Summer Bucket List

It's been rainy in Homer lately. Wet, soggy, cloudy and windy: a whole, miserable enchilada smothered in lamesauce.

What's particularly cruel about it is that school starts next week. For a lot of people, that's the end of summer. I had high hopes for this summer when May's heat wave hit. Now my standards are lower - I'll go out in almost anything if only to knock something off this summer's bucket list.

This weekend is not looking good for my planned sortie. My grand scheme was to rent pack rafts, take the boat across to the saddle trail in Halibut Cove then hike over to the Grewingk glacier lake. I envisioned a lovely day paddling among the glacier calves. For a while I felt a little bold and thought we could paddle ourselves down the stream and out into the bay. Hunter flew me over the creek and I decided that navigating rapids, even little wee ones was probably a bad idea.

I got really excited about paddling the glacier lake but after weeks of hunting, I came up dry on a pack raft rental. It was easy enough to find one raft but as I told people of my plan, my posse of pack rafters grew exponentially.

Note to self, I might have to revise my list of Alaska toys. I told Hunter that I wanted a tundra vehicle if I was going to live in Alaska. Tundra vehicles look like so much fun to me. I think I might want a pack raft more. One big enough for me and Pea. I'll have to think about that.

Plan B for Saturday was to try paddle boarding. Every time I see paddle boarders in the harbour or out in the bay I feel a pang of jealousy. That looks like so much fun! I want to try that. So plan B for Saturday was to rent paddle boards and wet suits and give it a go in the harbour. My posse of paddle boarders was a little smaller but still eager. Turns out there's an 80% chance of rain for Saturday and winds high enough to make a dent in my expected level of fun. Sunday's forecast is wet and windy, too.

Outstanding items on my summer bucket list:


So here's to a change in the forecast! May the sun come out and turn my green tomatoes red and my bucket list a memory of an awesome summer.