Well our night at Tarfu Lake was nit the best. Jonathan had been complaining about a queasy stomach all evening and about 2am it hit him. Thank goodness for our bathroom. Poor guy. He figures it was something he ate that didn't agree with him. Amelia woke up crying at that time too so I had to deal with putting her back to bed before I could offer sympathy to Jonathan. Once Amelia settled, I switched beds with Jonathan so he didn't have to clamber. Up and down the ladder if he felt yucky again.
Got uo at 9:30am and had to ruse the kids awake. Decided on a quick cereal breakfast and packed up. Left Tarfu Lake around 11am and made it to Atlin around noon. Beautiful drive! Very cool mountain slopes. Apparently the road to Atlin had only recently been paved.
First stop in Atlin was the Pine Tree Services gas station (75L @ $1.35/L) and Jonathan bought brake fluid to top up the master cylinder. We popped across the road to the laundromat but all machines were busy. We then drove a few blocks and followed the signs for the
Norseman RV park which was located right at lakeside by the marina. As soon as we parked, a friendly older guy ambled over and offered us a local Atlin paper and inquired if he could assist us. We confirmed we wanted to stay the night and we parked in close to the "little green shed" that housed the WiFi router. We paid the extra $5 for the patchy WiFi. I asked Norman if he knew Helen Matson, (family friend and my former grade 5 teacher!) and he said he he did and he hadn't seen her yet but he thought she was in town. He pointed put her grey house on the water just up from the marina and said she had sold it recently was was staying next door!
The view of the lake and little marina was so beautiful!! What a great little place. We loaded up three big bags of laundry in the chariot, with Oliver, and I put Amelia on my back in the ergo. Jonathan rested on the couch and the kids and I walked into the main part of town (very tiny) to the log house style laundromat. I was annoyed at myself for forgetting the laundry soap and Ollie helped me buy two boxes from the coin machine. They are good little laundry helpers! We managed to get two loads in and the machine for the soap vending jammed and we couldn't get a third. I strolled the kids over to the playground 2 blocks away and we played until we had to back and put the laundry in the dryer. Prices were good there... $2.75/load to wash and $1.50/load to wash. The kids loved the playground so much we went back again between loads. It had something for every age... Little mini playground structure for Amelia and a bigger one with twisty slide. Huge wooden and chain climbing structures that Oliver loved challenging himself on. He even mastered the swinging monkey bars!
On the way back to the laundry place we saw daddy zip by on his bike. He couldn't hear us shout for him and we ended up completely missing each other. Kids and I collected our clean laundry and headed back to the RV. Turned out to be locked but daddy rolled in a minute after us.
We kept the one bag of dirty towels with us and packed the laundry soap and ventured off to knock on the door of Mrs. Matson's house in hopes of finding her home or at least leaving a note.
The entrance to the residence was above a garage, on a high deck overlooking the lake. We shouted hello when we heard some noises. A lady came out on the deck and peered down at us over the edge... "Mrs. Matson!!" I called. She smiled and looked puzzled and said, "yes!". I told her who I was and she was surprised and delighted to see us. We went in for a little visit. I didn't realize she and her late husband were both born in Atlin! Had a nice chat... Kids were not on their best behavior but not too bad. Kept it short... Snapped a photo to send to mum and left her place with a lovely fillet of lake trout that she had been given and had in her freezer, along with three delicious muffins.
We stopped in the laundromat again for the last load and hit the playground AGAIN with daddy. It really is a great playground surrounded by grassy fields and mountains. Jonathan zipped with Ollie on the bike to change the laundry over and after more playing they headed back to start dinner while Amelia and I retrieved the dry clothes. She is a good little helper bringing me each article one at a time out of the dryer, "heeeeya go mama!" each time. Xo. In the 5 min We waited for the dryer to finish we perused the extensive selection of romance novels on the book rack in the corner. I was intruiged by the book that stood out as quite different than the romances... "How to be an Executive's Wife" c.1968. Lots of great advice in there in how to elevate your husband's career and "how to shush the kids, behave at work socials, and make your home a haven for your husband to come home to".
Got back to the RV to find chef Jonathan starting on the yummy bbq'd potatoes, steamed veggies and pan fried lake trout.
We tried for an earlier bedtime (9pm) and it went terribly. The kids feed off each other's energy and we had lots of tears. I read Oliver some his transformer book and then went down to re-settle a hysterical Amelia that daddy was keeping guard over so she didn't escape her bed. By the time we got them asleep, it was almost 11pm. We gotta change things up!! Tomorrow morning we vow to wake them earlier !
I tapped out yesterday's blog but was unable to post it because of patchy WiFi. Ah well.
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