After much practice, I finally graduated from the use of a cell-phone, but to be honest the setting on my camera is pretty much stuck on ‘Auto’. The only post-production I generally do is a little cropping and not much of that. …told you it was bad photography!
Well we started this New Year by correcting an egregious crime. See, my gal, Moni, hadn’t been able to eat much on Thanksgiving. This didn’t stop her from making a great turkey dinner for myself and several of our friends. (Her first time cooking a turkey.) It just prevented her from enjoying it herself.
…which was an egregious crime!
We corrected that crime tonight. Moni made an even better turkey for New Year’s Eve dinner, and this time she got to eat her share of it. Afterwards, we went on down to the fireworks display for the town. That’s the thing about Barrow. Fireworks aren’t that cool here in July, so we do our fireworks on January 1st, right in the midst of polar midnight. This being the modern age, it didn’t happen without some electronic record of it, so both Moni and I froze our hands for the sake of ontology. It was worth, I think. I got some pictures and Moni caught the whole thing on video.
Presented for your enjoyment…
(Click to embiggen)
Fireworks 2020 3 I lost count
It was delicious (Another pic from Moni)
Fireworks 2020 4
(Moni took this one too) Our Spirit animals had a meal as well.
Fireworks 2020 5
Fireworks 2020 6?
Moni took this. (Why this lovely happy woman is with my cranky butt, I will never know.)
I have papers to grade. So, I guess summer is really over.
I was planning to take it easy this summer, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. A move across town took up a lot more time than Moni and I expected. Our trip to Valdez is still the highlight of the season for me, but I also made it down to Montana on a work-related trip and down again to Fairbanks to help put on the Motif Film Festival. When I wasn’t traveling or taking boxes upstairs, I was busy working on class materials and whatnot. Suffice to say, it was an interesting summer.
One of the most interesting things about this particular summer is just how long the sea ice seemed to remain intact, and how long much of it stuck around shore. It seems like this last winter got started late (snow didn’t start sticking here in Barrow until well into October), so I suppose it’s fitting in some sense that the remnants of that winter would linger a bit. It certainly made for some beautiful views. Few sites compare to the midnight sun shining down on an entire ocean served on the rocks, so to speak.
Yeah, people do swim in this stuff, usually just for a minute or two, just long enough to say they did it.
Other people do this.
Not me.
(Click to embiggen.)
Looks like I tweaked this pic a lot, but I really didn’t tweak it much
Icy Reflections
A little sea life in the fog there.
A touch of yellow
Just Cold!
…and the world gets diagonal
Clear and peaceful evening
This little guy really wanted me off his beach
Hadda zoom a bit for this one
Mid July
The cloud here steals the show.
Lotta Blue
Okay, this might not be sea ice
An ice bow, some sea ice, and an annoying little blue dot.
Sorry, for the poor quality of this video, and in particular for my very shaky hand.
Between her new job and our move into a new apartment, my girlfriend and I haven’t had much of a chance to to travel together this summer. We did manage to sneak out for a week or so in mid June. What we decided to do this time was a quick road trip from Anchorage to Valdez. Of course, getting to Anchorage required a little flying time, but that’s old hat. We had to make a couple purchases for the new place, so that meant staying a couple days in the vicinity of Anchorage, so we found a lovely bed and breakfast in Palmer. After that, we hit the road!
Not literally, of course. I ain’t got nothin’ against the highway.
Anyway, the trip was about a 5 hour drive, but we made plenty of stops. We traveled along the Matanuska river for quite some time, made a brief stop a bit south of Glenallen, then headed off toward Valdez. To say that we found a number of beautiful sites along the way would be putting it mildly.
Valdez itself was absolutely wonderful. I hit a couple museums (The Whitney Museum and the Valdez Museum & Historical Archive) and we hung out at the docks for a time. We ate at the Fat Mermaid a couple of times and made stops at Mike’s Palace and Fu Kung. …suffice to say that we were well fed. We also ran into the folks from Sweet Cheeks Bakery, run by the parents of a coworker, but we didn’t get back in time to get our cinnamon buns. Still, …all of Alaska is just one small village! You just can’t travel through this state without finding connections to the people you meet. Eventually, we bought tickets on a tour boat, which of course meant that I got sick (yes I took some meds), but mostly that was just amazing. I almost never opt for a paid tour, but I’m very glad I did this time.
