October 1, 2026- It was rainy, all day. We didn’t get in our usual walk, but Hana went with me to my chiropractic appointment. On the way there and back, I found a Children’s Music channel on Sirius XM, making her time in a rear-facing car seat less lonesome. She was, as usual, content to watch me in the massage chair and while I was getting adjusted by the chiropractor.
Hana is also more engaging now, constantly talking, even “scolding” the Roborock when it was noisily cleaning her high chair. She likes to take items out of a basket and put hem back in. She is getting better at using a spoon, and is now more apt to put a spoonful of food in her mouth, rather than wave it around.
Last night, she slept in a bedroom by herself, with her parents keeping a monitor on. She woke up at 4:40 a.m. and called for her mother. It all worked out quite well.
HANA’S NOTE- I kind of like the Sesame Street songs on Papa’s car radio. Some of the voices sound similar, but they are different animals. I wonder why.
EXPANDING CIRCLES– Alaska- For many years, Penny and I had plans of exploring “up the coast” to British Columbia and southeast Alaska. It never happened for us, as a couple. In 2015, I was able to go solo to “southeast”. Everything about the area fascinated me-the terrain and how communities managed to thrive, in the face of both tough weather conditions, and the fact that those conditions are changing so rapidly, in the present warming cycle.
The turf- Much of Alaska is mountainous, to the extent that in many cases, the only way to get from one place to another is to fly. In the southeast, the Coast Ranges dominate the mainland, with both it and the main offshore islands connected by the Alaska State Ferry system. The same is true of the south central region (Chugach Mountains, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula), and the southwest (Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands). The interior features the highest mountains in North America, in the Denali region, to the north of which is a vast plain (Yukon Valley)in the west and due north, and more mountains to the northeast. North of the Yukon River valley lies the Brooks Range, and furthest north, the Arctic Plain. The Seward Peninsula, to the far west, is a rugged mix of mountains and coastal plain. Alaska is drained by the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Susitna, Tanana, Copper, Koyukuk, Kobuk, Noatak, Colville, Kenai and Porcupine Rivers. It is the Yukon which dominates the Alaskan interior and which flows into the north Pacific in a delta formation. Besides the Aleutians and the islands of the southeast, St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Nunivak and the Pribilofs are found in the Bering Sea.
First Nations- Alaska is the ancestral home of the Northern Athabascan, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida, Eyak, Inupiat, Yupik, and Aleut peoples. The first five groups are collectively referred to as “Native Alaskan”. The Inupiat and Yupik are Inuit, and the Aleut are of a separate linguistic group from both Native Alaskans and Inuit. Like other indigenous peoples, in North America, each of these groups have been displaced and have faced harsh treatment, first by the Russian settlers from 1732-1867, then by Americans, most of whom were intending to take advantage of the Yukon Gold Rush and lucrative fishing opportunities. The Alaska Native Brotherhood, and the activists Alberta Schenck Adams and Elizabeth Peratrovich campaigned against segregation and other racist practices during Alaska’s territorial years, resulting in an end to segregation, in 1945. In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act dealt with land and financial claims for the losses that Alaskan Natives, Inuit and Aleuts had suffered at the hands of European- American settlers. The work of reconciliation continues.
Where I feel most at home- Sitka, Mendenhall, Ketchikan, Wrangell.
Where I feel most at peace- Mount Verstovia, Petroglyph Beach
Future Five- Anchorage, Talkeetna, Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak, Glacier Bay
NEXT: Washington
