This is the first time since leaving home that we will be in one place
for several days, and since we are on the dock, access to town is a
snap! The weather forecast for the next few days is extraordinary.
Lots of sun and temperatures well above normal. Most days it will be
over 70 degrees!
On Thursday
we choose to relax on the dock and run a variety of errands in town --
several trips to the hardware store(s) and more than one trip to the
grocery. Petersburg is an absolutely lovely town of 3500 people with a
significant percentage of the population being of Nordic descent.
Everywhere we look people are wearing Norwegian sweaters, bunads and
Viking horns. We catch up with our friends Josh and Emily for a beer at
Kito's Kave and discover that Emily has a set of Viking horns for each
of us to wear!! Now we have no excuses. This evening we will attend the annual
melodrama put on by the Mitkof Mummers. "Shipwreck on Cannery Island"
has quite a plot -- dastardly pillager Gunnar Settefyre and his longboat
of plunder, including three captive nuns, crashes on the shores of
Cannery Island after some particularly unusual weather. With no way
home, the new arrivals must adapt to life on old-time Cannery Island,
or else everything will go up in smoke. Barrie wears his "Chug" vest
(from Mary and Lisa) to walk to the show and as we stand in the lobby,
the Chug "fan club" is definitely in attendance. We meet and greet
folks we have seen along our way to Alaska and meet plenty of local
folks as well. This locally authored work of hard work, romance,
revenge and redemption turns out to be terrific.
Friday
morning both Barrie and I worked on boat projects. Late morning we
decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles to the Merrcury dealer (and back) to buy
extra keys for the Boston Whaler. A nice walk along the highway with
almost no traffic! It is good to have more than one key to the dinghy!
Friday
afternoon we put on our horns and go to the parade! What a hoot. The
parade runs the entire length of Main Street -- at least 6 blocks! We
think everyone in town has a place in the parade - either riding in the
VIking Boat or dancing in costume or ..... After the parade we watch the herring toss. If you remember the egg
toss contests of your youth, well, imagine doing the contest with a dead
herring!! Tomorrow John Hudson arrives and joins our crew.
Saturday morning was the Little Norway Lop the Loop 7K run. Barrie and I met Josh and Emily at 7:30
-- Emily and I ran the Loop while Josh and Barrie found coffee and
breakfast. Emily and I were both glad to finish the run since neither
of us had run since we left home! Josh and Barrie were waiting for us
when we crossed the finish line. Together we walked to the Cold Storage
Company and had the BEST breakfast sandwich ever! The world's best
smoked salmon on an english muffin with the addition of an egg.
Absolutely yummy! Next Barrie and I headed over the to the Sons of
Norway Hall where we kept up the tradition of eating. We stood in line
for at least half and hour for smor brod - open face sandwiches - one
with shrimp and one with halibut. And then there were the traditional
Norwegian pastries. Okay, we overate but how often can you have all the
delicacies of your childhood at one time in one place. And then there
were the young ladies in beautiful bunads who strolled the room poised
to clear any plate that was empty. Next was a stop at the Petersburg
Moose Lodge for Halibut Beer Bites (deep fried halibut nuggets that
Barrie says were delicious!). With a very stomach, Barrie and I walked
the mile from downtown Petersburg to the airport to meet John's flight
from Seattle. His flight actually went from Seattle to Juneau to
Petersburg and was EARLY! Together we walked back to town in time to
see the end of the annual pageant. I even rubbed elbows with the Alaska
governor who was in town to dedicate tne new "drive-down" dock. Our
next mission was to go the to IGA Union Trader so that John could buy
xtra tough Petersburg boots which are the must have boots in Alaska
(Barrie and I already own some and at least half the cast of Cannery
Island wore them). We all agreed that the only sensible thing to do
next was to attend the all you can eat shrimp feed in support of the
local basketball teams. This event is an annual fundraiser that allows
four teams to go to basketball camp. Given the high cost of airfare in
Alaska, it takes a lot of effort to raise enough money to send all those
kids to camp. The meal of fresh caught shrimp was fabulous and we all
ate too much. We rolled back to the boat to sleep it off.
Sunday
was the final day of the festival. We awoke and debated the merits of
attending the fundraiser pancake breakfast at the Catholic Church We
finally all agreed that there was no way we could eat pancakes and go to
the all you can eat Rotary Seafood BBQ at noon.
So, hating to miss the pancakes we opted for yet another seafood
pig-out. The good news was that the Rotary BBQ was held at Sandy Beach
which required a 2 mile walk from the boat to get to the BBQ and another
2 mile walk to return. The food was beyond belief. We gorged on
smoked black cod, rock fish and grilled salmon and at least a dozen
salads not to mention Norwegian desserts including a Rotarian Sheet Cake
and Lefsa. After the meal, we quickly walked back to town so that we
could all attend yet another showing of the melodrama "Shipwreck on
Cannery Island". This was John's first viewing of the play and John
said the play was unique -- he laughed almost as hard as Barrie did.
John has a bit of difficulty with some of the local Nordic humor but
fell in love with Sally Sealegs. (Barrie's favorite actress was Nikoleta
Lotafishgobyya. And how couldn't you love Margo Fisher (a single
fisher women) with her boat "The Salmon Queen" that was trolling for
Kings? Our last effort of the day was to find Mandy who had promised us
a Carrick Bend knotted door mat for the boat. Somehow we
misconnected. In an effort to find her, we met half of Petersburg.
Melinda from the ACE provided Mandy's telephone number but even that did
not close the gap. Maybe next week when we pass through Petersburg we
will find the elusive Mandy. Hope so. Meanwhile with very full
stomaches we collapsed into our own bunks with our alarms set for 4 am.
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