Ma Ma Jacquie's Blah Blah Blog

There were tons of flowers blooming in Alaska. We only caught a few photos. The flowers and plants of the taiga and tundra are really interesting.

The wierderst feeling I experienced while in Alaska was when we drove around the bend at mile post 120 on the Glenn Highway, and there before my eyes was the very cabin my Uncle Larry had built about 50 years ago. The way I understand the story is that he and my aunt had homesteaded 80-some acres and then my mom and dad homesteaded the adjacent parcel in 1960. The dream was to develope a ski recreation area. They had poles for the rope lift and had built this cabin (we called it The Chalet) to use while they developed. Problems occurred (a fire that could have killed my little brother) and other stuff that stopped them from ever completing the project. The property was sold once, then again to whoever built the new road and now it is just sitting there as a piece of Gill history. My mom and dad used to take us up there alot. I guess they were working, but we didn't notice, because we were too busy adventuring.

We also met a guy in Talkeetna who is an engineer with the oil company and he said he had been by The Chalet many times and actually went inside to get ideas for building his new place. He said the six sided shape and the tall pointed roof is perfect for the weather conditions there.

I really didn't think it would still be there. We were able to go inside and the wave of memories flooded in. It's like a few pieces of my life's puzzle that were all covered with dust were cleaned off and put back in place. I used to think my parents were pretty wacko to try to raise 6 kids up in that harsh country, but being there in all that beauty sort of made me understand. (Sort of)

One of the nicest parts of our trip to Alaska was having the chance to spend a little time with Tim Pichotta. Remember him? We caught up with him in a round-about way. We asked a friend of ours in Talkeetna (a long way away) if he knew anyone in Seward. He said, just one family. We said we knew just one family too. We asked him what their name was. He was trying to say it right so I asked, "Pichotta?" He said "Yes!" I realize that Seward has only 3500 residents but still, the odds are pretty slim that we knew the same one family as they did.

Anyway, Tim is still his awesome friendly self. It was fun catching up with him and looking at his picture album. He's been alot of places. Hopefully he will get down this way for a visit this year.

North to Alaska. See ya in a couple of weeks!

Riley spent the night on Saturday. What a great kid. Click the pic.

It just had to be done. In an effort to normalize our home after years of kid-assault, we have come across some funny things. Some things were harder than others to recover. Our upstairs door knob was one of the difficult ones. It took about a gallon of Goo Gone to remove the adhesive from the metal. Evidently Nick thought duct tape was an approprate decorative covering for his door knob. Go figure.

Today, we spent a few cherished moments relaxing at Emma Wood State Beach before having a great dinner with Randy and Kristi at a new Hawaiian/Viatnamese restaurant on Main, then attending an awesome dramatic production put on by the staff and students of CHCS (Martha's kids). (We also got to see two former students from College Heights that I haven't seen since they were in 3rd grade - 20 years?)
So anyway, we actually just park off the pavement right North of Emma Wood, and enjoy the sunshine (or fog) , sometimes the sunset if we stay long enough, the company of a life long friend, and the beautiful expanse of the open sea. Today we saw many (15-30) dolphins. They were jumping and surfing like we have never seen them before. It was breathtaking, but the camera cannot do justice to the beauty. I'm not sure, but these might have been pilot whales. They were really large. If you click on the picture you will see 2 more. Not great pictures, I couldn't catch them doing the cool tricks.