You People are so Funny!

For those of you who must have closure (David), yes, we made it home 2 days early on July 24th. It was awesome to sleep in our real beds, and not to get shoes on to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night! It's also nice to wear some different clothing, rather than the fleece that we've grown so accustomed.

I was home for 6 days before flying back to Illinois to celebrate my parent's 25th wedding anniversary - nice party, lots of margaritas.

Sorry I missed your birthday celebration, David.
Happy Birthday :-)

Almost Home

7/23 Another long day in the car; 9 1/2 hours to Medford; my in-laws prepared a great spaghetti feast for us, complete with chocolate cake and ice cream. Nice to sleep in a king size bed again! So we will head home today, two days early, and we're all pretty excited about it.

I've gotten a few comments about Phil's Grizzly Adams look... While we have gotten used to it, it's driving him a little crazy, so all comes off on Sunday before he goes back to work.

I polled the family about their favorite sights on this trip, and received the following:
Favorite campsite: Phil and Tyler: Childs Glacier in Cordova, AK; Joan: Denali Ntl. Park; Chris: shrugs his shoulders.
Favorite activity or sightseeing attraction: Phil, Joan and Tyler: Childs Glacier; Chris: Shrugs his shoulders.
Favorite animal sighting: Phil, Joan and Tyler: Black bear and cub crossing our path during Exit Glacier Hike; Chris: Shrugs his shoulders
Favorite book read on the trip: Phil - "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer (the only book he completed), Joan - "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey (thanks Kim M. for the book!); Tyler - "Sahara" by Clive Cussler, Chris - shrugs his shoulders ("all of them" he says, I think he's read over 15 books, again thanks to Kim and Randy M. for all the Cussler books!).

Can't wait to converse with my fellow bunkettes on Friday and catch up!

Headin' Home

7/19 Rain, Rain, Rain. We left Prince of Wales Island and endured a very rough crossing over to Ketchikan. Chris and I spent most of the 3 hours on the back of the boat (forgot the Dramamine in the van – Doh!). More rain in Ketchikan. We went downtown to play tourist with the 2 cruise ships in port. Ate some great salmon chowder at an ale house, and Chris is getting his fill of fish ‘n chips – he has had some really good halibut. We were hoping that the rain would let up while we ate, but it only got worse. Really, nothing is worse that planning to camp in the rain, so we got a room at the Best Western instead (again, this was Phil’s idea – really!).
7/20 Another Ferry, this time to Prince Rupert. Took our Dramamine, but the cruise was smooth sailing. This time we actually got to see a couple of orca pods. None jumped out of the water for us, but at least we got to see them swim by. Rained most of the 6 hours on the boat, but had stopped by the time we pulled into Prince Rupert. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get through customs, then we were off. Stopped at Kleanza River campground, BC. Surrounded by blueberries, I thought for sure we would see a bear at some point. The campground host told us to pick as many as we want (“Great for blueberry pancakes”) but they were very tart. I didn’t think my pancakes should be sour, so we left the berries for the bears.
7/21 Big driving day. Phil has likened himself to a horse going back to the barn, hurry up at get home! We drove to Quesnel, BC and stayed at Ten Mile Lake campground. Unlike our trip up through BC, when the campgrounds were virtually empty, now they are quite full. The weather is warming up too! Can’t wait to put on some shorts and ditch the fleece.
7/22 Big driving day II. 10 ½ hours, and we’re back in the lower 48. We did stop at a tourist mecca in the Fraser Canyon called Hell’s Gate. We saw this on the way up, but Phil was driving too fast and missed the turnoff. We had said we would stop on the way back. A tram takes you down into the Canyon so you can see the churning water as it goes through this small gorge. You walk out onto a suspension bridge with metal grates, so you can see through to the river below. Phil was glad for the high guard rails (slight fear of bridges). We crossed the border about 4:30, exchanged our Canadian currency before the banks closed, and ended up west of Burlington, WA at Bay View St. Park. Awesome sunny day today. The picture above is at Bay View Park.

