Berner's Bay Cruise

The trip was part-planned, part-retail therapy. We'd been looking for a house to buy and been depressed about our options - especially when one house's engineer report came back as "demolish and rebuild the entire structure"! (We're taking the summer off from house hunting.)

Every spring the Audubon Society hosts a birding cruise up to Berner's Bay. We'd always thought to go, but this was the first year we managed it.

The cruise departed from Statter's harbor in Auke Bay early Saturday morning. Armed with binoculars we spotted eagles, bonaparte gulls, glaucous gulls, loons, arctic terns, black oystercatchers, harlequin ducks, cormerants, pidgeon guillemots, and thousands of scoters.

We stopped at the Benjamin Island sea lion haul-out for a look at those creatures. Mr. X managed to get a family photo.

The real show were the six or seven humpback whales along with the six killer whales we spotted. One of the killer whales was a young calf swimming with its mother. The boat we were on usually serves as a whale watching boat so the captain was very good at maneuvering to follow the animals as they worked the shoreline toward the south. 

We cruised around Berner's Bay pausing for a moment at Bridget Point. It was pretty cool to see one of our favorite beaches from the water. We scanned the shoreline for the Berner's Bay cabin, but we did not find it - we're hoping at some point to either hike or paddle out to it.

All in all a successful day on the water. 

Glacier hike

Mr. X and I took Brad hiking to the glacier. Because the water level was so low on the lake, we hiked along the beach, then up, over the knob and finally down to the glacier. Brad was all for getting on the ice so we wandered around a little.

We peeked in an ice cave, inspected small moulins and hiked up near some seracs. When the walk started getting steep my get-a-grips were not gripping so I bowed out, returning to the edge of the glacier to calm my nerves with a piece of chocolate. The guys used their yak-tracks to get up close and personal with some seracs farther up the steepening slope.

Next we bushwacked up the drainage to the West Glacier trail and postholed through snow and crossed avalanche debris to the end of the trail.

Because of threatening weather, we had intended to only hike a few hours, we had such a great time that we were surprised to learn that we were out for eight. It was a great shake down for the summer - Remember to bring a water filter! We bought Mr. X some chicken pouches so he won't run out of food. I am also now the proud owner of pro yak-tracks; when I wimp out next time I can't blame it on my grippers.

Mountain Goats

Wednesday night we went walking to Nugget falls. Before we got half way there Mr. X was itching to sling some rocks, so I left him among the egg shaped stones and continued to the sand bar in front of the falls.

There were six mountain goats grazing on cliffs, and I took a seat on the DRY sand to watch. The kids appeared to be exploring; hopping from rock to rock, and weaving in and out of the willows. The adults grazed in the sunshine.

A beautiful spring evening.

Spring

Tuesday night we went walking at the airport. There were dogs a plenty. Ducks and planes. A good time. It's really nice to have an evening to go do stuff. Of course that means my classes are getting the brush off.

It was 40 degrees and windy, but pleasant enough we walked for an hour. It was so nice to pull on those hiking shoes. I'm tempted to put the snow boots away.

Halleluiah

Is it okay to celebrate that my neighbors moved out? Yes. It's true. They left.


No more trampolining in the living room at 2 am.
No more tennis shoes in the dryer at 11 pm.
No more police knocking at my door or slipping silently past my window.
No more shouts of, "Why can't you just leave her in rehab!?"


They are gone. My landlord had his crew pick up the place. They scraped melted wax from walls and repainted. Replaced carpet and subfloors.

The new neighbors moved in on Sunday. The building is blissfully quiet...so far.

Why Mr. X married Me

A long time ago, someone asked Mr. X why he was interested in me, what it was that made his heart go pit-pat? or some such nonsense. His response: She has a good peanut butter cookie recipe.


Here's the truth though. I don't have a good peanut butter cookie recipe. I just use any old one in the cookbook and add chocolate chips. Since Mr. X's eyes have been opened to the truth, I've been spending my days trying to create something new and amazing lest he find someone else with a tasty recipe - not really.


So, recently, Mr. X changed his diet. One of the major things that changed was that he wanted yogurt. Lots and lots of yogurt. Yogurt at every meal and in between too. Not just cheap-o yogurt either, those $5.35 two-cup cartons of greek yogurt.


Ah-hem. For some reason he's now referring to me as the "dairy maid". And it might have something to do with all the yogurt sitting in the fridge.


It could be worse, right? He could have said, "She's the most [beautiful] [genius] [kindhearted] woman who graced the planet." And then I'd be obligated to always be striving for supermodel status. Or that MENSA certificate, or whatever it was that he admired. At least I get to eat what I make.

Picture perfect day

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon Mr. X and I decided to take a drive. We headed out the road to the Shrine of St. Therese. Not confident that the paths would be clear of snow, but wanting to do a little walking, we followed the path down toward the water.


The Chilkat Mountains across the water were beautifully white and we had blue skies with wispy clouds. Before we could get very far, however, a plump orange cat met us. Mr. X is a sucker so he gave the cat a good scratch. Of course, then the cat "heeled" as was made our way toward the causeway. From here we could see two labs playing on the beach and a dozen sea lions floating by on the calm seas. By now Mr. X is holding the cat (lest the animal have to walk through a puddle) and having me scratch the feline's neck. Seeing that we intended to walk past the dogs, the cat asked to be put down.


We continued our walk to the old stone church where we gazed out over the water.


Amazing how satifying a little sun, snow, exercise can be. Oh, yeah. I think Mr. X would add, and an out-going, furry friend.