Day 237: Golfing With Sasquatch, Sponsored By Cheezits

 I think we are doing a pretty good job of having daily adventures, if I do say so myself. 

Whether they're big or small, adventure is out there!

Today's adventure was going mini-golfing with Grandma! 

Again, it seems not super out there, but when you live in Alaska, it's not even something that's available. 

I hate golf, but I LOVE mini-golf. It doesn't really make sense. But maybe if I could drive a golf cart around and have to yell "Fore!" as I shoot a golf ball 50 yards into the air and hit it through a windmill, I might be more impressed. 

Sorry not sorry. 

Also, Calen's new Cheezit socks were my favorite. 

This golf tournament sponsored by Cheezits. 

How to navigate obstacles 

The best part? It's all within walking distance to the house! We had a lot of fun, refused to keep score, and Camden ALMOST got a hole in one. 

The best. 

Day 236: Novelties

 Calen woke up feeling kind of blah today, with a head cold taking over. 

So, we kept our Leavenworth adventures short. 

We did take a short walk into town to the brand new comic book/game store that we were super excited about, since that's right up our alley. 

Entire rows of graphic novels, magic cards and tabletop games. 

We could have stayed there all day. 

All. Graphic. Novels. 

Immediately upstairs was a salt water taffy store, so of course we had to go in and fill a perfect white bag full of the favorite flavors (watermelon, orange creme, black licorice). And some weird ones (pickle, bacon maple, and chili mango - which I LOVED). 

I also got quite possibly the best beef jerky I've ever had. Bonus points because it's space themed jerky. 

Next door to that store is a Sock store. Yes, a sock store. A store that was seemingly made for our local teenager named Socks. He was in heaven, and as promised, got to pick out a pair of socks. 

And what did he pick? What socks would represent this trip to Washington?

Cheezit socks. Because it's his favorite snack. 

Everyone prepare the eyeroll, and then laugh a bit. 

I mean, they ARE fantastic. 

This pretty much wore out Calen for the day, so we headed back to the house and called it a day, with some tasty treats and sweet souvenirs in tow. 

Day 235: Christmas in August!

 We had a very Leavenworth day today. 

By that I mean perfectly Bavarian Christmas type day. In August! 

Honestly, any day is a good day for a Christmasy type day. Especially in Leavenworth. 

I'm pretty sure if I lived here I'd just decorate for Christmas all year long. 

The boys and I started the day walking through town, as usual. Today we stopped in the Gingerbread Factory for a breakfast of gingerbread cookies while sitting underneath an indoor tree filled with gingerbread ornaments. 

I mean, come on. 

After filling up completely on gingerbread, we went (almost) next door to the Nutcracker Museum, because obviously, you guys. 

The museum is two floors of literally thousands of nutcrackers, some made recently, some hundreds of years old. The curator gave Camden a clipboard with a scavenger hunt list, and let me tell you, with how many nutcrackers there are, it was hard!

I could have spent ALL day in there and still find something new. 

I mean LOOK at them all!

After 45 minutes or so, we successfully filled the entire scavenger sheet and decided to head back to great grandpa's for a quick visit, and then back to the house for the day. 

I love being down here. Every day is an adventure. 

Day 234: Slidwaters. Where You Slide. In Water

 Today is a day that the boys look forward to all year long (if they know that we are going to Washington in summer). It's the big water park day!

My grandpa treats us every year to tickets to the big water park at Lake Chelan, called Slidewaters. 

Sidenote: Possibly the worst name ever for a water park. What did the great thinkers do as they sat around their conference table. "What should we name it?" "Well, they slide in water. Let's call it Slidewaters." And then everyone claps because it's so creative and brilliant. 

I took an entire 4 photos today, because I was too busy playing. 

Happy water park day! 

Ice cream break!

Blooper real: check out the muscles!

Day 233: Der City and Das River

 Oh, to be back in a place where there is actually summer!

Because I don't care how beautiful it is, 55 and partly cloudy in Kodiak is not summer. 

It's a glorious 80 degree, vibrantly sunny day today, and that is summer to me. 

The boys and I spent the morning walking downtown Leavenworth, which I could probably do literally every day the rest of my life. For the 5% of the world that have never heard of Leavenworth, WA, it's a one of a kind little tourist village. The main drag (Front St) is pedestrian traffic only, allowing you to walk up and down a long two or three city block wide street with wall to wall Bavarian style buildings with all sorts of whimsical shops that are just plain fun to walk into. Toy stores, t-shirt stores, book stores, treat stores and fun touristy outdoor stores. They're just plain fun to explore. 

