June 8

Were back in Alaska. We took a week off from boating to return home for the US&R National Work Group Meetings which I hosted in Tacoma. Since I was the host I figured I should be there.
After a week of meetings I was ready to return and resume the trip.

We checked bills while we where home and Chris had a chance to visit her parents. Her mom is not doing well so it was good that she got another chance to visit with her while we were home.

Remember how I reported the success of the Verizon phone card over the AT& T air card on our way up here. Well that comes with a cost. Silly us did not relalize the whole time we were in BC that we were roaming while we were talking on Skype and blogging and answering emails and surfing. That will cost us about 50 gallons of diesel. The card is still working better than any of the others but we will have to be a bit more judicious in its use. Here in alaska it appears to be working without roaming so hopefully the bill will not be quite as shocking.

Left clouds and rain in seattle for a few clouds, sun breaks and a few rain and hail showers in Wrangel. After doing a load of laundry and shopping and picking up our dog from the sitters we were ready to go. Sophie, our dog stayed with a lady here in Wrangel who came highly recomended by the locals. She has 5 dogs of her own and is building a pet store. Her dogs are all large breeds like half wolf and half shepherd. When we dropped sophie off with her one of her half wolfs was with her and he did not immediately eat sophie so it got off to a good start. Apparently all went well because Sophie was returned to us intact and without any teeth marks in her. In fact it appears that Sophie managed quite well and ended up sleeping with one of the big dogs on the same bed.

Only one small disaster to start off the second part of the trip. We bought some liquor at the store and on the way back to the boat the cart tipped and the only thing that fell out was the 40 dollar bottle of taquilla that immediately shattered on the sidewalk. A couple of local fishermen driving by stopped, looked at me and said, "that my friend is a serious crime, wasting booze!" the only consolation is that it was Chris's and not mine.

Liz and Glen were waiting for us and as soon as we were done shopping we headed out. We are now sitting in St Johns Bay where we spent a very quiet and peaceful evening. It is raining this morning as I type this but it appears that it may clear up a bit. The weather is actually a bit better than it was in Tacoma last week believe it or not.

We are headed for the area of El Capitan passage to do some exploring this week before heading back for Wrangel and picking up Becky and Mike and Nichole and her aunt.