Part II - Day4 (July 29 Tuesday)

We've left South St. paul airport, on our way to South Dakota today.  Looking over the never ending farms, you think you are seeing the info use crop circles.

Actually, it is farm engineering at its best.  Massive watering systems travese huge expanses of fields!  

(additional pictures of these watering systems will be added later.)

Originally thought we would go to North Dakota first, but thunderstorms made that unadvisable - so we are flying direct to Rapid City, South Dakota.    We were above the clouds for the first 100 minutes, but finally had clear skies.  

Our first look at South Dakota.  There are still lots if farms , but the terrain is much different - farms between the various hills and mountains.    But still a lot of farming here, just east of rapid city (5 minute away - we are traveling at 125 knots per hour but still have a 17 knot headwind!  Lots of headwinds so far on this trip.  

A very different terrain as we prepare to descend into Rapid City.

It was actually pretty hard to see the airport.  We we very grateful for our modern GpS navigation tools.  However, the use of an old fashioned map really made the difference - as there are two airports in Rapid City.    

Ellsworth is North of the big highway,  and RAP  is south of the highway.   That made it quite a bit easier to spot which airport we wanted.

The plan is Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse today.  

Absolutely majestic. 

And of cours, Rick had to send a text!

Originally, Jefferson was supposed to be to the left of Washington, but they discovered that there was insufficient granite, so the overall design was altered to put Jefferson between Washington and Roosevelt.  And then they found a huge crack in the granite, and had to adjust Jefferson again, a little tilt up  and aside.  The crack now passes below his right eye all the way down to  his chin.  

Ethics was the original model, with the scale of 1 inch on the model equalling 1 foot on the mountain.  washington's mouth is 18 feet wide!

Next:  Crazy Horse.  Which dwarfs Mt. Rushmore

 All 4 presidents on Mt. Rushmore will fit in Crazy Horse's head!   They have been working on this for 67 years, and estimate they have 50-70 years until its finished.  It is massive.  Up close you really get the sense of the power of Crazy Horse and his horse.   And it is all a privately funded through donations.  

Dinner at Tally's Silver Spoon in Rapid City.  Very good, and very creative.  Best restaurant meal this trip!   (sorry, we were too hungry to take pictures.) 

Tomorrow, hopefully, a little sight seeing in the morning, then North Dakota and Montana, overnighting in Grand Falls, Montana.  

Part II - USA. Sunday July 28

Traveling from Columbus Ohio to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a few stops.

Left early, especially as we wanted to get above some nasty clouds that were coming into Columbus 

We also wanted to be at our first step by 11am.  We were going to the pilot's Mecca : Sporty's pilot shop.   A Fly-In shop in Claremont Ohio (just outside of Cinncinati).     Perfectly timed, we arrived just as they opened, and had some fun shopping for new headsets and sunglasses.  

Insert Sporty pic

As planned, we're airborne again by noon.  Next stop Iowa City in Iowa -- a state neither of us has ever visited.     Along the way, we gained a genuine respect for the farmers of this nation.   All we saw through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois  and Iowa were farms.  As far as we could see!

And as we entered Indiana

And Illinois

And as we are preparing to land in St Paul (sister city to Minneapolis), it is still All farmland, as far as we can see.  I truly have a greater appreciation for the farm goods we enjoy.

And the Missippi River winds by St Paul and Minneapolis.  It is an amazing river.

Part II - Day3 July 28

First stop - Pilot's Mecca :  Sporty's pilot shop at the Claremont airport.  Fly right in!   

We arrived right when they opened at 11am 

Rick was in heaven

We even purchased new Noise Cancellation headsets :

Then we were airborne by Noon.   Next stop Iowa City, Iowa to visit Herbert Hoover's museum.  

Part II - heading cross country in a Cessna 182 plane

We headed out a little early to avoid bad weather that was coming into Columbus - our first stop. 

First we had to load the plane.  

 Yep, lots of stuff - but we left a full day early.  Who had time to really pick and choose?  And we want to look good ...

The pilot is ready: 

 And off we go...

It was beautiful flying over Pennsylvania.  So lush, so many farms,

  

We even saw a wind mill farm

First pit stop in Williamsport, PA, 

 and then dinner with Chaillee and William Moss - which is why we went to Columbus!  

And we had Ice cream for dessert at Jeni's ice cream - which time magazine reported as the best ice cream in America.  Oh my goodness, it was so good.  I had lemon blueberry yogurt that was just wonderful.  

