Chico

Today was a bit of a sad day as we had to air freight Chico to Anchorage to see the vet. He had been suffering from diarrhea for the last few days and always needed a little help with the ol' hygiene after our long walks. Finally, last night he was up all night vomiting and needed to go outside every couple hours so we decided to get him some care as Unalaska only gets the services of a traveling vet every few months, the next visit is still almost a month away. The 24 hour vet clinic in Anchorage said he has gastritis, probably from the antibiotics he took following a tooth extraction before we flew him out here. He should be re-joining us soon and the house just isn't the same without him . . . .

I walked to the library tonight and on the way back I counted 52 eagles perched on roofs, poles, and a few on the ground - in maybe a half mile. I took the top picture the other day when we borrowed a truck to go to the grocery store to get a trash can and to the base of Strawberry Hill so we could hike. I was waiting in the truck with Chico while Goldfish ran in. The second picture is Chico at the Memorial Park last week on one of our walks. We miss you Chico, the house is too quiet!

Views From the Neighborhood

Tonight we hiked up Haystack Hill, the hill just across the river from our place. We walk down the street a couple blocks to the little foot bridge to the other side and hike to the very top where the cell phone towers are located. Today I walked the whole way without stopping and got a good workout in. When we walked the couple blocks to the footbridge we saw an eagle divebomb into the water just 30 feet away, missing the fish he was aiming for and looking foolish about it.

The top picture shows our apartment - we have a nice big living room, two bedrooms, and a kitchen and dining area. It was fully furnished with decent furniture, even a computer desk and an entertainment center with a TV which we have not used since we got here. The cable is plugged directly into the cable modem and I have no idea what channels came with the basic cable package we had to get to have broadband.

The second picture shows an eagle sitting in a shallow part of the river right across from the apartment, and I thought it was cool how the eagle in the last picture was peeking down at me from on top of the telephone pole, also right across from the apartment.

Walk, Walk, Walk

We took a loooong walk tonight, maybe a bit too long according to my legs (to their credit, they did do quite a bit of ladder climbing at work today where I spent the morning climbing around on a condenser stack clearing disperser nozzles of blockages - the most interesting being a bird bone). We walked for almost 2 hours, out past the landfill and back, at least 5 or 6 miles. Lots of eagles and ravens and I saw my first fox!

The pictures above are not from today, they are from another of our favorite walks up Haystack Hill, right across the river from our apartment. The top picture shows our place, the right hand unit on the four-plex. I've learned that I can keep a skiff on the riverbank anywhere there is room if I choose. The middle picture shows some of the view from the backside of Haystack, and the bottom picture shows the entire plant including our apartment taken from Haystack, similar to the night time picture in my first post taken by someone else. It's amazing that the plant was such a mystery just a week ago and now I can name all the buildings in the picture and have worked projects in many of them.

In the top picture you can see how shallow the channel gets on the ocean side at low tide. Big fishing boats and boats of all kinds use that channel, right by our living room window - I love it! Out the bedroom windows on the river side of our place I can watch eagles pretty much any time of day - I'll post some pictures of them soon.

Work In Progress

This blog is going to be really rough for awhile, although I did get a panoramic photo incorporated into the header. I have so many pictures to post already, I didn't want to wait until everything was perfect in my format.

Every day we go biking or walking or hiking. This is a favorite spot to bring the dog, Memorial Park, about a 10 minute walk down the beach from the house. I love the look of the trees there, shaped by the wind and looking like they are in motion even when the air is still.

A New Beginning

In less than 24 hours Goldfish and I - along with Chico the Wonderdog - leave for Dutch Harbor to start a new chapter in our lives. The long trek that began back in Maine will end and I will be Home. A new job in an exotic locale, no more storage unit and a great partner in crime to live life's adventure to the fullest and explore the island. This past week we have tried to squeeze as much time with our respective families as possible as the realization of our long absence from the mainland looms closer. I'm not sure when I'll be back on-line to update this but I wanted to draw the line in the sand delineating the new start. I'm excited and can't wait to be Home . . . . .