25 June 2007 – Haines, Alaska
We didn’t have to get our car in line for the ferry until 6 p.m., so the day was ours in Haines, Alaska.
We got up and made breakfast in the room. The boys had an exciting new experience with a pop-up toaster. We have a toaster oven at home and they have both mastered bagels and frozen waffles in the toaster oven and at their ages, they feel like they are cooking. Our kitchenette came equipped with a pop-up toaster, which hung ‘em up. Nate squealed with delight when his bagel popped up. A good time was had by all.
We decided to take a drive to the river to see if any bears were out and about this morning. We drove a few miles out of town and…nothing.
Look kids, no bears:
We got back to the room at about 10:15 for an 11 a.m. check out. Yahoo. None of us had showered yet and it takes forever to get the car re-packed every time we stop. So we zulu-drilled showers, re-packed the car, and left the hotel at about 11:15.
Only 6 ¾ hours to kill in Haines, Alaska, population 1,175.
This is the first time in weeks I’ve had time to kill. Here is our Family Truckster:
Our last Alaska bugs:
I was actually excited to spend the day here. One of my favorite books about Alaska is: If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende. She is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, NPR contributor, and obituary writer for the local paper in Haines where she lives with her family. I love the glimpse into the people and the lives of small town Alaska, especially as a metaphor for life. If you have stayed in our guest room, chances are you have read the book. I spent part of the day looking for people from the book. I figured at least I knew their names.
Steve had some work to do, so we dropped him off at the library and the boys and I set off to explore the town. We managed to skip the Hammer Museum (1500 hammers under one roof) and went in and out of a few gift shops, stopped for coffee (OK just for me) and checked out the hardware store. Nifty thing about small-town Alaska – you can buy anything at the hardware store. I’m not ashamed to admit that for many years I had a pair of Kodiak True Value Hardware jeans. And an electric mixer. And a crystal plate.
I ran into IGA to get some lunch meat and some contact cleaning solution. I knew I would pay an arm and a leg for the contact juice. I’ve lived in Kodiak. Twelve years later, I still have a laundry basket with a $7.49 price sticker in the bottom, just to remind myself that at one point in my life I had to pay $7.49 for a $1.50 laundry basket. And yes, I bought it at True Value Hardware. So I thought I was prepared for the price but I wasn’t. The cleaner/saline solution was $15.75 a bottle. Forget it! I’ll just clean my contacts every other day until we get off the ferry.
We had explored town and it was only about 1:30, so we grabbed Malley from the car, ran around a field, then headed to the library. I figured I could write for a while and the boys could look at books. The library is beautiful and most likely the best library in Alaska except for the main branch in Anchorage and the U of Alaska system. The little community of barely 1000 people raised a ton of money and applied for several huge grants to build this great library in 2005. It was named the best small library in America the year it opened (by people who care about that sort of thing). The children’s section is nice, but I lost the battle of the books as soon as the kids saw the three computers tucked into the corner. At least they were educational computer games. Nate hung out for story time while Drew played games, then Nate read a few books to me in his quest to qualify prizes from the treasure box. Our hang out for the afternoon:
By now, Steve was done with his work and we headed to the Lighthouse Restaurant for halibut & chips and Alaskan Amber Ale (root beer for the kids). The fish was good, but not as good as Humpy’s Ale House in Anchorage. If you are ever in Anchorage, that is the place to go for halibut and chips. On the way back from the restaurant to the library, Drew’s beaded necklace broke. Of course we had no idea where. So Steve backtracked to find beads while the boys and I jogged the dog. Steve is great at finding things. He once found my contact lens in the woods. He managed to find about 2/3 of the beads so we can re-string the necklace later. We drove back to the motel from last night so I could pirate their WiFi in the parking lot for a few minutes then headed a few miles out of town to the ferry terminal.
The ferry was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. so we had to have the car in line by 6. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. Ferry line ups are a bit like tailgate parties, a bunch of people hanging our by their cars without much to do. The boys made friends with the kids in the VW pop up next door and Steve and I played with Malley. It has been warm in Alaska for about the last week and about 2 days ago the dog started to shed. And shed. We may have a bald husky by the time we reach St. Louis. So we brushed roughly a dog-worth of fur out of our dog and let her run around for a while. The boys played catch. I took a brief nap, read 2/3 of a book…and we waited. 8 p.m.no sign of the ferry. 9 p.m. nada. The ferry finally showed up at about 10. By now we’d been waiting for about 4 hours and we were tired. It took almost another hour to get our car loaded in and schlep about 4 tons of stuff up 4 flights of stairs to our cabin. We had to leave Malley in her kennel in the car, for the duration of the trip, but walking and feeding the dog will become a major theme of the next 3 days. We all basically fell into bed and Steve set his alarm for 3 a.m. so he could walk Malley in Juneau.
