Going blueberry picking x2

Nate and I thought that it would be a fun activity to take the kids to the blueberry festival at one of the ski resorts here in Alaska.  The ski resort offered free chair lift rides up to where the wild berries grow.  They only offered the free rides between 1 and 3 so I knew that we needed to be there by no later then 1.  It was a beautiful drive up to the resort.  We even stopped at Beluga point to look at the ocean.  By the time we got up to the resort it was crazy busy there and it was interesting to find parking.  I took the kids right away and got in line for the chair lift.  We had to wait in lie for about 30 minutes before we were able to get on the chair lift. Realistically speaking we could of hiked up to where you could pick the blueberries faster then taking the chair lift but, the kids had never been on one and I thought that it would be fun to take them on it.  We were on the chair lift for about 20 minutes because it was moving so slowly.  There were some people who were calling out "Marco" and for some reason I yelled back "Polo". Which then started a game of Marco Polo with everyone on the ground yelling "Marco" and people on the chair lift replying "polo".   When we finally got off the chair lift we needed to decide which way we were going to go looking for the blueberries.  We just decided to head down the mountain to see what options that we had.  We found a path called blueberry pancake trail and we decided not to take it because that seemed to be the direction that everyone else was going.   Nate found a path that went almost right under the chair lift that he decided to take the kids on.  I couldn't go on it because the hill was too steep for me to go up and down.  But the they were able to find some blueberries.  Between the 5 of them they picked about 3 cups of blueberries.  They also found some salmon berries too.  But they only found enough for all of us to try one.  After everyone was done gathering blueberries we walked around the festival.  They had usual festival foods like funnel cake and fried foods.  They also had a lot of food with blueberries in (after all it was the blueberry festival) like salad, pudding and cookies.  We all ended up picking out a cookie to eat and they were so tasty.

Two days later after being hounded, convinced by 2 of my friends at church I took my kids to pick blueberries.  A bunch of us were meeting together and driving out to the mountains to pick them.  I really didn't want to go because it was happening the day before school started and I still had a bunch of things to do to prepare for the next day.  I once again was unable to go down with the kids to pick the blueberries because of the steepness of the hill but, I have been living with my stupid ankle for 2 years and have been unable to do many things that I am used to it.  I told everyone not to worry about me and to just enjoy the berry picking.  It was hard for some of the ladies to understand that I really ok with being a spectator in a lot of the things that I do with people.  Mostly because I know that things are going to get so much better as soon as I have my surgery.   The kids picked and picked.  After a while Natalie and Ella came to the car for lunch but my two dedicated kids continued right on through lunch and didn't stop until I made them stop so that I could leave.  The kids ended up gathering so many blueberries that combined with the other blueberries picked from our previous excursion we had almost a gallons worth.  Which is a lot considering that a big blueberry was smaller the a dime.

With all of the blueberries I had to find something to make.  I ended up making a blueberry pie, a salad, and some muffins.  The blueberries were a little tart and not as yummy as the ones from the stores.