Alaska uncensored

I know you thought I was done with Alaska, but I could not resist.

Back to school

I have been settling back into working again. The last 2 weeks in August were quiet since I can not treat the majority of my kids. So the last week ends up being vacation time (with an extra day for Labor day). I have started my new aquatic therapy job, and I am slowly building a caseload there. I have really been enjoying it so far. I have been working with a larger variety of diagnosis there, and that has been great. My only complaint about the work I have been doing the last few years is the lack of variety. I see high functioning kids who are developmentally delayed, but not disabled. As a result, I do not need to use techniques that I have been learning over the years so much. So in the water, I have been able to open that bag of tricks. It has also made me start to think more, which my feeble brain could use. My Alzheimers will kick in a year later I suppose. I should not even say it, but my scheduling for school went very smoothly this year too! I am amazed.

Dream analysis #2

I dreamed the other night that I was out partying with Paris Hilton. We ordered some girly drinks, and they were tiny (like the size of a shot glass) and really expensive. I suggested that we drink at home (like college) so we did not have to spend too much money at the club. I am much cooler in my dream life. Who knows what the hell that means!

Puffins

This is for Pat.

Tunnel to Whittier, AK

Anniversary

It is a appropriately somber day for the 9/11 anniversary. I will always know how long I have lived in NY, because I moved out here on Sept 18, 2001. The future seemed uncertain, and I was moving into an area that had suffered incredible loss. People picked up the pieces though, and NY has come back to life. There was never a doubt in my mind about coming to live out here, and I am glad that I did.

Beluga calls

I am ready to join the belugas!

Aialik Glacier

Alaska, the final installment

We left Denali to make way to our final destination, Seward. Seward is a town that was described in the Lonely Planet "being so beautiful it hurts". It is located south of Anchorage on the Kenai peninsula which also features Kenai Fjords Nat'l park. We had a great dinner on the way and continually threatened Ann with taking a tram in a nearby ski resort. I hope it did not ruin her dinner. We got up the next day and did a boat tour. It cost the big bucks, but it was worth it. We had the best weather possible with sun and extraordinarily calm seas. I saw a sign recommending taking something for seasickness, and ignored it (sign said even if you have never had any problems!). One of the workers later was saying the usually he spends his time collecting barf bags (and swells were recently up to 6-8 feet!).

We saw Orca pods twice, humpback twice, Pat's favorite the Puffin, Stellar Sea Lions, and all sorts of crazy sea gulls of all varieties. We pulled up to the Ailiak Glacier for a show, and that was impressive. It was a beautiful day on the water. We debarked and those not allergic to shellfish had some king crab. We trolled around Seward and I managed to stay up late to play cards on our last night together.

The last day, we visited the Alaska Sea Life center which had a lot of really cool exhibits (especially the Puffins, Pat!). I perfected my beluga whale song. We hiked to another salmon choked river, and we saw bear prints. We hiked the Exit Glacier, but we did not get to touch it. Then with great sadness, we headed to the ironically named Ted Stevens International Airport and back to our real lives!

Alaska (cont)

Off to Denali!
One road plunges into the 6 million acres of national park and wilderness that is Denali. You are not permitted to travel most of the road in your own car, so you must get on a shuttle bus to really see the park. They wanted to preserve the wilderness as much as possible. We were off early to be sure we got on a decent bus. We managed to get tickets for an 11 hour bus, and off we went at 9 AM.

We were a little unsure what to make of the hiking in the park. When I read descriptions, I was unsure about how much hiking I could do there. There are no trails, and you hike on the permafrost of the tundra. At times it can be really muddy, but perhaps that is early in the year (we did not have issues). The procedure is to tell the driver to stop, and you just hop off and walk where you want (except for some areas closed for habitat preservation). The hiking philosophy is counter to what I have learned in any other Nat'l Park. Usually, going off trail is verboten. They do not want you to damage the fragile plants and cause more erosion, and they want to minimize the impact overall. It is amazing how fast soil can erode. I remember when they used to cut new mountain biking trails in Michigan, and within 2 weeks they were all sandy! At Denali, they tell you not to follow eachother, rather walk alongside eachother. They do not want trail to form and people to frequent one area. Trails would impact the wilderness. So that took some getting used to! So we planned on taking the bus as far as we could, and then taking a hike somewhere on the way back.
On the bus, we were all supposed to scan for wildlife. There were many eyes that could spot things so our driver could keep the bus on the occasionally treacherous road. If you saw something, you were supposed to yell, "STOP", then tell what you thought it was and provide directions (like on a clock). The driver would help spot it and turn off the engine. We were supposed to be silent so everyone could experience the sounds as well as the sights. They also are adamant about avoiding habituation of the animals to our presence. Thankfully Mike, K, A, and myself were on the bus. I often call Mike "Ahab" for his incredible persistance when he wants to spot wildlife. Mike found many of the animals we saw on the bus (even a bear about 500 feet down from a cliff we were on walking on a riverbed). Some old lady kept trying (which is more than I can say for anyone else on the bus, we were the only ones yelling to stop), but whenever she yelled "STOP" in her wavering voice, it was usually a crow or a backpacker. She was paying attention and looking though. There were people on other buses who were asleep! I do not get that one. We saw 6 Grizzly bears, a whole lot of Caribou, huge Moose, a cool fox, loons,Kestrels, eagles, and dall sheep, and maybe some wolves (our driver on the way back got us all jacked up about maybe seeing wolves, but then kept driving without explanation, A said she saw them though).

We planned on hiking this one area, but we were distracted and did not get off the bus. About 30 seconds later we rounded the corner and there was a huge Grizz about 30 yards off the road. He was huge with a fat, round belly. We were glad we did not get off there. We got off the bus a few miles later. We hiked a ridge next to the road and followed a river bank back. It was really cool to hike on that terrain, but we were concerned bears may follow us due to all the blueberries we were stomping on. Since our time was limited, we returned to the road and hiked there to meet a bus (there were only a few buses returning, and we did not want to miss them). In the distance, we saw a tour bus that was stopped for a long time. We looked in the direction everyone was gazing, and there we spotted a mother grizzly and her 2 teenage cubs in the valley below. She was blonde and stood up to sniff and look in our direction. She checked us out and went on her merry way. I think she was about 1/4-1/2 miles away. It is disconcerting to be out there with such big bears, but I felt better that I could see them. They also seemed way more interested in the berries they were feasting on (bumper crop this year, we also picked handfuls). Supposedly all the berries are edible in the park. Some were really happy when our shuttle finally arrived! The tour buses could care less when the passed, they just waved at us happily.
Our bus trip lasted 13 hours, and it was getting dark when we left the park. It was one the best days I have had.

Real Estate, Private Islands & Waterfront For Sale, British Columbia, Canada

Real Estate, Private Islands & Waterfront For Sale, British Columbia, Canada

I think I would prefer to spend my hard-earned money for a place like this one.

Alaska the third

Soooo, where was I?
The next day we drove up to Denali. It was warm, sunny, and clear. We were told several times that we were lucky that we had a day like that. We could see Denali clearly without its usual shroud of clouds. We passed a lot of ice cream and espresso stands on the way up. There was many espresso huts like the pacific northwest, but they were always running out of coffee for some reason. We would think we were getting really close, but then we would have 130 miles to go! It is so huge it is hard to get perspective how big it is. I suppose it must be immense if you can see the mountain from Anchorage. We stopped at Talkeetna which is on a spur off of the main highway (it is hard to get lost in Alaska since there are not many roads, and they are in nice shape!). Talkeetna is a town where all of the climbers gather before heading off to climb Denali. Less than half of the people attempting the mountain this year successfully climbed it (which is typical). The bumper sticker for the town said, "Talkeetna: A drinking town with a climbing problem." We had a really good lunch there, and the waitress kept calling K "George". I was called sir the night before at dinner, and I was suddenly "dude". We stuck to K's moniker, George. What to call A+Mike? We gawked so much at the mountain on the way up, we arrived later than we expected. We hung out at our lodge and watched the full moon over the mountains. We were expecting a Northern lights show, but the moon was too bright, our eyes were too tired, and our alarms were set too early. Denali was waiting.

No More Privies, So Hikers Add a Carry-Along - New York Times

No More Privies, So Hikers Add a Carry-Along - New York Times

Dream analysis

What does this one mean? Is it just a stress dream before I start my new job this week?
I am attending my friend's wedding, but it is in an auditorium. I am wearing my wedding dress and veil to the wedding. They start announcing the wedding attendees all star awards, and almost everyone is called to the stage (except me!). I left in a huff since I thought it was offensive to have awards at a wedding. Mike then told me that I could have won an award if I did not wear a wedding dress to the wedding. It did not dawn on me it was offensive, and another friend added that people kept congratulating me. Then I woke up.

Please do not commit me-this dream happened after jet lag!

On another note, condolences for the Wolverine fans. I was distracted by my trip, but I did notice the game indeed. If you need help with recovering from crushing disappointment and disgust, a Spartan fan can counsel you! :)

Alaska Part 2

The second day we ended up hiking to Rendezvous Mountain which is north of Anchorage. We messed up on the trail, but we ended up getting a nice view of Anchorage, mountains in all directions, and an old Nike missile site. We then decided to bushwack across a small mountain to rejoin the trail. I do not normally do that, but it ended up being surprisingly managable on the tundra. It feels really spongy (good for the creaky knees!), and your feet stay without sliding. The pass we hiked to was a good snack spot, and we spent a long time up there.

Following our hike, there was another river with possible bears fishing (salmon spawning area). There is a reason the trails were partially closed there. We stood out on these viewing platforms on top of Beaver dams watching for wildlife. We did not see any large mammals there, but it was OK since it was so beautiful.
We finished the evening at Chilcoot Charlie's (known as Coots by the locals). It ended up being a fun place, even though it was not busy when we were there. Alaska is consistent with having good beer anywhere!

Alaska Part 1

As you saw a week ago, we ended up getting stuck in Minneapolis on our way out to Anchorage. It was annoying since the plane left early, and there were at least 4 of us on the plane who were continuing on the flight. It is the second time this has happened to us this year. While we were taxiing on the runway, they announced that people who did not have connections should stay seated to let others rush off and try to make their flights. Suddenly all of these people got up while the plane was moving and rushed the aisle. I have never seen that one before. Everyone was yelling to sit down, and later they announced that 140 people out of 180 had connections! So why bother even announcing in the first place I say. So we spent our first night of vacation buying underwear at the Mall of America.

We arrived on Sat afternoon, and then we went back to the airport to pick up A+K. KC did not expect us at all, and he was surprised. I was worried he may have figured it out a few weeks ago, but he was not suspicious. A told him by mistake he was going a few days before the trip, but it was still a surprise that we were there. It was light to about 10:30-11 every night, so it made the days long. Our first B+B was run by a really nice family, and they gave us smoked salmon that they caught this year (it was the best smoked fish I have ever had!). We stayed in Anchorage for the first few days and used is as a base. That worked out great since Anchorage is nestled in mountains and surrounded by ocean. There is a ton of outdoors nearby while still having stores and places to eat.

The first day of exploring, we went to Whittier. It is a little town that used to be a secret military base (it was not accessible by roads and nearly always covered by clouds). We lucked out and got a clear day there. The town is weird and features abandoned barracks and a huge building where most of the residents in town live. A few years ago, they made a 2 mile tunnel (engineering marvel) to the town that is shared by cars and trains. So every 1/2 an hour traffic from one direction or another cross the tunnel. It was not as claustrophobic as I expected. We took a hike in the town and got a fantastic view of the Portage Glacier. We passed a ranger on the way up, and she told us it was 1/2 mile wide. That did not make an impression until we saw a huge tour boat being dwarfed by the glacier! (click on the picture of the glacier and you will get it!).

The salmon were spawning, so we went to an area were you could see this (and hopefully some bears). It was really cool to see the fish at work. No bears unfortunately. We followed this by another hike to a glacier with a closer view. We scrambled on the moraine for a while, but it is hard to get far on the rocks. We also got to see Beluga whales on the way to the glaciers. Belugas in the water and Dall sheep in the cliffs above.

The first pics are random from our first day, and the last five correspond with the story more.

Out of Alaska

This says it all.