You can tell a Sitkan visiting somewhere like Arizona by the fact that they carry a rain jacket over their arm in a dessert that hasn't had a drop of rain in years.
People who live in Sitka learn to look quickly. By that, I mean when you have the rare day when the sky is not falling in droplets, the people learn to enjoy the moment or day to its fullest.
A real Sitkan ignores the weather. If they plan a picnic and it is pouring rain, they just go ahead and fire up the barbecues and do it in the rain. Real Sitkans are not made of sugar!
Octobers are known for rain. We warn anyone new to the island to prepare for "Octoburary" as we so fondly call the monsoon month. Our average rainfall in October is just under thirteen inches.
Mother Nature pulled a fast one on the inhabitants of the island this October. She blessed us with nearly a month of pure sunshine... and some of the most incredible sunsets one could imagine.
Night after night the beaches would be crowded with camera wielding awestruck people, of which I was one.
As the sun sank into the North Pacific Ocean, the skies would light up in a blaze of glory with the ocean reflecting it back to the big volcano as if trying to outdo the clouds above.
Each evening the face book pages would light up with new photos of those so impressed with the island we reside on.
If one were so inclined, you could stay up till the wee hours of the morning and catch the Northern Light show which was also very impressive for most of the month. I, being one more inclined to dream about the light show outside, simply caught up with the Aurora borealis on face book the next morning.
Sitka is also known as a coastal town filled with eagles. There are eagles around like sparrows in the lower 48 states. We tend to see them so much that we hardly notice.
Visitors, on the other hand, stand in awe at the massive birds perched in trees in the center of town. Many times every tree in a section has an eagle perched at the very top. The sun lights up their white heads gracing the trees with a stunning view.
I have gone so far as to name the eagles by where they perch. There is a bare tree overlooking our McDonald's restaurant so I have named that eagle the "McEagle".
I was idling the boat into the harbor one afternoon when I spotted a sight even I was impressed by. There must have been a dead fish on the shore as there was a gathering of eagles like never before.
I grabbed my phone and quickly shot some pictures as I idled past, and eagles were still flying in from all directions. I wished later that I would have waited to see just how many eagles would have finally gathered there. I also wished I would have thought about my panoramic setting on the phone as I was only able to capture a fraction of the amount of eagles gathered.
I will use the rest of this post to share some of these pictures with you.
Enjoy
No comments:
Post a Comment