My last week in Sitka

Since my last post, I have decided, not entirely by choice, to leave Sitka this Thursday.  I have been having a tough time with allergies, and I can't get away from the sources, so I am ending my time here.   This is bittersweet, as I have really loved being here until I started feeling so bad.   

The weekend is gorgeous, a real gift to me, as we have had lots of rain lately, but most of it has been on work days.  Yesterday I woke to chilly temperatures (49) and beautiful clear skies.

I did all the fun Saturday things, like going to the Farmer's Market, going out to lunch, walking, shopping, and taking a nap.   (I think it was my first nap in Sitka).  The day was bookended by beautiful skies. 

On Friday after work I had my first visit to the Pioneer Bar, or "P" bar.  It is the locals bar and it is colorful and smoky!  I could not leave Sitka without a drink there.  My work friend Jamie and I enjoyed this.

I am starting to pack and will take a hike this afternoon with Lee Ann.  Then getting my self ready to finish up at SEARHC.   Here is my favorite view from the hospital looking out on Eliason Harbor and Sitka. 

Last weekend I saw a pod of whales at the Whale Park, a location where Whales are often spotted.  The wildlife are amazing here.  There are bald eagles, ravens, brown bears, sea lions, sea otters, all kinds of fish, especially Salmon, and Whales.    I have seen all of them.  I stay across the street from the Sitka Sound Science Center.  The focus is on Salmon, and they have a hatchery there.  So, when salmon return to the home stream, it is the hatchery, and the staff gather them.  Many are released at other streams in hopes that they will spawn there, but some are allowed to enter the short stream at the Science Center.  Then they are gathered, hit on the head, and their eggs are removed for the hatchery.  The fish are taken to a processing plant and they make cat food (at least that is what they say!)   here are a few photos from last weekend.

Here is an eagle photo, just for good measure.

I have done as much hiking as I can, and there are many beautiful trails.  Here are some photos from Harbor Mountain.

Last, but not least, Dave and Lee Ann and I at the Pub on a Friday nite. 

Town of contrasts

Over the past ten days, there have been many contrasts in the weather.   (you may have noticed that I mention the weather a lot!)  The rainforest life has been a bit of a challenge to adjust to.   But, thankfully, there are glorious days that seem to occur just when you think you can't bear another day that is grey and rainy.   Last weekend provided that reprieve.  The sun came out on Friday and stayed out all weekend and into Monday.  The sunset on Friday nite was the prettiest I have seen here.

Saturday started out with a cup of coffee across the street on the waterfront promenade and some visiting with folks from San Francisco and Louisiana. 

A little later I attended the St. Gregory's parish picnic with some  of my co-workers.   The food was plentiful and there was a dunking booth that provided a few laughs. 

The rest of the day was spent strolling around town and doing weekend stuff.

On Sunday, I was at Fisherman's Quay at 6am ready for a nice boat ride to Kruzof Island and a hike up Mt. Edgecumbe, an extinct volcano.   We jumped off the boat onto the beach, and immediately saw two brown bears in the river closeby looking for Salmon. 

We watched for a bit, took pictures, then started our hike. We hiked through muskeg, which is an Alaskan terrain that is somewhat swampy with lots of short shrubs and short trees. 

Our group was composed of Dave and Lee Ann Alexander, whom I work with, their sons Cole and Bailey, 18 and 16, Lexie, the chef at the hospital (about 28) and me.   These folks are great friends and wonderful hiking buddies.   The boys were in the lead most of the time, but their Mom, Lee Ann, is a great hiker and she could lead us all!  She is planning to hike the Pacific Crest Trail solo when she and Dave get back to the lower 48.  I have no doubt she will do it!  She is a great encourager for me and I enjoy her company.

 

We hiked with a few short breaks for three hours.   I was pooped and at a place with a spectacular view, so I stayed put while the others took the last leg up to the summit.   I was glad I stayed as the rest of the trail was slippery and very steep.  Two of the hikers fell, one ended up doing nice roll down the hill past his mom!   Anyway, in addition to being steep, the wind increased the higher up the volcano.  We guessed the wind was at least 40 mph.  It was blowing us all over the place.   And it was cold!   So, the hikers made the summit and quickly came back to where I was waiting for them.   We hiked back to the beach, where we saw some sea lions while we waited for our boat to return.  On the ride back to Sitka, we saw one humpback whale.  We were all pretty excited!   What a great day!

Work is good.  We stay very busy, so the time goes by quickly.   We are getting a lot done and our work team is really bonding.  I will miss these ladies when I get home.  I have learned a lot and I have been able to help lots of folks do a better job with their infection prevention practices. I have extended my contract until the end of October, so I will be back in NC October 30.  

I took a little walk around town tonite.   I took a photo at the neat Welcome to Sitka sign at town dock.   I took a photo here when I first arrived in town.

