Catching up

Yeesh! Whoever expected keeping up with a blog to be such a challenge! In the past week and a half that I have not made an appearance, several events have occurred: a hike to Upper Dewey Lake, photos from the deck of the Zuiderdam, a visit to the Musher's Camp, an early Summer Solstice Party at Jewell Gardens and Mike's surprise day working out of town.

First the hike to Upper Dewey Lake. To make a very long story short: I didn't get to Upper Dewey Lake. It is a 7 mile round trip hike, but it is relentlessly up. Ok, I can do relentlessly up...even if it takes me all day.
Along the way, there were beautiful flowers (whose names I don't know).

But it WAS relentlessly up. I finally hit some snow patches over a rivulet which was, in fact, the trail. Sometimes you could see that there was soft snow above the water as deep as two feet. I was exhausted. A couple coming down from the top (in better shoes than my sneakers) said it was another 40 minutes to the top and that it got even dicier. I'll wait until the snow is gone and wear my hiking boots...even though they're my heavy backpacking boots. My ankles missed the support and this weight I'm responsible for gaining back made for an unhappy hike. It was a beautiful day with beautiful views and friendly people, spring time flowers and snow melt cascades...but it was a weekend warrior activity. Enough said.

Two days later it was back on the Zuiderdam for work. Finally remembered to bring my camera to photo Skagway from the ship vantage point. Took a couple of photos of two Princess ships and a Celebrity ship, sightseeing helicopters, small plane (which is the only kind of plane we have here), parts of the ship...but none of the exterior of the ship! Here is a fairly nice one of Skagway as seen from the ship with the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad pulling into town.
After another delicious lunch, this time of Panini Caprese with miscellaneous salads, we returned to the Westmark hotel. Now you may find it odd that I actually photographed my lunch, but one many I work with here in Skagway photographs EVERY shipboard meal he eats! Sadly, the best parts of the day are over upon leaving the ship: when I get to goof with the people and have some good meals I don't have to prepare or clean up after. Thank goodness I'm here with Mike so some of that prep and clean work is shared or done for me! He's a good guy!

Wednesdays are one of Mike's busier days because there are four ships in town. It is my day off since none of those ships are ones we expedite. So, it's a usual day off for me. Some weeks (like last week) I do blog-worthy things. This week, I'm blogging about what I did on that blog-worthy day. Plus, the weather isn't quite as nice as it was last week. Up until this past Friday, we had been blessed with beautiful sunny days with a light breeze...scented lilac wafting through town. Since Friday we've had northern rain forest weather: darkish, cloudy, windy, damp, rainy, cloudy, windy, cold, etc. I'm liking it, but like to do outdoor activities when it isn't quite so raw outside.

Last Wednesday, my co-worker Liz and I took the Musher's Camp and Sled Dog Experience shore excursion. Much of the information I recalled from Mike telling me about his experiences in Denali. He had become friends with a musher who lives up there. So while I didn't learn a lot of new information, it was interesting for me to actually see it for myself.

This summertime musher's camp is 12 miles (35 minutes) outside of town in Dyea. The ride to the camp starts with a tour of Skagway with some info about the area on the way out to the camp. As ever, it is interesting to see how each tour guide's driver is the same or different. There is a building in town with a facade made of driftwood. The number of pieces of driftwood ranges from 800 to 10,000 depending on who is giving the tour. It makes one skeptical of believing every piece of data in any future tour!

Once at the camp we boarded a wheeled cart to which 16 sled dogs were harnessed. The dogs pulled us in the cart on a course of about 1-1/2 miles.

What is more interesting to me than the little ride is the information provided on the dogs and sled dog racing. These dogs are medium sized, but bred for their endurance and zeal to race. It is amazing to listen to them get all excited: jumping, barking and ready to run. They are very well cared for and treated well. But they're not the beautiful Disney-look Siberian huskies. Siberian huskies are larger and would tire in races such as the Iditarod or the lesser well known Yukon Quest. The latter race is almost as long as the Iditarod and is considered the more difficult of the two. Siberian huskies are better suited as freight-hauling dogs where speed is not as much of an issue. It amuses me when guests are disgruntled after this excursion because they didn't get a ride in a sled on snow. It's June. Here's your sign. If you want the ride on the sled in the snow, take the Helicopter Glacial Landing and Sled Dog Ride for $519 per person!

Following our ride was a 15 minute presentation on sled dog racing: the equipment, the dogs, the musher and the history of the races. What I found fascinating was that due to the cost of over $20,000 per sled and equipment, most competitive mushers build their own sleds. So, there is a variety of materials that are used to build sleds and each sled looks different.

