Today is Wednesday, August 3. Our new home, the Fireweed Lodge, doesn't have wi-fi, so I was shut down all of yesterday, not even able to surf and find hot spots. Our previous home had wi-fi, but it was excruciatingly slow. It's after noon, and I'm at the Craig Public Library, which has wi-fi, thank goodness! I hadn't realized how dependent (hooked?!) on Internet access I was! I'm thinking these latest posts are a bit dry, so I'm working on fixing that. Thanks for your patience, and enjoy.
Saturday, we found the only Laundromat in town, and washed all of our clothes. I talked with the owner briefly, and found he had graduated from SDSU! He also sells real estate on the island, so will keep his ears open for a rental for us. His name was Lee something. We took the dogs to the nearby Cemetery Park again, and let them run and explore. We were supposed to have dinner with Kathy’s new boss Pete, but that fell through. In the afternoon, the clouds gave way to mostly clear skies, and it warmed up a bit, a nice new experience. We took advantage and relaxed on the deck outside our room, decompressing a bit.
Sunday morning I was on the deck doing some work, and heard a noise, like a loud exhalation, and looked up and across the half-mile of water in time to see a water spout falling back into the water, a sure sign of a whale! I ran to the car for my new binoculars, and began scanning the shoreline of the island across the water. He or she blew another four or five times as he lazily swam along the shore of the island. One time he came up enough that I saw his back, showing nearly no dorsal (?) fin, and a little flip of his tale. This was too exciting, my first whale in Alaska! I decided by its size and lack of a dorsal fin it must be a minke whale, but later a Fish and Game person told me a humpback had been sighted in several places, that they also have no dorsal fin. Humpbacks are my favorite whale, mostly because they make sounds that resemble song, and can be heard for miles.
Kathy started her new job Monday, on time and on the right date, a real milestone! It’s just one month since she was offered the job, 2500 miles and an eight-day road trip away, crazy! Phew! What a fast four weeks! This is the first paying job of her new career, another reason to celebrate. She is off and running!
As I dropped her off at work that first day, there was a young deer eating at the side of the road, which I took to be a good sign.
We got another surprise that same morning: a message left on her old phone Sunday night, discovered Monday morning, said that the Alaska Pacific Lodge COULD NOT accommodate us Monday night. Here we go again! We packed up the car and got ready to move. After I dropped her off, I went back and finished the packing, and began looking for a new place to stay. We had reservations for Tuesday and Wednesday, but thought we had Monday covered already. The current place was so nice, too: out of town and very quiet, close to the water, and nicely furnished. Someday, soon, we hope, we will find a place, sign a lease, and stay awhile!
My first try was the Fireweed Lodge, where we already had reservations for Tuesday and Wednesday night, hoping maybe they had a cancellation or something, but this was not the case. Instead, Bob and Jeanne, the very kind owners, both jumped on the phones to call around and see if another place had any openings. Their second call was to a place called A Place To Stay, funny. They had a spot, so I drove up straight away, to C St up behind the store, and checked in with Donna, one of the owners.
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