Alaska
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Frank Slide
A big chunk of Turtle Mountain in Crowsnest Pass near the continental divide slid down and covered the valley below early one morning in 1903. The Frank Slide is a dramatic location with an excellent visitors center overlooking the rubble-covered valley.
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Burmis Tree
This limber pine has guarded the eastern entrance to Crowsnest Pass for 700 years. Even after it died in the 1970s, locals propped it up as a reminder of the endurance and resilience required to live in this beautiful valley.
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Rolling Thunder
When a storm sweeps down from the Rockies onto the Alberta foothills, it can fill the horizon with ominous clouds, sheets of rain and thunder that keeps rolling around overhead for minutes at a time!
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Sunny Waters
Heading southwest out of Ketchikan past Annette Island on the right, our ship sails out toward the sunny Pacific on the way back to Seattle.
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Canned Salmon
Salmon canneries kept Ketchikan’s residents employed for decades, including Elaine’s mom as a teenager. The fish were big, but not quite this big.
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Boardwalk Smiles
Elaine and I stand on the end of Creek Street’s boardwalk above the rapids. We wore jackets, but actually saw the sun in Ketchikan that day!
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T-shirts
A Creek Street store hung some of their t-shirts out for viewing. Eagle, bear, moose, whale and wolf — there is still plenty of wildlife to be found around Ketchikan!
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Creek Street
Ketchikan’s historic district was lively during the 1920s until Prohibition and the banning of prostitution shut it down. Revitalized in the 1970s and 80s, it’s colorful shops now host tourists on the wooden boardwalks.
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Log Rolling
The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show finishes with log rolling contests, where the last man on the log wins. There is a lot of splashing, running forward and backward, and cheering by the crowd of Ketchikan visitors.
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Lumberjack Show
Our favorite activity in Ketchikan is the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, where competitors for the American and Canadian “teams” try to chop logs, saw slices, and climb poles the fastest. Plenty of corny jokes and cheering, since half of the crowd is on the American side and half on the Canadian.
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Ketchikan Harbor
Arriving in Ketchikan, our cruise ship docked next to the harbor full of fishing boats. Elaine’s grandfather was a fisherman in Ketchikan in the 1920s after arriving from Norway.
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Sitka Saints
This icon from the Bishop’s Residence shows six saints who lived or served in Sitka — St. Seraphim of Uglich, St. Sebastian Dabovich, St. Innocent Enlightener of Alaska, St. Tikhon the Patriarch, St. Jacob Netsvetov, and St. Anatoly Kamensky. To believers, icons are windows to heaven.
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Blessed Olga
This icon in St. Michael’s Cathedral is of Blessed Olga Michael, a native Alaskan (Yup’ik) midwife who lived along the Kuskokwim River from 1916 to 1979. A healer known for her gentle manner and care for those who had suffered abuse, she is venerated in the region where she lived and her story has touched…
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Screen of Icons
The focus for anyone entering St.Michael’s in Sitka is the screen of icons in the front of the cathedral. Gold decoration, paintings of saints, lighted candles and the sound of Russian hymns made it a rich sensory experience.
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St. Michael’s Cathedral
A National Historic Landmark, St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the center of Sitka is the most prominent symbol of Russia’s colonial presence in Alaska. Built in 1848, it burned down in 1966, but almost all of the liturgical treasures were saved (by an human chain of townspeople who carried them to safety) and the…
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Wallpaper
The Russian Bishop’s House in Sitka included this sample of the colorful wallpaper that covered the building’s walls in the early 1800s.
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Lovebird Drum
This Eagle/Raven “Lovebird” design decorates a drum in the Sitka National Historical Park museum.
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Green
Walking through the rainforest by Sitka, it’s no surprise that lots of things are green. This view of the ground cover has plenty of different textures.
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Trader Legend Pole
Native carvers placed a white man on top of this pole with images representing thievery under him. It’s a reminder of a dishonest Sitka trader — not the best way to be remembered!
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Yaadaas Crest Pole
One of the sights walking through the rainforest near Sitka. This replica of the totem pole that stood at the corner of the Yaadaas clan house in Old Kasan represents the symbols of that clan.
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Raven Crest Pole
Visiting Sitka’s National Historic Park, I found several replicas of original totem poles — this one created in Tuxekan Village in 1903. Can you identify the creatures below the Raven?
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Dawes Glacier
Located at the southeast end of Endicott Arm, Dawes Glacier has 200-foot tall cliffs of deep blue ice that calved several chunks into the water while we watched. An amazing sight as the sun peeked through the clouds overhead.
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Bergy Bits
These icebergs floating down Endicott Arm from Dawes Glacier will probably melt before they get to the Pacific Ocean. They are deep blue because the ice is so dense that it only reflects blue light.
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Endicott Arm
Sailing up Endicott Arm fiord southeast of Juneau on a cloudy/foggy day, I asked a couple to take a photo of me as we approached Dawes Glacier.
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Crazy Quilt
This quilt in the Alaska State Museum titled “The Ladies of Alaska” of velvet and silk was a farewell gift to a District Court judge in 1888.
Words Are Inadequate 