Prince of Wales Island

We got into Prince of Wales Island about 6:30 p.m. and drove to our campsite in the middle of the island, Eagle Nest Campground. No Eagles. Weather was really gray, and it began to rain in the middle of the night. It rained off and on all day, but by 3:00 it was fairly steady. We spent the day driving around the island, hoping to find something interesting to see, or do. Since the island had been heavily logged and re-forested, there are lots of roads and logging trails to explore. However, many parts the forest are so thick you cannot see anything past a couple of feet. Kind of eerie. We saw many of the native sitka black-tailed deer and one black bear. The picture here of the fawns was taken after we scared the mother into the forest, and left the fawns by themselves. She was so brave to protect her young! They stood there for quite some time not knowing what to do.
We drove to Sandy Beach on the northeast side of the island, and found the beach full of driftwood logs. It was very windy here. We also stopped at Ratz Cove and were able to see spouting whales off in the distance in the Clarence Straight. One of the whales breeched; Phil says it was a humpback. (Still have not seen an Orca, by the way). After driving in the rain for a couple of hours, and not looking forward to camping and cooking in the rain, we happened upon a few cabins… and the best thing was that it was Phil’s idea, not mine! So, we moved into a small bungalow cabin with bunks, took showers, cooked up dinner and played Texas Hold ‘Em for a couple of hours. When we checked in, the man told us that simple rain was a good day on Prince of Wales Island… then he gave us a few fresh shrimp to eat. Phil did not behead them in front of Tyler since a couple of them were still alive (our animal lover would have probably grabbed them and tossed them into the creek, saying “be free”). They were good shrimp.

Ferry ride

Tyler is in heaven! He loves the ferry system in Alaska because they show movies every 3-4 hours, he has snack machines at his disposal and he can roam the ship to his heart’s content. Our 23 hour ferry ride was long, but uneventful. I managed to read a book, Chris and I played Scrabble and cards, and Phil even finished his book. We all liked the break from the rough and tumble van; in fact, we liked it so much that we checked into taking the ferry all the way to Bellingham, WA instead of backtracking our way through British Columbia. While there were berths available for the four of us, there was no room for the Van. It would have saved us a day in time and over 1000 miles… We’re sensing the end, and starting to feel the urge to go home.

7/17 We spent the night at Settler's Cove State Park just north of Ketchican. The park was really pretty, and had wild raspberry bushes growing all over the place. We had raspberry pancakes for breakfast. Our site overlooked the water, and we saw a couple of eagles this morning. The eagles are becoming so "common" that the kids don't even look up anymore when we spot them. We did a short hike today in another "hobbit-like" forest, with Sitka Spruce, hemlock and red cedar trees. Ketchikan is noted for it's totem poles, so we stoped at the Totel Bight totem park. Some are very interesting. I'll have to post those pictures in a couple of days.

Haines

Spent the night at Chilkoot State Park. Saw a Grizzly bear in the park, but not in campground. Lots of Eagles along the Chilkoot river, where the Sockeye salmon are beginning their run. Saw one eagle snag a salmon, but he couldn't carry it up to his nest. He fought with it on the ground for a while before just giving up.

We're on the ferry this morning headed to Juneau. Looking forward to our stateroom tonight with showers!

Cordova - Valdez - Wrangell Mtns.

