kodiak to dutch harbor...12 dutch/unalaska....parting thoughts

thought i'd put in a few last shots before getting back to my regular exciting life. summer is begining to turn to fall. i love fall. the colours, the mushrooms. awesome. not that i'm ever ready to say farewell to summer. the seasons come and go and i love the changes that come with each. really the only one i'd like to skip is break up and that's not a real season...well in alaska it is.
above is that cute fox we all took pictures of at the church in unalaska.
we were nervous about getting out of dutch. weather and fog can be a hinderance to travel. in the morning we were scheduled to leave i looked out the hotel window and saw all the eagles drying thier feathers, as below, and told sandra i felt good about the eagle weather forcast. you can count on them apparently as we flew out without issue.

tanya is enjoying the view amongst her favorite wildflowers. below is from our drive the first day around town. just another view.

above is a picture looking down the cliffs of ballyhoo. it would be great to be able to spend more time here in better weather looking for birds and wildflowers. it was pretty foggy the day we drove up, but a good time was had by all.

the next picture is of our drive the last day before our plane was due. still a bit cloudy, but a nice ceiling and the greens were outstanding. the road leads up to the top from summer beach.

the next several pictures are up ballyhoo. there are loads of WWII remnants up there. there are history books that could give you much more accurate details but i can give you the abbreviated betsy version. alaska wasn't a state yet, but that didn't stop it from being a target. 6-7 months after japan attacked hawaii, they attacked the aleutians. dutch harbor had army and navy installments there. there is still a great deal of remnants from those days. they would bury bunkers underground and the lush grass and foilage would grow in and make the bunkers virtually invisible from the air. you can get a feel for that in the third picture down.

so dutch was attacked june 3 and 4 of 1942. in the next few days the japanese attacked and occupied kiska and attu islands. on attu a school teacher was killed and 42 natives were taken to japan and held. just over half of those were returned to thier island.

in july the U.S. moved the people of the aleutians to southeast "for thier protection". many died in southeast alaska as they were probably treated worse than most prisoners of war were treated. they were just dumped there with minimal assistance. many died. those that did return were mostly met with looted houses or homes burned down and destroyed outright. "aleutian sparrow" by karen hesse is a great little novel that is set in this time.

in 1943 the allied forces fought back against the japanese. it was a horrendously bloody and hard fought battle. it went on for 19 days. eventually, the allied forces retook attu and japan left the island of kiska. i thought it interesting that attu is 17oo miles from anchorage and 500 miles to russia. unalaska island is 800 miles from anchorage.

so that is the very abbreviated historical account. we did visit the local museums in unalaska. one is dedicated to wwII and it's role. must have been some pretty isolated duty for those in the military. the alaska natives who aided the allies are still trying to get compensation and recognition for thier part in the winning of the war. our treatment of the aleutian population is a sad tale and one that bears repeating. they were dumped in old canneries and closed mines with no facilities. the people did the best they could in a horrible situation, but many were lost and i'm sure many were devastated a second time when they were finally allowed to return home a few years later to find they no longer really had a home.

this rusty lock was haning on the inner door to one of the bunkers. there was a rather large room beyond the door, though i suspect it was cold, damp and miserable.

the cliffs near a large installment were steep and i'm trying to see which one of us is out there...it was a bit windy and i am not to like heights. i was the first to head out for a photo op though. i didn't get as far as the others, but i also was bummed that none of them took a picture of me that shows me on any sort of ridge. i just look all stooped down in a field of grass...

of course, we took the time to enjoy some fun photo ops at the gunnery type bunkers. i'm not military, but obviously you could aim big guns towards the sky and sea from these locations. below is maria, sandra and tanya. sandra is a bit vertically challenged so she kept jumping up so be in the shot.

below is me living large in the opening to one of the bunkers. about 20 feet back is where the big door with the lock was and then the huge room. it was quite rainy/windy so we were able to get out of it and still amuse ourselves.

the last shot below was just funny to us. apparently, this large crane broke down and before it could get repaired, an eagle pair set up a nest in it. bald eagles are protected so therefore the nest couldn't be touched. they wait for them to change homes...it's just funny as there are so many bald eagles there it's hard to imagine them as endangered. so the nest has remained there for the last 3 years we were told. doubt you can see it in the picture but we could see a little white head poking out when we stopped to snap off a quick photo.

