A Time for Sunscreen

I believe God made hot sunny days for boat outings and picnics, don't you? And that's certainly what we did a week ago when the sun shone brightly and the thermometer on the window was getting much higher then it had all summer.

Quinn's cousins Mat and Brianna (and their three adorable children: Clover, Juniper and little Oakland) were up all the way from Wisconsin to visit us, so we had to make sure they had a wonderful time!

We started our outing by piling everyone into the trusty boat and motoring out to the Sentinel Island Lighthouse - one of my most favorite places in all of Juneau.

A couple years ago we filmed a music video for one of my favorite songs here, and since then we have been back several times to explore the small island and pick blueberries (which are usually very thick there). We had hoped to eat our picnic lunches on the island, but a work crew was finishing maintaining the lighthouse, so we would have to find a picnic spot elsewhere...

But not before climbing up to the top of the lighthouse!

The ruins of the old homestead that I believe burned down many years ago.

Though the outside of the lighthouse is lovely, the inside is my favorite. A winding staircase passing old glass windows that have looked out on so many stormy days. I just love a romantic lighthouse!

Because of the hot day, the top of the lighthouse was very humid. Though the view was nice, we all felt like we needed a break from the heat up there after a while! 

Greta wasn't fond of all the steps leading up to the top (they were her archenemy when she was a puppy), so she stayed down below. Don't feel to sorry for her though, for there were little kids around - and they were just her size! She had plenty of fun chasing them around...

Clover didn't like me taking pictures of her. Whenever she saw me, she did that. Oh well, I guess I just needed to be sneaky!

Yummy thimble berries greeted us on the way back to the beach.

Who cares about danger signs when your four years old? Oak doesn't.

 Finally a good picture of Clover - though after I took it she heard the click of the camera and gave me a mean look. Ha!

By the time we started heading back to the boat, everyone was hot and ready to take a dunk in the ocean. We decided to boat the short distance to the Boy Scout Beach, a nice sandy stretch facing the ocean and mountains beyond. The kids especially were so excited to go swimming! I, however, wasn't sure I wanted to get in...but I did anyway. And oh-my-goodness was it cold!

For Father's Day, mom had gotten dad a paddle board. Everyone was so excited to try it out. Quinn (my pirate husband) paddled Greta and I around the calm beach.

Dad and Quinn also pulled people around knee-boarding and surfing, causing this amazing picture to be taken: Quinn (on the knee board) and Matt (on the paddle board) giving each other a high five as they go by!

Back on the beach we ate our picnic lunches and basked in the sun. I hid under my parasol most of the day so I wouldn't get burned (like Quinn soon would be). And soon the kids decided that they wanted to bury my sister-in-law Laura - who was gracious and said that they could. Of course, I helped as well.Greta wasn't quite sure what we were doing by burying Laura in the sand, she seemed to think that Laura wanted wet, sloppy kisses all over her face and took the opportunity to give her some:

But THEN she realized something was buried in the sand, and she had to inspect. Though, at first she didn't realize that what she was biting was actually Laura!

"No, no Greta! That's Laura you're trying to eat!"

We buried Greta as a punishment. She didn't like it one bit, and instantly came flying out of the sand when we let her go. 

We stayed at the beach for the whole afternoon, taking turns jumping into the freezing cold water and then laying in the sand on the beach. It got so hot that Bri started putting sunscreen on all the kids! She told us, "We haven't needed to put sunscreen on the kids yet in Wisconsin, but visiting Alaska we have to!?" Quinn did put a little sunscreen on after he had gotten pretty red, but the damage of the day had already been done (if you ask him he'll say it was worth it.).

After hours of swimming, it was time for everyone's favorite part: s'mores!

It seemed a bit silly to be building a fire on such a hot day, but the s'mores were worth the heat I think. 

Soon it was time for my little family to head back home. We piled our things into the boat and washed off our sandy feet before putting our sandals back on. Laura, Oak, and Juniper followed along behind the boat for a while as we left, but soon we sped off and it was time to drive home...

