34 Hours Awake? Oh No.

School's out for summer!  The students all graduated on May 5th and then we flew with them up to Anchorage that night so that they could go back to their villages.  I went as a chaperone.  There were two flights, one leaving at 11:30 pm and the other leaving at 12:30am.  Of course I was on the later one.  That is my life.  The flight was delayed, but we only had to sit on the plane for about an hour and a half, so in my Alaska Airlines experience, not bad.  Then we were underway.  Normally planes don't fly directly from Sitka to Anchorage, normally we only fly to Ketchikan and Juneau, but because of the volume of students we had two chartered flights that came in.  So, I wasn't really prepared for what chaperoning at the airport entailed.  We got to Anchorage around 3 am, and might I just say what everyone is now thinking, eew.  Yes, it was awful.  I thought we were watching the kids until their flights, but really they are sort of on their own unless a disaster happens and that is what we are in the airport for.  I went down to baggage claim were the other chaperones were already sitting and wished for sleep.  Two of the MEHS staff chaperones ditched me and Jonathan (another AmeriCorps) at the airport to go to the hotel.  Harsh, I know.  So they left and then it was me (I was sick, by the way and was exhausted) and Jonathan.  It was about 4am now.  So, we played scrabble on his iPad, I destroyed him, of course, and wished for sleep.  It seemed like time was crawling at an exponentially slow pace.  The airport makes all these announcements, at the top of the hour and half after they tell you the time and what the weather is like in Anchorage.  At 15 after and 45 they would warn you about how a lot of baggage looked alike and to check your tags.  And finally at 10 after and 40 after they would tell you that the airport was a non-smoking facility and that you could only smoke in the outside designated areas.  We decided that around 7:30 am we would go see about breakfast and get me a really large caffeinated beverage or several small caffeinated beverages depending on what they had.  There aren’t a whole lot of options going on outside of security in the Anchorage airport.  There was Cinnabon, Starbucks and Hudson News.  I don't like coffee or cinnamon, so that severely limited my already slim options.  I went with a cinnamon bun and a couple of sodas from the newsstand.  However, I soon realized that I still don't like cinnamon even when I am really hungry and ate the top and outside.  The soda, however, was like ambrosia sent from Heaven.  Glorious caffeinated beverage, I love you.  We had to take our luggage upstairs with us when we went to get our breakfast stuff because when we were callously ditched at the airport they left us with our suitcases.  Rude.  On the way down, we took the escalator.  Now, as some of you may know, the escalator is not my favorite mode of transportation.  So Jonathan got on and I was trying to maneuver it so that my suitcase went on first and then me.  Well, that turned out to be harder then I thought and the suitcase got away from me to go barreling towards Jonathan (currently unaware with his back to me).  I yelled down at him to look out and now he keeps telling everyone that I tried to kill him.  False.  Had I really been trying to injure, I would not have yelled the warning as the suitcase hurtled towards him. 
So, we were back in baggage claim for a while chilling on surprisingly uncomfortable benches when everything blew up at once.  The valedictorian of the class came down and told us that they wouldn't let her check in because she didn't have her ID on her.  I then asked if she was over 18, because below that it is not necessary, and of course she is 18.  Dang it.  The ID is with her boyfriend in his checked luggage and since he is of course not a student with MEHS he is still in Sitka.  Cool.  He is travelling to Anchorage this morning and will hopefully get his luggage there, too.  A lot of the students’ luggage didn't make it because of weight and balance and the fact that we had 200 kids all checking 3 bags.  But, what person travels without their ID?  Seriously.  Children.  Ugh.  So we are preparing to deal with this and then we look over and there is a police officer with one of our students.  Great.  His face is all messed up and he is quite QUITE intoxicated and a little belligerent.  Sweet.  I love getting ditched at the airport.  So, we make the kid sit and talk to the officer.  She leaves and the kid passes out on the baggage claim benches.  So, now we have to call one of the staff people to tell her about this delightful occurrence.  She was less than thrilled.  So, she has to leave another kid at the doctors and come deal with drunk kid.  Jonathan used to be an EMT and so every once in a while he would go over and check on the kid.  At one point we were talking and I was all angry and outraged and Jonathan said to look on the bright side, he could be throwing up everywhere.  Fair point.  It could have been worse.  The kid lives in a remote village and when we went to rebook his flight, because he obviously couldn't fly, there was no available option out until Sunday morning.  It is Friday.  Cool kid.  The valedictorian’s boyfriend came in and they had to pull his bags off the plane for her to get her wallet out, but at least one problem down.  Some of the chaperones that came in where the coaches, so eventually after sleeping beauty woke up, one of the coaches came to get him and take him back to the hotel. 
Also, as a side note, I didn't realize how much my swearing filter works overtime until this trip.  It is difficult to focus on not swearing when all of your energy is going towards staying awake and alert (ish).  So a few words might have slipped out several times over the course of the morning, but really I blame exhaustion and a faulty filter.  Also, my best friend from grade school a little bit.  She could make a sailor blush with her language.  Finally, we got the go ahead to leave the airport, but we had no car.  There were two rental cars, both of which were with other people.  We were going to take a cab when Jonathan had to brilliant idea to call the hotel and see if they had a shuttle.  I call that brilliant because we were going on 33 hours awake, and with me being sick, it felt like I hadn't slept in a week.  When we got to the hotel and ditched our suitcases, we went in search of food.  We were going to get pizza, but when we walked out of the hotel there was a Qdoba right there!  I freaked and made Jonathan go there.  It was glorious.  I took a picture on my phone and sent it to several people.  Fantastical!  Then we went back to the hotel where I was sharing a room with another female MEHS staff member, she was talking to me and so I was answering from the bed, but as soon as she paused in her words I was like, Go, Go, Go!  And promptly fell asleep until 11pm.  It was amazing.  I don't think I moved an inch the whole time.  I spent 5 days in Anchorage, it is a cool city, but as exciting as it was to be in "the big city", all I kept thinking was that I bet Omaha is bigger than this.  It definitely doesn't have the same spectacular view though.  Mountains everywhere and at one point we were high enough to see the Cook Inlet.  Beautiful.  We were able to glimpse Denali, but didn't go.  Lame I know.  I wanted to, but alas it was not meant to be.  I got back into Sitka around 11pm and went home where my funny roommates had waited up to see me! 

