August 12, 2007
WALK OF WOE!!:( ☹ (temporarily). We went to STT to spend the night since our flight out was so early. We stayed at Emerald Beach. It’s the hotel near the airport. It was really crowded and we didn’t like it, but the restaurant had good food. Note to self: STT is Not St. John!

We arrived in Alaska the next day. Sad to have left St John, but still we have little to complain about. We live in a house that we built 8 years ago. It sits on a quiet lake with no other development in sight. We have the privilege of living in another beautiful part of the country where we see more wildlife than people while we're at our home. We arrive still in the nicer part of the year, but winter "soon come' and in Alaska it can be long and bitter.

August 10, 2007
What happened today? Finishing up cement screw up. Locals do not like using a cement mixer. They want to do it all by hand. After that we spent the day closing up the house and preparing to leave back to Alaska for the upcoming school year. Our plans are to come back at Christmas break to work some more.

August 9th

August 9, 2007
We got our pour in the morning. Jeff and crew were there. Unfortunately Scorpion King was there because you really need a crew when you pour a slab. The first thing we told them was to make sure they stay on the cage. First thing he does is have his leg break though the Styrofoam. We had to jump into the cistern with plywood to repair the blowout. While that was being fixed, they smoothed our outdoor shower floor FLAT…FLAT…FLAT! We told them to slope it. Then we had a blowout on the front corner that needs to be fixed tomorrow and Scorpion King and crew REALLY messed up the slab. We are talking 1 ¼ inches off from one end of the room to the other – and that’s only a 24-foot distance! I guess we’ll be doing some major repairs later.

August 6, 2007
We finished plumbing and started electric and verticals. Tomorrow inspectors show up and we pour on Weds.

August 7, 2007
The electrician came over and helped with electrical. We almost finished putting in all the uprights (rebar). We put the wood around the perimeter. We went to dinner at Chateau Bordeaux to celebrate our anniversary.

August 5, 2007
THE BEST DAY EVER!! We booked a trip on the Stormy Petrel to the Baths at Virgin Gorda. There were supposed to be 8 people on the trip, but the other people from the Ritz Carlton cancelled, so it was just the four of us. They took us on a tour of the Baths. We went crawling and climbing through the rocks and noticed that the snorkeling was pretty good too. The next stop was lunch at Willy T's (new experience). It was VERY quiet. Then we snorkeled the Indians, which was awesome. It dropped off to about 50' around them. Great reef. We saw "Henry" the baby blacktip. We saw a big eel (probably a moray) - saw its teeth first! We swam through some grottos and had a great day. Didn't get too "Messedup!" Had pizza and played mini golf with S&P at Compass Rose. A pretty excellent day.

August 4, 2007
Spent the day doing lots of rebar tying and plumbing. We had a very disappointing meal at the new Italian restaurant. OMG $26 for pesto pasta. Nothing special. Muy expensive - equals about $1/noodle. Won’t ever go there again. Tomorrow we’re taking a boat ride with our friends to Virgin Gorda.

Aug 1, 2007
Yesterday and today we installed the Lite Deck. It’s pretty easy to lay it down. Then you have to put the rebar grid over the top. You have to be really careful when you walk on top of this stuff. You HAVE TO STEP ON THE STEEL BEAM! We were walking across the deck carrying rebar hooks for the upstairs grid when I fell through the styrofoam!$! It was scary, but I didn’t go all the way through. Later we met with an electrician. Even if you are an owner/builder, you still need a licensed plumber and electrician to pull your permits for you. Later on we went to Majestic to pay and arrange a pouring for Thursday, but changed it to Weds. in the interest of time. Stayed home at night.