okay so i mis-wrote...there is yet another last eagle shot below. they were everywhere and this guy landed on someones car as they went in to grocery shop. sandra took a picture and then tried to escape before the eagle got annoyed and dug it's talons in her. hehe. they do attack there apparently.

worked my overtime shift last night. i had just sat down to get report when we saw that one of the patients had gone into v-fib on the moniter. there were docs/nurses in the room already and so report was delayed in order to code this rather unfortunate 36 year old diabetic. she was worked on for over an hour i think, but didn't make it. she was grossly obese which made it all more difficult. very sad though...so young. not a good way to start the shift. we had 3 patients coming within short order to i left hte code, seeing that they had enough people anyway, to prepare for my unstable trauma i had coming. my other patient was squirmy,but stable, which was fortunate. this guy was shocky and his face was all busted up. took a bit to get him stabalized. hope he was able to get to surgery today. we also had 2 patients returning from surgery and then later got another admit...so it was a crazy night for the group of us. we got lots of help from the charge, ellie and each other. some nights you just don't stop. i got a bit punchy in the morning and then when i heard that dang xray machine coming down the hall...i wanted to scream. i can't stand morning xrays. they always just disrupt everything. the patients get all agitated being moved about and having hard plates put behind them...they start to cough, which makes them poop...and it's always when you are trying to get stuff done to get out of there on time and get home to bed. just so annoying.

today i woke early as my friend sharon was coming to my place at 12:30 for a walk. her husband chris came along and blossom and her dog cooper got to romp a bit. first we took the dogs to the bog so i could get rio out for her walk, then we did the big loop in north bivouac. it's about this time of year that i can start making the loop again. it is boggy so the mosquitos in the summer can be brutal. they have simmered down now so it was great to get out there. no moose or bears sightings though some couple said they'd just seen a moose when they passed by. there were a few areas of mud, but i'm a ketchikan girl. no biggie. i met chris and sharon in ketchikan. they lived there for just under 2 years before moving to this area. i had intentions of doing a big house/car clean in prep for my friend marcia and her family being in town for hte day tomorrow. too sleepy though. did get the sheets washed and figured out the new sewing machine. so the quilts are almost all done. i gotta eat something, but then i think i can tie quilt 4 tonight before heading to bed....well after i make the bed.

hopefully, i'll get some good mushroom pictures posted soon...now that dutch is a distant memory. :-)

kodiak to dutch harbor...11 dutch/unalaska

since i can't resist a chance to take yet another bald eagle shot...i took a few more and will post a few tonight. above is a baldie landing on a light post in the parking lot at the grocery store. i love how stretched out his legs are in preparation for landing. did i mention these baldies in dutch are larger than any i remember seeing...they were also all pretty dirty. the pretty clean white heads seemed to be missing. still an amazingly beautiful bird to watch. the bird below was hanging out on some of the many crab pots laying about town.

above is at summer beach. i think that is what it's called. it's also the place where our travel mate, maria, decided to take a dive into the bering sea. she just stripped down and dove in...gotta give her chops for that. i did mention that i would have prefered a more substantial under garment than the thong, but whatever. hehe. she wanted to do this swim so i thought a sandy beach would be easier. after we walked this beach we took a drive up the road. it eventually leads back into town,but at the top you have a view of both the pacific ocean and the bering sea. they looked the same to me up there,but the greens were just stunning. it was a fun drive. a bit scarey at times as i wasn't sure the 2 wheel drive car would make some of the hills and the rocks were brutal. i was in fear of a flat and eventually being stranded and missing the plane. we didn't go over any cliffs though and all was well.

in case you hadn't seen enough eagles see how many you can find in this picture of a stack of containers. more pictures later...

