As I watched our slow retreat from Skagway this afternoon I realized that this is the only true time we see the town for what it really is. One solitary empty street of carefully restored store-fronts, surrounded by a tiny smattering of residential blocks and an RV park – a small splash of ‘civilization’ clinging to the base the vastness of the mountains. We’re the last ship to leave Skagway, so we’re the only ones to ever truly see it empty…it’s an eerie sight when you really stop to think about it.
Since we’re past the equinox the days are getting steadily shorter now, not so long ago the sun was still shining brightly when I closed the library at ten every evening. Now the brilliant colours of sunset are starting to paint the sky at 9:30, and by the time I roll down the gates on the books we’re sailing through a star-spattered inky blackness.
It was beautifully sunny today, bright enough that I almost wished I’d brought my sunglasses. Though without my contact lenses my sunglasses don’t do me a great deal of good. But it was true ice-cream weather today, warm enough that said ice-cream was actually melting while I ate it, something you don’t normally experience in Alaska.
So life continues to click along at its normal steady and sometimes seemingly very quick pace. Friends come and go, but with a precious few I hold on for dear life. With only a month and a half left in this never-ending ground hog day, I do find myself looking forward to September, and watery Victoria sunshine, and the cry of seagulls outside my window. Once again, Alaska has put me through the wringer, and while I have no doubt that I’m once again emerging stronger and more well-tempered…sometimes I miss the girl that looked back at me before I paid my latest visit to the Land of the Midnight Sun…