ReMoving

Dear friends,

It's been, what, all of six months since our last post. We have news!
 

Please visit us and our new adventure at 

http://moving2anchorage.blogspot.com/

Thanks for following.

Jimmie, Kami and Simon

Quatorze

It's been a month or so. We are now settled into our new town. Another blog or two is in the works. Please stay tuned.

A Baker's Dozen

We've been here in Sitka five days now. We have rented a house near downtown so we will be walking as much as before in Ellensburg. Simon has been in school for two days and he likes it here. Kami has spent some time at her new job and Jimmie has been busy applyin for a substitute teaching position with the school districe. There are many changes of address, utilities and other forms to complete. Everyone here seems very helpful and friendly.

Our new address:

Jimmie Froehlich, Kami Hutchins 
  and Simon Froehlich
716 A Biorka Street
Sitka AK  99835

Our container was delivered to our house on Friday and we have the weekend to empty it and find places for all our stuff. Our new home does not have a garage or very much storage space. It was reassuring to begin unloading and see our things again. Our biggest concern, Simon's bass, seems to have made it in great shape. We have many boxes yet to unload.


This concludes the Moving part of the Moving to Sitka Blog. Perhaps a new blog will replace it, maybe Living in Sitka. We'll see.


Thanks for reading.

Zwölf

October 25, 2009

What???

Our stay in Prince Rupert was brief but fun. Canada is so familiar and strange at the same time. The town is also a bit deserted. Maybe many of the residents spend their summers in warmer climes, though I’m not sure where that would be for a Canadian.  A storm descended on the town and walking in the wind became a sport. 


We ate breakfast, packed up the car, caught a movie and then it was time to line up at the ferry.  We were underway by 6pm.  After a dinner of sandwiches we turned in early with the boat swaying under heavy seas. The throbbing engines make it difficult to stay asleep. This will be a long ferry ride. We’re happy it is only for two days. The ferry from Bellingham would have been much longer. 

  

The Inside Passage

October 26, 2009

All day on the Inside Passage.  We stopped in Ketchikan at 3am but stayed in bed. The next morning we rolled out of our bunks and spent the day wandering the decks, reading, sleeping and eating while beautiful Southeast island after spruce-covered island slid by us. The seas are calm and the weather is mild with an occasional rainstorm that seems to happen whenever we venture outside on the decks. 

We have no WiFi and no cell phone service along the way.  When we stop in Wrangell (9am), Petersburg (3pm) and Kake(6pm), we can use our cell phones but only make a few calls. In a way, it’s nice to be disconnected from the world every now and then.

October 27, 2009

Sitka at last! We arrived at 2am, drove the seven miles to town from the ferry terminal, found our hotel, checked in and fell fast asleep. Simon sleeps still this morning as we prepare for our first day.

Later... we spent much of the day looking for a place to rent. Houses and apartments are few and expensive. We also met and had a nice lunch with Kami’s boss Litia and co-worker Martha. From driving around it looks as if there is lots to see and do. Many people are riding bikes and walking around. We stopped by Blatchley Middle School to enroll Simon in school (poor kid). The weather changed from sunny to rainy about fifteen times. It’s been a little stressful today but we are happy to finally be here.

Eleventh Hour

Before we left Whistler, we just had to visit the Olympics 2010 Gift Store so Simon could buy a treasured souvenir T-Shirt. He also had his picture taken with the four (countem!) mascots for the event:  Miga, Sumi, Mukmuk and Quatchi.

We then packed into the car with the cats and all our things and drove through the remaining mountain passes north of the ski villages. The road was winding, steep and s-l-o-w. We had to make 560
kilometres (or 400 miles to Prince George) and it took us almost 2 hours to drive the first 60 miles. We drove through fog, rain and very little sunshine. The mountains were dusted with snow in the upper reaches. It seemed as if we were driving toward winter.

After Clinton, B.C., the geography flattened out and become less interesting. Additionally, resource extraction, most notably timber and mining, dominated the landscape. The road seemed to last forever. Simon, Blackberry and Luna slept. By 8pm, we made it to Prince George at last.

Episodio Diez

Before we left Seattle, we stopped at the Subaru dealer in Ballard to have a headlight replaced. They looked over the car and said they noticed no other problems. The rest of the trip up to Vancouver, including the border crossing, was a breeze. As the Washington landscape unfolded, we talked about how different the climate is on this side of the mountains. It was raining intermittently all day. Perhaps fittingly, our Washington State map fell to pieces as we were trying to determine the next leg of our trip, the road from Vancouver to Whistler.

Without a detailed map, we weren't sure of the layout of the beautiful features which abound along Highway 99 up the coast. The road wraps along the coast dotted with islands. Jagged mountains appear out of the mists. The scenery was terrific with the rain on the falling leaves glistening whenever the sun broke through the clouds. We stopped briefly to see Shannon Falls, a natural wonder a short walk through the woods from the parking lot. It was nice to get out of the car and stretch a bit.


Along the way we noticed most of the winding two-lane highway had been newly paved and improved in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Despite the improvements, it seems clear there will be mind-numbing traffic delays. The crowds are estimated to be about 50,000 people each day. We wondered what a big snowstorm would do to the mix of people, traffic, TV crews and the festivities.


We arrived in Whistler, which is spread along the highway for several miles, making a series of hotel cities: Whistler Creek, Whistler Village Blackcomb Village and others. The hotels are built so close together most of them are connected to each other, like interlocking Legos. 


Whistler is a world-class ski destination with all the amenities you can afford. We ate pricey pizza and wandered about the exclusive ski shops, galleries and various tourist enticements. After a full day on the road, we turned in early for a restful sleep at our hotel.


We awoke this morning to see snow at the higher elevations on the ski slopes. The season won't open until late November. Too bad we'll miss it. Time to pack up our bags, snacks, souvenirs and cats. Next stop - Prince George, B.C.

Bottom of the Ninth

October 22.

We’re on our way. On Monday, we packed and repacked and repacked again in an effort to fit everything into the U-Haul truck. By nighttime we thought we had it figured out how to fit so much stuff in a finite space. We woke Tuesday morning to rain and just a few more things that didn’t quite fit. We repacked one more time with the help of Kami’s sister Shelly and our friend Richard Gallagher. By 9:20 we were on the road to Seattle. By 3pm we had unloaded the truck in Seattle and repacked everything into a larger, 20 foot container. A huge fork lift picked it up and took it away. It is already on a ship sailing to Sitka. 

 

Kami and Shelly packed the truck by themselves!   (No, not really)    Richard and Jimmie Helped

We are now all wedged into our Subaru Forester (not the biggest car in the world) Two adults, a growing pre-teen, and two cats with all the stuff needed for a week long trip through Canada. It's crowded. Our cat Blackberry was voted the grouchiest mammal on the trip so far. She bites Luna and hisses at anyone who tries to pet her. 

We spent the night at the Westin Seattle with a nice view of the Space Needle. The hot tub was a great relief for our tired muscles. We ate Chinese food last night and are now blown up like sausages from all the salt. Today we drive to Whistler, B.C. north of Vancouver.