Here  is the same scene this evening.

Sad to say, there are lots of days like this.  I don't take too many pictures of these days!   I prefer the gorgeous, sunny ones!

Early Monsoon Season

A Sitka long time resident told me yesterday that the monsoon season had started early this year.  I think she is right.   But as another long term resident told me, there is no bad weather, just bad gear.  So, I am learning to enjoy walking in the rain, and I am having lots of opportunities!  This morning I got out before the rain started and went to the Indian River to see the salmon journeying up the river to spawn and then die.  It is hard to see the salmon, because they are grey, but they are there in really large numbers.  Look closely!

The next photo is of a trawler pulling in a big net full of salmon.  They will be loaded onto a bigger boat for processing.   Once the salmon start migrating back up the river, it is illegal to catch them.  The whole process is interesting.  The Eggs are laid in the bottom of the river or pond.  The eggs , will .hatch after two-three months.  Then they hand around until the egg yolk, that is still attached is completely absorbed.  After this they look like tiny fish (Fry) and start moving downstream.  After a few months, they are about 6 inches long (Parr).   They stay in this stage for 1-3 years, before adjusting to saltwater and schooling together for their swim into the Pacific ocean.  Adult salmon spend 1-4 years in the Pacific before returning to their original spawning grounds to spawn.  After spawning and fertilizing the eggs, both the male and female salmon die, thus fertilizing the stream where they were born.   Alaska has an excellent set of salmon management practices and Alaskan salmon are protected. 

I continue to have lots of activity right outside my living room window.  There is always something to watch.   Last weekend the runners from a half marathon passed by.  On Sunday, there was an open water swim, the "Change of Latitude" swim.   Each swimmer has a kayaker who stays with them to help them stay on course and to signal the Coast Guard auxillary boats in case the swimmer gets in trouble.  I had a good swimmer, Ken, from Anchorage.  He is the president of the Alaska master swimmers group.   He swam 3K.  Seemed like a long way to swim to me!   Some participants swam 10K!  Here I am ready to go paddle next to Ken.  He was swimmer #16.

Sunday afternoon turned out to be the nicest afternoon all week.  I took a nice hike on Harbor Mountain with my friends Dave and Lee Ann.   It was a good hike with the clouds breaking up some for some pretty views.  I hope to get up there on a day when the sky is clear!

I also visited the Sheldon Jackson Museum, which is the oldest museum in Alaska and it houses a great collection of Native Alaskan artifacts, clothing, dishes, pottery and other items for daily living.  The Native Alaskans were very smart in adapting to the harsh climate and living situations.  I will go back again so I can take it all in. 

in the Rainforest!

I have been here in Sitka for the best part of nine weeks, and the rain has been very moderate.  Until Friday!   We are definitely having a rainy spell.  It is raining today (#3) and has been raining for most of the time since Friday morning.   I am going on a boat ride this afternoon.  Glad I brought my foul weather gear!   Since arriving, I purchased a pair of Xtra tough boots.   I will wear them today, too.

The weather early this week was gorgeous!   Shorts and tanks tops weather.   On Monday after work I paddled out to get some photos of SV Thalia.   What a gorgeous boat!

On Tuesday nite I attended the Cello-bration at the Sitka Fine Arts camp.  Wow!  Amazing, fun music in beautiful Allen Hall.   One/half block from my apartment.   On Wednesday, I heard a great talk from a climate scientist on global warming.   He was an entertaining speaker, and the topic is so interesting.   this was followed by a documentary film about the work of Ed Rickettes, who cataloged many species of ocean shore life in the native habitats.  it was well done and interestings.

quiet since then.   Out for a drink and dinner on Friday and a brief stop at work on Saturday morning, then the healthclub at work.   Errands.  Spectacular presentation of Guys and Dolls at the Sitka Fine Arts Center last nite by the Sitka Fine Arts camps students.  There was even a live orchestra.   The play was so well done.   I went with my new friends Dave and LeeAnn.   I have been here long enough now that I saw several people I know there. 

Now I am off to the rainy boat ride and I have my fingers crossed for a break in the rain.  Met Dave and Lee Ann at the boat and off we went in the rain with a full boat of bird watchers.  it was a rough ride.  I had three ginger chews, which are amazing for motion sickness!  The rain slowed down, and we did see lots of birds, sea lions, sea otters, jellyfish, and Eagles.  There are lots of Eagles in Alaska!

this last lovely cruiser is the National Geographic Sea Lion.  There was a lucky group of folks on board cruising SE Alaska waters and learning about wildlife in SE Alaska.   Apparently it is quite a nice boat with a lovely crew! 

Nice ending to a rainy week! 

