The Fourth

As some of you may have heard, I had the distinct honor of being Sammy the Salmon in this year’s 4th of July parade. This consisted of a wonderful neon green neoprene body suit that I not only couldn’t see out of or breathe in, but could only waddle in. Therefore, since I wasn’t able to keep up with the rest of my Forest Service buddies, Tripp pushed me around in my very own salmon chariot (e.g. a power carrier used to carry heavy loads of wood, tools, etc.). I also wasn’t allowed to talk because that would ruin the “Sammy persona” and the little kids would realize I wasn’t a real fish. Smart kids.

Unfortunately, since salmon don’t have hands, only fins, my pictures from this day are very limited, but hopefully in the future I’ll be able to get my hands on some photos that other people took. The trail and cabin guys looked dapper in their yellow and green uniforms carrying chain saws and axes and Smokey traumatized a little boy who's mother forced him into his arms for a picture.

This year because of the low cloud cover and rain the fireworks were canceled on both the 3rd and 4th of July and postponed until the 9th (when I will be back out at Redoubt), although who knows, maybe they’ll be postponed yet another week. We did get together with some people the 3rd for a barbecue over at Joe’s house and then hit the bars afterward which was a nice welcome back to Sitka after eleven days out in the field.