Alaska day 10 - Loggerville

In Ketchikan, there are so many trees, it is expected that logging would be a big industry.  What was interesting, however, were the way the loggers lived - the picture below is the remains of a logging community.  These homes were built atop, basically, a raft of logs.  They would be pulled along the bay to the logging location and then anchored while the work was being done.  Once that site was completed, the anchors would be pulled up, and the Loggerville would be moved to the next location.  Makes the term 'mobile community' have a whole different meaning.

Alaska - day 12. Time to disembark in Vancouver on July 22

A bittersweet day - as we will be leaving the ship this morning.  Entering the Vancouver harbor was so different -- there were tall buildings, big container ships, much less trees and NO ice.  I guess we've left the last frontier.

Container ships waiting to unload:

And under a very beautiful suspension bridge - the Lion's Gate

Look at all those gorgeous triangles!   It just makes a geometry teacher so very happy.

We even saw an eagle fly in front of the ship.  Of course, I was not quick enough with the camera.

Spent the day touring around Vancouver.   At the point, looking over the harbor, I just had to get one picture of me with the Lion's Gate suspension bridge.  Found out that the bridge was built by the Guinness family. (Yes, the Irish Beer Guiness family). They built the bridge in order to ensure the success of the development of the 4,000 acres they owned in West Vancouver.  

Then we ended up on Granville Island, where there was another bridge - getting upgraded for seismic activity.  Apparently there has been quite a bit of activity in Vancouver , but not big shakes. 

And there were some Continous motion machines - like this one below in front of a concrete company.

  Rube- Goldberg would be so pleased.  I was.

And Vancouver has a Steam Clock.  

The clock is powered by steam from the city's downtown centralized heating system, which drives a piston inside a miniature steam engine inside the clock.

That engine in turn drives a series of ball-weights, chains and gears, which in turn drive a conventional pendulum, which in turn powers the clock's time-keeping mechanism that was custom-built in England based on a 1875 design.

But the clock is not entirely steam powered. It also has three small electric motors to help operate two internal fans, one of which blows the steam out the top, and another that controls the valves that play the tunes on the five steam whistles mounted atop the clock case.

The large central whistle, which was taken off the CPR steam tug Naramata, counts off the full hours while the four auxiliary whistles chime the Westminster Quarters every quarter hour. The number of chimes matches the number of quarter hours that have passed.n (Thanks to CBC Canada for a good synopsis)

*****

And this was the end of my Alaska trip.  I was sorry to leave the last frontier, but ready to get clean clothes and prepare for Part Two - flying cross country.  

Stay tuned here to follow us aross country.  And some reflections on Alaska and all the knowledge we gained.  

Alaska - day 11 last day onboard the Island Princess

A quiet day at sea - but beautiful seas and gorgeous scenery.

Learned quite a bit about the navigation of this incredible ship.  Especially of interest is the use of the two gas engines that are located next to the funnel.   These engines are a lower emission than the regular diesel engines, but much more expensive to run.  However, when in Glacier Bay, they want to reduce the ship's impact on the environment, so they us the Gas Turbines to power the ship.  And they are capable of powering the entire ship

In addition, when the 3rd Officer gave his  Navigation presentation, there was a lot of discussion of spherical geometry!  The great circles were mentioned, especially the importance of the equator for navigation - as it is the only latitude great circle.  

They have three forms of navigation utilized on board:  Terrestial, Celestial, and Electronic.   And they calibrate their position using two of these method at every watch.    More information about the ship this week - once I have a more consistent internet connection. 

And I learned the fundamentals of Salsa dancing.  What fun.

We actually saw our first sunset Tonight- as we move south toward Vancouver, the sun is setting earlier.  Unfortunately, the IPad camera couldn't fully capture the beauty of the moon over the mountain.

Alaska Day 9 : Juneau , Alaska on July 19th

So, the only reason to be in Juneau is for tourists or for government.  As this s vacation - its tourist galore!  Juneau is the capital of Alaska, but interesting,y, it is only accessible by plane or boat - there are no roads from another part of Alaska.  In fact, the main road is only 47 miles long.  And it is The Road.  At mile 46, it just ends.  Done.  No more road.  And there is only one exit - for Walmart.  

Our goal in Juneau was to see whales - humpback whales in particular.  Humpback whales spend summers in Alaska feeding and winters in Hawaii breeding.     And we did see whales!  We even saw 2 mother/calve pairs, and two of the adult whales we saw were identifiable by their tales- so we know we saw Sasha (15 years old at least) and Spot.

