This is Iggy. At least you know her as Iggy.

You also know her as a completely ridiculous animal with no self respect. And, truth be told, her name isn’t really Iggy. It’s Egegik. Pronounced IG-gee-gick.

Egegik is the small village across the river from the Behr family compound. Though it’s booming from the salmon trade in the summer months, it has a yearlong population of less than 50 for most of the year. It also boasts the closest post office (the only one within 50 miles, in fact). And so we make the occasional trek across the water in a small fishing skiff.

This requires the expected safety precautions.

And the proper attitude.

Alden keeps lookout. What she is looking for, she will not say. But I trust she’d know it if she saw it.

Dave is captain. Eric and Kris made sure our boat had that intangible “cool” factor.

At one point she saw it. She would not say what it was, but she was clearly pleased.

Which pleases us.

When the water got rough, Kato joined the watch.

August had the good sense to stay behind, but the rest of us, lacking such sense, did our best to enjoy ourselves in his absence.

About 20 minutes later, we approached the shores of Egegik.

We pulled the boat onto the beach, threw the anchor, and walked into town.

While there are a few normal-looking houses.

Most of them are less traditional.

This one is made from two shipping containers stacked together with a roof built on top.

Beyond the houses, there are plenty of other structures you probably won’t find in your neighborhood.

But that’s the nature of the beast. Shipping anything up there is extremely expensive. If possible, you use what’s on hand in creative ways.

The kids love going to Egegik. They love the ride and they love the exploration. They love the adventure of it all.

As for the other Egegik, she didn’t come along.

It seems she had important business to attend to.