It’s summer. Nice, warm days and long nights. We’ve had dinner outside the past week and the volleyball net is up for after dinner runarounds. We have a bunch of rabbits that moved to our yard but I feel like it’s a nicer family than the deer family last year so I’m just going to let them stay. They don’t take up as much space. It is nice, lovely, beautiful and all that. School is still in full swing for two more weeks. Finals and more finals. Lovely! Food changes a bit when it’s warm. Lots of barbeque, salads, fruit, cold yoghurt sauces, cheese and of course olives every day.

Less than two weeks to take off. And the weather is not very good in Alaska right now. I move stuff around from the car, garage, kitchen. I have piles of clothes in the bedroom. I have bins with stuff that goes wherever I go. I use most of it since we are still rafting, paddling, running and biking. My PFD smells and I am a bit worried that it will attract animals. I still need to get my bike in for a last tune up and there are a few things that I need to buy. I made a trip to REI today and I hope it was the last one. I might need a few bungees, food, more wool clothes since watched the weather channel this morning. And I probably need more socks. But I did the last body repairing today. Got my foot drained again and it will hopefully do well until after the race but still need a few days of rest before I see the result. It looks very blue right now so it can only get better.

What I am really thinking of is food. What to bring and buy. How much and what do you really want to eat after a few days without real food. And what about coffee? I am doing my best to cut back so I won’t miss it too much. I’ve got different kinds of jerky to try, espresso beans covered in chocolate (thanks Eric), nuts mixed with chocolate and all sorts of good stuff to try and decide before takeoff. I found bacon jerky, sounds brilliant! And so does salmon jerky.

We have done some rafting the past week. We drove to Wenatchee Saturday for some speedy rafting in a fast river in almost 100 degrees. And we got some nice barbeque in Cashmere before the actual rafting. Cashmere, the center of earth. Really good barbeque. It felt like I was going to sink when the actual rafting started. I ate half a cow. We stayed local yesterday. We met up by the fall in Snoqualmie and blew our rafts up and took off. Got up after a few rapids and hiked back up and did it again. On the way to Fall City to pick up the third car a dog started following us, swimming behind our boats. We got our own Arthur. We thought it would be a bit of a problem to bring him to Alaska so we called his owner instead. A couple of beavers swam by too. Those would be even more of a problem to bring as mascots. We will conquer parts of a big mountain Saturday. Crampons, ice axes and ropes. Very exciting.

Rafting is interesting. I felt really worried a few weeks ago and I don’t even know why. Of course you can tip over, flip and get really wet. You can hit your head since there are rocks all over but that’s why you wear a helmet. I think it’s the feeling of fast moving water that is a bit scary. Well, it doesn’t feel scary anymore. More like an intense ride, a wet rollercoaster. But it will be different in freezing water with a dry suite on…

Stuff learned this week:

Driving to Eastern Washington for a quick bike ride, a short but intense rafting session or a hike is no big deal. It’s just a 3-4 hour drive and some mileage on your car. And then 3-4 hours back home when you are tired.

River rafting, it’s just fast moving water. You will somehow move forward. And get wet.

Blow up your raft. Your once crushed tailbone really hurt when you hit big rocks and get stuck in the river. It kind of moved all the way up your spine. But that’s a good thing, you’ll know that your nervous system works.

Sunscreen is essential.

An ice cream bar melts very fast in 100 degrees.

Your body gets tired from thinking too much.