A whale of a tale

Well, a week has come and gone quickly and I have so much to catch you all up on.

Last weekend we decided to undertake the great endeavor of storming Mt. Verstovia again. I thought it made for great symmetry. We went up the first weekend we were here and then we went up our next to last. I must say, the second time around was much easier. The weather is much warmer as spring makes her presence undeniable but up the mountain that means the snow was turning into ice. It was crazy slippery. I spent quite a bit of time on my tush. But again, the view from the top makes it all worth it. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before in my life. The top was clear and beautiful again but this time there wasn’t any wind freezing my face off, literally. The sun made it actually rather warm and enjoyable. Yay, weekend!



Trees FULL of Bald Eagles (all the white)



Sealion group

Fast forward to Wednesday: Match Day. Unfortunately, Scott didn’t match with his top choices so he is doing what is called The Scramble. This is a first come first serve match but since almost half of the students didn’t match this year there are over a thousand students trying to compete for fifty spots. The next couple of months are going to be those of transition as we try to decide where we want to be and what we will be doing. Regardless, graduation is in May! Scott has 3 more days of school… EVER! I’m so proud of him and all of his hard work over the past four years.

Fast forward again to today: Whale Cruise! We went out on a charter cruise for the local whale charity’s yearly fund raiser. They took us around the channels that were known whale “hot spots” and man were they right. We saw tons of sea otters (so precious!), a tree full of bald eagles, dozens of sea lions, and probably ten or so Humpback Whales. AMAZING! I can’t believe something that gigantic can move so gracefully. They’re so smooth and slow you almost forget they could sink your boat Moby style. I'm totally a land loving lass and even get sea sick if I stand on the dock too long. The boat was large and made the journey ok, but after a while I could feel myself fading. Even while editing the video footage, I had to take breaks because it was making me motion sick. I took a million pictures and several videos to share, so I hope you all enjoy.

We’re flying out of here Thursday at 6pm, overnight to Chicago, arriving in Tulsa around 2pm on Friday April 1^st.  FIVE MORE DAYS!!! (but who’s counting) I have yet to start packing… but I’ll get to it eventually.

Love you all and see you very soon,

S/A

Sitka: Day 78

Looking back at the town

T-12 days… so we better make the most of it.



Spring has officially sprung up here in Sitka. The Herring are preparing to spawn so the birds are going nuts. There are thousands of gulls, hundreds of Bald Eagles and ducks, dozens of sea lions… and a few alleged whales.



View from bridge looking at the harbor

  

We really wanted to take advantage of the day so we went shopping this morning and animal watching this afternoon. We had to wait until 5:30pm for low tide so that we could see the most animals. There are so many birds in town I feel like I need an umbrella just to leave the house. The star fish are out in mass numbers and the seagulls are fervently enjoying them.

This afternoon after shopping, we decided to walk around for a while. We headed up to check out an old Russian out post next to a Russian cemetery on a secluded hill side. It was a very quiet and still place to be. The wind didn’t blow and none of the million birds were around. It made a nice place for reflection. 

Verstovia/Arrow Head

 

Mt. Edgecumbe



I’ve been kicking myself all day today for not taking my camera to work yesterday. While walking over the bridge there were two HUGE bald eagles perched about 10 feet away from me on a limb that was about eye level. I should have run back home and to get my camera. Today I continued to keep my hopes high the same would happen, but no such luck. We defiantly kept our eyes peeled for whales but never saw any. There’s a whale cruise next weekend that we are going to try and get tickets for. Fingers crossed!

The day was beautiful and we really enjoyed getting out and about in the sunshine taking a few pictures. The thing we will miss the most about this place (when we leave in 12 days… but who’s counting?) is the breathtaking scenery. It’s unlike any place on Earth.

All our love,

S/A

Reasons to go out

Hey everyone and Happy Tuesday.

I want to wish all of our medical school friends the best of luck tomorrow on their matches. YAY!

This weekend I stayed in bed most of the time but we did venture out twice. Like every 2^nd Saturday of the month, Sitka hosted the Monthly Grind. This month’s theme was “all about Sitka”. So, local performers came out with original songs, dances, poetry, and more. The talent in this small town is outstanding and I’m so glad they have the opportunity to express themselves. We were blown out of the water by a ten year old kid on his guitar when he sang one the songs he wrote about love in a small town. Another local woman wrote a poem about the down town ravens that was hilarious and so 100% accurate.  There was one young man who played a jazz piece on his key board with enough soul to catch even Ray Charles’ attention.



