Well, here I go again,
failing my blog followers. I'm blaming the much shorter days and the
colder weather for keeping us all inside more, and hence not providing for good
blogging material. It's been averaging about ten degrees colder this
visit than when Kelli and Jared and Henry were here in October. The length of daylight is also much less. Combine that with required naps of Henry
and, well, honestly, some laziness on our part, and we have been spending more
time in our nice little log house.
Kelli and Jared went out
today, to do some shopping and sight-seeing. Kelli says it was the
longest they have been away from Henry since we left San Diego. That's not good, but
is: at least they got a nice break. I hope they don't have to wait
until I come visit in February before they get another nice long time
out together.
It’s rainy and windy, but
about 43 degrees, not bad. Kathy started her vacation today, a very good
thing. Henry has caught a cold, poor baby. It doesn’t really bother
him much, except at night, as he has trouble breathing and sleeping.
Otherwise, he’s still pretty much the Energizer Baby!
Yesterday Jared took Henry
to the Unnamed Restaurant to check it out and get some coffee. He
reported that the customers were all rough looking men, but all were nice to he
and Henry. The coffee was tolerable. We haven’t eaten there yet,
put off by it’s looks and rumor that all the cooking is done in the old school
bus attached to the building. Kathy heard they have the best burgers on
the island though, so we are planning on doing take out.
Later Jared and Henry and I
walked to the Klawock River Trail. It was raining a bit, but the hood for
the backpack Henry rides in works great, and Jared and I were prepared,
too. It was very quiet over there, compared to our last visits: we
scared up two flights of small ducks, and about four bald eagles, and that was
it. We walked along the shore down to the short waterfall, where the view
upriver is better, across the large pond formed by the waterfall rocks.
No bear tracks this time.
We went to Ruth Ann’s for
dinner a earlier this week, and had a great time. We all had halibut of
one recipe or another, all delicious. We took the petite serving
size, so even had some room left over for excellent desert. Our waitress
was very good, too. What a great dinner.
We stopped by the Craig
Library and Kelli got six books out, three for her and three for Henry.
Looks like I’ll be flying to
San Diego the
end of February. Gonzaga Bulldogs come to USD once a year for a
basketball game, and Kelli and I haven't missed this game since she graduated.
Tuesday we finally ventured
out to find a Christmas tree. Someone told me I just needed to visit the
Forest Service office and get a free permit, but the lady at the desk told me I
didn’t need one, that we could just pick any reasonable tree on the Tongass and
it was mine. So, we drove down to the 20-mile Spur Trail on the road to
the ferry landing at Hollis. We turned up the dirt road to the trailhead,
and soon ran into snow about six inches deep. Luckily someone had been up
the road before us, so left a nice set of double tracks. It was still slippery
driving. The road slopes up gently, so the snow got a little deeper as we
drove. We were also fighting the coming darkness, so didn’t have
unlimited time. We stopped about half way to the trailhead, concerned
about both deepening snow and dwindling daylight.
Bundling up, we walked up
and down the road, looking for the ideal tree. We already knew we were
looking fo a small spruce, the most Christmas-like of the evergreens that grow
on Prince of Wales. Finally we found one, and I pulled out my new pruning
saw and we had our Christmas tree! We strapped it to the top of the car,
and slipped and slid our way down the road and back to the highway.
Once home, we cut off some lower branches, attached the tree stand, and into
the house it went. Only then did we realize we had a very sparse tree,
oops. Oh well, we will decorate it up and celebrate its story and it will
be our best Christmas tree ever!
We had an excellent dinner
at Ruth Ann's Restaurant on Tuesday night. I would not have gone back to
this place, due to the very poor service and high prices the last time we ate
there, but Kathy wanted to give them another try. We had an excellent
waitress, and a delicious meal. We all had halibut dinners, and all were
really good.
Merry Christmas Everyone!