(June 30, 2023) OK, I was feeling a little down.  It had been raining most of the day, which is not unusual for Southeast Alaska, it was a Friday night in June and there was no music festival concert.  The festival ended a week ago.  Suzi and I decided to go out to dinner at the Nugget, the restaurant at the airport.

Suzi was in the mood for their Friday special, the prime rib.  I had a Reuben sandwich.  Looking out window watching the pilot do a preflight check before his Alaska Seaplanes prop plane took off for some Southeast village I said.  “Oh, a patch of blue sky.” 

Suzi said “not the way I’m looking” as she turned around to look at my patch.  A few minutes later she said, “My patch is bigger than yours.”  I turned around and the sky was opening up, although we still could not see Mt. Edgecumbe.

Driving out from the airport I looked up, said wow, stopped the car, pulled out my iPhone, I didn’t have my camera, and took a picture through the windshield.  

I drove to the Mt. Edgecumbe ramp and took some pics of Sitka with the clouds breaking up behind. 

As we drove over the bridge, I handed the phone to Suzi who took some more pics.

We pulled under the bridge and took a few more pics, then downtown.

Finally we drove to the Sitka Sound Science Center where I took some pictures of the spiffy new SPIFy (Spawning Platform and Incubation Facility, sounds very much like the type of acronym the director would come up with) building.

And walked out on the Sea Walk jetty for some outer pictures.

We got home and played a round of gin, Suzi won (of course). The clouds had reformed in a way to reflect a sunset we could not see.  It was wild and beautiful as the colors shifted from orange to pink.

It was a completely emotional experience, the clouds, mountains, sea, and flowers.  And then it stuck me.  I was missing the emotion of the music festival.  I had been trying to write a final blog post for the festival this year and was blocked.  Now I can write it.  Here it is!