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.

Capitolo Otto

This last week has been filled with goodbyes. Dinner at the Dakota with Wendy and Ian while Dylan, Simon and Stuart played in a half-empty house. Dinner with Maria and Freddy at the Starlight while Simon went to Dylan's birthday party. Many of the people at the KVUU congregation told us what great people they thought we are and how much they would miss us. They also wished us the best on our adventure. Finally, Simon invited many of his friends to come over to the house this weekend to eat pizza and cupcakes and run around the house like banshees one more time.

The Italian painter Umberto Boccioni sums up our feelings with a tryptych titled The Farewells: Those Who Go and Those Who Stay. From the MOMA (NYC) catalog:


Set in a train station, this series of three paintings explores the psychological dimension of modern life's transitory nature. In The Farewells, Boccioni captures chaotic movement and the fusion of people swept away in waves as the train's steam bellows into the sky. Oblique lines hint at departure in Those Who Go, in which Boccioni said he sought to express "loneliness, anguish, and dazed confusion." In Those Who Stay, vertical lines convey the weight of sadness carried by those left behind.

The Farewells

Those Who Stay

  

Those Who Go

7th Entry

Simon spent the last three days on the couch with a case of the flu (probably H1N1). He went to school today with a curly tail. Our fear is that Kami or Jimmie will come down with it just in time for our drive to Canada. 


Other than that, just more packing. Two realtors showed the house in the middle of this all. It's cold and the sun came out today for the first time this week. The leaves are falling all over town. Appropriate time for us to leave, too.


Kami spent her last day of work at Planned Parenthood today. They gave her a sendoff lunch with a pink cowgirl hat and a Numero Uno (or is it Numera Una?) piñata.
Nice!

Six

Jimmie's sister Susan and her partner David drove up from Hood River and lent a hand for a fun weekend of packing. We tore down all the dying plants and harvested the cabbages, tomatoes, eggplants, our last watermelon and a small bunch of grapes. We made the yard look trim and ready for winter. It was a nice garden and we were happy to have had the chance to grow some delicious food.

   

We were also able to share (unload) a barbecue, two chairs and assorted knickknacks, gimcracks and a few paddywhacks with them. It must be easier to help someone pack instead of doing your own packing. Thanks so much, Susan and David, for all your help.


It's turned fairly cold for this time of year and Simon developed a fever after playing a soccer game yesterday (his team, the Morgan Tigers got their first win 3-1). He'll be home sick today, so he can help us pack (just kidding). 


We've moved out of the upstairs bedrooms and into our third bedroom on the main floor. Simon chose to make up a bed in the storage space under the stairs, so he could experience what it would be like to live like Harry Potter in his foster parent's home.

Jimmie reading "A Connecticut Yankee" to Simon "Potter"

As the garage begins to bulge with taped up boxes, we are beginning to scrutinize our possessions much more carefully. Do we really need this? Can't we buy this there? At some point it really comes down to those things which are truly irreplaceable AND you think you may want or need someday.


Back to packing.

Section Five

We spent the weekend packing, tossing and talking about what we will find in Sitka. Many of our friends have wished us well on our adventure. We are learning to live with much less in our lives. While building a crate for a painting, Jimmie had to buy some screws at the hardware store because he had already packed his vast collection of fasteners. C'est la vis.

We listed some of our well-used furniture on craigslist last week. Kami has been amazed at the haggling that people would like to do over a $25 dresser. She sometimes does not have patience for this! We're getting rid of most of our furniture and we just have a few more pieces to go.


We've made reservations for the U-Haul truck, the barge shipment and our ferry ride (with berths!) from Prince Rupert to Sitka. We will pack up on Tuesday, October 20, drive to Seattle and load up half a container on Wednesday, October 21 and drive up to Prince Rupert to catch the ferry on Sunday, October 25th. That's a lot of time to drive 1100 miles but we're a little anxious about possible delays. Prince Rupert looks to be a lovely town with lots of rain this time of year.

