Lake Luzerne Motel

After a long but uneventful drive, I arrived in Lake Luzerne. I got a hotel room at the first place I tried. $80 / night includes access to this lake, including the boats. This is definitely an old vacation stay place. The room is quite basic. But it’s clean and dry.

Driving up I couldn’t help notice that I went right by New Paltz. That’s where I holed up in a hostel for 3 rainy days on my “Baltimore to Bangor” ride. It’s beautiful country here.

Lake Luzerne Motel

After a long but uneventful drive, I arrived in Lake Luzerne. I got a hotel room at the first place I tried. $80 / night includes access to this lake, including the boats. This is definitely an old vacation stay place. The room is quite basic. But it’s clean and dry.

Driving up I couldn’t help notice that I went right by New Paltz. That’s where I holed up in a hostel for 3 rainy days on my “Baltimore to Bangor” ride. It’s beautiful country here.

Adirondack Park Loop

It’s time for an adventure! The map on the left was the original plan, when I was going to ride the loop on my bike. Now that I’ve added the aid of a car, I won’t do the bottom of the loop. I’ll stay in cities marked with a blue beds and hike trails marked with a brown “i” (for “information”). I’m leaving early tomorrow. There will likely be rain Sunday. I might use that day to scoot over to a museum. (It’s real easy with a car.)

Logistics are incredibly easier this way. I don’t have to worry about where I’ll have breakfast or dinner. Restaurants that are impossibly distant when on the bike are an easy drive. If one place is closed, or if a town doesn’t even have a place, I’ll just drive somewhere else. How easy can it get?

Tomorrow night, I should be in Lake Luzerne.

Bishop Mahaffey, having a good time

We’re back in the lower 48, spending a night at a hotel because the flight home is much cheaper if we didn’t fly on the holiday. The hotel is nothing great, but adequate. It is so pleasant to have Wi-Fi!

Icon

Friday we were in Sitka. This was my second favorite port (after Homer). We were quite lucky to find Bishop David Mahaffery in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. He was answering questions, offering commentary, and in general having a good time. We had a good time walking nature trails and visiting shops. We closed out our time in Sitka by walking up to the top of the hill where the Russian Fort isn’t. (It was there, when the Russians were fighting the Tlingit Indians, but it’s not there any more.) When we got back to the ship we had lunch, and were lucky to see whales right off our cruise ship.

Sitka

Ray and Bonnie at the Horticultural Center (and Japanese garden)

Saturday was an “at sea” day. Fortunately, the seas were calm. Sunday we stopped in Victoria, British Columbia. We arrived in port about an hour behind schedule because the Coast Guard asked us to do a search and rescue at 1 AM. Our ship found the distressed fishing boat and was able to rescue one of the crew. Unfortunately, 3 other crew didn’t survive. You can read about it here http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tofino-fishing-boat-capsizes-1.3217622. We didn’t know about any of this until 10 AM, when the captain announced we would be docking late. Danita’s old boss, Ray, lives in Vancouver. He and his wife Bonnie showed us around. Victoria is a beautiful area, with amazing gardens and harbors everywhere.

Beacon Hill Peacock

We’ll be flying back on SW 2366, scheduled to leave Seattle at 12:45. We were thinking of going downtown to do a “Duck Tour” of Seattle. But I picked up a cold a few days ago. Danita got hers yesterday. I was feeling pretty bad for a day or so; Danita’s feeling pretty bad today. So we’ll just hang at our hotel and enjoy the free Wi-Fi.

La PerouseGlacier-Mt Fairweather

Hello from the Sitka public library. Dinner service can be quite slow most evenings. It normally takes us two hours to eat. This turned out to be a good thing Saturday as we left Juno. We went by the Glacier National Park, passing La Perouse Glacier and Mount Fairweather. Contrary to the name, this area is usually socked in. But this evening we had a beautiful view of the area in the late afternoon sunshine. It was a site to behold. Instead of sitting at our table waiting for food, I went outside to grab a few pictures of an amazing area.

Native Dancers at the Native Heritage Center

Sunday was an “at sea” day. We had rough winds (40 knots) and high seas. The crew closed all the outdoor areas and battened all the hatches. The reception desk was giving out Meclizine HCL like they were candy. Special bags were placed in all the public areas. Danita took the pills. I didn’t exactly get sick, but I didn’t want to eat a lot either. I decided that eating a little less would probably be good for me. But now whenever I go on land, I feel the buildings rocking under my feet.

Homer – Near Bishop’s Beach

Monday we arrived in Anchorage. We were in Anchorage just two years ago, and we saw almost everything we wanted to see. But we couldn’t see the Native Heritage Center because it closes on Labor Day for the season. So we had a great day in Anchorage, visiting the Native Heritage Center and avoiding President Obama.

Homer – Near Bishops Beach

Tuesday was Homer. We fell in love with this little city on the sea. It’s a wonderful little town, with amazing scenery and lots of interesting things to do. We spent the day in Homer and felt we could have easily spent a week.

