Vacation wrap up

Starting with Tuesday, things slowed down considerably. We went to the tot swim at the local pool (also the high school) and it was great. They have a little side pool that opens to the regular pool but it is only 2 1/2 feet so J1 was able to walk and play in there by himself - he loved that. J2 loves being in the water so he was just happy. They have a bunch of toys for the kids - boats, balls, floating sea animals, rings and even a floating boat that J2 could ride in. We did that both Tuesday and Thursday. This is what happened after the Thursday session:





On Wednesday, the mister and J1 went on a boat ride up the Stikine River. They went with this tour company http://www.alaskawaters.com/ and did the Stikine River Cruise Day Tour. It was five hours but apparently J1 did great. I met them when they got back and some women that were also on the tour said I had a nice, well-behaved son. Boy were they fooled! A nice person that was on the boat with them is supposed to send a picture. Here's hoping...


Thursday in the early evening we went on a tour of Wrangell by car. We saw all the many harbors full of fancy boats and then the golf course. http://www.wrangellalaskagolf.com/ People apparently come in from all over SE Alaska to golf. I don't know if it is that great or if there is just a lack of options. Pretty cool though, and you can walk your dog there off hours which is fab. The main downside is that there is no alcohol allowed. Well, I guess that is a downside since, in the movies and on tv, my main exposure to golf, there is great emphasis on drinking while golfing. Maybe in real life people don't care that much. I was also on the search for some Salmon berries but the only ones we found were out of our reach - so sad!


The last place we went was the petroglyph beach. http://www.wrangell.com/visitors/attractions/history/petroglyph/index.html There are apparently over 40 to find but I only saw about 7. The beach "sand" is mainly crushed shells and glass so the mister, who was wearing sandals, didn't want to stay long. Here are a few pics of what I found.



We also watched a Lord of the Rings marathon - I had been wanting to see them again and mom had only seen the first one. I think she needs to watch them again, without kids, to really appreciate how great they are.




We left on Friday on the 10:30 jet. We sailed through security which was nice and the flight to Petersburg was uneventful. We were there for close to an hour, stuck on the plane with squirmy kids. That was bad but then we were sitting on the tarmac in Juneau for 1 1/2 hours - so long we had to go back to the gate and get more fuel. J2 was going back and forth between the mister and me, crying, fussing, whining for pretty much that whole time. My arms were tired, it felt like I was wrestling with him. J1 was bored and since we were out on the tarmac but not yet passed 10,000 feet, we couldn't let him watch his DVD. Still don't have a clue what caused the delay. We finally took off and J1 got to watch his movie and J2 was calmer but still didn't fall asleep until literally 5 minutes before we landed in Seattle, 1 1/2 hours late. Our connection was leaving at 6 and we landed, in a different terminal, at 5:30. We grabbed our stuff and walked as fast as we could with a 3 year old and just made it to our connection. J2 slept 1/2 of the way through the Seattle airport but was awake for the flight to Portland. That was our easiest flight of the day. Travel days like that make me not want to travel but I have to say, compared to 2 years ago when J1 and I went to Wrangell, he was a dream traveller this time. Gives me hope.


We had fun, mom was great and we are glad to be home too. Nothing like being home.