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!