Alaska Home? No Way...

Alaska has just been so unmotivating. After being in Alaska now for 3 seasons, I just don't see how anyone can live here. I was strolling through Ketchikan today noticing the small bar-b-ques and festivities for the locals. Stores were closed and even some local restaurants. The tourist shops didn't close. Oh no. Not with 3 big ships in port. It was raining as usual. This has been quite the rainy season this year with temperatures not breaking over 60 most of the time. These parts of Alaska (the most southern) get close to 300 days of rain a year. That's A LOT of rain!! Also, since they are located pretty north on the globe, they get the shortest days of the year from October through April. Ew!! Depressing. I'm only visiting and it's depressing being here for such a long time. The general feel of the territory is mining and fishing. Schools are small. Towns are small. I feel like when you live in a particular region, everyone knows who you are and what you do. Wild animals are predominant here since there is so much open territory and bears can be in your backyard like deer in the Midwest. Yikes!! VISITING Alaska is about all I can handle and after this summer, I think I will have seen enough of the northern territory. At least the territory along the cruise ship routes. When the weather is warm and sunny, the scenes are breathtaking. The sights you can see here are like nowhere else. Bald eagles fly freely. You can spot one almost everyday. A rare if at all occurrence anywhere else in the U.S. Bears also run wild around here. My philosophy on that is as long as they are visible and separated by a large body of water; I would enjoy seeing them in their natural territory. If they are hiking alongside me in the woods, they're too close for comfort. Soon, I'll be able to see the salmon as they swim upstream in certain parts of the Alaskan regions we visit. You don't see that everyday, unless you live here. The glaciers are truly amazing and are just as unbelievable and breathtaking as the ones in South America and Norway. Snow for 8 months out of the year? No thanks. Temperature highs only reaching maybe 70 (80 once or twice) and sinking as low as 20 below? No thank you. I can barely stand the weather in the northern climates where I grew up let alone that kind of weather. Houses still go for half a million here for a modest home you may not be able to access via a drive or a street, but by stairs. I could understand if they were cheap and you could have one for a summer retreat. However when they compare to those houses in warmer climates, forget it. Yet people do CHOOSE to live here. I don't understand why. To me it just seems so secluded. Yet, maybe THOSE people that live here wants to be secluded. It would explain some crazy behavior I see whenever the ships are in town. To each his own, but in my opinion Alaska would not be the home retreat for me. I'd rather live in the jungle.