Blain enjoyed harvesting a tree for our new house this year, maybe a little too much. His old fire crew days kinda comes out when you hand him a saw.

Even though we are surrounded by 16.7 million acres of national forest lands, it's not exactly a tree plantation out there. Understory trees tend to king of scraggly. We are excited - that the National Christmas tree in Washington DC came from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. We'd like to say our tree would be a strong contender, though. 

Some settled weather set the scene for a few on-the-water outings on our amazing Sitka Sound. We dusted off the sea kayaks and the packrafts for a few lovely trips to our local Forest Service cabins. Highly recommended for the mental health...

We can't forget our other neighbors and recently participated in the Christmas Bird Count here in Sitka. We've done these for a couple of decades, and love the fun of documenting every bird we see in a day. If you get a chance, drop into one in your locale. You'll learn a ton, and help with bird conservation. Notable for Sitka were a swamp sparrow and a brown creeper, among others.

A particularly tasty way to enjoy the season is to broil up some seafood paella (Sounds like:pai-ay-uh). Critical to a paella is saffron and we found it really cheap at Trader Joe's BTW) . Our next culinary adventure is tomorrow's tamale fiesta with friends. 

This lovely little town keeps us busy and festive. The holidays season has a brass concert, wassailing, solstice parties, the Christmas Bird Count, a downtown parade, a some-years boat parade and myriad other events. If you are really lucky you'll get to jam with our former owner Rick, and Jen will pull out the flute and THOSE sweaters!

Our 2025 season calendar is getting filled in. Contact us now to reserve your dream trip. We're also booking 2026 trips. Come sail away!