Thanksgiving, Christmas and a Left Knee

Dinner in the living room!

Thanksgiving in Sitka! We decided to do an AmeriCorps Thanksgiving since we were all away from our families. The dinner was held at my house. Each of us took a dish and made it for the group meal. I made a fantastic turkey. It was so beautiful. Also, stuffing and gravy. It was fantabulous. We moved all of the furniture against the wall in our living room (which sounds impressive, but it was just a couch and a trunk) and moved our kitchen table as well as an end table into the living room for us to sit around. We had people sitting on our 6 chairs, the trunk, an end table from my room and stool. For a buffet table, I took one of the closet doors off the hinges and we have two saw horses that we set the door on in the kitchen. It was beautiful. We had a really good night, and it was fun to reinvent uses for the end table, aka chair!

Classy, I know!

Following Thanksgiving, I was pretty checked out. I was going home on December 13th, for Christmas and I just wanted to be gone and see everyone! Finally, I felt like it would never come, it was December 13th and I was going to begin what was to be a two day journey home. I left Sitka around noonish. There are three flights a day in Sitka, two going north and one going south. South is where I wanted to be! The plane stopped in Ketchikan before continuing on towards Seattle. Alaska Airlines (the only airline in Sitka, or Southeast basically) flies directly from Seattle to St. Louis, but only once a day, so any way I tried to work it I had to stay overnight in Seattle. That was a bummer, but I found a very cheap motel for $36. It was just as classy as I thought it would be. There was a pretty shady shuttle that picked me up from the airport and then took me to the even shadier motel. It was one of those drive up to your room places. When I got there the clerk had to leave me in the front because she did not have keys to the front door. So she went around back to let us in and I admired the beautiful front window while waiting. It had one of those push out glass windows like they have at a fast-food place and the whole front window was bulletproof glass. I hadn't seen any of that since leaving St. Louis in August. I missed you bulletproof glass and the comfort that you bring, assuring me that I am in a good neighborhood. The next morning, (yes, I made it the night there! I was a little surprised) I took the classy shuttle, which really was a gray unmarked van, to the airport. I got there really early because when I talked to Dad the night before he got me all freaked out about missing my flight. I was however, glad that I went really early because as I was standing in the security line (I was standing at the tables, computer, liquids, coat and shoes were out and in the little buckets) when suddenly people in the blue TSA shirts were everywhere screaming SECURITY BREACH! At the Seattle airport, you were in line and then you passed through these doors and then you are in line for a couple more people then you start shedding everything you own for the x-ray. When they were yelling the doors were slammed and TSA guys went and stood, back to us, in the metal detectors. So, now we are not sure what's going on and a little freaked out. Someone asked a TSA lady what was going on and she said that someone broke through security and that all flights were being held until the security breach was found. So, now we're just chilling in the security line, in between the closed doors and the metal detectors. A lot of us, including me, were standing there with no shoes on wondering how long this would take. Initially I stood there, but I got bored after a few minutes so I got out one of my books and read until they reopened security. Needless to say, but I was thankful that I got there earlier, because when they reopened the line, which was not bad at all when I got there, there were so many people behind those doors. Now that I was in the regular part of the airport I relaxed, until I found out a little bit later that they had to change planes and there was no seat for me. Cool. I booked this flight in October; it wasn't like I last minuted this! So, now I was extremely upset about potentially not getting to St. Louis when I was supposed to (there were five other people who had been bumped, too). I was standing at the stupid courtesy counter and they closed the doors going to the St. Louis plane, and I knew I wasn't getting on. Lame. They did the count and six people apparently checked in, but weren't on the plane so after much angst the airline people reopened the flight doors and let us on the plane. Thank goodness!

