On August 1st, we served on our mid shift at the temple and then came home and finished getting our packing done and the house ready for our trip. We drove to Boise on the 2nd with George and Kim Orr. We met Justin at their house and he drove us to the airport. They will keep the car and deliver it to the airport on the 11th so we can drive on home. We are not scheduled to get into Boise until 12:23 am so we don't want them to have to meet us in the middle of the night.
We met Dirk and Becky Clarkson and Maddie and Annabelle Villa at the airport. We will all be traveling together. Our flight was late so our layover in Seattle ended up being just time to visit the restrooms. We arrived in Ketchikan about 4:30pm.
Becky in brown, Lon, Dirk with Maddie and Annabelle, Kim and George behind
We are waiting for the ferry to take us across the water into Ketchikan
We ferried across the water and loaded into the van that was waiting for us. We took the men to buy their fishing licenses and we picked up enough food for dinner and breakfast. We will shop tomorrow for more. It has been a very long day and we were all ready to get to the house and unpack and relax.
Ketchikan is built on the mountain side and the lower half of the road and town is built on pylons in the water. The main road runs for about 15 miles all along the ocean coast.
Each of these buildings houses souvenir shops and we went into All of them!
The rest of the street of shops. Becky was trying to help the girls get some Christmas shopping done for their families so we went shopping almost every day while the men went fishing.
Ketchikan is a tourist town and every day the huge cruise ships come to town and dock so the people can shop and see the town. The ships add anywhere from 5 to 10 thousand people daily. We tried to plan our trips to town on days that had the least amount of ships and people.
This is the house that we stayed in. Kim is in the doorway of the shop and laundry
The second floor is the kitchen and living room and bathroom. The third floor is the two bedrooms.
Kim and George relaxing in the front room. We ate our evening meals all together here at the table. We ate fresh seafood nightly, crab, shrimp, cod, halibut, salmon.
Stairway going up to the bedrooms. This stairway got real long in the nights for bathroom visits.
The bedroom we stayed in and Kim and George stayed in the other room.
The kitchen
The bathroom is down the hall by the frig. We had no internet service or phone service here. We had lots of movies to choose from and Kim and I enjoyed putting puzzles together when we weren't shopping with the girls. It was very relaxing. We would wait till the men came in from fishing each day before we fixed dinner so that we knew what they had caught and that is what we fixed for dinner. We really ate well!
In 2004, The Clarkson's, Orr's, Thompson's, and Joel and Christine Clarkson (Dirk's brother) and their 2 kids drove to Ketchikan and built this barn. The bottom floor has a kitchen for cleaning fish and room for the van and boat to be stored. The upstairs is an apartment where the Clarkson's and girls stayed. It has a front room, kitchen, one bedroom and bath. This trip is our last hurrah with these people as we will probably never be all together here again. Kim has been here 4 times and I have been 3 and since we don't fish, we have seen all there is to see in Ketchikan and we won't be coming again and who knows, with the age and health of this group, we are sure that this is the final time for us to be here together.
The locals tell us that it has been raining for 30 days straight and they were starting to go stir crazy with no sunshine. We arrived on a cloudy day but each and every day till we left dawned bright and beautiful. A whole week in Ketchikan without rain is very unheard of. We were so lucky.
First day out and the men only caught 2 halibut. They were a little disappointed but the halibut casserole tasted great and Annabelle made us some funeral potatoes to go with it. We did some shopping for food. There was 9,440 tourists from 5 ships in town today.
They also caught a salmon and a rock fish. Lon cleaning fish in the barn kitchen
George cleaning the halibut with Annabelle and Maddie watching. The girls got to go swimming today and loved it. Annabelle is 10 and Maddie (Madeline) is 14.
On Friday the 4th, Dirk and Becky and the girls went shrimping and crabbing. Chris picked up Kim and I and took us to the Totem Pole Historical Park. Ketchikan has two Totem Pole parks, but this one is affordable and not as crowded as it is outside of town so not as many of the tourists visit it. Today was the biggest day for tourists, 10,192 from 6 cruise ships in town.
Kim and I in front of the Clan House.
The Clan House is still used today for special programs but originally was living quarters for several families who shared a common fire.
