Day 25: Draw and Disney Returns

 A couple of years ago (almost two in fact, I can't believe it's been that long), we started a routine where we'd watch a Youtube learn to draw video on a Disney character (usually a cute overly cartoonified-if that's such a thing to do to an already cartoon - of the character), and then watch the movie. I had missed this tradition, and decided, now that the onflux of Christmas crafts were over, we'd do Draw and Disney at LEAST once a week for art class. 

Today was Saturday but that didn't stop us from doing art class! We all sat around the TV and drew Kuzco, the Emporer-turned-llama and disliked protagonist in the story. 

Then, we made popcorn and watched Emporer's New Groove, a family favorite, although I used to strongly dislike it. Although some parts still annoy me, it's grown tremendously on me, and really the parts that I love the most are 100% the scenes with Kronk and Izma. 

Wrong lever!!

My spinach puffs! 

Day 24: The Artist

 Calen was hiding up in his room for a while, not making any noise (that's the key part here), so I went to check out to see what he was up to. 

He was sitting at his desk, pouring over a learn to draw cartoon book, filling his sketch pad with all these amazing cartoons. 

Look out, Walt Disney. 

Day 23: The Grand Tour (round 3)

 They're constructing a new building in town. I'm sure I've mentioned it. 

It's not anything that exciting, if we were in say, California, people would drive by on their busy interstate and say "oh look, another two story mini mall" and not think another thought of it. Or, they'd drive by and not even notice it's existence. 

But here on this remote island of 6,000 people, where the biggest building in 500 miles is our local Walmart (and not even a Super Walmart), this building in the center of town is a big deal. It's big news around here. 

The Boy Scouts have toured this construction property multiple times (we can't remember if it's 3 or four) since they broke ground last spring. The project manager is a huge Boy Scout fan and is always inviting them to come at various phases of construction. 

The tour today showed a lot of the inner infrastructure, lighting and the storefronts and office shapes really coming together. Camden declared that he "really cannot read blueprints at ALL", but he did manage to point out to me tonight where the new bakery and bookstore are going to be. 

We'll probably get one more tour before the July grand opening. 

Day 22: Don't Forget To Service Your Cassette Player

 Today, Calen spent some extra time working on his Automotive Repair merit badge, which really isn't "work" for him, as anything involving cars is a dream for Calen. The first part of this merit badge is to locate the user manual of the car, which I am extremely impressed with myself that we still have the literal 20 year old manual to the Yukon still nesting happily in the glove box, thank you. Calen poured over it "this is like a car dictionary", and then had to record suggested service intervals for various parts of the car. 

Like anyone actually follows the user manual, but okay. 

"Mom." Calen announced, half laughing, half disgusted. "It says here that we need to service the Yukon's cassette player every year. a CASSETTE PLAYER, Mom."

And then he laughed and laughed. 

Well lucky for him, there's no cassette player to service, because back when Uncle Josh owned the vehicle, he replaced that sucker with a CD player, which Calen continually calls a Blu Ray player, because they just don't know, these darn kids these days. 

Then he went on to say how badly he wants a cassette player, because they're "old and cool", and Star Lord (from Guardians of the Galaxy) has one, duh. 

I tried to explain that they don't make cassettes for music artists anymore and that the music cassettes you'll find are VERY old. 

"That's fine. I'll just get some old music cassettes, like Maroon 5."

That's...not old, Calen. 

He named off a few other mid 2000s bands that are not in the least cassette old, and then finally gave up and asked for an example. I rattled off Queen, since that's one of the older bands he likes, and he goes "Oh...Oh. THAT old."

So if you need me, I'll be out in my flowered robe doing tours of the local nursing homes.

 

Day 21: The Coral Reef Project

 We are wrapping up a year-long unit study on Oceanography. Mostly, we are following along the Boy Scout's merit badge work packet involving Oceanography, because that's easy, and kill two birds with one stone, right? 

One of the last major projects of the Oceanography merit badge is to make a series of clay models of the three different types of coral reefs, identify and paint them. 

Done, done, and done. 

Yesterday we whipped up a quick batch of salt dough and the boys molded and baked their salt dough coral reefs on cookie sheets. It takes a solid 2 grueling hours to bake (at 200 degrees F - and seriously is there anything in the world that cooks at such a low temperature? I mean unless you throw a pizza in to eat 72 hours later. ANYWAYS), so we declared that the end of the school day and we would paint the corals tomorrow. 