 

SAINT LOUIS!!!

I was in the great city of St. Louis from December 14th to January 6th. Then I had to fly back to Seattle for yet another overnight. However, on this occasion my wonderful parents got me an actual hotel in Seattle with a non-shady shuttle and all the entrances to the rooms were inside the hotel. Fancy, right? It was really nice and I definitely was more comfortable with my surroundings. Thank you!!! Once inside the terminal for my flight I noticed that it was a strange set up. Usually, there seem to be little lounges in front of the gate; however, my gate was 16A. Not an actual gate, more of a door, really, with a huge lounge area that accommodated several different gates. I was slightly perplexed by this, but I was just going to let it ride. They call us to board the plane and I discover why the gate looks like a door. It was because it was in fact a door. We went out said door and walked down a couple flights of stairs to the tarmac where we then walked along the tarmac to the end of the plane. Here there was a metal staircase for us walk up and board the plane from the back. Ok. I can see this happening in Yakutat, Sitka or even Juneau, but I am in Seattle. A huge airport for a large city and I am walking on the tarmac to get in the plane. Oh, Alaska. You are always an adventure. So we’re getting on the plane and I am almost to the entrance and a lady comes and tells us that we need to disembark and go back to the gate. Cool. So, now I am greatly regretting my decision to not where my coat and we all turn around and go back down the plane stairs, across the tarmac and back up the flight of stairs to reenter the airport. Once inside the airport I find out that the reason that we had to come back in was because the pilot was late. What? Don’t you think that is perhaps something that they should have checked beforehand? Now they are trying to find someone else to take the flight because the pilot is about an hour away. An hour? What did he think he was going to make it so why call and let them know he was running behind? Obviously, if at the time the flight was supposed to leave you are still an hour late, there was no chance of you making it. Which brings us back, full circle, to why they did not know that the pilot was not there before sending us on our trek to the plane. They found another pilot and we all went back out into the cold to get on the plane. I wore my coat that time, though! The flight was uneventful until we were approaching Juneau. It was getting a little bumpy and the pilot came on and said that weather in Juneau was really bad and that we were not able to land at this time. Great. The pilot said that the weather was supposed to clear up and we were going to go behind Sisters Island and wait for a little bit, otherwise we were going to have to continue on towards Yakutat. No! Not Yakutat! There are two flights a day in Yakutat and I felt certain if I ended up there that I was going to be stranded. We did figure eights in the sky for about 45 minutes and we finally got the ok to land in Juneau. We landed at 10:50am AKST. The flight to Sitka was supposed to leave at 10:30am AKST. So all I could think was great, now I’m stuck in Juneau. Better than Yakutat, but still not great. However, after leaving the plane we found out that the plane that was supposed to go to Sitka had not landed yet either because of the bad weather. So, I was able to board the plane and go to Sitka without any further airport, plane or flight drama. Once I landed, I was so glad to be back! I love it here!



Me, Amanda and Meghan standing on ice!!



I had the weekend to get settled and then on Monday, the kids were back and it was back to work! It was really cold in Sitka when I got back and Swan Lake froze over to the point where people could ice skate on it! I was driving down HPR (one of the main roads) and I was so surprised by seeing the people walking on the lake. I’ve never seen anyone standing on a lake and it was a pretty bizarre experience.



