Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings:

Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings:
January 4th- January17th

We left Juneau again on the 4th of January at about 1:30 in the afternoon. This time though we weren’t as hard pressed to get the house spick and span due to the fact that it was still clean from our Christmas jubilations.
Our flights took us down through Seattle to Dallas where we were picked up by our friends and taken to our bus in Springtown. We set off a bug bomb in the bowels of the bus in the hopes of killing any blood sucking bugs that might have crawled into it in our absence. The next day was spent haphazardly packing our instruments and equipment into the bus. We were scheduled to play at the Rockport Gospel Festival in Rockport, Texas on the 7th so we were hard pressed to get there on time. We had a five-hour drive from Dallas which we tackled with great trepidation. We arrived in Rockport just under four hours till we were supposed to play.
Our invitation to play at the Rockport Gospel Festival had been received a year previously when we had performed at a small gospel grass festival near Corpus Christie. This year the Rockport Gospel Festival was held in a high-school auditorium which seated twelve-hundred people and was filled to capacity for the event. Having played the small festival nearby a year previous we anticipated a similar event and were quite surprised at the magnitude of the festival goers. The three day festival featured a broad selection of southern gospel singing groups such as The Anchorman, The Bailey Family, The Telestials, The Springer Family, Larry Ford and others; most of whom we have never heard of as we have not really been exposed to southern gospel style of music in the past. In addition there was an extraordinary line up of church choirs from the area, each featuring remarkable soloists in their work.
After the festival we started heading to the Rio Grande Valley playing several shows along the way down. One of them was on Mustang Island at the Palms RV Park. A year ago January the Alaska String Band traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to participate in an entertainer’s showcase. From that event and contacts we made while in the area we booked about seven weeks of concert engagements for the 2011 winter season. So we arrived in the Rio Grande Valley and went to work giving concerts at many winter Texan retirement communities.
Not long after arriving our family spent an exceptionally fun afternoon and evening at a picnic hosted by the Link Family Band. Nine family bands pulled in with their rigs and a day of eating, games and socializing commenced. In attendance were the Link Family Band, The Harper Family, Lindley Creek Bluegrass, The Durocher Family, The Starfire Family Band, The Young Family Band, The Punches, The Redhead Express with the Walker Boys and of course the Alaska String Band.
A volleyball tournament, ultimate Frisbee, riding ripsticks (a two wheeled skateboard), were some of our activities. The Punches family provided unicycles and everyone took turns trying to figure out how to stay up on one. Most everyone gave up in disgust. After a while Mr. Durocher came and showed all of us up, mounting it and literally riding circles around all of us. He said that in days gone by he had delivered papers on one. I myself found that hard to believe seeing as the furthest that I could get on one was around five feet and that was while holding onto the side of the bus.
The day passed quickly and several families packed up and headed out to fulfill their evening’s concert engagements. Luckily we weren’t scheduled to play that evening and so we stayed to visit with the remaining families. All the kids went to see the new movie “Megamind” at a dollar theatre. There were around thirty-five of us, all in one van. No worries though, we took two trips to and from the theatre. I did the math and it cost the same for all of us to go to the theatre as it would have if five of us had gone back in Juneau. That night we stayed up till about 2:30 jamming, visiting, playing more games and making wise-cracks. Mr. Harper came out to the gymnasium about 2:30 a.m. and told us it was time to get some shut eye. Then he hung out with us till around 4:30 a.m. shootin’ the breeze. Mr. Harper told us that he knows that girls fart, because if you watch their ankles in church, they puff up when they fart because the girls are wearing those nylons. And he also said that his wife escapes fart detection because she wears fish net stockings and the vapors can escape undetected! Dillon Harper took it upon himself to give Kendra Walker a new hair doo. She disturbingly looked much like a French soufflé.
When we finally headed to the bus Laura and I tried to sneak as quietly in as possible. But as we feared my mom heard us come in. And she was just as ornery as we anticipated. We did have a concert engagement that coming evening and she figured we would be less than operational with three hours of sleep.

