LAPACACA!: Sunny Daze

We came home from Philly to an exciting little box.
Hooray for Olympus. We had one of their first indestructible models. Turns out it was in fact destructible. But we wrote them a letter and they kindly replaced the old with the new - an Olympus Stylus Tough. The new has some improvements, and seems much more likely to be indestructible. It's already survived one trip into the ocean. We're hoping it lives a long time!

Here's the inaugural photo:

We haven't quite mastered the settings. Despite being Luddites, all we need to do is wait a couple more years so our kids can teach us how to operate our cameras (and phones and computers).

The last couple days have been incredible. Yesterday we spent all day down at the beach, Pasagshak beach. We looked for surf and decided to go on a family hike instead. Whales were everywhere! After our hike, we stopped by Amy's place, which is right on the beach. Pretty amazing! Talk about a dreamy locale! As it turns out, there is one place for sale down there. Unfortunately, at $475,000 it's a bit out of range. But wow, what a setting! We'll employ a piggy bank, just in case. Maybe something will come up about three years from now.

Here are a few pictures from our hike.

Mister wanted to lay down in every mudhole we came across.

Look! Another mudhole!

Here we are enjoying the sunny spring days. Sunbeam:

(So relaxing! A person could just nap there for hours in meditative bliss! Monks on mountain tops? Ha-they've got nothing on a sunbeam and two toddlers with cement mixers.)

Vitamin D Mission:

Mill Bay Lounging

And Kodiak's second most optimistic surfer (after Boodah):

Cutie Pie

Coast Guard mega May Day flea market. This is a major annual event, timed with the rotation of the Coasties. They open up a hangar for people to unload and/or scour over prized possessions. We came away with a new scooter, a boogie, and some board games. Here's the serious line of cars pouring into the base.

And some jewel beach beach-glass hunting until the opening bell.

And the line, the hordes stampeding in...

Ta Da! The setting was pretty cool. It was worth going just to hang out that close to the C-130s.

Afterwards we grabbed some yellow baggies and picked up trash around town. In addition to Law Day and International Worker's Day, May 1 was clean up day. It's a pretty cool tradition. Ironically, the bags were supplied by BP, the same BP that's kind of in the dog house for its little spill down south. But up here, they provided the bags that we used to pick up trash. I'm always amazed at how much people can accomplish when everybody pitches in a few hours. Our community is decidedly cleaner!

COWABUNGA!

Paddle paddle paddle

Surf's Up! Getting shacked (under the faucet).

The new scooter in action.

Is it obvious that we are a chocolate loving family? (Either that, or a napkin hating family.)

Two buddies hanging out in the comfy chair.

Sally recently left the island to take a job on Afognak Island, which is just up north of here. It's home to legendary brown bears, who come running AT you if you fire a weapon. (They've learned that a firearm going off usually means a tasty freshly downed elk is nearby, so they head towards the sound. We hear it's a good place for Bear Spray.) Sally is teaching at Danger Bay school, a one room school from K-12. Pretty awesome! Good luck Sally!

We met Sally for one last hike around Abercrombie before she left for the wild. With any luck, we'll head up to visit her one of these weekends in May!

Walking back home sweet home.