Alaska July 1-13, 2000 Home Page Itinerary Photo Album Contact Us	We virtually raced to Alaska. We left Japan on Thursday, June 29^th in the afternoon and arrived in Seattle mid-day Thursday, June 29^th. The “Groundhog Day” effect was in full force. Without passing “go,” we raced around Seattle, cramming several days’ worth of activity into 24 hours. We saw friends, did the packing turnaround and flew to Sitka, Alaska, a town decidedly reminiscent of Cecily, AK for any old devotees of “Northern Exposure.” In Sitka, we joined our Abercrombie & Kent tour group of fourteen on a small yacht for a week of cruising Alaska’s Inner Passage. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. With honesty and confidence, I can say that Alaska is the most stunningly beautiful place I’ve ever visited. Corny though it may sound, it made me really proud to discover such amazingly big and beautiful country within the United States -- especially on July 4^th when we’re all supposed to be thankful Americans thinking patriotic thoughts. Every day brought new vistas and wildlife and we saw quite a collection of humpback whales, Orcas (killer whales), harbor seals, bald eagles, sea otters, sea lions, daredevil salmon, and black bears. The birds were remarkable – my favorite being the “Oyster Catcher” which our guide aptly described as “a small raven smoking a carrot.” Remarkably, the underside of each humpback whale’s tail (“fluke”) bears a completely unique design -- much like our fingerprints. As a result, many of the whales have been successfully studied and their family groupings and migration histories charted. The same is true for Orcas: both their dorsal fins and white patches are unique in shape and design and most of the three hundred or so Orcas inhabiting Alaska have been catalogued. One of the most spectacular things we were lucky to witness was significant calving of two major glaciers in Tracy Arm. Calving occurs when large chunks of the glacier break off, crash to the waters below, and become mini iceberg flotsam and jetsam. The sight and sound of calving is really remarkable. It’s a great reminder that nature happens 24/7 without any aid (but unfortunately with much hindrance) of mankind. We spent a day with members of the Tlingit Indian tribe, including Ruth Demmert, who’s been declared a national treasure by the US Government. Ruth has ensured the perpetuation of the otherwise withering Tlingit language and culture by making it part of the public school curriculum in Kake, AK and developing a Tlingit dictionary. We also visited two canneries and saw all manner of halibut and salmon go through the entire process from dock unloading and weighing, to sorting and grading, to decapitation and evisceration, to filleting. Fresh filets are then immediately flown to restaurants and fish markets worldwide. The remainder is either cryo-packed for sale in groceries or is smoked and sold as kippered and cold or hot smoked fish or the derivatives they’ve developed, such as jerky and fish chew (yup – dried, smoked, shredded salmon or halibut sold in a tin like Copenhagen!). We also watched how salmon caviar is made – the egg extraction, sorting and brine washing. Every step of the fishing business looks to extremely tough work, folks. Be thankful for your day jobs. Speaking of the difficult fishing business, Warren & I then went off for a few days’ worth of fishing, just the two of us, a few hours north of Anchorage – at the site of Warren’s bachelor party this time last year. The salmon were jumping in the water all around us, yet we only managed to land one. We did learn why fish jump, however – they don’t have middle fingers.
	Alaska Pictures (click on each to enlarge)
	Eagles Everywhere	Flight See Over Glacier Bay	World’s Tallest Totem Pole	Watch Out – Iceberg!
	Zodiac Ride	Glaciers	Cold Shower	Salmon Fishing