On the 8th we hiked up Exit Glacier outside of Seward. We didn’t actually hike on the glacier, but on the mountain side next to it. The bottom 3rd of the trail was your standard forest trail, all up, up, up. Soon we hit the snow, at first patchy, then the entire mountain was covered. The trail was marked by little orange flags. There were rangers out on the trail, marking and clearing some of the damaged sections. We saw one bear in the distance, feeding on a patch of grass. Once we reached the cliffs section overlooking the glacier, we stopped for a much needed rest and lunch (I should say that it was a much needed rest for me, and not necessarily for the other three…). At this point we were two-thirds of the way up, but the rest of the trail was all snow. We decided to turn back, descending very slowly down the snow trail. I was certain I would fall, but the kids were the only ones to get their behinds wet. This was because they were attempting to ski down the trail instead of walking it. Half way down, the kids were far ahead of us when a black bear wandered on to the trail in front of Phil and I, about 30 feet or so. We stopped to see what she would do, but she just looked at us and continued up the hill. She was followed by a spring cub (so cute!). Phil was fumbling around with his camera to get a shot at the mama bear, and didn’t even see the little guy until he was into the brush again. We thought the kids had missed it all, but Tyler claims the bear was only a few feet away from him. Every time he tells the story the bear gets closer, kind of like those infamous fish stories. Anyway, it was very cool to see the bears up close and personal. The hike took 5.5 hours, 2.87 miles, 2100 feet elevation. We were all pretty tired.
On the 9th we drove to Whittier to catch a ferry over to Cordova. Whittier is a strange little town, where most of the 300 permanent inhabitants live in one 14-story building. Originally an Army post, the Army left in the 50’s and only a few people remained. The road into Whittier was not completed until about 8 years ago, so it was only accessible by rail and boat. Our Ferry ride was 3 hours across Prince William Sound. Saw some Humpback whales, lots of dall porpoise, but no Orca whales. Once in Cordova (only accessible by plane or boat), we ate at a taco restaurant – I had a red (sockeye) Salmon burrito, and Phil had the salmon tacos. Mine was great! We drove out to the Childs Glacier at the end of the Cooper River Road south of Cordova. There was a brand new campground out there, with only 4 sites taken, but this was the best camp site to date! The glacier was right there, across the river, and it was very active. We stayed up past midnight watching this think calve ice continuously. Even after we went to bed we heard these huge cracks and splashes. Some shook the ground, and they sounded like big thunder claps. We took lots of series pictures, and video, but will only put a couple of photos on the web album. Recently I’ve been having difficulty uploading my photos, so I won’t attempt to post a series of 15 shots of ice falling into the water.
The following day we spent the morning at the glacier, then proceeded back toward Cordova, stopping to hike in a couple of spots along the way. The Haystack trail was through a forest of spruce and hemlock trees, very mossy and green. We met a couple in Denali who did this trail, and said it was like a Hobbit forest. The name stuck, and we called it our Hobbit hike. We were supposed to be able to see swans and moose, but we struck out again with the wildlife viewing. Next was a wetlands hike. Again, we didn’t see any wildlife, but the wild blue iris growing throughout the marsh were beautiful.
Today (7/11) we got on the ferry early to go to Valdez. We saw MANY commercial salmon boats out in the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound, and saw where the Exxon Valdez ran aground. I’m on the ferry now, typing this, and will upload as soon as we stop for laundry and showers in Valdez. We really need showers.
(7/13) No internet in Valdez… We did our laundry, had showers, ate lunch in harbor, toured the local museum, and bought fresh fish from the commercial packing company on docks. King Salmon and Halibut are abundant in Valdez. We had the salmon that night, and it was fabulous! We camped at Blueberry Lake, 25 miles NE of Valdez. Our books proclaimed this to be the most beautiful campground in Alaska, surrounded by high, snowcapped peaks. If we could have seen all the peaks, we would probably concur. However, if I am able to upload all my pictures, you will see that we did get a glimpse of the peaks between the cloud cover. We stopped at the Worthington Glacier, where we were able to walk/climb right up to it. This glacier has been receding a lot in recent years, so no calving, only melting.
Driving up and down the Richardson Highway between Delta Junction and Valdez has been a feast for the eyes. In my opinion, this is the most beautiful stretch of road anywhere.
We headed east on the Glenn Highway, with it’s numerous frost heaves. I felt like we were on a roller coaster. This Highway boarders the north edge of the Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, and most of the Wrangells were under cloud cover. However, for a brief few minutes we did see the tallest peak, Mt. Sanford, come out of the clouds. These mountains are all old volcanoes. We drove into the park on the Nebesna Road, and camped about 25 miles in at Jack Creek. The road was washed out in a few places, and the volcano trail that Phil and Chris tried to hike was washed out. Tyler tried to fish, but only caught a tree branch. Extremely remote area here, since only 4x4’s can drive into the wash-outs.
We have big driving day today to get closer to Haines – have reservations on the ferry at 9:00 a.m. on the 15th. We’ll probably be somewhere in Canada tonight – hope to upload pictures in Tok this morning. Can’t believe we’ve been gone 4 weeks already; time is flying by so fast.

