reflections: differences between being in Sitka and Cleveland

I'm aware that a couple of my recent posts may not have been as positive as I would have liked (products of exhaustion and travel), so I will attempt to keep this post more neutral or positive. This may be difficult, as I intend to compare the place where I grew up with the place that my family has chosen to live.

Weather
The most obvious difference between Sitka and Cleveland is the weather. Everyone who visits Cleveland in the summer from somewhere drier always comments on the oppressiveness of the humidity. Similarly, the winters are oppressive to people who live in warmer places. Sitka has daily temperatures of 45-65 Fahrenheit and 80-90% humidity on a regular basis. You'd think that Cleveland would be a relief after that, but it's the exact opposite. The key is that the high humidity in Sitka almost always results in drizzle or rain, whereas the warm humidity in Cleveland just hangs everywhere around you, inducing sweat. Also, we are all VERY acclimated to the cool.

Sun
18 hours per day versus about twelve. The big difference is that I've never sunburned in Sitka.

Wildlife
Wow. At home, we have eagles and ravens around the house all the time. We see some hummingbirds and sparrows or finches, but the big birds are about it. We don't live in the right places to be seeing deer or bears on a regular basis, and the marine life isn't visible from our house at this time of year.

In Cleveland, however, my grandfather's bird feeders have made this place crazy. At any given time, there might be two blue jays, a cardinal, a red winged blackbird, and a handful of sparrows all at one of the three main feeders. In addition, there will probably be a few squirrels preparing an invasion. The other evening, we saw a pair of young bucks walking through the front yard and across the street. This place really lacks large predators.

People/Stores/Radio/Family/Driving
OK, it's not even worth pretending to be neutral here. Sitka wins, hands down. I miss Raven Radio, I miss our grocery store, and I miss the people who have developed a caring small-town culture.

I constantly do Sitkan things while driving (forgetting to check the speedometer, stopping to let cars from side streets in front of me, waiting for pedestrians who don't expect a car to stop for them).

Going into Giant Eagle the other day was a shock. All that space seemed to result in no greater selection than at SeaMart - there was just more of everything on the shelves. In fact, there were a lot of places (in the veggie section, even) where our rural store that relies on barges and planes was better stocked than the one with daily truck deliveries. Even more amazingly, some of Sitka's prices were competitive.

Turning on the radio is a weird mix of nostalgia for the radio I heard growing up and sadness that most people simply don't know that radio can be done like it is at KCAW.

It is good to get in a lot of time with family. It's been two years since the entire families have visited, though, so there's a lot of relearning each other.

Scale
The biggest adjustment for me is scale. We've confined our visit mostly to a small area of the eastern suburbs of Cleveland so far, but this place is so much bigger than Sitka. Everything is bigger - the roads, the traffic jams, the stores, even the houses. Unfortunately, this means that people just don't know each other the same way as they do in a small town, so they talk to each other differently and are far more capable of pretending not to see each other. This was painfully evident at a Wendy's yesterday (one that I've been visiting with family members since I was in kindergarten or earlier and whose decor has not changed in that entire time), when the clerk at the cash register helped us make our order with as much personal care and consideration as a touch-screen ATM. It would be just as efficient and a whole lot cheaper (and possibly less impersonal) to have turned the register around and let us put in our own order without her there. I remarked to my father that all throughout Canada and small-town USA, we'd grown accustomed to service with a smile and the appearance of genuine care. Oh, well.

The Kids
Our kids really miss a lot of stuff about being in Sitka. A lot. However, they have a big back yard to play in here that is full of grass. They are excited about getting to the local pool and they have bikes to play with here (a huge driveway, flat sidewalks, and a walking/running trail are much easier to learn on than what we have at home). They do miss their friends, but exploring this house and spending time with family is still very exciting to them and they will eventually re-establish themselves on a daily schedule.

