Costco Kayaking!

Day 44 – June 23 Auke Bay / Juneau

This was a day for re-provisioning. We started at the marine store, and then on to Costco. On the way into the marine store Tom got the call from Chris that Iola had passed and that he needed to fly home. When we came out of the store Maryann (our family travel agent) called the airlines and arranged for Tom on the 8:30pm flight. We all continued on to Costco and loaded up. Yep I mean loaded up. Five people, food, a supply of Kirkland Vodka, and two new kayaks don’t fit into one van/taxi. A second taxi was called and 4 people and the liquor got back to the boats.

The afternoon was spent helping Tom get things settled, the boat secured, the dog and her supplies transferred to Magic, etc… We said goodbye to Tom and headed back into town for Nicole to spend more of her dad’s money. But the new Ulu knife and bowl are pretty. We had dinner in town at the Red Dog Saloon and then the 1 hr bus ride back to Auke Bay. Shawn’s plane came in as we got on the bus and he still made it back to the boat before we did. Taxis are faster than buses; but the bus was $1.50 and taxi was about $15.

We caught up with Shawn on our adventures and his. He came to Alaska basically directly from Atlanta and his National Whirlyball Tournament. His team came in second in their division, missing by one point during double overtime. What’s Whirlyball you ask …. We are asking too. It’s a combination of basketball, hockey, and jai-alai played while driving Whirlybugs (aka bumper-cars). Check out www.whirlyball.com or www.whirlyball.net for more information on the sport. Between his Fencing and Whirlyball we’ve decided he selects exotic (odd) sports.

Tom sure went to extremes to get out of doing laundry. We saved his reputation of beginning a laundry virgin, and did 4 loads for him. Tom if you read this your laundry is clean, folded and delivered. No we did not make the beds, clean the bathrooms, do the windows, or re-fill the fuel tank. Blog comment removal service available for a negotiable fee.

We are head two Skagway tomorrow with our own boat as we determined that the airfare for five was about the same as the fuel for Magic. This will also give us more time to explore.

P.S. for those of you looking for a new boat, there are some nicely priced ones in Juneau.