This week we celebrate Michelle’s birthday. As usual, it creates a certain amount of tension in the homestead. Autumn started for us on August 1st, but Michelle likes to retain the summer birthday of her childhood (see Ghost Ferns and Witchy Woods). She’s got the family whipped into shape, but she can’t change the weather!
Our monsoon season usually starts the second week of August, and this year has been no exception. We’re getting meaningful rain, thankfully and at last, but also high winds—high enough to make one large cruise ship reject a Skagway docking for a Haines docking, then fail to make that mooring before heading back south!
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” not in Southeast Alaska in August! (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger.)
We were all home, so Aly and I picked the season’s first chanterelles and made a family favorite for dinner, wild mushroom barley soup (see recipe here). Eating warm, wholesome soup on a cool, rainy day felt very cozy!
You’ll notice your intrepid photographer is taking these photos from inside the cabin! (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger.)
But Michelle wants sunshine on her birthday, so we’re going in search of it. We’re headed off today on a road trip to Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territory, Canada.
We’ll be gone till the weekend, away from phones and Michelle’s work. We’ll soak in hot springs, maybe visit some of our other favorite places in Whitehorse (see News From the North Part 1). Sadly, Aly won’t get to go with us, but at least she’ll have some time on the homestead without parents underfoot.
It’s been a long time since Michelle and I took a road trip. We’re going to do the “Golden Circle Route,” driving north from Haines, south through Skagway, and catching a ferry back home. I think getting away from her work routine is going to do Michelle a world of good. It won’t hurt me much, either!