domestic violence.
An arrest report from the Brevard County Sherriff’s Office indicates that Reid forced her husband of 16 years to sit on a couch at gunpoint as she confronted him about having an affair. Once seated, she threatened to maim him, kill him, and give him PTSD – a condition she also suffers from – in order to punish him for his alleged acts of unfaithfulness.
Her threats indicated that she was planning to shoot her husband in the face or chest, however it seemed she settled on traumatizing her husband rather than flat-out killing him, opting to shoot him in his left knee instead. But once she did, the bullet ended up traveling past his knee, up his leg and to his testicles where it got lodged.
I’m also a strong proponent of not doing things you know will make them extremely angry.