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!