fishing trip

No trip to Alaska would be right without a fishing trip. During past trips I've had the pleasure of fishing for halibut and twice going out for salmon. It is especially cool on the salmon trips that we need to get to our location by plane. It's one more treat for the 'city boy' that I feel like when I'm in Alaska.

This time around our fishing trip was a bit different. We were going for a fish that was quite a bit less difficult to catch even if they sound tough...Hooligan.

The trip in the plane was fun as ever. Dad was flying of course, I was in the co-pilot seat (and not needed this trip, thankfully) with sister-in-law Sharon and nephew James in back. The trip was uneventful, although we did see some moose and a bald eagle on the way.

Unless you've been on a trip with a true bush pilot it's really hard to imagine what it's like to land in and take off from these remote locations. There's no airport there kids. So this time out I shot some video.

The landing on "Hooligan Island"

Hooligan are small fish (also called Candlefish by natives, since they dry them and burn them like candles) that are oily and look something like sardines to my untrained eye. They run past this island for about two days at the same time every year, heading off to spawn. Here's what they look like swimming:

Hooligan running

To catch them we got a net and scooped them up. It's that easy. So easy it almost feels wrong... Here's a look at part of James' catch up close and me with a net full:

Fish in a barrel?














James and I with fish and a plane














The view...














It was a very short trip. It doesn't take long to catch a bucket full, so we were off. It was fun and another interesting piece of Alaska for me. I'll end with another bit of bush piloting.

Takeoff from Hooligan Island

Jonathan

going to alaska

Once again we're off to visit Shelby's family in Anchorage. Her brother Brian and his family will be there as well this time, so we'll have the chance to see all of her family this year.

A trip like this is a little more challenging with a toddler. And now that Riley is two we have to get him a seat. No more traveling with him on our laps and hoping for a free seat to open up in between us. Thankfully between our airline miles and Shelby's parent's we were able to fly on mileage tickets this time around.

We had an early flight and a four am wake up. Always joyful. Riley loves the airport and is getting better with his airport gymnastics, especially since the 'high bar' is higher in this terminal:














He's also gotten more accomplished at seat climbing:

Fortunately the people in the seats behind always find him to be cute. It is a long trip though, and he does get extremely antsy (the saying 'ants in his pants' is VERY apt.) Videos do help. Here he is watching Blue's Clues with Mama:














We arrived in Anchorage at about 3:30 pm local time (7:30 EDT.) Just about Riley's bedtime on a normal day (this day was NOT normal though, as he NEVER naps on a trip.) He was wired for sound though, and was ready to play with Grammy and Poppa. A good thing, because he had a present waiting for him...Grammy and Poppa made him his own house!

Poppa spent some serious time building this beautiful little playhouse, and Grammy did a wonderful job of outfitting the inside with kitchen gear and utensils. Some pictures:

Riley in the house














A boys' kitchen work is never done














Riley serves Poppa a drink














We've spent the last couple of days trying to recover from the travel and adjusting to time zones. Riley woke up at 3 am local time yesterday morning... He woke at 5 am today but then went back to sleep after about an hour. Hopefully we'll all sleep more normally tonight.

More from the Great White North later!


Jonathan

memorial day

After all the work that went into Riley's birthday party we were ready for some R&R. So Sunday after church we packed up the car and headed up to Maine to visit the cousins.

Monday ended up being the perfect day for kayaking, which was to be one of two major activities of the day. (The other being celebrating cousin Erica's 11th birthday!) Jon and Julie built a house a few years back that is five minutes from Lake Bunganutt, a beautiful small lake which is the perfect size for family kayak trips. A few pictures and some video:

The king in his palanquin, showing off his sunglasses (which he kept on for a few seconds...)














Lounging and splashing














Riley LOVES kayaking














A pretty part where the water enters the lake














Mama and kayak boy














Looking cute (he always can strike a pose...)














Paddling with Daddy

Paddling solo

Looking cool back on shore














After we were done we headed off to Pizza Hut for Erica's birthday celebration. It's amazing how grown up Erica is all of a sudden. She's changed so much over the past five years, and she's not a little girl any more. She is a sweet girl though and she loves her cousin Riley. It's really fun to watch the two of them together. How many 11 year old kids do you know who would want to sit next to their two year old cousin at their cousin's birthday party? She's so cool.

