each day an adventure in alaska: more walrus...

rotate around the pictures. today it's back to Round Island. they had a chat with the rangers which i missed. mostly because i slept in late. should have set the alarm. hopefully, they post it so i can watch it after the fact.

today joined a friend for a nice long hike. not sure how long it was but my fit bit gave me 10 miles for the day. we walked out to Rabbit Lake...unlike Valdez, i saw zero rabbits. did see one big bull moose but in order to prevent the puppies from seeing him and from the moose from getting annoyed with us...we moved on. great to get another great hike in!!

it was another hot one out there...in the mid 70's...which i realize sounds very cool to most of you. but Alaska hot is a totally different thing than lower 48 hot...believe me. thankfully, today i had worn my keens and there were lots of creek water flowing over the trail heading up....once you get up to about the half way point...and it's a steady up...you get to cruise across this beautiful valley to a lake.

my friend said usually the wind is really blowing up there, but it was just a breeze...and we were happy to have a breeze at that point.

i think the pups had a great time. getting lots of good walks in. it was hazy out there this evening and muggy really...again, not lower muggy but Alaska muggy.

these are at flat rock in boat cove during my last hours on the island.

cleaned out the fridge and tossed a bunch of crap out....then hit the grocery to restock.

cleaning out the fridge is never my favorite gig but it does always bring back memories of cleaning out the family fridge growing up. i found no hidden gems of mold in my fridge though. love my Mom but housekeeping was not one of her best talents...something i admit i got from her. ( my lack of housekeeping skills). i really think i was meant to be a wealthy and kept woman...that really didn't work out for me did it. haha. perhaps i was in a few previous lives and had a tough time adapting to this one...my Mom as well apparently.

nice poke shots i think.

tuperware was spendy in my childhood days...everyone went to parties and purchased more tuperware. i went to quite a few tuperware parties back in those days. you did not throw out these containers without just cause. just cause was not because the food inside the container had been rendered unrecognizable. i'm sure other siblings have memories of incredibly disgusting and curious items being found in the back of the fridge...shoved back as more food entered, never to be seen again...or at least not for a long, long time.

so though i did not accomplish much today i did do that i guess. walking took up the bulk of the day. it was lovely though.

yawning walrus.

such tiny heads. really their heads aren't all that tiny but it's just that their bodies are so big. it looks cute in a walrus though.

excuses being made on behalf of all things this administration does. it's so bizarre. we have lost control of DC at this point, we have lost all moral and ethical control of our nation. we are adrift and it is scary...when will the madness end? everything this white house does is somehow justified...so often it really just gets down to some sort of well HRC did it or Obama did it so...it's like they openly admit that in their minds anything illegal or otherwise is acceptable because they believe that HRC and Obama did it all so now their guy can too. like so many openly are accepting that he is a crook but he's their crook. Rus would for sure take away your guns if they gained power here and i doubt Put would care about abortions really.

the moral majority could care less about morals at this point. strange and disorienting i guess to have this group of folks who make claims of having God leading them are so removed from the teachings of Christianity. it reminds me often of how Islam has been bastardized to the destruction of those nations that have Muslim majorities. it's like these fundamentalists want our nation to become a theocracy because they want everyone to follow their rules, their values...to the detriment of anyone who sees the world differently than they do

the walrus looks so cute when they nuzzle each other.

there were many walrus swimming up to the rocks and debating coming up on the rocks, some climbed on and were able to find a spot and stay, others left after mild "battles" over location

much chiming for sure.

there is good in the world...far more good than bad. that is one thing about news often. it does tend to give a lopsided view of the world. there was this amazing rescue recently. people on a beach, 80 people i think, formed a human chain and stretched out into the ocean to rescue a family that had gotten sucked out in a rip tide. everyone just saw what needed to happen and came together to help this family...that seems like a miracle with all the negative out there sometimes.

those rip tides can be scary. this was another memory i have of my mother. she warned us repeated to be careful of rip tides. she explained what things to watch for and what to do if you did get pulled out. she said don't try to fight it, let it take you out, then swim to the side and head back...i think we all got that training. don't think i ever got sucked out. i did get twirled around in some waves. tossed about not knowing which way was up or down.

when i look at those waves now i'm really surprised that we were in and out of them as much as we were at such a young age. my mom did put us in swimming lessons pretty early on but still...probably some luck that none of us had any worse incidents...of course, in our family, someone may have had worse incidents but it's not like that would have been communicated. nobody ended up hospitalized though that i'm aware of.

so many things can happen to kids...i work peds, i know. it is pretty amazing that our family didn't have more trips to the ER department. a few broken bones i know, one arm through glass...not sure anyone even parted with their appendix. we were pretty lucky...our parents were pretty lucky.

always so random how some people seem to just get hit with so many medical issues while others flit through pretty much unscathed in that way. we all have our issues to go through, mental, medical, natural disasters. very few easy lives out there. it's how we learn and grow though. all those things that shake us to the core also mold us.

some, like myself i guess, push the limits more. test stuff, fight against what is normal or expected. i'm sure i gave my folks a run for their money, but really...as a teenager. i was pretty easy. worked, went to school, church...may have been emotional at times but other kids in those years drink, do drugs, get preggers...so again...they got pretty lucky with the 7 of us.