This big ship is parked in downtown Kodiak where it has rested ever since the 1964 Alaska Tsunami tossed it up on shore. It was too big to throw back, so the enterprising residents turned it into a fish processing plant, a fate it has happily pursued ever since.

Fin is one happy Golden Retriever. This is one of his favorite sleeping poses. Here he had his eyes open and was wondering if doggy decorum required him to move.

Any clue what this is? It’s the head of a grey whale on display at the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge Museum.

Here’s the whale before he was buried, dug up and scraped. I assume the process took a strong constitution. The skeleton is quite impressive. We owe the folks who did the job.

Grey Whales rib cage and hands, oh, I mean fins. It sure appears this guy may have once wandered on land.

Long before Americans made their way into the far north, the Russians were there… and still are, as this Russian Orthodox Church in Kodiak attests to.

Kodiak has a number of great walks and we went on a couple of them between fishing expeditions. We found this shelf fungus on a tree along one of the trails. The locals call it bear bread. We came on another one that had been torn apart. Hello Bear!

I found this lake reflection shot along the same trail. Moss covered trees and Devil’s Club (the plant) also lined the route. You can’t see the thorns on the Devil’s Club, but I guarantee they are there having backpacked through them from time to time during the years I wandered Alaska’s back country.

Another reflection shot on the same lake captured these yellow pond lilies.

Naturally, I had to take a close up of one of the pond lily flowers.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a photo of what the locals called Pushki and I have always called Cow Parsnip. It is one of those plants that mothers are eager to keep their children out of since it can cause serious reactions on some people… including welts.

Another walk to us to the ocean and Pirate Booty Beach, a name our grandkids provided due to the treasures they found there. I considered this seaweed a treasure.

And these barnacles.

The boys thought these strange metallic sculptures were closer to pirate booty. Decades ago the area had been a dump. The ocean, time and waves had worked their wonders on what had once been cars and other “useful” items.

We all agreed that tide pools contained treasures. Our grandson Connor is reflected in this one.

Grandson Cooper joined us on our walks. I loved the grin. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

The hard work of hiking and fishing deserves its reward. In this case, it was a soft ice cream cone from McDs, half of which ended up on Chris’s face. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

And there’s the nap with Chris and Connor… two tired boys.

I’ll close with this photo of Tony and Cammie with a great thanks to them for making our Kodiak adventure as special as it was.