July in Oriental and Sitka

I have had three busy weeks.  The last week in June was very busy at work.   On July 1st, I left Sitka early in the morning to travel to North Carolina.  I learned several things on July 1st.   The first was that frozen fish get put on the plane before standard luggage and it takes a long time to load the fish.   We were 45 minutes late leaving Sitka, so I missed my connection in Seattle.   Since it was July 4th weekend,  I had a tough time rebooking from Atlanta to NC.  I could not get to New Bern, so I took a flight to Jacksonville.  That flight was also delayed due to mechanical problems.  I arrived in Jacksonville at midnight, with no luggage.   I took a memorable taxi  ride to Oriental.  The cabbie wanted to pick up another rider, and that detour took about 45 minutes, so we did not get on the road to Oriental until 12:45am. The cabbie drove the speed limit or lower the whole way,  so we pulled into my parking lot at 2:15am from the New Bern side of Jacksonville.  Let's say I was beat!

The next morning was a big one for the Pugh's. The favorite event of the weekend, the Croakerfest Parade started at ten.   I was there, a little worse for the wear!  It was so great to see my granddaughters.

The two older girls had their boyfriends with them. The boys stayed at my place and it was really nice to have them there.   It was a fun weekend and week.  On Monday we rented a boat from Bow to Stern and rode out to Beaufort and had a nice beach day.   Our little adventure on the way back was that a big storm blew up over the Neuse, so we stopped at a marina to wait the storm out.   We arrived home safely after a fun day!

The rest of the week was busy with some Health Coaching appointments, appointments in New Bern, visiting with friends, birthdays, coffee, and getting ready to come back to Sitka. 

(My suitcase did not arrive in Oriental until Tuesday!  There were lots of fish being flown home.)

I returned to Sitka on Saturday and had an uneventful trip back. I had Sunday to recuperate before going back to work on Monday.  I am so glad I did that!  I did have a small bout of homesickness when I got back to Sitka.  My visit in Oriental was not quite long enough!

Busy week at work.   I had a wonderful cruise on Wednesday after work with the Sitka Conservation Society.  We cruised to Redoubt Lake to learn about the life cycle of salmon.   It was a typical grey evening, but the scenery was spectacular as always.  Redoubt lake is one of the largest "meromictic" lakes in North America.   This means that the top 300 feet or so of water are fresh, and the bottom 150-400 feet are salt water. 

We cruised another small bay nearby.   Commercial fishermen are in place at good fishing areas waiting to put their nets or highlines in the water as soon as the waters are open to them.  Fishing is big business in this area, both commercial and sport fishing. 

On this cruise, we saw lots of sea lions playing, several sea otters, eagles, and three bears.   For everyone, the bears are the most exciting animals to see.   We were glad we were on the boat and they were on the shore.

Today (Sunday) I took a great long hike with my friend Conor.  We hiked to Indian River Falls.  The hike is described as easy, but we were both tired when we finished.  We hiked over ten miles, and a lot of the trail was wet and had lots of roots to deal with.  Roots are the hardest things to climb through!   We were rewarded with a beautiful waterfall and a nice break!

Conor is doing an internship for his law school education at the Public Defender's office here.   We have hiked several times and he is a great hiking buddy.  He is patient with me when I need to take a break, but I keep up with him pretty well most of the time.

More next weekend!

Week 5 in Sitka

This was a really nice week.   Very busy at work, but I got a lot done and should be able to return to a more normal schedule this week.    I will post some photos I have taken this week in my ramblings around town.

On Saturday night there was a wedding reception across the street in the Science Center annex.  Here is the bridal party posing on the beach.  This photo was taken at about ten pm last Saturday.   It stays bright until about 11pm.

Sunday was a quiet, rainy day .   There are lots of rainy days here.   It is a rainforest after all!

On Wednesday night, I went to the last Wednesday evening concert of the Annual Sitka Summer Music Festival at the newly re-opened Sitka Hotel with Arika.   Amazing chamber music concert!

Then I was off to Ludwig's Bistro, the best little restaurant in Sitka.   The occasion was a going away dinner for Mirinda.   Conor, Mirinda, and I had great dinners and desserts along with sharing a wonderful new friendship!   

The walk home from Ludwig's was lovely.   I took this photo at about 9:15pm on Wednesday evening.  

On Saturday I went across the street to the Sitka Science Center, where there is a large Salmon hatchery and an interesting indoor exhibit with local sea urchins and other sea creatures in a touch tank.   The colors are amazing. 

We had several gorgeous sunny days this week.   When the sun is out, I  seem to take a lot of photos.  There is a window in the stairway at the hospital with the most gorgeous view. 

I did some shopping today after having a great brunch at my favorite restaurant .   Many Sitkans where these boots, Xtra tuff's, because it is wet here so much.  I decided I have to have a pair of Xtra tuffs.    Here they are!(I have big feet!!)

And I will be flying to North Carolina on Friday and will be in Oriental for a week.  So, I will take a break from posting.   Happy Fourth of July!!