just returned from the funeral. erik was a special needs kid and so there were several of his buddies there. his family wanted donations to special olympics in lieu of flowers and such so that is what i did. it was the minister who spoke for the most part. he had known erik so did have some fun ancedotes from church and spoke of things the family had asked him to mention. it was like attending a church service overall though. i did like that a buddy of eriks spoke. they had communion, which i've never taken before, so didn't start now. i'd say i'm agnostic,but hopeful that there is some order and plan. a co-worker next to me asked if i'd be going up, i think she was relieved to know she had an option. religion gives comfort to those who believe so it serves a purpose. several people there from work to support benita.

watched a net flix the other day that kelly had recommended. she said keep the tissue handy. it was called, "taking chance". a marine who has remained in a desk job for years feels torn because he's at the desk while other marines are dying in iraq. he looks at a computer list of casualties and when a name comes up from his tiny home town he decides to escort the body back to his family. it was interesting to learn the level of care that is taken in the return of these soldiers from the field and back to home. it is based on a true article about this duty. he was a fairly high ranking marine and normally wouldn't do this duty, but he felt duty bound to be involved somehow. the movie just takes you through the emotional journey these escorts take. all along the journey he meets the regular americans who stop what they are doing and pay respects to the soldier who gave his life. it's a very moving movie and i'd recommend it to everyone. i appreciate that the marine corp takes this time and effort to give these men and women the safe passage home they have earned.

went to the bog a few mornings with rio and blossom. the other day, i had a few interesting encounters. first i had the dogs on thier leashes and saw a guy coming so i pulled the two dogs off the trail about 10 feet and put blossom in a sit. a normal person would just walk past with thier dog. this idiot kept stopping and letting his puppy get closer and closer til the puppy was sniffing blossom on her extension leash. he never asked if my dogs were killer attack dogs or anything. the puppy was 9 months old. just seemed so odd to me. if someone makes the effort to pull thier dogs off the trail i just go past them. when rio started circling to get a better sniff the guy starts realing in the pup cause he doesn't want the leashes to get tied up.

a few minutes later i'm walking down the side of the road, again dogs on my sides on leashes. a young girl pushing a stroller comes running across the street right towards me, stops 10 feet from me and snottily says,' "i don't want this baby near those dogs!!" and sneered at me. she had come to me...i did the only thing a mature woman can do...i sneered right back at her with that squishy/scrunched up face look that kids do so well. so she's destined to grow up to be an idiot.

took blossom to campbell airstrip for a longer walk. it is raining now, but it was sunny. no bears, but we did have a few moose encounters. they were close, but in the trees so no good photo ops.

have been working on these baby quilts as well. picked out materials that i feel pretty happy with. 2 are all finished. i took them to work to finish off the edges. had to use my old lady reading glasses and found myself tipping my nose down so i could see the moniters for my two kids i was caring for. it's such an old lady move...tipping the head with the reading glasses on. hehe. i had purchased a little crafters sewing machine at walmart thinking that would be enough to replace my failing sewing machine i've had since i was 18. that little machine was falling apart within the first hour i had it out so i returned that today...of course, i got through 3 quilts before i returned it...so i guess i kinda borrowed it. i just was set on doing the projects and it was too late to return it. the box was initailly all taped shut and when i got the machine out it was already threaded and there was a sample peice of material with stitches already in....makes me wonder if they didn't use all these for a craft class of some sort. the foot pedal ceased working after the first quilt.

i stopped by sears, but they don't have much in stock. target tomorrow perhaps so i can get this last quilt put together. i can tie the one i have here then i'll have 3 done and can get them shipped out soon. did i mention the beginings of fall colours creeping into the landscape?

kodiak to dutch harbor...10 dutch/unalaska

above a red fox hangs out at the little church in unalaska. got some fun pictures of him. below...more wild flowers.

beauty and the beast...above is the local russian orthodox church and below is the famed "the elbow room" bar of unalaska/dutch. used to be known as one of the toughest bars. many, many fights were found in these walls. the bar is no longer running.

so the awesome thing in dutch is the brunch at the grand aleutian hotel on sundays. the cost was less than $30/plate and the king crab legs never stopped. the weather was a bit iffy that day so we decided to enjoy the brunch and stuff ourselves!! we stayed 3 hours and got our fill. below is a pic of part of the spread...enjoying another helping is tanya, cathy and maria. several of our ferry mates were at the brunch. we ended up piling in cathy and lyle's rental and heading up ballyhoo road to see all the wwII remnants up there. more on that later. we all had a blast though and though it was foggy up there it is kinda cool to see a historical site in that weather. must have been pretty bleak for those soldiers all those years ago. it's a remote place...i imagine it felt even more remote all those years ago.

