I wanted to send you a brief 'Howdy' and update from Ketchikan, Alaska.
Before I get into the details, let me briefly explain how the heck I got here for those of you who may not know the rest of the story.
The story goes something like this: back in March, Michele and I had couple of opportunities present themselves.
A) The opportunity to stay put (sweet, sweet status quo!)
B) Accept an offer to go to grad school
C) Volunteer to be resident engineer for construction of a project my company had designed.
After much discussion and prayer, Michele and I choose door 'C'.
Of course, as the resident engineer I had to 'reside' within proximity to the project. This year long construction project was in Ketchikan, Alaska. To make matters more difficult. Michele was committed to stay in the Seattle area through December because of nursing school. Nevertheless, we pressed forward.
At some point during the summer, we decided our lives weren't in enough upheaval already so we sold our condo and bought a house in Central District (Seattle). And that is where my lovely bride resides now.
As for me, I left for Ketchikan on the Alaska Marine Highway on August 11th. The Alaska
Marine Highway is a ferry system that connects many of the isolated communities in southeast and southwest Alaska with the contiguous North American highway grid. Most towns in southeast Alaska are only accessible by boat or airplane. Ketchikan is no exception. The ferry ride from Bellingham was 36 hours long so I pitched my tent (light blue) in close quarters on the back of the boat. A day in a half seems like a long ride on a state ferry but with the stunning scenery and wildlife the time went by too quickly. I did see two humpback whales and pod of orca whales on the ride up.On August 13th, Ketchikan greeted the ferry to a cold and drizzly Sunday morning. I hit the ground runny: inspecting the condition of the existing waterfront that same day with Johnny Cash's "Sunday Morning Coming Down", repeating over again in my head. Since, then the details of my life have been quite inconsequential: work and more work.
Over the last month I've been staying in the "New York Hotel" and will be moving into an apartment near the project site shortly. However, the hotel has been good to me and I recommend it for anyone who visits town (to visit me?).
Now a word on Ketchikan. Known as Alaska's "First City", "Gateway City", or "King Salmon Capital of the World", Ketchikan is a town with a population of 8,200 people. This makes it the fifth largest town in a state more than twice the geographic size of Texas (no, I'm not kidding). Located on Revillagigedo Island (don't ask me to pronounce it) what the town is best known for is rain: lots and lots of rain. In 2005 Ketchikan received 196" of rain, making it the fourth wettest place on earth last year. That's over five times more rain than Seattle. After this experience, I'll never complain about the rain back home again. The rain does keeps the island green and the population covered in a full layer of pvc rain gear for most of the year. Most every local also sports a pair of Xtra Tough rubber rain boots as well. My knock-off pair of rain boots were immediately noticed and I was labeled an "outsider". So far I can't complain too much about the weather, it's only rained about half of the time I've been here. We've even had a few blue sky days. There is nothing quite like a nice day in southeast Alaska. It is stunning. The kind of beauty that make your chest ache. Do you know what I mean?
That's not to say I don't miss Michele. I do terribly. However she visited me last weekend and got to experience the town for the first time. I can't wait until she comes up permanently and I get to outfit my L.A. bride in her first pair of Xtra Toughs.
It's getting late and there is so much more to share. I'll save that for another posting.
Love,
RJ
