Hellooo Wan-da

If you have seen "A Fish Called Wanda" you will get the meaning of the title. There we were, minding our own business in Sitka, when the urge struck us both to find a Volkswagen Westfalia and bring it back to Alaska. Some would call it cabin fever, or a tool to attend to our wanderlust. Whatever the cause, we found one in Santa Cruz, California that appeared to be just the right one. After talking to the owner Joshua, we were convinced and caught the next flying bag of bolts to San Francisco. We met Josh in Santa Cruz, did the deed, and headed back up to Prince Rupert, BC, (1800 miles) to catch the ferry back to Sitka. Madness? Perhaps.

We walked around Santa Cruz, where they filmed "The Lost Boys" but no vampires were spotted. Pity.

 I believe its twin sister is in San Diego at Belmont Park.

 Must be hideous in the summer!

 No vampires lurking under the bridge.

 The camellias were in bloom!

Working hard on my flat white at the coffee roasters, Verve.

The roaster is housed in an old cannery.

Oh yeah!

After picking up the westy, now named Wanda, we tootled out of town and stayed at Half Moon Bay the first night.

 It was a night of biblical proportions as regarding the weather. I expected Noah to come sailing by in his ark. The wind was howling, the rain hammering down, and the thunder and lightning crashing most of the night. What a night to experience our first outing! Happy to report that no leaks were reported the next day. This picture was taken the next morning, everything freshly scrubbed from the night's downpour. So glad not to have to wrestle with a soggy tent.

Pelicans at Half Moon Bay.

Unbeknownst to us, Greta had made birthday reservations for Jamie in San Francisco a few months back. So we met him in San Francisco for a birthday surprise lunch. The clam chowder was excellent!

View from the cliffs outside Trinidad, CA.

A path to the cliff in Trinidad.

After Trinidad, we stayed in Sunset Bay Park, by Coos Bay, Oregon.

 At first we thought these were rocks in the sand, but upon closer inspection, we found that they were huge tree trunks. The shore was about 200 feet behind me. The erosion in this bay is amazing!

The rock uplifted at the cliff's edge.

 Erosion wears it down.

Last remnants of the previous rock edge.

Kirsty found her first silver dollars ever in Cannon Beach, Oregon!

 Plenty of slugs about!

Who can pass by Tillamook and not visit the creamery??!! Tasted the cheeses ( a couple of times) and may have had a scoop of ice cream as well.

We stayed at Nehalem Bay, north of Tillamook in a yurt for a change.

 Very cool staying in a yurt!

 What a gorgeous place!

We had breakfast with Jamie at the Sunflour Cafe in Seattle. I had French Toast (orange infused bread) with peaches and berries. It could have choked a horse.

We snuck across the border to Canada and stayed in Hope, BC.

 Very nice!

Kirsty looking for gold in Hope.

McLeese Lake in BC. Wanda wasn't too sure about the 20 degree temperature at night. Her bones were creaking as we left in the morning, but she was fine after she heated up a bit.

Back in Sitka! It was a fun journey, learning to move things ten times around the van. It must be a law of nature that when you move something to another spot, you will need to next get whatever you placed the object in front of. And so on.

Peace my friends!

Spring

Spring has begun to show signs of life around these parts!

Kirsty knitted and then felted these bunnies! The daffodils came up by truck from the lower 48.

Peace

The Snow Surprises Sitka

Well, so much for the green grass! About a foot of snow fell between 7 am and 1 pm today. And as of 3 pm, it is still snowing. Apparently we have a stalled snow mass above us. We took a stroll to Totem Park to see what was what.

The tables at the entrance to the park were not for sitting at today.

 The snow is so heavy on the branches that they are touching the ground.

 Kirsty standing in the snow.

Snowy wonderland!

We are done with the snow. Where is the off switch?

Peace.

The Herring Are Coming

Today or tomorrow the herring fishery gets going. It is kind of like a bumper car affair at times, when the boats compete with each other for the bazillions of herring that are getting ready to spawn in Sitka Sound. They have to catch them before they spawn, so that they can extract the roe and sell it, mostly to the Japanese. With the herring in town, the sightings of sea lions, whales, seals and eagles goes way up. We were taking a drive out to the end of the road north of town when we pulled over to see the whales out on the sound. We looked out onto the water and saw a group of about 6 sea lions, just offshore, swimming around a very large fin poking up out of the water (nothing but the fin ever came out of the water).
This continued for about 20 minutes or so, leading us to believe that it was a small whale either injured or dead. Our binoculars were sitting at home, gazing forlornly out the window, so they were no help.
Kirsty made a couple of calls and soon a NOAA policeman (didn't realize there was such a thing), was heading our way. Sonny arrived just as the larger fin disappeared for good under the water. He said that it could have been a grey whale, as they can come real close to shore and scoop up large amounts of sea bottom, then float up to the surface, rolling on their sides as the sediment and water gets strained out, leaving the food inside the baleen. He says he gets calls often from folks thinking the whale is in distress as it lays on its side for an extended period of time. Sonny also said that sea lions will hang about the whales at times.
He said it could also have been a very large bull seal (Edgar being Sonny's favorite) who was being tended to by his harem. We think the flipper on the left (first picture), is too big for a sea lion, so we're are going to stick with the whale theory.
Anywho, we also watched more than a dozen whales further out in the sound, cavorting up and down, presumably having lunch. More on the herring fishery in a few days.

Peace!

Walking to the Beach

The sun came out, so we climbed out of the igloo and headed for John Brown's Beach. The wind had a bit of a bite to it, but the sun felt great on our pasty faces! Here are a few pictures to let you know we are still alive.

A view of Mt. Edgecumbe as we were walking across the bridge to the beach.

Looking back towards Sitka from the bridge.

 Da Beach! I know, seriously.

God's wood sculpture.

Peace my friends!

Mosquito Cove

The weather continues to be a wonderful thing, so off I go, trekking around the Mosquito Cove area.

This tree is half underwater part of the day and continues to thrive.

 Sometimes they don't cut the trees when they fall across the trail.

 This picture, and the next, show the Old Man's Beard on the trees.

The jaw bone of a Sitka deer.

Peace my friends!

Heat Wave

We had 35 mph winds (with gusts over 60) the other day. It took the ice and snow with it around town. Went to bed with a couple of feet of snow and ice and woke up to green grass. It had been about a month or so since we last saw grass, so it was a bit strange to suddenly see it.
Now, it is a balmy 41 so I thought I would head out to Thimbleberry Lake to see if the ice was gone yet, and take a look at Totem Park to see the wind damage. Pretty exciting stuff around here!

As you can see from this one and the next few, the ice is still around, and more so on the trail.

An eagle as big as a labrador takes off.

Trees were down all around Totem Park, some falling across the paths. They cut the trees where they lay.

This was about 40 foot tall.

Peace.