Birthday party

Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings:

Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings:
November 14th- December 4th:

Our time at home was most satisfying. We enthusiastically entered the Christmas spirit by decking the halls of our happy abode. One of our newest holiday traditions is setting up the Department 56 Christmas Village which we recently inherited from our grandma Kay. Grandma Kay had been collecting village pieces for several decades. When we were really young my sisters and I would relish the excitement of Christmas Eve at our grandparents house and watch the lights of their Christmas village twinkle in the darkness. Eventually grandma Kay grew tired of the lengthy process of setting up, taking down and storing the ever expanding village. And despite the dismayed protests of family members, as a new year dawned she packed it up for the last time and sent parts of it home with her children’s families, telling us that she was spreading the joy and it was time for us to carry on the tradition in our own homes.

Grandma Kay did keep one piece that I suspect was probably her absolute favorite. The carrousel. A nostalgic mood can be powerfully evoked with a simple item of beauty such as the village carrousel. Growing up in southern California, Grandma Kay spent her summers on the coast at Santa Cruz with my great, great grandmother. This small seaport town held wonderful attractions for the young at heart. The long sand beach and salty ocean breakers are among the obvious. But an added bonus was the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Grandma remembers frequenting it during the summers of 1939 till around 1955.

The Fun House, one of her frequent stops on the boardwalk, allowed her admittance for just twenty-five cents. She could check out her wind swept hair bob in the crazy mirrors as she headed for a trek through the spinning barrels and then on to the wave boards. A climb to the top of the giant slide was a must; as from there she could survey the rest of her Fun House options. After a spell it was an exceptional day if she had an adult companion who would treat her to a mexicone. This was a soft shell tortilla which was fried till just a bit crispy then folded neatly into a cone shape and of course filled like a taco. I intend to try my hand at concocting one of these south of the border wonders.

Now best of all was the Looff Carrousel which appeared at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk in 1911. This ride boasted seventy-three hand carved and exquisitely painted horses created by American artisan Mr. Charles I.D. Looff. The carrousel conductor would collect grandma Kay’s ten cents as she sauntered by, intent on claiming her prize stallion for the day. The music commenced and the carrousel slowly began to pick up its whirling speed. Leaning forward in anticipation, her hand would shoot out and snatch up one of the shining brass rings as she whizzed by. Then she would toss the ring toward the laughing clown’s mouth in hopes of hitting her target dead on.

The Alaska String Band has not toured on the west coast, except of course in Alaska and Canada, but we hope to some day soon. And if we do I surely hope to pay a visit to my grandma’s sea side haunt of Santa Cruz and take a spin on the Looff Carrousel. I’ll snatch a brass ring and hit the bull’s eye as I pass by. I’ll probably even bury Laura and Abby up to their necks in the sand. Then I‘ll dance the drunken sailor two step around them – chanting in my sing song voice… “It’s the pirates life for me!“, and slowly devour a triple scoop Rocky Road chocolate ice cream cone in front of them.

I seem to have digressed. Now back to the frozen north! We were decking the halls. So we began the ritual of baking holiday gingerbread cookies. These cookies are simply for decoration, and definitely not for consumption as they come out of the oven as hard as rocks. Our dog Cedar as been caught nibbling at them a time or two. I shape them roughly ten to twelve inches across, cutting around cardboard templates of various wild animals and some not so wild. Owls, ravens, roosters, parrots, cows, sheep, horses, goats, trolls, and Olivia the pig are a few of the chosen subjects. It becomes a work of art as Laura and Abby “sketch” each animal’s individual features in with piped white icing.

We spent a day or so of hunting in vain for our favorite garlands of fresh pine boughs, which were quickly snatched up when they first arrived in stores (one bummer of living in a small town in Alaska, where it’s the early bird that gets the worm.) We finally checked out the faux pine decorations at JoAnne’s Fabrics store. My mom abhors silk floral arrangements so she was not a happy camper. She and Laura finally settled on some garlands of red winter berries and brought them home. After they were suspended from the post and beam ceiling in our kitchen and strung with white frosted globe lights and the amazing gingerbread creatures we all stood back and agreed that it was just dandy. Departing from decorating tradition hadn’t ruined Christmas after all.

