Just got back from Alaska

[Demosthenes]

A remarkably beautiful place. I highly recommend that everyone see it at least once.

Favorite bits:

The Hubbard Glacier - 40 stories high, six miles wide, and really, really noisy
The Grandview train out of Anchorage
Whale watching in Juneau
The small town of Icy Strait Point
The island homes at Sitka
The Tracy Arm Fjord

I never saw a bear or a moose, but I did see caribou, black-tailed deer, a beaver, an owl, many humpback whales, orcas, dolphins, seals, sea lions, eagles, puffins, and a zillion jumping salmon, preparing to spawn.

Halibut, fresh from a fishing boat, is a good thing, and the people who live in Alaska were refreshingly friendly.

[Pottapaug1938]

A remarkably beautiful place. I highly recommend that everyone see it at least once.

Favorite bits:

The Hubbard Glacier - 40 stories high, six miles wide, and really, really noisy
The Grandview train out of Anchorage
Whale watching in Juneau
The small town of Icy Strait Point
The island homes at Sitka
The Tracy Arm Fjord

I never saw a bear or a moose, but I did see caribou, black-tailed deer, a beaver, an owl, many humpback whales, orcas, dolphins, seals, sea lions, eagles, puffins, and a zillion jumping salmon, preparing to spawn.

Halibut, fresh from a fishing boat, is a good thing, and the people who live in Alaska were refreshingly friendly.

My old girlfriend (and long-time good friend of my wife and I) lives in Texas with her husband and son. The three of them went to Alaska, a few years back; and now the son is about to begin his studies at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Talk about going from one climate to another....

[Demosthenes]

I'd love to have a place up there, probably in Sitka, but I just couldn't handle the weather. Everytime I consider the possibility, I picture myself as the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.

[Pottapaug1938]

I'd love to have a place up there, probably in Sitka, but I just couldn't handle the weather. Everytime I consider the possibility, I picture myself as the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.

I also like a certain amount of daylight; but in parts of the year, up there, it gets rather scarce; and in others, there's a bit too much of it.

[Demosthenes]

I'd love to have a place up there, probably in Sitka, but I just couldn't handle the weather. Everytime I consider the possibility, I picture myself as the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.

I also like a certain amount of daylight; but in parts of the year, up there, it gets rather scarce; and in others, there's a bit too much of it.

The daylight thing was kind of cool in the two weeks I was there. It wasn't cool for everyone though. I was on a cruiseship where most of the non-officer crew was Indonesian, and about half of them were Muslims. During Ramadan, they couldn't eat during daylight hours, which in early August in Alaska was between 5:30 am and 11:00 pm.

[wserra]

I picture myself as the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.

Is it the axe?

[The Observer]

Our Alaska trip several years ago was a wonderful cruise and we enjoyed 85 degree weather while waiting to take a helicopter up to the glacier outside of Skagway. Another thrill was sipping hot chocolate in the early morning in Glacier Bay while watching the calving of icebergs from the glaciers and watching the seals cavorting on the ice floes.

We didn't get to see a bear, but got to see a couple of moose and tons of eagles, and a wolf inside Denali NP. And got to feed some caribou ( and learned the curious fact that they only have teeth in their bottom jaw).

I picture myself as the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.

Is it the axe?

Yes, this event gets triggered by the umpteenth (and unfortunately the last) person who asks here when her book is coming out.

[Cathulhu]

Gee, I didn't realize how lucky I am here in the Pacific NW--there's a bald eagle that nests nearby and I see him (or her) pretty often. The heron sanctuary over at the beach (I live close to one) is why I see them frequently. That, and the goldfish in my miniature lily pond. My pal Jerry thinks I should restock the goldfish just to keep the herons visiting. It does look really cool, having a gigantic blue heron lurking in your yard like a pterodactyl.

[ArthurWankspittle]

I picture myself as the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining.

Is it the axe?

Yes, this event gets triggered by the umpteenth (and unfortunately the last) person who asks here when her book is coming out.

Visions of Jack Nicholson leering through a gap in a door asking "Do you want a signed copy?"

[Demosthenes]

got to feed some caribou ( and learned the curious fact that they only have teeth in their bottom jaw).

We did that too.

[Mr. Mephistopheles]

Well heck, since no one else asked: could you see Russia?