Ben (the owner of the grocery) had a friend visiting from Japan. During Wrangell's logging days, a Japanese company operated a large, and now defunct, mill near Shoemaker Bay. His friend was the purchaser for the mill and became friends with Ben. He brought squid jerky to the potluck. It tasted like delicious salty fish at first chew but then slowly turned into a rubbery ball of disgusting salty fish - I could not get it down.
We slept in a bit this morning and worked on the Far East side of the island. We ran into our friend Angela who camps every weekend with her two small boys. Her husband owns the sawmill near our site and works every day during the summer. Her boys are true Alaskans and always help us carry firewood.
Alaska state law allows kids to drive with a permit at 14 so I had Jack take the wheel today. I'm happy to let you al know that we did not have an accident nor did I notice any violations.
After making our rounds, we headed to the Forest Service bunkhouse to take showers before the movie. The movie was "Fast and Furious 6" - even though neither of us had seen any of the previous films nor did we want to see it, we decided to go anyway. And yes, it managed to meet every preconceived notion the we held before entering the theater. The most amazing aspect of the night was that there were five of these films made before this one (maybe depressing is a better word). The second most amazing aspect of the night was the fact that we weren't the only people in the theater. I should mention that they must have known that this movie would be a flop as there were only thirty folding chairs in the "auditorium".
We stopped by the head ranger's house on our way home to check on his house and dog. I left the outside door open as we entered and out she ran. Unfortunately, she's a very skittish dog and was scared to come back inside. She would also cower and run away when I would approach her. An added complication is that she is not motivated by food although that eventually did the trick- about two hours later. We came home and fell into bed around 11:30- just as the last of the blue was leaving the sky.
Wow- what a post - quite a lot of activity going on this day! and great pictures to prove it! Your potluck looks like it was a great success. Is that the squid jerkey in the package that Jack is holding up, if so, it looks even less appealing than you made it sound - perhaps a good source of protein though? Look at our Jack behind the wheel!!! I knew it - that he would be driving for real this summer - just don't let him get too wild on those crazy backcountry roads. No speeding Jack! I'm still waiting for some of those movie reviews from Jack but I'm a little behind on my reading of the blog, so maybe I'll find one as I keep reading. I had a little dinner party the other night and initiated my wood fired pizza oven for real. The first pizza was complete char after about 2 minutes - oops! From then on they became increasingly more edible and delicious and perfect. Thanks for the oak wood blocks they worked great in the oven - just the right size and shape and they made good heat - much better than pine. We'll have a pizza party when you are back in Colorado.
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