When I wrote this post, the network connection wouldn’t let me upload it to the blog. It will appear when
it appears. Imagine it’s dated Wednesday, 6/20.
Yesterday =
Leave home 8 a.m.
MDT.
DEN (Colorado) = Denver International
Airport
PDX (Oregon) = Portland International
Airport
SEA (Washington) = SeaTac
(Seattle-Tacoma) International Airport
JNU
(Alaska) = Juneau International Airport
SIT
(Alaska) = Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport
Arrive at destination 1 a.m. MDT, 6/20 (11 p.m. Alaska
time, still 6/19 here).
What I read and knitted en
route:
Connotations: A literary magazine published by
the Island Institute in Sitka that contains essays and poetry related
to the symposium I will be attending.
Shambhala Sun:
Interesting articles, especially the interview with Alice
Walker.
Cast On, Bet’s Off, by Jack Olesker: The author
was selling the book himself at the Estes Park Wool Market. Stephanie
Pearl-McPhee makes a cameo appearance. So do a few other knitters
(and many specific yarns) but Stephanie’s is the most
significant.
The Power of Limits, by Gyorgi Doczi: On
patterns in many naturally occurring and human-devised phenomena.
Toe-up socks
(Simple Socks) from Colorjoy!
Lynn H‘s hand-dyed yarn on 2mm (size 0) circulars (easier to manage
on airplanes than double-points).
The hotel is supposed to
have wireless available in all rooms . . . but mine is not included
in "all" (even though it is physically in the hotel . . .
I’m not sleeping on a roof or anything), so I’ve found a spot at the
top of the stairs (elevator’s not working, either) with a power
outlet and signal. This is good. My new temporary office is even
nicely carpeted. However, the hotel will remain nameless and unlinked because it is currently underperforming.
No links today because the pages are
loading too slowly to retrieve them. If you happen to see links in this post, something miraculous occurred.
Tonight I saw: sea lions,
seals, sea otters with pups, pelagic cormorants, common murres,
tufted puffins, a peregrine falcon, gray whales, and more. This was
not planned. Quite a day. Tomorrow the symposium starts. I think I’ve
succeeded in shifting time zones.
However, the network is refusing now to
upload or retrieve anything.
Ending with the thought of an unexpected
evening cruise with the Sitka Conservation Society (check out the SCS-featuring article, which I haven’t seen yet, in the brand-new National Geographic) that included Saint Lazaria Island, which I feel blessed to have now circumnavigated in the company of people who could tell me something of what I was in the presence of, and sea lions and
otters and puffins and gray whales.
. . . and another hotel guest just completely out of the blue brought me a cup of coffee here on my landing. . . .
*sigh* such beauty! I hope you some find restoration on your trip!
I bought the magazine with Alice Walker on the cover, on my trip from Dallas home! how can you resist those honest eyes? What a woman she is. It was a fascinating article, though I’m clearly not as spiritually evolved as she is.
Alaska is so beautiful but I’ve never had a yearning for it. Probably that’s because I yearn so strongly for large cities with skyscrapers rather than natural scenes. I do want to see Australia some day, but they have both nature and cities.
However, Alaska keeps coming up, several friends have gone lately. Maybe it’s in my future and I don’t know it yet. I’m sure I’d like it if i were there.
I *do* love my Raven Frog yarn from Alaska. I’m 3/4 through a pair at this point and I’ve had the yarn just over a week, even though I have work knitting to do as well.
I like your temporary perch/office, I could do that myself. How cool about your coffee delivery!
Hurrah for random beverage-delivery! I might have done something similar if I had been there. 🙂 Do you think it was the resourcefulness of your office-locating that prompted this reward, or was it because you looked like you could use a break?
Hope you keep having fun and encountering lots of wildlife–say hi to a raven for me?
In some weird ways, we are fellow travelers with similiar issues! I managed to have great internet access on this last trip to Eugene, OR…as you know, it is always a crap shoot as to whether that will happen. I even had good tea. However, I am so with you on the exhaustion of multiple flights. I hope the wildlife, your bonus cup of coffee, and your time in Alaska makes up for life’s inconveniences. I am still battling publishing bureaucracy and don’t know if my book’s photography will work out. Argh. Enjoy your journeys!