Petersburg (Little Norway)

We are about to leave Petersburg and head toward Sitka today. This trip could be as short as four or five days or as long as two weeks, depending on weather and how long we care to linger in places like Baranof Warm Springs. Yesterday the cloud layer lifted enough for us to see some incredible mountain vistas on our way from Wrangell to Petersburg. That transit includes the 21 mile Wrangell Narrows with over 60 aids to navigation (lights, buoys, day marks) along the way; they call it Christmas Tree lane! We took a Petersburg walk in the afternoon downpour and got thoroughly drenched, but we were able to look out on Frederick Sound (where we are headed today) where we saw our first "bergy bits"--smallish chunks of iceberg that have calved off the Le Conte glacier nearby. From shore, they were glowing blue jewels floating in a sea of gray. Today we will admire, but also, dodge them. Petersburg has a large, active, fishing fleet, so we have been able to admire large quantities of working boats in the marinas. Downtown is decorated with tole painting galore and the shops feature Norwegian items. I'm off to dig eggplant and zucchini out of the bilge for a veggie lasagna tonight (I prefer Italian over Norwegian cuisine). It SOUNDS like the weather is settled enough for some cooking underway. We ate the last of our crab last night and will be keeping our eyes and ears open for new spots to crab and prawn on the way to Sitka. We have heard that the resurgence of the sea otter population (yay!) has decimated the crab population out near Sitka (too bad, but maybe things will settle out in the future). Hope you are all well and having less rain than we have.