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.

Other unphotographed adventures include biking around with the bike trailer, working extra, swimming, and meandering.

East Coast Part II

Tons of fun at the Please Touch museum.

Driving a bus, just like his dad.



He definitely preferred the race car.

This is supposedly the keyboard from Big.



Stoko's a driver, too.



All fancy pants. Practically like prom! Which was great for me, as I didn't go to prom when I had the chance in high school. I even wore heels - for the first time in my life! And Boppa had a chance to wear his suit. The suit has sat, unworn, in our closet since we moved to Alaska. (He did have to rent those shiny shoes.) Thanks, Nicole, for lending me your fancy clothes!

The wedding was at a luxurious location called the Rittenhouse.

Almost none of the wedding pictures we took turned out, but we did capture the amazing dessert.



And this, one of the saddest things we have ever seen in our life... dessert wounded soldiers.




This is a cool little statue in Rittenhouse Square. It reads:

The Hour Passes.
Friendship Abides.

Pretty awesome, really. I love the emphasis on friendship and love.

Some fun and tasty chocolate at the Reading Terminal. That is the best smelling terminal on the planet! Especially the chocolate region.

Chocolate!

Another funny Stoko moment took place when we were watching The Hangover with Nate and Nicole on our last night. Stoko had been under the weather that day. He was asleep in Genevieve's sling, head burrowed down in there, while we watched the movie. Alan Garner says, "Hey. You guys ready to let the dogs out?"

Stoko's head pops up, "Who. Who Who. Who Who."

Well, obviously it was pretty hilarious in real life. Forgive us our David Cross moments, as we forgive those who also David Cross others. Back to the blog.

The scene at Reading.

No trip to Philly would be complete without a Philly Cheese Steak Sandy.

They were pretty tasty.
Another view of Nate's workplace. It's the pointy one.

A cool game-like park.

But, be warned. Don't close your eyes for one second, or security will be all over you! They don't like people sleeping in this square. Don't let the whole brotherly love theme fool you!

These Philly Fanatics were all over the place. Philadelphians love their sports!

Farewell Philadelphians!

And onward to DC, by Amtrack.



That's a big shark!

Hi Aunt Jane! Thanks for meeting us for lunch. And thanks for the picnic! It was great to see you!

We had a spendover with Jodasm, Renee, and their little kiddo Eli. Boodah and Stokes especially appreciated having another buddy to play with. Thank you Jodasm, for the spendover and for organizing a gathering at your place! Francisca and Karlton came over, as well as law school friends Casius, Robyn, Monica, Jamie, and Helena. Hooray for seeing dear old friends! Hooray for catching up on everybody's latest exploits and adventures! I especially appreciate the fact that everybody rallied on a Monday night. We're hoping that Team Jodasm will come visit us next summer so we can reciprocate the hospitality!

Lovely adventures! And of course, it's great to be back in beautiful Kodiak!