Social Saturday

Life in little Gustavus certainly is never dull and in typical Alaska style, things rarely go as expected or planned. For example, a 30-minute trip to "town" on a Saturday actually takes a few hours.

If you go to the post office during the week, it takes about 3 minutes total at the post office. On a Saturday, you need to allow at least 45 minutes at the post office: 15 minutes to chat with the two or three people you run into in the parking lot before you go in; 15 minutes to chat with the postmaster and people inside the post office; and another 15 minutes to chat with whoever pulled up in the parking lot in the half hour you've been trying to get out of there.

Then, you have to stop in at the Community Chest, the local thrift store, (it's across the street from the post office) and check out what's new. Of course, you run into other people there, which takes another 20 minutes.

Then, you have to stop at the store to pick up a couple of items and, well, you know the drill...not to mention who you might pass on the road and have to stop in the middle of the road to catch up. With summer and the whales approaching, you also need to allow time to head out to the city dock to see if you can spot any whales in Icy Strait.

This evening was the opening "local" dinner at the Gustavus Inn. They kick off the summer season by serving a reasonably priced dinner, which is a huge social event. It was packed! They were geared up, though, and had plenty of waiting space and a fire ring to hang out around. Of course, you saw most of the people you saw earlier in the day, plus the rest that you hadn't!