The pictures at Pizza Hut weren't all that great, so here's a picture of Erica and Riley at his birthday party. Happy 11 Erica!
















Jonathan

two!

Today marked Riley's second birthday. It's absolutely amazing how much has gone on in the last two years and also how fast the time has seemed to go by.

We wanted to celebrate in a BIG way for this birthday, so we decided to have a big party at Perpetual Motion, the really cool indoor playground we've blogged about in the past.

To say the place was a hit is putting it mildly. The kids loved the place (duh) and a bunch of the parents who hadn't been there before were thankful for learning about the place. They'll be getting a bunch more business there during the heat of the summer I bet.

Most of the story is best told in photos and video, so here goes...

The kids LOVE the ball pit

Bouncy stuff is fun

Bike + Merry Go Round is also a big hit

Riley and Zac rock the boat

I really enjoyed watching Riley chase an ice cube around

Soon it was time for cupcakes and singing. Riley seemed to be a little uneasy about the singing and the fact that everyone was looking at him. Until the clapping that is. Then he was genuinely pleased.

Riley claps too














Then came the time I look forward to most, the utter abandon of a young child eating a cupcake. Some pictures of the carnage:

Riley looked like he was just inhaling his cupcake














There was VERY little left over afterward though, a big difference from last year














Pictures of all the other kids...

























































































A couple of nice shots of everyone at the table





























It amazed us that on a holiday weekend (it was Memorial Day Weekend) everyone we invited was able to attend. It made for quite a party as you can see!

Afterward we dropped by the Burlington Mall with our friends Jon and Oil and their kids Zippy and Zac. Chic-Fil-A was the treat for lunch and then a little more playtime in the play area there. Here's a picture of Riley and Zac playing in a 'car' there.














Behind them you can see a kid who later made the mistake of physically shoving Riley out of the back seat of the car onto the floor. I think everyone (including me) was surprised at the speed of my reaction. The kid was totally shocked to have an adult in his face so quickly. Riley was unhurt, but very surprised to suddenly be on the floor.

I'll end with a couple of pictures, a contrast of years. He's gotten so big!

One hour old














One year old















Jonathan

boy's weekend - 2

Shelby was away on a women's church retreat this weekend, so it was another boy's weekend. Actually a long weekend this time, since Shelby wasn't around to pick Riley up from daycare on Friday. So Riley went to work with Daddy Friday.

Riley loves coming to the office with me. Being an extrovert like his Dad he has a ball with all of the different people he sees over the course of the day. He also gets to spend some time playing with kids who come in.

Reading with Cassaundra (Or Kaz as she is called...)














'Playing' with Trevor:

This time around Riley helped me adjust patients (it's really fun when he comes over and pats them with his hands), handed ice packs to people, and helped me to clean up the place. It's really cute and he is thoroughly enjoyed by all. Riley is high energy and in good spirits the entire time, regardless of having no nap...he does pass out once we get in the car to come home though.

So Friday was fun as usual. Saturday was going to be a lot less structured, but still full of action. We hung out around the house in the morning and then headed off for the main event of the day: a bike ride. We went to Harold Parker SF for a change (we usually ride at Lynn Woods) and Riley got to go for his first mountain bike ride on his new bike:

Riley RIDES!

Done riding...














Then it was time for Daddy to get on his bike and pull Riley around. I can tell that I never ride fire roads at HP; they are full of hills covered with gravel and lots of protruding rocks. No way I would have taken the trailer there if I had known. It was still fun though, if a bit slow and very bumpy for my boy. A couple of shots:

Soup is Yummy, Soap is Yucky.














Bike!














After riding it was off to Home Depot. I'd successfully avoided doing yard work of any kind for well over a year until we hit leaf season last fall. Even with that it was maybe an hour worth of work clearing the yard. Today, however, was a day that I was not looking forward to: I bought a lawn mower.

After lunch for both of us and a failed attempt to get Riley to nap (he was shaking the cage for over an hour) it was time to go out and get the thing put together and running. Riley thought that the mower was fascinating...until I started it. Here's what he looked like then:

As far from the mower as he was able to get. Smart boy!














The lawn is a postage stamp, so it didn't take long. Riley came out into the yard eventually, but never got too close. I'm glad for that since I was hoping to do the lawn while he napped...

