Welcome to beautiful Petersburg, Alaska:
We had the most amazing time in Petersburg last year going out to LaConte Glacier, getting billions of pictures of baby seals, learning about the different kinds of fishing, eating breakfast with the famous George Brett, touring fish canneries, etc. etc., so this year we decided to spend a more low-key local day in Petersburg. Oh, and also last year I promised my kids that "next time" we would go to the library because it is only open in the afternoons..
{Jessa calls to Raven}
Raven is Jessa's bird. She calls raven all the time, and is very aware of raven being nearby, not just here in Alaska, but at home as well. In my opinion, Jessa is much like raven, who in Tlingit stories is extremely intelligent and the notorious trickster.
Jessa put the sneak on Raven (look closely to see him on that branch) today after Emeline climbed amazing things at the Petersburg school playground. Jessa got really close before raven would hop to keep some distance. We hiked up the hill to the post office. Kate was very tired and rode in the stroller with Emeline, but Jessa sang songs and picked a beautiful array of flowers. We had our picnic lunch between two totem poles before making it to the promised library.
Once again, the girls honed right in on the horses.
Tried out all the puzzles, and Kate put on a rather impressive puppet show.
Our boat has been too big to stay tied up at any of the harbors, so we always have to take the skiff to shore:
{Emeline's camera smile. She thinks she is hot stuff on grandma's lap}
Later in the evening the only thing we wanted to do was catch some herring to use as bait and finally catch some fish, fish fish. Well, after an hour or so, the only thing we had caught was this shot of an eagle, but then we got in the skiff and found a boat that WAS catching herring. The secret is to be where the fish are!....... at this point there is a lack of photos due to all the excitement of landing about 80 herring in the boat. Both Kate and Jessa had their own reels and were pulling in fish 3-6 at a time because there are 6 hooks on each of the poles. They had so much fun and Jessa said she was not going to be able to sleep that night because it was so exciting. It was the most fun so far! Catching fish is just so, so EXCITING! As exciting as it was, you can imagine we all slept just fine after such a full day!
{here is the next picture on my camera after the eagle....Kate and Jessa working hard to put up their catch}.
Welcome to Kake (pronounced cake), Alaska!
The Debbie Sue anchored near Kake. Kake produced my favorite seascapes of the entire trip. It was breathtakingly gorgeous. 
Uncle Brett being silly makes the girls crack up as they pose near the tallest totem pole. Really, I think this is the tallest totem pole in the world. It was TALLLLL!
The girls had a great time playing with new friends, cousins Tevin and Lily whom they met when we went to church. Tevin and Lily called me "auntie" and their family said it sure didn't take me long to become part of the family! Kake is a community made up mostly of native Tlingit Indians. Tevin and Lily are Tlingit with some Navajo (their grandma is Navajo). 
