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an everyday life

Tag Archives: Alaska

Cruising Clichés

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by Janell in Life at Home

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Alaska, Cruising, Everyday Life, Travel

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Tracy Arm Fjord

I’ve been wondering whether some, those who haven’t yet experienced what I have been fortunate enough to now have immerse myself in twice, have come to consider an Alaska cruise a cliché.

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Mount Roberts Look-out over Juneau

The thought is not an idle one since it springs from a couple of causal conversations that took place a week before my husband and I boarded the Celebrity Solstice.  Both mentioned that their spouse had expressed interest in taking the cruise — or that they thought their spouse would probably enjoy the cruise —  but it hadn’t happened yet, for reasons unknown.  One could see it happening someday… while the other had little interest in visiting Alaska.  Both had planned other vacations this year; the “uninterested” one had gathered her eight closest friends with their husbands and her own, to jet over to Europe in a few weeks, to take a cruise sailing from Barcelona with many ports of call, including an exotic sounding Morocco.  Someday, I’d like to do that, too, for Barcelona is near the top of my travel bucket list.  I remember how surprised she was to hear that I had chosen to return to Alaska… since there were so many other fascinating places to visit in the world.

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Tracy Arm Fjord

Funny thing about that, though, is that with this second visit almost over, I can see myself returning here for a third time.  There is so much to see and experience.  The first trip we marveled over the quiet and wild beauty and all the wildlife.  Seeing humpback whales up close is something I still shake my head over in wonder.  This trip we not only took a float plane into the Misty Fjords near Ketchikan…

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Flying in the Misty Fjord

…but were lucky enough to float a guided raft down a “skinny” river in a eagle preserve near Haines… on a blue sky sunny day!  My two photos of the day serve merely as icons of the moment…I know they do not hint of the sacredness of place and time experienced there.  Hopefully, they’ll help me remember.

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Eagle Preserve, north of Haines, Alaska

I believe that every place possesses its own special brand of beauty and secrets.  And all I need to do is show up, with eyes open at half-mast.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  So why is it… that for the most part, I’m not alert enough to see it. To sense a place with ears and nose and fingers and toes.  I do better, here in Alaska, I think, since distractions from everyday life recede in the majesty of what lies before me at every angle, as far as the eye can see.

IMG_0806 Here, in Alaska, the playing field is leveled so that even the normally non-observant ones, like me — the ones who have their heads in the clouds rather than feet planted on firm ground — can sail away feeling a little more in tune with nature and God.  And maybe, a little more in tune with themselves.

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Alaska’s wild blue yonder

Alaska is too artsy and alive and awake… to ever grow into a tired and overused cliche.  Wonder of wonders, in spite of receiving three-quarters of a million visitors each year, there’s plenty of majesty left.  It waits for you.  And it waits for me, too.

It puts me in the mood to pull out that journal of John Muir I purchased last time I was here.  How I wish it were here with me… instead of waiting on my bookshelf back home along with all those ever-so-lovely distractions.

Cruising Along Time and Space

02 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by Janell in Life at Home, The Great Outdoors

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Alaska, Cruising, Travel

Alaska’s beauty robs me purpose, of the small discipline I normally possess.

Tuesday’s mission was whale watching.  Yesterday’s was to wander the streets of a third coastal town.  Today’s intention remains unknown.  All I know for sure is that thoughts of home are stirring …and that, as nice as cruising is, one day and town run into another.

Was it Tuesday or Wednesday?  The question generated big discussion at dinner two nights ago; the question was settled by the calendar on someone’s watch:  It was Tuesday.  Instead of days of the week, ports of call mark time on board.   Tuesday was Icy Strait Point, Wednesday was Ketchikan.  Today we are cruising along time and space, set loose upon the seas.

Activities too, partition time into 45 minute intervals.  Wednesday, after touring Ketchikan, we gathered for afternoon activities; my husband and I learned the basics of Italian in the first set of 45; later, we played another 45 of “Name That ’80’s Tune” trivia game.