The carvings of the Totem Poles that support the beams symbolize the exploits of Duk-toothl. He is showing his strength by tearing a sea lion in two.
Whenever a Totem Pole falls over due to erosion, it is left to decay and return to the earth.
These poles are still beautiful but will just decay.
The park had several Totem Poles arranged in a walking circle to view. It was interesting to read the explanation of each as we walked and viewed them.
View of the ocean from the park.
The Clan House again
Love the village watchmen in the top hats guarding the village.
We toured their museum and gift shop. Thought of Nathan when I saw all the different guns.
We went to Annabelle's for lunch. I had the second best clam chowder that I have ever eaten. The first is still on the Oregon coast at the little road side diner.
The men arrived home with a better catch today. They caught 3 halibut, 2 Pacific cod, and 3 black cod. Dirk and Becky came home with some crab for dinner that they had caught.
The C-Dory boat behind Lon is like the boat they were fishing in all day.
George is not feeling well today. We are starting to get some fish in the freezer to take home.
Only 3,087 tourists from the cruise ships in town on Saturday the 5th so we ventured into town to attend the Blueberry Festival. Chris, Becky, Kim, Annabelle, Maddie, and myself arrived at the Festival about 9 AM. Maddie has decided that I am her best friend. I have to sit with her in the van and when we arrive in town, she grabs my hand and away we go to see whatever interests her, usually something to do with feathers or shiny rocks. With Maddie occupied with me, it gave Becky a chance to help Annabelle with her shopping.
The firefighters had a dunk tank set up and Annabelle hit the bulls eye with her third ball.
Maddie shocked the person in the dunk tank by hitting the bulls eye with her first ball. She was so proud of herself.
We had gone through the entire section of booths way ahead of the others because Maddie only stopped to see the items that interested her so we had to get a photo with the bear.
About a half hour later, the others caught up with us so Annabelle wanted her photo taken also.
Lunch with the girls. Nancy, Kim, Annabelle, Chris, Maddie, Becky. We have to keep on a schedule for food with Maddie's diabetes. Tried some more clam chowder, but this one was more like potato soup with lots of bacon in it, very disappointing. But the company was great. We got quite a bit of shopping done for Annabelle. Don't know when Maddie will settle down enough to want to be with Grandma Becky and do hers. She sticks right with me in the stores. She found some new feathers to buy for herself and a mermaid doll with long hair.
The men arrived home with their catch of the day; 5 halibut and 3 cod. We went out to dinner tonight with Joel and Chris to their favorite Chinese Restaurant. It was located in the shopping area from the photo above.
Sunday morning, August 6th, we headed to Ketchikan to attend church. We got to visit with Steve Thomas, Ada and Bob Thomas's son, who lives in Ketchikan and with Inger Callen, Boone Callen's daughter, who lives here also. So fun to see these kids from Jerome all grown up with families of their own.
Maddie made us a cake with the help of Grandma for our Sunday dinner. On the way to church, the green van died. Luckily we were driving in two vans so we left Dirk with the green van and headed to the church to try and find Joel so he could go and help Dirk. Joel was not to be found but about 10 minutes after our arrival, Dirk showed up with the green van. We are really thankful to have the other van because we are a little nervous about the reliability of the green van now.
Only 3 cruise ships docked today, but they were huge and we had 7,012 tourists in town. We ate dinner with Joel and Chris at their home on the other side of town. Joel is a great cook. He fixed beef brisket. They have a nice home that they are still fixing up. They are both school teachers so they spend most of their summers here and their kids and grandkids come up for a week here and there.
Monday morning we headed into town again with the goal of getting Maddie's shopping done. The girls loved the stuffed animals in all of the stores.
Only 6,528 tourists in town today. George is still not feeling great but caught the biggest halibut for the day.
The men came home with 4 halibut, 3 cod, 9 crabs, and a bunch of shrimp. I don't like eating crab because you have to work real hard for your food when you try to eat it and the shrimp also takes a lot of work to get to the meat.
This is Alaska's version of the Tuk Tuk. These are for rent to go sight-seeing around town.
