Sunday, July 19th

• After years of lobbying, in 2009, mosquitos were finally able to get state ID cards. While all the other fun facts are as true as Google can make them, I made that one up.

Instead of resting on our final full day in Alaska, we booked a whale-watching trip thru Harv & Marv’s Outback Alaska (the founders & owners are neither Harv, nor Marv, but nicknames they grew up with). During breakfast it looked like we might actually have an anomaly in our weather pattern – I won’t go as far as saying sunshine, but certainly a possibility of no rain. Well, traveling in a temperate rainforest lived up to its name and it rained all day. Like today, the constant rain for the past 2 weeks has been light and steady; not enough to keep you indoors all day, but it does become tiresome. For the last few days, Mary & I had made plans to go to the beach on Tuesday, our first full day back home, but then we read San Diego’s weather – 1” of rain in 24 hours over the weekend! Damn, we just can’t get away from it!

Besides seeing lots of raindrops, we encountered a few humpbacks, several pods of orcas and a playful group of Dalll’s porpoises that hung around our boat and dove in/out of the bow wake. Pretty cool! As another homage to Breaking Bad, the captain on our little whale watching boat looked and acted just like Jessie Pinkman.

2015 Alaska-1823 Dall's porpoises, on a rain-soaked boat ride

2015 AlaskaM-2485 Out for a Sunday stroll in Auke Bay, AK

Monday, July 20^th

Juneau, AK

• Nordstrom would not exist if it were not for the Alaskan gold rush. Because of that, it now takes a personal gold rush just to shop there.

In 1887 John Nordstom left Sweden for the US and arrived in New York with $5 in his pocket and unable to speak a word of English. In 1897, he headed to Alaska in search of gold, and two years later returned to Seattle with $13,000, ready to settle down. While in Alaska, Norstrom met Carl Wallin, a shoemaker who offered him a partnership in a shoe store. In 1901, they opened their first store in Seattle, and in 1929 Wallin sold his interest to the Nordstrom sons. Today, Norstrom operates 190 stores in 28 states.

As we prepare for our trip home today, we’re treated to a final breakfast from our B&B of scrambled duck eggs. They have a similar taste to eggs from hens, but with a far creamier texture. They’re fine for a one-time meal to try, but I won’t be looking for them at Whole Foods the next time we go grocery shopping. We were also nourished with fresh baked cranberry & orange muffins, and biscuits to go with the homemade peach/raspberry jam. Not a bad way to end the trip!

Since we finally had a day of no rain/fog (but still overcast) and a few hours to kill before our flight out, we decided to walk over to the Mt Roberts Tramway, located about a mile from our B&B, that takes you up Mt Roberts. The 1800’ rise from sea level up to the top is really scenic and gave us a good overview of the surrounding mountains, harbor and islands, when it’s not bathed in clouds.

2015 AlaskaM-2531 The view from on top of the tram, 1800' up

2015 Alaska-1855 A partial view of a huge US map on the dock in Juneau, made to scale, using over 50,000 nails, driven in one-by-one!

As we abruptly enter back into our electronically gadgeted, 24/7 Wi-Fi connected world of nauseating cat videos, or the latest insulting thing Trump has blathered about, it’s hard not to be truly connected, be it spiritually, mentally, physically or metaphysically to the spectacular grandeur of Alaska. Numerous times we heard stories from various guides, food servers or people on the street who grew up here, moved away, but always returning to call it home, once again. It’s hard to imagine some local bureaucrat who takes this all for granted, and would feel it’s ok to give mega-corporations their approval to come up to rape & pillage this beautiful state for its natural resources. The true natural resources are the vast tracks of forests, waterways, and land visible to all, not what’s buried beneath it.

OK, I’ll climb down now from my soapbox – I got a lotta’ laundry to do.

Until next time, thanks for riding along with Debbie, Mary & I on our latest tour.

Andy