While cutting grass next to our house,

There was a Hop Hop that caught my attention. Not much open water right here, though we've seen a frog twice before. Must be a wood frog. Living in the woods.

Welcome sign

A nest of sticks in the woods, and a sign to make sure everyone knows who is welcome: not dogs and not cats, but definitely butterflies and birds.

Summer folk fest

Saturday we enjoyed the summer folk feat at former Alaskaland now Pioneer Park. The small slough cutting across the grassy field was a huge attraction. The music was great, too.

(I didn't realize my settings were wrong - this should have posted two weeks ago.)

ONAC day 1

The Open is this weekend (open = unlimited number of dogs, as compared to the limited last weekend, where maximum number of dogs is 8). We went to watch the first day. We just barely made it see the last three teams take off. A half hour later, the first teams crossed the start/finish line after doing the 20 mile trip. (~20 mph)

Red light - no problem. Going the wrong way on a one way street - no problem.

Weather was beautiful for the spectators, and since many of the dogs on the teams are short-haired, it was likely no problem for the dogs either.

That's Sonja and Emilie on the last picture in the light purple jackets.

Beginning of NaPali coast trail

From Anini Beach we moved our tent to Hanalei for the weekend. And took the opportunity to drive the road to its western end at the Kee Beach, where the trail for the NaPali Coast starts. A lot of warning signs in the beginning of the trail (though a lot more at the beach!). Our kids did great.


Emilie showing off a bit up the trail - the Kee beach, where the trail starts, is underneath us. We took it slow and steady. The trail was a little bit muddy - enough to get us some obvious marks on the legs, but it was not too slippery.


At the 1/2 mile mark, well above the ocean, we got the promised glimpse of the NaPali coast. The kids managed to get there all by themselves. A few obligatory pictures...




And then we headed back down.

Crazy Yukon Quest

The Yukon Quest, the 1000 mile sled dog race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, has been crazy this year. First, from the reports I heard, temperatures were perhaps even above freezing in Whitehorse just before the race start. Then the race started, and things looked fast. Hugh Neff was up front, and even seemed to have made it past some difficult sections of the trail on the Alaska side before weather moved in. He seemed unstoppable. Then the cold front moved in, and things started changing. Fast. First, reports of Hugh Neff finding some serious overflow (water flowing over ice), serious enough that one of his dogs was submerged. All of that in fourty to fifty below temperatures. He still made it into the checkpoint in Central ok. Next, a report that four-time champion Hans Gatt also got stuck in an overflow someplace - he fell in chest deep after the ice he thought was solid broke under him. Same cold temperatures. A fellow musher helped to get him and his dogs out and built a fire, and they improvised some shoes from various materials on the sled, and made it to Central, where Hans Gatt scratched. He is lucky to be alive. And last report - Hugh Neff, the leader for 800 miles, could not make it over the summit a bit further up the trail, and scratched too. It will be interesting to see how the race continues, and I just hope that everyone will be safe and sound when all is said and done.

Camping at Anini Beach

Camping at Anini was cool. As in being in the far north of Kauai, one could feel the latitude, and we wore sweaters most of the time :). Unlike the previous spot at Anahola (where people sat at sunrise on the beach, motionless), there were plenty of people right next to where we pitched the tent at Anini, but they were on their knees, looking for the tiny red shells called Kahelelani. So we joined them, and found some too. Apparently it was one of the few spots around the island where the shells can be found. Picture below: our tent, a few steps from the beach. The waves break on the reef far out in the distance.


The next day we took a hike around Anini. There were a lot of cool trees to climb over, through, under, or around.


Notes for future camping: the tip of the beach was actually not the best place to camp - there was a channel nearby that guided a lot of the water behind the reef in or out. If it had been warm enough to go swimming, it would have been better to be a bit to the side from the tip. And, not under the trees - the lack of sun was noticeable. Though one cool thing about the trees was that we got to see the wild chickens going to roost in the trees. And there was an egg right next to our tent too. (it had been there when we put the tent up, so who knows how long it was there...)

Reindeer tree, as Sonja called it. See it, looking out towards the right?The antlers are going up off the picture, one big round eye is visible, as is the mouth and the nice neck. The legs, well, you have to imagine those.


Almost at the end of the beach.

And the next day, we ended up eating breakfast at this picnic table, also a few feet in the other direction from our tent. Had to pull up our feet a few times when the wave came in higher. And a nice big wave is crashing over the protecting reef far offshore.