Well it's now tomorrow, so today we painted coral reefs! 

Calen's reefs. Fringe (left), barrier (center), atoll (right)

Camden's. Fringe (left), atoll (center), barrier (right)

Sidenote: Calen has already completed the Oceanography merit badge 100% and has done this project before, so I gave him the option to do something else instead of this. But in his true easy going fashion, Calen said he didn't mind in the least doing this project again and that salt dough is super fun, so he repeated the project. He's such an easy kid. 

Day 20: The Red Sky

 Today I was at, surprise surprise, someone's sports practice. 

Calen's swim practice, actually. 

I hate sitting at the pool deck if I'm not actually swimming. It's loud, echoey, and no less than 215 degrees Fahrenheit inside. 

No, thank you. 

And since the sun had come out for the first time in actual months, I decided to walk down the hill to the football field and walk the track. 

I mean, the sun came out, as in it was clear skies, because it's still winter in Alaska and it was dark by 5:15pm. 

The sunset, while brief, was beautiful. 

Looking across the field, with the ice rink and North Sister behind it. 

Day 19: Family Game Night Sunday

 The family has been consistent of having Sundays being board game family night, and I'm a big fan of it. 

We've also attempted to have every Sunday be something "fun" to eat, the idea being appetizers or a snack board (because "charcuterie" is an overused Pinterest word nowadays) that can sit on the peninsula counter and we can have small plates at the table here and there. 

This week, a Raddish Kids recipe box was waiting for this moment. It's like it knew. The recipe was breaded chicken sandwiches, and we morphed the recipe into breaded chicken sliders on hawaiian rolls. 

Because smaller is better! Or something. 

Calen made the chicken and secret sauce, expressing loudly his disdain for both mayonnaise AND mustard, which was the bases for the secret sauce (which turned out to taste like Chick Fil A sauce so I don't see the issue here), while I prepped the snack board with sandwich toppings, dips, rolls and buffalo cauliflower (which was NOT a hit in the house but hey, you can't blame me for trying). 

The sandwiches were a runaway success (everyone said we should make them more often), and we added an expansion to one of our favorite board games: Castle Panic! (this time adding the engineers of war pack). 

This is the only day of the week where we don't have some sort of activity, and I'm cherishing it. 

Day 18: Its Not About The Size of The Dog In The Fight

 Saturday in winter means hockey!

Camden played in back to back games, the first 12u/14uA vs the 12u Presidents Day team (as we decided not to travel to that tournament this year). 

Even though it was just a scrimmage, it was probably the best game had ever played. He split positions, the first two periods playing defenseman (his usual position), and then shifted to winger. Cam got on the board twice with two epic setup goals, including one self-rebound goal (against the 12A goalie!). It was a lot of fun, clean, aggressive gameplay. 

And he was tiny compared to his cross-ice opponent and fellow 12U winger Lucas. 

This kid is only 6 months older than Camden.

Size matters NOT.

Day 17: Twenty Dollar Friday

 It's Friday, and Friday's are ridiculous. 

Camden has hockey practice at 3:45. Calen has swim at 5:15. 

So, why not add some madness to the madness? I mean, why not have a contest of how much madness we could actually add?

The boys have been asking for a return trip to Safeway, since they still have a little bit of a remaining balance on their Safeway gift cards my mom bought them for Christmas. And since I needed to go grocery shopping, and we'd all be in town anyways for 283 sporting practices, why not add in Safeway trips?

We did this in segments, because I didn't want to leave overly early or stay late. So, we drove to the ice rink and dropped Camden off for hockey practice. Then, Calen and I headed to Safeway. I did some basic grocery shopping (which, I mean, basic still equates to $250), while we wandered the aisles looking at sales and making clever decisions. His goal was to only spend $20, so that he still had $10 or so left for one more trip. He absolutely refused to buy anything that wasn't on sale, which made me giggle, and his outcries of "why is food so expensive?!" were appropriate and relevant, after all he's just announcing what we're all feeling. In the end, he bought a bag of chili Doritos, a huge box of Honey Nut Cheerios (his favorite), a Mountain Dew, and a fruit roll up. And a Hot Wheels car, of COURSE. He paid $19, so he was right on the money. 