The metal moose in the lake.



It snowed on Saturday, so on Sunday I went out to the lake with Amanda, Meghan and Jonathan to walk around and play on the frozen lake. It was awesome! Such a cool experience walking on the ice, which was covered with snow, so not quite so slippery. I wore my sweet Xtratuffs, awesome rainboots, on the ice. One of the people who had property on the lake fashioned a ramp of sorts that they froze over and let kids sled down onto the water. It was so cool, such a neat experience. We made snow angels on the water, they were beautiful!

Injury.



Thats a good look, right?  Sweats rolled up, Xtratuffs, crutches.  Classy.

 On Tuesday, Jan 18th, I fell on the ice because I am a big klutz. I slipped getting into my car. I went home and put ice and elevated my knee, but I knew that I had done something bad to it. In the morning, I went to the hospital here. Why is the check in desk for the emergency room not near the emergency room entrance? Does that make sense to anyone? I had to limp down this long hallway while the nurses watched my make my slow way there. Once at the desk, they gave me a wheelchair to sit in. The staff there was awesome. I was in a room within five minutes of entering the hospital. A nurse checked my vitals and called the doctor before I had even registered! The nurse took me out to the registration desk in my wheelchair and I registered while waiting for the doctor. Before I was done, the doctor was there.

The doctor came in and examined my leg, he was very nice and I found out that he was the father of one of the teachers at my school. He ordered x-rays and told me that he thought it was my medial collateral ligament or MCL. I got a sweet pair of socks with grippies on the bottom, for me to wear whilst they rolled me all over the hospital getting x-rays. After the x-rays, the doctor said that he made me an appointment with Sitka Medical, which is a practice here in town, so that I can get examined and get fitted for a knee brace. Ugh. Before I left, the nurse came in and gave me a pair of crutches.

 Apparently, in Alaska, crutches come with spikes on them. They can flip up for when you are indoors, but when outside on the ice, spikes down. They are pretty intense.

At my physical therapist appointment I was poked and tortured even more. On the upside, however, now I am not only the proud owner of spiky crutches, but also a metal torture device that I strap onto my leg that I not so affectionately call Satan’s knee brace or Satan’s torture device. Depends on my mood.

The torture apparatus

I was told that I had a Grade II tear of my MCL. Ugh. The next day, I was at work lamenting my current injured status and the doctor’s office called me saying there was an opening at 10:30am for the doctor who is a sort of specialist in sports medicine here in Sitka. Now, my understanding is that his actual specialty isn’t sports medicine, but on the island he is the best there is. Well alrighty then! So, I went in to see him and he was full of good news and cheer and he said that I also had a tear in my medial meniscus. Cool. Thanks for that wonderful news doc. Anything else awesome you want to share? He thinks that the tear is on the outside of my meniscus where there is more blood flow. Because of the probable location I might not need to have surgery and it could be something that I don’t notice with regular activity for a while or it could be on the inside which would require surgery. So, hopefully door number 1 on that. About once a month, there is an orthopedic surgeon that flies in from Fairbanks and performs surgeries if that should become necessary.

Spikes!!!

Since the accident, I have had three physical therapy appointments. Today, (Jan 25th) I was hoping to get sprung from the crutches, but I am not able to fully straighten my leg without pain, so that was a no go. I am allowed to use only one crutch in doors now. That will be nice, because it is difficult having two if for no other reason then you can’t carry anything. I have taken to carrying around my backpack at all times because if I want to bring my water bottle or a book with me to another room then I need to take the backpack otherwise it is staying there.

On Wednesday, I am going to Juneau with 7 other Sitka AmeriCorps. I am not certain how much I will be able to participate because they have skiing (not doing that obviously), walking around town (I’m only allowed to walk around for 15-20 minutes in a row), a ropes course day (not doing that) and other stuff. I’m sure that it will still be a blast though! It will definitely be different visiting Juneau with people as opposed to just with myself. But in closing, I am a klutz who fell on the ice and tore my MCL and meniscus. It’s because I’m really graceful.

