Black bear

Pay no attention to this bear's color: it's really a black bear (and yes, it's very close). Nice looking specimen, eh? 

Black bear

This was our first black bear sighting of the trip. We didn't need binoculars for this one. 

Skagway

This is virtually all of Skagway. Some people do live on the hill on which this photograph was taken, and a few live up the Skagway River valley (to the left in this photograph), but there really isn't any other flat (or reasonably flat) land available. 

The Sound of Money

The tourists have arrived!

With four cruise ships in port, we had plenty of company on Skagway streets. The weather was pretty good, so "cruisers" had an opportunity to leave the ship for planned activities, or just a day wandering through the shops of Skagway. 

Dyea townsite, looking up the Taiya River

This is a small roadside viewpoint area on the one-and-a-half lane road between Dyea and Skagway. In the center of the photograph is the area once occupied by the Dyea townsite. 

Chilkoot Trail

The Chilkoot Trail is on our Hikes We'd Like To Do list. It's a one-way hike, and it has what I'll characterize as unusual logistics requirements. It sounds like a wonderful hike, though, and well worth the arrangements that must be made to complete it. 

Slide cemetery: Dyea

After our Dyea townsite hike, we took a short drive back up the road to visit the slide cemetery, final resting place for many of the individuals who died in the April 3, 1898 avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail. The exact count of victims is not known, nor is the number of people actually buried in this cemetery, as some were removed for reburial at home. 

Dyea townsite trail

Sarah and Joe, at the end of our hike around the Dyea townsite. 

Store front: Dyea

This is the last remaining store front in Dyea; everything else was either removed for reuse in other towns, or has been reclaimed by the forest. It's amazing to think that 10,000 people lived in this area for a short time, then nearly all left to chase their fortunes elsewhere. 

Dyea wharf

Joe is standing next to one of the pilings of the old Dyea Wharf, the means by which stampeders got their gear to shore.

Steamers would bring materials as close to shore as they could (this inlet, formed by the Taiya River, is very, very shallow), then transfer them to lighters (shallower draft vessels). Lighters would bring goods to the pier, where they could be transferred to the beach or to carts. 

Waiting for dinner

Half of all bald eagles in the world live in Alaska -- here's one of them, waiting for something to come along. 

Dyea campground

Once we left the ferry, we got water and headed for the Dyea Campground (we knew from experience that Dyea Campground has no water supply, short of the river, and I didn't want to be pumping water through a filter this early in the trip). The campground was nearly empty, so it was very quiet. The only noise we heard was the sound of sled dogs barking at the tourists that were being bused in from Skagway during the day. 

We arrived in Skagway okay. There were a lot of loud school kids on the ferry, which provided one of the quotable quotes from this trip: "If you get hurt, you'll bleed all the way to Haines!"

The M/V Matanuska was pretty nice. We got a cabin for the trip, which gave us a base of operations, as well as a place to snooze and shower. There are public showers, but having a private place to lay down (as opposed to slouch in a chair) and sleep, as well as shower, is much nicer.

A bunk! With my name on it!

 

Keys! We have keys!

 

We're waiting to board the M/V Matanuska, our ferry to Skagway. The ship loading is behind schedule.

The Garmin routable maps in the Juneau area are sometimes up to 300m out of registration. At the ferry terminal, the GPSr has me about 326m south of Glacier Highway, when we can't be more than 30m from the physical road.

M/V Matanuska

We did a little geocaching throughout the morning and early afternoon, then it was time to get in line to board the ferry. We took the M/V Matanuksa from Juneau to Skagway. Having a cabin onboard greatly improved our quality of life; it provided napping opportunities, as well as a base of operations during the nearly eight hour trip. 

Snack locker

It's lunchtime.

It sure is a good thing we had an alternative to the Honda Element!

Note how clean and bright the truck is. 

Glacial ice

I watched two park rangers wrestle this piece of glacial ice out of the water and up the bank. It's a single ice crystal and very old. 

Mendenhall Glacier

The Mendenhall Glacier is a short distance from downtown Juneau; it's an impressive sight to see, even with low clouds. 

You better not be packin', mister!

 

Our chariot awaits!

Here's our nice shiny, clean Chevrolet Trailblazer, all packed up and ready to hit the road!

We spent the night at the Best Western Country Lane Inn in Juneau. The room had a kitchenette, which turned out to be pretty convenient. It also had a small, separate dining area in the room. All in all, it was a pretty comfortable place to spend the night and start to get over any jet-lag that we collected yesterday. 

We each got about eight hours of sleep last night, awakening just past 0600. The motel was very quiet (as long as you don't flush the toilet).

On our brief driving tour of old Juneau last night, I was struck by the intense focus on the cruise ship trade. The shops that cater to cruise ship tourists lined the streets, eager to part the tourists from their cash. The density and size of the shops was amazing.

