the house

We were so excited to see the "real" Sitka when we got off the ferry, we spent the next hour or so just driving around and checking things out. We weren't without aim or purpose, though. One of our first stops was at the Post Office to make sure we had a working mailing address. (If you want the address, please email or call me.)

USPS Sitka, AK.

We went into the downtown area and saw all the shops and tourist attractions. We went across the bridge to see where Mt. Edgecumbe High School is and get a feel for how the campus is set up. We went up some streets and down others until we felt we had satisfied ourselves for the moment, before finally contacting our new landlords and heading home.

O'Connell Bridge, passage to/from Japonski Island.

Finally able to hang up our coats in our new home.

I guess the most difficult part of being here right now is that our house hasn't arrived with us. If you'll remember back before our road trip began, we had sent all of our belongings via Allied Alaska while we made our way across more than 5,500 miles of the U.S. and Canada. It turns out that it can take a really long time for everything to reach its destination that way, so we won't be seeing our furniture, clothes, or toys for about another 2 weeks. That's ok, though, because Sitka has a number of retailers who were happy to sell us air mattresses!

I imagine you want to know what accommodations we found for ourselves, sight unseen... Well, we weren't disappointed. We rented the lower lever of an up/down duplex. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and includes stove, fridge, microwave, washer, and dryer. It's not as much space as we're used to at Orme, but it's more than sufficient for our needs. Seren & Porter even have bigger bedrooms than they had in Arizona! (Sorry for the blurry pictures. I took them with my phone.)

Our new house.

Kitchen.

Living room.

Seren's room.

The kids' bathroom (washer & dryer are behind the towels).

Porter's room.

Master bathroom.

Master bedroom.

After we unloaded the car, we discovered we still needed a place to sit, so we bought a couch.

Couch.

So that's it, that's how we're living right now. We're not uncomfortable, but we're living slim. Since we've sorted out the living spaces, Stephen and I frequently talk about how we wish we'd gotten rid of more stuff before we left Arizona. To that, I say "We still can!"

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As a side note, I want to address a concern we've heard from a few of you who are following along with our adventure. We are not giving up the blog just because we've arrived in Sitka. As far as we're concerned, the adventure has just begun and we are very happy that all of you are interested in what we are doing and staying connected with us in this way. We intend to keep the blog going as long as we feel we have interesting things to share with you, as long as it is entertaining for us as writers and for you as readers, and as long as it continues to have value as a historical account of this time in our lives. Thank you all for your love and support, but also for the little comments and stories you've shared with us along the way. Your active readership helps to make this blog worthwhile.