Would you believe two young things from Jersey won?   These girls were wearing diapers and running around a school playground when these songs were first spinning from a turntable.  But yesterday the tables had turned – the songs, once ours, we no longer knew by name, no matter how many notes streamed from the IPOD.

The competition was good.  And though fair, it wasn’t pretty.  Had my mother seen it, she would have called them bad sports – and she would have said it loud enough for everyone to hear.  Every time they jotted down a correct answer – about 17 for 20 — they scanned their competition.  And finding stumped expressions, they’d taunt their poor feeble minded competitors with, “Come on, you guys grew up with this music.  I can’t believe you don’t know this one.”  They took the prize, these two from Jersey.

Of course, the best prizes don’t come from shipboard games.  One of mine came in Tuesday’s port of call.  A picture postcard setting — periwinkle seas shimmering silver from sun dripping through clouds, the ocean mirroring a faint outline of distant mountains – fading into background when, not fifty feet from where I stood, a beautiful Humpback Whale broke through the sea’s surface.  As her head skimmed the waters beside us, she blew geyser mist above her blow hole, disturbing the quiet with a giant rush of air.

Taking deep breaths is preparation for cruising along time and space.

Making Do

31 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by Janell in Far Away Places, Soul Care

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Tags

Alaska, Mark's American Restaurant, Soul Care, Travel

All the easily developed land has been developed.  And what isn’t easy – like building the parking garage in downtown Juneau that required excavation and removal of a colossal size rock – is sometimes taken on too, if the rock is taking up prime real estate.

Not all rocks require excavation.  I found a good many turned into billboards, like these that line Skagway’s port and harbor.  But nowhere did I find evidence of new buildings beside old ones within historic districts.  Rather than tearing down and building new, like the good folks of West “U” –  that posh neighborhood inside Houston’s Loop, where many three story mini-mansions keep company with cottage bungalows  — the people of Juneau and Skagway tend to recycle, to just make do with their land.  Between mountains and sea, there’s no other choice but to make do.

Who cares if a building, that today houses one of Juneau’s many souvenir shops, still boasts that carved-in-stone name of “Juneau Laundry?”  Or that a sporting goods store now resides in the old home of Alaska Electric Light and Power Company?

Or that Rainbow Foods operates in excess space from a church whose name is not as prominently displayed?

Whether “Rainbow Foods” Church has a little grocery side-business or whether it supplements its pass-the-plate collections with rental income, either causes wonder on which part of their building is busiest – the one devoted to groceries or the one devoted to worship of God.

Downsizing church property is one thing, but within a block of “Rainbow” Church, two churches have closed their doors.  Though nearby signs indicated both spaces were available, I couldn’t imagine any kind of business willing to resurrect this once sacred space.  Until I recalled my favorite eating place — located again — inside the Houston Loop; of all places, Mark’s American Restaurant runs its business in the lofty cathedral arched building of a former church on Westheimer Street.

I can no longer recall the name or the denomination of the former church that once filled this prime piece of real estate.  Though I’m a little bothered by my memory lapse, I’m more bothered by the thought of dying churches, especially when evidence of resurrection – by a subsequent succeeding business – proves it wasn’t the location but something else that needed tending.

When Mark’s was rated by USA Today as one of the top ten places to eat in the United States, it took weeks to secure a dinner reservation.  Last time my husband and I dined there, which happened on just an ordinary week night – five years after USA Today’s blessing — every seat was full.  Had this ever been true for the church that once inhabited “Mark’s” space?

All these words on rocks and churches and resurrected buildings and “making do” has me recalling a few words of Jesus in the Gospels — “On this rock, I will build my church” — spoken in response to Peter’s confession to Jesus, “You are the Christ”; Jesus spoke to Peter and to all the disciples and whoever else was in hearing range of Peter’s Great Confession.

Thinking about that ragtag band of Peter and the other disciples — who never understood Jesus’ teachings, who were busy jostling for heavenly rewards (like the right hand seat of Jesus), who as a group, betrayed and scattered and even denied knowing Jesus the night he was arrested – alongside the words “On this rock, I will build my church”, only goes to show Jesus was making do too.

I suppose he still does.

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