Tuesday, June 28

Our friend, Dynamite.

McCarthy on Saturday night, waiting on the band to arrive.

We sat on the porch watching as the town population expanded by 100+ people and about as many dogs. They were arriving by bicycles, atv's, pick up trucks appearing from every corner of town. This was our entertainment the first night we arrived in town.

Barb and Sharon doing their competitive journal writing. They are constantly comparing how many pages each of them writes. (They are in bed right now as I am finishing this post)

We loved this front porch at Ma Johnson's. We ate ice cream here each night we were here!

Sharon next to the Horsetail Falls just outside Valdez.

We ate supper in the town of Valdez and this was the view of the harbor. We are staying at the Brookside Inn.

This morning we packed our bags and left McCarthy. We had really settled in and were enjoying the simple life that the McCarthians were living. Each evening we settled into the chairs on the front porch of Ma Johnson's and simply watched life go by. Barb and Sharon would write in their journals, I had my binoculars focused in on the nesting swallows and Andy would be chatting with the newest visitor to town. Last night we learned to play Farkle from our friends from Springfield and also met a couple from Maryland. We also bumped into a family from Tennessee who noticed Barb's LMU shirt and we talked about Lincoln Memorial University. We ate ice cream every night and we waved and joked with the St. Elias guides as they headed back to their dorm/tents on the river at the edge of town. We were on a first name basis with most of the dogs in town and just had a relaxing time. No TV, computers or cell phones. And it was great. On our way out we saw a moose with 2 young calves and several snowshoe hares. Still no bears but we keep hoping. It is really late here so I'm going to stop for now. More tomorrow.