thought i would load a few more pictures and relax. was a bit hungry so snacking on some celery loaded with cheese. cheese is a staple. i'm a dairy girl. above is a rare dutch harbor/unalaska bald eagle. okay..not so rare, but still quite pretty and actually this one was annoyed at me. aparently there is a fee to photograph baldies and i hadn't paid up. you really can't turn around without tripping on a baldie or worrying you may get pooped on.

we also enjoyed the wildflowers which were blooming all over. i was the driver and everyone would just tell me where to stop. our tour was all about everyone having fun. tanya saw this patch of wildflowers and we stopped. it really is quite beautiful. the picture below is of one the wild iris's that can be found all over the island. such delicate flowers.

these cute guys were everywhere. i feared hitting one on the road. no casualties. below is donna,sandra and tanya walking in the bush looking at the wild flowers and seeking out the iris. donna was another new friend from the ferry. we took her along and played nertz a few times. we recruited her on the ferry for our nertz game. apparently more people played as kids than i knew. she hadn't played since she was a kid.

so another 4 nights of work past. it was actually quite exhausting. the first night i had a woman who was coming off all the drugs we'd given her. it is very frustrating. so a long night.

the next few nights i had a sledd patient. (continuous dialysis) thankfully, he was pretty stable so this free'd me up to assist a co-worker friend who was now a family member of a critical patient. her son had coded while on the kenai. he is delayed, only 20 years old. it was not at all expected. she was at work and must have gotten the call. she was still in her uniform at midnight never having left the unit. she asked me to look at the cat scan. it was not good...i just kept tearing up all night while trying to be there and help her cope. there is just nothing you can do or say. all i could do was give her a hug and whatever kind words i could muster up. the next night it was determined her son was brain dead and so hopefully some good will come from my co-workers loss. they decided to allow for organ donation. it must be such a difficult thing to even try to think about and yet i think down the road it must bring a family a great deal of comfort.

the next night, i was supposed to be in peds icu and instead found i was to go to neonate icu instead. i float there maybe once or twice a year. they are a very structured unit. they have to be neurotic with all those tiny babies, but it's just nuts all the details. tiny babies, tiny details. i found i was very emotional those first few hours. i'd hoped that where ever i was i'd be able to get to the adult icu and check on my friend. i think i was also just tired and more emotionally drained than i suspected. the staff was very nice and eventually i felt a bit better. i'm just not cut out for nicu. those babies are so small and fragile. one of my patients was a mere 2.2 pounds. another had been born at 1.5 pounds.

in the morning i was talking a bit with the charge nurse down there. i told her my one patient had been there 36 days, born very early. she had an 8 month old sibling at home. so two babies born in less than one year. when the dad stopped by he mentioned that he was trying to convince his wife to try for a boy before he leaves for afghanistan. i thought...yeesh..if she managed to get preggers she'd no doubt deliver early again as she wouldn't have given her body time to recover from pregnancy 1 and 2....she could actually deliver 3 babies in one year. i found that a freaky thought. i often wonder about some of the people who are out there breeding. it can be frightening. when i meet parents who are really good parents and dedicated to thier children i always tell them...have a housefull. i wish more people thought more about what all is involved in a lifetime of parenting before just embarking on it.

our resident baby in peds finally left the hospital for the first time. he was 18 months. so a good week for the little bugger.

woke up and kelly had called so we headed off to prospect heights for a walk. great sunny day. awesome!

well..this girl is tired. more pictures tomorrow..

kodiak to duch harbor....9 starting dutch

a few last shots of the day. below we watched the tustemena head off back to kodiak without us. we were now dependant on the weather to get out of dutch. above is some old relics from wwII that are seen all over and it also gives you and idea of how beautiful and green it is here. the island is draped in this lushness.

