Alaskan Cruise: Day 8--Icy Strait Point

Where to start! This privately owned port of the Hoonah clan is brand spanking new having only been in operation for a couple of years as a cruise destination.

Sailing into Icy Strait Point

Sailing into Icy Strait Point

Sailing into Icy Strait Point

Prior to that there was a cannery (now a museum on site). When the cannery failed either due to depleted fish stocks or change in dietary habits, the Hoonah turned to logging. That industry came to a halt when the Clinton administration blocked the construction of new forest roads making harvesting trees too expensive. So they started planting trees in the clearcut areas. They planted two trees for every one they had cut down. BUT they soon discovered that the areas they didn’t plant in yet were doing even better than those they were working to restore! So they turned to the one commodity that seems inexhaustible: tourism.

They put on shows/dances depicting Tlingit life. Hop on a speedy catamaran to go whale watching—and there are plenty of cooperative humpback whales! There’s a ZipRider—said to be the longest in the world--that drops you almost 2000 feet at speeds up to 60 mph! (I bet you get some good views from up top!) They have an interpretive nature trail and some very photogenic Bald Eagles (which I failed to capture.) Want to go four-wheeling in the forest or go searching for brown bears? They can accommodate you. You can take classes on how to prepare salmon and halibut and even get to cook your own dinner. Don’t want to cook? They have a restaurant for that.

Welcome and Excursion Center at Icy Point. By far the most organized group on the trip!

Terry and I chose Whale Watching and Alaska’s Wildest Kitchen as our excursions for the day. (I don’t like the idea jumping out of airplanes or off mountains. Nor do I like the idea of searching for one of the continent’s premiere omnivores—only the polar bear is larger—without suitable firearms handy.)

Humpback whale

Thar she blows! When the whale comes up to breath, there's still some water in its blowhole (nostril). It must expel this before it inhales. That's what forms the mist above them when they surface.

We followed one group of four or five whales around the bay for an hour. The gulls circling above where they would appear helped located them.

It's something of a coup to get a picture of the whales flukes. They don't always appear when the whale arches its back. The usually are only seen if the whale is going to be diving deep or for a lengthy period of time. The white patterns are unique to each individual and can be used as fingerprints are to identify an animal. Having messed up the settings on my camera, I was lucky to get this photo as I used trial and error to get the setting I wanted.

As big a deal as seeing the underside of the tail is capturing a photo of a whale breaching, i.e. leaping clear of the water. No one knows why they do this. They may be trying to stun some prey fish, free themselves of body parasites, or they may just be having fun.

Terry is looking smug because she took the picture of the breaching whale. On her iPhone.

I'm still working on the camera settings.

Stellar Sea Lions congregate on the channel buoy.

Two proud specimens pose on the buoy with the Radiance of the Seas in the background.

Whale watching is always amazing. Such large creatures performing some water ballet tends to awe me.

We could have skipped going out on a boat to watch the whales as the whales came to the docks to watch the people. There were some rising to the surface within 50 yards of the dock as we waited to board the boat. Later, when we returned to the Radiance of the Seas after cooking, there were four or five rising—and bubble feeding—just off the pier and in front of the Radiance.

Attending the little class called Alaska’s Wildest Kitchen was like being a participant in a Julia Child cooking show. If Julia had been a crew member/owner of a fishing boat, living on a raft complex, with her husband and seven children.

 She showed us how she makes salmon dip, salmon patties and halibut breakfast sausage. Better yet, we got to taste them all and washed them down with a little white wine spritzer.

Then she demonstrated how to filet a halibut. They had got the first of the year in just this morning and she had used the other side to demonstrate fileting to the earlier class.

Then we got a piece of salmon and a piece of halibut to spice up and went outside to cook them over an alder fire.

Salmon and Halibut prepped for cooking by Terry.

Terry braves the smoke to get her fish cooked just right.

 Soon enough it was time to reboard the Radiance of the Seas and we grabbed a ride on one of the electric carts the faster to get there without knees aching further. That's when we spotted the whales bubble feeding right next to the pier. 

Time to depart for Glacier Bay.

The five of us went off to the Schooner Bar for some drinks and to play Disney Trivia. (We came in second with 17 out of 20 correct answers. George wasn't much help.)