Of course my dad led us out on a tree cutting expedition. Southeast Alaska offers more trees than you can fathom. So selecting a tree is a simple and celebrated event. We drug it home and let it stand to dry overnight. Old world blown glass ornaments, and hand crocheted snowflakes, cranberry beads, popcorn strings and candles were hung on the tree in rapid succession. We’ve never actually lit the candles, but my mom says that some year she want’s to cut the tree on Christmas eve and light the candles while the tree is still fresh and it is reasonably safe to do so. I suppose I will have to stand by with a bucket of water.

The weekend that we returned to Juneau the Northern Lights Junior Theatre was performing their fall play “Cinderella.” Abby and I set out with our youth group from church to see the musical. In route we stopped at Bullwinkle’s Pizza Parlor. The play was taken from the original production written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. This production consisted of actors from three years old to fifty at least. Much of the cast were friends of ours and who are educated at home and enjoy the arts as much as we do.

One evening in late November we were scheduled to provide entertainment at the Island Pub located on Douglas Island. We set up our sound system early in the day and checked to make sure that it was all working. When I say we, I actually mean Dad. Abby and I sat at a table and ordered pizza and salad. That evening there was a full house and it was as noisy as ever. I flipped on the sound system only to discover that some of the microphones would not pick up a signal. Dad and I tried our best to get them running to no avail. Down to one, single, hot microphone which we huddled around, the evening music got underway. There was much weaving in and out and bumping into one another as the evening wore on, but we managed. And everyone apparently had a great night at the Island Pub.

Abby turned 13 on November 17th which was a great excitement for her. We didn’t have a party on her birthday. Instead we were planning a double birthday party for her and I in December. My birthday wasn’t till January 15th so the party was right in the middle of them. We were planning on giving a Victorian dinner party followed by going to the formal Winter Ball of the season.

Abby invited a gaggle of girls to sleep over the night before the dinner party. They played games, ate food, tried each others dresses on for the dance and tried to see how many people they could get to play “Heart and Soul” on the piano at the same time (I believe they managed five.) Everybody piled into the truck and headed up the mountain to Eaglecrest our local ski area to go sledding. It was very dark out and henceforth things were made a little hairy scary. Later on I was kicked out of the house for the rest of the night so as to give the girls some privacy. I headed over to some good friends who lived down the road a bit.

Party day dawned cold and snowy. The roads were dicey with ice and snow on them. Our driveway which is long, steep and curvy was quite slick. So we sanded the worst of it. The dress code for the dinner party and dance was formal. It was great fun seeing all the gents and ladies decked out for the occasion. Only one boy tried to slip through the entrance in jeans. But I caught him and sent him to comply.

Mom and Dad put on an amazing feast including roast pork with apple glaze, dilled carrots, spring greens, garlic mashed potatoes and dinner roles. There was an amazing spread of fancy cookies and candies which Laura, Abby and I had baked over the course of several weeks.

Juneau’s winter ball was held down town at Centennial Hall. The Thunder Mountain Big Band provided live music for the evening. Most of our party of forty were semi experienced dancers and had spent time learning ball room dances as well as swing. A Conga Line was formed and everyone quickly fell in. Even our previous dance instructors who happened to be on the dance floor that night joined in with the fun. As we made a second pass through the hall an “older gentleman” approached and told us to stay out of the way. So sadly, we quickly dispersed.

The evening drew to a close. A group photo was in order of course. We asked one of the adults to take the picture which was a bad idea, because none of them could figure out how to operate the camera.

That night the guys came home with me. On the way up our driveway the truck lost traction and went screaming down the hill backwards. Us being less than perfect teenagers, took a consensus and decided to try it again. I backed the truck down Nine Mile Creek Road a good long ways, and with plenty of room for acceleration, I put the pedal to the metal. We took the first curve with ease, barreled up the steep incline and rounded the second corner. As all the boys bellowed an indistinct war chant about monkeys the rocket truck preceded to slide crazily down backwards again. This time though we were stopped quite abruptly by a large tree. Abandoning the vehicle we ascertained it might be a good idea to walk up…

Sunday after church in the daylight my dad and I inspected the rear end of the truck. I have decided to skip writing about that to save you from the grisly visual it would entail.

Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings: November 10th-14th

Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings:

November 10^th-14^th

After being on the road for six weeks we headed back to Alaska! We flew out of Dallas, Texas on an Alaska Airlines flight. Our course took us up through the rain filled city of Seattle, Washington. When we finally landed in Juneau our first stop was to shop at Costco.

 

Shopping at Costco in Juneau, Alaska is usually an upbeat social event.  The quality products offered at reasonable prices make a small, remote town in Alaska the envy of other smaller, remote towns which struggle with the ever escalating cost of living as well.   And on each aisle we meet and greet half a dozen or more friends and acquaintances.  One thing you don’t want to do in small town Alaska where everybody knows everybody’s business is go to the grocery store if you are in a hurry or happen to be in a particularly unsociable mood.  Unless of course you are comfortable placing a paper bag over your head as a disguise or enjoy peering around corners and dodging the gaze of recognition from your friendly and sometimes not so friendly cohabitants.  Living in Juneau is kind of like living in a fish bowl.  With just forty miles of road from end to end and no way out but to fly or float, if you spend a few seasons you will eventually know and or recognize most every one.   Inevitably the current brings you around to see folks again and again.

 

Early November at Costco held lots of comforting treasures: Thinsulate ski gloves (jet black or powder blue);  rag wool socks; jumbo ice scrapers; a huge assortment of holiday chocolates (Belgian are exceptionally good);  a brand new walk in refrigeration room stalked with beautiful produce; radiant space heaters; cozy blankets; movie theatre style popcorn machines and a satisfying collection of entertainment gadgets and media to accompany the popcorn……

 

In good time we drove into downtown Juneau, crossed the bridge to Douglas Island and drove the last seven and a half miles to Nine Mile Creek.  Our faithful dog Cedar was the first to greet us.  Her hair had grown a lot in the time that we were gone and she looked strangely like a blackened marshmallow (a very joyful one.)

 

On entering our house we were once again struck with the pure luxury it is to live in a home.   There’s nothing like living in a forty foot bus with your family to put life in healthy perspective.

 

We were only home for a day before we headed out of town again. Our new destination was the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, which was located in Haines, Alaska. The Alaska Bald Eagle Festival is an annual celebration of the largest congregation of Bald Eagles in the world. Over a thousand come every year to eat of the fish in the Chilkoot river. The reason that they come to eat out of this specific river is that it doesn’t freeze over so there are many fish there. The Bald Eagle Foundation also takes care of injured birds.  They care for everything from owls to eagles.

We loaded our pick-up truck on the ferry which would transport us up the inland passage from Juneau to Haines. The ride was jam packed with people. Henceforth we ended up having to sit on the floor for the four hour ride.  A group of students from the University of Alaska Southeast were on the ferry with us. One of their teachers gave a talk on sports that pushed the limits of sanity.

In Haines we set up our sound system and prepared for an evening concert at the Bald Eagle Foundation.  One of the naturalists was feeding the great horned owl they were taking care of.  In a back room we discovered a deep freeze packed full with  rodents and chicks to be fed to the resident eagles and owls which were in the care of the foundation.

Approximately 150 folks attended our concert that evening.   The concert hall was filled with Alaskan wildlife exhibits.   Right over the stage loomed a magnificent moose.  Standing up abruptly once during the performance the moose and I collided heads.  The Blood family were our hosts for the weekend.  So we enjoyed visiting with them a little before retiring for the night.

The next morning we returned to the eagle foundation hall where we were scheduled to give the Southeast Alaskan Odyssey Show.  Laura and I killed some time looking at post cards in the gift shop while we waited for the bald eagle presentation to conclude which came before us on the day’s program.  Once again the hall was filled to capacity and we kicked into gear with the Odyssey Show.  The audience was engaged and seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Especially during the Minor Swing when my mom stabbed my dad with her bow hand, narrowly missing his eye.  I think I’ll find an eye patch to put in my dad’s Christmas stocking.

