A weekend with Daddy!

The Friday before last I left from work in the mid afternoon. Bentley had called to tell me he had everything ready to be packed in the car for our first camp-out, and that we should head out. My plan was to drive out to the Wasilla area and pitch a tent by Finger Lake. A fun campground within an hour's drive that seemed like a great first start. Unfortunately, as we packed up the car, some part of reality set in when the blankie made an appearance and a comment made "that he wouldn't want to forget that!" After nearly an hour's negotiation and reassurance that I wasn't taking him to the woods and dropping him off, we'd come to a bit of a new mission plan. First, we were going to the store for candy, fishing stuff, and postcards.

Unfortunately, two stores later, and nearing 7PM, it was looking hopeless to go camping... especially as my little camper reminded me that we could only go to the campground for "one minute dad, and then we'll go home". So, we went exploring places with the camera instead. We drove up the Knik River and stopped at the Eklutna tailrace for some snacks and to watch the fishermen, then went about 8 miles past the bridge and took pictures at some raging river by the headwaters.

Bentley thought it would be great to go see some farms - especially barns, so we crossed the river and went to the farms by the Butte. It was pretty neat to see the reindeer, bison, and moose, and Bentley enjoyed snapping pictures from his seat in the car.

Since it was almost 9PM, and we were feeling pretty hungry (since we couldn't make a fire to cook our dinner packed in the back), we went to plan B: McDonalds! 45 minutes later and we were back home from our adventure.

Day 2: Viva's day out.

Not as exciting as Bentley's, but she conned me into a trip to the mall on Saturday. Our little Fashionista really liked Best Buy's music instrument section, Zales Jewelry, the AT&T Cell Phone Store, and Old Navy. She found a new outfit and figured out a way to pay for it (El Banco Centrale Daddio)

We went and checked out Earthquake park and went for a short walk in the woods. She was in a good mood and felt like being a baby model while we were there (she thought the wind did wonders for her hair).

Then she twisted my arm into letting her go watch planes land at Point Woronzof, and we walked down to the beach. (I'd never been down there before). The wind was pretty chilly at that point, but we did our best to smile for the pictures.

Day 3: Jake's day out.

Well, Jake and I had less than 2 hours for our day out, but we went to watch float planes at Lake Hood, check out the airport freight traffic, and go to Point Woronzof. There were no big cargo jets landing for us, but we did get to see one of the ocean liners pull out from the harbor and head down the inlet. Jake thought it was a big boat! However, he was less than enthralled with the wind.

We got a few more pictures, then headed home. Jake, having skipped his nap to make the trip, fell asleep for the car ride home, the ride to Grandpa Tim's house for dinner, and slept through 1/2 of the movie while we were there. He made up for his downtime by shooting pool with Bentley, Viva, Tyler, Grandpa, and Allie.

We're going to see if we can have even more fun this next weekend!

Bentley's Grand (ended well) Day Out

A couple weeks ago (June 22nd), while cousin Ben was visiting, Bentley, Ben, and I (Daddy) had a chance to go to Seward for a train and boat excursion. To start the day, we had to get up and out of the house by about 5:30AM. That's pretty early. But arriving at the train station, Bentley perked up as he saw all the people ready to get on the train with him, with all sorts of ideas about the things we'd see. They let us board around 6:15 AM, and the lurch forward occured right on time at 6:45. We were off for an exciting adventure on the train, which I'd never done, and a chance to go watch for whales.

So, if you haven't ridden a train before, you might not know that there's a lot of rocking motion involved. And the Alaska train goes right up against a series of landscaped block walls that invite your attention as they whiz by.

6:46AM "Daddy, are we going really fast?" "Yes, Bentley."

"Will we go faster?" "Probably, when we get out of town."

6:48AM "Daddy, my tummy doesn't feel very good." "Don't watch out the window, you'll be ok."

6:49AM "Daddy, I think I'm gonna be sick...." "Are you gonna puke?" Hands go to the mouth. Daddy dives for the plastic sack in his backpack, opening it just in time for the second volley aimed at his pants.

6:50AM "It's a good thing you only had milk to drink, huh? Let's go lets go lets go - run to the back - there's a bathroom!"

Luckily, trains have big bathrooms, otherwise this could have been significantly worse.

