There is only thing more painful than learning from experience, that is not learning.----Alex McGleish. [ July 28, 2005, Thursday. After leaving Denali we arrived in Fairbanks and picked up mail. This is an organization day. July 29, 2005, Friday. Today is the Artic Circle trip. We flew up in a Navajo Chief, a small plane that seats 10. At the start of our flight it appeared foggy, we later learned this was smoke from a burn in the forest. When lightning strikes in the wilderness of Alaska, it is allowed to burn itself out; unless of course, houses or [View Full Entry]

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The obstacle is the path.-----Zen aphorism [ July 21,2005, Thursday. Let me tell you about Alaska’s 19 hours of sunlight. It is hard to get used to. We are now down to 18hrs and 38 mins of sunlight. On rainy days it is no problem, but on nice bright sunny days it is tough to sleep. I have gone the way of “Greta Garbo”, and sleep with an eye-mask; it is wonderful. It is sunny at 11 PM, this is sunset, not dark!!! And the sun is back up at 4 AM. Now in your mind convert this to winter??? [View Full Entry]

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A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.---John A. Shedd July 19, 2005, Tuesday. We drove from Chugach S.P. campground to Anchorage. Costco was our first stop to burn a CD of the photos in our digital cameras. It seems to work best when we do it that way; otherwise, they seem to get lost in the shuffle. Once they are on a CD it is safe to clear off the memory card and start snapping again. We had heard some good things about the Anchorage Museum of Natural History. The good comments [View Full Entry]

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It is not enough to be busy…..The question is what are we busy about?----Henry David Thoreau July 17, 2005, Sunday. We decided to drive out to the “Spit”. It seems to be a throw back to “Hippie-Ville”. The Spit is the end of Homer, there is not where else to go except into the water of Cooks Inlet. There are lots of little shops and things that were started but…..very disorganized. The “daylight thing” got us up early, so we did some laundry before going to mass at 11:30 at St John the Baptist. We sure got our [View Full Entry]

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Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.----Sir Winston Churchill Locations : Towns of Soldotna, Kenai, and Kasilof For those that have a map of Alaska July 15, 16, 2005. As we left Seward, we stopped for a patch to add to our collection of the Kenai Peninsula. Then on to the Post Office, we went to pick up our vests from Juneau. Yeah they were there! The first stop was Stoldotna where we had a picnic lunch at a church yard. We were curious about the “fish walks”. The “fish walks” [View Full Entry]

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Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.---------Confucius WE ARE HEADING TO YELLOWSTONE FOR A WEEK THEN TO GRAND TETONS FOR 4 DAYS -------- THEN HOME TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT TRIP MAUREEN AND BOB July 14, 2005, Thursday. After a full day of rain yesterday, Thursday began with glimmers of sunshine and got our hopes up for the 8 hour Kenai Fjord National Park Cruise. However arriving at the pier, the staff informed us the weather was very unsettled out in the Alaskan Gulf. Did we want to continue with the trip? And, if the weather got worse the [View Full Entry]

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We’re all proud of making little mistakes. It gives us the feeling we don’t make any big ones.-----------Andy Rooney July 12, 2005, Tuesday. We arrived in Seward and did some walking in the downtown, but the weather was not cooperative, rainy and cool. The Alaska Sealife Center sound good, indoors. Well it was great! It is an educational center on sealife. We observed harbor seals and stellar sea lions swimming about. The ranger’s talk on seals was quite informative. The seals in Seward are disappearing….why? That is the reason for [View Full Entry]

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Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity.----------Omar Ibn Al-Halif July 10, 2005, Sunday. It is a beautiful sunny day and we are off to Anchorage to explore. Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city. The old town is an interesting walk and soon we found the market center. Walking around the booths, of course we purchased some trinkets and gifts. It is really quite a large market area complete with music. After a stop at the ulu store for some more purchases, we set out to find a bike rental. The Coa [View Full Entry]

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You can never step into the same river twice, for new waters are always flowing on to you.----------Heraclitus. July 7, 2005, Thursday. This is a driving day, and our first connect spot was Haines Junction, then on to Kluane. Again we got stuck on a dirt road at Destruction Bay. The water is a magnificent blue/green color, it has something to do with the crushed shells and the way the colors are absorbed by the sun, but it is beautiful. We took a couple of pictures as we waited for the “pilot car” to lead us through the construction area. [View Full Entry]

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Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination. Roy M. Goodman If you are interested We up date the entry with the bear in Deneli July 6, 2005, Wednesday. We finally got up, in the rain, at 5:30 6:00 AM. Had some breakfast, packed up wet gear and began hiking out. The trail has, what the Ranger described as, a boardwalk, but it is actually two planks nailed on a support over swampy areas. Just one night of heavy rain and the growth that occurred was astounding. The Alaskan vegetation is like mother-nature on steroids. Our [View Full Entry]

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