Teresa's Alaskan Adventure: Sleeping with strangers...

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau

My last day in Juneau I hooked up with my roommate at the hostel, also named Teresa with no “h”, and we went out to the Mendenhall Glacier. Pretty impressive! It even calved a small iceberg while were there but because we were standing next to the giant waterfall coming off the side of the glacier at the time, we didn’t hear it. I was faced the other way but saw that all of a sudden the water rushed up onto shore and there were little waves lapping in, so I turned around and could see where it looked like a new spot of intense blue on the face. They confirmed that at the visitor’s center when we got back, and said that they could hear it from there, almost ¾ mile away.

I was able to share a taxi to the ferry early the next morning with Steven and Elspeth from England, which was a great help. They have proven to be very congenial and enjoyable travel companions! We set up our little camp in the center front edge of the solarium and have our stuff piled around us. I haven’t used the lockers, and it seems pretty safe to leave things around here. I don’t think I’d feel safe leaving my stuff in the other areas of the ship, but up in the solarium not many people wander through except for those who are living up there, and I think we all watch out for each other. It’s really nice to have so much unstructured time and such beautiful surroundings to float by, and no matter how rainy and blowy the weather, the solarium is heated from above and blocks the wind very well. It’s an interesting way to travel, looking backward at where we came from; maybe a good metaphor for life and what we need to do from time to time. I could really tell how far south we’ve come when I went to bed about midnight and realized that it was DARK. Kind of a shock…

Mendenhall Glacier and bergs floating in Mendenhall Lake

Teresa squared, Mendenhall Glacier visitor center

Alaska Marine Highway's ferry The Columbia in Juneau (Auke Bay) Harbor

Leaving Juneau Harbor

I haven’t slept with this many people in years, certainly not bare like this with no illusory nylon walls between us! The solarium, on the back top deck of the ferry, has proven to be a wonderful place to sleep and hang out. We’ve most of us gotten fairly cozy up here, and I find myself casting a jaundiced eye on the “cabin” passengers who wander up here from time to time. “Hey, what are you doing in my bedroom?” One of the nice things about traveling alone is that it’s much more likely that you’ll make contact with other kindred souls, and here on this long ferry voyage there’s plenty of time to hear a whole lot of life stories and exchange philosophies with no time table to keep track of or appointments to rush off to. Today, the last day, we don’t even stop in any ports at all, and are scheduled to arrive at Bellingham tomorrow morning at 0800. The first day we were kept occupied by running back and forth from port to starboard (now I know which one is left and which one is right…) to look at (or for) whales. I saw a fair number, but didn’t even try to take pictures, since most of the time what you see is a spout or a brief set of flukes in the air—just the kind of thing that leads to pictures of open water where you say to people, “There was a whale breaching RIGHT there just a second before!”.

Yesterday I hooked up with several people who have guitars (my solarium people) and we sat around and played music for hours (I have my dulcimer with me.) I’m working on my calluses on my finger tips again, and have almost learned one new tune that I’ve been wanting to learn for a long time. One guy, Tim, has a nice triple ought size Martin, and the two other guys have Martins as well, one a baby backpacker, and one the little elongated triangle shaped one. All three are pretty good guitar players, and Tim has written a host of pretty nice songs. Its so interesting to hear what everyone’s story is, where they’ve been, why they’re in Alaska, where they’re going. I even met an older couple from Sandpoint, Idaho, and he has the same hat I do (Idaho State Forestry Contest).

