Random Sights

Anchorage Museum of Natural History
I found these exhibits about the 4 main native Alaskans, white settlers in Alaska. and pipeline interesting. I was surprised to find that Alaska is 85% Caucasian and 3% Native American. How anyone survived the winters 90 years ago is quite impressive. It was small enough to do in a short period of time.

Seward Sealife Exhibit
The baby octopus were pretty darn cool. They looked like little bubbles with legs. The diving birds exhibit with the puffins was great also. Watching the puffin out in the ocean around the islands was interesting, too, but if was hard to get close enough to see the details.

High above Homer
Someone told my fellow traveler we should drive up the mountain above Homer, and we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the "Spit". It's a very small peninsula where many of the fishing boats nest. It was a beautiful day and the the view was breathtaking.

Norman Lowell Art Gallery
A drive up the hill in Anchor Point landed us in Mr. Lowell's Art Gallery. He has lived there since 1947 and his original log cabin and flower garden is open to the public. He has a very large modern gallery there as well with great paintings and some wood and other crafts there.

Kenai Information Center
A small museum with lots of stuffed fish and whaling artifacts, as well as temporary exhibit of modern native art. Small, but interesting. There is also a cute blue Russian church in town.

Ididaride

Mitch Seavey competes in the Ididarod.
He has devised a tourist attraction to generate income
and help keep his dogs fit. Read about it here:
http://www.ididaride.com/summer.htm

The puppies were very cute and I got to hold them.

A guy pops out of a tree and snaps the photographs, just like DisneyLand :)

June 14-28, 2005, Alaska Trip-Fishing Tales

My goals for this trip were simple, go somewhere different. I had been eyeing the flyer for the Alaska Academy of Family Practice Scientific Assembly for a few years and when a collegue also decided to go I decided to go and share expenses. Another friend came along, so we were a party of three.

A few things I read about Alaska held true.
1. The mosquitos are really big! But DEET works and the Cutter's protected well.
2. Alaska is really big! I spent 10 of my 14 day vacation on the Kenai peninsula, which is just a small part of the whole state.
3. Summer is tourist season...there are RV parks everywhere, lots of people fishing camping, sightseeing, hiking and camping.
4. The sun never sets in the summer. The weird thing is that the sun does set. I saw nice usual sunset colors and all, but it just didn't get dark the way night is supposed to!
5. "Layered clothes" are the way to go. And waterproof clothes are good to have.

My traveling partners wanted to fish as much as possible, so the first mission was buy the fishing license. They each got the King stamp, which allows one King salmon per person/day. I decided not to catch any Kings. I did buy the very attractive waders (see above)

I went salmon fishing on the Kasiloff River. It was very pretty. The salmon were biting but I didn't catch any. This is actually a good thing, as I like fishing, but don't like to catch a lot of fish. (gotta clean and eat them after, heh). I heard the term "combat fishing" frequently. As soon as a story of fish biting circulates, hundreds of people show up and line the streams. It can be dangerous with all the amateurs casting those great big hooks. And of course fish, attracks bears. Bears are very common, and I didn't really care to run in to any.

I also went halibut fishing. Okay, I'll 'fess up right off the bat. I got seasick and lost my cookies. After that I felt good and caught my limit of halibut. These fish start life as eggs and swim free until they are about an inch. Then one of their eyes migrates around and they settle to the bottom where they spend the rest of their life. The males grow slowly to 150 lbs or so. The females grow slowly to 800 lbs or so. The ones I caught were only 15-30 lbs! It is true though, that the biggest one of the day, got away. I had bruises in odd places as I tried to figure out the best way to reel those babies up. I had them vacuum packed, frozen and FedExed home. I'll have to try some recipes. The Thai coconut milk recipe looks really good.

One of the highlights of the boat ride was when Brandon, the deck hand, threw some bait (a frozen, imported herring) up in the air and a bald eagle swooped down and grabbed it out the water. Another bald eagle saw it and tried to grab it away. The two of them ended up going in circles and looked they were doing cartwheels. Pretty darn cool!

Coming up next: The Ididaride

Elvis Comes to Town

Elvis, AKA the Flying Dutchman, came to town. It was very nice to finally meet in person and find the King is not dead. He is alive and living in New Zealand!