That evening, we enjoyed a meal at the Samba Grill, a Brazilian Churrascaria Steakhouse where they served seven different kinds of meat. Yes, on top of the salmon and halibut! Now that’s my kind of meal!

 

Just Livin' the Life of Riley! (Please don't tell him.)

In lieu of either discussing politics (This is the best either party has to offer? To me Senator Cruz is the only one who is sane, intelligent and steadfast in his beliefs and not bought and paid for by some outside interest. Democrats: Really? A septuagenarian socialist and a person who lies with every breath she takes?) and/or terrorism (Why can't the folks in the White House--or their friends in the main stream media--call it what it is?), let me stick with something a bit closer to home: Life at the Aerie:

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Not so busy this week...so far.

As chief cook, Terry got off easy over the weekend. As I mentioned, there was plenty of opportunities to get out and eat for a good cause Saturday and Sunday. (And that was after she had her weekly Lenten Luncheon on Thursday and Simple Supper at Holy Child on Friday evening (basically soup and bread).)

Saturday morning we had pancakes at Miller's Maple Products. We also bought a couple of pints of syrup, some delicious pecan and maple syrup sauce, some "maple salt" (maple sugar, salt and pepper--use it sparingly on meat dishes), and some buttermilk pancake mix.

Saturday evening we had a chicken and biscuit dinner at the Mainesburg United Methodist Church. Where we got to see our former postmistress and schmooze with the young minister. (It's sort of odd that both this church and the United Methodist Church in Wellsboro both got new, young (I'd say 26-28 years of age) ministers over the summer. The one in Mainesbirg is Tim Parker while the one in Wellsboro is Rich Hanlon. Mr. Hanlon is an avid birder and has been participating in the Tiadaghton Audubon Society meetings and walks. I've also run into him a couple of times while out birding. Both are very nice, friendly guys.)

Sunday morning the Mansfield Fire Company had their monthly breakfast: eggs; bacon; pancakes; french toast; biscuits and gravy; muffins; juice; and coffee. And the Boy Scouts bus the tables. What's not to like!

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So far the rest of the week has been pretty normal.

I spent Monday in the workshop knocking together a couple of wood bee traps to hand on the deck come warmer weather. Damn bees like burrowing into the logs and timbers. I've been using the long range wasp spray but the little buggers flit about like hummingbirds and a devilishly difficult to hit on the wing. Besides, I can't sit out on the porch all summer like Clint Eastwood with a shotgun yelling, "You bees get off my house!"

Tuesday I cut out the parts for two simple, basic birdhouses and put one of them together. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these houses, but at least I'm getting rid of some of the wood scrap from when we built the Aerie back in '06 AND I'm get more confident in my use of the power tools I've been neglecting. Pretty soon I'll be back to some more serious projects.

After reading online about massive migrations of birds, I thought Wednesday would be a good day to go see. I did and found that if there was a big migration, they weren't landing here. Hills Creek and the Muck were pretty empty. Only a Pied-billed Grebe (FOTY) on the lake made the day worthwhile.

Terry's been doing her usual: stitching, cooking, go to Curves. Surprisingly she hasn't had any club meetings this week. Could be because it's the week leading up to Easter or it could just be a fluke. She does have church services, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Oh yeah, and Saturday she takes our Easter dinner to get blessed.

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Shadow does not like getting pills. But she has become resigned to the fact. She's been sleeping on a loveseat in the basement and doesn't attempt to run away when I go get her at medicine time. Which, BTW, is twice a day. Not that she opens her mouth voluntarily. No, I still have to pry her jaws open while Terry uses the pill "gun" to get the pill as far back in her throat as possible.

Her appetite seems to have improved as well. We've been experimenting with various foods and found a few that are free of fish and dairy that she has scarfed down. She comes bouncing up the steps every couple of hours for her "special" kibble, too.

As for the scabs...they seem to be drying up and flaking off. I haven't seen any open sores for several days.

AND she has stopped vomiting both her stomach contents and hairballs.

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Less than two weeks to Opening Day of Major League Baseball!
Let's Go Mets!

This Week At the Aerie

SO....

Busy week with lots of doctor visits

Monday morning I went to the Guthrie Clinic in Mansfield as soon as they opened. While the doctor was at the hospital doing rounds, I did get to see the nurse practitioner who diagnosed my aching neck as an irritated nerve caused by muscular spasms. She prescribed Naproxen (500mg tablets) twice a day for the pain and Flexoril (10mg) once a day before bed for the muscle spasms. I started taking them that night and WOW! What a difference!

