The best things in life

There's just something about waking up on a calm Sunday morning to a beautiful sunrise, mountains glowing in the distance and bountiful bushes of blueberries just waiting to be picked. This morning, Senor and I found the perfect patches and he even finally learned to pick them himself! The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and besides picking berries we had the chance to dig in the mud, move lots of rocks around, and poke lots of sticks into things. Who could ask for more??

OK, so the sun was a little bright for Mister...


Plus, Buck was soooo happy upon our return.

And the blueberry pie was very tasty too....

In other exciting news on the best things in life, Senor and I took a little weekend trip to visit our roots....Bethel! Dawson was covering work in Anchorage as a committing magistrate and since I flew in on frequent flier miles, I figured I might as well get the most bang for my buck and fly all the way to Bethel. After the three hour flight into Anchorage, a little one hour flight to Bethel feels like nothing. Like dropping in on Hamilton when visiting Missoula. Anyway, as for the best things in life...good friends are definitely one of the best. We stayed at Aileen's house and were treated to all the best of Bethel. Of course, I brought my camera and didn't take a single picture, so I'll just have to tell you about all the exciting Bethel updates. We got to see all our favorite people, dropped in on my old work and the court, ran into people at the art guild, coffee shop, airport and old favorite restaurants. As for the changes....there's a new coffee shop where Zach's used to be (it's a bit on the fancier side and as Aileen points out, you feel a little like you're in trouble for talking too loud at the library which is a very funny feeling to have in Bethel.....Zach didn't like having to charge money for coffee....these new owners don't like coffee...go figure, there's always a catch); the road has been repaved and there's even a bike path and a few new crosswalks and a small piece of sidewalk near Watson's corner; restaurants come and go (Mimi's and the Roadside grill are no longer, the Espresso shack was back in business and now gone again, but the Front Street cafe still has the best burger in town), there's a farm that sells fantastic organic veggies, not to mention a new program that sends in weekly boxes of organic veggies from Washington state and they're rearranging the AC at the advice of their latest "efficiency" expert. I think that about does it for the changes which I'm sure you were just dying to hear about. Mostly, it was just great to spend time with a friend...chatting and cooking and rearranging cupboards (that was Senor's duty). Thanks Aileen!

Whale Watching...

the easy way! No sea-sickness, guaranteed.

Keeping us all entertained this evening was the arrival of a large dead humpback whale.


Being good parents, we prevented Boodah from swimming out to be one with the whale, as much as he really wanted to. However, we did pose for family photos.



These folks were whale watching the old-fashioned way. Actually, they appeared to be tying up the whale and towing it away. A scientist may have been involved in the procedure.




Here are a bunch of close-ups from different angles:




Sadly for our recent visitor Nate, we narrowly missed the opportunity to see the whale yesterday when we fatefully decided to hike up the front of Bunker Hill rather than the back. Had we chosen to hike up the back, we would've been pleasantly surprised by old Humpy one day earlier, while Nate was still here. Oh well, you can't win them all! And besides, maybe 45 tons of decomposing humpback whale isn't as exciting to other people as it is to us.

The latest and greatest

Berries, Berries everywhere! Here's some tasty salmonberries which have been made into jam and pie.

And even better are the blueberries of which we have no pictures. But they are big juicy plump delicious berries. I picked a bunch coming back from the Peace of Mind cabin and I'm excited to make Peace of Mind Jam. It's sure to help beat the winter morning blues (well, when combined with toast and coffee that is). Here's Senor and Papa returning from a berry picking mission. He's getting good at picking other people's noses (Senor, I mean. His papa was always good at it).


And speaking of missions......we are READY! Watch out world...


In other news, we just hosted our 3rd visitor to Unalaska! Very exciting. Dawson's friend from law school, Nate Wilhite, just took a break from exciting corporate law in Washington DC to take in the sights and adventures of Alaska. Nate caught a halibut about 5 pounds lighter than he is and we now have a big freezer full of halibut (Dawson caught 2 halibut too!). Here's some shots.

That's a halibut tongue, in case you are wondering!

The total day's catch. And the best part about it was paying someone to cut it up and vacuum seal it in nice 2 pound packages. Now that's worth it.

And Nate inspired us to play a game other than Scrabble. It was a nice change from the serious word play.


Thanks for visiting Nate!

"Is this going to be on the blog?"

Famous last words......

One more Montana activity, one which was quite new to me, despite my physical therapy training.....belly casting for my friend (who is to remain quite anonymous).

Some people were more thrilled with the prospect than others.....


Although mostly we are just feeling lucky to have survived the activity without serious injuries requiring emergency care and skin grafting. After striking out on buying the supplies at the local Hamilton medical supply stores, one of our expert friends suggested cheese cloth and plaster a paris. So I went to the hardware store and bought these supplies. The plan was to cast her Friday night combined with wine drinking, barbequeing and baby showering. I guess it's best that we ended up waiting until the next day when we actually took the time and attention to properly attend to the warning on the plaster.....


Who knew?