more fun in the sun at holgate!

 my favorite family photo of some of my favorite people!!  tanya, bob and maddie!  i saw tanya made this her fb profile photo so she must have liked it too!!

 we saw lots of seals out there. they are curious but skittish.

 always love a good calving and it can be tough to capture it on the camera.  i did really like this series of scott and george in front of the calving glacier.  i did notice that george made this above shot his fb profile picture.  it is pretty dang cool!!

 another section soon followed and more glacier came down.

 love that big splash on the water below!

 more splashing.

 as you can see i was a ways back from them.  i've been in a pretty large calving that created some pretty impressive and frightening waves...i tend so give the glacier a bit more room since then.  i just remember the waves lifing the kayak back until all i saw in front of me was the blue blue skies.  the glacier was gone, the mountains were gone..just blue skies.  those are big waves...and they kept coming for awhile.

 burned a lot of calories today.  lena and i did spencer loop.

 a trail that some have been told to avoid should i suggest it.  rio stayed home so now i'm wondering if it was rio that told them to avoid spencer.  she must have heard me mention it.  haha.  there are a few hills on the trail.

 there is what we called quintons rock.  he doesn't think this is his rock so now i have no idea where the rock  is that he climbed!!

 we saw lots of moose today.  well, three on the trails.  one was tiny but it still counts i think.  we also saw a young moose by itself. i think it was happy to see that we were human and not a bear.  i think the little moose was recently kicked out on it's own by it's mama.  we surmised that perhaps the cow we saw with the little baby was his mom and the little guy is keeping near.

 the cow was not happy to share the trail with us so we took a few photo's and turned back.  took a side trail that reconnected us back on our way.  best to avoid mama moose with small babies.  i about got run over by one last year and i'd be happy to not repeat that event.

 scott ventured out into the thick ice.  again...i'm a bit more of a chicken so i kept to the less compacted area's.

 it cool to see his tiny boat in all that ice though.  he was happy.

 wanted to get a few thank you's done, lena for taking care of blossom and bob and tanya for lending me the kayak and making my birthday more special out there with cake and gifts.  they are always so sweet.

 then, since we had two aprils and no may i need to get some garden stuff done.  i usually get that done in may, but june will do.  tanya met me at the dimond garden shop, they always have nice flowers.  the baskets were half off, so we each bought one of those. i also loaded my three deck planters with flowers. always nice to go out on the deck for a meal and enjoy the big pots full of them.

 i also have an area in the front by the driveway that i have neglected somewhat these past few years so i am re-digging that out.  the front part i put wildflower seeds and cover it with rocks...it kinda looks like a grave i guess.  oh well.  it does look nice once the wildflowers grow in.

 it is tiring though getting all the old weeds/grass out of there.  bought some flowers for that area too so i don't want to take too long to put them in.  sprinking today, but it actually felt good to be out there.  the dogs  chilled out there with me.  not sure rio wanted to, but she didn't want to be inside without us either.

 was thinking today about something maddie had said.  at the B&B there was tv's in the rooms. i couldn't figure out how to get actual tv on mine.  maddie had figured it out so i asked her.  she didn't know but said she's just "pushed the buttons" on the remote and eventually she got tv.  young kids rock at all this new stuff as they aren't afraid to push the buttons.  that could be from my past experience of the old new stuff that with a push of a button could be rendered useless i guess. are we just chicken with computers like we become with stuff like flying down a ski hill or diving into huge waves on a beach.  is this an aging thing?  young kids just have no fear, as an adult i'm even afraid to push a few buttons i guess.  i did eventually push the various buttons on the remote and i got tv too.

 always love the reflection of the mountains on the water.  so pretty.  it dances and shines as you paddle along.  ever changing.

