Alaska Trip Part VII: Old Ice, Cold Water

Friday is our day off. No fishing trips scheduled. We decided to take the day and drive to Seward a few hours away from Soldatna. It was a beautiful drive. Seward is a port town. Many of the Northwest cruise ships stop here. It is also home to the Alaska Sea Life Center where we saw a few seals swim in circles.

Just outisde Seward is Exit Glacier, a large glacier of blue ice from the age of ice. It is slowly melting.


To get a better look at the glacier we decide to wade through the shallow stream to move closer. The water was ice cold and deeper in spots than we had thought. Since I was wearing waterproof boots I kept them on. Too bad the openings in the top that allow my feet to enter also lets water in. They were the only shoes I brought on the Alaska trip so my feet were damp until I got home. Live and learn.


Patrick smiles with cold feet.

Alaska Trip Part VI: The Calmness of Water

Our morning was free so we took some canoes and paddled around the pond by our cabin.

The sea was calm that afternoon so we went out on the Alaska Spirit to fish for halibut.
Captain Lou asked us whether we wanted to go to the spot he had had luck at yesterday and be sure to catch some smaller (30 lb.!) halibut or we could try a spot to go for bigger fish (100 lb.+!!) but may not be so lucky. We couldn't go to both. Once Captain Lou dropped anchor he didn't move around again. We voted and since we hadn't had great luck with salmon we wanted to catch fish. The sure spot it was. Two minutes after dropping our lines we were struggling with fish. In about one hour we had caught our boat limit of two fish per person. We threw back many that were too small so all in all we caught about fifty fish, the largest was around 40 pounds.

Alaska Trip Part V: Waves

We got up early again for fishing. We drove to Ninilchik about 90 minutes from Soldatna Alaska where we were staying. Today we were going out for halibut. Salt water fishing. Sea fishing. But the sea was angry that day, my friends. She is a cold mistress and quick to show her wrath. White caps at high tide. Not a good sign. "Yesterday was like this," said Captian Lou, our guide. "We went out yesterday but I tell ya, they wished they hadn't." So we postponed our day of halibut.

Our boat, the Alaska Spirit, ready to be launched. A huge bulldozer-like tractor works the boat launch at the beach and backs the boats out into the water. Very cool to see.


Brad and Patrick tired.

So we went out salmon fishing again instead. Friday was supposed be be our fourth day for salmon but with the halibut getting scratched we rescheduled it for today and requested Zac our guide from day one. This time we fished on the Kenai River in Zac's power boat.
Zac untangles a line.

No luck on our last day of salmon. A Dolly Vardon hit dad's line but got away. Only three salmon keepers the whole trip. We hope the halibut fishing is more fruitful.

Alaska Trip Part IV: Rush to Judgment

We woke up early this morning for another day of fishing. King Salmon. The King of all salmon. Long live the King because we didn't catch any today. They will make it up stream to breed and die. Ahh, long live the King.

Our boat and gear.

Too early for most of us.


Our guide. He started the day by saying how glad he was that Gore wasn't in office. For the next six hours we heard snippets of his other politcial rhetoric with direct quotes straight from Rush Limbaugh and other talk radio. "Kill 'em all." I forgot what our guide's name was since we started calling him Rush. He, like a lot of people unhappy with their lives, seemed to want to find someone to blame and found his scapegoat in liberal democracy.


Ray shakes his head after debating with Rush.

We had a couple of bites but no keepers. One took my line but when he swan toward the boat dropepd the hook. He would have been the largest salmon ever caught. My dad had a fish called a Dolly Vardon which is a kind of char. I thought our guide wa making a joke about Dolly Parton but was not.

Alaska Trip Part III: Fly Out

Click images for a larger view.

The day began with golf. Miniature. Patrick's Invitational Miniature Golf Classic.

The kitten in the castle hole of miniature golf.



Everyone but me posing before our fly out across the Cook Inlet.




We hopped aboard a float plane to take us to our day of fishing for red salmon a.k.a. sockeye.