Tuesday morning only had 4,582 tourists in town from 3 ships. The men got blown out today so there was no fishing. Dirk and Becky spent the day with the girls and we drove to town to pick up some things at Walmart and then drove to Herring Cove. At low tide, the bears come down to "fish'' in the cove. We saw one bear but didn't get a photo.
On Wednesday the 9th, George is finally feeling better but Chris and Becky want their men to spend the day with them so the only fishing was to check the crab and shrimp pots. George, Kim, Lon and I drove to the Totem Pole Park and Lon and I walked through the park. George was so disappointed to not get to fish that he just sat in the van and played on his phone. Only 5400 tourists in town today. Then that evening, we again went out to Joel and Chris's house for a seafood dinner of fried shrimp, halibut, and crab.
Dirk, Joel, and Chris
We have been sleeping with the windows open as it is so hot but we have been eaten alive by the "no see'm"bugs. Our arms, necks, and faces are just covered with bites. We are trying really hard not to scratch, but boy do we itch! We spent the morning getting the house cleaned up and getting us packed up. Joel and Chris came out with their van and truck so that we could leave the green van at the barn to be stored away for the winter. Joel went over on the ferry with us in the truck to deliver our luggage and our 67 pounds of fish that we are taking home with us.
We left Ketchikan at 4:00pm on the 10th and arrived in Seattle on time. (Ketchikan is 2 hours earlier than Idaho) Our plane was delayed and instead of getting into Boise at 12:30, we arrived in Boise at 2:00 on the 11th and drove home and crawled in bed at 4:00am. It was a very fun trip and we are toasted. Our bed felt so good.
Having no phone or internet at the house while we were gone, we didn't know if Norm Kump was alive or dead so I called Bev. Norm didn't pass away until Saturday evening the 12th. We plan on going to the funeral on the 19th. But before that, we picked 8 gallons of black berries and got 4 gallons in the freezer and gave George and Kim 4 gallons. We froze 15 quarts of corn for us and 6 quarts for George and Kim.
On the 17th, I took Mom to the Lunch Bunch at the church and then shopping in Twin. Lon had a full day at BZ Plumbing helping with their open house.
Brent's sisters came to entertain. They are very good country singers and write a lot of their own songs. We bought several of their recordings.
They had a dunk tank and Brent had just gotten wet. Connie is in the red with the hat on.
Angela and Alma are trying to shoot plastic ducks with rubber band guns
It was a very nice day with lots of family for Brent and Connie. Lots of work for Lon to help set up and take down.
Saturday morning, the 19th, we headed to Spanish Fork to attend Norm's funeral. We took Amy Couch with us. It was a great tribute to Norm. So thankful that we were able to attend.
So thankful that we were able to see him for that short time last month to say good-bye. It makes us feel old when we bury someone that is our age. So thankful that Bev is in Utah close to her children. We drove straight home after the services, 9 hours on the road! I think we are getting too old for that! We had food with us so we only stopped for gas and potties. Long Day!!
We decided to get our Christmas early this year. We ordered in our porch swing and picnic table for the back porch.
Now we just have to wait about 3 weeks for the weather to cool off so that we can really enjoy being outside.
On the 21st, we canned peaches for Kim and Bishop Stoker's family. We have enjoyed golfing at least 3 times a week, took George and Kim to dinner on the 22nd for George's birthday, and served in the Temple. It has been a good month. School has started and our grandchildren are all growing up so fast. Here are some of them as they begin another year.
Ryanne 11th grade, Gideon 9th grade
Jaikka 9th grade
Isaac 9th grade, Nathan 12th grade, Hannah 11th grade
Eisley 4th grade, Annabelle 11th grade, Ashton 8th grade.
Annabelle (Annie) is from Germany and is living with Tracy and Sarah and family this school year. She has a wonderful personality and her English is very good. Missing photos of Chandler 9th, Riley 12th, Aydan 8th and Dillon 7th. Kyleigh and Mason have graduated from High School. Sure hope that this school year will be a great experience for all of these very special young people.
Life is good. Trials will come but with the right attitude, nothing is impossible. Without rain, nothing grows. Learn to embrace the storms of your life. And time keeps marching on. Good bye to August.
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