here we are tidepooling around what i believe is called little priest rock. i guess there is a bigger priest rock, but i believe it's a ways out. funny, i watched the "deadliest catch" last night and they were talking about a grounding in a bad storm near akutan and then about passing priest rock and knowing they were almost done with the season..almost to dutch. always fun to have been the places that they talk about.

above is tanya, sandra and suzanne.

after getting settled into our hotel and getting the rental car squared away we followed maria's friend, suzanne, and her friends to local beaches. the rental car was left for us at the dock with the keys in the cup holder and our name on the dash. anyway...we started to see the extent of the eagle population. i thought ketchikan had loads of eagles...i've never seen anything like this place. they were everywhere. they were often a dirty lot and i guess they have been known to attack the locals. in ketchikan it was usually just small pets that need be worried, here it's children as well.

of course we had to stop and take a zillion photo's of eagles. no real trees so it was odd to see them just on the ground, but they were on every building, light, car....you wouldn't believe it.

so above you get a feeling for what i'm talking about. i could look out my hotel window and easily spot 5-20 eagles hanging about.

sandra and i stayed at the Grand Aleutian hotel. took this picture sunday. our room was on the ground floor facing this little bay. considering the remoteness this hotel is pretty classy. it's not comparable to a 5 star in new york, but i've stayed in many smaller communities and this is quite impressive. the food at the restaurants was quite tasty and reasonably priced as well. the hotel is costly, but i was happy to stay there. our other 2 friends stayed at the local nurses place which was in an area of high fisheries activities and bunk houses. meaning it was smelly, dirty and noisy. it was great to have a nice hotel after 3 nights on a boat.

the brunch at the hotel sunday was fabulous. we sat there for 3 hours and ate all that we possibly could. it was wet, rainy and foggy outside anyway...may as well dine on the all you can eat king crab and other delicacies. cost was less than $30/plate too. i'll post those pictures later. i start back to work tomorrow so it may be a few days before i really finish dutch.

here we are approaching our final destination dutch harbor/unalaska. i believe that dutch harbor is really the name of the main harbor and unalaska is the name of the island and the community. they have 2 seperate zip codes, but i suspect that is because dutch has many fisherman coming/going and it's easier to just mail to the dutch zip code.

for those who love "deadliest catch". this is the place. those big crab boats do thier thing in the winter months so those ships aren't in town right now...the crab pots are though. i suspect they store a great deal of gear here, easier than hauling it back and forth. luckily we didn't see any of the worst weather that can be found and we were on a pretty big vessel so felt it less than others would.

amazingly to me, unalaska island is only the second island on the great aleutian chain of islands...which tells you we barely touched the aleutians on our voyage. still much to explore. alaska is a huge place and so much of it remains wild and free. it took us over 3 days to boat from kodiak to here and 3 hours to fly back to anchorage.

population is over 3000 with a large transient population. it's known as the "cradle of the storms". it's where the warm water of japan current meets the cold air and currents of the bering sea. lots of wind and rain and fog in the area. the biggest concern is when and if you will get out of dutch harbor. a few flights were canceled due to weather sunday, but we got lucky and got out almost on schedule monday. the runway is very short and ends in the water so it felt like being shot out of a canon.

the russian church is prominent in town and there are dirt roads that lead out of town. it's actually a much cleaner town than i had expected.

when the light arrived i emerged from my cabin and walked out on the deck behind our rooms...this whale was the first thing i saw and luckily i had the camera out and ready. it's probably a humpback, but hard to tell. the spray of the humpback and fin whale are different and this whale was taking a dive. these pictures are flipped. whales do that deep arch before they go deep below the surface.

so we made a very brief and early stop in akutan. there is a dock there, but no airport and no harbor. this is remote. i guess float planes land in there and you can take boats out of there. around 100 people live there year round and another 500 may join in the fishing seasons. i really didn't see much float plane activity the entire trip. not like southeast alaska which is so dependant on float planes and boats.

