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.

taking in some scenery

I've been taking pictures all over town of pretty areas, broad seascapes, and scenic views from unlikely places. I wanted to share some of these with you so that you can get an idea of what we see all around us every day. I hope you enjoy these sights as much as I do. :)

One of my favorite spots to look out into the ocean is from the parking lot of the grocery store, located about ¼ of a mile down the hill from our house.

Shore and islands viewable from the Seamart parking lot.

More view from Seamart.

Same parking lot.

Obligatory sun-shining-on-the-water picture, taken at the Seamart parking lot.

The shoreline on a different day.

View of MEHS from Seamart's parking lot.

If we paid enough attention, we'd see dozens of float planes like this one every day.

Even McDonald's has a fantastic view of the marina from their main dining room!

McDonald's tabletop overlooking the marina.

I've talked about the view from our living room before, but here are better pictures:

View of Japonski Island (MEHS on the left), taken from our front porch.

MEHS and lots of sky.

And the view from Mt. Edgecumbe High School's parking lot is just as spectacular.

Marina and mountains viewable from MEHS Parking lot. (Look familiar at all? --Stephen)

Boat heading into the marina.

Same boat, different perspective.

O'Connell Bridge, as seen from MEHS.

Downtown Sitka.

More of the marina.

We spent an afternoon at the Old Sitka State Historical Park, just checking out plants and mussels that had washed up on the shore and skipping stones. These pictures were taken there:

A little bit of shoreline.

A dead tree on the pebbly beach.

More beach.

Sparkling water.

Just a beautiful day to be near the water.

Mountains and placid pools.

Seren trying to decide if the water is too cold to try out. (Hint: It is!)

Kind of reminds me of "One Morning In Maine."

Clear pools and water trickling down the rocks.

Driftwood.

More driftwood.

A small island nearby.

Throwing rocks.

Pretty little flowers in the grass.

Finally, here are just a few pictures taken from the downtown area:

O'Connell Bridge as seen from Baranof Castle.

Different perspective.

Totem Square.

huh

Stephen and I have talked often of how/where I would find even part time work once we get to Sitka. With so much else to worry about with the move, we put the concern for my employment on the back burner with a little bit of hope reserved on the side for picking something up once we got settled in. We did some light research here and there just so we would have some idea where to start. One of the more promising places we found was a chain of grocery stores (4 total in Sitka) that also have pharmacies, video rental, and other amenities on site. The largest store in the chain, Seamart, is only a couple of blocks from the house we've rented. At some point a few weeks ago, I emailed a resume to the HR department that handles all of the stores. A few days later, I recieved a very informal reply which told me that my resume would be sent to the stores and I would be contacted by a manager soon to discuss open positions. Today (just now, in fact) I answered a phone call from the hiring person at Seamart with not one, but two part time possibilities that will be available to me once we get in. My instructions are to go into the store as soon as we get to Sitka so my employment can be discussed further.

Two things stand out to me about this right now:
1. I am amazed that I have had a callback on the only job I have applied for since moving to Orme, and only casually pursued at that.
2. This kind of thing seems to be the trend with all of our interactions with the people of Sitka.

Observation: If everyone in Sitka is as friendly and willing to help as everyone we've talked to so far, we will do just fine.