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.

a little bit of catching up

The last real update we gave you was from Watson Lake, YT, so I'm going to attempt to fill in the blanks between then and now.

Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, YT.

More Sign Post Forest.

We made it to Skagway, AK pretty easily, taking in the scenery all along the Alaska Highway. I want to pause here for a moment and talk about plants. All through British Columbia and Yukon Territory we saw some of the most beautiful plants and trees. Shaggy White Spruce is most common along this route, but there are more than a few Birch trees as well. The sheer size of these trees took me completely by surprise. In some of the older parts of the forests, there were trees that easily reached 60-100ft into the air. It was sad to see large areas in between these ancient giants that were just starting to grow back after being clearcut for lumber. There were fields upon fields of plants with yellow blooms. We also saw a plant that showed off its purple blooms and wild roses. The roses were very tight bushes with far more thorns than what we are used to in commercial plants. The blooms were smaller and had fewer petals than any other rose I have ever seen, but the scent would make any flower shop variety envious. So strong was the odor that even just having rubbed one of the petals between my fingers caused my hand to smell sweet and rosy for the next few hours.

Pretty purple flowers.

Wild roses (we think).

White Spruce trees.

Pine cones.

Pretty much all of the Alaska Highway looks like this.

Or this.

We had planned plenty of time in our schedule, just in case we had any issue at US Customs, but there was no trouble at all and we were waved through in a matter of a few minutes once our passport cards were swiped into the computer.

Welcome to the U.S.A.

Porter's passport (info blurred for security).

Welcome to Alaska.

Port of entry.

Next stop was Skagway, AK. We arrived in Skagway on the evening of July 4th. It's a cute little town with its downtown built in the 1800s and wooden sidewalks. All of the townsfolk were gathered for a rubber ducky race at the river, so the narrow streets were very quiet and we were able to get a rare peek at the town without the bustle of cruise ship tourists. There are several restaurants and bars and five or six inns, but we couldn't believe how many diamond stores there were! Both sides of the main street (Broadway) were lined with jewelry store after jewelry store advertising diamonds and "Northern Lights" pendants. For dinner, we stopped at the Bonanza Bar & Grill, where we had elk burgers. I was later told that the elk used at the restaurants is not local, but farmed.

Elk burgers.

The next morning we packed up our car and headed to the ferry. Once we checked in, we had plenty of time to go back into town and scratch up some breakfast. To our dismay, two huge cruise ships had disembarked for the day and the streets were filled with every sort of tacky tourist, each clad in his or her own sweatshirt, jacket, or hat embroidered with ALASKA in large letters. Cars couldn't drive the streets for all the people with no regard for traffic laws. Sidewalks were overflowed with people stopped in crowds in front of stores and restaurants. Any stragglers from the groups seemed to be wandering with no apparent direction or purpose. There were three open-top carriages drawn by ponies in front of the Bonanza Bar & Grill that morning, their drivers taking advantage of the tourists. We ate breakfast at The Sweet Shop across the street and watched those poor ponies get poked and prodded, pet and photographed for over an hour before we left and headed back to the ferry.

The cruise ships.

Seren being cute while waiting for the ferry.

More cuteness.

Our ferry rolling in (small in comparison to those cruise ships!).

Our ferry, M/V Columbia, docked in Skagway, AK.

Seren said the ferry had a "big gray hat."

Once we were finally on the ferry, a calm came over us that we hadn't felt in quite some time: we were almost there. Seren and Porter slept most of the ride away. It was a big boat and there was little motion, but what motion there was in combination with the soft rumble of the engines lulled them right to sleep. I'll let Stephen post more about the ferry itself on his next post, as I'm sure he'll be able to give far better descriptions than I would on that subject. We had a 4-berth cabin that was simple, but didn't leave us wanting for anything. The views were spectacular and there was plenty of food and sights inside the boat if water and mountains aren't your thing.

Zonked.

At 8:30am, July 6th, we docked outside of Sitka and drove into town. We spent about an hour and a half just driving around and looking at our new home. We'll have to tell you all about Sitka, but I think I'll save that for another post. :)

finally on the road

It feels kind of surreal leaving Orme right now. Aside from the car being far more cramped than we are used to, it feels like just another one of our biannual drives to Cleveland. Everyone is as comfortable as we can be, though, and we should arrive for the night somewhere in New Mexico. For those who are keeping track, we had 78780 miles on the Pathfinder when we set off today.