Green

summer love

 Here is Abby a year ago in front of the same cracked rock as seen above. You can't actually get to it now with all the other rocks that have fallen off the cliff.

 It was a beautiful wonderful day. Now gone gone gone.

Scratching bison

Endless Summer

NO! There is NOT an endless summer in Kodiak. In fact, it is brief and FLEETING. When the sun comes out in Kodiak so do the zombies!  Suddenly everyone is roaming around town, "uuurhhhhr, what is that bright orb?!" When it is warm, you do everything you can! They are 20 hour long days for a reason. 

In one day we went to the playground, a hike, a picnic, and our secret sunny spot! Here we are at Near Is. It was truly warm. Probably the only day this year I will wear shorts and a short-sleeve T-shirt and be comfortable. AND I got a farmer's tan, which is a vast improvement to an Alaskan tan. Alaskan tans are from your chin to your eyes and possibly your hands.  So white forehead (hat), white neck (shirt that zips to neck), and white everywhere else!

Picnic!

 Hide and Seek at "secret sunny spot".  Abby thinks that if she doesn't see ME, then she hasn't been found!

  Devil's Club

Picnic

The sun suddenly came out AFTER work, very unusual, and ironically enough, I had to go back to work that night. Thus, Abby and I had an impromptu picnic on Near Is.

Pretty night, ugly incident

Such a beautiful weekend. Captured above is a moment where I really wish I would have had a real camera. Not sure a picture can do justice to the feeling of the calm air on my skin, the salty sweet smell of the sea and budding plants, the peaceful quite punctuated by noisy sea birds, and the soft light yet bright light at 11pm....

Unfortunately, despite the late night light, the perfectly calm and clear seas, and great weather, an Army landing craft hit humpback reef (it's marked on a regular atlas) and spewed over 15,000 gallons of diesel right in Chiniak Bay, where Kodiak is located. Here are the spill clean-up containers sitting on the spit the next day.  No one around. No unloading or activity. Such sitting there. "Lucky for us" the weather pushed the spill into Gibson Cove and St. Herman Harbor rather than the Buskin River where there is a significant salmon run.  Thanks weather.

Camping!

Abby and I go on walks in the woods and towards the end play games at one of the fish tech buildings.  We often play very imaginative interactive games (no ipad iwhatever for this kid).  She makes the games up. They are called names like bear chair; sun fly; bird puddle; and how they are played varies.  Above, the basic strategy is for me to follow her around the pavers, and at the end there are rocks and pine cones we "race" to pick up.  Of course, she is in front, so, who wins??? Sometimes we "both win." 

 Nose wrinkles and dimples!

 Someone has been busy of the Thelma C, and it hasn't been me! As captain, I better rally the troops....

Four year old mac n cheese. It was edible as it turns out!

Pie

Over the weekend I made a cherry pie for the first time on my own without mom. I am a fourth generation pie maker, receiving numerous awards for pie crust! As a friend said, "this is good, it's the crust that makes the pie." Specialties include pumpkin, cherry, and sugar. I hope Abby learns too and becomes a fifth generation pie maker!