On the last day as Moni and I were strolling around downtown getting ready to say goodbye to the place, a random guy came out of Mike’s Palace and asked us if we lived in the area. The answer was ‘no’, of course, and then he proceeded to tell us that he had lived here himself once, 30 years ago. I cringed inside as he launched into his efforts to tell me about the good old days. A few minutes later I felt a twinge of sadness as he left us with tales of bar fights between Okies and Texan (oil workers) spilling out of the Palace and onto the street. Apparently, the police had once been disarmed so as to enable the fight to continue. Additional stories involved a pair of Korean prostitutes who paid him extra for a pizza every night so as to have a place to stay. Just how much of this was true, I have no idea, but the stories were a good deal more entertaining than I had anticipated. I found myself wishing we’d run into him before lunch rather than after and on the verge of leaving. Still, a few more eagle pics and off we went.
Hell, even the shopping we did back in Anchorage before boarding the plane back home went well.
I wish every vacation was this cool.
(You may click to embiggen!)
Ruins from Old Valdez
Columbia Glacier
Mountains in the Background
On the Wing
Factory across the water
Snow Goose BnB
The chunks of ice on top got there when they were thrown up out of the water as the ice broke apart.
This juvenile whale was playing around the boat for about half an hour. …his mom was not amused.
St. Innocent, Russian Orthodox Church in Anchorage (Moni really wanted to see this one)
Random Waterfall empties into the sea
Yep, lotsa bunnies too!
Looks Kinda Smug for a guy that lives on the scraps tossed out by fisherman!
When you look into the scenery, sometimes the scenery looks back at you.
Copper River
Blues happen
Almost there
Just purdy
Are these guys ever not angry?
Water will fall
Mountains over trees
This, I’m told, is an oyster catcher.
Well hello there!
Almost an island of sorts
Local ruffians!
Heading Out
That mountain was framed!
Glacier
Horse Tail Falls
Lotta little ice
Moni likes to stop and take pictures of the road.
Big chunk of ice
Closest I could find to street art
Random roadster (Anchorage)
Columbia Glacier has the blues!
Couldn’t get over the color of the water
You otter sea the mountains!
Abandoned structure along the Matanuska
Local Humor
Athabascan footwear (Copper River Heritage Center)
It was the summer of Wonder Woman. I mean, I know she was in the theaters this last summer, and I certainly enjoyed the movie, but that’s not what I’m talking about. She was in our car. Wonder woman, I mean. She was in our car.
Yep!
We were wondering what that strange sound was coming from the back. We didn’t hear it often, at first anyway, but it was just an odd sound. Were the Jarritos bouncing up against the Mexi-cokes? Maybe something was falling out of the luggage? No, not that over and over like that, and it doesn’t sound like bottles. Neither Moni nor I could quite place it. And then an impression started to form, but it just couldn’t be right. I thought perhaps all those years of role-playing geeketry were playing havoc with my ears, because I couldn’t possibly be hearing it right. Still, the more I listened, the more convinced I became.
“Is that a sword?”
“It does sound like a sword, yes.”
Hearing Moni confirm my seemingly-impossible impression was a little reassuring. It was also a little disturbing. Why in the hell would the sounds of sword fighting be coming from the back of our vehicle? And then Moni remembered the costume. I had bought her a Wonder Woman costume for super-hero day at her gym. It came with a plastic sword and that sword made sounds whenever you moved it around. We meant to give it to one of of her nieces or nephews, but I guess we never got around to it. Instead, the noisy blade was buried somewhere in the back beneath a pile of luggage, snacketry, random shoes, and countless things we probably didn’t need. Evidently, the sword had room to juggle. So, Wonder Woman had room to fight in the back of our vehicle.
No matter! We would dig her out soon enough.
I think we first noticed the sound on a trip to Sequoia National Park. We could still hear Wonder Woman doing battle after a diversion to Monterey, another trip to Sacramento and San Francisco, several small trips around Los Angeles, a road trip to SantaFe by way of the Navajo Nation, at least three trips back to to Taos Pueblo through Espaniola, one to Bandelier, one to Kasha Katuwe, and one each to Santa Ana Pueblo and Cochiti. We never did find her, or if we did, we missed the chance to find her a new home. Hell, she was still fighting her foes when we made it finally back to California at the end of the summer.
We actually did make an effort to find Wonder, but we were thwarted by the piles of unnecessary baggage. So, Wonder Woman spent the summer with us. She protected us from evils all across the southwest, and even scolded us when we did wrong. She could be kinda bossy that way, but otherwise, I must admit the living weapon herself was actually pretty good company.
Presumably, her sword is in storage now.
It’s been a little over six months now, so I guess it’s time to share some pics from our road trip, the one Moni and I took with Wonder Woman.
I’ve already blogged about a few of these things, but I do plan to produce at least one more post about the street art in San Francisco. I’ve posted about the Institute of American Indian Arts before, and about Santa Fe. These are definitely favorite stops of mine. Here are a few pics (click to embiggen)!