The final part of our excursion was a visit to the puppies. These dogs are not purebred anything, except purely bred for their qualities rather than purity of the line. Still, each litter is given a "category" name to help keep records to minimize inbreeding and potential health complications. We happened to see the 3 month old Breakfast Puppies (Bacon, Eggs, Pancake and Waffle) and the 2 month old Sesame Street Puppies (Oscar, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie). A pregnant sled dog wants to race, but halfway through the gestation period, she is no longer trained or raced in order to prevent injury to her or stillbirths of the puppies. As soon as the puppies are weaned, she is back to racing. Puppies begin racing as early as one year. We had one pair of dogs harnessed side by side on our ride. One was a year old and one was 13! The younger dog was all over the place, jumping and bumping into his partner. The older dog decided he wasn't old at all and raced like he was a young stud! They were so fun to watch. The final highlight of this trip was getting to hold the puppies. Since Liz is FAR more photogenic than I am, I present Liz and Ernie:
And another photo of Liz, this time with a Disney-looking Siberian husky whose name I don't recall. I just really like this photo of her.

The summer solstice is fast approaching. I am almost glad for the clouds because it isn't quite as noticeable that it is never really very dark in the middle of the night. On the other hand, it makes for really fun parties where you can really lose track of your Circadian rhythm and want to party all night. One of the attractions in town is called Jewell Gardens. It is located on the original site of the Clark farm which has had some form of agriculture on it since just after the gold rush days. Currently, if viewed from the air, you can see that the garden is laid out to look like a flower. A picture WOULD be forthcoming, if I'd had an aerial view.

They held an early summer solstice party on Saturday night for townspeople and summer workers. There was music from several different bands, glass blowing demonstrations, the opportunity to blow your own glass ball (complete with double entendre instructions), food and beer or wine. We spent a little money on the food and a lot of money on the beer. It was a great time! My friend Brenda, an author and former professor, works there. Brenda is also the mother of one of the drivers for HAP-AY, Blake. Blake is one of the captains of the softball team, a driver-guide and plays an instrument and sings. Many people here are renaissance people, often wearing several hats. For example, the chief of police is also a pastor at one of the churches.

Brenda gave me a wonderful tour of the garden...and I can't wait to see it in a month when the annuals are even bigger. Arizona is beautiful, but there is a powerful attraction to green leaves and vibrant flowers and vegetables.

Around 11:30 p.m. we were goofing around and mugging for the camera. I present Liz and Nathan with the dreaded duck face and Liz and Rex giving their severe, disapproving looks.

In reality, these are fun young people that I really enjoy working with. My new favorite activity is to appear to be taking a still photo while taking a video. The reactions of the subjects when they know they are on film? Priceless.

Mike has joined the softball team and they had their first regular game this past Friday. Sadly, our HAP-AY team lost. In Skagway, there are no rain dates. There are just games and when they are scheduled to be played. So if it's raining...tough it out! HAP-AY has two teams to be able to cover when some people are still working during game time. Mike's team didn't play this past Friday. He went and coached third base. It was raining. I stayed in and read. He'll be playing on Friday, so I will make an appearance at that time--rain or shine. There was a company BBQ scheduled for this past Friday that WAS cancelled due to rain. It is rescheduled for tomorrow evening. I hope this one won't be cancelled. It's a good time because these are interesting people to talk with and it's a meal we don't have to think about!

HAP-AY has excursions in Juneau off their ships in port. However, Juneau doesn't have a full complement of driver-guides. So every so often, some of our drivers take a 5- or 8-seat Wings of Alaska flight down to that city. Remember, there are no roads in and out of Juneau, just within the city area. Alaska's state capitol, population about 31,000, is only accessible by plane or boat as it is surrounded by water and ice fields. Mike was assigned to be one of the drivers on Monday. Imagine if this was YOUR vehicle for commuting! However, that is NOT Mike next to the airplane, but Chris...although similar in height in weight, less than half Mike's age and with 100% more hair on his head.

One fun thing about Mike's trip down to Juneau was that he drove some people around on an excursion. These people were sailing on the Zuiderdam and were part of a group that was leaving for a land excursion from Skagway...so they were a few of the people I goof with during assisting the transition from ship to cruisetour. AND they had Mike again for some of their transfers around town. Passengers really get a kick out of seeing the same people assisting their vacations. A mini-relationship! They all, however, think Mike is funny....no matter if I tell them he isn't.

The other fun thing for Mike: a view of Mendenhall glacier. We definitely have to suck it up and spend the money to spend a night or two in Juneau and visit this glacier...even if we never get to Glacier Bay!