Hi Everyone:

We are off to ALASKA for our third time. We just love being up there in the summer as the scenery is just breathtaking. But, along with everything good, there is often things that aren't so good. In AK that is the weather. Usually rainy, I would say, about 70% of the time. Did you know South East Alaska is a rain forest? We usually think rain forest as being tropical. There is very little if any logging allowed in S.E. AK, so the forests, which come down to the water are very nice. Another wonderful thing about AK is the fish. If you like to eat fish, AK is the place to go. I often fish at the docks. Let me explain. I walk up and down the docks and visit with the commercial fisherman, sometimes offering a beer or two. Before you know it, fresh fish, salmon, halibut, red snapper is placed into my hands. I guess you can tell I'm not much of a fisherman. However, I am quite good at "crabbing". We place a trap with bait in it and within a short period of time, sometimes just an hour or two, you have more dungeness crab than you could possibly eat. Let's put it this way, we could eat crab every day, 3X a day! That is not on the weight watchers diet, at least not to that extreme. Speaking of weight watchers, the last 12 months Chuck has lost 38 pounds!! Sleek like a race horse now! :)

My brother in law Lee and I left Bellingham Wa. for AK, a trip of 700+ miles on May 4th. We will arrive there around June 1st when Margaret and my sister Annette will fly in and join us. Then the four of us will tour around S.E. heading from Ketchikan to Juneau. After a couple weeks Lee and Annette will depart and my brother will arrive and we will take him to Glacier Bay. That covers all of May and most of June. Not sure what will happen in July, but we'll keep you posted.

With this I have posted a few pictures of our boat being taken out of the building where we store it during the winter months.