Homer a bust, but Seward is great

Our drive down to Homer had a lot of rain. I tried to make a bear viewing reservation, but everyone was full. We went to Homer anyway, only because we had campground reservations. The drive was long, but we stopped for a hike on the Bear Mountain Trail above Skilak Lake (no bears, but LOTS of scat). Most of our hikes seem to be up, up, up, and Mom gets left in the dust, which is a somewhat nervous experience with all the bears in the area. I find myself talking to myself to let the bears know I'm around. The Kenai Peninsula is supposed to be a moose habitat, but in the 3 days we've been here we have not seen one. So I took a picture of this carved moose instead. He seems quite happy. If you notice all the RV's in the background, they are all on the Homer Spit, a stretch of land over 4 miles long into the Bay. Our campground was at the end, and the entire spit is a series of RV parks. Our Park was at the end, and it was basically a dirt lot, with all the campers crammed together as close as possible... Phil was not happy. This was not the place he remembered from his youth! The entire spit had somewhat of a circus atmosphere. We did our laundry and left the next morning for Seward.

Since we could not view the bears, we booked a cruise at the Kenai Fjords National Park. We did this today. Saw sea otters, humpback whales, puffins, dall porpoise, harbor and stellar seals, and lots of birds. The big event was Aialik glacier, and the calving of the ice. Wow! We couldn't believe how big the face of the glacier was, and how loud the crashing sound was when the ice fell into the water. Very cool. We've discovered that Chris does not handle the open seas very well. He was a little green for most of the 6 hour trip, but at least he didn't get sick. Many others were carrying around their little white barf bags like precious cargo. Anyway, we loved the glacier.

We've had some excellent halibut, smoked salmon, and porcupine soup (rice and pork sausage). Phil and I are finding excuses to eat out, not only to sample the local cuisine, but to have beer and wine too. He's been cheating a lot with the caffinated coffee, by the way, but I, too, have cheated with the diet soda. We're weak.

Tomorrow we're going to attempt to hike up Exit Glacier outside of Seward. It's 3.5 steep miles up, then back down. Don't know if my knees can take this one. Stay tuned...

Campgrounds are full!

During our drive down to Anchorage, everyone must have left the city and come north for the holiday weekend. Every campground we passed was packed to capacity, and everyone in Alaska must own a quad, a boat and/or a motor home. There was stopped traffic heading north of Anchorage that would rival a San Ramon rush hour on Bollinger Canyon Road. We actually have campground reservations for the 5th and 6th in Homer, but none for the 4th (duh!). So we really had to rough it!

Phil's extensive work travels have finally paid off in Hilton points. We didn't just get a room, but we were upgraded to a suite, including breakfast buffet. I have truly appreciated my long, hot shower, and the kids have really enjoyed our 2 large flat screen TVs. After our clean-up, we went out a local favorite, Uncle Joe's Pizzeria. Everyone that worked there was from California.

Anchorage did have fireworks, but they were at midnight following a double header baseball game at the local park (I think there are a couple of minor league teams up here). It's not dark, but they have them anyway. The picture above was taken at 10:30 p.m. It's interesting to note that many of the tourist shops downtown are open until 11:30 every night.

Denali - Happy Independence Day!

We had the best of luck! Blue sky and warm weather for our 3 days in Denali National Park. We saw all of Mt. McKinley during our bus tour on the 2nd, and again during our "Polychrome" hike on the 3rd (picture at left was taken at Eielson visitor center). We saw several bears, caribou, a couple of foxes, ptarmigans, Dall sheep, and an abundance of snowshoe hares. No moose, though. We had hoped to see a wolf, but they're hard to find. Our campsite was great at Teklanika. Tyler had a blast playing in the wide rock riverbed and the late-thawing ice/snow. On the 3rd we again took the bus up the the Polychrome region and hiked the riverbed for about 8 miles. We saw lots of wolf tracks, but only saw 1 caribou. We had a forge the river at one point (painfully cold water), and were very happy to have our boots on again.

Unfortunately, the bears we saw were quite a distance from the road. The pictures are a little fuzzy due the the zoom lens and unsteady camera-person (the bus was usually moving a little from all the people diving to one side to see the wildlife). Need a bigger lens with a tripod.

Now it's on to Anchorage and Homer/Seward. We found out today that our bear expedition on Sunday was cancelled due to a mechanical issue with the float plane! So bummed out about this! We hope to find something else equally as fun on a holiday weekend at short notice... :-)

Alaska, Finally!