Homer – Pratt Aquarium

Wednesday we visited Kodiak. We had more than enough time to visit the town, not nearly enough time to visit any of the wild areas. There isn’t much in the town. The most interesting thing is the Russian Orthodox Church. It had all the icons I expected. It looked to my untrained eye as if they were of the Byzantine style. But there was nobody to explain anything and no informational signs.

Thursday we visited the Hubbard Glacier. It’s a big glacier — some 300 feet tall and 10 miles wide. But we didn’t get a sense of its enormous size because we stayed so far away from it. We were 2 or 3 miles away from it at the closest. There was lots of “booms” and other noises as the ice in the Hubbard Glacier moved around. But we didn’t see any super-impressive calving. In truth, the other glaciers we saw left a larger impression. But don’t get me wrong. It’s an awesome sight. As you can see from our pics, we have enjoyed very good weather.

Hubbard Glacier

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Ketchikan Totem

It’s not so hard, being without Internet. The ship publishes a news digest from the NY Times. But I definitely felt out of touch. I have a ton of Emails (mostly trash).

Our first day of cruising was at sea, just trying to get from Seattle to Alaska. Wednesday we had a good long stop in Ketchikan. Ketchikan is the rain capital of Alaska. They have about 15 feet of rain a year. You would never guess it from the weather we experienced. It was warm and sunny, a perfectly pleasant day. The highlights were the totem center and the (very touristy) lumberjack “competition”. It was a lot of fun, and the young men were highly skilled athletes. We were expecting to get internet n Ketchikan, but the library moved several miles out of town. It wasn’t worth the time it would take to ride a public bus out, just to check Email.

On Stage

Back on board that evening, we saw a delightful magic show. Danita was chosen as one of the assistants.

Us

Thursday we went up one of the straits to see our first iceberg. We were scheduled to go up Tracy Arm, but the weather forecast called for strong winds, so the captain chose a wider strait. Of course, we both forgot the name. But we won’t forget the view. We went to the ship’s bow to witness the approach to the iceberg. Then the captain turned the ship sideways, and we went to our room’s balcony for a very good view. It’s difficult to judge distance and size because everything is so large. As we were approaching, we saw another ship near the ice that looked like a dot on the water. While we were “close”, we saw the ice calf. I noticed the sound was 3 to 5 seconds after we saw the splash, so we were somewhere between half a mile and a mile away from the ice. The show was over before 1 PM. It was rainy and foggy for the afternoon. We were very lucky to have such great weather for Ketchikan and the iceberg.

Waterfall At the Mendenhall Glacier

Friday we stopped at Juno. Of course, we had to visit the Mendenhall Glacier and hike some of the trails. The weather was more typical for this part of the world — rainy and a little cool. We were well prepared with good boots and rain gear. There was a little flooding along the trail. It was only a few inches of water, but it made a lot of people in tennis shoes think twice about the importance of walking the trail.

Today (Saturday) we stop at Icy Strait. It was supposed to be rainy, but the weather is cool and cloudy. As they say in Alaska, “It’s only a forecast”. This is an abandoned cannery turned into a tourist stop. I doubt whether anybody lives here all year. We have to use a tender to get ashore. But this place has the first convenient internet we have had yet. (Juno had internet at the library, but I didn’t want to take my busted computer out in the rain. ‘More about the busted computer later.) It sure is beautiful country.

Mendenhall Glacier

Mike, Tony, me, Tina, Mary, Chuck, Rose, Bill, Donna

Saturday evening we split up. Danita had signed up for the neighborhood crab party. It was all you can eat steamed crabs for $20, which is a very good deal. She ended up eating with our next door neighbor. I’m OK with crabs, but I don’t find them to be all that special. I had decided not to go to the crab party. So I represented us at a dinner with Circle. Danita even made our desert. I thought you might enjoy seeing this picture of us.

Chihuly Forest

Our flight Sunday was unremarkable, which is a very good thing. We arrived at our hotel at 1 pm local time. The Fairmont is very nice. It’s not worth what they charge. But we got the room as part of our cruise, paying just the taxes. It amazes me that less expensive rooms included free breakfast, free coffee, free snacks in the evening, and free internet. Expensive hotels charge to check you into the room (the bellman tip). Unfortunately, I “didn’t understand” the system and “accidentally” took our suitcases up to the room. I felt I coup when I scored a free map of downtown and a free paper this morning.

Big Crabs

Chihuly Glass

We visited the famous food and flower market. We experienced a lot of good energy and a funky vibe. The market’s fame is well deserved. And yes, we saw the “flying fish” stall, which had a good quantity of excellent-looking, very large crabs. We also saw the first Starbucks. The market was well populated but not crowded. But there was a long line outside the original Starbucks. I never felt their coffee was a particular bargain. We managed to survive the afternoon without a sample of that shop’s drinks.

