The latest chapter

There is so much that happens that I feel like I could go on and on.... I'll have to post more of the pictures on Flickr the next time I get a chance.

Monday July 16

It rained all night long. We are glad we got some sunny weather in Haines and Juneau. We had to be at the ferry terminal by 6:00am today (I was ready to bend the rules, the ferry doesn't really leave until 8:00). We got it together though, and were there just a little after six, wet, tired and all a little bit cranky at this point. We had a five hour ride to Sitka today, plenty of time to chase kids all over the boat, pretend to play more video games and actually see some scenery and wildlife. We started our ride by finding coffee, digging out breakfast, brushing our hair and generally doing the things that we hadn't quite managed to do in our quick, wet breakdown of camp. We eventually convinced Isaac to sleep in his backpack, Elyse watched movies in the playroom and I got to spend a fair amount of time scanning for wildlife outside. We decided early in the day that tonight would be time to splurge on a hotel. Dry out our gear before getting back on the ferry for the next three days. So, today's camp setup was quick and easy. In fact, we got a room and promptly all fell asleep for a much needed mid-day nap. When we woke, it wasn't raining, so we headed to the city center. The cruise ships stop here too, but they were not here today and the town still feels Alaskan. I was particularly excited to see Sitka and see the places that I read about in history as historic for white settlement of Alaska. They still embrace the Russian influence and the Tlingit heritage. We found the castle, actually inhabited by Baranof, now burned down, atop a hill that looks out over the bay and all of the neighboring islands. All of the sudden, the rain came in and it poured on us. Wow, we don't get rain like that quite that fast in Fairbanks! Took shelter in a cute little local restaurant for dinner. The Super 8 has provided showers, laundry, a place to get organized and an internet connection! Plus, a little extra time for all of us to relax a bit and not have to be on the move quite so much. Tomorrow, we board the Columbia for three days.

Sunday July 15

We woke up in Haines and needed to be at the ferry at 8:45. We had pawned a lot of stuff off on Rob and Ellen to carry some of the weight through the worst of the frost heaves, so we had some repacking to do. Ellen and Maggie did some babysitting while Ron and I figured out how to make it work. Got camp cleaned up and said good bye to our dear Deltoid friends. The weather cleared off and we enjoyed a sunny day! Got to see some of the beauty of Haines as we drove to the ferry terminal. Feels like a coastal Alaska town - like Valdez or Seward. Enjoyed playing outside while we waited for the ferry. Then we got to board the Fairweather for a 4 hour ride to Juneau. This is a new ship, dedicated by the Murkowski's, and is quite comfortable. Lots of room to move around, many windows, a sheltered outside area in back to really scan for wildlife, and (the places we got to spend most of our time) a playroom and some video games. A few whales on the way, but not a ton of wildlife to be seen. We go in to Juneau around 3:00, found a place to camp pretty quickly (on the water for the third night in a row) and headed in to town. The weather was starting to cool off by then, so a tour of downtown would be short. I did get a glimpse of the capital building as we looked for a place to park, but missed most of the government/historic stuff. What we did encounter was the masses of people from the cruise ships. They let off right downtown (the ferry terminal is 9 miles outside of town), and the front street is really dedicated to them. We did not feel like we were in Alaska at all, as we toured the streets with a couple thousand cruise ship passengers and wondered how it is possible for so many jewerly stores to make it all in the same place. I saw a couple of cool, original Alaska things, but it was way touristy. Once again, we needed more time to really see the neat parts of Juneau. Getting late we headed back to camp to make dinner and take a short walk to the beach before bed. We were in bed as soon as the kids were, we really needed some catch up time.