it was about 5:15 am when we came into this tiny town. we were slated to only stay 30 minutes max. i again woke to the changing rhythm of the boat sway coming into port. i came on deck, attempted to take the photo's above and below and then crawled back into my bunk. i was sure we were pulling away from the dock and then i felt like we were tying back up again. i wasn't sure if i was dreaming, i wasn't. apparently a few people did decide to get off and were late getting back. happy i didn't attempt to get off the boat. there was a cute church down the road. you can almost see it below with it's cemetary. of course, road, is a misnomer. i saw not much for roads. they were large enough only to accomadate 4 wheelers, not actual vehicles. it was raining as well which further hindered my photography attempts. oh well. i guess it stopped back after the stay in dutch so if you took a round trip you may have been able to see it, though they spend very little time in any port en route back to kodiak and then homer.

below are a few parting shots of false pass to move us forward on the trip. first is a picture i took at the dock from the tustemena. i love all the fishing/crabbing gear that is everywhere. i thought this picture looking down on the crab pots came out pretty cool.

above is a salmon shark we watched swim back and forth near shore. i'll have to look up more info on the salmon shark. not sure that alaskan waters have too many sharks. just odd to watch this guy.

below appears to be tracks of one very large bear. as i said false pass is very close to the mainland and probably the island is actually an extension of land rather than a totally independant island.

rainy day here. dogs got walked, we got wet. chatted with a few of my siblings, tom and linda which is always fun. seemed a good day to load a few more pictures. almost done blogging about this wonderful trip..hope this is enjoyable. i know i had a great time and it's been a blast reliving it via the blog.

kodiak to dutch harbor...8 false pass

so we've arrived at false pass. this town is located on unimak island and we have finally left the alaska peninsula behind. the name comes from the fact that the bering sea side of the strait is very shallow and decieving as it can't accomadate larger boats. the community is small and the cannery burned down years ago. fishing still keeps the place alive. i guess the close proximity to the mainland means they do get some bears as well.
what we heard about false pass was that a salmon bake may be there to welcome us. sure enough sandra got out the binoculars and spotted cooking going on in the building at the end of the dock. what i hadn't realized on these stops immediately was that as we ran to the villages to see the towns, the villagers ran to the boat to get some burgers and fries from the ferry's diner. who can blame them. a floating restuarant had arrived and it only comes once a month in the summertime. just thought it funny that we were running off for salmon and they running on for burgers. the salmon was quite tasty. it sold for $12/plate and included a tasty cole slaw and dry bread. no drinks available, but it was still a nice meal and i was happy to support the town. always happy to see signs of the capitalist system at work. there are less than 100 folks living here and just over half have actual indoor plumbing. still plenty of alaskans using honey buckets at night.

above and below are just a few pictures we took when we were getting ready to dock. i do recall one guy using our wake coming in to play on his skidu. i loved all the old boats on the beach. we also saw a rather large bear print, which i will post tomorrow perhaps.

there is sandra scoping out the salmon dinner which awaits us.

enjoyed a cd of pictures from my neice kacey's wedding. she married the day we arrived in dutch. i'd planned the trip so far in advance that i went ahead with the trip and missed the wedding. i have 24 neices and nephews...so it's not possible to attend all the weddings, especially now that i live so far away. fun to get pictures though. she looked stunning in her gown and looks like they all had fun. she and her sisters went out a night or two before, just the 4 of them, and stayed in a hotel for the night...fun to just be sisters i'm sure. i'm one of 7 kids and 5 were at the wedding. i've got to get started making more baby quilts as my neices and nephews are having babies now too. there are 4 babies on the way so my goal today was to see if i have any material that will work for any of the quilts or if i should go shopping. i've always made a baby quilt per family. i learned long ago that to be fair i really needed to make choices. being the youngest it always sucked when i watched all that the first few kids got or the first few grandkids....i knew this level of gift giving would never continue through all the kids that would be born. i couldn't possibly afford to send gifts to all the neices and nephews for each birthday and holiday. i did get birthday cards to everyone for years and have given a christmas gift to each kid each year til they get married are graduate college. mostly, despite my efforts i rarely even hear if a package arrived. it gets frustrating. seems silly really though since it's so easy to contact each other now a days. most of the kids are on facebook with me...how hard would it be to say....hey package arrived...thanks. so old lady of me, right. i know the siblings are initailly to blame for not instilling these manners into thier kids. i feel badly that i can't be more generous, but i think i've been a decent auntie. i've always wanted to be there if any of the kids needed someone to listen to and i think an auntie is a backup. just a support that is called upon if the need arises. the gifts i give in the end really are just a way to keep myself in thier lives...in case they need me. i know that. i love my neices and nephews and its really fun watching them grow and develope and become adults. fun to see how thier lives evolve. i may have had some influence on a few of them. i always hoped that i at least gave them an option. that as far as the church, they could leave it and go on to lead happy lives if they so chose. i didn't know that. when i left the church it was just a great unknown. i had no idea what would happen with my family.

