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.

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.

not-so-brief update with pictures

The last two days have been insanely long. The combined trips from Lloyminster, AB to Ft. St. John, BC (yesterday) to Watson Lake, YT (today) total 1,800 miles now behind us. The good news is that the kids are doing fine, the animals have been great, and we are now in the very last leg of our journey! We will have about 7 hours left in the car tomorrow before we reach Skagway, AK, where we will stay overnight and load up onto the ferry to Sitka Monday morning. I cannot begin to tell you just how exhausted we all are now, but the end is in sight and we are very excited and nervous about what the next few days will bring us. First things first: the only obstacle we anticipate before getting on the ferry is getting back through customs with 4 humans, 3 pets, and our poor over-burdened car.

I know all any of you want is to see pictures, so enjoy the ride:

Entering Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Stretching our legs at a park in Edmonton, Alberta.

A pretty wood strut bridge we passed under somewhere in Alberta.

Moose crossing.

Now entering the Alaska Highway.

At some point along the way, we spotted a sign that indicated a 10K detour along the Old Alaska Highway that would include a historic bridge. We took the detour since it wouldn't set us back too much from our schedule and what we found was pretty amazing. The bridge appears to be entirely made of wood and it is curved to join two roads that lie at odd angles from each other on each side of a large river:

Driving over the historic (1942) Kiskatinaw Bridge.

Side view of the Kiskatinaw Bridge.

British Columbia has some of the most spectacular views we have ever seen. We drove right through the Canadian Rockies and it was just beautiful. On previous road trips we have made the drive through Vale and Aspen in the Colorado Rockies, but none of that even holds a candle to what we saw while driving through B.C.:

Canadian Rocky Mountains along the Alaska Highway.

One of many lakes nestled in between the mountains.

View from a rest area off of the highway.

Same rest area.

There were signs warning of wildlife all along the highway and they weren't kidding! Just today we saw one rabbit, one red fox, herds of sheep, several moose (one infant), a herd of wild horses, too many deer to count, half a dozen or more wild bison, one grizzly bear, half a dozen or more other bears (3 cubs), and a whole slew of amazing birds including loons, eagles, hawks, geese, ducks, and more.

Deadly sheep.

A bison blocking an access road.

One of several black bears we saw.

As a final note for tonight, I want to shamelessly plug an amazing little cafe we encountered in Fort Nelson, B.C., Mama & Papa's Cafe. Everything they serve is homemade and preservative-free, and (most importantly) outstanding in every way. We each had Club sandwiches and clam & salmon chowder. The sandwiches were big enough to be served in any respectable Jewish deli and the chowder was so good, we promised to return whenever we found ourselves within 100 miles of Fort Nelson. Yes, it was that good. Beyond all of that, we found Mama & Papa (the cafe's namesake are the owners and only employees) to be charming people who love to chat up travelers and dote on children. So, if you're ever in British Columbia and find yourself on the Alaska Highway, be sure to stop off at Fort Nelson to fuel up the car and yourself.