 

In the late afternoon our good friends, the Lidholms, joined us for a drive up the river valley.  The eagles were out in force and it was a beautiful day.  We stopped at the 26 Mile Roadhouse and consumed some great burgers and shakes.   On the way back from dinner we were listening to the radio.  The weather man came on and spoke these words, “It looks like we will be having rain for the next couple of days,……actually……, for the rest of the year.”

Sunday morning was utter chaos trying to get to church on time and as usual we managed it but just barely.  Port Chilkoot Bible Church had invited us to attend their service and play some music.  The Diggins’ family provided a wonderful lunch and good company.  The Lidholms joined us once again and Mr. Lidholm brought his Mac with him.   Laura and I joined forces as we tried to convince Dad of our desperate need to update our computer.  We concluded our stay in Haines with Jaunita’s amazing apple pie.

The ferry ride home had plenty of room to spread out and we secured a state room to nap in as well.   We ended up spending most of the time in the theater watching “Did You Hear About the Morgan’s?” and “The Spy Next Door.” The second of the two was a Jackie Chan movie. Mom didn’t know what it was but as soon as she saw that Jackie Chan was in it she vacated the theater. For some reason she doesn’t enjoy his movies, when asked why she will reply, “I just don‘t.”

We hauled up our driveway at 11:30 p.m. which on our internal clocks, not yet adjusted to Alaska time, was 2:30 a.m.  So we settled down for a long winter’s nap.

Quinn’s Extraordinry Travel Ramblings

 Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings
 
 September 21st-22nd
 
 We left Juneau on September 21st at 8:00 a.m.  Henceforth the week or so prior to our leaving was spent cleaning and packing up the house when we weren‘t at the Mount Roberts Tramway or on board a cruise ship giving Southeast Alaska Odyssey Shows.  Much of that time was actually just spent running up and down the halls dancing and “singing” to artists such as Dan Balan, Frankie Valli, The Chordettes, The Chords, The Penguins, Kristin Chenowith and many more.

 Some of the more prominent tasks that we had to accomplish were pressure washing Xoche’s cage (the parrot), and disinfecting Quinn’s room, (so whoever stayed in it wouldn’t contract any unpleasant malady.)

 Our flight out of Juneau departed  late as usual.   We flew two and a half hours to Seattle.  When our flight was leaving Juneau Quinn started a timer to see how long it would take us to get from our point of origin to our point of destination.  When we lined up to board the jet the gatekeeper asked Laura to step out of line and go to see the ticket agent.  She also instructed Paul to gate check his guitar.  Paul being the true rebel he is, and not wanting to have his guitar broken into a thousand pieces, marched past the gate and on to the plane where he asked a stewardess to put his guitar in a closet for him; which she did very nicely.  Check this You Tube link out –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo       –  to see how some artist’s instruments fair when they fly in the cargo of today’s airliners.  It’s enough to make a rebel out of many otherwise mild mannered gentlemen. 

 When Laura boarded she was without her instruments.   Apparently the ticket agent had confiscated her instruments and sent them down to the hold.   Laura of course demurely followed instructions.  We were all rather disappointed with the gatekeeper.  Happily on arrival in Seattle, Laura’s instruments were handed back to her in mint condition.  Way to go Alaska Airlines!

 We were in Seattle for just long enough to get from point A (our arrival gate) to point B (our takeoff point); and board. None of our instruments were gate checked this time much to our relief.  This next flight took about three hours. It was a rather grueling journey.  Laura and Quinn sat by each other two rows behind Paul, Melissa and Abby.

 Quinn was sitting next to a college age looking student. During the flight Quinn stole a sideways glance at him and saw that the diligent scholar was working on a school assignment.   He was writing about choral reefs. Quinn was transfixed by all of the new fascinating facts that he learned. Such as: 1) Choral reefs are underwater  2) Choral reefs are wet  and 3) many other such things.

