A beautiful day for a picnic

It was so beautiful outside, even after working a full shift at The Pub, I couldn't wait to get out and enjoy the sunshine with Stephen and the kids. The sky was clear, there was a light breeze, the tide was low, and the temperature hung around 70°F, 60°F in the damp shade of the forest.

Stephen made some sandwiches and packed them along with a bag of chips and some sodas. We loaded everyone into the car and made our way out the road to Starrigavin camping area. We picnicked in a small clearing that had an available table. It seemed everyone wanted to enjoy the weather, but even so it wasn't difficult to find a spot that felt secluded. We enjoyed our picnic dinner among the trees and flowers until the bugs chased us out. It was a good day for mosquitos and bumble bees, as well.

We headed to the bird-viewing platform and made the loop around the estuary. The kids ran around, picking spruce tips to suck on and checking out interesting sights along the way.

After we finished the loop, we decided to go back down to the beach and let the kids play on the shore. They spent an hour or so moving large rocks and playing with crabs, mussels, ans small mud fish they found underneath. Eventually, we all felt the day winding down and started for home again.

It's nice to live in a place where a 3-hour getaway can feel like a real vacation, where we can get lost in the wilderness for a short time and come back again with almost no effort at all.

Posted via Blogaway

Whale Park Adventures!

It was a beautiful day on Friday, so the four of us took Nika out to the Whale Park to picnic, take in the scenery, and do some creature-watching.

The gazebo where we ate is one of four at the park. The concrete whales are popular for climbing children.

A small squirrel came to watch us eat from a safe distance.

After lunch, it was down the steps to the shore.

There are a lot of steps to get down there.

Climbing on the rocks.

A tide pool with starfish of every color, lots of pretty green anemones, and seaweed. All the black in the foreground is a bed of mussels.

Starfish pile!

Seren touching a starfish.

The view across the bay.

Anemone and seaweed in a mussel bed.

We discovered that Nika's not a half-bad climber, but she was sure tired when we went home.

Soon it was time to climb back up the steps and head back to the car.

Porter wanted to ride the whale one last time before getting strapped into the car.

taking in some scenery

I've been taking pictures all over town of pretty areas, broad seascapes, and scenic views from unlikely places. I wanted to share some of these with you so that you can get an idea of what we see all around us every day. I hope you enjoy these sights as much as I do. :)

One of my favorite spots to look out into the ocean is from the parking lot of the grocery store, located about ¼ of a mile down the hill from our house.

Shore and islands viewable from the Seamart parking lot.

More view from Seamart.

Same parking lot.

Obligatory sun-shining-on-the-water picture, taken at the Seamart parking lot.

The shoreline on a different day.

View of MEHS from Seamart's parking lot.

If we paid enough attention, we'd see dozens of float planes like this one every day.

Even McDonald's has a fantastic view of the marina from their main dining room!

McDonald's tabletop overlooking the marina.

I've talked about the view from our living room before, but here are better pictures:

View of Japonski Island (MEHS on the left), taken from our front porch.

MEHS and lots of sky.

And the view from Mt. Edgecumbe High School's parking lot is just as spectacular.

Marina and mountains viewable from MEHS Parking lot. (Look familiar at all? --Stephen)

Boat heading into the marina.

Same boat, different perspective.

O'Connell Bridge, as seen from MEHS.

Downtown Sitka.

More of the marina.

We spent an afternoon at the Old Sitka State Historical Park, just checking out plants and mussels that had washed up on the shore and skipping stones. These pictures were taken there:

A little bit of shoreline.

A dead tree on the pebbly beach.

More beach.

Sparkling water.

Just a beautiful day to be near the water.

Mountains and placid pools.

Seren trying to decide if the water is too cold to try out. (Hint: It is!)

Kind of reminds me of "One Morning In Maine."

Clear pools and water trickling down the rocks.

Driftwood.

More driftwood.

A small island nearby.

Throwing rocks.

Pretty little flowers in the grass.

Finally, here are just a few pictures taken from the downtown area:

O'Connell Bridge as seen from Baranof Castle.

Different perspective.

Totem Square.