While he didn't like the mower, Riley did like the big box it came in:

The boy knows how to take a picture














Hands up high!














Bird!














After mowing the lawn we rewarded ourselves with some playtime in the back yard. Eventually we had to move it indoors. Riley spent a little quality time with bike stuff:

Future bike mechanic at work














Learning about his tools

Sunday morning was uneventful. Off to church and then back home for lunch and playtime until Mama got home. The afternoon was spent hanging out watching videos and enjoying some family time. It's always good to have Mama back. Riley and I have a good time on these weekends, but we miss Mama.

We're glad she's back home.


Jonathan

mothers day marathon

When I was 27, I resolved to do two things before I turned turned 30. One of those things was to run a marathon.

Being a recreational runner of 3 miles every few days, I'd been itching to do a marathon (26.2 miles) to see what my body was capable of doing. I wasn't looking forward to 5 hours of running, but felt I needed something to train for. So, I spent 4 months in the summer of '98 training for the Chicago Marathon. I ran what is arguably one of the best (and flattest) marathons in the world and had a great experience. I didn't care about my time (5:08), but just wanted to finish.

One of my colleagues was inspired by my endeavor and asked me to train with her for the Disney Marathon. So in January of 2000, we completed that one too. This time however, I was assaulted by knee pain that caused me to lose 3 weeks of training time and my overall race time was slower. I figured that was the end of my marathon days.

After Riley was born, I'd been thinking about running another marathon. I can tell that I'm running faster and smarter at 39 than I did at 30. I think this has a lot to do with knowing my body better and being able to adhere to good training principles. (I was much less disciplined when I was younger.) I've been watching the "Spirit of the Marathon" documentary that came out last year and was freshly inspired by the Nova's "Marathon Challenge" where the folks at Tufts trained 12 sedentary people to run the Boston Marathon in 9 months.

I've been running between 3-5 miles during my lunch break and 6 miles on the weekends. The past couple of weekends, I tried a 13 mile loop at Lynn Woods and found that I felt pretty good and recovered quickly from it. That led to the idea of trying to run 26.2 on Mother's Day weekend while we would be visiting Jonathan's mom in Connecticut. She lives in on a 1.1 mile loop that is quiet, with very little traffic.

So yesterday afternoon I took off to start the first of 23 laps around the neighborhood with much fanfare from Jonathan, Mom and her neighbor, Laurel. They set up a card table with water, gatorade & signs encouraging me on my quest. I had forgotten that there were three hills to climb in every loop -- two small and one long one. I define "long" as any hill that takes more than 20 seconds to clear. The long one took at least 50 seconds to get to the top. Good thing I like hills.

It only took about 7 miles before I began to get the first signs of soreness...by the half-way point, it was full lower-body discomfort. The last 8 were pretty hard...every lower body joint was hurting and the downhills were killing my knees. I think marathon running is a lot like natural childbirth...you get amnesia about how incredibly painful it can be. And yet, we do it again...

They say that 50% of running a marathon is mental. I can testify that in each one I have wanted to quit. I question my sanity in doing this to my body. But once I hit the 18 mile mark, I figure I might as well put up with the pain for the remainder. So, I pressed on and was happy to have done so. I found a few additional folks in the "bleachers", who after seeing me pass their house over and over, inquired as to how far I was going. They were cheering me during my final laps which made it feel more like a "real" race with cheering fans on the sidelines.

I ended up finishing about 20 min faster than my previous best time, so now I have tangible evidence that my fitness has improved in the past 10 years. More than that, this little experiment proved that I don't have to put myself through 4 months of heavy mileage in order to run another one. I'm always amazed at what the body will do when you push it a bit harder (overload) and then give it time to repair and rebuilt (rest). It's usually more than you'd expect.

My wonderful husband was there as my support the whole time, riding along and chronicling the event for me. Here's some of the pics and video he captured:

The aid station with gatorade, water, signage and Laurel Wreath:














At mile 7 (the pain begins):

At mile 20 (tight and sore and sooo ready to quit):

At mile 25 (one more lap to go!)

The Finish Line:

The Victor and her Laurel Wreath:














Each time I go out for a run, I say a prayer thanking the Lord for the ability to continue doing it and the enjoyment I get from it. 10 years ago, I thought my marathon days were over -- I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it once more. Maybe again, someday.

I still dream of running Boston...

Shelby