Moni’s Nephews in the Kiva at Old Pecos
Little Sister isn’t impressed with the Quinceañera pics
Institute of American Indian Arts
Bandelier
We need one of these trucks here in Barrow before the next 30 days of night
Restaurant in Taos
Just south of Taos
Church at Taos Pueblo
Institute of American Indian Arts
Old Pecos Pueblo
Near Bandelier
Whaling Wall in San Francisco
Old Pecos Pueblo
Pecos
Tragedy at La Brea Tar Pits
Muckrock Mural at Taos
Somewhere in Northern California
Window Rock, AZ (I used to work a short stroll from here)
Bandelier
Santa Fe
Three Amigos?
Fat Man replica at Los Alamos
Horseshoe Bend
Taos Pueblo
San Dimas
Santa Fe
Kiva at Old Pecos Pueblo
San Francisco
The Institute of American Indian Arts
Somewhere in Los Angeles
Madrid, New Mexico
Getting some shade near Horseshoe Bend
This guy was bathing in a fountain at Window Rock, Navajo Nation
Note the building from another pic
Face off!
Women’s Building in the Mission District in San Francisco
Yeah…
San Francisco
Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River
Moni and Annie at Harvey Milk’s old haunt
Seems to be a car show in town (San Dimas)
Coastline near Monterey
Stump in Sequoia
Big Stump
I think Moni wanted to drop me off here, not sure why
Pomona
San Juan, Fiesta
Thai Restaurant in San Francisco (I think this was our waiter)
So, I flew out from Barrow a couple weeks back to spend a few days at a conference (Whalefest) in Sitka. I don’t get to spend much time in southwest Alaska. When I fly out, I generally go through Anchorage and then down to the lower 48. I can visit the villages of the Northslope about as often as I care to, and I can often spend extra time in Fairbanks or Anchorage, but a chance to veer off into the southeast is a rare treat.
To say that Sitka is beautiful is putting it more than a little mildly. It really is gorgeous. In the end I found myself plotting various schemes to stay longer, or to come back. Moni couldn’t be talked into spending Thanksgiving down that way, something sensible about money and inconvenient flight times, but I’d still give up a turkey for a few free days in this town, preferably while the humpback whales are still in town.
Which reminds me, whalefest did (oddly enough) include a chance to go on a whale-watching cruise. Grumbly me, wasn’t all that eager to get on a whale-watching boat. I get seasick easily and the last time I did that with my family in Hawaii, we barely saw a tail come up out of the water. This time was different, though, remarkably different!
So, yeah, that was cool!
My accommodations were at the old Sheldon Jackson College. The campus itself was beautiful. I wandered into the Sheldon Jackson Museum a couple times and found myself spending way more time in there than I originally planned. I also got to the totem park (otherwise known as the Sitka National Historic Park. I definitely needed more time in both those spots.
The conference itself was a fascinating mix of presentations on a diverse range of subjects. Oh yes, whales were the dominant theme, but speakers also addressed issues such as climate change, biology of other sea mammals, and sundry things-oceanic. The keynote speaker, Jacquelyn Gill, gave a wonderful talk on climate change and extinction, or rather persistence.
At some point I took a longish walk and found myself watching a sea otter playing in the harbor. It’s an oddly calming thing, just snapping amateurish pictures of an otter, waiting for him to do something interesting, like bring up another shellfish.
…just like the last one.
Damned cute, these little buggers!
It hasn’t escaped me that this is the Alaska that most people think of when I tell them I live in this state. They imagine trees and mountains, and moose, and bears, and all-manner of different forms of wildlife. My own experience of the state is very different, but that’s to be expected. Alaska is a whole buncha cool states.
Ah well, I really must get back to Sitka some time.
And to Whalefest!
Anyway, click to embiggen!
In Coming!
Tiny islands …er islets.
Lotta boatage
Swimming Off into the Sunset
Dining in Blue
Lunching away
Reaching up
Beware! When touristing, take care not to become the tourist attraction yourself. When staring at the otter, the otter stares back at you.
Odd Couple
The Prospector
Sheldon Jackson College
Yep, whales
Great collection of Alaska Native artifacts in there
I take a lot of pictures, not because I’m particularly good with a camera, but because I feel fortunate to see some of the things I have these last few years. Mostly, when I take a picture, it’s the sort of naive realist in me wanting to show others this really neat thing I saw just over there. Afterwards I may crop and I might bring out the colors a bit here and there, but there really isn’t much art to what I do with a picture box. Every now and then, though, what catches my eye is a pattern or a texture. The results might be more fartsy than artsy, but I still think these pics are kind of amusing.
(As usual, you may click to embiggen)
Termites Done it (at the Rancho Galllina Bed & Breakfast in Santa Fe)
This was a thin sheet of ice that had slid off the room of the Ramkota Hotel in Rapid City and melted itself to a paper-thin state. It didn’t last another 5 minutes.