And we repeated that for about 2 hours. Poor Bentley (yuck), poor Ben (who me? No, I'm not with them), poor dad (I grabbed spare clothes for the wrong person).

Luckily the train wasn't too full, the people onboard were very nice, and Bentley eventually settled down and watched out the window as we passed through some of the most amazing scenery Alaska has to offer!

Along the way we saw some huge eagle's nests, big glaciers, the neatest tunnel/bridge system with cascading waterfalls, and my favorite: the cargo train wiped out by an avalanche a few weeks prior. I had no appreciation for the power of an avalanche until we saw the flatbed car wreckage and cargo strewn across the landscape.

Seward gave us the opportunity to feel an earthquake as we were standing at the harbor... at least it wasn't a big one, otherwise that might have been too much excitement for one day.

We went out on the wildlife cruise, which gave us the opportunity to prepare for more motion sickness, but luckily all went well. Bentley enjoyed getting to see the Humpback whales and puffins. We saw a couple of seals, and at one point there were sea lions. Our lunch out on the island was great! Ben and I had steak and salmon; Bentley was pleased to eat 5 rolls. That was A-ok with me, considering there was 2 more hours on the boat and another 5 hour train ride!

The remainder of the boat ride was rather uneventful... we hit some rougher water with 6-8ft waves outside of Resurrection Bay. I say uneventful because neither Bentley nor I remember it. It was naptime for the two of us!

Back in Seward we stopped for cookies and icecream - always happy to support the local eateries! Our train ride back to Anchorage went well - and Bentley was excited about it when we arrived back at the Seward depot. However, around Portage, Bentley said, "I'm all done with the train. How do I get off?" So, our adventure lasted an hour or two longer than Bentley wanted, but it ended well. What a day!

Weighty Tomes Dad Selects

Inspired by a posting from last week, I thought I should give some perspective on the books the kids read with their dad (me). For the most part, I like word books. I also like educational materials, inspirational materials, fun, adventure, science, math, economics, books where I can do voices ... and so I expect the kids to enjoy it with me.

As some of you may recall, Bentley's first book with me was Stephen Hawking's A Briefer History of Time. We followed that up with selections from the Book of Maps, a collection of historically significant maps which I received for Christmas. Bentley seemed to enjoy reading time, so I stuck with what worked. It helped that he was less than two months old and a very captive audience. To date, he and I have read a very large selection of books from his shelves, some from mine, and a few more we picked up along the way. Most recently, we've been adventuring through canyons as we read about the tales of Hank the Cowdog.

On the repeat list (for a third time through) is Ralph S. Mouse and the Motorcycle (by Beverly Cleary). Unlikely to make it on the repeat list: the Baudelaire orphans in the Series of Unfortunate Events books... we made it through #3, but it just didn't hold anyone's attention. The Spiderwick Chronicles helped us get through the early days with the twins, though Bentley had to continually shake me awake and say "Read Daddy!" It wasn't uncommon for him to give up on me, grab his blanket, and go to his mom. I think we may have to revisit that series with the twins soon.

We enjoyed Stephen Hawking's children book George's Secret Key to the Universe, and we recently started reading my illustrated Atlas of the Universe book together after we finished a book of satellite photography for the world called The Complete Earth. Bentley's mostly interested in pictures of "robots" (satellites, landers, and rockets), but I think he enjoys it all - he sure has a lot of questions about everything we look at.

We read parts of Tales of Beedle the Bard just after Christmas, but there were parts a little too scary in there for him, so we skipped sections of it. We've been working our way through Eragon for a LONG time. The dragon just doesn't stick around long enough to keep up the interest level. Come to think of it, it's probably been an in-progress book since October of last year. It's almost like a memory test to see how far back a toddler can remember going that long.

The library has supplied us with several fun books, most recently being some Shel Silverstein stories about Runny Babbitt. There was also a book about some city in a sky which was well received by all three, as was a book about the Alaska Railroad. (Noting a trend here - all three of these books were illustrated and intended for children).

Now that it's summer time, we probably won't make it through too many [long] books. Of course, since no one's going to bed like they're supposed to, maybe I'll just start reading some fun biographies and math texts I bought last week to help calm them down... I wonder if they'd like to learn about Archimedes next week?