Labor Day Weekend in the Rain

Wow, time flies! I've not been ambitious about blogging lately, that's for sure!
Nate and I both had Labor Day weekend off. Now that he is done fishing for the season, we've started settling into fall mode . . .
Mainly, Nate has, I should say.

Let me clarify. Instead of fishing on his brain 24/7, he now has hunting on his brain 24/7.
Can you see why he loves Alaska?

Anyways, much to my {pleasant} surprise, he suggested in the middle of our Saturday afternoon that we go camping.
Sure! I said . . . thinking we would just go to the campground south of town.
But alas, he had the idea to take the boat out and find a place to camp on another part of the island. So we got ready in approximately 15 minutes, and suddenly we are going camping. Without a tent.

We stopped on a beach so Nate could scope out the deer.
I was happily scoping out the scenery from the front of the boat, unaware of the rapidly changing tide.

Yes, we were stuck in the sand. very stuck.
{Nate was very pleased with me. }
But, we managed to pry the boat out into more open water again, thankfully.

Nate found a spot where he thought would be good for clams. So, we stopped again, but not without a warning that we would probably get stuck again.
And we did. AGAIN. Seriously, we were hardly there!

Anyways, when Nate wanted to stop another time, I held onto the boat, out in deeper water, flooding out my Xtra-Tufs because there was NO WAY we were going to get stuck again.

Nate found us a campsite shortly after and began building a fire. He cut down some of the grass and layed it flat so we could have a place to sleep.

We enjoyed a nice dinner of the usual campfire specialty, and enjoyed the sunset . . .

The stars came out and we thought we were in the clear as far as rain goes . . .

but in typical southeast Alaska style, the weather quickly changed while were enjoying our few hours of sleep, and woke up to the pouring rain {why, oh, why do we not have a tent here!?!}
at 2:30am and to high tide, with the water near our feet.

Nate carefully navigated back to town in the dark . . .
Well, it was quite the {sponteous} excursion.

Sunday we caught up on our sleep from our camping outing,
and I tried a new recipe for dinner: Kung Pao Chicken. I steamed some edamame (soybeans in the pod) to go with it because Nate and I both love them.
It was delish.
Thanks to my college friend, Megan, for the inspiration!

Monday was my b-day. . .
Nate made me french toast and bacon, and gave me a "Capri-Sun" juice as a beverage . . . it was so, so good. Very crispy, however, and I wondered his secret. {He cooked the french toast in the bacon "juice", a secret he learned from his Uncle Ben, who is an expert at Southern cooking :) } {definitely a meal to have in moderation . . . }

For lunch, he made us steak with portabello mushrooms . . .
{Complete with step-by-step instructions to me on how to keep the steak tender. I wanted to video it and submit to "Food Network" or "Top Chef" or something.}

Then, we went on the new trail: Herring Cove to Beaver Lake.
It's a beautiful, trail through the woods, along a rushing river.

Devil's Club is all along the trail;
the leaves are huge!

The main spectacle on the trail is this waterfall:

There are several types of these red "berries". A good chance to try out my new macro lens :)

Nate likes to shoot with my camera sometimes :)
{and with the rifle}

Later,
We had an enjoyable visit with Ev and Tom and ate some cupcakes. I snuck some photos with my cell phone to document the occasion:

And I am so thankful for this fun weekend together.

How has a week flown by already?