Furious at the cost of salt and vinegar almonds. I agree. 

Then, we zoomed to the pool, dropped Calen off for swim practice, headed down the hill to the ice rink, picked up Camden from hockey, and then he and I headed to Safeway so he could have his own one on one shopping experience. 

Cam, unlike his brother, has much harder times making decisions. He knew he wanted chips, so he headed there first and got Cool Ranch Doritos. Then he went to the produce section and thought long and hard about a large, crispy Honeycrisp apple, but then decided to put it back and got a large can of sliced pineapples instead (for the same price as one apple). And after hearing his brother chose a box of cereal, Cam decided to avoid breakfast envy and picked up a huge box of Frosted Flakes, and then a Hot Wheels car also, spending $20 and delighted he has just enough for a couple snacks next week. 

This has literally been the best present they could have ever gotten. 

Day 16: Never Too Old For Disney

 I'm one of those select few lucky parents in the world that have kids that have zero interest whatsoever in growing up. 

Like none. 

And yes, I know it's coming eventually. I know that this phase of being too cool for anything is inevitable, but if it's shorter lived than other kids, that's good, right?

We have been doing a long year-long science unit on oceanography. We are getting down to finally almost maybe finishing it, and since we had been discussing cephalopods (specifically, octupus), I thought it would be fitting to watch Finding Dory. 

We have, for several years now, rewatched almost every relevant Disney movie in one calendar year. I even keep track of which we have watched already on my phone, because I'm OCD like that. 

The boys, edging extremely close to the ages of 14 and 12, and should, by any other account in any other teenage home, be way too cool for kiddie baby movies like Finding Dory, for the love of all things. 

But instead, upon suggesting this, the boys were both excited, asked if we could watch it during lunch, and then spent the next 97 minutes laughing their heads off at keystone characters like Hank the octopus, and Becky. 

Maybe, if I'm lucky, they'll never actually outgrow this. 

I mean, they sure don't plan on doing so. 

Day 15: Night Skiing

 It snowed today, for once ever. 

This sounds insane, because it's Alaska, for crying out loud, but it has been the rainiest, stupidest winter ever. 

Cam was so excited that it was snowing that he asked around 7pm if he could go "night skiing" instead of reading Harry Potter together tonight. 

You bet you can. I understand the premise and glory of snow days. Let's do it. 

There's something about going outside at night when it's actively snowing that is magical. 

I went out to watch him a bit later. The mini ski tracks cracked me up, and he lasted about an hour before finally decided to come in. 

And then we read Harry Potter anyways. 

Bonus points for using that headlamp beanie

Day 14: The Lego City Autobahn

 It was another low key day today. The boys are basically recovered from their video game campout, Cam has hockey practice tonight, and so we just laid low today after school. 

Calen was exceptionally quiet today, and I went upstairs to check on him and saw that he had basically taken every single Lego set he had, sprawled them very strategically around the room, and laid out his Hex car track boundaries in between to connect all the sets into a sprawling, eventful, Lego City street track. Then he drove his little RC car through the streets, and even took it a step further by taking several short videos of various turns and straightaways with their phone and put them together in a super fun slideshow. 

I love his innovation. 

Note: Cam took it a step further and added dinosaurs, because why wouldn't you add dinosaurs. 

Day 13: Recovery Day

 The boys stumbled home this morning, dragging their bags with black under their eyes as if they had just walked across the meadows of Gettysburg after a six month dragon slaying battle. 

I'm probably not too far off from the truth, other than the Gettysburg part. 

Brad/Scoutmaster Dad ran the overnighter very smartly. He set a one hour alarm the entire campout, and when the alarm sounded, each Scout needed to drink half a glass of water to stay hydrated to prevent misery the next morning. He also put the kabash on the evening at 2am, which of course is more than appropriate considering they started at noon the previous day and that means fourteen hours of video games. 

They spent the day at home lounging around, playing Legos and having no screen time whatsoever. 

Since they were absent for Sunday Family Game Night, we played another round of Sorcerer's Arena as a family, and pizza for dinner, because to heck with it. 

 

Day 12: A Different Kind of Campout

 The boys are good about being "all business" when it comes to Scouts. 

I mean, mostly good. 

Scoutmaster Dad keeps a "one campout per month rule" that was instilled well before he took over Kodiak's Troop 626, and so they do so, summer, winter, rain, snow, wind whatever. 