First we saw some harbor seals - yes,that is what those sausages on the island actually are. 

Oh, and we saw an eagle on the reef marker.  On the left.  

A tail fluke - this is Sasha.  She is identifiable due to the scarring her ail - which actually looks like A K ! The naturalist of our boat was very, very excited when she realized it was Sasha.

Notice there are 2 whales here - mother and calf.  Interesting to learn that e calf is learning to feed, and does not dive  Rey deep, or as often.  The mother will dive and the calf will stay closer to the surface. 

And that is Spot going for a dive.  

We also went by the Herbert Glacier - which is not a tide water glacier,but a hanging glacier - meaning it does not reach the water, but hangs between the mountains.  

Alaska day 10: Ketchikan, Alaska (July 20)

Ketchikan is the First city of Alaska - as it is first city anyone reaches from the lower 48!   it is called the Gateway City.  Ketchikan is, actually, on an island - Revillagigedo Island.  It is the 9th largest island in the archipelago here, and it is actually larger than Conneticut.  The city if Ketchikan seems much larger than Juneau, at least the downtown area,  but really isn't.   Juneau has 32,000 permanent residents (it is the capital),  but Ketchikan has only 13,686 in the area.  And fishing is its primary industry - as this is a Huge area for Salmon - they return here to spawn.  Lots and Lots of salmon.   and the salmon were running when we were there.  See the pictures toward the end of this entry .

Our goal today was to see eagles - and we were extremely successful!  We saw at least 15 eagles, and 7 nests.    It's amazing how big these eagles are.  Also, they return to the same next each year, and improve it each year.  Some of the nests are amazingly large. 

We took a cruise to see Totem Poles, Lighthouses, and Eagles.  

Totem poles are much more evident in Southeast  Alaska.  This is due mostly to the fact that the ecological system here is a trmperate rain forest.  Ketchikan measures their rainfall in feet, rather than inches.  They had 13 FEET of rainfall last year.   Ketchikan even holds the title of 'Rainfall Capital of the Unites States'.   As a result, their trees are much larger than other regions of Alaska.  Totem poles use Western Red Cedar trees, which grow very, very tall.

The Tlingit people are considered the First Nation of the Inside Oassage, and we're considered to be the first tribes to transition from nomadic to settled lifestyles.  Ketchikan was a perfect place for that has it had an abundance of salmon and berries.    As this is still Alaska, they had plenty of time in the summer (very title darkness) to hunt  and harvest, but winters were also very dark.  During the winter, the clans would spend their indoor time telling stories, and totem poles were physical story boards.

The three main symbols on a totem pole are the Raven, Eagle, and Bear.  

Gurad island Light House below.  There were some harbor seals playing on the left side of the island as well, 

Inn another island (Rock Island #2), the were a lot of harbor seals sunbathing .  Trust me - that is what those sausage looking animals in the beach are.

If you look closely below, about 1/4 way down that big tree, you can see an eagle sitting in a nest.  That nest has been there for at least 10 years.  They settled on right after the house was built.  I guess they wanted company.

After our boat cruise,we went into Ketchican to seethe salmon running.  it was absolutely fascinating.  The snow melt is rushing down the stream - cold and fast, and most of the stream is rapids.  

And the salmon swim UP stream to get to their spawning grounds.   Watching them make the attempt was hypnotizing.  After they have made it through the edition above, there is a small section that is calm.  You could see the salmon in pools preparing themselves.  You felt as life you could hear them "no, tht's okay - you go first". "really, it's okay for you to go in front".   

And then they would go for it . .

Yes, at 4 o'clock, that is a salmon jumping up river.   How cool is that.  (it did take almost 20 shots to get that picture) 

Did you on know there are 5 major types of Salmon?

Chum (dog),   Sock-eye (Red),   King (Chinook),  Silver (Coho),  and  Pink 

And, by the way, only the King (Chinook) return to the ocean after spawning.

Here I am with a totem pole thT replicats the Tory of the Fog Wonan - who controls the salmon.  She is responsible for the salmon returning to spawn every year. 

And then, walking amongst the shops, a pair of eagles came swooping through, and landed in a pair of trees above us - talking to each other.  It was fascinating listening to the different sounds they made.  

The larger of the two (we believe it to be the female) sat jut above us, in th tip of the tree,  for the who,e time we were there.

 Interestingly, a shop owner commented that while we find them wonderful and amazing, he doesn't when they are making all this racket at 3am, and another shop keeper commented that you also had to be very careful of your pets - the eagles were very well known for taking pet cats left outdoors.