Monday the 4th of July - Haines!

Tue Jul 05 2022

Canada Day is on July 1st. We’ve met several Canadians that came over to Haines for a long holiday weekend. Even though Isabel grew up in England, she has learned to embrace July 4th festivities, so we were pretty much “all in” on the Haines festivities. Well, except for the pancake breakfast at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) hall. Our pals Joe and Nancy went and pronounced the blueberry pancakes “darn good”. Isabel and I had scrambled eggs with sausage on board because we knew we would be eating hot dogs and pie and such today and it’s bad form to eat 2 unhealthful meals in a row, or so we think.

We learned today that Haines has a lot of young families because there were a bunch of children’s activities throughout the day. The parade kicked off at 1100 and it was a blast, reminding me of a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, except instead of silk roses and such the folks on the various vehicles and such were throwing candy for the kids. We had considered it odd that all these little children were toting empty bags before the parade, but after the parade it was as if Halloween trick or treating had just happened. Nothing more interesting than a 6 year old with a sugar buzz.

The parade was a blast with all the usual fire trucks and ambulances flashing lights and running sirens, local merchants sponsoring various vehicles, motorcycles and even one with a dog riding in the side car. Most interesting to me was a group of three women packing serious pistolas, members of a ladies shooting club. Say what you will about guns in the lower 48, up here knowing how to effectively handle a firearm might keep you from being a bear’s dinner, or at least getting mauled. Apparently moose can be pretty dangerous too, and it’s completely common to see Alaskans heading out on a hike or even wandering down a lonely road packing heat for self defense, and we’re not talking about protection from n’er do wells.

After the parade we wandered down to the local park where it was $5 for a slice of home made pie and $5 for a hot dog, chips and fizzy water. Being the big spender I am, I threw down another $1 for vanilla ice cream on my apple pie, but Isabel tended to the thrifty side and against all her principles had a free dollop of generic Cool Whip (i.e. fake whipped cream) to enhance her own rhubarb & custard pie experience. ! The pies were all baked by local folks to support some sort of fund raising effort, something we love to support. After our dessert we went to get a hot dog to support the “friends of the library” folks. A local bluegrass band made music as we enjoyed our meal and then the real fun began with various age group foot races for the kids. It’s pretty fun watching a group of 4 years and under kids run 50 yards - kind of reminded us of the Weiner dog nationals we attended at the Phoenix Greyhound Racetrack many years ago, where the dogs ran in various directions, some even actually chased the fake rabbit.

The races continued with various age groups up to young adults then repeated running backwards, then with gymnastics moves including somersaults and cartwheels. Total hoot, and a great way for the kids to work off their sugar buzz. I think the winner of each event got a dollar, and there were other prizes like a shiny quarter or whatnot for second and third place. After all that the local Tlingit dancers put on an interesting show. The pre-school had a raffle of two stand up paddle boards for $20 a ticket, and since a shark ate one of our SUPs in French Polynesia and we gave the other one to a family, we decided it was time to win those. Sadly someone else took the prize but we were still happy to kick in for the local pre-school funding.

In the evening we wandered up to Fort Seward parade grounds to enjoy some local music, and found lots of folks relaxing in the big grass field while a local musician did her best to fill in for the band that had canceled late in the game. I found myself playing “flying ring” with some other folks, a device I’d never experienced. Used to play frisbee at the beach but this ring thing is pretty impressive, and fun to hook with your arm. I’ve got a bit of work to do if my throws are going to end up where I wish they would, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day!

We did exploit an afternoon break in the festivities to return to Sunset and have a nap, then I investigated a malodorous problem in the forward head which resulted in me dismantling the vacuflush pump assembly. Nasty job, and it turned out the flexible diaphragm in the pump wasn’t so flexible anymore, allowing “material” to appear where it wasn’t supposed to. Clogged, malfunctioning, broken or otherwise ill behaved toilets are the most uninteresting part of boat life. Looks like some new parts will be shipping in to Juneau in a few days.

All in all we’ve found Haines to be an awesome town! There are folks of all political persuasions, big beards and crew cuts and dreadlocks, tie dyed t-shirts and “take my guns from my cold dead hands” slogans, artists and fishermen and entrepreneurs. Everyone we’ve interacted with has been really outgoing and friendly. There are a lot of young families here, a sign of optimism about the future in my view. The locals are so friendly with their Canadian neighbors that the parade color guard even had a former Canadian soldier carrying the big maple leaf flag next to an American Legion member carrying the American flag. Wow, international relations at its best. If it didn’t snow so much we might want to live here!