Singing Codman

My two favorite performances of the night, though, had to be the guy who sang, played the harmonica (when not singing), while playing the piano with one hand and a synthesizer with the other… and it sounded great! Who knew that was even possible? The other stand out performance was by “Anonymous” who I played his guitar and sang a very sultry song from his king cod costume. (Yes, fish can sing). His music was good but greatly overshadowed by his get up. Words don’t do it justice.

Being the grind, the tickets were only five bucks and you got homemade desserts at intermission. I love it!



Root beer floats!



Sunday, we were invited over to a friend’s house for ‘dress up dinner’. Why? Well… why not? We all got gussied up and brought side dishes for a homemade Italian dinner. It was great. We played games around the table and ended the night with root beer floats. There’s a microbrewery on the island where they make some really great local beer and root beer and one of our friends so happens to be the Master Brewer. Delicious!



View from Gavan Hill



But like all good things, the weekend came to an end. Scott had worked all day Saturday so he took Monday off. Being the little Eagle Scout he is, he headed up the side of a mountain, well, Gavan Hill to be exact, though there is very little “hill” about it. In reality I’m glad he got to do it. I tried it with him a few weeks ago and only made it 2/3 the way up before calling it a day and I wasn’t looking forward to trying again. Thankfully, he remembered the camera and was able to take some really great pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Currently, Scott is busy cooking up what smells like an amazing spaghetti dinner for us after a long day of work. I’m seriously the luckiest gal on the face of the planet. Again, our hearts and prayers go out to those overseas facing the aftermath of the disaster and the new dangers that come up every day.

Love you guys and can’t wait to come home,

S/A

Making waves

What a humbling 24 hours.

Yesterday started around 4:00am for us when my dad called three times in a row until I woke up (a big hint something is gravely amiss). At the same time I was listening to his concerned message Scott’s mom was calling him. We both jumped out of bed and ran to the TV. We have very limited channels but we found a news channel from Washington covering the latest.

8.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan; resulting tsunami heading for US West coast. That was about all the coverage we received before they returned to what was happening in Japan. Thank goodness for the internet. We were able to find out the expected targeted areas (Oregon and California) and what, if any, danger our little island was in. Come to find out, none. We were under a tsunami advisory but they weren’t expecting anything to happen except maybe a slight water level rise. We do have tsunami sirens and evacuation routes heading up any number of the dozen massive mountains around us. They even had a siren practice about three weeks ago not knowing that we might need it.



image from telegraph.co.uk



I’ve been under the weather the past couple of days so I decided to stay home from work yesterday to try and lick it. That didn’t really work but I did get to watch the footage unfold as only the BBC can cover. What is it about a British accent that can make such a tragedy sound so delicious? I know, I know, I’m a bad person (shake your heads and wag your fingers in scorn if you wish) for saying such a thing at a time like this but I blame it all on Jane Austen. She has ruined me forever. She has engrained in me that tall dark men with proper British accents will engage me in witty banter then whisk me away to their massive estate in the country side where they will read me Shakespeare by candle light and take me riding on Sunday afternoons. But I digress.

In all seriousness our hearts go out to those suffering.

On a different note: Scott is working this weekend at a health fair for teenagers to warn them about the dangers of over the counter drug abuse (while I sit at home knocking back the Robitussin). He’s been working hard on several different projects for his rotation this (his final) month. There are 13 work days left for him before his 4^th year of pharmacy school is OVER! There’s still graduation in May and the boards he’ll take in June… but as far as school goes—this is it!

I’m super excited. We started this journey together by getting married two days before his first day of pharmacy school and now as it comes to an end I couldn’t be more proud. I remember thinking that 2011 seemed so far away and that four years would take forever. How wrong was I? Time has flown, for me at least. I’m sure for the hard working student putting in countless hours of studying and drilling, it’s moved a little more slowly and perhaps painfully. But this is it!

T-19 days…

The Match closed yesterday evening with his top preferences locked in. It's all out of our hands now. The next year of our life will be revealed to us on March 23rd.

Missing you all but happy everyone we love and cherish is safe and well,

S/A

The middle sister



The Three Sisters



Hooray for warm weather and sunshine! This weekend has been amazing with clear blue skies and bright sunshiny days with temperatures in the 40’s!




The boys at the falls



 Yesterday was Scott’s first day back from the interviews in New Hampshire and Montana so we slept in. After a big breakfast at noon we spent the day hanging low doing laundry cleaning the apartment together. I really missed him. The interviews went really well and match day is March 23^rd. Fingers crossed!

Today we decided to hike a trail on the Northern side of the island called Indian River with our friend Chris. This 10 mile (round trip) trail followed the said river around the middle of The Three Sisters-- which you’ve seen in a million pictures. It was perfect day for the adventure and we set out with high hopes. The trail was flat and followed the river closely but it was extremely icy this morning, slowing us down. Tediously, we made our way to the base of the sister.