We entered Alaska at the uppermost boarder crossing via the Top of the World Highway; a very lonely spot, but awesome views. We made it into beautiful downtown Chicken (they have totally capitalized on the name) and have turned this small community into a tourist mecca. However, they had great panini (sp?) sandwiches and the little cafe! Camped to the south of Chicken, and Phil and Tyler finally spotted a Moose cow and her calf. Yesterday we travelled the Taylor Hwy, Alaska Hwy (where the picture was taken - Phil decided to take a little nap while the kids were out rock-hopping in the river), then the Richardson Hwy. Spectacular Views on the Richardson. We stayed above the tree line (burr...) at Fielding Lake. Lots of Fly-fisherman/women. Very cold this morning (39 degrees) and rain. Today we traversed the Denali Hwy, and saw Mt Hayes, Mt. Deborah and Mt Hess, then we glimpsed the peak of Mt. McKinley. Tonight we are staying just outside Denali Park, at an RV resort - showers, laundry, water, power - living the high life! Tomorrow we go into the park for 3 days, so no cell coverage.

Yukon, Ho!

Evidentally we cannot get cell service in Canada, so we've been unable to post for a week. We finally found an Internet Cafe this afternoon in Dawson City, YT. We entered Yukon Territory on Tuesday. Our stop at Watson Lake included the signpost forest seen at left. Tuesday night was spent awake dealing with an intruder, a mouse! Not good to have a mouse in your van full of food. At 3:00 a.m. we were repacking all of our food into the storage bins, and making all sorts of noise (the kids did not wake up at all). Wednesday we entered Whitehorse (Yukon's capital), did laundry, food shopping, and trip to Wal-Mart for mouse traps. By this time Tyler had named the mouse Freddie, and was hoping he would escape, unharmed. Phil, however, wanted vengence for his night of sleeplessness. He caught the mouse within an hour. Life is good.

We've seen several bears along the roadside, eating grubs and grass. Pictures will be under the British Columbia album. Yesterday we spent the day in Keno City (population 20), an old mining town. We drove up to Keno hill and explored a couple of old mine sites. Everyone we've met has been super friendly, and we get lots of comments on the van (sa-weet, wicked, rad, etc.), but as we get closer to Alaska we're seeing a lot of German travelers in their Unimogs (don't know if I spelled that right). These people ship their vehicles over from Europe and travel North America for several years at a time.

Next stop, Tok, Alaska.

Finally, a bear!

We saw this cute little guy returning from our drive/hike up to Salmon Glacier. We were driving along, and Phil saw leaves falling from a tree. As he slowed to check it out, we came around a corner to greet a small black bear in the middle of the road. He immediately went into the brush, but Phil discovered this bear up high in the tree. The bear was eating a berry-like substance off the branches. We were later told he was probably eating buds, since berries are not out yet. Whatever it was, he was totally making a mess of the tree.
After our laundry stop in Smithers, BC, we camped at Seely Lake Prov. Park. It rained on and off that afternoon and evening, and the next morning was more of the same. There are many Native Canadians in this part of BC, and every village/town has an Indian name (so I won’t try to spell any here). We turned onto the Cassair Hwy to head toward Stewart, which is an old mining town on the border with the Alaskan town of Hyder (“The friendliest ghost town in America”), population of “about 100 happy people.” We camped in Stewart, and drove over thru Hyder and on up to the Salmon Glacier. The road was blocked ½ way up the glacier, so we had to hoof it from there. Although we didn’t reach the summit (lots of snow), it was pretty incredible.

British Columbia

We're taking a laundry pit stop in Smithers, BC. Didn't know a family of four could create so much laundry in 6 days! We've stayed at Loon Lake, near Cache Creek, and last night we were at Beaumont Provincial Park on Fraser Lake near Vanderhoof. Loon Lake was very cold, and the past couple of days have been raining a little, but each morning seems be be bright and sunny before the clouds roll in. We are anxious to see the local wildlife, but they seem to be hiding. We did see a few deer, but no moose or cariboo yet. We had a bald eagle flying along side the van yesterday, cruising along with us for a bit - then he got bored and few off. The forests up here are tragically affected by the pine beetle; in some areas the forests are 1/2 dead. Tonight we'll be at the junction of Hwys 16 and 37, to head North again.

St. Helens and Birch Bay Park

Notice our friend drinking coffee - everyone seems to be mocking us with caffeine! Everywhere we go they're offering espresso or latte. I cheated yesterday and bought a diet coke... had to bribe Tyler with his own soda so he'd keep his mouth shut.

