reedsabbatical

Here is to our Great Adventure

Exciting Adventures Ahead!

Camp has finished, and the last week has been finalized. Now, we are off to explore the beauty of the USA and Canada!

Join us as we travel through this sabbatical adventure, sharing our experiences and memories along the way! Stay tuned for updates and photos from our explorations!

about

Michael and Heather Reed live in Amarillo. Well we own a house in Amarillo. Heather is a Community Regional minister for the CCSW and Mike travels with her to make sure she knows where she is going and takes care of her, because otherwise she would be lost. Heather has been serving this region since 2018, with Mike retiring in 2021, and is taking a sabbatical now after serving full time since 2021. They have been planning their adventures forever and are excited to relax, rejuvenate and recharge for the future with the Christian Church in the Southwest.

Monday July 27 2026

July 27, 2026

Another exciting excursion day…..except we had to get up super early. 5:30 am with the idea of being downstairs around 6:10 to fight hundreds of people for coffee, did not thrill us but room service did not start until 6:30 and that was to late since we had to be at the theatre to get on the transport boat at 6:50 ugh. But we beat most people down stairs and were the first in the theatre. Breaking all kinda of McColl rules….early…on time…never heard of it.

Today we were in Skagway, and we took a wildlife expedition to a little town called Hanes AK. We first had to take a ferry over to the island then we got on a bus. They drove us to all of the hotspots in town known for wildlife. As we were traveling by ferry we saw seals. Tell me how many seals you can see..

They are called rocks by locals sometimes because you can not tell them from rocks.

Once we got to the island and got on the bus, we drove to the local wildlife hotspots

Along with the big wooden bear, we saw squirrels, fish, eagles and there was a rare Mike sighting. we had a great day stopping at these places and then doing some hiking in a wooded area. We kinda hoped to see a bear(while others in our group were not so excited to see one) but we had a real bear deterrent with us, a young chatty 8 year old who was loud and funny and enough to keep any bear away. We still had a blast.

The locals were very happy that their salmon count was up this year already from last year and it is the first week of the spawning. They strive for 80,000 a year and are over half way there. I am not sure how we missed the picture, but how they count is the have the stream blocked except for one small opening and a person sits on a platform above the opening and manually clicks the clicker as salmon pass through. There are two guys who do this that rotate. They do get paid fairly well. lol.