Icey Waterways

Far-far away, in a land of magic are ice filled waterways. Just like home!

TR

High Above

It is not often that flightless birds get a birds-eye view from far above, but here I am with a treetop view of Ketchikan. I was looking for the planned location of the "bridge to nowhere." Well not exactly nowhere, it would be a bridge to the airport. Now what bird-brain would build the city airport across the river from the city?

TR

Hanging out by the pool, stay cool!

DG has booked another cruise.

TR

Waiting for the Salmon

Noble birds, hanging out together at the Salmon Hatchery in Ketchikan. I sure am glad I am not a Salmon, they have to kill them to spawn them. But then they die in nature after they spawn.

TR

Snacks

It is hard to see it from here, but the salmon are spawning and they are so thick that you can almost walk on the water in this creek in downtown Ketchikan. A delightful climate and home delivered sushi, I don't know why this place is not overrun with retirees, forget Florida, this little bird is looking north!

TR

Hanging with the locals

It is always best to leave the tourist crowd behind and spend some time with the locals when traveling. I asked Brewster what was new and exciting in Ketchikan and he said "you." It seems that our visit and the spawning salmon were the most interesting things happening in the southern Alaska panhandle that day. We bumped into a shop owner who moved from Chicago to Ketchikan about 20 years ago, the winters are warmer in Ketchikan then they are in Chicago and there is no traffic.

TR

Parking

Now I thought parking Big Red was a challenge and DG will sometimes circle the parking lot looking for a larger space. Somehow Captain Stubeing was always able to find a close in parking space (he must have a handicap parking permit) and could spin this thing around on a dime and slide it sideways into the dock. Amazing, the next time I see DG struggling to park the car I will have a hard time keeping from laughing out loud.

TR

Out on the sea for adventure

When you leave home you never know what you are going to encounter, here I am out on the sea for adventure. The ship had nice polished rails all around deck 7 (of 14.) It was very nice unless it was windy, then I was hoping that I would remain flightless, we did not have my stunt double with us and at this age I would hate to go overboard. You keep reading about people getting tipsy and falling over the rail . . . unless they are climbing up to fall over, they are not falling - they are being pushed. The rails are nice and high. Onward to seek fun.

TR

Bliss

There is a certain peacefulness at sea, gliding through the water, waves breaking, rocking gently from side to side. There is something elemental, maybe even primeval about traveling by water. Reminds me of home!

TR

Cannibal Stew

Giant crab boilers? On the ship there were several of these large vats of very hot bubbling water, they looked like gigantic vats of boiling water ready to plunge crabs into for a nice boil. They were far to hot to swim in, at least for your favorite flightless fowl, but then they kept the swimming pools on board the ship at 84 degrees, far to warm for water in the near arctic. The strange thing is that people kept climbing into the giant boilers, I kept thinking cannibal stew?

TR

Fresh Seafood

What more could I want?" Well how about some great seafood! Ivars Acres of Clams in Seattle was great.

TR

Morning at Sea

What a wonderful, brilliant morning at Sea, nice and cool with a warm cup of coffee headed north along the coast of British Columbia, what more could a bird want?

TR

Oh, the places I got myself into on this trip!

DG’s great uncle Dutch once told him that it is only a house of ill-repute if it provides sub-standard service. This was Ketchikan’s finest house of public entertainment and kept the town entertained for many years. These girls will do anything for a couple of dollars provided that you keep it clean and fast. This fine lady reminded me of Dutch’s first wife, I think they had a lot in common. Dutch was a colorful character, both of his wives showed up at his funeral, he never divorced the first one – was married to the second one (well sort of) for over 25 years. I was able to wiggle free from this with minimum trauma.

DG

Do I have pictures

I'm back! We had a wonderful time and I have the pictures to prove it, well over 4 gigs of pictures, this is going to take a while to tell you all about. We met with WC, Kell, the Chucketts, Mr & Mrs Squirrel and baby squirrel (the best behaved baby in the world, quit while you are ahead kids.) We climbed a mountain, rode a train to the Yukon and flew over glaciers in a turbo prop conversion of a plane older then DG. The weather was wonderful , nice and cool, never opened an umbrella and a few bright sunny days. You won't believe some of the places I got myself into. For now, it was a long night of flying and we are functioning on about 3 hours sleep in the last 30 hours. Talk to you all soon.

TR

Out for adventure

Hope the fish is good. Entertain yourselves, I will be back on the 16th.

TR

Chicago Blue Line Train

Wednesday marks three years that I have been letting you all peek at the world over my beak. There have been some quiet and boring spells when I have struggled to come up with anything interesting and one challenging period were I tried to post every day. I have lost track of how many states and countries we have visited together, lets just say a whole flock of them. I hope you enjoy my birds-eye view of the world and that we have many more years of traveling together. Thursday I leave in search of big fish and bears and won't post again until the 16th. Please don't play the theme song from Titanic, DG get so sentimental, his grandmother had a Titanic tale I should tell you some day.

TR

Hanging out in Chicago

I watched a couple of guys trying to pull a large fish out of the Chicago River the other day not far from the Wriggley Building. I don't know as I would eat a fish out of that river, and well plastics and I tend to get along very well.

TR