2010!

Road trip! Or more accurately, boat/road trip! We hopped a ferry to the mainland to inaugurate the new decade. We helped the Sewardians celebrate the last 50th anniversary celebration of Statehood. It didn't seem like too many Sewardians were there celebrating... but then again, we arrived early. And we made it to 8:30 PM before retiring for the night. Hey, that road tripping can really take it out of you! We celebrated the New Year with the Central Time Zone and called it good. Yep, I know. We're getting old. We enjoyed ourselves.

Stoko did not want to wear a Happy New Year tiara, despite our best efforts!

And now, the moment you've been waiting for... the Alaska State Song!



It's no Bethel Bell Choir, but it's pretty good. I now feel like a complete Alaska resident. After four point five years, I've finally heard the state song!

The venue was the Seward Cruise Ship / Train Station. They had a kids area. Boodah loved the space and freedom to run around. That is, until he collided with another dancing child who, unfortunately for Boodah, was much larger. The ensuing meltdown ended the evening. Admittedly, we were already kind of looking for an excuse to call it a decade.

The year ended with a double blue moon, which we had the good fortune of seeing in the morning and the night. I thing that's good luck. A good omen.

In honor of the many top ten lists that are produced at this time of year, we'll now list our top ten list of books read in 2009:

HA HA HA HA HA HA! That's a joke. If we actually made that list, it would only consist of two books, because that's approximately the number we were each able to read. Even two may be pushing it. Ahh, to have the time for leisure reading! "Maybe when I'm bigger", to borrow one of Boodah's quotes.

We did actually watch a lot of movies, so there isn't really an excuse for not reading. It's just that the old brain power doesn't feel huge by the time the kids go night night, so we turn to the Netflix to soothe our brains to sleep. Top 10 Netflix movies of 2010? Food Inc. and Tyson come to mind. Flight of the Conchords. True Blood. Big Love. Okay, we'll stick to top five lists. HBO is well represented.

In honor of the blue moons, we decided to check out some blue people. Avatar was quite a scene, with a huge line within the theater just for the movie. Fortunately, we secured our preferred front row seating. XD 3D. Pretty cool. I wonder if the rugrats will say things like, "I remember back when they had 2D televisions." They'll need to come out with some smaller glasses if they want to capture the toddler market.

We lucked out and get some awesome weather. Blue sky, snowy mountains, all that good stuff! Here are some day shots of Seward:

Of course, we checked out the SeaLife Center. It's pretty awesome. We're glad we went. (Last time we were in Seward, back in January 2006 - incidentally the trip we found out Boodah was en-route - we were too cheap to enter. We went in, checked the prices, and asked, is it awesome? We decided not to risk it.)

But we're glad we went for it this time. It really is pretty awesome.

And we went to Team WilYos for a traditional Japanese New Year celebration. Lots of tasty, meticulously created Japanese food items, courtesy of Nami and her friends from Anchorage's Japanese community. It was awesome!

Stoko met a buddy to play with, and Boodah always has a blast with his cousins. They are great with him, so that's lucky!

One Japanese tradition is to write a large New Year's Resolution.

The other fun thing we did in the big city, aside from hang out with the Wilyos, was ice skate in the lagoon. The blue sky was fantastic, but on account of the cold it was a short outing. What an awesome place, right in the middle of the city!

And then, just like that, it was time to hit the dusty trail. A jaunt down to Homer, with a few stops along the way, and then ferry time. The guy loading the car advised us that we'd all be puking all night long, and that if he could, he would fly. Just what I wanted to hear! We had a few dollar bills, so we bought some dramamine from the vending machine. Fortunately, we all survived without any unplanned vomit. I guess the guy scared the seasickness out of us.

Here's a few ferry shots:

We splurged, and got a berth with facilities. And what lovely facilities they were!

How time flies... our first Trusty Tusty mission, back in June, 2007!

We did get a bonus movie under our belts in Homer, on account of our early arrival. The Princess and the Frog. It was pretty good, for a Disney movie.

And of course, Boodah rang in the New Year snowboarding at Girdwood, enjoying the magic carpet lift. Yeah, the timeline on this blog is convoluted. It's a literary device.

The end. Here's a sleepy Boodah.

Happy New Year to all! May this year and this decade be full of pure awesomeness for everyone!

(Fortunately, as Kung-Fu Panda will tell you, there's no charge for awesomeness.)