Serendipity
I returned from a week in Alaska not long ago. We (my husband, me, and my sister) had planned to go back in the Fall of 2007, but dealing with Matthew’s cancer put the trip on hold for a while. Anyway…I planned every detail of the trip… no tourist traps… I wanted to see and experience “real” Alaska… and I must say, the trip surpassed my every expectation. I have so many stories and I want my time there to stay with me… I don’t want to forget the details.
I brought a blank journal with me and some nights my sister and I would go over what we had most enjoyed during the day and I’d write down bits and pieces to help me remember later. Since I’ve been home, I’ve wanted to sit and write, but I have to say, I haven’t known where to begin.
So…. I’ve decided to start with my most memorable experience…. my words are just an attempt to capture what I saw and heard and felt… they are inadequate really.
We spent several nights at a bed and breakfast over looking Favorite Bay on Admiralty Island, Alaska. Our room had this big picture window that looked out at the bay. There were blinds that we shut at night cause the daylight lasted past 10:00 or 11:00 at night and my husband wanted the blinds closed so it would be darker and easier to fall asleep. Well, one night I woke up around 1:00 a.m. and peaked out the blinds. It wasn’t dark like in the middle of the night. It was like twilight with a dark shade of blue and a narrow, faint band of yellow outlining the horizon. I was so taken by the beautiful sky that I tiptoed around and got my camera positioned on the tripod at the window. I opened the window all the way and while composing my picture, I heard a whale blowing very close by in the bay… literally right in front of me. I saw the ripple of the water from where he barely stirred the surface. My mouth dropped and my eyes went wide and I was frozen and mesmorized for a time. I heard him blow again and again… about every 45 seconds to a minute. After a few minutes I could tell he was moving up an inlet as the blowing sounded more distant now. I sat at the window that night for at least 40 minutes listening to the whale blow. From a distance it sounded like a lone fire cracker or the pop of a gun going off.
I’ve tried to find words to describe the feeling that came over me as I sat there that night and watched that beautiful midnight blue sky and listened to the whale blow. It was so very spiritual and just totally filled me with awe. It was humbling and I felt enormous gratitude.
Here is a picture of what I saw that night!