Once at the base, we started our journey up. Gloriously, it didn’t follow the traditional Alaskan straight-up-the-mountain trend. We meandered our way up to a beautiful frozen waterfall. Usually, the area is a pool that the waterfall flows into but this time of year we were able to walk up and touch the frozen cascade. We sat at the base and picnicked in the sun for 30 minutes or so then headed back down.



View of Mt. Edgecumbe from the beach



When we got to the base of the mountain we started hearing what we now easily recognize as avalanches. Terrified we all ducked and ran several yards looking for where it was falling—as if it would have done us any good. Thankfully, it was sliding down a chute we had crossed earlier. Knowing we needed to get out of the danger zone we headed down to a safe landing about a quarter of a mile away. From there we (safely) watched 5 or 6 more avalanches pour down the side of the mountain. To relax and unwind after the long day we went down to the beach to hang out and take pictures.

It was a beautiful and awe inspiring day.

Hope everyone is well back home-- love you all,

S/A

Survival of the fittest!



Mountains in Missoula



Perhaps that’s a small exaggeration. For anyone following the forlorn faucet failure of 2011, you know I have survived—and on my own, might I add (a bit smugly). Actually, I couldn’t have done it without our land-people’s assistant (Jessie). She totally saved the day.

Our first day was awful! It seemed the world was against us. I know zip-zero-zilch about water pipes. I’ve never had to deal with this before in Arkansas let alone on my own (insert cheesy Les Mis song here). Scott is in the lower 48 and our land-people are in Mexico.

I started the day off at 6am scared to death I would find myself swimming to the kitchen. Thankfully, it was still only about 10 degrees outside so nothing had the chance to thaw yet. At 7am sharp I was on the phone calling the three plumbers in Sitka. Plumber number one wouldn’t help me without a contract with his business. Plumber number two scoffed and hung up on me for not knowing more about my situation. Plumber number three said he would help but left me waiting the whole day until he swung by for .3 seconds to tell me he was too busy to help us. We went to the phonebook and were out of Sitka plumbers.



Missoula county court house



Jessie and I were feeling pretty low at this point. It was dark and freezing cold. We couldn’t find the access to get under the house or the water shut off valve. Feeling desperate and relying somewhat on survival instincts we turned to our neighbor, who we had seen working on his house off and on that day too. So, with big watery eyes and little, pink, cold noses we shamelessly asked for help. This was our turning point.

The gentleman was kind enough to come over in the freezing cold dark and crawl around the bottom of the house until he found the access panel. He lugged over a diesel fuel heater that looked closer to a rocket engine than a space heater. After fueling up we realized we still couldn’t turn the water off without locating the shut off valve so we bailed that night and decided to wait till morning when we could find it.

So started day two without water. The first thing one figures out pretty quickly without water is you don’t have a potty. I promise to skip all the “potty” humor, but not being able to flush-- stinks… har har har (feel free to roll your eyes and shake your head in disapproval).  I reached deep down inside of me and found my frontier woman. I boiled snow so I could wash my face and brush my teeth. Eventually, I made my way to the store and got some bottled water to replace the nasty snow.



Missoula campus



But being a working gal, I had couldn’t spend another day sitting around waiting on the flaky plumber. So, I headed off to work leaving Jessie to handle it. Half way through the day I called her to check in and she was hard at work. By the time I got home she was in full gear with a head lamp on with a friendly handy man that had the broken pipes replaced, the water running, and life back to normal. Elated, I went to shake the man’s hand and introduce myself. Before I could get out my name he scornfully said, “Well, you must be the young lady who doesn’t make her bed.” My jaw dropped and I was speechless. So busted!

I could feel my mother’s shame radiating from Arkansas. I was always taught to leave a clean house in case of an emergency-- point very well taken Marma. What can I say? Scott was out of town, and I was alone and in crisis mode.

Oh, and on a completely and totally unrelated topic—If you have never tried Haagen-Dazs White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream, get up right now… don’t worry about finishing this blog… go right now and get some. Eating this ice cream made me have a “should have sent poet…” Jody Foster moment.

So there’s my little story while Scott’s been off having his own adventures.

Scott had a rockin’ interview in New Hampshire. He said the area was beautiful and the hospital was really friendly and inviting. Today, he spent the day touring the fair city of Missoula, Montana. He got to go to museums, historical down town, the Missoula campus, and several beautiful parks.  He took some picutures with his phone and sent them to me to share with you guys. Tomorrow (3/3) is his all day interview so keep him in your thoughts. Most of his flights have been good but I know he is extremely tired of flying and ready to come home. So, come on home darlin’, I’m a waitin’.

Love you all and thanks for your support,

S/A



Sign on a play ground in a park