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Columbia Gorge, looking at waterfalls and the Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery - very cool! We drove up to the turn off to Mt. St. Helens late in the afternoon, but didn't head up to the mountain since the visitor center was set to close within the hour. The mountain was beautiful, covered in snow, on this perfect clear afternoon. We decided to stay at the local state park (which had showers!) and proceed up the the Mountain in the morning.

We woke up to low clouds! By the time we made it up to the observatory, we were in the clouds, and St. Helens was not at all visible. Bummer! It was cold too. We were able to watch a movie about the volcano, and had good views of the blast zone and lava flows. Tonight we're in Birch Bay State park (more showers!) and will be going into Canada in the morning.

Happy Birthday Mom!

We made it through Oregon!

Two days of travel, and we haven't had any van issues! We had a nice visit with Ron and Sally in Medford, and drove up to Crater Lake this morning - a beautiful, incredibly blue lake with lots of snow for the kids to have snowball fights. Then it was on to the Columbia River. Tonight we're camping near the Cascade Lockes, and plan a hike to see some waterfalls tomorrow. We're missing our Donner Lake friends... hope you guys are having a good time. Please have a margarita for me!

We're Off!

Finally got the van all packed and are ready to go. Happy Trails, and hope to "hear" from you in the comment section!

Graduation

Christopher had his promotion ceremony last night, and we celebrated by going out to Chevy's for chicken fajitas. We're very proud of his academic achievements, and we know he's ready for high school. Chris has signed up for the cross country team this fall, so he will be busy indeed!

Only 4 more days!

I finally got the slideshow feature to work! However, if you will want to see the pictures full size you'll have to click on the link to the right to go to our Album page.

Chris graduates tomorrow night, then he's off to Great America with his class on Thursday. Tyler has his second playoff game tonight. If they lose, it's all over. Otherwise they play again tomorrow night.

Friday we will be spending most of the day trying to pack the Beast in the most efficient way possible.

Our first week itinerary, which is flexible:
June 14th: Medford
June 15th: Crater Lake, then Columbia River Gorge
June 16th: Mt. St. Helens
June 17th: Birch Bay State Park, up near the Canadian Boarder
June 18th: Cache Creek, BC
June 19th: Prince George, BC
June 20th: Kitwanga, BC
June 21-22: Stewart, BC (we'll be doing a glacier hike, burrrr...)

More later.

Busy Weekend

We spent our last free weekend prepping the van - stocking the essentials, cleaning out the cookwear, etc... Phil's seems to be spending a lot of time fixing things he accidentally breaks, buying the wrong parts (resulting in multiple trips to the store), and e-mailing his "friends" on his Sportsmobile forum for tips and advice. I guess it's nice to know he's communicating with several people who have already made their trip to Alaska in their vans (yes, at least one had a breakdown... I think Phil wants to relay only the possitive comments to me, so I don't know if this person made it to a Ford Dealership).
Tyler had a practice hike yesterday with the local boy scout troop - 7 miles in Las Trampas Park. Chris has discovered Clive Cussler - Dirt Pitt novels, and has had his nose in a book for the last week. Undoubtedly his new hero, Dirk, will be accompanying us to Alaska. Marion and Jim have read a lot of Cussler... Is there a Dirk Pitt Alaskan adventure?
Tyler has 3 baseball games this week, and Chris has his 8th grade promotion party on Friday night. We're hosting Tyler's baseball party on Saturday afternoon after his game, and it's finally supposed to get warm again. Our weather has been really cool for the past 2 weeks. I think Anchorage has been warmer than San Ramon

15 Days and counting...

Hi everyone,

We can't believe that we will be leaving in only 15 days! So much to do, and so little time left to do it. Phil has put new tires on the Beast, updated our first aid kit, and completed our storage boxes for our food. Joan has made sure that everyone has the appropriate clothing items (still need rain pants, though...), and the kids are trying to decide what items to bring to keep them occupied for 6 weeks but will only fit in their back packs. Tough choices indeed.

Meanwhile, we're trying to prepare for Chris' "promotion" to high school. His ceremony is on June 11, followed by his class trip to Great America on the 12th. Tyler's baseball season is coming to a close, as his Marlins team has only 2 more regular season games left. Playoffs start on June 7th, and we are hosting his team party that day. School is out on the 12th, and we leave on the 14th. Busy, Busy, Busy... Wish us luck!

I'll be updating this page as I learn how to use it. Bookmark it for easy reference.