Minus 4 in Seldovia

Minus 4?????  This time of year?????  That's the tide level, not the temperature, and for us it means, glorious, glorious beachcoming and discovering.  All the creatures that are normally underwater become exposed and we get a chance to see, touch, and feel them.  Even though both boys had sore throats, we took a ride out to Jakalof Bay with the newest teddy bear Imaq, our two dogs, Uncle John and Grandma to check things out.  Here are some of our finds:

Sam and Zack with Sea Star

An eel that was hiding under a rock

Giant red sea anemones clinging to the dock

Imaq and three spiny sea stars

Imaq and a purple sun star

At the end of the Jakalof Bay Dock

Returning the sun star to deeper water

A bed of rock welks on kelp

Imaq with moon snails

Sun star is back in deeper water!

Click on Teddy Bear Page for more sea life pictures

In Honor of our Cub Scout Friends in North Pole

Our friends in North Pole went on their annual winter campout.  They took a long hike along the Tanana river and then camped out.  In honor of them (and because we miss them) we took our own hike, the very day they went on their adventure.  We walked all the way to the top of the t.v. tower hill in Seldovia.  It took almost two hours to get up and only twenty minutes to get down!  Uncle John and Mom carried sleds and we whooshed our way down the hill after we had some hot chocolate and a small lunch at the top.  We are proud of our big hike and we miss you very much friends in North Pole!

Hurry and catch up Zack!  What a big hike for such small legs.  This is our first resting spot.  Notice our friend Thor's house in the background just in front of Cook Inlet.

Our dog Maddie digs a snow den by Uncle John.  She'd make a great sled dog and a good dog to have along on a Treasure hunt! 

You made me run to catch up, now I'm going to rest!

Sam takes a moment to appreciate the view up Seldovia Bay while Zack laughs at our Dog's sledding down the hill on their bellies.

That was fun!  We took a side trip to roll down a small hill of alders that are completely covered in snow.

We are almost there.  Do not stop 'til you get to the top!

This last part was really steep and really windy but we did it.  There's our target!

We made it!  Now we can see three different bodies of water, Kachemak Bay, Seldovia Bay, and Cook Inlet.  What a view!

Heading down now.  We walk over to the slope and prepare for the sled ride down. This was a mega sliding adventure and it was worth all the hard work!

New Rubber Boots

Sam and Zack with Uncle John, Rowdy, and Maddie- Nice Boots!

For the best fun in Seldovia, be sure to get a pair of rubber boots.  Our Grandma knows this very well and when she came back from Homer on Friday, she brought us each a brand new pair.  We love our new rubber boots and we love our Grandma too.  This is a song that Zack wrote about rubber boots:

Oh............

My new rubber boots

My new rubber boots

I LOVE them soooo much

that I want to eat fruit

in my new rubber boots

my new rubber boots

Toot Toot Toot!

(Make a tooting sound with your lips for the last line)

You can't be a kid in Seldovia and not own rubber boots.  Why, our Mom says that if you're a kid who lives in Seldovia, and you DON'T own a pair of rubber boots, you might as well go back to where you came from.  Here is a list of things Zack made that you can do with rubber boots in Seldovia;

1.  Walk in puddles

2.  Wade in the slough

3.  Walk in deep slushy snow

4.  Go Tide-pooling

5.  Wade in the rivers

6.  Cross the creek

7.  Chase waves

8.  Walk in the mud

Sam's rubber boots are taller and he can walk all the way across the slough on low tide.  In fact, he walked all the way from our house to the bridge on the opposite side of the slough at low tide.  Zack built an oragami boat and waded out to the current so his boat would have a speedy launch.   On Sunday, all three of us went to church on the beach.  Our church has walls made of volcano's and ancient towering pine trees.  When we were Lutheran's we loved to 'pass the peace' (not the peas) in church by shaking peoples hands and wishing them well.  Here at our beach, the church passes us peace by giving us pretty shells to collect, and this Sunday with our new rubber boots, our beach church gave us some really really cool Easter tide-pool finds.  We couldn't have discovered these beautiful things without the new rubber boots.

Green Sea Anemone

Nudibranch

Bidarki- a delicacy for the Alutiiq People of the area, otherwise known as a Black Chiton

An Unidentified Sea Worm- Perhaps a Hairy Gilled Worm or a Ribbon Worm

Two types of Limpets (We always called them China Caps)- A speckled limpet and a shield limpet

Sam wrote a poem that describes his pair of new rubber boots:

Really Fantastic

Utterly awesome

Black

Boots

Extremely Radical

Rubber

Brilliantly Sweet

Overly Cool

Of Course It's Nice

The Best

Sam's

WE LOVE RUBBER BOOTS!

Our dog Maddie rests on one of the rocks in the tide pool

Bye for now!