Berries and Chalk

I discovered that there is a blueberry farm in our city. I have great memories of picking blueberries every summer with my mom, siblings, and whoever else wanted homemade jam. So I jumped at the chance to take my kids to pick blueberries. Early Saturday morning we found the farm and had a great time.

There are some major differences between picking blueberries in Southern California and picking them in Southeastern Alaska:

In California, you slather on the sunscreen. In Alaska, you slather on the bug repellent.

Here you bring a hat and sunglasses. There you bring your rain gear, just in case.

Here you drive to the berry farm. There you find a section of forest (every one knows the best spots are "out the road"), then hike a little bit to find an ideal place to start.

Here you only have to avoid other berry pickers. There you have to avoid other pickers, worms in the berries, and devil's club, not to mention watch out for bears.

In California you stay pretty clean while filling your bucket. In Alaska you don't. (Rain-soaked bushes, mud, and soggy berries are a good recipe for wet and dirty clothes and blue fingers - blue lips too, if you sample as you pick. In anticipation of general blue-ness the kids started out wearing old t-shirts, which, as you can see by the pictures, were shed when we discovered how clean the process is here.)

Here you pay $5 a pint (not bad really). There you can pick as much as you want for free as long as your fingers and the weather cooperate, or just until every container you have is full.

Here the season ends at the end of June/beginning of July. There the season might start in July if you're lucky. Otherwise it's pretty much August.

There are also a few similarities. This is some of what I overheard: "Look at this branch! I hit the motherlode!" "Just one more row, Mom. My bucket's almost full." "Not yet! I'm not done!" And, of course, "Don't drop your bucket!"

One pint isn't enough for homemade jam, but thanks to Dallin's and Audrey's efforts, this morning we had yummy blueberry pancakes for breakfast! I'm excited to go back and pick more next summer (they close after this coming weekend).





After our fun at the blueberry farm, we headed over to the city's annual
"Chalk Festival" (that's what my kids called it). Artists draw pictures on the street with, what else, chalk. There was a section taped off just for kids.


We had fun here too, but should have kept the old t-shirts. This was a much messier activity.

All they did was scribble, but isn't that sort of the name of the game with modern art?

After checking out all of the artists' drawings, we couldn't resist taking a ride on the horse-drawn trolley car. Audrey and I had fun; Dallin insisted the entire ride that he wasn't having fun yet.

We had a great day just spending time together!