We checked in to the motel, then went to Fred Meyer to get groceries for the next few days. After that, we went for a short drive to see the older part of Juneau. Lorraine and Sarah suffered through a major fade, so we headed back to the motel. It's still pretty bright out -- the sun sets about now (I'm in the motel room), and the sun comes up at 0400.

Stuff

Good news: The National Rental Car people have our Honda Element all ready to go!

Bad news: our stuff won't come close to fitting into a Honda Element, especially if Sarah and Joe have to come along!

What to do? Try Avis! 

Hey, we're in Juneau!

Lorraine upgraded us to first class, all the way from Washington's National Airport to the Juneau International Airport; that made a huge difference in the quality of the journey to Juneau. We had a great time on the three legs of the journey: Washington to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle, and Seattle to Juneau.

We spent the lay-over in Seattle in the airline club, which also helped greatly in making this long flight enjoyable. Thanks, Lorraine! 

We left the ground at Washington's National Airport at about 1034. The weather around the house was pretty dicey this morning -- we lost electrical power momentarily, perhaps as a result of a lightning strike. The weather was a bit better as we arrived at the airport, and we didn't experience any delays in getting out of Washington.

Lorraine upgraded us to first class, all the way to Juneau, so we're very comfortable. It's really nice to have the extra room.

We got up about 0630 and finished the little bit of packing we had left. Hank drove us to the airport -- we got through screening okay, and made our way to the United lounge at about 0915. Everything is going smoothly so far. We checked six bags (five duffles and one cardboard box).

Put the Blackberry(tm) down, and back away from it, ma'am!

Withdrawal can be such an unpleasant thing to witness. Sarah, Joe, and I were, however, ready for the intervention. 

Emily, enjoying a little quiet time in the lounge.

Being a Saturday morning, the lounge was pretty quiet. It was a great opportunity to have a little snack before the flight and to relax after the get packed, get loaded, get to the airport drill that begins every big trip. 

Joe, enjoying the airline lounge while waiting for our flight.

Hank drove us from our house to Washington's National Airport in the Toyota 4Runner, which saved a tremendous hassle in transportation or vehicle storage. Thanks, Hank!

We wrestled our luggage to the airline counter, then got it through security with plenty of time to spare. Off to the airline lounge we went! Joe is sipping a beverage of choice, here, while doing a little people-watching. 

Pepe...Pepe, you're fired. Did I say that?

Well, that was the most amazing exchange I've seen in the whole The Apprentice saga. Too funny.

Our neighborhood is visited (invaded?) by songbirds every spring. They migrate into the many large trees in this older neighborhood, and set up shop. Every morning, we have a symphony of birds singing at each other, at a volume I've never heard elsewhere.

It's nearly time to start planting this year. I'll probably get around to planting seed indoors this weekend, to get a jump on the growing season. We still have a few weeks of cold nights ahead, so putting frost-sensitive plants outside isn't possible.

We'll try to put in quite a few tomatoes and peppers, along with the usual herb crop. We made it through the winter with fresh basil indoors; we'll try that again this winter.

The Apprentice. The formula has thinned out considerably. Lee has got to go. Lenny appears to be quite a character, but he's approaching his "fresh by" date. There's the usual cast of "lurkers" -- which is probably as much a function of the editing process as it is the "job applicants" / contestants.

The tasks are as silly as ever -- we've seen the "create an ad" routine many times. I can't quite figure out the "safe filled with diamonds" "reward" this week. The diamond people shared the plug with the good folks from Brinks. What's with that? Brinks didn't give up anything more than a tour -- the diamond people at least gave up the "ice".

The tease for next week didn't electrify -- this franchise may be running down, and out of fresh ideas.

National Cherry Blossom Festival

Lorraine's folks were in town over the weekend, so we headed into town yesterday afternoon for the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The two-week festival began with a 90-minute ceremony at the National Building Museum (one of my favorite places to bring out-of-towners). We got to see Gordon Peterson (local news anchor and host of Inside Washington, a weekly talking-head television show), Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives), and D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.

Eleanor Holmes Norton is quite a public speaker -- she did this appearance "off-the-cuff".

RIM pays up, taking 'one for the team' - BlackBerry Battle - MSNBC.com

Disclaimer: I'm a happy BlackBerry user, one of the tools that comes with my job.

I'm firmly in the anti-"software" patent camp. "Software" patents stifle innovation and do little more than enrich an intellectual property rights litigation community. The irony of this situation will be if the USPTO decides against NTP on all five patents: will NTP face extortion charges?

RIM pays up, taking 'one for the team' - BlackBerry Battle - MSNBC.com

The "vast wasteland"

I ran across this item on the web, this evening. It's well written. It's particularly interesting when one considers the year in which it was written: 1961. Commissioner Minow was remarkably prescient. If you spend any time in front of the tube, this is well worth perusing:

American Rhetoric: Newton Minow -- "Television and the Public Interest"