For Labor Day weekend we decided to go to Valdez for one last summer hoorah. For those of you not from Alaska, there really is nothing summery at all about Labor Day weekend. It's fall. But Paul had 2 days off of school and he talked me into getting a substitute for seminary and off we were. We left Saturday after work and got there pretty late. We slept in our car that night at the foot of a waterfall. It was surprisingly not as comfortable as we'd expected.
The next morning we went to church. It was really fun to see their thriving branch there. Tons of young families with tons of kids.
After church we found ourselves a campground and started working on supper. Paul had prepared our tinfoil dinners before we left home. (Paul just got to see the preview of this post and he said, "You've got to say it's elk meat!") They were delicious elk meat. He worked on building a fire while I wandered around drinking our 2 liters of orange popwe he won at the fair.
You may notice in this fetching picture of me working on wrapping up my elk tinfoil dinner that I am a wee bit bundled up. It was freezing. It was raining most of the time but not when we were eating our elk, which was nice.
A beauty shot of the elk coooking process.
A beauty shot of the elk eating process. As the hours wore on, my happy camper face started to get a little frozen and it ended up looking like this.
We took a short walk after supper. Very short. We admired some blueberries and left them undisturbed. I am wearing my headlamp in broad daylight here because we are about to go to bed. At 7:00 pm. We snuggled into our sleeping bags and stayed there as long as we could possibly stand. We were camping in Blueberry Lake campground at the top of Thompson Pass. I am not sure whose idea it was to put a campground at the top of a pass, but it sure guarantees cold and rain.
The next day we ventured back into town. Have you ever wondered what happens when salmon get to the end of their journey and they all spawn and die? A little something like this. You'll have to imagine the smell. I guess they have a few bears that are often seen feasting here. They have a big road construction sign up that flashes "Caution: Bear In Area" and then the next screen says "Do Not Exit Your Vehicle To View The Bears" and other such warnings.
We tossed around the idea of hiking, kayaking and/or fishing. But this is what we ended up doing.
Yep, we went home a day earlier than planned. Shamelessly. We had a nice warm dry drive home and then to continue our vacation we went to a movie in the theater for the third time in our married life. It felt like quite the celebration. The next morning I already had a substitute lined up for seminary so we just slept in and did whatever we wanted all day. Pretty sweet. We've officially bid farewell to summer.
And by the way...when I picked up my prize-winning book from the fair people, they gave me the happy news that not only did I win a blue ribbon but a $7 check would be heading my way!!!
The next morning we went to church. It was really fun to see their thriving branch there. Tons of young families with tons of kids.
After church we found ourselves a campground and started working on supper. Paul had prepared our tinfoil dinners before we left home. (Paul just got to see the preview of this post and he said, "You've got to say it's elk meat!") They were delicious elk meat. He worked on building a fire while I wandered around drinking our 2 liters of orange pop
You may notice in this fetching picture of me working on wrapping up my elk tinfoil dinner that I am a wee bit bundled up. It was freezing. It was raining most of the time but not when we were eating our elk, which was nice.
A beauty shot of the elk coooking process.
A beauty shot of the elk eating process. As the hours wore on, my happy camper face started to get a little frozen and it ended up looking like this.
We took a short walk after supper. Very short. We admired some blueberries and left them undisturbed. I am wearing my headlamp in broad daylight here because we are about to go to bed. At 7:00 pm. We snuggled into our sleeping bags and stayed there as long as we could possibly stand. We were camping in Blueberry Lake campground at the top of Thompson Pass. I am not sure whose idea it was to put a campground at the top of a pass, but it sure guarantees cold and rain.
The next day we ventured back into town. Have you ever wondered what happens when salmon get to the end of their journey and they all spawn and die? A little something like this. You'll have to imagine the smell. I guess they have a few bears that are often seen feasting here. They have a big road construction sign up that flashes "Caution: Bear In Area" and then the next screen says "Do Not Exit Your Vehicle To View The Bears" and other such warnings.
We tossed around the idea of hiking, kayaking and/or fishing. But this is what we ended up doing.
Yep, we went home a day earlier than planned. Shamelessly. We had a nice warm dry drive home and then to continue our vacation we went to a movie in the theater for the third time in our married life. It felt like quite the celebration. The next morning I already had a substitute lined up for seminary so we just slept in and did whatever we wanted all day. Pretty sweet. We've officially bid farewell to summer.
And by the way...when I picked up my prize-winning book from the fair people, they gave me the happy news that not only did I win a blue ribbon but a $7 check would be heading my way!!!
6 comments:
Make plans to be out of town and then cancel them so you don't have to teach seminary. How very cunning of you. :) Well played Sister Rigg, well played.
alaska is GORGEOUS!! your pictures are amazing. good call about going home a bit early...sounds wayyyy cold!
I love your "frozen happy camper" face, Shug! Probably I would look like that 99% of the time if I lived in Alaska (which is why I live in Texas)...so I think you're doing great!
I am so glad you allowed yourself to go home early. Good, good job.
Such a good call on going home rather than being miserable and cold. That is what reasonable people do! I'm sure you had so much fun at home doing nothing. How I LOVE when my plans get changed and I have a nicely cleared schedule to do whatever I want.
Wow - what are you going to do with your $7? Did I tell you that Henry just earned an $80 Amazon gift card doing a 3-hour brain study at MIT?
Papa Rigg would be proud to see you guys using up the elk meat :) We still have tons of it in our freezer. Guess I better figure out a way to prepare it since we can't take it with us to Chicago... :)
Looks like a fun (though chilly) little excursion :) Don't blame you for heading back early though! I would've done the same thing!
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