Labor Day and Sitka

Rita and I are planning to be at the lake Labor Day weekend with tee shirts and all. Hope everyone can make it for some part of the time but know some have conflicts. I think Connor and Mitch may have their first football game of the season and surely Bailey has volleyball. We will just leave it up to each family to do as they choose. As far as meals go, I will let Rita speak to that later, probably after we get back to Midland.

Today we were in Sitka and an excursion watching bald eagles, sea otters and humpback whales. Perhaps the most interesting sight was walking onto a bridge over a stream in the forest just at the edge of town and seeing thousands of salmon as part of their spawning process. For the last month of their lives they do not eat and spend all their energy getting back to their birth place to lay and fertilize eggs then die. There were lots of dead fish on the banks and many in the water showed the coloration of deteriorating while others were still headed up stream to do their thing. Quite a sight!

We are at sea (our roughest water yet) on the way to Juneau tomorrow where we take a helicopter ride to a glacier and go on a dog sled ride. Tod, a pilot told me that a helicopter is not much more vulnerable to 'dropping out of the sky' than a wing plane is. The rotor free wheels and works a lot like a parachute coming down. Not to worry!

Love you all, DAD