Junior High Camp

On Monday when the Junior High school kids arrived it was a typical rainy, cool Alaskan afternoon. These girls are dancing in the rain.

When not in the kitchen, I sewed up a baker's dozen stuffed frogs to be included in the Christmas Boxes.

Jr Hi kids don't SLEEP! They think summer is a time to play 24/7 since winter is long and dark. Lynne caught me wearily frying sausage after a sleepless night, listening to the kids high jinks.

Here the kids are engaged in a rousing game of drench each other with buckets of water. Who cares if it's only 60 degrees.

Dale played with a new mechanical toy this week as he dozed the archery range, a road and then dug an Alaskan water slide pit.

The boys' line shows off the results of tie-dying pillow cases.
The Alaskan made water slide was a HIT! You can't see the chill bumps. They lined up again and again for the opportunity the slide and freeze.

Another favorite game is paint ball using cardboard cylinders as refuge.

The girls are proud of their tie-dye pillow cases, too.
The girls are having fun with crafts.

Friday, while the counselors played frizbe, this young moose munched his way around the cabins and behind our motor homes. Notice how close he is to my bike, which was parked right behind the rig. I'm hiding under the awning.

On Saturday, a group of Chinese from University Baptist Church in Fairbanks arrived for a weekend at camp. They didn't need out help in the kitchen so we made a road trip down the Richardson Highway to Paxton and then 30 miles west along the Denali Road.

The fireweed were in full bloom. In the far background is Black Rapids Glacier in the Alaska Range.

We stopped to photograph many varieties of flowers along both high ways. This Alaska cotton fascinated me with its brilliant white, fluffy heads blowing in the wind.

Lynne caught me taking pictures along the Delta River at the base of the Alaskan Range.

The Denali Road is paved for the first 25 miles and then becomes gravel for all but the final ten miles of its 160 mile stretch from Paxton to the National Park. Traveling along the gravel section we were fortunate to see a covy of ptarmigan, the state bird. These birds survive the winter by turning white. They were in their summer brown plumage.

Returning to camp around seven we discovered our junior moose browsing behind the rigs again, then he moseyed through the new pavillion as if he owned the place.

Sunday on our shopping trip to Fairbanks, we stopped to pick two five gallon buckets of fireweed stems. While riding along we then plucked off the blossoms to fill several quart bags for making fireweed jelly on Monday.