Episode IV

If you notice, our blog took a vacation for a couple days while we worked and Simon went to school. Maybe a nagging blog is just what we need to keep focused on our goal of moving to Sitka. Maybe it will just take time away from us being productive. Who knows?

Things have started to accelerate. We have been checking with the two barge lines about shipping our stuff. They both will charge about the same but we want to figure out where it will go once it arrives. Shipping (on an actual ship) is something we don't think about that often.

We went to the local U-Haul place and ordered a 17 foot box truck and bought boxes. We've been packing and taking stuff to Goodwill. We also bought a bunch of blankets and sleeping bags from Goodwill when we realized we would need something to cover the few pieces of furniture we are taking. We may need them later to insulate the walls of our new, as yet unknown, home.

We also began planning our car trip to Prince Rupert where we will meet the ferry. The Wikipedia entry says that it rains a lot there. There also should be a lot of bears along the way. In fact, there are also many bears on Baranof Island. (However did they get there?) Bears digging through garbage in Sitka are a common nuisance. Kami has been looking at which kind of bear spray to buy. She's got her eye on "Counter Assault Bear Deterrant Spray" for her trips to the grocery store.

Since we should be arriving in Sitka on the 27th of October, our first holiday will be Halloween. We can't imagine what our costumes will be. Any suggestions?

Tres

It's been nice reading comments and emails from friends. Some of you have noted how difficult it is to post a comment, while others have no problem. All we can say is it takes a while to get used to new technology, ourselves included.


The move has not made much progress today, though Jimmie managed to pack two more boxes. He also took two boxes of stuff to the local Goodwill store. We're not sure what they do with all this stuff, but they seem to have a huge backlog of detritus. It was sad to see the old VHS camera go, as well as various books and porcelain porpoises. 


Jimmie spent more time preparing eggplant parmigiana from eggplants he really grew in the garden (!) Blatchely Middle school (Sitka) is sending us a package describing the options for Simon in 7th grade and Davis realty is sending a relocation package for us to peruse. Our friend Mary Dinon in Craig (Prince of Wales Island - hop, skip and jump away) is giving us some leads on housing. So we are slowly readying for the big event. 

Moving to Sitka - Page Deux

Simon took his origami pineapple to school and Kami drove to Yakima for her clinic there. This leaves Jimmie a whole day to spend playing Scrabble, er, I mean, packing like a fiend. Luckily, a realtor called not long after and asked to show our house. Jimmie spent the rest of the morning vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms and dressing the house for viewing. It was only later he managed to pack a couple more boxes in the garage.


So what do we get to keep and what do we toss? When we moved here from Anchorage two years ago, we abandoned quite a bit of personal stuff, but we also seemed to bring too much with us. Since Jimmie's checkered career as a photographer and artist, there still remain many crated artworks and many more in various stages of completion, if only to be framed. There are many swell photos, but most, to be kind, require explanation. The hope is to foist some of them off on unsuspecting friends or relatives and jettison the rest, though for the life of us, we can't understand why not rid ourselves of the most we can to start making new works when we get to the "most beautiful place in Alaska"?

Moving to Sitka - Chapter One

We're moving to Sitka, Alaska from Ellensburg, Washington within the next few weeks. This will be a blog describing our move. Please feel free to post comments or ask questions along the way. Since this is our first blog, we welcome thoughtful advice,  warm encouragements and scathing criticisms - whichever suits your temperament.

It all began more than a month ago. Kami was trolling the internet for positions in Alaska and western Washington as a way to escape the heat and sameness that is much of Central Washington, even our nice little town of Ellensburg.
Within a few weeks she had applied, interviewed and was offered a job in Sitka, Alaska.

The only thing left to do is sell our house, pack all our things, truck them to Seattle, reload them on a barge, drive north to Prince Rupert, Canada, with our 12-year-old son Simon and his standup bass, our two cats, Blackberry and Luna, all wedged in our Subaru Forester, and get on the ferry by October 25th at 5:30PM for a two day ride to Baranof Island to begin a new life where we had no friends or relatives.

Sounds good to us.


Stay tuned for our next installment.