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!