Tuesday I was pain free and I've remained that way all week. Of course, they have also allowed me to sleep very, very soundly.

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I went birding a couple of times this week and added a new species or two each time. Despite the super spring weather, we're still waiting the big rush of migrants here in the Northern Tier of PA. We've had a few waterfowl show up but not the huge numbers we've seen in the past. If the warm weather holds, the next week or two should see a rush of species heading north for breeding purposes.

Redhead pair on Tioga Lake

Common Mergansers (2 males & 1 female) on Tioga Lake

Green-winged Teal at The Muck (Wellsboro)

Ring-necked Duck at The Muck

Pair of Mallards at The Muck

Pair of Wood Duck on an old beaver pond near Hills Creek SP

Even with a 600, lens, the birds always seem to be just t-h-a-t much too far away for a good shot.

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Terry's turn for a steroid shot to her spine (L2, L3) occurred Friday morning. She has a couple of bulging discs (along with some stenosis) that have been creating pain in her hips and thighs. The pain management doctor thought cortisone injections might help alleviate the problem. We'll know in a day or two how that's working.

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Small Town America

The township secretary called on Thursday to give us a heads up. They were sending out a crew to work on a culvert on our street and the road would be closed from around 8 AM until 1 PM. She (the secretary) knew we normally go down to get the mail and do some shopping on a daily basis so she wanted to let us know to plan on taking the long way around.

Well, because of Terry hospital procedure we were gone long before they came to shut the road down, but when we returned, we took her advice and drove the long way around only to discover that the culvert they were working on was the one running across the road right at the end of our driveway. We couldn't get in.

We parked in our top most driveway (we have three parcels of land and three driveways but only one--the blocked one--leads to the house) and walked down the hill.

Long story short, two of the work crew were also township supervisors. They had noticed we had a small drain pipe running across our driveway (not on town right of way) that was insufficient (6" cheap pipe), partially compressed and in need of replacement. They wanted to know if they could replace it with an 8 inch pipe, stone the driveway for me and generally do what I wanted to do for two years--for the price of the pipe. I said, "Go for it!" They then told me to pull my truck down and into the house and not to worry, they would be done before I had to take Shadow to the vets at 2:15. They did the work and were done by the promised time. I expect I'll get a bill in the mail, 'cause they didn't even come up to the door.

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About Shadow...she's become something of a problem child. Not that she's fighting or anything like that, she's just moody, off her feed, vomiting, and full of scabs. Some of the vomiting is hairballs from licking the scabby areas, but some of it is from food.

She, too, went to see the doctor this week. (Her visit will end up being the most costly out of pocket. No insurance.) Shadow lost five (5) pounds since last April when she was 14+ pounds. She tipped the scales today at a svelte 9.4 pounds. That's not good.

The vet thinks she may have irritable bowel syndrome, or a food allergy. She prescribed some steroids (for the existing skin condition, another drug for the irritable bowel, and some B12 (because poor digestion leads to a lack of B12 intake). She also suggested we change her diet. No seafood, beef, egg, milk, cheese, wheat. Just poultry, rice and oats. She had some moist food (at $2.50 a can!) and some dry food (also very expensive) to get Shadow started on a healthy diet.

I was given a pill "gun" to get the medicine into the back of Shadow's throat and was shown how to give B12 injections. Shadow will probably need those B12 shots once a month for life. When all this stuff gets put into motion and runs for a couple of months, I think I'll just go get a veterinary license and treat cats.

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This weekend is the Maple Weekend in Potter and Tioga counties. There will be demonstrations of tapping and boiling at the sugar house at Hills Creek State Park and a number of sugar houses will be opening their doors to the public for tours and samplings. Terry and I will be going out early because one of the places is offering all you can eat pancakes for $7.

Then later in the evening, the Mainesburg Methodist Church has a chicken and biscuit dinner. And Sunday morning the Mansfield Fire Company has it's monthly breakfast.

*Sigh*

Diet is what you eat.

There is some snow in the forecast for Sunday into Monday, but nearly all of it will be to the south and east of here. We may get a dusting. With any luck, these will be the last flakes we see this "winter." The forecast also calls for 70 degrees next Friday.