A few tidbits I learned about New Zealand
1. New Zealand money, the bills, are all different sizes and have little transparent windows on them.
2. Yes indeed, "No worries" pops out frequently
3. A Dutchman, Tasmin (of Tasmania fame), was the first Western man to run across New Zealand, but he didn't land. When Captain Cook stumbled across it on his quest to find the great Southern land mass, he claimed it for England. Of course the Maori found it first.
4. New Zealand was once part of Australia, but broke of and sank, before re-emerging. That is why it has so many unique plants, animals and birds (but no snakes)
5. It is metric and everyone drives on the "wrong" side of the road.
6. Gas is much more expensive there then it is in Hawaii.
7. It is cold a lot.
8. Peter Jackson, a native New Zealander, who brought the world The Lord of the Rings, also made Braindead, Meet the Feebles, and Bad Taste. The last one is a very well named movie, heh.

Izo Review

This is another wierd, bloody movie by Takashi Miike. It is the most unintelligible of his movies from my POV. It starts off with sperm and ends up with birth. In between all kinds of strange, bloody, perverted things go on which don't make much sense to me. I wonder if it lost something in the translation.

I can only give this one 2/5 acorns. I will have to see if there is another set of subs out there, to see if I can make more sense out of it.

Michael J. Fox 

Doc Hollywood Review

While channel surfing I ran across this movie starring Michael J. Fox. I had seen it before so thought I would be safe and not get trapped into watching the whole thing. NOT! It is a cute love story with quirky characters. It askes the question, "what is important in life?". I give it 4/5 acorns.

I have not heard much about Michael J. Fox lately and was trying to find out what he's up too. He has a Parkinson's Foundation and 4 kids.

I also found this quote and it addresses perfection. Aah!

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business."
-Michael J. Fox

Can a woman have too many plastic containers? I went to Wal Mart and bought 3 58-gal. containers, one show-off, and another Car Garage. I already have 3 car garages for my thread and have given one away. The show-off was on sale. What madness is this? Can it be I have another irrational idea about plastic containers? Will just owning them cause my life to fall into place? Oh, if it were only so easy :) 

A Poem

My world is a little emptier and quieter.
Still, a wind blows through and sings to me,
Of things said and things felt and things i have to let go.

Summer breezes and the blue sea;
Emerald mountains bathed in rainbows;
They are here and now.

On the edge of void.
 

Totoro takes away the anger 

Anger

Sometime in my life I decided emotions such as shame and anger were bad and should always be suppressed and hidden. It's a wonder I haven't exploded yet, or maybe I have and just didn't notice it 'cuz I hid the explosion.

I hid those emotions under the Cheshire Cat smile, inscrutable (or is it un?) look, sarcasm, and snappy comebacks. No one could tell what I really felt or meant and neither could I.

The word of the month (my therapist has me pick a word out a bowl at the end of my session) was courage. Heart is a synonym of courage. The next bracelet will be about my values.

My values and irrational ideas will always be with me.

"Never give up, never surrender."... Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, Galaxy Quest

I just have to tuck that quote in, because I love it so.

Rubber stamp from Mari and Me http://www.mariandme.com/index.html 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

In this story Goldilocks tests the porriage and the beds looking for "just right". "Not too hard, and not too soft, or not too hot, and not too cold, but Just Right."

I got to thinking about The Three Bears while pondering the rational idea that no one is perfect. My negative brain goes from "I can't be perfect", to "then, I must be mediocre", jumping over the middle like it tends to do. Poppa Bear's porriage is just right for him, but it is too hot for Goldilocks. Baby Bear's porriage is just right for the both of them.

Just a thought fragment.

Course if this story happened today, Goldilocks would have tripped the silent alarm and been arrested for breaking and entering.

Arawana 

Karma Happens

Last night when I joined by sister and niece for dinner at Sorabol, my niece's friend was in negotiation with the manager. The restaurant's pet arawana had committed suicide in a leap to freedom. It turns out this friend of my niece's got a arawana 14 years ago and and it now quite large and he had been thinking it was time to find a new home for it. It should be much happier as it will have a nice huge tank to live in. The manager has already made arrangements to secure the tank and prevent further tragedy.