 During the flight Paul, Laura and Quinn watched the new movie, The A Team .   They all enjoyed it immensely.  Abby watched Marmaduke.  And Melissa slept through the whole flight. She slept due to the fact that she stayed up all night long before we departed Juneau cleaning house and packing for the trip. 

 When we arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota we headed for the baggage carousel to retrieve our baggage.  Our Grandpa Zahasky was there waiting for us. We had almost walked by grandpa without noticing him when he spoke up.  He said that he had seen us a mile away due to my illustrious top-hat.

 Grandpa and my dad went to retrieve the vehicle from the parking garage.  While they were gone Mom, Laura, Abby and I lugged our baggage off of the carousel. We had about six or seven, twenty ton bags.  Actually each suitcase weighed in at precisely 50 pounds, due to the new weight limitations and the lovely baggage charge which is added to your ticket if you pack one ounce over the weight limitation.

 We dragged our luggage out to the curb and sat in wonder at the warm night air, relishing our bare feet in sandals which is a rare phenonema for Alaskan kids.  When we were picked up dad figured out how to get everything to fit just right into the van. It was somewhat like a jigsaw puzzle, only not quite. Grandpa had rented us an eleven person van. There was more room in it than we had had in the airplane, which meant that each of us could actually stretch our legs more than five inches.  Come to think of it there was more room in it than any car we’ve ever driven in.  We were headed to Decorah, Iowa which was about a three hour drive.

 On the way we stopped in Rochester, Minnesota at Menard’s Builders Supply to purchase new shower walls necessary for the fixing of the shower in our bus.  Leaving Menards we headed for a Subway shop to get a bite to eat.  That was my favorite part of the whole trip that day.  I’m partial to the meatball marinara.  At 10:30 p.m. we pulled to a stop in front of grandma and grandpa’s house.  I stopped my timer.   It had taken us 13 hours and 30 minutes to travel three thousand five hundred miles from Juneau, Alaska to Decorah, Iowa.  Not bad time.

 We visited with Grandma and Grandpa for about the next hour and discovered that Grandmama had baked us her most incredible yummy, yummy for my tummy, super duper extra chocolaty sour cream fudge chocolate cake.  We were very excited about that.  Of course we all tried to act very nonchalant about the whole affair and made a great effort to restrain from eating it all before breakfast the next morning.  Eventually sleep got the better of us and we went to bed.  It had been an eighteen hour day which included traveling through three different time zones.  So after a long day of time travel we collapsed in a heap of wriggling pudding.

Quinn’s Extraordinary Travel Ramblings:

 QUINN’S EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL RAMBLINGS
    Alaskan Summer 2010
 
 Juneau was gifted with glorious sunshine and warm temperatures in May and June.  July was a rather nasty month weather-wise. Even though the weather was slightly like a bowl of overturned cornbread we still got out on several grand adventures such as camping, hiking, biking, swimming, cliff jumping and much – MUCH more.  All of the locals were pleasantly surprised as the weather made a turn for the better and ended up quite beautiful in August and September.  

 
 The Alaska String Band played music at the Mount Roberts Tramway four days a week, giving shows in the Chilkat Theater through out the late spring, summer and early fall.  Silver Sea, Asuka, Regent Sea and Holland America cruise lines all welcomed the Alaska String Band on board their ships to give evening performances of the Southeast Alaska Odyssey Show in their theaters.   Other interesting music engagements in Juneau included the Alaska Folk Festival, the Island Pub, State of Alaska Legislature Session, Governor’s awareness rally to prevent domestic abuse in Alaska, wedding at Glacier Gardens, Mountain Music Festival, Grand Ole Opry to benefit the United Way children’s fund, Laborers Union Labor Day Picnic and more.

 Laura traveled to a wedding in North Dakota in June and she was gone for a week. When she came back she was all set to get herself a beau. She didn’t find one luckily. If she had, we do believe that Quinn would have encompassed her intended in raspberry JELL-O.
 
