Just Playing in the Puddles

Over the holiday, I joined my husband on a little camping excursion.  Each outing provides a different experience and new revelations.  For instance, 2 people camping in the back of a Hyundai Santa Fe with 2 wet dogs in the midst of pouring rain = damp, tired, achy, edgy campers.  This was only improved by the previous hours of driving on a pothole-filled gravel road while towing a ATV trailer only to find the creek too swollen from the rain to cross to get to where we were going thus necessitating our backtracking over said gravel road.  Alaska 1, Kottsicks 0.  On a more positive note, I will say that the landscape was gorgeous and the company unrivaled.  I also rediscovered my joy in ATVing.  There was something thrilling in the stinging rain pelting my face as I splashed through the mud puddles with just the push of my thumb.  Negotiations have already begun to get me my own machine :)

Some of the leaves were beginning to change and the mountains where painted in yellow, oranges, and reds from the changing grass and foliage.  In a couple of weeks, full autumn colors should emerge.  Here is a little look at what we saw.

We also came across a little duck family.  They did a little posing for me.  At least someone didn't seem to mind the wet weather!

Soaked to the bone but with smiles on our faces, we returned home.  That is what adventures are made of.  In the words of C.S. Lewis,

“Make your choice, adventurous Stranger,
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.” 

Alaska Fun Fact: Ketchikan, Alaska is nicknamed the "Rain Capital of Alaska."  Its wettest year on record was 1949 with 202.55 inches of precipitation.