Ketchikan, Day 4

Today, I saw nine bears and a buttload of eagles. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I started out the morning like any other morning, peeking at Kat's digital clock on her desk as quietly as I could to try to keep from waking her up. I'm always curious to see if it's a decent hour to get up or not. This morning, it really wasn't--for a vacation--but I couldn't fall back asleep. So at 8:23am, I got out of bed and headed to the living room.

There, I checked my email--nada--and looked at my online bank account. Aw crap. More bad news. Today was not the pay day I was expecting. So I called my mom and filled her in on the details. "Mom, I'm overdrawn for the first time in my life. What do I do?" *whimpers* Well, after the two overdrawn fees were slapped on--a total of $54 *more whimpering*--apparently, nothing else will happen...? I hope not. I called work later today and found out that pay day is Monday, so hopefully nothing will happen over the weekend and the world will continue revolving with Bethany having learned her lesson about balancing her checkbook.

I spent some time with a kitty on my lap being nice and cozy, then decided to brave the great chilly outdoors because the sun was coming out. That was simply fantastic. It got warm enough for me to be able to take my sweatshirt off and I was even hot in my tank top. Phenomenal! Kat and I then ate breakfast, got ready for the day, and headed off to Ward Lake up north.

We walked all around it, talking. I love talking with Kat. She's a great conversationalist. :) She did, however, force me to have an Alaskan photo shoot in a tree, but I forgive her. We also found a random rope swing along the way and a mother duck with her ducklings. I tell you, there is nothing cuter than mini-webbed feet...except bear cubs. But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Then we drove around for awhile, picked people up from work, and came back here for dinner. I went out on the deck again and sat with my feet hanging over the edge. That was fun. :) Called my sister, ate dinner. (Crab quiche!!!)

After dinner, Kat and I went down south to Gaelen's house. We were on a mission to see bears. From there, we walked to the boardwalk by the hatchery, being highly discreet along the way b/c of trespassing. (Shh!) We saw a mother bear and a cub on the way there. Once we were on the boardwalk, we saw three more single bears, and two sets of mother bears and cubs. Nine in all. Of course, since it was by the hatchery, the bears weren't the only interested carnivores. There were tons, yea verily, buttloads of bald eagles in the trees. Simply phenomenal. And we almost got caught leaving the boardwalk, but we ducked down and hid. Okay, so we shouldn't have been trespassing...but it's Alaska, and apparently, this was an authentic Alaskan experience. :)

We finished up the evening with fresh chocolate chip cookies and milk at Gaelen's, and Kat and I listened to mostly techno on the drive back. (yes, techno! The funnest music in the world.) There was a cruise ship out from the shore with its lights all on. With the sunset in the background, it looked, as Kat said, just like an advertisement. Shoot, I was sold.

Got back to the house and only Laura was still in the living room. I had intended on asking Tyler a question before he went to bed, so I went up to his room, and fortunately he was still awake. I asked my question, got my answer, and only just now came down. That was about two hours ago that I went up for one question. I just got sidetracked with more conversation. And then I realized, again, how little I want to go back to Seattle. I want to stay! I guess it's better if I don't, because then the visit will become reality and reality's never quite the same as a visit. Still, I really like it up here with the Cronks. They're good people--even family. :)