The Magic Zoo Goes to Alaska!

Leaving Juneau, July 27th

Hard to believe, The Magic Zoo (well, at least the artist herself) is in Alaska. My flight arrived in the wee hours of the morning. I took a taxi from this very small airport to where my stepson Pete and his wife Sue had docked their boat. I insisted the taxi leave me to wait, and just a minute later spotted Pete in his plaid shirt and fisherman’s cap making his way down the long, long boardwalk from his boat. “Merry!” twinkling eyes and a hug.

Peter loaded my gear on an industrial strength plastic wheel barrow to push the ¼ mile to their boat. It had been 2 1/2 years since I’d seen him and his wife. That was when they visited us in New Mexico to bid farewell with our family ceremony for my late husband Ed (Pete’s father) who passed away in 2020. It was good to meet under completely different and more joyful circumstances.

The air smelled like fish and Pete pointed out a couple of salmon jumping, and told me how these are older fish, not so good for eating but local kids love to fish for them.

I got aboard with moderate grace, and Sue greeted me in the galley giving me a hug and the mini tour, just enough to find the bathroom from the bed.

I tried to get a little sleep, but since my bed was under a hatch (kind of like a skylight), and Alaskan July sunrise is around 4:00 am, light was already flooding through by 5 when I got up. No matter because I’d already been awakened by a hollow “caw-cawing” in a dream that ended up being a real-life Alaskan raven. That bird and the ship’s kitty (already a bit wound up by my arrival) ended any possibility of snoozing.

We’re leaving Juneau now for Taku harbor where we’ll spend the night. I’m watching a bald eagle soar towards us for my easy identification, then a large brown juvenile on a buoy. We passed them both moving from the harbor and into Stephen’s Passage.

This Beautiful Boat…

Pete and Sue’s 54 ft. trawler is one they have configured and built from scratch, from a modified blueprint by a boat builder named George Buehler. They keep his book in their wheelhouse.

Incredibly, they did all of the work themselves, during 10 years of weekends back in their home town of Sausalito. She is paneled in perfectly laid wood with touches of art and handcrafted details making the environment, like a beautiful yet modest woman, a comfort and joy to live with. She even has a lovely name, “Kama Hele” which means “traveler” in Hawaiian.

I spent two hours of that first magical day sleeping on the deck, feeling cool Alaskan breezes and the sun warming my back. The motor purred, and we were cruising at about 6.5 knots, which translates to around 8 mph. The speed of a fast bicycle. This, I discovered, is the perfect speed to actually see what you are passing in a location as stunningly beautiful as Alaska.

Wherever I focused there were snow capped mountains, pine covered hills, sea birds and occasional bald eagles soaring past.

Taku Harbor

We arrived at Taku Harbor in the late afternoon, which is the site of an abandoned salmon canning plant. This is where I realized, first-hand, how lush Alaska is. Sue and I took a walk and picked salmon berries, little fruits reminiscent of blackberries only redder. And maybe not quite as sweet.

The remains of the cannery were surprisingly aesthetic, with plants growing from the top of the old piers, and giant rusted metal cannery parts laying hither and thither across the graveyard of the old grounds.

That night for dinner we had fresh Pete-caught salmon (Sue made delicious miso topping for it, and baked it in the oven) and a little wine, both extremely rare treats for me. Pete put out a crab pot with the salmon’s head to entice dinner for tomorrow night. We’ll pick that up on the way from this harbor tomorrow morning.

There are a few other guests here, a young but keep-to-themselves couple with their dog staying in a primitive cabin along the trail. Their boat was charming and I mentally compared it to the African Queen sailed by Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in the iconic movie of the same name There are 2 other boats with people Pete and Sue met in Petersburg where they docked a week or so ago.

Tomorrow morning we will cruise to Tracy Arm Cove where Pete and Sue have promised we’ll take the dinghy out to some little icebergs, where we can chip some off to enjoy with drinks. I have never felt so relaxed and lazy. I can’t even get cell service here! Perfection…

Much More Coming…

This was my first day in Alaska…so much happened that I have to write several blog articles to cover it all. So much to see, and guess what…I saw many, many animals along this journey. So…stay tuned!

Your Animal Loving Artist,

Merry