August 16 - Haines

The rains in Haines fall mainly on the …. town, Cleo, the bay, and anyone foolhardy enough to stick their heads out the door. After the wind has ripped the door right out of their hands. What we are having today is Weather, with a capital W. Sustained winds at 25 knots with gusts to 40, except we heard the harbor master come on the marine radio at one point and announce that the gust of wind that just left everyone rocking and rolling was 72 knots. Gerry says it feels like a giant gorilla is on top of Cleo, hurling himself from side to side. And the rain is washing across the front window horizontally at times.

I was going to walk through the town and take pictures of all the flower boxes. They are beautiful, and there is one long stretch of railing that has a solid mass of tiny little flowers that are so intensely, pulsatingly purple that I feel their true color is so far into the ultra-violet that my eyes can’t even begin to see it. However, since the rain has defeated that plan, you’ll just have to take my word for it. Maybe tomorrow if the weather gods cooperate.

We were reduced to visiting the museum – basically one large room that took us 15 minutes to go through, and that was reading every word of explanations. We couldn’t go to the Hammer Museum, because it was closed today. That’s not the name of the museum owner – it’s the name of the subject of the museum. One can only imagine.

After dinner we went back to the Chilkoot River to see if there were any bears, and sure enough, there was a brown bear snacking on salmon on the near side of the river, so we got some good shots. I didn’t photoshop that smile on the bear’s face, either!

What's that I smell?


Caught that slippery fish!


One happy bear.