On Tuesday Michele and I pack up with Lachlan in tow and head south. Rather than taking the ferry straight back to Bellingham as originally planned, we will be taking the ferry to Prince Rupert, B.C. and taking the slow road down between the Canadian Rockies and BC coastal range through Prince George, the Okanogan, and finally down to western Washington and our Seattle home. Perhaps not the brightest idea with a newborn but the regular Alaska Marine Highway ferry, Columbia, got broke for the season. Having been left little choice we get to accept this inconvenience as an adventure.
Not sure how the boy will handle the ride. We don't have much road to test him out on here in Ketchikan. He still likes to eat and now weighs in at a shade under 12 pounds. He's lost most of his baby hair and is now a cue ball like his daddy was. Michele and I thought his eye color would change but it staying a slate color. Not sure where he gets that from.
We are looking forward to introducing him to family and friends and catching up with them ourselves. We've missed them very much this last year. It will be nice to get back to Seattle. Michele hasn't left the island since early May and I haven't been out of Ketchikan for nearly half a year.
Ah yes home, Seattle, home: where we will spend 14 days in our home (house? investment? money pit?) to get it ready for the next set of renters before moving on to California for the year. I will be attending Stanford this coming academic year and, if all goes well, will be done with a master degree in June. I'm continuing to study civil engineering specifically focused on design/construction integration. The program is a combination of structural and construction engineering with a little bit a management on the side so it won't be too much of a departure from my career path so far. I've put off grad school for a year now and with 20/20 hindsight going back to school this year is much more of a practical inconvenience than it would have been last fall. This year I really am excited about going to school, which is the one ingredient I was missing when I choose to go to Ketchikan over school last year. Plus we now have a 12 pound bundle of warm, hungry motivation to keep me on task. Michele will continue to stay home with Lachlan and we will live on campus. With her sister's family close by and the promise of lots of places to play with Lachlan outside in the sun (which she also hasn't seen since May:-) she may be more excited than I am.
Despite the excitement we both are feeling about our upcoming time in Seattle and the Bay Area, right now Michele and I are actually both having a hard time saying goodbye to Ketchikan. Perhaps we haven't expressed very well before or it's not something we've felt until recently but we really love this place. It might be because it is the birthplace of our first born. Maybe it is the view of the mountains and the Tongass Narrows in the morning. It could be the whales on the south side of Pennock in the morning or the black bears in Herring Cove in the evening. For me it might be the smell of a nice, wet southeast summer day on the way to work but for Michele it might be the guarantee of running into friends while running errands around town. On the other hand it might be the incredible hospitality we've experience from the folks around town and specifically our church, South Tongass Alliance. Actually this is the reason, no matter how terrible a fisherman you may actually be, the odds are still in your favor to land a big salmon no matter what side of the rod you use (I'm getting all choked up...)
Michele thinks that's a lame reason. Lachlan will understand someday.
Proverbs 24:27
Happy Boy!
Evening Bear
Lachlan and Grandma Karimi
