Friday, September 30, 2011
Last day of September, and
tomorrow it’s only ONE WEEK until we move to our own place, AWESOME!
Kathy took the car
today. It was sunny much of the day, for
a change. We went for a walk, and even
had the door to our place open, to the second floor landing, and the dogs
wandered in and out.
We missed the Aurora Borealis
this week due to clouds, but I did make an important discovery: I’ve been looking for them to the south! Ha, that’s not going to work! I’ve been turned around since we arrived,
partly because there is ocean shoreline everywhere, so that’s no help. On top of that, I somehow got Craig and
Klawock flip-flopped, and so have had to work hard to put Klawock to the north
and Craig to the south. All of a sudden,
I’m geographically challenged! Maybe
that means I’ve been in one place too long.
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| Our Home Away from Home, from the dock |
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| Our Home Away from home, closeup, with our room on the second floor, right side. |
In the words of Bill
Maher, new rule: more details on a
subject will be in boxes, so those not interested can easily skip
them.
Here is an outline of
where we are, from largest geographic or political area to
smallest. It seems more complex
than San Diego, due to the Tongass National Forest
and the interesting archipelago factor.
By the way, we are at sea level, while
in San Diego we lived at about 400’ elevation.
Western
Hemisphere
North America
United States
Alaska
Unorganized Borough
Southeast
Alaska
Tongass National Forest
Alexander
Archipelago
Prince
of Wales Island
Klawock Tribal Lands
Klawock
|
Unique among the United States, Alaska is not entirely subdivided into organized county equivalents. To facilitate census taking in the vast unorganized area, the United States Census Bureau, in cooperation with the state, divided the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas beginning with the 1970 census. |
|
The Tongass
National Forest in southeastern Alaska is the
largest national forest in the United
States at 17 million acres (69,000 km²). Most of its area is part of
the temperate rain forest itself part of the
larger Pacific temperate rain forest, and
is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and
fauna. Tongass encompasses islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords, glaciers, and
peaks of the Coast Mountains. An international border with Canada (British
Columbia) runs along the crest of the Boundary
Ranges of the Coast Mountains.
Good map can be found here:
|
|
The Alexander Archipelago is a 300 miles (500 km) long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the islands and cut them off from the mainland. The northern part of the Inside Passage is sheltered by the islands as it winds its way among them. The islands have irregular, steep coasts and dense evergreen and temperate rain forests. In order of land area, the largest islands are Prince of Wales Island, Chichagof Island, Admiralty Island, Baranof Island, Revillagigedo Island (with Ketchikan), Kupreanof Island, Kuiu Island, Etolin Island, Dall Island, Wrangell Island, Mitkof Island, Zarembo Island, Kosciusko Island, Kruzof Island, Annette Island, Gravina Island, and Yakobi Island. All the islands are rugged, densely forested, and have an abundance of wildlife. . The Tlingit and Kaigani Haida people are native to the area. The Tsimshian people found on Annette Island are not originally from the area, having immigrated to the region from British Columbia in the late 19th century. Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island and Sitka on Baranof Island are the largest towns on the islands. The most populous neighborhoods of the largest town in the region, Juneau, are on the mainland, though portions of the city also lie on Douglas Island, which is a part of the archipelago. Tourism, fishing, and logging are the main industries of the islands. |
I may have to visit. Looks beautiful. But, I don't know if there's anywhere in Alaska that isn't.
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