Ugh.  Crutches and the torturous knee brace

The Search for Blue Lake Dam

Blue Lake

 No one works in November apparently.  All of the other AmeriCorps members are off constantly this month.  I have school all the time and I’m there while they’re sleeping in.  Slackers.  So, on Friday, I was working (as usual) and those reprobates where off, again, and I got a text from Searra saying that the dam was overflowing and that we should go see it.  …  Yeah, I’m at work.  Can’t just leave and go see the dam (although, that would be sweet).  The last few days it has been raining like crazy.  On Thursday, we were at the other AmeriCorps house for seafood night, (Which as a side note was delicious, we had black cod.  It melts in your mouth.  Freaking awesome.  Laura’s boyfriend is a fisherman so they always have sweet seafood.  Amazing.) and there was some serious weather up here in the Southeast.  The wind was crazy (as it often is) and it was pouring down rain.  Times like this make me realize the necessity of rainpants.  Then it started thundering and lightning, which got people all jazzed because it doesn’t do that very often up here and suddenly it was hailing.  A lot.  Now, the hail wasn’t huge or anything, but it blanketed the streets in a way that made it look like snow.  So, we’d been having weather like that and apparently the dam is always in imminent danger of overflowing so I guess it was only a matter of time.  If you read that Newsweek article about Sitka, the name of the lake will sound familiar- Blue Lake and the water up there is were the town gets both its power and its water.  Now, I’m at work, reading this text message.  Why did I have to work at a boarding school?  If not I could get holidays, report card and I don’t feel like school today days off too, but no, boarding school it was.  Lame.  Right now, sunset is around 5pm-ish and then with twilight and everything it is fully dark by 5:45 or 6pm.  I got off work at 4pm and called one of my roommates, Amanda, and asked her if she wanted to go with me to see the dam.  We met up and went in search of the overflowing dam.  However, what we did not account for was the fact that neither one of us really knew where the dam was.  So, we had to call Charles, (Laura’s boyfriend) who is from Sitka, and ask him how to get to the dam.  Information semi-firmly in hand we drove off.  To get there we had to drive out Sawmill Creek Rd to nearly the end and then turn up this very, VERY sketchy dirt road.
On the way up, we stopped because you were able to see into the Fortress of the Bear, which is a couple of large round cage-like things that the town built to keep a couple of bears when they became semi-domesticated (don’t ask me how because I definitely don’t want to know) and it could be considered sort of like a local zoo.  They charge people to go up to these look out on the location, however if you are driving up this shady dirt road going to Blue Lake you can just look down into the Fortress because to get to Blue Lake you have to drive up the side of a mountain.  So, we stopped to take pictures of the Fortress of the Bear, which has a name that is much more impressive than the actual place.  However, the bears were not out to entertain us and it was cold so we took photos and got right back in the car and continued on towards Blue Lake.
Now, I’m driving my car, which just as a reminder is a four door Impala that is very low to the ground, and I am swerving, well, actually turning really slowly because you can’t really swerve when you are going so slow, around these huge potholes that in some cases I think were as big as my car.

If you look closely, you can see the blue of his jacket!

In some cases, when you cannot get around a pothole I found myself hoping that it was shallow, all the potholes are filled with water because of the constant rain here, which make determining the depth of a pothole from the drivers seat extremely difficult.  It was so beautiful!  There were several waterfalls on the road to the top and there were mountains everywhere you looked, just stunning.

At one, we looked up and could see a moving blue dot high up next to a waterfall.  There was a man climbing up the side of the mountain in a blue raincoat!  The mountains are imposing, but it is difficult to realize their scale when you are looking up at them, but see that little blue jacket moving up and up definitely puts things into perspective. 

We continued on our epic journey to see the dam, keeping to the left when the road forked, as instructed by Charles, and tried to keep our awe in check.  Finally, passing the last fork, a small chained off road, we reached Blue Lake.  We parked, because there was no way my car could get back up the road to the lake it is extremely steep.  Steeper then the roads in downtown Juneau and those, I thought, were extremely steep.  Amanda and I got out and walked down to the lake, it was beautiful.  Like something out of a fairytale that is not quite real.  However, we could not see the dam.  Interesting.  There definitely was a distinct rushing sound that had to be the dam.

So, we climbed back up the ridiculously steep road and looked for another way to see the dam.  Up closer to my car the sound was definitely louder, but still we could not actually see the dam.  We went through some trees and could sort of see it through the veil of tree, but closer inspection was impossible because the trees fell away into nothingness.
We returned to my car determined to find the dam.  As we drove back we stopped and looked at the small chained off road, but continued onwards thinking that perhaps we should have gone right and into the campgrounds after all if we wanted to see the dam.  However, there was an additional problem at this point we were losing daylight quickly and if we wanted to be able to even see the dam, it had to be soon.

