Sorry for the repost on this, someone added homophobic comments to the original and blogger would not allow me to delete the comments

Look who arrived today! A birthday present for DG from Kel, Carmen, WC, and RS and the girls from both families. How wonderful! Thank you all.
We are thinking of naming one of them Sarah for some reason. She is so happy she has been in transit and has avoided being turned into campaign mooseburgers.
Love you All,
DG & TR

Monday

Another fun and exciting Monday, meetings, followed by meetings, followed by returning phone calls, email, then some number crunching. I am ready to get out of town again. DC on Thursday and Friday.

TR

Up into the Clouds

In Juneau we took a cable-way to the top of a mountain and "hiked" around a mountain top trail. The ride starts at the harbor and rises about 1500 feet up the side of the mountain, into the clouds and fog and ends in a rain forest. When the clouds part the views are spectacular, wonderful and wild.

TR

One Move At A Time

Tough week, but it is always one move at a time. Trying to keep from exposing the King to hostile action. Life can be a giant chess game. Is it Friday yet?

TR

I was stolling on the pier one day

Here I am strolling down the pier one day, just enjoying the wonderful penguin weather.

TR

Name That Face!

So what infamous person took this to a plastic surgeon and said, "make me look like this?"

TR

Skagway

When we returned from the adventure train ride we explored the city. It was interesting with wood sidewalks and plenty of parking. Now where did we leave the ship?

TR

On the Railroad

One of the motivations for the trip was to ride the White Pass and Yukon Railroad from Skagway. What a wonderful ride. The train starts at sea level and climbs through the White Pass and on into Canada on a narrow gauge route built for the gold rush 100 years ago. It is one of the top 10 train trips in the world and very-very worth the ride. You can even stand out between the cars and watch the Yukon roll by.

TR

The Landing

One of the best parts of aquatic flying is the landing. It was so smooth that dad could not have done a better job (RS you have got to go try this!)

TR

When Penguins Fly

We took a nice areal tour in Juneau to see the glaciers and ice field. There are hundreds of miles of glaciers and ice fields, the vastness of the of the ice was amazing. The plane was older then DG, but had a major rebuild the winter before including a retrofit with a turbo prop engine. Wow! Worth every penny.

TR

Perfect Pool Weather

We had some wonderful pool weather on the cruise. We had a couple of warm sunny days but as we went farther north the weather turned cool and damp. My idea of a perfect day at the pool. An it wasn't crowded, people must have been in the Casino or down at the buffet. With any luck we will have weather like this on the pre-Thanksgiving cruise to the Bahamas.

TR

Cabin 521

Well this was a unique experience, the hotel put us in a renovated log cabin with a huge stone fireplace. But our first reaction was you have got to be kidding. The cabin was over the cliff and half way down the mountainside, see the roof top on the horizon, that is it. There were 63 steps from the parking area to the cabin door. Hauling luggage in the dark and rain, I really wished I could fly.

TR

Drifting along

I have been resting up for the past couple of weeks, just sort of drifting along. I am headed out to the western end of Kentucky on Sunday for a couple of days and then down to the south central part of the state, nearly to the Tennessee state line for a couple of days and will hence probably not post until Friday. I know you will all miss me, try not to cry to much, the water level seems to be rising, not fun unless you are a flightless fowl.

TR

Rainforest

Parts of the panhandle of Alaska are in a major rain forest. Nice wet, green, not at all like home.

TR

Where do these shops come from?

In every cruise port you seem to run into the same stores. Jewelers, how many people go off on vacation and think "let's buy expensive jewelry from people we have never met, in a place we could never get back to," and think this is a good idea. How much champagne do these people drink? There must be enough cruisers with bad judgements because there are the same gold, diamond and emerald outlets in every port. But there are also local shops, owned and operated by locals, stocking art and artifacts created by locals. You just have to get past the overpriced junk shops to get there. Then there was the Juneau branch of a furrier from Cleveland.

TR

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

Dinner

A nice quiet evening and a nice quiet dinner. DG was waiting for a "cheese flight" and a nice imaginative burger, my fish came first, a little tough, but fresh from Lake Michigan.

TR

Navy Pier Over my beak

This is the view from the hotel in Chicago, that is Navy Pier over my beak. The conference was allot of work in a short time, but downtown Chicago is fun and the food is always good. DG thanks all of you for the warm and funny birthday wishes, he hardly feels a week past 49. I sure hope 49 was not his best-before date.

TR

DG Turns 50 on Wednesday

We are off to Chicago for the rest of the week

TR

Old But Good

DG can't lie about his age, he wouldn't want to be mistaken for a Chinese gymnast.

TR

Older then DG and it still works

DG's first car was an Oldsmobile, not quite as old as this one, but it was a long-long-long time ago. We spend a few minutes talking to the couple who own this one, they went to college the same place that DG did (he was wearing an alumni shirt and this sparked a walk down memory lane.) They said that the local police in their home town have asked them not to drive the "Curved Dash" in their home town, it is street legal but the last time they drove it Dairy Queen three people drove off the street, one of them into a telephone pole watching the old thing go down the street. With DG's advancing age he will be have to be careful in public so that people don't drive off the street.

Special thanks to Kel, WC and Squirrel for the special birthday surprise!

TR

Late summer in the mid south

I overheard a woman today saying that she had made a terrible mistake. On her way home from work yesterday she stopped at a local store in a small town and didn't lock her car. Well you know what happens at this time in the late summer if you leave a car unlocked. She came out to find two bushels of tomatoes in her back seat. Neighbors trying to unload the bounty of the late summer harvest. She said, at least it wasn't Zucchini this time.

TR

Cute little car

Rumor has it that DG's uncle Richard has bought an Edsel, not his first, but the first one in a good number of years. DG can remember washing the first one, a convertible, without putting the top up; hard to beleive that no alchol was involved. Not a good thing, but how much harm can you cause to an Edsel? Richard has a long a storied history with cars, the last Edsel was traded on a 64 1/2 Mustang, a white one. Then there was the pickup truck he filled with diesel one night, that didn't have a diesel engine. On well, I am sure that the latest Edsel will add to the long list of Richard stories.

TR

Comfort

Comfort, this is one of those days when I just want to check into a nice comfy hotel and have people wait on me, call room service and have caviar delivered, 12 more days and I get a couple of nice days in Chicago then another week and we leave on vacation, lots of fresh fish on a cruise.

TR

Good Color for me

Rolling along in style, I thought that this one was a great color for me. It reminded DG of a car Flying Bob restored. Flying Bob was a childhood friend of DG's father. Bob would rebuild any thing, cars, trucks, boats, airplanes. One time the neighbors called to complain about Bob and all of the restoration projects underway around his house. The city official asked the neighbor to look across the street and tell him if a red airplane was being worked on in the driveway of Bob's house. The neighbor returned to the phone and reported that indeed a red airplane was parked on Bob's driveway and appeared to be in the process of having the engine replaced. The city offical said, " thanks for the update, the red one is mine, the blue wings in the dinning room belong to my daughter's plane. Yellow is a good color for me, I wonder if I can get Bob to paint one yellow for me.

TR

France

A year ago today I was leaving Normandy, returning to England by ferry boat. Life is good when you are a traveling pengun. Simply good,

TR

No Cameras in the Court Room

This is as close to taking a picture in the Supreme Court, Court Room as you can get, perched quietly on the railing with the open doors behind me, being very-very quiet.

TR