I mean, that's what builds character, right?

However, he's not a ruthless leader. He listens to his people, his tiny, mouthy, middle school people. 

They ask, beg, plead, demand, a campout dedicated solely to video games. 

Because of course they do, they're teenage boys. 

And so to calm the masses, to stop riots and revolts, he throws them a bone, and once a year, just once a year, he allows an overnight, indoor, video game campout. 

And this is how leaders are re-elected. Take notes, US Government. 

Generally this pops up in January or February, because it's dark, gross, and either raining or snowing or somewhere in between, so it's a perfect month for an indoor campout. 

And this weekend was the celebrated annual holiday that the Scouts had been waiting for. 

Conveniently it's MLK weekend, so school was out on Monday. They arranged it for a Sunday-Monday campout, so that no Scouts involved in their winter sports (hockey, basketball, wrestling, whatever) would miss it. 

It's been the buzz in my house all week. 

Sunday morning came and the boys promptly and excitedly packed up their consoles, controllers, games, power cables, etc, and had to be reminded to bring essentials like you know, a sleeping bag, and lightsabers, because obviously. 

Off they go. Camping chairs and lightsabers. 

Brad took it one step further and yanked the TV out of the boys' room, walking out of the house with it like he had brazenly robbed me in broad daylight. 

Quick, before anyone catches you

Then they headed to Walmart for chips and candy, and will probably not even bother to sleep tonight. 

Good for them, I'll be in bed by eleven and NOT have an overtired hangover tomorrow. 

Day 11: Hot and Cold

 If yesterday was busy, today was almost busier. 

Almost.

As things always work, the boys both had sports at the exact same time today.

Of course they do. 

It was a divide and conquer day. I drove to the pool first, tossed Calen and Brad out of the car, and then drove down the hill to the ice rink for Cam's hockey game. Cam's game went great, was super exciting and ended in a tie. Then we hauled balls as fast as we could up the hill to the pool, where Calen's swim meet had already started. 

The difference here, is that the rink was probably 30 degrees, and the pool, in contrast, was probably 130 degrees. 

Or at least it felt like, as we desperately stripped off our jackets, hats, hoodies, wool socks, battery-heated socks, and hockey gear. 

Can't like, they have fans or something? Crack a window? Open a door? It was a stuffy as a windowless attic in death valley and I was pretty convinced I was going to melt into a puddle of mush on the floor. 

I went from hypothermia to heat stroke in 5.6 minutes. 

The things we do for our kids. 

As for Calen, this is his second all time swim meet, and he did so. much. better. His confidence is growing and he accomplished a Personal Record (PR) on each of his three events. He even got first place in his 100 Freestyle heat!

He's built for swimming!

Calen (under the 2 flag), gaining confidence to start the race from the platform today

I'm learning that photographing swim meets is impossible. Calen (top) midway through the race. He held the lead the entire race

As for Cam, he stripped the top half of his hockey gear and hung out in the lobby near the front door where the cold air come wafting in, happily playing Nintendo and not-for-one-second walking into the actual sauna of the pool deck. 

Good for him. 

The post hockey/swim meet march to the car. 

Day 10: Hockey Gamers

 It was one of those days where you have the best laid plans for the day, but the wheels come off one by one and it turns into an actual fiasco. 

We have a lot going on during Fridays. School of course, then mid afternoon hockey practice for Camden, followed immediately (and I mean, 15 minutes immediately) by Calen's swim team practice across the street (which actually, is fairly convenient). Today, of course, a few wrenches were thrown in. We had an extra kid today, a buddy and teammate of Camden that we needed to get to practice. Sure, that's easy. Then, the desperate need for a scorekeeper for the JV high school hockey game popped up. Well, I keep score every weekend, so I said sure. Until I found out that the game actually starts at 1pm. 

Let's recap my Friday the 13th (I can't even make it up) schedule:

JV high school game: 1pm - 3:30pm
Camden and buddy Thor hockey practice: 3:45pm-5pm
Calen swim practice: 5:15pm. 

Psh. I got this. This is nothing. 

So I assigned Brad with getting Cam and Thor to hockey, had Calen to walk to a neighbor's/fellow swim team buddy so he can get to his practice, and then heading out by myself to the JV game, in which Cam and Thor's practice was immediately following so I could just stick around and take them home. I got it! I figured it out!