...but not before Quinn got this picture of me on our boat ride back, the cool breeze as we sped through the water a happy feeling on my hot skin.

That was the last hot day we had before rain clouded up our weather forecast, but oh, how wonderful a day it was!

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An Anniversary - Part 2

Day two of our anniversary camping trip dawned rather rainy and gray, but how calming it was to hear rain pattering on the roof in the early hours of the morning.

Breakfast was english muffins toasted over a welcoming fire, with candles and our kerosene lamp burning brightly to banish away the dark clouds carrying rain.

Soon we were dressed and setting off in the canoe again to explore the rocky cliffs near the cabin. Quinn and his family had often come to the cliffs on nice days, and at high tide would jump off of them into the cold water below. On that particular morning we decided not to take the plunge...though Greta wanted to jump overboard to attack the scary bunches of seaweed floating by.

We came to rest our canoe on a sandy stretch of beach where Quinn and his sisters had many times before moored their kayaks. At high tide, it was a nice place to go swimming all on its own, but ever the adventurer, Quinn always looked forward to the cliff jumping.

Thankfully, I talked him out of doing it that morning, ha! And instead we combed the beach and rocks for drift wood, searched for shells on the beach, and got a talking-to from a pair of marmots who had a burrow in the rocks.

A little rain shower came and shooed us back to the safety and dryness of our cabin and fire, but not before we had filled several pockets with shells and the whole canoe with firewood.

We curled up in quilts and read books we had brought. Greta slept near the cabin door, even in sleep alert to anyone going out (so she could go out too). And then! Well, the sun came and chased the gray rainy clouds away and we were left with such a hot afternoon, that I had to change into the dress I had worn the day before for its short sleeves! We may have even gone wading in the sea (I say wading because it was not swimming. I got a bit above my waist and chickened out.)!

Before to long it was time for dinner and we had brought things to make vegetable soup (though we had forgotten our new pot. Oops!). We decided our tea kettle would work just fine for a pot, so Quinn set to work making the soup.

But then, imagine my joy at finding sweet peas covering the rocky shore! Grabbing a bowl I carefully made my way through their twisty shoots and gathered the little pods. We would have fresh picked peas in our soup!






















I don't think we could have asked God for a more lovely evening. Eagles called to each other right above us, and we heard the distant voice of a sea lion swimming by the cove.  And oh, what a yummy supper...

After supper was eaten and the dishes had been washed in the near-by creek, we loaded ourselves up into the canoe one more time to go see the sunset. We were just in time. As we climbed up the rocks, the two marmots whistled at us again, but we didn't pay them too much heed, we were there for something else...

"Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all."

1 Chronicles 29:11

In the glow of the fading sunset, we sang sea shanties together and talked about the journey we've had thus far together. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have Quinn by my side each day. I wouldn't have been able to get through these last two years without him holding me up, protecting me, and loving me. 

And of course, this blog would not be here if he didn't take photos for me...

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

Psalm 19:1

The next morning it was time to go back to work, for both of us. But we were so happy to have had such a fun and relaxing time together to celebrate two years in marriage. It was hard to leave such a stunning scene:

The water was so calm it seemed a crime to paddle through it in the canoe. 

A sad goodbye was said to the cabin and soon we were off, but the views on the way back made it a little bit easier to leave...

And of course, who could resist a sleepy puppy?

Thank you so much for adventuring along with me through my stories and photos, I hope you enjoyed your time with the family from Blueberry Barn. 

Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you safe!

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An Anniversary - Part 1

Tuesday, July 12th, Quinn and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. 

How very short and very long those two years have seemed, yet still God has been beside us (even when we were not beside Him). Though it's much easier to look back and see the hardships we have faced together, I am determined to remember the good - which is always a much better outlook, don't you agree?

Quinn is always on top of things, and he was thinking of our anniversary all the way back in January. He rented a cabin in a small cove way 'out the road,' only assessable by trail or water. And because of all my silly romantic notions, it was a good thing we went by water (I may have packed quite a bit).