  Quinn produced his first “Movie” with his friends this summer. The movie was “WWIII”.   They planned a double night sleepover and over the course of three days consumed tons of pizza and filmed a grand movie. He has also started his own movie company, Chester Van Gogh Predictions (yes, predictions.)
 
 Abigail attended the three week Weber Dance Camp of Boston, MA which was held in Juneau this summer. She went every day from 1:00 till 5:00 Monday through Friday. At the end of the dance camp she performed on stage at the Juneau Douglas High School.
 
 Paul went on a hunting expedition up a mountain with his friend Jeff Machakos. He was gone for two and a half days. He didn’t shoot anything.  And he woke up in the night with severe Charlie horses in his legs.  He says his old age is to blame but he was secretly delighted when his friend Jeff who is ten years his junior also complained of a Charlie horse. 
 
 Melissa discovered the Bobby Pin Blog on the internet and promptly ordered the hairdo book illustrating do’s from the 1930’s to the 1960’s.  She then began to create some wild new (or shall I say “old”) looks for my sisters.  Laura looked like a Cocoa Cola pin up girl.  And Abigail chose a beehive. 
 
 One exceptionally fun music engagement our family attended was the local home education retreat held at the summer camp at the end of the road.  Abby and Quinn went out with the rest of the students and attended several workshops with their friends.  Abby attended the cross stitch class where she learned how to cross stitch her name.  Quinn attended the Aerodynamics class where he made paper airplanes. He also attended the Tie-dyeing class and made a shirt. The last class he took was a jitterbug class where he learned to– well that’s obvious–jitterbug.  While at the retreat we played a concert and hosted a ballroom dance.
 
 We had company up from Virginia this summer for a week. While our guests were in Juneau they took us on the zip line at the local ski area located on Douglas Island. We glided from tree top to tree top in the thick rainforest.  Eaglecrest, the ski area where the zipline is located is one of our favorite hiking places.  Several days each week we would hike to the top of the mountain and hang out on the ridge overlooking the Southeast Alaska Inside Passage waterway and Admiralty Island in the distance.  Admiralty Island is North America’s largest island and averages one brown bear per each square mile of the Island.  Douglas Island where we live and play is home to black bears, deer, wolves, and many other smaller wild animals.  
   
 
 Auke Bay Bible Church was privileged to host the African’s Children Choir from Uganda.  The orphan children ages 9 – 12 gave a beautiful song and dance performance.   One day the Alaska String Band prepared and served them a spaghetti luncheon.   At the request of the Alaska String Band the Mount Roberts Tramway generously gave the African Children’s Choir complimentary passes up the Mount Roberts Tramway where the children were able to explore the alpine meadows above downtown Juneau. 

 We enjoyed several outings in the boat this summer.  On one outing we were amazed to see three humpback whales breech simultaneously from the water.  Wow! What a sight that was to behold.  On one of our fishing jaunts, Quinn caught a Dolly Varden at the boat launch while Paul was putting the boat in the water.  Quinn named it of course and promptly prepared a new habitat for the fish in a bucket at the back of the boat.  The fish’s name was Frederick. Much to Quinn’s dismay, Paul intended to use Frederick for bait!!  As we motored out beyond the protective islands of Amalga Harbor and into the broad expanse of water known as Lynn Canal which leads on to a favorite fishing destination at St. James Bay we discovered that we couldn’t go on.  The wind had really kicked up and the ensuing rough water was not something to tamper with.   So as Paul kept his watchful eye on the growing swells and steered the boat back to safe harbor Quinn unobtrusively slipped to the rear of the boat and wished Frederick a prosperous life as he threw him back into the water.   Paul got rather mad at Quinn upon discovery of his escaped bait. 
 
 The weekend before we left on tour Abigail and Quinn got together with ten of  their hometown friends and went to a ballroom dance hosted by the Juneau International Folk dancers. Abigail was proud to be wearing her first ever high heel shoes.  And Quinn looked smashing in a pink suit.  Everyone was formal and they looked splendiferous.   And that ends a brief synopsis of our shenanigans for the summer.

 

Dancing with the Young’s in Washington Oklahoma: