Still in Juneau

Okay, back to Green Angel Gardens. This next picture is of bear bread fungi. The Athabascan culture will use one of these to carry their fire embers when they move camp. They take one of the fungi, hollow it out a bit, place an ember there, wrap the fungus in moss and then wrap the whole thing in a caribou skin. When they arrive at their next location they are able to use the burning ember and mosses to start their fire. Ingenious, huh?
While the picture doesn't show the true scale, these skunk cabbages are about three and a half feet tall. The Tglingit (pronounced Clink-it) culture used them for medicinal purposes.

Wandering along the foot path of the Green Angel Gardens. Hard to believe this is in Alaska, right?
After having our little mid-morning snack at the garden (along with the opportunity to buy local trinkets, of course) our little group once again boarded the bus, this time headed for the Mendenhall Glacier.

Of course, Juneau gets a lot of rain so the chances of us having a sunny, bright day to visit were slim to none. However, the glacier was awesome even in the dreary, wet weather.
Again we were allowed only 45 minutes to explore this national forest area, thus we didn't have time to walk the 3/4 mile path to the waterfall or to thoroughly explore the visitor center or grounds. This would be a great place to spend the day, have a picnic (watching carefully for bears) and enjoy the beautiful glacier.After a good dinner on board our ship, Denny and I returned to our room with a cup of coffee to sit on our balcony and enjoy just the tiniest bit of an Alaskan sunset as we cruised away from Juneau.
Man, this is hard to take!

Jumping All Around in Juneau

Juneau, capital of Alaska, third largest city in the state. Reachable only by plane or boat/ferry. Population about 31,000 people. Liquid sunshine amount (rain) about 150 inches a year. In Juneau an Alaskan can be a native, the bar and hotel or the locally brewed beer. You can see salmon swimming up the channels, rivers and creeks or whales in the Inside Passage. And of course, they have jewelry stores. Lots of jewelry stores.

Our planned excursion for the town of Juneau consisted of a trip to the Alaska state museum, the Macauley Fish Hatchery, the Green Angel Gardens and the Mendenhall Glacier.

The Alaska State Museum's exterior was unprepossessing to say the least. Inside however was a different story with an extensive collection of the various cultures of native Alaskans clothing, tools, examples of their habitat and lifestyles along with displays of native animals, artwork and history of the area. Our allotted time for our visit was 45 minutes which in no way allowed us to fully explore this small but well-laid out museum.

An odd tidbit given to us by our bus driver. There is a statue at the Juneau Federal Building of several pelicans diving (into water presumably). There are no pelicans in the state of Alaska. What happened is that Alaska commissioned the artist to create a statue of eagles for the Federal Building while at the same time Florida commissioned a statue of pelicans. The pelican statue was installed before the mistake was realized and Florida was happy with their eagle statue (because there ARE eagles in Florida) so Alaska was stuck. So Juneau has the only pelicans in Alaska.

Our second stop was to the Macauley Fish Hatchery also know as the Douglas Island Pink and Chum Co. Here we were given a brief informational talk on the life cycle of the salmon and how the company raises the salmon fry from eggs they milk from the adult salmon that return to the freshwater area. The salmon have to be gradually exposed to salt water from their fresh water beginnings but they retain the memory of the fresh water and return to it as adults ready to spawn. Once the company has milked the salmon of their eggs and milt the salmon will die and those salmon are then shipped to other companies for processing and distribution. There is of course a lot more to the whole life cycle of the salmon but this company is a non-profit organization created for maintaining the salmon population and educational purposes.

Gathering the salmon once they've worked their way into the tank from the fish ladder in the fresh water inlet by the hatchery.
The fish are herded into the tarp which is then raised out of the water so the salmon can be dumped into plastic bins.
After milking the females for eggs and the males for their milt, the fish are packed into ice filled containers to be shipped off.

The tourist shot.
Inside the visitor center are several aquariums with various forms of salt water anemones, star fish, local fish, crabs and other critters. There's also an area where you can touch some of the star fish and hermit crabs. The star fish is rough like sandpaper.
Naturally there was a gift shop where smoked salmon, salmon dip and other forms of canned salmon were available for purchase. Onward....

Next up was the visit to Green Angel Gardens. I realize there were a lot of great reviews in the link listed above but quite frankly I was disappointed because all the wildflowers were past the point of blooming and the flowers and plants were simply identified on our sheets of information by group instead of individually pointing out which plant was which. The tour was self-guided and the owners only spoke to us at the end of our walk, pointing out areas of Alaska on a large wall map and giving a little bit of information about the general area. We were treated to a cup of hot cinnamon spice tea and a warm muffin and then we boarded our bus for our next destination. The gardens may well have been beautiful in the spring but I wasn't impressed by what I saw, other than the fact that there were rain forest type plants growing wild in Alaska.

Bl*gger is once again refusing to upload my pictures so I will finish this tomorrow.

Do Not Pass Go

Luckily for me, the message didn't come through until after we had finished having lunch with our friends. Because I might have made a bit of a scene.

Our customer service rep from HeartlessHeartland called to say that he had all of our appliances lined up to be shipped to our agreed upon service location...but. Yeah, there was a but. It seems our customer service rep's supervisor has spoken and we now have to wait for the RV service center that fixed our electrical issue in Ohio to send the bad piece of our plug/cord to the original manufacturer of said plug/cord to see if the part was defective or damaged. Defective and the company pays for it. Damaged (how?) and we have to pay for all the appliances and labor costs. WHAT??? Yeah.

I probably could have dealt with all that better if the issue had been brought up right from the get-go. We need our washing machine, TV, microwave/convection oven and central vac replaced regardless. What would have happened if the original service center had thrown out the part after cutting off the end and replacing it with a new plug? Would they have refused us our repairs out of hand? And how long is it going to take for this third party to get the old part, check it out and notify Heartland so that they can authorize shipping out all the appliance which will take time to get here and get us scheduled into the shop before we're due to leave here?

Not a happy camper right now. Nope, not happy at all.

Take a Chance--to Win.

Do you like giveaways? Want a chance to win this spooktacular witches' hat? Then hie yourself over to Olde Baggs 'n Stuft Shirts and leave a comment or two to be entered for a chance to win this beauty. She has an absolutely magickal imagination and is a super Oma to boot!

Unfinished in Skagway

It seems we were having storms around us including golf ball sized hail so my pictures weren't loading into Bl*gger earlier. I'm going to give this one more try this evening so here goes.

A zoomed in and cropped shot of a juvenile bald eagle in the Dyea area.
A waterfall along the Klondike highway en route to the suspension bridge.


We've seen a lot of pine and spruce trees in our travels, but none with black pine cones that has a clear sap coming from them.

Looking south from the suspension bridge along the Tutshi River.
Looking down at the Tutshi River from the suspension bridge which was about one hundred feet long.
I have to admit that I found the Yukon suspension bridge to be a tourist trap. You enter by way of the gift shop (big surprise there) and then walk out to a deck area with some interpretive displays that lead to the bridge. You walk across the bridge to the other side of the river ending up on another wooden platform. Which goes nowhere. So you turn around and walk back. Where you can then purchase a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Granted, the Tutshi River is very pretty in the fall and apparently it is known as a very dangerous and exciting white water rafting experience but to pay money to simply walk across the bridge and walk back was a bit upsetting to me.The last segment of our afternoon excursion was to "Liarsville". The current Liarsville is a recreated tent city inhabited originally by journalists sent out to cover the gold rush in Alaska. The only problem was that the newspaper reporters exaggerated the amount of gold being found in the area and the ease of getting to it and thus their compound became known as Liarsville.

There was a bordello, a blacksmith shop, a saloon and for the modern tourists; a gift shop. Go figure. I must say however, the fresh sockeye salmon grilled over spruce wood. It was absolutely the best salmon we had in Alaska. There was pasta salad, cole slaw, corn bread, grilled chicken, beans, a dessert, and more. Seating was picnic tables set under wooden rafters and the entertainment was a young man who played a squeeze box and fiddle and guitar. Liarsville turned out to be the best part of the whole day.

After dinner our bus driver drove us to an overlook high over Skagway where we were able to see our ship before finally taking us back to the dock. I had to wash our still damp and horsey-smelling clothes before I was able to relax for the evening but I have to say our bed felt really good that night.

A Wet Day in Skagway

To be ready for the bus which was taking us to our horseback ride at 7:30AM we had to get up at 5:30. And this is our leisurely, relaxing cruise? Heh. Denny and I went up to the Horizon Buffet since the room is situated at the bow of the ship and therefore has floor to ceiling windows on the three sides of the room. It's a lovely way to start the day, rain or shine. Today, it was raining. Of course.

Our ride was through a rainforest (aptly named that day) and since it had been raining for two days the path was muddy. Our horses hate wet feet, so they would stay to the side of the bridle path which meant we as riders were brushed up against wet trees and foliage so we got twice as wet as we should have. Our path took us to Dyea (pronounced Dye-ee), a town created in the path gold miners took on their way to Dawson City to mine for gold. The town is long gone, the buildings scavenged for materials so you have to use your imagination to envision it. I saw a distant bald eagle, a juvenile bald eagle and a snowshoe hare, but no bear or moose. I later spoke to a young man and his father in the laundromat of the cruise ship who had gone to Dyea to ride a dog sled and they had seen a brown bear fishing for salmon by the creek we had ridden over earlier in the day. So it was a matter of luck and timing.



After our ride (I wish someone had gotten video of the two of us dismounting and trying to walk away from our horses) we hobbled over to the free hot tea and salmon spread to warm up a bit. It was obvious that none of our group was used to being on horseback for almost two hours as we were all walking painfully around trying to loosen up our back and leg muscles. But it was an enjoyable ride despite the rain and the lack of animals or anything to see.

One of our wranglers told Denny and I that her favorite beer was Spruce Tip beer and that the Skagway Brewing Company in town might have some although the locals loved it so much it was usually in short supply. Sure enough, when we settled gingerly on our bar stools the waitress informed us they were out of Spruce Tip so we settled for some ice tea and I had a cup of the most wonderful green bean pureed soup. Very tasty on a dreary, wet day. The two of us wandered down Main Street peering into shops and stopping at one jewelry store to pick up our "free" charm. The cruise line shopping director had given a talk and part of your package had coupons for a charm bracelet and free charms at various jewelry stores in Skagway (there are 18 listed on the Skagway web page). One of the salesman eventually pulled out a Tanzanite pendant that wasn't as expensive as the other shops in town so after getting him to throw in a reversible Omega necklace I walked out with a new necklace. There wasn't anything else that we were interested in buying so we simply enjoyed the architecture of the town for a while but then Denny finally admitted he could use an aspirin since his legs and hips were hurting. So we headed back to the ship where we sat in the cushy lounge chairs of one of the bars until it was time for our next excursion. This time we were headed into Canada.




Our second excursion of the day was our Summit, Suspension Bridge and Salmon Bake trip. A 45 minute bus trip into Canada took us to the summit of White Pass, over a single support suspension bridge, along the mountains where the narrow gauge train ran, past waterfalls to our destination of the Yukon Suspension Bridge over the Tutshi (pronounced Too-shy) River.
The obligatory tourist shots. Our oldest granddaughter (age 14) asked "who are those men sitting with Grandpa?" Kids.

And since Bl*gger is not cooperating with me at the moment, I'll finish this tomorrow.

Glacier Bay

Our second day of the cruise started with breakfast in the Bordeaux dining room where we shared a table with a nice couple from Tennessee. Denny and I had chosen the "Anytime" dining option which meant we could go to our assigned dining room at any time to eat and therefore we would be seated with different people everytime we ate. Some people preferred the traditional seating so they sat with the same group of people every night, but I liked the freedom of being able to eat whenever I wanted.

After breakfast we headed back to the balcony of our room to watch for whales as we approached Glacier Bay. We didn't see any breach, but we did see one spout and we saw several sea otters resting on their backs while eating a snack of fish. Of course, they were well out from the ship so my picture isn't terrific, but I have the memory even if the picture isn't crystal clear, right?We also observed some puffins floating nearby as well as these harbor seals sunning themselves on an iceberg. Denny and I decided to wander up on deck where we could wander from starboard to port on the ship. Denny had the camcorder while I had the camera and when he complained that his hands were getting cold, I walked back to our room to get our gloves and the binoculars. Naturally, that's when the ship's naturalist spotted a bald eagle on an iceberg and Denny was able to capture it on video. I haven't even had a chance to review any of that yet, but when I do I'll post that clip (if I can figure out how to snip a clip) to Y*uTube.

As the ship approached Glacier Bay a small boat bearing park rangers pulled up near the ship and two rangers boarded our cruise ship to spend the day onboard describing the sights we were to see and creating an information table in the buffet dining area where you could ask questions of the staff.One of the nice things the Princess cruise line has done is to have the microphones of whomever is giving the nature talk from the bridge fed into a private TV channel that you can pick up in your room so that you can hear the person's talk from your balcony. So when we got a bit cold, we stepped into the buffet room, picked up some hot chocolate and returned to our room to enjoy the glaciers from the comfort of our balcony. Nice!If you were in this area two hundred and fifty years ago, you would have been standing on ice because there was no bay here, simply a massive glacier that was about one hundred miles long and several thousand feet deep. Over time, the glacier retreated and the melting waters filled the huge crevasse left behind. What's left today is a few tidewater glaciers that are still dramatic to watch as they calve huge chunks of ice that become icebergs.
Studied by scientists from all over the world, Glacier National Park was named a national monument in 1925 after many years of work and nagging by plant ecologist William S. Cooper. Mr. Cooper returned to Glacier Bay year after year to observe the plant life of the area falling in love with the area, the grandeur of the land and the vast amount of information to be gleaned from the plants and animals that thrive here. John Muir was also a staunch proponent of the area and President Jimmy Carter eventually signed the papers creating Glacier Bay National Park.

Glacier Bay National Park can only be reached by boat or plane. You need special permits to travel the waterways to get to the park and some areas are restricted or forbidden if native animals are breeding, nesting or simply occupying the area so not to disturb them. There are moose, harbor seals, sea otters, humpback whales, puffins, black and brown bears and more that exist here and their habitat is carefully guarded to preserve the species.

We were told that we'd most liking see calving occur at the Margerie Glacier and indeed, we saw one large calving event and three small calvings as our cruise ship made a very slow 360 degree turn in the bay so that people who had rooms on either side of the ship could view the glacier from their balconies.
We cruised around Jaw Point, named for the jaw-dropping sight of Johns Hopkins Glacier as you rounded the point.
Johns Hopkins Glacier.
Our ship was one of the first in a period of time to be able to cruise past the Johns Hopkins Glacier as the area is a prime breeding ground for harbor seals and cruise ships have been forbidden to be in the area until the day of our arrival.

As we returned around Jaw Point we had our second view of Lamplugh Glacier.A cruise ship from another line passing in front of Margerie Glacier.After a long day of being enthralled by the vastness and grandeur of the glaciers, Denny and I met up with our Prudhoe Bay group for cocktails in Crooner's lounge, followed by a delicious meal where I tried venison for the first time (excellent!). Several of us decided to go to see the magician's act (so-so) and then we "repaired to the buffet" for desserts and coffee. What a fabulous day!

Run, Run, Run

Not running for the cure, not running for our lives, simply running errands, running to see friends, family, former co-workers and trying to do it all in six days. Gah. We're exhausted and today we have a 400 mile drive before we stop for the day. This year we're dividing our trip to Myrtle Beach into two days instead of three which gave us an additional day in Dayton, but makes for a long day today. We just keep telling ourselves we have a month to recuperate once we get to South Carolina.

We still have no idea when or where our burned out appliances will be replaced. It seems everyone and their brother is having their RV repaired in Myrtle Beach. The wait time for the dealer across the street from our campground is January. January!!! That would be just a tad too long to go without a TV or microwave. We are now able to watch the small TV in the bedroom after having a new DISH DVR installed to replace the burnt out one. So we can at least watch some news and Denny can watch some sports.

Patches has been enjoying our time here. She recognizes this campground since we've spent a lot of time here the past three years while taking care of our parents' issues. There are mice in the field behind the trailer and she's content to sit and watch for them which allows me to enjoy the rustle of the colorful leaves in the trees and the whistle and chirp of woodpeckers, goldfinches and chickadee-dee-dees. The tang of wood smoke tickles my nose while the bright sunshine in the clean air makes the surrounding woods appear to exist in a form of super-3D with all the edges sharper and clearer than they are in the summertime. The cat and I will both miss it here.

I got a new toy this week, upgrading to an iPh*ne. Darb claims I'm simply trying some one-up-manship on him. He and his wife had encouraging news yesterday--their dog's cancer hasn't spread to her lungs yet so she'll have some additional time for treatment and loving care.

I think that catches us up in a very small, condensed nutshell. I'm still working on the Alaska pictures and my next project once they are all edited is to get everything backed up to an external hard drive since we dodged the bullet when our computer didn't fry along with the other electronic devices last week (was it only a week and a half ago?) I'll put it on the list.

See ya down the road.

Our First Full Day of Cruising

After our rushed introduction to our room, having to climb seven flights of stairs because the elevators were shut down for the "emergency evacuation training" *gasp*, we were ready for our late night meal and a bit of ship exploration.
Indoor and outdoor pools; check. Three story atrium with glass elevators; check. Elegant dining rooms; check. Multiple gift shops; check. Casino; checkchecked it out. Denny actually walked out with an additional $50 in his pocket from the penny slots. Not a bad way to start the cruise.

We did have melodrama our first full day on the ship. A lady slipped and fell on the marble steps of the atrium, knocking herself unconscious and apparently ending up with a severe head injury. She was air-lifted from the ship and Denny and I and all those with upper seaboard balcony rooms were required to leave/stay away from our rooms during that period. Apparently the ship did not want anyone photographing/filming or even seeing the person removed from the ship. I guess they have their reputation as "fun" ships to maintain. Denny and I spent the time listening to Kathy, the naturalist, talk about growing up in Alaska followed by a talk by the ship's shopping director about all the types of discounts and goodies available at the various ports, all the while ducking in and out of doors to watch as we cruised past the Turner and Hubbard Glaciers in Yukatat Bay.Turner Glacier is black with crushed rock and silt.

Hubbard Glacier is the standard deep blue, although the blue is more washed out in bright daylight (which is the opposite of what I would have thought.)


The naturalist informed us by loudspeaker that the small (less than three foot high and sixteen feet long) icebergs we were seeing were called growlers, while the ones that were three feet to about fourteen feet hight and fifteen to forty-six feet long were called bergy bits. After that, they are classified as small, medium, large and very large.

A bergy bit.
Once we were out of the bay and cruising towards Glacier Bay Denny and I hit the buffet for dinner (it was formal night at the restaurants and Denny wasn't in the mood to dress for dinner) where we linked up with a few of our Prudhoe group. After dinner we took in the live music and dance performance in the theater and then it was time for bed. We were plain tuckered out.

Life Interrupted

To say life has been a little crazy lately would be more than a bit of an understatement.
When we arrived in Ohio from New York we discovered we had no power to The Beast. Multiple trouble shooting steps were tried with no luck, so we contacted a mobile RV repairman who charged us a lot of money, had the power on briefly but once he drove away it quit. A call back to him got no satisfaction as he was stumped (no refunds, either). Contacting The Beast's manufacturer got a quick response of a RV dealer who could take a look for us. We called the dealer to make our arrangements to stop by, then it was time to pack up, close up, hook up and pull the rig to Johnstown area for our repair. From there we headed to our son's house as we've been stopping over there in the afternoon to give their dog a pain pill. (More on that in a moment.) The service tech had recommended we take some clothes with us in case they didn't find the problem right away so we packed everything we'd need for us and the cat and headed back to Delaware. I was in the middle of preparing my daughter-in-law's birthday dinner when the RV dealer called us and said they were finished, so Denny and I jumped into the truck (leaving my dinner preparations and mess as they were, unfortunately) and headed back to Johnstown to pick up the trailer, get it set back up, toss the cat inside and head back to Darb's house to finish making dinner. Unfortunately Net got home before we did and cleaned up my mess (arrgggh--guilt!) but we got dinner on the table and had a nice evening.

The dog; poor Callie had emergency surgery last weekend after collapsing. The vet discovered a mass around her spleen and lab results confirmed an aggressive form of cancer. Right now Callie is responding well to the antibiotics and pain meds but her prognosis is poor. So there's not a lot of joy in that household right at the moment because the furkids are an important part of their lives.

The Beast: has power but the short in our power cord burnt out our washing machine, our microwave/convection oven, our central vacuum system, my Wii, our bedroom DISH DVR receiver, our alarm clock and our large living room TV. Heartland will replace everything as we are still under warranty with the trailer (remember, for all that has happened this rig is only nine months old.) We will arrange for all that to be done while we are in Myrtle Beach where we'll have time in one place to get it done and have friends we can hang with while it's being worked on. Also while we were in New York visiting our oldest son, our furnace went out but the mobile rv repairman we called up there was able to fix it with only one trip back to his shop for parts. Relatively simple and less expensive than the repairman who really didn't fix anything. We have discovered that The Beast is aptly named.

New York: That went well other than the fact that the weather forecast of thunderstorms cancelled our family golf outing. The grandkids are doing well in school, although Rissa, the oldest granddaughter, has been unable to run track due to a problem with her tendons. She'll be working with a physical therapist and hopefully will be back running soon. Kara, the youngest was showing me her math homework and all I can say is that teachers are making addition WAY too difficult with line graphs and groups of tens and ones, etc. What ever happened to putting your numbers in columns and adding them up? Sheesh. Zach, the oldes,t is nearing graduation in Job Corp and already has a job lined up. Now he needs a car. Oh the joys of parenthood! He had to get back to school and slipped out before I could snap a photo but I am posting ones of the girls.

Marissa aka Rissa:

Kara aka Kare-BearI realize this is kind of a crazy, mixed up posting but that's pretty much what our life has been the past few weeks. I will get back to posting about the Alaska trip soon. I think.