Alaska Cruise – June ‘08

This year’s amphibious assault was a round trip out of San Francisco on the Dawn Princess (Princess Cruise Line) with grandson Brennan along - grandpa brought him as an excuse for more frequent trips to the ship’s terrific pizzeria. Eleven days of scenery and fine dining. Brennan spent a lot of time in the ship’s kids program, and enjoyed it a lot. Nancy enjoyed a more adult activity – short-term investments (see picture). The first stop was Ketchikan, renown for totem poles and, apparently, an overload of packs of cruiser trash wandering the streets. I mean, there were FIVE cruise ships in port the day we were there – probably close to 10,000 confused, elderly souvenir hunters – and the population of Ketchikan is only 14,000! They could have shot scenes for a remake of “Night of the Living Dead” in downtown Ketchikan! The smart residents probably cleared out of town or barricaded themselves in a few “locals only” bars. Internet research before the trip turned up ample evidence that most locals in port towns DON’T LIKE US CRUISER TRASH. Now there’s a big surprise. Even the resident birds don’t like us – see the pictures of the pigeon guillemot mooning the ship and the glaucous winged gull “dive bombing” it (now that was a lucky, well-timed photo).

But I digress….

Next was Juneau (Juneau how to spell it? If not, I Anchorage you to learn!). Here we were fortunate to talk Mike and Vicki Wilcox, friends formerly of Idaho Falls, to skip an afternoon of work and take us on a tour of the area, including Juneau’s own “City Park” glacier – the Mendenhall. A wonderful tour combined with a pleasant visit. The Catholic shrine/meeting center north of town was particularly scenic. There were salmon jumping and seals swimming around the small peninsula on which it is located, with the mountains surrounding Glacier Bay in the background.

The last Alaskan stop was at Skagway, gateway to the Klondike, which is still milking its gold-rush history for every tourist dollar it can get. We took a train up to White Pass. The scenery was spectacular, as expected, but the weather was crummy – cloudy and raining. That was unlike Ketchikan and Juneau – Mike said the day we visited was one of the nicest yet this year for Juneau. (Juneau where that city is located? It’s right on the Fairbanks of the Gastineau Straight).

We then spent a day cruising up and back the Tracy Arm – a narrow fjord with the same old ho-hum gorgeous scenery as the rest of the coast, plus a plethora of small (but genuine) icebergs spawned by the glacier at its head. We didn’t get to see the actual glacier – something about replacing million-dollar propellers when the ship decides to play ice-crusher. The Tracy arm was probably the highlight of the trip – I’d go back tomorrow, if I could a fjord it.

We stopped in Victoria on the way back, but we have nothing to report of this except the rude pigeon guillemot.

Cruisin’s OK, but next time, I want to do a bit of Alaskan travel in a float plane like in the picture – to a Katmai Park salmon or trout stream or to Brooks Camp to watch the bears versus salmon games at Brooks Falls (the bears always win, just like in bears versus packers games). Incidentally, before Picasa dumbed-up the float plane picture to upload it to the web, you could blow it up and count the rivets on the float. Nice work, Canon! In your face, Nikon!

Now for today’s reader-participation contest: one of the photos in the Alaska 08 album contains (my favorite!) a pun. Yes, it’s true. Obscure, maybe, but true. Be the first to identify it (via a blog comment) and win a matted print of my favorite White Pass “art” picture – also in the album. In case of a tie, duplicate prizes will be awarded. Ha, ha – fooled you. There can’t be a tie, as blog comments are entered in precise chronological order! If there’s no winner by next blogtime, an additional hint will be provided. The decision of the judge (ME!) is final, and no employee of 595 Murdock Lane or its subsidiaries may enter.

Wasn’t this a terrific blogpost? Alaska one more time – wasn’t this a terrific post?

Cheers!Chuck

August Yellowstone Hike

Jon Earhart, Dave Monroe (grad school friends), and I recently took a 5-day backpack in the Southwest corner of Yellowstone, fishing the Bechler and Fall rivers and Mountain Ash and Boundary creeks. Fishing was good (especially for August), and casualties were few - 2 trashed flyrods and a blown-out tire. Pictures have been added to the online album. The trip and follow-on river float, pizza, and bratwurst were enjoyed by all.

Also added a few more bird photos. Next project will be adding photos of the June Alaska cruise that Nancy, Brennan and I took, but much photoshopping is needed first.

That's all for now - come back frequently to check for further scintillating peeks into the Life of Chuck.

Ahem, er.., yeah, I guess thats me, maybe....

Woohoo, I'm a new-age, green-friendly, electronic uncensored blogger! Funny, I still feel like a downhill-slide hexegenarian. Oh well, one kid out of three can't be wrong. Those seeking galactic wisdom or sage advice should check our Steven Hawking or Dear Abby. For the rest of you, especially those curious about fishing conditons in Yellowsone, read on.....

(more bird pictures and lies to follow - this is just a test entry)

Because My Father Is Too Lazy To Create His Own Blog

Some time ago I suggested to my father that he should start a blog. I figured it would be a fun and convenient way to facilitate his incessant bragging about bird photos, fishing trips, hiking adventures, woodworking creations, world travels, and general senile ranting. As is par for the course, however, he neglected to do so. In the meantime, he has continued to take photos and occasionally email them to friends and family. The madness has got to stop!

I know, this newfangled internet thing is a bit confusing for the elderly. That's why I took pity and decided to start my father's blog for him. Should he need help learning how to negotiate his entry into the blogosphere, I'm sure his children, children-in-law, or even grandchildren would be happy to help. At the very least, Pa, you can just upload your pictures, type out some one liners, and email your buddies the URL so they know where to find you. I think you'll be fine. In fact, I'll start you off with a couple of pictures from my collection. Let the blogging begin!