The Last Frontier...a visit with Grandpa AK!

We recently went to Petersburg, Alaska to see Grandpa's new place and visit with his friends, as well as throw him an official retirement party---yes folks the old man of the sea is done.

Can someone answer how to travel easily with so much stuff..two car seats, stroller, 3 suit cases, diaper bag, and bag of toys...and  we even left home the pack n' play and other things that would have made our life easier. WOW!


It was fairly easy of a trip, well much easier than I thought it would have been with two kids although it started off bumpy. We had decided to stay the night in a hotel near the SeaTac Airport and leave our car there since it had a long term lot (plus it was a good deal on the whole package---8 days parking and 1 nigh in room). Little did I know that this would leave us with less sleep than if we had gotten up really really early and drove to the airport from our house. Here is how the story goes: At at about 1 am an alarm in the room next door started going off, after two failed attempts to try to get the hotel to turn it off (they claimed they were unable to break into the room, the lock was broken and did not have a 24 hour locksmith), we, or rather a very pissed off I, demanded a new room. We trucked our very tired babies, who were crying and pissed as well to the next room. Well guess what...that new room was right above the alarm beeping...At this point I was so livid that I barely could get words out except exclamations. I then went back down the front desk to get another room, leaving my babies and husband in the hallway...after 10 minutes of standing in the lobby (in my pj's at 2:30am) yelling hello with no one answering, I about had a melt down. Eventually the hotel staff showed (not sure what they were doing) from some unlabeled door, and gave us yet another room. Finally we room to try to get the babies back to sleep in away from the noise...ohhh but no...the neighbors were have a good ol' time, if you know what I mean, so until the creaking and moaning stopped we were destined to lay there and answer J's question of "what is that mommy?" 3 Hours later I gave a piece of my mind to the manager and had a very discounted price of a room and parking space for a week. Ugghhhh. Not worth it...next time we will just leave straight from home!

The rest of the trip went great and we had a TON of fun!!! The plane ride was much easier than I had planned for emotionally. J played with toys and Aram seamed as though he was a well seasoned traveler, never even flinching at take-off and landing.

we walked into the town daily (7 blocks down the hill), to explore the downtown, get coffee from the one coffee shop in town or to get some halibut tacos (YUM!). Discovered that Umbrella strollers, while are a great for minimal space while traveling, are horrible at going on gravel, which are what most of the roads are covered by in Petersburg.

We made it a daily habit to go to the playground, rain or shine---there were two just two blocks in either direction from Grandpa's house. This aleviated some of the cabin fever from limited toys to play with while at g-pa's place. Next time we will have
to make friends so that J has someone to go play with while we older folks visit.

His old business partner Tom and him at the party

One of the biggest highlights for all of us, was a surprise retirement party that my sister and I, with the help from local friends, threw my dad. Yes folks, it is official he is retired and living the easy life---at least that is what he kept saying to people when they would say hi to him in town the following days after the party. We brought together his friends and some old crew members to celebrate. It was amazing that no one and I mean no one spilled the beans. He totally had no idea! And then we gave him a mug (appropriate for such a coffee drinker level that he is), with as many old F/V Kesia Dawn crew members as we could find/contact signatures with a picture of the KD as a retirement gift---he almost cried. Well Congrats dad---you deserve some easy/fun time after all those years out at sea.


Other fun moments were....

continuing the tradition of chocolate chip cooking making

playing in the super duper large box from g-pa's new water
heater that was transformed into a food cart,  resturant, tool shed,
etc...hours of fun!

getting our chew on (this pic was not posed)

exploring the docks and learning how to wear a life jacket the cool way

getting bath time in x 3 (the more the merrier)!

getting the usual cousin pose done (usually includes
a bribe to get them to  all sit still)