I even planned ahead and put a roast and vegetables in the crock pot at 10am this morning. I was so proud of myself for being prepared. 

The JV game went on without a hitch. No trouble, no problem. The game even ended early, early enough for me to run to walmart and grab a box of Cheezits because I was starving. Brad texted that he was coming with the boys and Calen texted he was walking to his teammate's house. Perfect. 

Cam and Thor showed up to the rink, and as Thor was getting himself suited up he realized his breezers (hockey shorts) are missing. He told me they're at his house, which is problematic, because no one at his house is home and his mom is in a very important meeting in which I could not call her. So I called Brad who was on his way back home and said "dig in the garage and grab the biggest pair of breezers you can find". Brad comes back in record time, beholding a pair of tags-still-on breezers that we bought Cam probably two years ago thinking he'd grow into them, but Cam never grows, so there they've sat. Now, Thor probably has six inches on Camden and is rock solid, so I thought, "there's no way these breezers are going to fit him." But, it was the only chance we had to get him on the ice today, so we loosened the laces as wide as we could and squeezed him into these two sizes too small breezers, and we were victorious!

One mishap down. 

I'm standing there with a few other moms chatting, cold, and I have this wicked headache that just won't relent. I had been at the rink all afternoon, and I was ready to go home. I commented to my fellow hockey mom how glad I was that I had prepared dinner and thrown it in the crock pot this morning. And the moment I said that, Brad texted me and said "ummm, so the crock pot was never plugged in."

Of course it wasn't. 

So my perfect roast crockpot dinner has been sitting stewing in it's stupid cold uncooked juices for the last seven hours.

Perfect. 

And so! As practice ended I packed up Cam and Thor and declared that we were going to Subway! Because screw it. 

This was a great little tender moment in the car. Thor - who's "brain works differently", as Cam explains it, was having the most wonderful conversation with Cam. He adores Cam, and Cam is surprisingly deeply patient (something that is not in his nature) and strongly protective of Thor. Camden told Thor we were going to Subway, and Thor asked Cam if they were going to get pizza. Cam, who would have been irritated if Calen asked such a question, gently and patiently said "No, we are going to go to Subway and get sandwiches! Do you like sandwiches Thor? What's your favorite?" And then they spent the next ten minutes talking about meatball subs and pizza toppings. 

I kind of feel like Cam should be a teacher. 

Except if anyone wronged one of his students he'd probably punch them in the face and that would be a problem. 

We got our Subway sandwiches and headed back to the house. Calen was still at swim and the hockey boys had no interest in getting undressed with the promise of Nintendo at their feet. They sat on the sofa, fully dressed in gear (Cam still had skates on), playing video games. 

Cam announces: "Mom! Take a picture of us! We are "Hockey Gamers". Get it? Hockey-Game?" And they laughed and laughed. 

In the end, everyone made it to practice, everyone was fed, and the roast will be ready for dinner tomorrow. 

Hockey Gamers

Day 9: The Enchanted Forest

For those that live under a rock, or maybe don't live on The Rock (see what I did there?), Kodiak is finally, finally, enclosing their ice rink.

You know what that means? It means no more raining and snowing sideways. No more wind tunnel and -10 degree windchill while standing there for hockey practice in cold, wet, misery. It means we're entering first world civilization!

Or we will someday. As most of you know, construction is slow, tedious, and almost always delayed. 

Maybe I'll still live here when it's finally finished. 

Until that glorious day, construction is underway and the parking lot to the rink is closed. Which means parking up the hill at the elementary school and walking through the woods on a little trail to the rink. The city put up some large industrial type lights, since it's very, very dark during practice time, which gives it a charming and almost eery glow. 

Cam and I instantly nicknamed this path "The Enchanted Forest."

This evening we had practice and took an evening stroll through the Enchanted Forest. 

Some are annoyed by the setup, but I actually find it quite fun. 

Day 8: Camden Stop BOUNCING

 I wasn't feeling very awesome today, so I've remained situated at my sentry post in the corner of the couch laying on a heating pad. 

Brad graciously volunteered to take Calen to swim team practice, and Cam offered to vacuum and empty the dishwasher - for screen time, of course. 

I mean, I do my chores for screen time. 