Azusa Pacific University
Anchorage
On the Bar at Humpey’s
The Neon Museum in Las Vegas
First Snow
Perpendicular Lines
A Place of Rest
Under the Fish Cannery at Metlakatla
Part of the Power Grid in Las Vegas
Apparently the Tundra south of Prudhoe Bay is made of blueberry swirl
Sea Ice in Spring (those chunks are actually quite big)
Alleyway in Anchorage
Ceiling at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ
Time to mow the docks in Metlakatla
Soudproofing at the NOAA facilities in Barrow …just a Chinese Conspiracy!
So, I was in Rapid City recently. I was there to attend a convention of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. It’s a great conference and a great organization. So, I was enjoying myself a great deal, already, when a thought occurred to me. I wonder if there is any street art in Rapid City?
Surely, I thought, there must be a mural or two, maybe not even a great one, but I’ll bet there is something.
Turns out the answer is ‘yes’. There is definitely street art in Rapid City. In fact, the city has an entire alley devoted to it.
(Click to embiggen!)
Green
A budding friendship?
Lil’ Guy
Monster
Foremen
Girl through some bars
This was on the wall of a non-participating business.
So my girlfriend and I were talking the other night and she’s asking me about my blog. I told her I should write something about our visit to Monument Valley this December, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to say about it. I mean, I could say the usual stuff about it, …Blah, blah, …John Wayne, …blah blah Roadrunner cartoons – all very done-before. But I tell Moni I don’t have anything inspiring to put in with our pictures. So, I tell her she should write the post for me. Moni says she can’t write. I know she’s lying. So, I keep telling her she’s going to have to write the post for me, because I’m mean like that. Finally she says something like “you know what I think of Monument Valley?”
…and I’m like “got her!”
“What do you think of Monument Valley?”
She tells me it’s too stupid; she doesn’t want to say it.
I insist.
We repeat this about 3 times.
Finally, she starts talking. I grab a sheet of paper and start scribbling as fast as I can. These aren’t quite her exact words, but they are pretty close:
To me, it was a go deal to go to those places, because that’s what America was to me when I was living in Mexico City. That’s the picture that I saw when I thought about America. It’s been a very long time, but it was still a very big deal for me. It took me back to when I was a kid and I was just thinking about coming to America.
I think Moni needs to write more of my blog posts.
This summer my gal and I paid a brief visit to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff where we saw this little beauty here up above. It’s the telescope first used in the discovery of Pluto. Last month, we took a long road trip from Los Angeles to Freeport, Texas, and it really was Los Angeles.
Don’t let my girlfriend fool you with any business about Glendora or Azusa. Just different ways of pronouncing Los Angeles, as far as I’m concerned.
Harrumph!
Anyway, she and I took a trip, starting in some place Losangelish and ending at some place Freeportish. Along the way, we stopped at Cadillac ranch in Amarillo where we found this message…
The sunrise brought a couple sun-dogs with it this morning. By this morning, I actually mean almost noon, but the point is I went out with a camera to see if I could get some nice doggie pics. I wouldn’t say the picture does it justice, but anyway, here is what I got.
Cute little puppies, aren’t they?
Afterwards, I remembered that the ocean has been flirting with solid form lately, so after playing with the sun dogs I turned around and headed the other way for a block or two. Kinda slushy right now, but definitely not my flavor. I expect it will get properly solid soon. In the interim, my hand has suffered enough for my amateur camera games. I think I’ll stay inside and write a bit now.
Might as well add a few more pics from the last month or two. As always, you may click to embiggen.
Nuther pic of the Sun Puppies
The windows at NOAA make good picture frames, but all this sciency stuff gets in the way.
A barge and heavy equipment at dusk
Patterns of erasure
Little Junkmail stays inside when the northern lights are out. Smart Junkmail. She gets to keep her head!
Sun Puppies
Colorful dusk
A snow fence at sunrise
More northern lights
Just ocean. (I think this is an old one. I cheats!)
Damn!
So, I flew out from Barrow a couple weeks back to spend a few days at a conference (
My accommodations were at the old Sheldon Jackson College. The campus itself was beautiful. I wandered into the 
So my 
To me, it was a go deal to go to those places, because that’s what America was to me when I was living in Mexico City. That’s the picture that I saw when I thought about America. It’s been a very long time, but it was still a very big deal for me. It took me back to when I was a kid and I was just thinking about coming to America.
This summer 
The sunrise brought a couple sun-dogs with it this morning. By this morning, I actually mean almost noon, but the point is I went out with a camera to see if I could get some nice doggie pics. I wouldn’t say the picture does it justice, but anyway, here is what I got.