Click here for a short video of our flight. (8 MB Video requires Quicktime)


Click here for a short video of our landing. (5 MB Video requires Quicktime)


The tremendous view we had to look at all day.




The plane leaves us to our fishing.



Jeremy our guide and my dad. Ray and Patrick.


Click here for a short video of our fishing spot. (4 MB Video requires Quicktime)


My brother Brad.



They say if you see a bald eagle you will catch fish.



And I caught a sockye that day.



The brown bear watched us fish and did some fishing of their own.



Hard swim up this stream.



Group photo and the end of a great day.

Alaska Trip Part II: Maurice Minnifield Lives!

Anyone who has watched the television series Northern Exposure knows Maurice Minnifield, the former astronaut turned businessman with grand designs to tame the Alaskan wilderness and shape it to his capitalistic vision. Alongside the beauty of the Alaskan landscape that I saw in my first days there I saw the bulldozers and strip-mining and do-it-yourself capitalism Maurice Minnifield personified.
Click images for a larger photo.

Here are a couple of photos of our cabin. A one room, six bed log cabin with a small kitchen and bath.

I took these photos at the small pond at Mary's Resort (also called St. Theresa's Resort) in Soldatna, AK where we stayed on the first morning there.


We saw a moose, three mooses, three meeses, a mom and her two calves, the first morning near our cabin.

We had breakfast at Sal's, home of the world-famous cinnamon roll. The huge roll my dad is cutting into is the small sized. The large sized was bigger than my head. Ray looks over the menu.

Here are the mosquitoes on our bumper after our two hour drive from Anchorage. On the trip they sounded like raindrops hitting the windshield.


We visited a shop which sold wood carvings. These are some of their carved spruce totems.


Our first day of fishing is on the Kasilof river in a drift boat with Zac our guide. We are fishing for King salmon.

My dad catches two King salmon he has to throw back. On the Kasilof River at the time we were fishing only King salmon without their adipose fin can be kept. Both of his had their fin.


Ray catches a keeper.

Zac rows the boat downsteam to the landing.
Ray and Patrick at the end of a day of fishing on the Kasilof River.

Alaska Trip Part I: Night's Journey into Long Days

Left for my Alaska trip today. I am going to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska for a week of fishing and vacation. My dad and brother will meet me and my friend Ray and Ray's son Patrick in Anchorage where we'll rent a car and drive from there.
The flight from Raleigh to Chicago wasn't bad. Short. Enough leg room.



The Anchorage flight was worse. Even though it was a longer flight, five and a half hours, there was a lot less leg room than the shorter flight . Very cramped.

Ray and Patrick on board.



Over the mountains to Anchorage.

When we met my dad and brother their luggage still had not arrived. It got left behind in Dallas so we had to leave without it. Ten o'clock at night and it could have been ten in the morning. Still bright. We were hungry so we searched for somewhere to eat. It was still so bright out that it was surprising when most restaurants were closed. We settled for McDonald's which stayed open until eleven.
We had about a three hour drive to the town of Soldatna where we were staying.

There You Go Again

Ronald Reagan died last week and I have been thinking a lot, comparing the world of his presidency to the world today. Reagan was the first American president that I was actively aware of during his whole time in office. I think I was in sixth grade when he was shot and I was a sophomore in college when he left office. Until his assassination attempt I don’t think I was very politically polarized one way or the other. I remember thinking it would be nice to send him some jellybeans as a get-well gift but then someone said it would be a waste since the Secret Service would never let him eat them. I remember a lot of other shootings during that time: John Lennon, the Pope, Sadat. I remember The Day After and Carl Sagan talking on Donahue about nuclear winter. Worries about ICBMs thermonuclear war. I remember walking into band class and receiving the news that the space shuttle had exploded. I remember tough economic times at home. I remember lots of bad things going on. But still I do not think of them as bad times. They weren’t sunshine and lollipops either though as so many people seem to remember them.
When I think about Reagan my first recollection is all the press conferences he had. In my memory he was always addressing America. He was answering questions from Sam Donaldson and Helen Thomas. Often his answers were bad policy and I thought, downright unintelligent. But he didn't hide. When we heard reports about Nancy consulting astrologers I just rolled my eyes. There he goes again. Still he had his world view and belief in the American spirit that resonated with a lot of people, even me at times.
Reagan believed government was too big. If more things were left to private enterprise and individual choice then the world, the economy, human happiness would be improved. I didn't believe it at the time. Later though I thought about how bad government was at handling things. Bureaucracy. High taxes

Radiohead (Part II)

The story continues. Read Part I.