the baby quilts are actually very easy to make and i love picking out material that i think the mom's to be would like. i know my quilts aren't fancy...but they are the gift i give from me.

here are the last few pictures i'll put in of cold bay. we got a nice tour and then returned to the boat...you can see it above down the long dock. below is in izembek. cloudy, but still lovely. loads of volcano's in the aleutians, but we didn't see the tops of much the week we were out.

this is lyle. our cabin was next to his and his daughter, cathie. they were super nice people. she lives in anchorage and is moving to juneau. she's lived all over alaska as a teacher, just fun folks. we met many nice people on the boat. loved this goofy picture of him at the signage in izembek. below is a sign for cold bay that didn't show up in yesterdays postings. no boat harbor yet from what i gather in my reading. this must house the phone that one calls from the pay phone at the other end of the dock.

yesterday was a bit of a lazy day though i did get one walk in and 40-something laps. i did another 40 today. more tiring since i just did those yesterday. it's hard to keep track of how many laps you do. not sure how real swimmers do that, nor do i understand how they know where they are in teh water. i'm always off center which gets stressful when i have to share a lane. no lane sharing today. they were doing water aerobics in half the pool and the 3 lanes around me emptied out eventually. i tried the nose plug, but not sure i was using that right. i may want to see about a lesson or two. haven't taken swimming lessons since the ymca before i was 10 years old. i know i used to swim lots, but not laps.

my friend kelly called this morning so we decided to meet up with the dogs for a nice walk. first i needed to walk rio and blossom so i could settle rio in at home. she is feeling pretty spunky though so it's hard to leave her behind...i'm sure it's best for her though really. she wanted to play with every dog we passed. i looked back on teh walk with kelly in a panic once before remembering that i hadn't brought rio. always a great time walking with kelly. she has a new car...a sweet looking volvo. she hates to spend money and i know she wanted to make her subaru last, but alas...it really was time. those old cars just start needing repairs so much that eventually it becomes less painful to just make a car payment on something that won't leave you stranded. the last thing you want in alaska is an undependable car. at least that is my opinion...that doesn't mean people dont' drive crap cars here too.

i took a nap this afternoon before i did my laps. rio decided she might want to climb up on the bed...i had to disuade her of this idea. she is just too big. while i was off doing laps...she got into the spare room and ate up the chocolates in there and chomped holes in the bag of raisins i had. i still haven't totally finished unpacking from my trip...teaches me, eh.

raining now.

well, i'm almost done blogging about my trip to dutch...should just be dutch harbor left to blog and share photo's of. i got the pictures back from costco and have started putting them into photo albums. i have lots of photo albums. my biggest fear is fire though so i really love that i can blog and put pictures here safely. the albums are more fun when you know the stories behind the pictures i think. cool that blogs are available so that one day others can glimpse into our lives if they desire. i prefer to have my blog read that my body dug up and examined by a future society. burn and scatter i say.

watched a netflix movie last night "how about you". actually pretty good. it's about some cantankerous old folks bitter and living in an assisted living home. they are such buggers that the poor woman running the home can't keep other old people in there. the woman must leave for a week or so to care for her mother and her young, rebellious sister is forced to take over during the christmas holiday. things run amok, but eventually the lot of them sort it all out. i have no idea the actual fate of my life eventually. so many variables. so many things can happen as we age. there are no guarantees. all you can do is attempt to be somewhat fit and see what the gene pool has in store. eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you could end up drooling and in some old folks home, but i sure hope not. at least if you lose your mind you lose the ability to know you've lost your mind right along with it.