We wanted to eat breakfast at Monks Rock, a highly recommended Russian breakfast and lunch restaurant. It turns out that Monday is the only day it doesn’t open until 11:00AM… Well, I guess the Shelikof will have to do we hadn’t been there either. It was okay but not some place I feel like I need to go again. It reminded Chad of Sybil’s in Salem except that it was the size of a normal living room. The people were nice and the service was ok, but it was all good that Chad makes normally at home and he does a better job. We are still glad that we went.
This was our entertainment as we waited for the food to come. From there we headed south. We were going to look for Heitman trail to hike, but in Women’s bay we got distracted by Sometimes island. It was low tide and our chance to check it out by walking across the land bridge that is normally under water. The trail in the top of the island was muddy, the kids checked it out and took pictures of another little WWII bunker (little one) that they found.
The bunker…
After Sometimes Island we decided that we didn’t want to do a long exhausting hike as I was just coming off my 5th 12 hour shift in a row and I didn’t have the energy for a big climb. Most hikes in Kodiak include a big climb. We headed back into town to explore Near Island. We have been to near island several times to wander around the harbor, go to the touch tanks and see the float plane harbor, but we had not yet hiked the trails there. We got maybe 100 yards into our hike before the kids started climbing the very limby trees. Chad and I just sat down and watched them enjoying themselves living vicariously.
We did eventually make it down to the beach where they took to climbing some more with Eve getting herself stuck in a tall rock outcropping with her daddy having to go talk her down.
After quite Eve made it back down from the rock we continued down the trail.
This particular trail ended at a point on a smaller cliff that gave us excellent views all around. It was so amazing.
We meandered off the trail on the way back and discovered a big patch of Russian berries.
Do you see Eve picking berries hidden in the bushes at the bottom of the picture above?
Hannah was walking down a log when I heard a krflop followed by screaming. As quickly as possible I waded through the Russian berries to discover the log she had been walking in had long nails sticking up (not the sharp end) she had tripped on one and landed headfirst on another. We are so amazed and thankful that she did not get more hurt. She will have a shiner to show for it but it could have been so much worse. It grazed her right eyebrow and it was already starting to swell. We decided we had better head back for the car so we could go get some ice for it.
The kids still climbed trees and picked salmon and Russian berries the whole way back out to our car.
A float plane was taking off, so fun to watch. Chad ran across the street to a drive through coffee hut who gave him a cup of ice that he poured into a plastic bag for Hannah’s head. We may have gotten Ice on it fast enough, but I will be surprised if it isn’t a pretty impressive black eye in a few days.
Owens Endeavors 