July 3 Quiet days in Hoonah

Since the departure of the cruise ship on Wednesday Hoonah has returned to the laid back community it has been for years. We have enjoyed a quiet relaxed atmosphere and the friendly attitude of the local residents who always have a smile and greeting for you.

Low tide is a big event here. Tidal swings total 16 feet lately giving them the opportunity to utilize the tidal grid for a very affordable "haul out" to do maintenance work between tides (for those of you not familiar with this they have special areas where they tie their vessel up at high tide and when the tide goes out it is up on a wooden grid where they can work on it.)
or if the boat is small enough they just "beach it" and wait for the tide to receed so they can lay it on its side and scrape bottom and repaint.

At any given time during the day you can find someone on the docks cleaning freshly caught fish. Halibut is the big catch right now and that was demonstrated to me yesterday with one hanging on the dock that was 80 inches long and weighed in excess of 250 pounds. I cannot even imagine trying to get something like that into the boat!

Yesterday we walked about a mile to a local "lodge" that advertised (bulletin board flyers) a good restaurant. Well after Gary had his treat of a cheeseburger and we watched our dose of big screen TV amidst pool tables in their restaurant "dining room" (real fancy...get the picture) we realized that their "airport" was only another mile out the same road (i.e. only road in town!)...so we kept walking.

Arrived at their "airport" (i.e. airstrip with two metal buildings) just in time for the arrival of a courier plane picking up something which must have been important (gal meeting the plane asked the pilot where her pizza was??? and told him to at least bring her an expresso next time). That was our adventure for the day aside from discussing the size of the bear tracks along side the road on the way back (Gary insists it was just dog tracks but I saw the "Bear Crossing" sign always believe signs!)

Most awesome sight here in Hoonah are the enormous eagles that collect along the stone breakwater. I was estimating them at 14 inches tall and Gary says they are over 24 inches. We have seen them elsewhere before but not in the same size and concentration. They seem to favor this areas due to lack of float plane traffic and proximity to all the fishing and fish cleaning activity (i.e. easy pickings).

They finally received enough rain to lift the local ban on fireworks. This town was desimated by fire about 20 or 30 years ago so they are very sensitive to the dangers. The 4th of July promised to be low key but family oriented...their local festivities include foot races and local floats in a community parade.

Enjoy and celebrate our Independence and the Veterans who fought and continue to fight to guarantee our freedoms.

Still Old Bro's Old Lady

------------------------------
Local access to Pocketmail mobile
email now available in Europe, North
America & Australia http://www.pocketmail.com