Most kid, when playing video games, look like this:

Observe: Sitting. Calm. Quiet. 

This lasts about 2.5 seconds with Cam. Then it turns into this:

You can't tell, but he's bouncing. 

Constantly. Bouncing. 

Never stops. 

As an avid gamer, I don't understand how this works?? How is your hand-eye coordination so good that you can be actually bouncing all over the place like a loose ping pong ball and still manage to accomplish actually anything in a game? 

We sound like a broken record. Like that obnoxious Dora the Explorer show that I thank the good Lord my children were never into. Instead of "Swiper no swiping!!" It's "Camden STOP BOUNCING!" 

So he sits down. For three seconds. Three. I've counted. 

Then he bounces back up. ESPECIALLY if he's in some form of combat. 

Camden, stop bouncing. 

This is especially a pain in my actual rear end when he's playing games upstairs, where their gaming setup stands literally, exactly, above my favorite spot on the sofa. Cue the bouncing, and it resembles some sort of rhythmic earthquake, or the vibrations of war drums sounding an invasion, or a dinosaur crashing into the house. 

CAMDEN! Stop BOUNCING!

He really tries to stop. He really does. But it's some sort of intense second nature that he literally can't help. 

Bam Bam Cam. 

Day 7: Writing Laws, One Dinosaur At A Time

Homeschool is fun. 

Fun in a fly by the seat of your pants sort of way. 

As the boys were doing their morning warm ups, I was perusing Facebook and saw a post from my twin-cousin Jake about how he was searching for a bill that is being proposed in the State of Washington and how it was funny that he had to search for the word "dinosaur" to find said bill. Intrigued, I clicked on the link for the bill, and it's a bill, a real bill, on how Washington State needs an official State dinosaur and which dinosaur it should be.

Wait. Hold the phone. You mean to tell me that there are official state dinosaurs and I never knew about this?

A quick Google search told me that Alaska does not have a state dinosaur. 

It was a short, simple bill, about two paragraphs, easy to understand structure, and I poured over it twice before setting my coffee down, clapping my hands and announcing to the boys "I know EXACTLY what we are doing for school today."

So we instantly pulled out all 75 dinosaur encylopedias we own and researched dinosaur fossils discovered in Alaska, and the boys wrote, start to finish, their own bill on why the "Alaskan Troodon" should be the official State Dinosaur of Alaska. 

It was tedious, took almost two hours, but they were so engaged, enthusiastic and invested in completing it, that I wasn't going to discourage it, and so we ditched math instead, and the boys completed what I think is a pretty convincing bill.

The best part? Jake is going to review the bill and help get it ready to be actually submitted to the State of Alaska. 

Best. Uncle. Ever. 

Day 6: Night Skiing

Not a lot happened today, except it did finally decide to snow for exactly one hour before turning to complete downpouring rain, so the boys promptly threw on their snow gear and took their new snowboard and mini skiis out to the hill behind our house around 8pm for some night skiing/boarding. 

Bonus points to the grandparents for getting the boys these super sweet knit caps with built in headlamps!

Day 5: The Planet Hoth

We had a big cold snap this past week, not anything fun like feet of snow or anything, but enough to freeze the roads and the standing bodies of water. 

I heard through the grapevine (i.e. social media) that the big lake in the area (Buskin) was frozen solid and it was safe to walk on. In an instant I leapt off the couch and shouted to my unexpected family "We're going on an adventure!" and started thrusting snow jackets and hats out of the coat closet. 

My poor family. They never know when Mom is going to announce an "Adventure" and disrupt everyone's lazy time. 

We headed out to Buskin Lake, which is about 5 minutes away from our house. It was starting to snow and extremely windy. Brad went out onto the lake first, as he's over double the weight of the rest of us. Once he deemed it safe, we all went out to follow him. As it hasn't snowed in a long time, we could see all the way to the bottom of the lake (which wasn't far, as we only went out as far as waist deep (if we were to fall through). 

Trekking around the lake, with the wind blowing puffs of snow across the ice and visibility of the surrounding mountains exactly zero, reminded me distinctly of walking across Planet Hoth. The kids were over the moon excited about the experience, running and sliding, doing ice angels and seeing how far they can slide rocks across the middle of the lake. 

We only spent about 30 minutes there before we decided we were ready to go, but it was a fun mini adventure that you can really only experience this far North.