Summation
Ugh, sweat. I'll do another post soon about our first impressions on digging through my grandfather's house, but that's a completely different topic. In short, the man was interested in everything, maintained everything, and never threw anything away. Anything.

Settling In

Since arriving in Cleveland, we've been busy with all sorts of things as far as getting settled in and starting on the massive transformation that will change Nate & Marlys' home into Michael & Cindy's home. We haven't had much luck with wireless internet until tonight, but we should be able to give less hurried posts from here on out. I will spare you the details of all the cleaning and sorting we've done today and show you some pictures instead (since I know that's what you really want, anyway).

World's largest tepee in Medicine Hat Alberta

Rainbow Bridge, New York viewed from Niagara Falls, Ontario

American Falls in the rain on Sunday

The view from our room on the 8th floor of the Imperial Hotel

Double rainbow and Skylon Tower, viewed from our hotel room

Porter, ready to go

Skylon Tower

Tim Horton's viewed from Skylon Tower

Horseshoe Falls

American Falls

Porter enjoying the view from Skylon Tower

Seren enjoying the view from Skylon Tower

Maid of the Mist

Maid of the Mist sailing into Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Walking through the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens

"Stephen's Tea Roses"

Cleveland (Day 6)

OK, this will be a quick one. As mentioned previously, we changed our route for reasons of clock and wallet. We made good time yesterday, traveling all the way from Eau Claire to Cleveland in about 14 hours, about 12 of which were spent actually driving. There were no major complications, but Chicago traffic is absolutely miserable and I found myself desperately missing Sitka's "bad traffic" - a 20-car lineup at the traffic circle that might take three minutes to clear. Also, Indiana really needs to figure out a better way to label the I94/I80/I90 interchange, because I managed to miss my correct route for the second time in a decade.

Some quick housekeeping items:

1. Yup, this is a morning post. We got in late last night and didn't want to write. Sue us.
2. We're not traveling with a full car any more, but we are still hitting the road again today. We're off to Niagara Falls with my parents and sister and one of her dogs (the blind one).
3. Since we're headed to Niagara Falls, don't expect much in the way of travel stories (it's only 3 1/2 hours away), but there should be a lot of pictures. Also, Seren will probably post some time in the next few days to share some of the pictures she's taken and to tell the world her impressions of the drive.
4. We'll be back in Canada for the next three days. Previously-stated rules for communication are back in effect.

Seren's first post!

i am excited to go to cleveland to see baba! i also want to go to the zoo, the museum, and the library.

i really really really want to go to a hotel. i like hotels because they give us the food that we want and they have nice beds!

i also want to take pictures on the camera! i am excited to go to niagara falls.

checking under the hood...

We're going to get this blog rolling again in the next few weeks!

For those who don't know, my grandfather died about two months ago. In the intervening time, it was decided that, instead of spending a lot of money to fly one or two of us to Cleveland in order to attend a funeral and then turn around and come right back to Alaska, we would save up our money a bit and make a family road trip this summer. Our plan is to load the car up with four humans and a dog and ferry to Prince Rupert, BC, then to drive across Canada to Niagara Falls, ON, where we will meet up with my parents and sister for a couple of days. This will mark the first time in two years that all four of us have left Sitka at the same time and also the first time that more than two of us have visited any family members outside of Sitka since we moved here. Our plan for the month or so following our time in Niagara Falls is to help sort through my grandfather's house, preparing the estate for its final resolution and preparing the house to change hands. We also intend to take some time to visit with family and friends in the Midwest. We will then get back on the road in order to return home with a bit of time before school starts back up for everyone.

While we are away from Sitka, we will be taking pictures and video to share here. We will also be posting daily updates from the road and occasional updates while we are in Cleveland and visiting with loved ones.

Over the next week or two, look for some cosmetic changes to occur on this blog! We'll be giving it a bit of a facelift and getting everything ready for a new travel adventure!

Cleveland wrapup - we've been busy!

