Life: Through the Lens

Greeting a new group of University students. We are finally establishing our new routine, one which includes my teaching part time and being WAY busier than I want to be!  Our 10-week summer adventure was wonderful...now what?! Hanging out with grandchildren at the airport. One of the things that happened which has been a mixed blessing, was the invitation to do a presentation about our trip.  However, that invitation was for last night, and we have not even been home a full month. Making it up to Meesha for being gone so long this summer. We took on the challenge, partly because it pushed us to do that preliminary sort - the one where you have to delete some images which are duplicates, or triplicates, and you just don't need to save them! The beauty of switching to digital photography is that ability to push the "delete" button.  The nightmare of digital photography is that you can take so many photos that you can get overloaded with images.  Th...

Mackinac Bridge...last leg of our journey. Home.  Mail sorted.  Laundry about done.  Photos....those will take a little longer to count and organize.  Here are some statistics: He was just looking for a way to cross the road. Animal sitings Moose - 8 Elk - 2 Deer - 7 Free range cows - no count, too busy dodging! Black Bear - 11 Brown/Grizzly - 1 Bison - 93ish, in herds and individually, strolling down the road side Bald Eagles - approximately a dozen Antelope - 5 Wild Horses - in the neighborhood of 100 Stone Sheep - 3 Mountain Goat - 1 Swans - 30-ish Sand-hill Crane - 1 Trout/Salmon - no specific count Airplane Statistics Airplanes Flown - Piper-18 Supercubs -2; Cessna 172 with 180 HP engine conversion - 1 Alaska is the most flying-est state, with the most airplanes, in the nation.   It is one of the major sources of transportation. The border of Yukon Territory and Alaska. A section of the original Al...

We knew it had to end sometime.  The course complete, and time to move on, Daryl's last lesson was Tuesday of this week.  However, an added bonus is I got to go along as he flew his last lesson.  Now I could see Alaska from the air - one of the best ways to see this huge and awesome land. The first photo is the plane we flew in.   Daryl had been flying in a Piper Super Cub - one of the most popular planes because of it's short take-off and landing capabilities.  This is critical in a land of mountains and lakes, whether weather can change in a heartbeat.  It wouldn't work for my flight, as it's only a 2-seat aircraft.  So we ended up using the Cessna 172, converted for floats. Trail Lake was smooth as glass, which looks beautiful but is not easy to fly from.  Landing, in particular, is tricky as you can't see where the surface is.  You have to rely on some sort of frame of reference around you, and most of the instruction has indic...

Taxiing out from the dock for a flight. When we scheduled this flight instruction/time with the company in Moose Pass, it was because a dream of flying in Alaska needed to be fulfilled.  Daryl has always wanted to fly floatplanes in Alaska, but the environment is SO different than the flying he is used to that it seemed wisest to fly with someone who knew the terrain.  We struck pay-dirt with the flight instructors he is working with.  Darlene and Evan have offered different views on flying the mountains, lakes and glaciers of the Kenai Peninsula.  Darlene is an experienced pilot having flown high performance aircraft, including Lear jets.  Evan is a relatively new pilot with just a couple of thousand of hours.  He has commercial license and instructor certificate.  Both love to fly, and love to fly Alaska in particular. There are experienced "dock hands," as well.  They both fly, and are loving working in Alaska helping in any way ...

  One of my favorite places on earth is the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska.  Just a few miles south of Anchorage Cook Inlet, and then Turnagain Arm flow together, carving a path between mountain ranges of immense beauty, and size.   There is something very special about the welcome you are given here, by the environment, and the people.  We stopped at Moose Pass so Daryl could meet the people he will be flying with next week, and get the lay of the land.  Stunning.     Then we continued on down the peninsula to Seward, a very interesting town.  One part of the town caters to the tourist crowd, as it is a major cruise ship port.   We are camping for a few days at the Municipal Park, on the water front, where we are packed in with about 200 other happy campers - both of the RV and tenting variety. View from our campsite on Resurrection Bay, Seward. The other part of town is the one I remember from 1989.  Small-tow...