Mommy's Treasures

Last week, Valine and Maegan came through Shreveport on their way to Canton. I had not previously planned to go with them, because I wasn't sure what our schedule would be like with a new Grandbaby on the way, etc. When they got into town, Callie and I met them for lunch with babyD2 (BabyD was at Mother's Day Out).

They took turns holding him and we enjoyed visiting and eating some delicious cookies. (The cookies have become a tradition)

Maegan, Valine and I shopped for a little while before they headed out of town. Since I didn't have anything important on my schedule until the following evening, I decided to join them. Our sweet scrapping buddy, Pam, was headed to Canton for the first time with her grandson, so we were thrilled to be able to meet up for dinner before heading to our respective hotels.

Thursday morning, we were up early, despite the dismal weather forecast for the day. The first few hours were dry and we had fun searching for treasures.

We joined Pam and Sandy mid-morning and decided on a time to meet for lunch. Fortunately, our appointed lunch spot was "indoors", because the deluge of rain hit just as we were headed there.

We enjoyed lunch and then set out to do a bit of shopping in covered areas.

As the rain came down, we darted between buildings.

It's always dangerous to be stuck in a nice boutique during a storm. Valine found some of the cutest outfits, stepping out of her comfort zone to try on some things that Maegan and I picked for her.

The rain did finally stop, but the water continued to rise in the nearby ditches and creeks.

I headed home in the afternoon so that I could beat the second round of thunderstorms.

Once home, Ron checked the radar and it looked like the rain was still a few hours away, so we dressed and headed out for the first run of the Summer Fun Run series.

As we stood around waiting for the race to begin, it drizzled non-stop and I began wondering what in the world I was thinking. (There were 200+ crazy people there). It did stop before the race began, but the run was tough. It was cooler than usual, but extremely humid and much of the running trail was obscured by mud from the river flooding that we've been experienced lately. There was one pretty bad injury from the mud, but it wasn't me this time. I was slow and careful not to slip as I walked through those areas.

I'm so glad that I was able to spend time with Valine and Maegan. Not only did we find a few special things, but I got inspiration for a few more.

Of course, the best part by far was getting to spend time with my BFF!

Our last port of call was Ketchikan. I had enjoyed each stop so far, but had been particularly looking forward to Ketchikan.

Ketchikan is a quaint old city, set on the side of a mountain in the Misty Fjords, and is known as the "Salmon Capital of the World."

As we disembarked, I could tell by the stained glass "flags" along the marina that I was going to like this place.

It did not disappoint. The flowers in Ketchikan were bountiful and just beautiful.

We meandered through a tunnel and the borough's streets as we made our way to Creek Street, which is infamous for its former life as the "red light district".

The brothels situated over the creek now house a variety of antique and souvenir shops.

Ketchikan is also home to the world's largest collection of standing totem poles.

In the early afternoon, we made our way to join our last excursion, a flight-seeing trip on a sea plane. Ron had been looking forward to this, but with some nervousness as he tends to get motion sickness fairly easily. But, neither of us had any trouble at all with it and this was his favorite excursion.

We boarded planes at Taquan Air

and took off for a aerial tour of the city, the surrounding Tongass National Forest and mountains.

This picture shows a pair of shipwrecked boats. We were told that after the first ship wrecked, the owner sent out another ship to replace it. Unfortunately, it wrecked in almost the exact same place.