Halibut Cove Lagoon

In Greear Family style, we returned from Seward and Soldotna, took one day off and then blitz-ed over to Halibut Cove Lagoon for two nights in a cabin that Vince rented last February. Yes, February; before we had any idea what else life would want us to be doing.

Alaska is a bi-polar world. The winters find us low energy, taking on small-ish projects, having time to sit by the fire and enjoy the company of friends. The summers send us the other direction filling every free moment with activities.

We arrived in Halibut Cove at 9am Sunday morning. The cabin next to us was filled with families and small children. The park rangers wife and I knew each other from the airport. She is working over there with her kids this summer. It was a relief to know that our loud family was not going be interfering with some foreign naturalists long awaited trip to Alaska to record the silence in nature.

The kids made new friends. The forest was filled with the sounds of their games as they fished together on the dock and played hide and seek at the creek. At the same time, our friends Lisa and Art had checked out of their cabin the morning we arrived and spent the day hanging out with us.

It was sunny in the lagoon and I elected to nap in the sun instead of fishing. My friend Sharon told me once that on the cool days of summer, "napping on a porch with feet tucked into a sleeping bag is fantastic." She was right! I was in the midst of a deep peaceful sleep when Falcom snapped this picture. Thanks Fal...

Monday, the kids were all away and it was Vince's turn to pass out. I snapped this pic. He's going to thank me I'm sure...hee hee hee

I woke Monday morning to find that Falcom had already woken up. No surprise there, as he is usually an early riser. The beautiful and amazing part is that he did not wake any of us up! Instead he took the cabin log book and wrote the entry for our family. He wrote about how there were a lot of bees around. How he found a dead bird on the trail. About how he has made new best friends and how this was the best camping trip.

I was so proud of him. Not only for not waking us up, but for writing a whole page worth of pertinent and useful information, garnishing it with hearts and happy faces, and radiating the feeling that we were all having so well.

Vince left a halibut rod submerged with bait overnight and the morning had caught this sea star. It had wrapped itself tightly around the bait and had partially digested half of it. I said, "I've heard those things move fast." Vince said, "In terms of sea star speed, I guess." The kids loved catching something, as there was not a king salmon in sight.

There were two otters though, hanging out around the dock. It was a treat to watch them frolic and check out in puzzlement our family. The loud banging of rocks on the clam shells they held on their chests would interrupt us sometimes, but it's a busy life being an otter.

After dinner Monday night we were making s'mores with our friends at our camp when a German backpacker arrived. He wondered if there was an empty cabin. Vince invited him to take ours as we were heading back to town in an hour and would not be using it. He declined but took us up on an offer to go back to town with us. He then declined our offer for a marshmallow.

On the boat he apologized for not sitting with us by our fire. He said, "You were so gracious, but I've been hiking solitarily for two days. All the children and commotion were a bit much. I meant no offense."

I said, "No problem, I know about re-entry shock." He laughed and said, "Yes! Re-entry shock that is it exactly." He then told me about how he is an organic bread baker in Germany and told me about the German farmers, how they still find battle debris in their fields...helmets with holes blown in them for instance. They are still trying to heal.

We got in last night at 11 and Vince turned around and went back to work this morning at 5am. I bet he will sleep well tonight.