On Tuesday we stopped at Sitka for a couple of hours and took a bus to town proper for a look around. It seemed like a nice town but a little too big for me. Yesterday we stopped at Petersburg in the middle of the night (I sat up, put on my glasses, looked at the view and went back to sleep);

Sitka

Sitka Harbor

St. Michaels Russian Orthodox church in Sitka

My home for three days--The Solarium

Night before last I had just dropped off into a deep sleep when over the loudspeaker came a blaring voice asking any medical personnel to report to the purser’s desk immediately. So I staggered around getting on my shoes and digging my stethoscope out of my bag, thinking, “Chest pain, ABCs, I hope someone didn’t cut themselves badly, I didn’t get to sew up any live flesh in the Aleutians…” Turns out it was a little boy who had tripped on the way into the bathroom and smacked his forehead on the toilet rim. He had a nice goose egg and was pretty resistant to being checked over, but from what the other two nurses who also responded (one a pediatric ICU nurse) and I could see, his pupils were fine and he was going to be fine. He was still fine the next morning. So we were given dinner vouchers by the purser for being willing to come down and help. Yesterday a German doctor boarded the ferry at Ketchikan—but it turns out he’s a former urologist, turned psychiatrist, so he probably won’t be of much use in an emergency unless it’s a mental health problem or a blocked urethra (and even then, he probably can’t put in a Foley catheter). I just found out that one of the new people in my solarium bedroom is a nurse practitioner from Ketchikan, so we’re probably well-covered in the event of something going on. We even have a crash cart with all the supplies, not that I’m qualified in ACLS, but hopefully the NP and the doc are.

Wrangell—sprinted through the mostly-sleeping town in the 40 minutes we had there at about 0745; and then docked in Ketchikan for our last stop of the journey and had about 2.5 hours there. Of the three towns, I much preferred sleepy little Wrangell with its (maybe) 800 residents. Most of the other towns have planet-sized, alternate-universe cruise ships docking right downtown just about every day, sometimes as many as 6 in a day! I am just SO DONE with cruise ship tourist waterfronts! I spent my time in Ketchikan in the old, historic hotel dining room having a lovely spinach salad with a big hunk of grilled salmon on top. I wanted one more fresh fish dinner before leaving Alaska.

Wifi access is too expensive on board ship, so this won’t be posted until I get into Seattle most likely. I have had some cell access, but not for very long. I did get another message from Blake, reiterating that I need to change my voice mail message, and letting me know that his crew is no longer in Colorado, but now in Wyoming doing project work on standby. Right now we’re rocking along in the open waters of Queen Charlotte Sound, swaying gently under partly cloudy skies and a stiff breeze. It’s Canada Day and we saw fireworks as we passed Campbell River. I’m looking forward to seeing my Seattle classmates tomorrow and heading for Walla Walla for Megan’s wedding on Saturday. If all goes as planned (and there are a lot of junctions where things could get snagged up) I’ll be back home the evening of 4^th of July.

Net floats in Wrangell

Wrangell

Steven at the starboard

They aren't kidding

My boudoir (note the trashcan nightstand)

Jeff's peace offering to his girlfriend in Seattle for his 3 mos at Denali

The world's largest cruise ships also dock here

Elspeth, my next door neighbor

So I made all my tenuous connections from the ferry to the Amtrak to my friend Samantha’s car and off to Walla Walla with Jenny and Ben. It feels very surreal…it’s hard to describe the little world that was created on the back of the ferry, and how poignant it feels to leave the people I grew so close to behind. So here’s to you Tim, Elspeth and Steven, Neville, Dennis, Jeff and all the rest…I’ll miss you! And I hope I’ll see you again someday.

Now it’s Saturday July 3, and I’m in this palatial vacation rental house in Walla Walla Washington with my former classmates Yancy, Erin, Jenny and Samantha, and another midwife and her husband, Sara and Sam. This place has a pool, hot tub, wi-fi, fully equipped kitchen, a 1.5 hectare television set…I still feel like I’m swaying much of the time. I don’t know if three days on the ferry has gotten into my blood or it’s just a congested inner ear. This morning most of the wedding guests, along with the bride and groom, had a 5K fun run along a creek at one of the parks (I fun-walked…), and then the wedding will commence at 5 PM at a different park-like place tonight. I picked up a rental car, that being the cheapest and fastest way back to Idaho of all my options, and will head to Spokane tomorrow after the farewell brunch at Megan and Malcom’s tomorrow. Cole is scheduled to pick me up sometime early enough to get home for fireworks. Home soon!