Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Flotsam and Jetsam

  • Southeast Alaska is absolutely stunning. I think Sitka was my favorite place--perhaps because of our kayaking excursion.
  • Southeast Alaska is a rain forest. Did you know that? I had no idea they got so much rain. We, however, lucked out with the weather.
  • Bald eagles were everywhere!
  • My son and daughter prefer handling sea cucumbers to watching whales. My husband and I prefer the later. But, of course, all of it was fantastic. We saw about a dozen humpbacks bubble net feeding, and we saw one humpback do a full breach.
  • My son is now dying to go snorkeling in the local bay to look for sea cucumbers and nudabranks.
  • Shore excursion tour guides like to make fun of the Lido Deck and other cruise ship food sources. I know the guides were making fun of us as we arrived and left.
  • I ate constantly but haven't pooped in almost a week. How is that possible?
  • My mom and step-dad are awesome for taking us on the trip.
  • During a conversation in which I, again, was trying to explain God to the children, my daughter said, "Well, I believe that God is lipstick."
  • During one dinner on the ship, my daughter said, "When I am a grown up, I'm going to be better than you and daddy." How so? I asked. "Well, I'm going to give my kid swim lessons everyday, and I'm going to not have a job so that I take care of my kids." The boy, full of truth and practicality, piped in to say that without a job, she won't have money. She said, "I can make money."
  • Today, I put good soil/mulch stuff in the raised garden bed and bought a lot of seeds and two tomato plants. I'm reading The Backyard Homestead to make my plans for planting.
  • My brother's sister and her husband and their two kids arrive tomorrow for four days of craziness with four adults and four kids (and a dog and a lizard) in our 1300 sq ft house.

6 comments:

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

Sounds like the cruise was wonderful! Hope you had good weather.

Regarding bullet point number seven -- I don't have an answer to your question, but my mother says she went camping in an RV for two weeks when she was in college and experienced the same thing. She chalks it up to being unable to relax(?).

TKW said...

Nudabranks? What are those?

In regard to the pooping issue, my husband and I always marvel at how you can't go on vacation, but within a half hour of returning home, bingo!

God is lipstick. Love it.

--ginger. said...

I think God is lipstick too.

Gardening: I love the book Great Garden Companions--and I"m going to go find yours. Gardening! Yay!

Welcome home. And when I say "home" I mean, "welcome to the thing that we keep thinking we can make steady and solid and ma-ingalls-like in all its warm hearth calmness, but is in actuality something that moves much faster and pushes us to BE the hearth." BE the hearth. And I've re-read that am not entirely sure it makes a bit of sense. And, also, apparently, I am now your self-appointed karate instructor.

Good Enough Woman said...

CT, The cruise was great--if a little weird at times, a la David Foster Wallace's great essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." As for my little problem, I had some relief this morning! (TMI, I know.)

Nudabranks are funny little sea creatures. My son saw one in the film "Deep Sea IMAX" and then saw one in our local bay. On the semi-sub, my son asked the guide, "Do you have rainbow nudabranks here?" The guide was a little stunned by the question. (Note: They didn't have rainbow nudabranks but they did have white ones, which we saw.)

ginger (a.k.a. Sensei), SO TRUE! Currently, we've been reading the Little House on the Prairie series to the kids, so your Ma Ingalls reference is perfect. That woman kept life steady and solid even during a three month wagon trek from Wisconsin to the prairie. Lately, I've been wishing that Monday was washing day, Wednesday was butter churning day, and that such things were steady and regular.

Ink said...

Welcome home! We missed you! Sounds like you had a magical time. Are you going to post some pics, she said hopefully?

On top of returning home from vacation, you're having guests? You just became one of my personal heroes. I can't even fathom doing that. Good luck! Are you secretly like Bree on Desperate Housewives and you LIVE for hostessing? Because she is like Martha Stewart on crack, in a good way.

I love "God is lipstick."

Good Enough Woman said...

Ink, No, I do not live for hostessing. I'm getting better at it. I'm starting to enjoy cooking more. I like watching how much fun the kids have with their cousins. But I get a bit overwhelmed by the multitasking.

But I did prep some homemade ice cream to make tonight! But then we all decided to go camping (oh, yes, more packing and prepping, thank you!), so no ice cream tonight. But at the campsite, we didn't have a good place for me to sleep, so I came home to sleep here. Just as well, since I was able to turn out the lizard lights and put out the trash.

So maybe I'll have a couple of hours of quiet in the morning! (she says hopefully)