We went through our favorites, the Christmas shop and the toy store being the priority stops of course. Us deprived little Alaskan people were like kids in a literal candy store, filling up bags of saltwater taffy and marveling at the entire rooms full of Christmas villages. It's almost like chicken soup for the soul for those of us that only have a Walmart to peruse. 

Leavenworth, WA

The Disney village in the Dicken's village room. Literally a room of village. 

After we wandered downtown Leavenworth for a few hours, we had lunch at Heidleberger, probably our favorite burger place in town since I was a little kid. 

Later this afternoon, we took the kids down to the Wenatchee river to play. The water level is low so it was easy to run up and down the river with their inflatable tubes, riding down the river and then running back up. 

These are the kinds of things that we can't do in Alaska that we are relishing in. 

Day 232: Re-Entering the "Real" World

 It's so bizarre every time we re-enter civilization proper. Not that we're living in igloos with manmade fire up in Alaska, but you know, roads that are larger than two lanes. Thousands of cars. And shopping that involves more than Walmart. 

Options. So many options.

And so. Much. To. Do. 

We started the morning with Cam and I walking up the block to the new(ish) Elementary school and playing on a new playground. Even that brought joy to us. 

A cowboy in his natural habitat

After that and a quick walk to Starbucks to get some sustenance, we spent some quality time at Grandpa Hank's house, listening to stories of life in the 1930s while the kids spend hours listening to Abbot and Costello on Grandpa's "retro" cassette player, which they think is literally the coolest ancient artifact since the Nintendo Gamecube. 

Grandpa Hank, 91 years young. 

Grandpa's Korean War era dog tags. 

It's like a museum at his house

After Grandpa settled in for the afternoon, we took the boys to the majestic, the coveted, TARGET.

The boys went nuts, oozing over the toy section, delighted over seeing more than one available Lego set for sale in the world, amazed at the entire wall of matchbox cars. 

We walked out much poorer but satisfied. 

Good thing it only happens once or twice a year. 

Day 231: Fine, We'll Go Find Summer Somewhere Else

 It's a good day! It's one of my favorite types of days! And you know why?

It's a travel day. 

If you know me, you know the wanderlust is strong with me. I love a good adventure. And traveling is the best kind of adventure. 

Even if it's somewhere we've gone a thousand times. 

I blame that on living on an island. 

Or being easily pleased. 

Whichever. 

Today the boys and I (Brad will join us later) embarked on a plane to Washington for an extended vacation! Seeing as it never really got warm or dry this summer, we decided to go find summer. I think two weeks in Eastern Washington at my mom's house in 100 degree weather will do nicely, thanks. 

Travel days are long but I don't mind. It's part of the adventure! The boys and I had a longish layover in Anchorage so we got Starbucks (immediately), wandered around the shops and then settled in to a picnic style table where I introduced Calen to Magic the Gathering. 

It was an instant hit, he's a huge fan of the game. The procession of photos cracked me up. First he thought he was winning, setting up for a huge fatal blow to my life on his next turn. 

Thinking he's GOT me in the next turn

And then he learned, the very next turn, that he does not in fact have the upper hand, and I destroyed his hopes and dreams in one vicious card play. 

Crushing hopes and dreams, one Magic game at a time

Sorry bucko, I've been playing Magic for longer than you've been alive. 

That delightfully vanquished most of the time we needed to kill before boarding our plane to Everett - yes, I said Everett, which now has nonstop flights from Anchorage as it's an official airport now. 

The future is wild. 

We were met on the tarmac by my forever bestest friend Allie, who works for Alaskan Airlines. The best kind of welcome ever!

My mom picked us up, and we headed to Monroe for a Mexican dinner, because restaurants other than sushi and Subway, thank you Lower 48! 

On the side of the road right outside the restaurant was a fellow selling cowboy hats. 

Camden's eyes got about as big as flying saucers and he might have started drooling. He's wanted a cowboy hat for years, but between living on an island and the cost of shipping, we've never gotten him one. 

And thus, the first purchase of our Washington vacation. 

Day 230: The View In Turn Three

 There's nothing I really love more than watching Calen play baseball. 

Even if it's practice. 

I like to walk the track that is directly next door to the baseball field during practice. With a 2 hour practice, I can usually get 6-7 miles in if I'm swift enough. 

The best part of the walk is the view when I walk the second straightaway and head into turn three (is that what they call it? Like a NASCAR track? Turn 3? No? Well whatever). That gives a perfect view of the baseball field, where I can spot Calen right away with his big tall baseball socks and shorter baseball pants. 

Who doesn't love fall ball. 

Day 229: The Champion

 Camden had a goal this summer and I was going to make sure to help him accomplish it. 

When I signed up for the seven summit challenge, Camden made quiet comment that he would like to complete the challenge as well. 

