Beach and Firepit

Today Nora had 'early release' which to me sounds like she's getting out on parole but which really means that she got out of school at noon.  So Daddy daycare started early.  And what a day for it - it got up to 58 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky.  A little later we picked up Stuey and went to  'jewel' beach near Boy Scout Lake.  The 'jewel' refers to the beachglass at the beach - it is made up of practically pure peas of well rounded beach glass in all colors.  Getting down to the beach is a half mile walk or so and I was shocked at how deep the snow still is in the woods.  It was 3 feet deep in places and came up knee high on our boots a lot of the way in.

Weirdly enough we saw a little brown bat that flitted about in the spruce trees on the way down.  I've never seen a bat out and about in broad daylight on Kodiak before.  Brown bats with ground squirrels, brown bears, ermine, land otters, red-backed voles, and foxes are one of the few land mammals indigenous to kodiak - and probably the one that is seen the least.

The beach was heaven; we could see Kodiak in the distance and the kids filled their little baggies with beach glass while the dogs swam in the surf and cruised the shoreline looking for really nasty dead stuff to eat (the doggies breath was awful on the car ride home). I just sat on a rock and watched the kids while listening to the surf.  The great thing about beach glass picking is that I do not have to do a lick of entertaining.

Back home we lit the backyard firepit and it ended up as an impromptu barbecue party.  Rachel and Matt dropped in - as did Sophie and Mike.  Rachel was wearing the new boots that she got for her birthday.  As Rachel pointed out it was a 'bach barbecue' - no side dishes to speak of, cutlery or plates, - just lots and lots of meat, a sharp knife and a cutting board.  Rachel did bring over some peppers for the grill, but her best received contribution was the 'banana boats'. In the bottom photo you can see her filling bananas still in their peels with chocolate.  These were then wrapped in tinfoil and placed in the fire.  They were a HUGE hit.

It looks like it is fire pit season on Kodiak!  Patrick