In the time we've been in Cleveland (since Monday), we've been able to see a lot of my family, including all three of my grandparents. My sister, mother, and wife were able to help my grandfather sort through my grandmother's personal items and I don't think there were any badly hurt feelings as a result. I got to see both of my uncles in the same place for the first time in a while and a number of people got to see Porter for the first time. We've worked out our route, then completely reworked it (I'll possibly post that later). We've had the car repaired. We've seen one of my best friends and given him several baby items and made arrangements to see my two other best friends tonight and Monday. We've finally gotten the bill for our move and have started paying that off. We've tried to catch up on sleep and let the kids have some semblance of a normal schedule (although we've really failed at the latter - poor Seren is desperate for regular naps and time to run around like a kid her age needs to do). We've confirmed that we can keep Verizon service through Canada and that it'll cost the same as our current plan. We've even gotten new insurance cards for our car.

Looking ahead, we'll be seeing some old family friends tomorrow and doing a lot of packing. Monday, we hit the road, with a stop planned in Albion, Michigan to get lunch with one of my best friends, see a professor I've been missing a lot, get some dishes, and enjoy a barbecue chicken pizza and some Oberon! After that, we're going to head for the Chicago area for our first night back on the road. Unfortunately, we'll be missing out on the stop we hoped to make in Churubusco, Indiana to see some of JoElle's family. We had to cut time out of our trip, and the Michigan trip only made the cut because of the dishes (much as I love Oberon, 'Relli's pizza, Kyle, and JimBall). Expect more frequent updates during the next week and a half!

doing preliminary planning for our Cleveland to Alaska leg

It looks like we'll be spending 7 full days on the road. We'll swing through lower Michigan and Churubusco, Indiana in order to see a few important people there, then everything else will be straightforward and without detours.

Day One: Cleveland to Chicago, 8.5 hours of driving
Day Two: Chicago to St. Cloud MN, 8.5 hours of driving
Day Three: St. Cloud MN to Brandon, MB, CANADA, 8.75 hours of driving
Day Four: Brandon MB to Saskatoon SK, 7.5 hours of driving
Day Five: Saskatoon SK to Grande Prairie AB, 12.5 hours of driving (OUCH)
Day Six: Grande Prairie AB to Fort Nelson BC, 7.5 hours of driving
Day Seven: Fort Nelson BC to Whitehorse YT, 13 hours of driving (OUCH)
Day Eight: Whitehorse YT to Skagway AK, 2.75 hours of driving/18.5 hours of ferry to Sitka!

This route was chosen to put us in big cities for the night whenever possible so that we'd have access to resources and less expensive hotels. It's a lot harder than the route that brought us to Cleveland, so we're going to have to rest up a lot and be very prepared. It'll be a huge adventure for all of us, and I can say that I'll be very glad to be doing this headed west, picking up a few 25-hour days that way!

clarification is apparently necessary

We've had a number of people asking us why we're headed east to go north. This is a reasonable question, as we have not yet talked about this on the blog. My family lives in Cleveland and we had a trip planned to see them this summer before the job offer came through in Sitka. After doing some really deep soul-searching and budget examination, we made the decision to cut our trip to Cleveland down from six weeks to about one in order to take care of some of the more important things we were going to do during our visit. Among those things are spending time with my three remaining grandparents, all of whom are aging and two of whom haven't seen either of our kids in a while. The effort and expense of driving 2000 extra miles will take their toll, but we felt that this was important to do. We're also going to have a chance to see some of JoElle's family that we haven't seen in several years and to visit with some of my best friends (and give some baby stuff to one of them who's expecting his first in October!).

In other news, day two of the trip went well, but Tulsa is miserable at 84% humidity. I think I sweated out five excess pounds just doing the stairs twice at our hotel. Today's agenda: visiting JoElle's godparents near Joplin, MO and heading into southern Illinois, possibly getting as far as Indianapolis.