Mid-summer update

Well, in Alaska mid-August is really the end of summer. But, with the way this summer has gone, we’re going to have to try and milk a few extra weeks out of it. I think we’ve had only a handful of days that have reached 65, let alone 70 degrees. We’ve made the best of it, however.

I’ve been training for a marathon, which is this week. As you’ll see a bit later, some life events came up that superseded training and so I’m not as ready as I had hoped, but I’ll still attempt it. I did run a half-marathon and did quite well finishing in just over 2 hours. I also did my first open-water triathlon. My sister Sara and I flew up to Big Lake and did the Big Lake Triathlon. It is a sprint-distance tri with a 900 yard swim. Overall I did real well in that finishing in 1 hour 27 minutes and feeling really good.

We also moved homes – the big event that caused my training to stall out for a week. Our house sold and closed a little faster than we had expected… we were grateful it sold, though, and happy to move on to the next chapter of our lives. So, we’ve been living out of boxes while we get the bedrooms ready and hopefully things will be somewhat organized and ready for the school year.

Amanda’s parents came up for a few weeks. Her dad, Vern, came along on our annual dipnetting trip and saw the bountiful harvest come in. He’s really enjoyed the fruits of that trip – smoked salmon, canned salmon, and fresh salmon filets. We also did a halibut charter and got about 100 pounds of halibut. So, we’re feeling pretty good about our freezer situation for the winter. Amanda’s sister, Lana, also came up for a visit. Even though the weather hasn’t been great we’re hoping she has a good time and comes to visit more often.

The kids are gearing up for the school year – the boys for 2nd grade and the girls for kindergarten. They are all excited, as are we. Our schools start early here and unfortunately we’ll have to pull them out for a couple days right at the start to do our annual Valdez camping/fishing trip… but, priorities, you know! We’ll head down there for Labor Day weekend. Last year we had about 25+ people come down for a big potluck. This year I imagine the number will be a bit smaller, considering the price of gas, but we’re still hoping for a good turnout, and some good fishing.