Chihuly Glass

As you can tell from the pictures, the highlight of our day is certainly the Chihuly glass exhibit. This is a permanent display of Chihuly’s art, located at the base of the Space Needle.

Chihuly Glass

For dinner, we went to a restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. We had a small pizza and a pasta dish with sausage, bacon, and a zesty white sauce. The pizza was the best we have had in many years. The pasta dish was the best pasta we have ever had.

They’re bent — maybe we can get a discount

The day was a total delight. We leave the hotel at 11 am Monday for our transfer to the ship.

Chihuly Glass

Chihuly Boat

There are pics.

Comfy Chair

When Ryn visited Twin Oaks, she sent me a genuine Twin Oaks hammock chair. It is made with rope and oak. It is quite handsome looking. But sitting in the box, it didn’t look very comfortable.  When I got it hung, it still didn’t look very comfortable. But when I sat in it, I came to appreciate the genius of the person who designed it. This is a very comfortable chair. I sat in it for a couple of hours today while I was breaking our new website. Thanks for the very cool chair, Ryn.

The thing I didn’t like about the chair was their suggestion for how to hang it. They provided a large lag screw and suggested drilling a deep 9/16″ hole in the overhead joist. My joists are “two bys”, which are about 1 3/4″ wide. I didn’t want to remove all that material from the bottom of the joist because the bottom is in tension and needs all of it’s material to keep from pulling apart. My solution was to get a couple of eye bolts and drill a hole through the center of the joist. (One can remove great gobs of material from the center of a joist without affecting its strength.) Just to get some overkill, I used two adjacent joists to split the load. And I used carbides with screw-closures, which are much stronger than S-hooks and also keep the forces aligned with the center of the chain. Now my comfy chair will never come down, and neither will the deck.

That bit about breaking our website … I added a new tool, called a plugin. I decided I could edit the plugin to make it work better. Only when I was done, the site stopped working. I couldn’t fix my mistake because — well, did I mention the site wasn’t working? I finally went into the server directly with ftp and deleted the plugin. Problem solved. But for a little while there, I wasn’t thinking at all about how comfy my new chair is.

We’re leaving in just a few days. The plans are set. The suitcases are ready to pack. We’re looking forward to a great time.

I hope everybody is doing well.

There are no pics this week.

We’re getting ready for our cruise. We leave next Saturday, returning Wednesday, Sept 8. We will be much less connected in Alaska than we were in China. Emergency contact information and our itinerary are at the bottom of this message. Emergency calls to the ship cost you $16 per minute. It might be better to call our regular numbers when we are in port. Our phones will not work in Canada. If you call our regular number and leave a voice mail, we will get the message when we have Wi-Fi (at a coffee shop in port).

We have a very unusual weekend. Danita spent Friday evening and all day today at a church women’s retreat. She’s looking forward to a good time.

We finished our neighborhood’s test website. I think it came out quite well. You can see it here: hoawebpages.com/snowdenoverlook/.

Emergency Phone to the Ship

IP NAME: STATENDAM
STATEROOM: 176
Booking No: VC9THW
Telephone: Shore to Ship
Connecting to a Holland America Line vessel at sea is simple by using Ship Dial Service. A credit card is required for all inbound phone calls to a ship. The rate is $USD16.00 per minute and billing begins at the time specified. Please have the ship’s name**, your party’s name and stateroom number before you call.
Instructions:
1. Dial 1-800-993-5483 (US). From outside the U.S. access 1-321-837-6106.
2. Listen to the announcement.
3. Listen to the menu and select the number that corresponds to the ship you are calling.
4. If you receive a busy signal or message, please hang up quickly and try your call again.

Itinerary

Sat Aug 22 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, US arrive 1:00pm
Sun Aug 23 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, US
Mon Aug 24 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, US leave 4:00pm
Tue Aug 25 VANCOUVER ISLAND – CRUISING
Wed Aug 26 KETCHIKAN, ALASKA, US 8:00am 5:00pm
Thu Aug 27 SCENIC CRUISING TRACY ARM 12:00pm 5:00pm
Fri Aug 28 JUNEAU, ALASKA, US 8:00am 10:00pm
Sat Aug 29 ICY STRAIT POINT, ALASKA, US 7:00am 2:00pm
Sun Aug 30 At Sea
Mon Aug 31 ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, US 7:00am 11:00pm
Tue Sep 1 HOMER, ALASKA, US 10:00am 6:00pm
Wed Sep 2 KODIAK, ALASKA, US 7:00am 2:00pm
Thu Sep 3 HUBBARD GLACIER 3:00pm 5:00pm
Fri Sep 4 SITKA, ALASKA, US 8:00am 4:00pm
Sat Sep 5 At Sea
Sun Sep 6 VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA 1:00pm 11:00pm
Mon Sep 7 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, US arrive 7:00am
Tue Sep 8 Home, arrive 10:00pm

Dennis: 410-417-8854
Danita: 410-709-8854