The last cruise ship, the Seaborne Sojourner, pulled out of old Sitka Docks this afternoon. The visitors were treated to rare late September sunshine. While a few straggling tourists will still come in on individual tours (and we are glad … Continue reading 25th Annual Running of the Boots.
This blogpost started with a Facebook message from Joe Montagna. Joe is a musician and elementary school teacher who played the “Brian May” part in a Queen tribute organized by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. I attended the Friday performance, … Continue reading We Will, We Will Rock You!
In Sitka Eagles get free health care. The Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center cares for eagles and other birds who run afoul of humans, trees or each other. Each year the center takes in eagles. Some can be rehabilitated, some cannot … Continue reading A Hole in the Wing.
Sitka knows how to play. Labor Day Weekend featured a classical concert, Jazz and Mud Ball, a softball tournament that is usually played in the mud, but not so much this year. But for us the highlight was a three-way … Continue reading Earthquake? We Missed It, Too Busy Rocking the Dock.
The NOAA website predicted a “minor magnetic storm” for August 30 and 31. As the weekend progressed the predictions of magnetic activity became more intense and prolonged, into the first days of September. And the clincher, the weather in Sitka … Continue reading A Minor Magnetic Storm
On Friday night we flew out of Anchorage, up Knik Arm and crossed over the Chugach range and Prince William Sound, flying over some of the same glacier we saw a little over a week earlier on the 26 Glacier … Continue reading Prince William Sound, and More, from Above.
The 26 Glacier Cruise is a staple of tourism in Prince William Sound. Although now it is not 26 glaciers. Some have retreated to the point where an arm of land has split them so there are more than 26. … Continue reading Prince William Sound at Sea Level
The Sitka Daily Sentinel. Sitka’s Daily Newspaper had a great float, right about in the middle of the parade, AND, after the Coast guard got the biggest applause of the parade. Congratulations Thad and Sandy. After the parade ended the … Continue reading And the Winner Is…
…That’s how long this year’s 4th of July parade lasted – 22 minutes. I know this because I watch the parade from just behind St. Michael’s Cathedral in the “press section.” We see the parade come at us head on … Continue reading Twenty Two Minutes…
When I lived abroad, I idealized our holidays. Thanksgiving was always more thankful looking at it from abroad than it was when I got home. The Fourth of July was the same way. I have always loved this holiday more … Continue reading Glorious Fourth!
When I was a kid the fireworks show started with a puff, then a thud, then you saw a burst in the sky. You waited 10 seconds and it happened again. Then again, until the finale when they fired off … Continue reading Fireworks! July 3, 2019
After the fireworks on the 3rd, the parade, the food, the concerts comes the water fight. Traditionally the Sitka Fire Department takes on the Coast Guard. Fire trucks come from two different directions, meet in the middle and pass each … Continue reading Water Fight!
June is chamber music month in Sitka. The Sitka Summer Music Festival (SSMF) has been a feature of or town since 1974. Chamber music is everywhere, at Mean Queen Pizza, on the Sheldon Jackson Fine Arts Campus, in the Tribal … Continue reading A Town Full of Chamber Music.
You can try to shelter yourself from travel’s inconveniences but you’re never completely successful. We’re used to negotiating travel’s mine fields (sometimes literally.) We’ve done winding dusty mountain roads in third world busses, train rides with goats and chickens, and … Continue reading The Long Ride Home
Forty-nine years ago, April 22, 1970, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson a Democrat, and California Representative Pete McCloskey, a Republican, sought to harness the energy of the campus anti-war movement to bring attention to environmental issues. The impetus for the first … Continue reading Earth Day 2019, The Parade of Species
It was a tough winter for eagles. The Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center had a full house. The normal number of eagles were injured by electric wires, entangled in fishing gear and suffered from other human encounters. One immature bird fell … Continue reading Spring Eagles
We are right in the middle of an Auroral down cycle. Sunspot activity peaks every 11 years. The next peak comes sometime late 2025 or early 2026. So, if we are in the trough, why is Sitka getting so many … Continue reading This Aurora Brought to You by a Drought in the Rainforest.
For some deranged souls like me, it’s a tradition to swim, or at least dip, into the Pacific Ocean in the middle of winter. Saturday was the day. Many dippers dressed for the occasion. For instance someone dressed as a … Continue reading This is Fun. Now Get Me Outta Here! Polar Dip 2019
The room throbbed with all the energy and exuberance of a high school pep dance, and perhaps that’s what the centerpiece of the 2019 Sitka Jazz Festival was. The Kyle Athayde Dance Party, an 18 piece big band from New … Continue reading Jazz Fest ’19
“Why does Sitka have so many great sunsets?” “I don’t remember that many beautiful sunsets when I lived in Sitka.” All during January I posted sunset pictures from Sitka on Facebook and I kept getting comments like the ones above. … Continue reading January Sunset Retrospective.
The weather conspired against us. Kevin and Shannon arrived on Dec 22, on Dec 23 Brian, Liz and the kids Liam and Fiona came to Sitka. Just before they got here we had some nice weather. Once they were here, … Continue reading Welcome to the first beautiful day of 2019
Our first family whale watch was more than 35 years ago. Alice and Chuck Johnstone took us out on the Fairweather. Carolyn Servid was the deck hand and we went looking for humpback whales. Some folks considered this an odd … Continue reading Our Sitka Christmas Tradition — A Whale Watch.
I love all the holidays around the turning of the year. But Solstice had particular meaning for me. It’s the root of Christmas, the reason the early Church Fathers chose this time to celebrate the birth of the Christ. But … Continue reading Here Comes the Sun — Winter Solstice 2018
Tommy Joseph is an imaginative Tlingit carver. With my camera I documented his carving a house pole for the Interior Department two years ago. Since then he has done a canoe and a library pole for Petersburg with characters from … Continue reading It Rotates! – Tommy Joseph’s new Sculpture at the Sitka Sound Science Center