Before my family moved away from Juneau, they left our trusty canoe with my Aunt and Uncle, who were very kind to let us borrow it for our short journey.

It was rather exciting tying it to the top of our little car (and it longer on both ends than the vehicle!). Thankfully, we got it safely to the secluded beach, and off we paddled in the early morning light to our home-away-from-home for the next two days!

Greta had never been in a canoe before, and we were worried she would try to jump off (as she had done several days early off of our father's new paddle board). We worried needlessly however, though she loved looking up over the side, she soon grew tired of the water and ripples and instead laid down on our rolled up sleeping bags and took a nap.

Soon we rounded the last rocky cliff and there it was, our own little cabin. 

I had visited the cabin once before as an 18-year-old camp counselor with our local church camp. All the counselors had gone on a day-long hike to the lake above the cabin and then spent the night there (girls inside, boys outside in tents). Quinn however has been to the cabin countless times, he even 'helped' build it back in the days when his father was a State Park Ranger. It was so funny to think back to those years gone by and imagine what we would have thought had we known we'd one day be staying in the cabin with our spouse, two years married!

After settling in, unpacking all our things, and having a quick lunch, we hiked to Cedar Lake. Cedars are hard to find in Juneau, but around the perimeter of this lake we found quite a few. There were also plenty of ripe blueberries, making Greta stop every couple minutes to beg for us to pick them for her...

Sometimes she gets spoiled...don't worry, it doesn't happen often.

Greta loved the lake, though not so much anymore when Quinn put her in the water. I can't really blame her though, the water was very cold and a not-so-nice wind was blowing across the lake. Quinn and I floated around on a raft and tried to soak up the sunshine and ignore the wind.

Doesn't Greta look like a Sea Captain ready to launch her new ship?

Soon we started to get hungry for dinner, so back down the trail we went - being careful of the devil's club (the spikiest plant in Alaska) and making sure to look up every so often to enjoy the view of blue sky.

Devil's Club has nasty spikes and thorns covering the woody stem and the bottom, sides and top of its giant leaves. The plants can grow higher than six feet, making them more like trees in the wilderness of Alaska. It's very easy to accidentally grab hold of a brach of devil's club if you're hiking up a steep mountain, so always be on the look-out for it!

Spruce tree tops high above the trail.

Back at the cabin, we scoured the beach for driftwood for our fire. The cabin gets used very often, so there wasn't much to be found. But what we needed to make dinner was not the fire itself but some good coals, for we were making Hobo Stew!

I got the recipe from my Aunt Freddie (the same Aunt who lent us the canoe) many years ago. Potatoes, onions, carrots, and hamburger all mixed together in tin foil and carefully laid out on a hot bed of coals...I can't think of a yummier supper. Of course, its a pretty sad mix unless you have some salt and spices - which we remembered to bring among all the other things to pack (thankfully).

And after a long day of hiking and canoeing, smelling that 'stew' was wonderful!

Carefully setting the hobo stew on the hot coals.

Potatoes, onions and carrots ready to eat!
(The hamburger we cooked in a separate tin foil wrap, with extra onions for flavor.)

God richly blessed us with beautiful weather and a cool breeze that kept the (giant Alaskan) mosquitoes away. We sat together at the fire eating our supper and listening to the whistles of the marmots as they ran back and forth across the beach below us.

All we could hear were the marmot's whistles, the sound of the waves on the beach, and the crackling of the fire. We felt totally alone and so very peaceful.

But of course, peacefulness had to be set aside so we could bring out the s'mores supplies and bicker over the best roasting stick (I'm joking, of course I gave Quinn the better stick)!

Camping anywhere just wouldn't be the same without some marshmallows...

Quinn got the good stick, the one with TWO prongs, because I love him.

After supper, all that was left to do was enjoy the scenery and talk about the plans we had for the next day. And as the sun slowly vanished behind the trees and the sky grew dark, we fell asleep hearing the waves and the fire, and were so happy to be together.

Quinn wrote on a log in the fire with ash. It reads: 'Q E 7-12"

Part two of this story will be coming soon!

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