Count my blessings

It's the Fourth of July and it's raining.

So I haven been keeping this blog up very well.  I do occasionally read other blog writings but if they are eloquent and perfect I feel like I don't need to be blogging.  But I read one today and realized it isn't about perfection but about voice. I just need to find mine. It isn't about writing on only one topic but a about what is the topic of my heart that day.

So lonely might be the word today. Missing people,  my friends and family in Tx.  I can call on the phone but it isn't really the same. So maybe learning to be with myself is my issue. So to be positive, I count my blessings.

 Today I think I will update the Alaska cruising trip.

We left Ketchikan under motor Monday June 30 and went to Kasaan. We did sail some out in Clarence strait.  The rest of that day we sat at the dock and went out occasionally to speak to the local fisherman    ( David salivates at the chance to do this, I'm more reserved ) We walked into town Tuesday morning and were lucky to meet up with a fellow named Stormy who gave us the low down on where to go and what to look for. We didn't need a map because the place was very small and basically had a path and a street. We found things right where he told us they would be. The carving shed, the totem poles, the Chief Son-I-hat long house, also known as the Whale House. Even in the state of disrepair these things are amazing. I imagine whose hands touched them, what the carvings meant or mean, (and I am no good at figuring this out).

These people of the organized village of Kasaan mostly live off the land. They go fishing and come in and share their catch with everyone, even with us. We traded beer for fish. Then we were invited to a            home where a young Haida woman showed us the foods she had put up from last year to this year.   She gave us tastes of things whale blubber, and smoked coho and told us great stories about her cousins, siblings and parents. She tried to describe sea asparagus but I am not sure we could find it...so she gave us a jar she had put up along with Salmon berries and frozen fish.  Her beautiful long red hair and blue eyes were a constant distraction to me as I am incorrectly indoctrinated that native Americans are all dark hair and dark eyes.

I don't know a lot about any of the tribes up here. I'm learning. It is obvious there are politics and opinions.

I haven't met a more generous group ever. If you are sailing in Alaska visit the Haida in. Kasaan