When we go to the turn for the campgrounds, we drove down to the end and hit a little walking bridge.  We got out and went to look past the bridge, but all you could see was river and a huge giant pipe thing that I’m assuming had something to do with the dam that was invisible, apparently.  By now it was almost fully dark and we had to turn around and go home.  Leaving proved difficult because, as I was surprised to learn, giant potholes don’t go away in the dark and are in fact even harder to see.  I did, however, get to use my brights, which was fun.  Not a whole lot of cause to use those in the city.  Amanda and I returned without success. 

Me and Meghan

Meghan, EJ, me and Richard

The ladies! From left: Kristin, Searra, Amanda, Me and Meghan

The night was not a total waste though, it was a local friend of ours birthday and we all went out to celebrate him being old at Pbar.

Bear Booty

The next day, when I got up Amanda was dying Searra’s hair and we discovered our error in trying to locate the dam.  The stupid small chained off road is the way up to the dam.  Of course.  So, after her hair was dyed to her satisfaction, we left once again to see the dam.  We stopped again to overlook the Fortress of the Bear and this time there were some bears out.  I won’t say they were cute, because I have a difficult time attributing innocent cuteness to something that could kill you so quickly, but they definitely were frolicking about in their play areas and the seeing the bears from up high and while they are in a cage thing is much less intense then seeing that bear in Yakutat at the dump with virtually nothing in between us.  I’m a fan of that.

Searra & I

Success!

Amanda & I

It was beautiful!  The water was rushing over the top of the dam and it looked a lot like a waterfall.  I’m so glad we finally made it up there!  We posed for several photos and took a lot of the dam.  The water rushing over the top of the dam made it difficult to hear each other, but it was so much fun.  Also, I felt vindicated!  We found it!  Thank goodness, it would have rankled to not find it at all. 

Top of the dam and the water rushing over the side

Beautiful

Alaska Day (aka the third best day ever!)

Beginning of the parade in front of the Russian Orthodox Church that is in the middle of Lincoln Street

It is Alaska Day!!!  This is a fantastic holiday celebrating the day of the transfer of power from Russia to a US territory.  I had to work until 1pm.  Which was lame.  But classes only went until 1 so it really wasn't that bad.  I was a little worried that we were going to have to work during the parade- watching kids or something.  However, the principal told us to have fun and if we see students, just make sure that they are being polite.  YAY!  What a good boss!  So, Jonathan and I left at 1pm to go to the parade.  We drove over the bridge, but the students walked.  It was cool to drive on the bridge and see so many people going the same way at once.  

Once back on the main island, we parked and set off in search of a good spot.  I went down the main street towards the end of the parade route where two of my roommates, Kristin and Amanda, as well as Meghan, another AmeriCorps, her boyfriend Branden and EJ, who are people we know from town, were standing.  The parade was so much fun! 
There were two groups from MEHS in the parade, a group of Yupik and Inupiaq dancers.  They were wearing their kuspuks and they danced down the street.  It really interesting to see and to experience that type of culture in between fire trucks.  The different schools had people in the parade also.  Sitka High had a marching band and everyone in the parade wore their Xtratufs. 
The fire trucks and ambulances all had little kids in them who were wearing tiny firefighter outfits and emt outfits.  It was pretty cute. 

Xtratufs

Heck yeah!!

Every year the Alaska Day committee pays to have the Seattle Pipes and Drums bag piping group come up to Sitka.  They were in the parade and they were awesome!  They all wore kilts and were pretty intense about their whole bagpipe and drums deal.  There was also a huge whale that was made out of pvc pipe and covered in a black plastic.  There were people walking under in and people on the sides lifting the flippers up and down and then more people in the back lifting the tail up in the air and then down again.  The whale was for whalefest which is coming up.  There were also several floats with the Coast Guard and the state troopers.  We know a few of the Coast Guards, so it was fun to see people we knew in the parade!  There were little girl scouts and boy scouts.  A group of girls from the middle school did the entire dance to Thriller.  It was awesome.  They were pretty intense about it- there was costuming and makeup involved.  Thriller is serious stuff after all.  I had so much fun at the parade!

Bag pipers!!!!!!