 the second day after we had re heated with some soup and hot water george was ready to leave.  scott was a bit worried about him and he even tied a tow rope onto his kayak before he left the beach.  i decided to paddle along with george and give him some encouragement for the trip back to the cabin.  like my 22 mile paddle in blackstone bay, george never needed the tow. it actually took the rest of them until we turned into holgate bay to catch up with us.  scott was impressed with both of us i think.  there were some people that got dropped off the same day we did .  they were doing solo paddles.  one lady and one very handsome male.  the lady was a bit older.  she ended up getting picked up at our beach.  brave or dumb doing a paddle like this alone.  a bit of both i think.  i wouldn't do it.  it's remote and i think it's best to have people around in case bad things happen.

 at the same time i admire people for doing it solo.  takes more guts really.  i was impressed, though i do wonder if the lady didn't get a wee bit hypothermic out there.  she told tanya she had seen an elephant seal out there.  anything is possible and i just looked in my little book and it does say that there have been increased sightings of these up here.  though it's not very common in alaska i don't think.

 love watching the ice as i float past.  sometimes  they are like clouds in that you see a duck or some other animal or object in their shapes.

 a girl at work had her cell phone stolen from her bag there. what a nightmare.  whoever took it bought things and messed with her life. apparently, the person put a post on her facebook page saying she was on the verge of suicide. i just felt so badly for her having to deal with this. people are idiots sometimes.  so frustrating.

 still feeling sick about a local case.  this guy got out of jail and that very day he randomly broke into an apartment, raped and killed a woman in her 70's, killed her husband and then raped a 2 year old, the great grandchild i think.  another women who was in her 90's was also in the house, she has dementia so she is not able to say what happened.  the 2 year olds parents walked in on the situation and went after this lunatic.  thankfully, though he got out of the apartment he was soon apprehended.  this is a person that should never be let out.

 i believe a landmark case was won in the supreme court today.  DNA samples can now be taken from all violent criminals.  i guess i don't see it as much of a violation of personal rights.  it's like a fingerprint in my mind. better to find out some of these people have other victims out there than allow them to be set free to do more harm.  could this have caught that crazy guy who killed the barista and an unknown number of other people in the lower 48.

 just more paddling shots.

 the water in the creek was pretty high today.  all that 70's degree weather caused so much run off from the mountains.  they are looking like they have much less snow already.  probably pretty muddy up there.  was thinking perhaps just potters to mchugh tomorrow.  i know tanya and speedy are interested.

 there were some great uprooted trees on the beach.  always fun for a photographer.  took one in black and white and then one in colour.  the kayaks are always fun to add into a shot.

 this was the coolest rock on the beach.  the bumps were totally smooth.  probably ground down by glacier activity over the years and it ended up on this beach.

 took a few strolls along the beach...not just for bathroom purposes though i was laughing to myself as whenever i took off for a walk it seemed that maddie jumped up to join me.  i thought i may be tough to escape and pee out there .

 end of day one.

 the warm glow of the fire.  always a favorite time of day for me in alaska.  it gets pretty chilly once that sun goes behind the mountains. it may not get dark, but it does get chilly.

 low tides brought lots of fun sea star sightings on the rocks.

 mostly purple, but there was some variety of colour and type of star.

 maddies commuter star.

 you can also see lots of cool rock formations along the cliffs. it's just a different perspective from the boat out there.

 each night i was still on the boat when i closed my eyes.  that sensation is always so odd.  i've only known a few people who actually got seasick in a kayak.  i guess it is possible. i've never been sick in these boats before.

 we also had these cool sightings of mountain goats high on the mountains.  this one was close enough to get a few pictures.

 she had a little baby mountain goat with her.  so cute! we saw other babies but they were higher up and i knew there was no way to get decent pictures from my little boat.

 seaweed from another beach stroll.  i'll post pictures from this weeks hike after i've gotten more of the paddle in here.  got some cool pictures of those moose today.   saw a bull moose as i drove  home from spencer loop. it was right on the side of the road munching away.  so handsome.  another moose was chilling off the road down a hill.  i never tire of these guys.

my body is a wee bit achy this evening.  guess i'll take a few ibuprofen and hit the sack soon.hope you are enjoying these photos as much as i enjoyed taking them.