I think I’ll keep him, beard and all.
We didn’t have to get our car in line for the ferry until 6 p.m., so the day was ours in Haines, Alaska.
We got up and made breakfast in the room. The boys had an exciting new experience with a pop-up toaster. We have a toaster oven at home and they have both mastered bagels and frozen waffles in the toaster oven and at their ages, they feel like they are cooking. Our kitchenette came equipped with a pop-up toaster, which hung ‘em up. Nate squealed with delight when his bagel popped up. A good time was had by all.
We decided to take a drive to the river to see if any bears were out and about this morning. We drove a few miles out of town and…nothing.
Look kids, no bears:
We got back to the room at about 10:15 for an 11 a.m. check out. Yahoo. None of us had showered yet and it takes forever to get the car re-packed every time we stop. So we zulu-drilled showers, re-packed the car, and left the hotel at about 11:15.
Only 6 ¾ hours to kill in Haines, Alaska, population 1,175.
This is the first time in weeks I’ve had time to kill. Here is our Family Truckster:
Our last Alaska bugs:
I was actually excited to spend the day here. One of my favorite books about Alaska is: If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende. She is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, NPR contributor, and obituary writer for the local paper in Haines where she lives with her family. I love the glimpse into the people and the lives of small town Alaska, especially as a metaphor for life. If you have stayed in our guest room, chances are you have read the book. I spent part of the day looking for people from the book. I figured at least I knew their names.
Steve had some work to do, so we dropped him off at the library and the boys and I set off to explore the town. We managed to skip the Hammer Museum (1500 hammers under one roof) and went in and out of a few gift shops, stopped for coffee (OK just for me) and checked out the hardware store. Nifty thing about small-town Alaska – you can buy anything at the hardware store. I’m not ashamed to admit that for many years I had a pair of Kodiak True Value Hardware jeans. And an electric mixer. And a crystal plate.
I ran into IGA to get some lunch meat and some contact cleaning solution. I knew I would pay an arm and a leg for the contact juice. I’ve lived in Kodiak. Twelve years later, I still have a laundry basket with a $7.49 price sticker in the bottom, just to remind myself that at one point in my life I had to pay $7.49 for a $1.50 laundry basket. And yes, I bought it at True Value Hardware. So I thought I was prepared for the price but I wasn’t. The cleaner/saline solution was $15.75 a bottle. Forget it! I’ll just clean my contacts every other day until we get off the ferry.
We had explored town and it was only about 1:30, so we grabbed Malley from the car, ran around a field, then headed to the library. I figured I could write for a while and the boys could look at books. The library is beautiful and most likely the best library in Alaska except for the main branch in Anchorage and the U of Alaska system. The little community of barely 1000 people raised a ton of money and applied for several huge grants to build this great library in 2005. It was named the best small library in America the year it opened (by people who care about that sort of thing). The children’s section is nice, but I lost the battle of the books as soon as the kids saw the three computers tucked into the corner. At least they were educational computer games. Nate hung out for story time while Drew played games, then Nate read a few books to me in his quest to qualify prizes from the treasure box. Our hang out for the afternoon:
By now, Steve was done with his work and we headed to the Lighthouse Restaurant for halibut & chips and Alaskan Amber Ale (root beer for the kids). The fish was good, but not as good as Humpy’s Ale House in Anchorage. If you are ever in Anchorage, that is the place to go for halibut and chips. On the way back from the restaurant to the library, Drew’s beaded necklace broke. Of course we had no idea where. So Steve backtracked to find beads while the boys and I jogged the dog. Steve is great at finding things. He once found my contact lens in the woods. He managed to find about 2/3 of the beads so we can re-string the necklace later. We drove back to the motel from last night so I could pirate their WiFi in the parking lot for a few minutes then headed a few miles out of town to the ferry terminal.
The ferry was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. so we had to have the car in line by 6. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. Ferry line ups are a bit like tailgate parties, a bunch of people hanging our by their cars without much to do. The boys made friends with the kids in the VW pop up next door and Steve and I played with Malley. It has been warm in Alaska for about the last week and about 2 days ago the dog started to shed. And shed. We may have a bald husky by the time we reach St. Louis. So we brushed roughly a dog-worth of fur out of our dog and let her run around for a while. The boys played catch. I took a brief nap, read 2/3 of a book…and we waited. 8 p.m.no sign of the ferry. 9 p.m. nada. The ferry finally showed up at about 10. By now we’d been waiting for about 4 hours and we were tired. It took almost another hour to get our car loaded in and schlep about 4 tons of stuff up 4 flights of stairs to our cabin. We had to leave Malley in her kennel in the car, for the duration of the trip, but walking and feeding the dog will become a major theme of the next 3 days. We all basically fell into bed and Steve set his alarm for 3 a.m. so he could walk Malley in Juneau.
I think I’ll keep him, beard and all.
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