Sunday, July 6th - Rich's Birthday and Final Day in Kenai

A Birthday Celebration

We wanted to do something special today for Rich's birthday.  Tam suggested King crab legs since they are one of Rich's favorite and he has only had them once while on this trip.  The menu included deviled eggs, slaw, cheese bread and a chocolate fudge birthday cake.


The pot boils over with delicious King crab legs!!
 

Oh Yeah!  Let's get crackin'!!

Teddy says, "Hey, where's mine?  It is my dad's birthday--don't I get some?"

We decided to cook earlier in the day because it was predicted to rain later that afternoon.  Just before sitting down to dinner, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine.  In fact, it got so warm, the guys were shedding outer shirts.

A toast to the good life and Tam and Rich's birthday!

No birthday would be complete without a chocolate cake!

The heat of the sun forced us to retreat to the shade of a coach where we watched Teddy and Patti throw up clouds of dust from running and playing all over the huge square around which the coaches were parked.

A good lunch, dessert, the warm sun--"Good night, Jack!"

The guys decided ice cream would finish off Rich's birthday in grand style.  Let me tell you, we drove all over Kenai and Soldotna and not one ice cream parlor did we see.  35 miles later, the solution was to stop at the grocery store and pick up a container of vanilla because we were going to make root beer floats.

The Petting Zoo

The RV park, which is also a small farm, has several llamas--one of which is called OBAMA LLAMA.  Rich couldn't pass up the opportunity of a photo op for the blog.  Just as we drove up to the pasture, Obama Llama was running past the car.  We have never seen Rich to move so quickly to get a picture.

This is Obama Llama--note the haughty posture and the part white/part brown coloring!

The rest of us were still in the car watching when the campground/farmer knocked on the driver's window and asked if we could help him get 2 calves back in the pasture who were on the outside of the fence.  Tam and Betty headed to a spot behind intending to drive them back inside.  Jack was near the gate and the calves decided to run back around the girls.  Rich to the rescue.  As we formed a human chain to keep the little guys from bolting, Rich whistled and bearded them into the pasture.  SUCCESS - we then knew we had an animal whisperer in our midst.
The farmer then invited us to walk through the pasture to get some close up pictures of the rest of the llama herd.  Boy, give the dogs give us a once over when we returned to the coaches.

We sure followed Will Rogers' advice:  "Never kick a cow chip on a warm day!"

A momma llama....

....and her baby!

Not sure but we think this is Obama Llama's mother!

Ray drove the car around and parked near the pig pen and watched for us to make our way through all the cow pies and llama droppings.  Passing the pigs, Rich again amazed us with his "pig conversation".  Little did we know what a treat is was to take "little Richie" to the petting zoo for his birthday.

An oink, oink, here--an oink, oink there!!

We want Rich to know how special it was to spend his birthday with us.
[Ed:  And Rich sends a big "Thank You" to Tam and Betty for making it a special day!!!]

Thank you,
Tam, Ray, Betty and Jack
Sunny, Teddy and Patti