Aug 13th

Happy day to you! We are in Ushk Bay and the sun has come out bright and warm. It's been a nice day. Got the crew out the door this morning with McMuffins for breakfast. Then I started on a strawberry rhubarb pie. Been wanting to make one for awhile so hope it turned out. It looks yummy but looks can be deceiving, right? Meatballs are in the crock pot and pasta shells filled with a ricotta/spinach and cheese mixture are ready to pop in the oven. Will do a mandarin romaine salad and garlic bread to finish out dinner. Once they get back, Brad will be getting the boat moving towards Sitka, another schedule change. But no one is complaining, we like Sitka. The crew wasn't able to fly to Petrof yesterday due to the weather so they may fly out of Sitka on Saturday. Not sure what that means for the boat but we'll see. Thought I would share some of the crew's check-list they go through every morning before leaving the boat. I'm sure some of the items will make sense but there are others that I still don't know what they are or how they are used. Sampling trays, knives, cutting board, beads, tablets, measuring tape, the Bird, tooshi-kushees, gaff, fishing pole, tally whacker, tweezers, scanners. Now, these are just a few of the goodies they need in order to complete the stream survey of dog salmon. I'm not going to explain them, just use your imagination, that's what I do! Part of their safety gear includes a GPS, In-reach, first aid kit, bear spray, throw bag and survival bag. Again, these people have to be prepared for just about anything thus the survival bag which has the necessary items they might need for an overnight stay. Minus the dinner I'm cooking for them of course. They always have extra snacks in their packs as well. I'm amazed at how much stuff they have to have with them each time they leave the boat. And again, glad it's them and not me. Although it would be nice to see some of Alaska from the land, mostly it's a boat view. But I got some great pics today so will go through them and see what I can post. I don't like being out of touch but it's only been a few times over the past couple of weeks so guess it could be worse. Okay, we are in Sitka now so will post this one. Have no idea where we head off to next or even when, the schedule is truly nuts right now. It's a beautiful day in Sitka though so will be headed out on a walk. Need to be able to walk more than 50 feet one way. :-)