Wind Songs: Sitka

A picture taken on the Japonski Island side of the water, looking back at the City of Sitka.

By early afternoon yesterday I had been wandering for a good number of hours, as I have done from the time of my arrival in Sitka.

When I am travelling on foot, and exploring, and stewing as my brain has a way of both consciously and unconsciously doing, I do not realize how much I see and do until I actually start downloading it all onto this blog.......

I continued wandering towards UAS Campus, mostly both taking in the scenery around me and at the same time thinking.

UAS in Sitka is not much to see. A small non-descript campus that was all but empty during my visit.

As I walked towards the campus buildings though, and then behind them and around the back to the open water my mood began to darken.

I looked at the beautiful sky and beautiful water and beautiful islands and mountains, and my mood continued to darken...............

UAS Campus is the small building to the right of this picture.

I am not certain exactly what the building on the left is, but one section of it looks like a small airport tower...........

In the few days I have been in Sitka I have seen very few boats heading out.

Yesterday however, a very very loud noise suddenly broke the silence when I was wandering around the campus.

It took me a moment to figure out what this noise was - this unexpected, extremely loud and extremely intrusive noise was.

It was a float plane.

It has been a couple of months since I have heard one now, and I had completely forgotten until I heard the plane yesterday just how extremely noisy those things are

One of only four boats I have seen moving in all of the harbors I have seen over the past few days...........

Painted concrete benches and planters resting alone in back of the campus, and overlooking the water........

Scenes overlooking the water as I rounded the side of the campus............

I found a rock by the water to sit on and continued to look out over the water.

For eleven months I have sat on countless numbers of rocks and boulders and logs looking out over the water in Alaska.

There have been times when I was lonely or doubtful or scared or angry, and other times when I was hopeful and excited and confident. And many times when I just felt sad.

Usually the water and mountains brings me some sense of internal calmness.

They did not do that for me yesterday.

Yesterday the water and mountains began to fail me, and before I could fall further into a pit I got up from my rock and began to move again.

Maybe I could outrun it. Or at least out-walk it...............

After circumnavigating the entire campus, I walked up to the road, turned left, and headed back towards the bridge and the harbor.

I saw a series of older buildings on a side road, and walked down to check them out, thinking that they looked exactly like what I think they must have been in another life - military buildings.

The totem pole out front drew me closer, and I believe that all of these buildings were related in their new incarnation to auxiliary health services.

The hospital not far from these particular buildings seemed to confirm that............

When I finally arrived back near the bridge I crossed over the road and walked towards the harbor and marina.

This is the third one I have found in the few days that I have been here in Sitka, and from the appearance of the boats this is the most "recreational" harbor.

Very few hard working, old and beaten, making a living fishing boats, and many more pleasure boats.

The water was very calm and very peaceful and everything reflected in the water beautifully.

I slowly walked along the grass looking down at the boats below me, and watching people come and go as they worked on closing up their boats for the winter................

Eventually I walked over to a picnic table and sat on the table part, as I usually do............

I watched this overloaded boat come in carrying its rowdy and cold and boisterous and loud crew of four men

I could hear their loud talk and their loud laughing long before they even got close to shore, and I sat on the bench in the cold thinking about something that LC said to me on the phone the other day.

That he could not remember the last time I laughed.

When was the last time I laughed?

Really laughed. Laughed for joy. Laughed for happiness.

I sat on the bench in the cold and drizzling rain doing the Winnie-the-Pooh "think think think".

I could not remember.....................

I ducked under the covered picnic shelter when it finally began to rain in earnest.

It was cold. It was raining hard.

A bus stopped in the gravel parking lot behind me, beeped his horn, and when I turned around and realized that he was asking me if I wanted a ride across the bridge, I waved him on.

I t was cold. It was raining hard.

And I needed to be outside..................

For the past few days I have found myself thinking about a girl that I ran into in March in Juneau.

It was a very cold day and I was extremely restless.

Finally, not able to stand the wolf-like pacing I had been doing all morning I climbed into my car and drove out to the End of the Road.

The day was snowy and very cold and grey, and there was almost no traffic on the road at all as I made my way to Echo Cove.

Somewhat surprisingly only a few minutes after I pulled into the parking lot another car pulled in behind me.

A young woman got out of the car and I did not pay her any attention until she came up behind me, while I was standing at the boat ramp looking out over the water.

I turned around to politely acknowledge her, saw her face, and asked her if she was alright.

And she proceeded to cry.

She was about 28 years old (just a little older than my oldest son), had moved here from San Francisco and was up in Juneau for a year with Americorps.

She had borrowed a car from a friend and (in an attempt to escape Juneau as much as possible) had driven as far away from Juneau as possible.

To the End of the Road.

At the same time that I was trying to do the exact same thing.

She hated Juneau. Everything about it.

The weather. The men. The restaurants. The fact that it did not contain her friends and family.

She felt lost and alone.

And I talked her down.

Calmed her fears. Put her one year stint with Americorps into perspective. Put the new-to-Juneau-syndrome into perspective.

And I think she felt better about her life when she left the parking lot and headed back into town.

I thought about that girl again yesterday as I sat on a bench in the rain in Sitka................

More scenes from the small park by the boat harbor............

When the rain finally stopped I walked back across the bridge.

There is sidewalk on one side of the bridge, but not on the other.

I really wanted to take some pictures on the opposite side of the bridge, because on that side there are seemingly hundreds of small islands (many of them containing homes), and the view is very very beautiful.

And........for the second time yesterday the sun came out very very briefly and I wanted PICTURES!

So every once in a while I would check for traffic, run across the road on the bridge, snap a couple of pictures and return to the sidewalk side of the bridge.

Too beautiful to pass up.

Way too beautiful to pass up................

Back on the Sitka side of town I made my way to Centennial Hall where I knew that a Christmas craft fair was being held.

Centennial Hall is a beautiful place (I will take pictures inside before I leave town) but when I walked into the building it was absolutely packed with vendors and hundreds and hundreds of shoppers.

I walked into this beautiful and decorated place, and walked out again within just a few minutes...........

I then went to Subway and bought a full sub that I ate in one sitting, then went to a bar and sat in the corner drinking two bottles of beer............

A lovely Episcopal church that I pass while walking from downtown to the Hostel...........

A wonderful, huge, colorful, beautiful, native canoe located on a stand immediately between the very busy downtown library and Centennial Hall............

An old griding wheel located on the walkway beside the Westmark Hotel (which I found out firsthand tonight has very excellant food in a very excellant and lovely restaurant)..........