Leaving Alaska for the summer

Oh, no!  It's time to go!  Little did we know it would be so hard to leave when we got here.  We love the thought of going back to see friends and family and sail in Central New York, but we surely will miss what has come to be home in Alaska -- and the mountains, and Prince William Sound and the hiking and biking and starting to fish this year and all of the places we now want to try kayaking.  Brian will be leaving in two days to fly back -- Colleen is graduating on Saturday from RIT.  Judy is following next Monday, via Portland and only back for Memorial Day Weekend before leaving for Albany, Orlando, Roanoke and then back to CNY on the 10th of June. 

So what's been happening?  More shrimping on Prince William Sound, biking on the Coastal Trail, many nightly walks, last dinners with friends, shopping at the first weekend of the open air market downtown -- Judy tried a bite of whale with an Native Alaskan artist selling his paintings who had two friends visiting who had just killed a whale up north in Pt. Hope and brought him some whale meat.  If you're Eskimo, he told us, you're never really full until you have whale meat.  It was interesting, and there's really not anything I could compare it to!  Walked to Barnes & Noble and got reading material for the flights.  Packing's done, shipped some things back for sailing while we're back.  We're busy right up until the last minute.  Judy had an orientation all weekend for a Cross-Cultural Immersion Program.  She'll be going to a village in rural Alaska for a week in August as a part of a university program to learn about traditional Alaska Native culture.

So our last posting for awhile - probably.  Maybe we'll continue our blog with pictures from Oneida Lake and Lake Ontario, the Thousand Islands!  We're fortunate to be going back and forth between two beautiful areas of the country!  We'll miss the Chugach Mountains and look forward to being back here in August -- in the meantime, sailing is not such a bad option! 

A Hiatus from Sharing on our Blog!

Sorry we've been off-line for the blog, but not because we haven't been doing anything --rather we've been busy doing everything!  Judy was in San Diego for a conference, then in Los Angeles and Ojai visiting family, then Jessica came back with her for a visit.  Brian started going out on Carl's boat with him 2 times a week at least to set shrimp pots and harvest shrimp -- is that called harvesting?  Prince William Sound out of Whittier, and you'll see from the pictures how beautiful that is.  Judy and Jessica went out with them Thursday -- early enough that we started in the fog and then the mountains emerged as the fog burned off for a beautiful day.  Altogether that day we saw moose, goats up on a mountain, eagle, six or eight harbor seals sunning themselves on a rock in the Sound, a sea otter diving alongside of us, and a bird rookery with thousands of birds alongside the water and all of the way up the cliff.  Birds on the water, in the air, on the beach and on the cliff -- everywhere!

Brian saw three moose on the trail on his bike ride yesterday -- no skiing anymore for us, though we did just see an article about skiing in Hatcher's Pass, where we started on November 8.  I guess we could have made it six months instead of five if we had been persistent!  We're also getting ready to fly back to upstate - Brian's going on May 18 for Colleen's graduation from RIT that weekend, and Judy's going to a conference in Portland May 23-26 then on to Syracuse.  It's hard to leave, even though we're anxious to see family and friends back in New York.  It's been a wonderful 9 months here, and we'll also look forward to coming back here.  Salmon and halibut fishing when we return!