The Last Summer

The Last Frontier

When we got our date to leave, we had six months left. I knew it would go fast. I knew that when it finally came, I would feel like it was a whirlwind. I was right. It's just about a week until we get on the ferry. 

This summer I've tried to really appreciate Alaska and all it's given us. Soldier and I got married here and have spent the last 3 years in an apartment that looks out on ocean and mountains; where I can sit and watch cruise ships dock and seaplanes land. We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny summer. We had a couple of visitors and took advantage of some last ditch adventures. As much as I've gotten down on Juneau, I know I'm going to miss it. It's a surreal life up here. 

I may have already mentioned some of these things but in getting emotional I have to tell you again. Our best friends were planning on getting married and wanted Soldier to perform the ceremony...so they booked a helicopter out to a lighthouse on 4th of July. We took a helicopter to a lighthouse for our best friends to get married. We saw whales as we were flying over the ocean. The next day, Soldier and I took the skiff out to pull the crab pots. It was a gorgeous day and I was out in a bikini top and shorts pulling up pots. But as we were out Soldier had to dodge all the commercial fishing boats and their nets. We stopped for him to throw a line out and I remember looking around and thinking, "This isn't normal. This is amazing." Do you have any idea what it's like to see a whale come up while you're sitting there in a 14 foot skiff? It's terrifying and amazing at the same time. You realize how incredibly small you are and how incredibly awesome nature is. 
When Soldier's cousin came up to visit we took a seaplane to Admiralty Island. Admiralty's claim to fame is that there are more brown bears than people there. We went to see the Coastal Brown Bears (fun fact: they don't call them grizzly bears because they're not as aggressive). I would have liked to have seen them a little closer but I was also kind of okay with it. You're basically just out in nature, in the territory of this massive deadly animal; you're at the mercy of basically whatever they want to do. It's crazy. 

With the amazing weather, Soldier has had many opportunities for great fishing. That's not to say bad weather keeps him from fishing, but good weather means less worry for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm real freaking sick of his fishing obsession. And as we got along in the summer I kept asking what he was planning on doing with all the fish he was catching. Guys, I do know that it's a good problem to have. But I will be glad when every week doesn't include an all day fishing trip.  
The good weather also meant we had lots of time to stroll around downtown, which I love. Lots of watching seaplanes land and just general sunshine, not as much hiking as we should have done.

We've had both of our work going away parties, the movers have taken most of our stuff away, and I've started cleaning out the apartment. This time next week we'll have taken our ferry trip, crossed over into Canada (hopefully without any issues), and should be on the tail end of getting to our first campsite. The journey should take about a week and we're spending 2 days at Banff National Park, which I'm really excited about. 

I think we've had as good of a last summer as we could have. I'm excited for the adventure of our multi country road trip, and  getting back to the lower 48. Hopefully I'll have lots of animal pictures to post from the drive!  

196 Books: Brazil

An Invincible Memory by Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro

I'm assuming most of you know where Brazil is, but in keeping with tradition: 

Here's a review, not from the book cover, but from Publishers Weekly: 

A family saga spanning nearly 400 years, this absorbing epic novel lays bare the soul of the Brazilian nation. Whaling, war, macumba, slavery, murder, cannibalism and Brazil's struggle for independence add momentum to Ribeiro's lyrical, effusive, sonorous, serpentine prose laced with a touch of magic realismsomething of a cross between Melville and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (The author himself has rendered the fluent translation.) At the center is Amleto Ferreira, a 19th century paterfamilias and conniving bookkeeper who defrauds a baron of his wealth; Amleto's ladylike, long-suffering wife Teolina; and their children, among them a priest, a romantic poet and a soldier. A bestseller in Brazil, the novel graphically portrays the terrible cruelty inflicted by whites on blacks, mulattos and Indians; the lives of these native peoples unfold in dozens of intertwined stories. The relationship between Merinha, patient, Penelope-like servant girl, and runaway slave Budiao is moving. Also memorable are 100-year-old Great Mother Dadinha and Maria da Fe, a bandit warrior who converses with birds and seeks special power from a sorcerer's charms. Catapulting his tale into the 1970s, journalist Ribeiro ( Sergeant Getulio ) creates a stunning portrait of a people who, though outwardly mirthful, are still not free. 

Uuuuugh this book. When I was first looking at it I thought it sounded great. When it arrived I was like Okay, that's pretty substantial but not a big thing. And then I had the moment of realization. This guy is a wannabe Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I started trying to flounder through it and then read some reviews that of course liked the similarities between the authors. Me? Not so much. That's kind of why I put in the Publishers Weekly review. Cuz guess which authors I did not like at all? You guessed it: Melville and Marquez. So I did finally finish this one, but it felt like it took 5 years. 

I felt like the first third of the book could have been scrapped, and the last 20 or so pages where it skips ahead to the 70s was out of place. The majority of the story took place in the really 19th century (I think) so the other timelines seemed odd and it wasn't entirely clear where we were in time. Also, the descriptions of the racism and rapes and shit were just awful. They made me sick. And I know that stuff really did happen and maybe it's good for me to recognize that and be uncomfortable but...shit. People are the worst.

But there were definitely things that I liked. Maria da Fe is the hero that everyone needs. She was such a badass. And the main part of the story was pretty good. SO. If you like Marquez, this is a good read for you.