Turned out it wasn't her last day. The temp job lingered on and two weeks later she was still at my office. One day as I sat at my computer she came up to me again.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure," I said.
"How old are you? About thirty?"
"I'm thirty-five."
"Uh hah, I thought so. Well I'm old enough to be your mother, you see. So listen, it's been two weeks and you haven't done anything to help me with my problem."
I paused, looking at her. "Well, if I knew of any way to help you I would. I don't know of anything, technology-wise that would work the way you talked about."
"Uh hah,” she looked disappointed, trying to figure out if I was being honest.
After a few seconds I added in my sincerest voice, "When I go places I hear music too. I don't think it's happening to just you."
She didn't like this statement. I seemed to be one she had heard before. "Oh come on. Come on," she said shaking her head.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could help.”
“”Well, ok. Ok.” She left my desk looking depressed.
I wondered what would have happened if I had turned to her, said “Just one sec” and started typing diligently on my keyboard. “Ok. Here we go. Got it. Done. All done. I found the database on line. Cleared you out. Problem solved. They can’t track you any more.” Would it have worked? Would it have set her at ease?
That was indeed her last day.

Henry in June 2004

Ray's dog Henry is getting big and watching over the garden.

With Silver Belles and Cockle Shells and ...

The Garden is coming along famously.

Zucchini are blossoming. Stuffed zucchini blossoms will soon be on the menu.

Click images for larger view.

The Glasses, Half Full

I got new glasses. Eyeglasses. I am typically put off by the haste at which sales people try to make me decide upon a pair of glasses. Like buying a house, glasses are a major purchase one has to live with daily. My glasses are one of the first things people notice and the one accessory I wear every day. I have a really good optometrist who also sells glasses but the selection she has is so limited. Perusing her shop I found only two pairs I even moderately liked and that search was hard given that my pupils were beginning to dilate. I checked out two other opticians but when I returned to the store I visited before my eye exam and saw again a pair I picked out I knew they would be the right choice.

They are made by a Scandinavian company Skaga, their Birka line. I wanted to go with a frameless style and these are half frameless, reminiscent of old horned rimmed but updated, modern and sleek. The frames are a bronzed metal. The lenses rectangular with an antiglare coating that gives my eyes greater impact. They are smaller lenses than my last pair so I have to get used to the blur around their periphery. That won’t take long.

le weekend longue

I saw The Day After Tomorrow the day before yesterday. Totally mindless and inane but the acting was good enough I didn't get upset. Ian Holm who had a smallish part in the film is in my opinion the best actor in the English language. I would watch him sell breakfast cereal.

The house was full of spirited fumes as I stained some new furniture. This is not the best way to kill brain cells. I was forced out of the house by this so hopefully the fresh air kept what little gray matter I have left in tact. I still have to put the coat of polyurethane on the table before it is finished. May wait until the rain clouds have passed before I start so I can take it outside.

I am reading The English Patient. What a great book. The descriptions are aromatic. Poetic. The writing so clean and crafted. I'm glad it was recommended to me.

Last week I finished reading Tom Perrotta's Little Children. It had some fun moments but the ending was a total let down. The novel has been called satire but anyone grounded in reality will recognize how close to actuality it is. I can't say I'd recommend it. Wait for the movie. The Internet Movie Database
shows that Todd Field is slated to direct. Field's last film In the Bedroom was a brilliantly powerful film.

The garden after only 4 weeks is promising a great harvest. Most everything is growing like corn in June. Yesterday I collected over a pound of basil and made enough pesto for a month. I spooned it over a nice capresi salad of tomatoes and fresh mozarella. Went well with some Memorial Day steaks on the grill.