Russian influences

I am planning to travel to foreign countries - the U.S. - and now I need to acquire a passport. I checked out my old ones that were filed away. One of the interesting border stamps was from Poker Creek Alaska - a very tiny place.

My mom were taking a tour through northern areas. We went to Dawson Creek and Whitehorse and Juneau Alaska. From there we took a cruise ship down the coast to Vancouver. It was beautiful scenery.

We stopped at Sitka Alaska where the Russian influence is visible in the buildings especially the churches. The Russians sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 - the same year Canada became a country.

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Many thousands of miles away my mom was with her cousin near the Finnish Russian border. My mom was interested in visiting Russia. When you look on a map the major border crossing city of Vaalimaa Finland is across from St. Petersburg. She asked her cousin about this but she said there was no way they would ever go to Russia. Finland is a small country and Russia is a large one. Finland was Russian for over 100 years. During WW II Finland was on the German side.

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On a related note I worked with someone whose background was Russian. When her mom died I went to the funeral. It was quite a different experience because the service was so unfamiliar.