Seeing as the boys have gotten as close as Six summits out of seven a couple years ago, this is a very achievable goal. He agreed to climb each summit with me this summer, even (drum roll please) the dreaded Mount Barometer. 

Side note: Calen, who really doesn't enjoy full summit hikes, agreed to 5 out of 7 this year. He said that next year he will agree to join the Seven Summit Club. 

Today we cashed in Camden (and my) summit booklet and Cam got his very first seven summit challenge Completionist badge (sticker) of honor. 

Way to go, Cam. 

Day 228: Don't Play With Your Food

 You know sometimes I have completely childish, immature ideas. 

I consider it a strength. 

Especially if I act on said childish, immature ideas. 

I saw a video on social media of someone who made a huge pile of mashed potatoes and added broccoli trees and dinosaur nuggets to create a "scene." 

Well, that's a brilliant idea. 

So I made a quick batch of instant mashed potatoes (because art can't be rushed, but potatoes sure can) and steamed some frozen broccoli and microwaved frozen dinosaur chicken nuggets. 

This meal brought to you by overly processed, barely tolerated as actual food. 

Go ahead and judge me. 

I'm kind of a huge fan of this. This right here is exactly what the internet and social media is good for. 

Day 227: Dino Days of Summer

 Some days you need to grill burgers outside (and consequently set your grill on fire - don't ask) and play Happy Little Dinosaurs on the back porch while the sun is still shining.

My kind of afternoon. 

Day 226: Fish On

 Cam and I went fishing today. 

Neither of the kids are super delighted about fishing, but the fishing merit badge is a thing with Boy Scouts, and I feel that living on an island in Western Alaska basically requires you to get the fishing merit badge. 

Cam elected to go with to work on it this afternoon. We learned one (out of many) fishing knots, and then we went about trying to catch one of the thousand pink salmons floating around in our favorite fishing spot. 

The pinks are just about spawning and are NOT hungry, so getting a bite is getting harder and harder as the month goes by. But, after a lot of "fish ons" and them pulling away (most likely they were all snagged), Cam announced "FISH ON!" and pulled this beauty of a humpy (pink) on shore. 

Sitting on his fish to keep it from flopping away 

He's on the fish board!

I also caught (just) one, and we headed home to finish another part of the merit badge - cleaning the fish!

I for one have only cleaned ONE fish in my life, which was yesterday, and it was a disaster. But, how else do you learn than a good old fashioned trial by fire? 

We got this...right?

It was Calen's turn to learn how to clean a fish (Cam went with Brad to the fish house on base to clean our last batch), and even though it grossed him out, he did a great job. 

Day 225: The Seventh Summit - Sheratin

 It's the Grande Finale, folks! The seventh summit, the big show, the very last mountain of the year. 

Sheratin Mountain!

I saved Sheratin for last, not because it's my faovrite, because it isn't. The hike is long, not necessarily breathtaking views or anything, and the summit is lackluster and all around blah compared to the other summits. 

Regardless, it's the last summit, and we're going to finish, by goodness!

We recruited our friend Ericka and her husband to join Cam and I on our last big mountain adventure of the summer. 

It took all day, mostly due to the fact that Ericka and I had "Barometer Legs" from climbing the knee killer of a mountain yesterday. Cam and Mr Shane zoomed up up the mountain and would wait for a few minutes for Ericka and I to catch up. 

"Mom, this would be a great picture. Make sure to get the water part."

Cam and Mr Shane leaving us in the dust

The mountains really were gorgeous today though, and made the long hike totally worth it. 

Cam crossing through a waterfall and creekbed

Where's Camden?

And then the final push, the ridiculously steep climb up straight up a game trail to the ridgeline that heads to the summit. 

This really cool mom and son couple that we met on the way up took this super awesome shot of the four of us marching up to the game trail from the top of the ridgeline. 

Can you see us? Tiny little specks to the left and below the snow bank

And then, after "another half mile or so" ("we're getting there", is what I always say), we finally, finally made it to the final, seventh summit. 

We did it! Seven summit victory is OURS!

Summit snacks! 

Funny thing about Camden, he finds friends wherever he goes. We met the mom and son again at the summit, turns out the boy is also 12, and from Boston, and they asked to take a photo together (although since I have no idea who these people are I refrained from posting). 

After some lunch and summit snacks, we headed back down, and made quick work of the rest of that mountain. 

Another group shot courtesy of the family we met!

And that's it! We did it! Seven summits in our back pocket and we are done, folks. 

Camden is officially now a member of the Seven Summits Challenge Champions Club! Which I just completely invented myself, but on Monday we will most certainly go to the Ferry Terminal and make it official (via a finisher's sticker). 

And now to rest my Barometer/Sheratin legs for the next 12 months.