After the parade, there was a reenactment of the transfer of power on Castle Hill, a historic site, and I wanted to go to it.  I asked my friends if they wanted to go, but they were all lame and didn't want to go.  I thought that was crazy because who knows if we'll ever be in Sitka again for Alaska Day?  I wanted to do everything! 
So, I went to the reenactment and stood with some of the MEHS kids who were a touch grumpy about it because they were required to go for their Alaska history class.  It was interesting I thought.  They had a military band and the coast guard was there. 
They read off the statements of the Russians and Americans as they transferred power.  There was an old Russian flag flying and after the transfer it was lowered and an American flag raised.  Seward's folly!  Then they read off all of the states and the date that they were admitted to the union as a state.  After every state, the Coast Guard fired a shot. 

Oops! (second guy on the right)

There was a line of them at the edge of Castle Hill after the first round of shots, the second guy in the line's gun stopped working.  It was pretty funny because every time that his turn to shoot came up you could see him mini-panic.  He would sort of waver and then lift the guy to try and fire it and then the next person would fire it for him, but he would look down at his weapon.  He was definitely not as serious as the other guys.

Basket rescue

Then, there was a Coast Guard demonstration in front of O'Connell Bridge.  They did a mock rescue in the water.  There was a guy in the water pretending to be in distress, he was wearing the red safety suit or gumby suit.  Then the CG helicopter flew by and lowered a man (also in a safety suit) and he started swimming towards the distressed swimmer.  There was a CG guy on the shore with a bullhorn explaining what they were doing.  He said that it is extremely difficult to swim under the force of the helicopter because the winds are stronger than even hurricane force winds.  I can believe that, we were on the shore and were getting battered by the wind and the swimmer, you could see him struggling against the force of the wind and the water was spraying like crazy all around him.  The helicopter left, circling around and the swimmer, when he reached the distressed person he waited for the helicopter to come closer and then set off a flare. 

Hugging rescue

The shore guy said that was because it is extremely difficult to spot two small heads in the water, even when you knew they were around and that it is even more difficult when their are waves crashing against them.  The flare was red smoke, a lot of it.  Then the helicopter lowered a rescue basket and the person in distress got in it and then it was lowered again for the swimmer.  After the rescue, they did another rescue, showing a different technique.  They dumped the person in distress first and then the rescue swimmer.  I felt bad for them because it was seriously chilly out and the Alaskan ocean it pretty freaking cold.  This time, instead of a basket, they lowered a tie thing and the swimmer and the person in distress went up together.  It was really interesting to see the different ways that the CG operates.

That was it for the planned events of the day.  After the events, people go to the bars.  There are three main ones, Victoria's Pour House, Ernies and Pioneer Bar or Pbar.  My friends were already at Pbar, so I went over there and met up with them.  It was a lot of fun.  We were there maybe an hour when the bag pipers came into the bar!  They came in the back entrance and played a couple of songs in the bar!  It was awesome.  Apparently, they do this at all the bars every year.  People went crazy when they came in.  People were standing on top of booths and chairs trying to see.  People also would poor in from outside.  It was a really fun day!  I texted Daniel after a little while that Alaska Day was great, and then later on that Alaska was the best state ever.  His response was hilarious, he said, Well, lets not say things we can't take back.  That is clearly reserved for Missouri.  Well played brother, dear. 

Also, this week, our dormant (hopefully!) volcano got some snow on it!  The mountains started getting snow on them.  It is so beautiful.  It was already gorgeous, but now, with snow dusting the tops of the mountains it is amazing. 

Last week, we had a ridiculously powerful storm on Tuesday.  It blew over 70mph at one point.  A tree got knocked down between Blue Lake and Heart Lake and knocked out power to the whole town.  The entire city and borough of Sitka was dark.  About two hours after the power went out, it came back on.  I thought that this meant that the power was back on. 
Oh, no.  That is not what that meant.  They apparently have a diesel generator that can power the  whole town.  They got the generator up and in order to save diesel they had rolling blackouts.  Most people either, depending on their location, had power on even hours or odd hours.  My house, because we are right next to the hospital, had power all the time!  HA!  You know what they say, location, location, location.
I find it a little amazing that not only is there a generator that can power the whole town, and that this happens so often that it was necessary to have a generator that can power the whole town.  We finally got normal power back on Friday around noon. 


Sitka is in the October 18th edition of Newsweek!  Read the article- The New Oil.